Who Controls Your World?

Alba 10-13-2024

WHO CONTROLS YOUR WORLD?

I John 5:16-21

Have you ever felt that you were out of control? It seems that is just part of life, doesn't it? A baby will swing its arms and hit its face and not know where it came from. A child wants everything in the store, and the parent (wisely) doesn't buy the toy that has the child's interest in the moment. A teenager feels trapped by the restrictions still in place (also wisely in place). And when the person becomes an adult, there are bills to pay, responsibilities to fulfill, and little time to just be.

So many things seem to control our lives. So what, or who, controls your world? Are you at the mercy of something that has a grip on you that keeps you from being who you want to be? Or have you found the answer to what will best give you the peace you are looking for? We all have a choice.

This has always been the case. Even when Moses was coming to the end of his leadership of the Hebrew people before they entered the land promised to them he said in Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”

The opposite of life and blessing is death and cursing. When it comes down to it, those are our choices. The wisest choice is life and blessing.

To choose life means, as Moses told the people in verse 20 of that chapter, you will, “love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice.” Those two things, love and obedience, are still necessary for those who choose life. A Christian is someone who loves the Lord because of what Jesus has done by His death on the cross to make possible the forgiveness of sins. And a Christian is someone who obeys the Lord, letting their light shine by their obedience so that God will be glorified. The problem is that our society is redefining the term Christian to mean good person rather than being a follower of Jesus Christ by believing in who He really is and what He really did.

The essential truths of Christianity are these: Jesus is the Son of God. The Son of God put on flesh and became Man. Jesus, the Son of God’s death on the cross is essential to our forgiveness. His bodily resurrection is essential to His Deity and proof of the eternal life that He came to give. Real, life changing obedient belief in these things puts you in the camp of Christianity. Denial of any of these essentials means you are not a Christian.

It comes down to: Who controls your world? In Romans 6:16 we read, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”

I John 5:19 says, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” In this world there is a lot of evil. But when you give control of your life to the Lord, you can say with the apostle John, “I am of God. I have chosen life and blessing.” But those are the two choices, be of God or of the wicked one.

So again the question is: Who controls your world?

Is It the Wicked One?

We know who he is. The devil, Satan, the Father of Lies. Sadly, scripture says he controls the world. It is under his “sway”. Now that does not mean the physical world God created. It is a reference to the way people live in this world. There is much evidence that the old devil has a lot of influence in this world. Even Christians, because we live in this world, can be taken by the devil's tricks. Each one of us needs the prayers of other Christians to stay strong against temptation. Because we who love the Lord often have difficulty staying on the right path. Christians need prayer.

That's why I John 5:16-17 says, “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.”

Concerning sins that lead to death or not, commentator William Barclay suggests that the sin which does not to lead death is where a person sins but hates his sin, is ashamed of it and wants to hide it. He really doesn’t want to sin. Whereas the sin that leads to death is when a person rejoices in his sin and doesn’t see anything wrong with it. He boasts of it and glories in it.