Do not Love the World

Greetings in Jesus' name, with a blessing and a thankfulness to be here. I wondered if there's anybody that even thinks kind of like I do, and now it seems like I've found many. Not great amounts, but I've found a number of people that seemingly are a bit radical as well. And there's a reason for that. I don't think we can really escape that, being somewhat radical. In the teachings of Jesus, we're just going to be a minority if we do that. That's what I'm trying to say. If we follow Jesus, there'll just be a few. Satan's going to have his onslaught against us in many different and various ways. Could we stand for prayer before we go any further? Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful day, and the goodness you share upon us, and your greatness that you have, and the willingness to bow down and think about us. Unworthy and weak and vulnerable, we want your care and your protection. Be with us today and help us to walk in your ways, and just follow in your ways. We thank you again for all things. Pray for Dwayne. That he can be a light and a witness to you, with whomever they may bless us here. Give me words to speak, and in the message, whatever you have in mind for us, just make yourself completely...we just want to be in your hands, in whatever you have for us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. How many of us feel vulnerable? Is there something we're afraid of? Do we sense any dangers? We're encouraged to lead our life in fear and trembling before God. It seems to me like one of the biggest dangers in life is simply, not so much that we haven't started a certain direction, but that we are able to complete that direction. I think, I used to kind of wonder how many people have been saved, or have been converted, or have turned to Christ. And I used to think, well there must be just a small amount, but I've come to believe that there may be many that see Jesus, and they start, they want it, but the cost is too great, and turn back. Just don't follow all the way through unto death. In that way it would be easier to have persecution. And we'd be in fear of our life all the time, if we'd fear death anyhow. We'd fear, we would have this, we'd recognize we could be killed anytime. We shouldn't have any fear of it. We shouldn't have. If we're ready to die, it doesn't matter what the Lord does for us, and makes us go through. If we're ready to die, it doesn't matter. But we're living in a time of, I don't have that recognition in any of us, that maybe tomorrow we die because we stood for Jesus. Because we tried to love people, and we had to die for that. Jesus loved people. He told people of their lives, and their sins, and the things they need to repent from. And it was a hard saying. The hard hearts wanted to kill him, and they ended up doing that very thing. Somehow, if we're on the death side of Christ, His words agitate us, and irritate us, and we don't want to learn anymore. We don't want to continue. We don't want to go anywhere. If we're on the life side of Christ, maybe that's not describing it properly, but I hope you know what I mean. Then His words are our life, and they are like food, and they are strength for us. So I think, especially maybe in the time we live in, we have to be a little more, I'm not sure radical is the right word, but we just have to be more aware of a different danger, I think, than if we would have the expectation of some of us being killed in the very near future. Somehow I think there would be a different perspective, but I don't know the other perspective. But I know I see people falling away, and this is what concerns me. In 1 John 2, he says, verse 14, I write to you children, because you know the Father. I write to you fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you young people, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world, or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world. For all that is in the world, the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the pride in riches, comes not from the Father, but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever. This is quite a contrast. I just think we know in our hearts things that, like if God speaks in a small still voice and we know we shouldn't do something, very often God hasn't come down and just struck people down. He has sometimes. In the time of Noah, He struck down the whole earth, excepting for 8 souls. And the children of Israel, different times, they were struck down. Elisha, I think, God came to him when he was hiding in that cave. He tore past with a wind that broke the stones, and fire went by, and I can't remember, thunder maybe. Each one said, God's not in it. And then he heard this small still voice, and I think this is often how He talks to us, in a small still voice. He's not trying to force us into something. He wants us to come obediently and willingly. He wants us to love to serve Him. But when we get tangled up into the world, we start thinking we're like little trinkets, whatever they may be. They can be clothing, they can be vehicles, they can just be anything. And it's not too hard to detect, if we want to, and we understand how the world goes after things. And these things, we need to be aware that these things will deceive us. Satan doesn't care if he takes 20 years to do it, as long as he can somehow get us off track before we die. If every one of us that profess Christ right now are on track, he's going to do his best to get us off of track. And in the time we're in, I think it's often by, maybe it's always been that way. I was going to say, it seems like he deceives people into just this easy life. Oh, I can follow Christ, and I can have this, and I can have that, and things don't matter. If our heart's right, we're okay. I think that is a warning sign to, it's true if our heart is right, we will do what is right. But often when a person is clinging to that, he's saying he has liberties that he shouldn't have. He's taking liberties he shouldn't. And God's going to discern all that, he's going to bring that all to light someday. And for us to be careless about it, I think is a big danger for us. There's this one teacher that was over in the Himalayans. Somebody asked him the question, are you saying this material world is completely evil? Like, so okay, we're just putting down this world, is it completely evil then? And his answer is, we must live in this world, and we can do so without losing our true spiritual nature. The things of this world need not harm us. Indeed, they can help us to grow spiritually, but this is only possible if we continually turn our hearts to the sun of righteousness. Sometimes we come to a filthy, polluted place, and find flowers blooming and giving off a sweet fragrance that overcomes even the stench around them. And the plants are turned to the sun and receive its life-giving, sustaining light. Filth does not harm them, but actually nourishes and mulches them so that they grow all the more richly. This is the same picture, I think it's even maybe more clear, but I have used, probably not original with me either, but for a long time I've known this idea of like the sun and the rain deteriorate something that's dead. A big tree is alive, rain and sun makes it grow, it gets stronger. Every year these trees are stronger, they'd be harder to break than ever before. But if it dies, this same moisture and this same sunshine, heat and cold and all these things will deteriorate that tree until finally there's nothing left of it. And this is the same thing, he puts this idea of we take plants and we put manure on it and mulch and these things don't smell the best, but it makes that flower grow and it even gets brighter and it even gets stronger. And so this is how, this is when we hear the Word of God and we absorb Him, we want more of Him, we want to live in Him, we just want to sell off to Him. And everything has to go, we have to deny all things, even our own lives to be able to serve Him. And how that all happens, we have to check our inner being, each one of us has to check what's inside us. The outward does not give a full picture, but in the end it does give a fairly decent picture. And even in churches that we would say are fairly clean and good looking, many people that have tried to join these churches will see through a hypocrisy of really not putting their whole mind to it and their whole soul to it. And this would be my encouragement that we not lose that first love, that we continue pressing on and not grow cold and end up making ourselves look nice, but we're really not that nice inside. We have bad attitudes, we have bad feelings, we have desires of the world, we have lust of the eye, the pride of life. It can be all hidden, but in the end it's all going to be exposed. So even if we're a good hypocrite, we still won't make it through. It will all be exposed, either in this life or after this life. So if somebody is able to tell in us that we have a bad sore or a wound and they want to help us, if that can be helped in this life, so much better. The difference between eternal destruction and eternal life. He goes on to say, the filth does not harm them, but actually I did read that, and mulch them so that they grow even more richly. It is similar when we pray and turn our hearts to the sun of wholeness. We receive life-giving light and warm it so that our blossoming spiritual life gives off a gentle fragrance. Out of those gentle blossoms grow underlying fruits. Then when we neglect our spiritual life, then the same material things that are provided for our support become a poisonous curse. The sun provides light and warmth so the plants can grow and bloom, but the same sun withers and destroys the plant if its roots no longer draw in water. In the same way, air is a source of life and strength, but it's also a catalyst for rotting and decay. So watch and pray that you're rooted in life and not in death. We all know that we cannot live without water, but while we need and use water, we must also watch that we do not slip beneath the surface. In the same way, we need the things of this material world, but we must exercise caution. God created earthly things for people to use, but we must not immerse ourselves in them or we will drown in the breath of prayer and death. So he's making it pretty clear. We have to go through this world and there's going to be conflict with this world, hopefully, especially those that want to indulge in these natural things. I just had a thought that I wonder if there's anything unnatural that people indulge in. I'm sure there is, but many of the good things that God created, man will indulge in and overuse. And this is the danger, one of the dangers we're in. If we get cold, if we no longer desire to win the battle, then these things will come upon us and they are a fruit of our inward. So when we live in the lust of the eye and the pride of life, this pride of riches brings us pride and we desire to have a name. We want to be something, but the secret of Jesus is if we want to be something, we got to humble ourselves and we become something that is eternal, that is forever. Bliss, eternal light, eternal glory. I don't know what it is. I just know it sounds good. And I want to pursue that. I want to be around people that pursue that. And I want to be around people that pursue that. I think we need to check our hearts and make sure that we have found something within that takes us away and leads us away. In the end, things are not so important anymore and we become careless. God doesn't want us careless. If you look at all the examples, all through the Old Testament, God did not want careless people. If the people were careless, they got in trouble. Adam and Eve, they were not careful about listening to what God said. King, God told him plainly that he needs to master over this. He didn't listen. He just let it build up more until he exploded and killed his brother. Anyways, the examples just go on and on and on. God never had pleasure in a careless person. We cannot just think, well, it doesn't matter. I need that as much as anybody. I'm not speaking things about you. I'm speaking things in my own heart. But I think it's common to humanity. I don't think it's strange to any of us. In Ecclesiastes or Sirach chapter 19, verse 29, it says, A person is known by his appearance, and a sensible person is known when first met face to face. A person's attire and how they laughter and the way he walks show what he is. How we act, if we act immature, we know what that is. Somebody that's not. I guess immaturity would indicate maybe carelessness. Or ignorance maybe. Or we see somebody just kind of seeking. Probably the bigger danger for us I think perhaps would be that we have a little spiritual pride in our own hearts. And we think we know something others don't. And the experience I would have that I have people that I've met, and if I'm in it, I hope that somebody could show me. I don't know. Usually, it's a sad thing to me, but usually people as a general do not repent. They have thought it through and they're going the direction they want to go. And often you can't really change that course. And they end up continuing to pursue this singleness of body all by themselves. And nobody else gets to life. I'm sure we've all met those kind of people. Nobody else gets to life. And therefore, God requires me to stand before him alone, so I'm just going to go my way. It's a very dangerous place to be if we have that kind of pride in our life. There's dangers all over. And God is not so shorthanded that he can't help us, but we have to be helpful. We can't forsake ourselves if we want help. This is how God operates. He's not, he's not, he doesn't even call many wise. He's not able to call many wise, the way I would put it. He doesn't get much response from those that think they are on top of things. And so my thoughts again go to Matthew 5. And I'm just going to go real quickly over that and I'll be done. I just think it's so profound and so simple, so difficult, but it's become, I don't know why, this last year has become maybe my favorite. Like if we can be poor and spared, blessed are those that mourn, they will be comforted. We're powerful and we're sober, we're mourning. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. These are such great promises for such a lowly thing. And blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Here's the answer to righteousness within our hearts. But if we're not meek, if we're not humble, if we're not lowly, if we're not mourning, but we claim we're hungry and thirsty, we won't be filled. That is, I don't think so. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. For me it's kind of a progression of going from being poor in spirit, we need God. I don't have the strength, I don't have the brains to make it myself. So I'm poor in spirit. And we're mourning about, I somehow don't think it means mourning when somebody dies. I'm not sure it's excluded, but I would think that it's not that. It's like something else. Like we're, we're, we're, I'm not sure, I never have been able to quite figure out. But something that has to do with lowliness. Blessed are the meek, again this, this thing. So meek, and then we hunger and thirst, and then we're merciful, and then we'll be blessed with a pure heart, and then we become peacemakers, and then we get persecuted. But we can rejoice about that. But if we're living in this order, we can rejoice. And God bless us. I'm thankful to be here. Feel free to share. Yeah, I appreciate that, Walter. That was very challenging and strengthening and encouraging. I wonder, just the things that you said about many, many see Jesus and find him and, you know, start on the right path, but then, then they go astray. Just stuck out to me in, in how I, I mean, I just agree with that. Then I wonder sometimes how, how often I convince myself in my own heart just that I'm okay because I had a good, good beginning. And I just realized how easy it is to just convince yourself of something, you know, of that nature. So it gives me, it gives me renewed strength to not be that way, just how that we have to be focused on the future and on the present and the challenges that are in our midst now, like the things that I'm faced now to strive against. And, yeah, I just appreciate that. I also thought about your, your verse about the, what does it say about the morn? Blessed are they that mourn, they shall be comforted. I just, there's that thing that Jesus said, it's recorded there in Matthew somewhere about a little further back. Come on to me that are, ye that are heavy laden, rest. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. And I just wondered how, like, I think that would be maybe a description of the, of a kind of mourning that could be the, the heavy, I, I, surely we could all identify with having heavy thoughts and being laden down with, with burdens, you know, about responsibilities that we have. And just things that press on our minds and hearts sometimes, how things might work out and why does something go this way. Well, those are the kinds of heavy laden, heavy burdens and things that, that I think Jesus wants, he wants us to yoke up with him with those, those burdens and whether that's a way of mourning or, or not, I don't know for sure, but I would be a little like you, Walter, in thinking that that kind of mourning would be something along the lines of being heavy, you know, with a, with a burden about spiritual matters in our own lives and hearts and things that go on and go around. And I think that's where we need to yoke up with Jesus and find our rest with him. And it's a process, it's something that's, that's not just easily said, it's, it's a daily process, so God help us. Walter, I just wanted to say I really appreciated that. That was really encouraging. I'm thankful to be back here with all the brethren. It's, it's good and I don't really have a whole lot to add other than just to say I, I really appreciated that. It was a blessing to me. And all the world just has all different kinds of ways of, of infiltrating our thoughts and, and how we think. My wife and I were reflecting the other day, was even just yesterday on, someone had presented us the idea, with the idea that like to homeschool is to cram religion down your children's throats. And I, and I mean that's a pretty rough way to put it. And, and yet like as parents, I feel like we need to, we need to be giving our children the correct lens, the right, the right vantage point. It's a parent's job to shape their children and help guide and direct their children. And if, if we were to somehow cut that out, if we were to somehow just hope that someday our, our children would see like a quiet spiritualness in us and, and ask about it and hope for it, the de facto teacher becomes the world because there is no other alternative. And I, I just had to conclude there's nothing wrong with, and it's right to, to try to instill in our children the right vantage point. If you look through binoculars, they can magnify things or they can make things look very far away. And I feel like if, if we don't, if we don't show our children the right lens through which to view the world, the world becomes the lens through which we view the scripture and it's totally backwards and we won't be able to see the things that we need to see. It'll be all out of focus, like looking in a pair of binoculars the wrong way. Anyway, I just really appreciated the message. Amen. Thank you, Brother Walter. And, um, it was very edifying. Mother Max and Atlee said this was edifying too. Let's not put our God, put our God down. We are in a war. We're in a war. And as much as we can deny it, Satan is ruling so many things and anything beats meeting by yourself. I mean, two are better than one. Three are better than two. Elijah thought he was it, right? In a sense, right? They've all forsaken me, but now I'm the only one left. And God had to, I don't know if it was still a small voice, Walter, but he said, I got 7,000 others. Don't, don't think you're it. I mean, you're, you're great, Elijah, but you know, I mean, you're one of my children, but you're not the 7,000 others who haven't bowed their knee to Baal. And let us not ever get pharisaical, because we go out witnessing more than any others or almost. And that's not, that's not saying we're holier than thou. And, but a lot of points, a few, uh, the Beatitudes, I think that's what you quoted, Walter. That's, that's our goal. The, in the staircase, the blessed of the poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hunger and thirst, merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers. And it's, it's, it's a lifelong thing, Walter, as you said, brother, it's, it's lifelong. One of the tactics I think Satan uses is if you can't beat him, join him. So you have, quote, Christian colleges, end quote. And, uh, I looked on Google the other day, said I didn't know it, but you want to go out of the house. I looked on Google, Google. What's the main reason people go to college right off the top? There were three different, three different sources. And right off the top Lloyd, the main reason they go to college. What? No, not in Google money. It's all about money. It's the American dream and money and money and money. And that's, it's just, it says one of them said not including money. Now here was the main reason, but they all said money, money, money. And I know we have some people here that went to a Christian college, my wife and Rick. And, and I'm really against Sattler college too. I mean, it's money, money, blessed are the poor in spirit. And Luke says, blessed are the poor. It's all about money, right? I mean, that's, be careful. We're in a, Satan can't win. So he's saying Christians can have both pure and undefiled religion is to help the widows and orphans and keep yourself unspotted. And you know, the verse is there, but money, money, Dijon money. It's, it's all about money, brother. And, uh, one last point in a sermon amount, how modern heretics, not modern, but the greatest heretic of one of them was, uh, Oh, by the way, in the book of Matthew to you, to look up Matthew, how you like Matthew from the early Christian view, and they're not inspired in God, but over 50% of the quotes of the early Christian leaders, 50% of their quotes come from the book of Matthew. It contains the sermon amount. They even say it's the first importance. That was quite a brave statement of all the gospels. And it's always listed first, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Matthew. And that's where the beatitude, I mean, you get, I, for what it's worth. And they carried, we're, we're getting the scriptures from them, but one point and it's kind of unrelated, but it's in the sermon amount is oaths. Let your yes be yes. And you know, no. And anything else besides that is from the evil one. Don't do it. When was it changed? Who changed it? You know, who changed it? Lloyd Augustine, as you will, Augustine, he said out of necessity, there are times when you have to say more than Jesus said, you know, yes, you have to say this. And so they made oaths, uh, sanctified. And the only two groups, I guess, in church history that were against it, were the Anabaptists and the Quakers. And they were both persecuted for that. And the Jehovah Witnesses, they're against it now. And let's not ever fall into that category of oaths, of oaths. Let your yes be yes. And your no be no. I know I get carried away. The Lord be magnified. Joyful, joyful, we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love. Our God, full like flowers before thee, hail thee as the sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away. Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day. Oh, thy works with joy surround me, earth and heaven reflect thy rays. Stars and angels sing around thee, scepter of unbroken rays. Fields and forests, vale and mountain, flossing meadow, flashing sea. Chanting birds and flowing fountains, call us to rejoice in thee. Thou art giving and forgiving, ever-blessing, ever-rest. Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest. Thou the Father, Christ our brother, all who live in the heart. Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine. Mortals, join the mighty chorus, which the morning star began. Father love is raging for us, brother love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife. Joyful music lifts us onward in the triumph song of life. Praise the Savior, we love Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us stand and cheer Him, all we are and am. God is for us, nothing harms us, He for us, lives and arms us. When the devil's host alarms us, still we trust in Him. Trust in Him, He stays forever, He is faithful, changing never. He is our heart, our love, consider those He loves from Him. Trust in the Lord, O keep us pleading to Thyself and still believing. He'll be our hope for this evening, promise joins with me. Then we shall be where we would be, then we shall be what we should be. Things that are not, now are could be, soon shall be our own. If one ill drink is my sake, and if you do shame away, Be joyful, Lord, beware this night, we pray for you in heaven on high. Of such a man feared of the will, the body only He can kill. A faithful God, the Father dear, can make His darkness clear. O Christ, now bow Thy head, O God, who faithful follow Thee thereof. By Thine own death, be redeemed, O God, and crown Thy way with the crown of thine own blood.