Sermon Sunday: Worldliness

OR

What do you find yourself having time for?  I am guilty on all accounts of everything that I am about to talk about, so do not think I am pointing the finger or "judging" ... funny tidbit on judging in a bit, too.  I would never choose Facebook over God if I were asked that question... but it seems I do.  Some mornings when Kirby goes down I say to myself, "My eyes are so heavy right now, I just can't get through my quiet time .. I will do it later tonight between when she goes to bed and when CR gets home."  Then I go lay in my bed for just a few minutes of "rest" and find myself scrolling through Facebook gossip.  What?  If I can have open enough eyes for all that bazaar that people put on there (People magazine of the everyday peeps), then why can my eyes not be open enough for God's word?  He calls me to Him and I say, "not now"!  Just like the picture above, God's hands are open and calling me to Him .. He wants me and my time.  Not what is leftover at the end of the day.  He is jealous for me!  Wow ... Bill's sermon spoke to me in many ways this morning.  We covered James 4:4-6; "You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.”  Now Bill did not point out God vs. Facebook, but that is the first thing I thought of when he said "What do you find yourself having time for over God?"  Now I can debate for myself and say that I do not post my entire life on there for all the world to know about, I mainly use it to keep up with all my friends and family who I live too far away from.  But, then I also read over and over what everyone is complaining about.  I can argue and say that I like to see what I can pray for people about and where I can help out, BUT it is still winning over my time with God.  The verse calls us adulteresses when anything wins our time over God.  Anything that we put over Him.  That is huge ... we are cheating on God.  I know I am not the only one.  It's not just with Facebook.  Bill used several examples this morning ... I don't have enough money to give the tithe this month, but I can go out and buy several bottles of liquor, shoes out the wazoo, or vacation to the coast.  Sunday is my only day of rest so I don't go to church but I can go play golf, fish, or have people over at my house for a party.  I don't have time to go to church on Sunday night, but I can sit and watch the football game for hours.  The chairs at church are uncomfortable for my bad back, but I can sit in the stadium seats and watch 22 men push each other around a field at the college games on Saturday.  Any of these hit you?  None of those spoke to me, but I applied it to Facebook.  Some good points from the message:

• God can and will take away the thing or even person that is coming between you and Him.  (This is if you are a believer ... if not, then there is no discipline just judgement ... you want discipline!)
• When you are worldly and love the things in this temporal world, pride over takes you.  (Did you say to the above, "Ugh, I don't ever put anything before God!")
• As a sheep, we have the choice to get out of the hog pen that we get ourselves into and we better get out ... or we are going to get dirty and it will take a long time to get clean!  Get out fast before bad habits form ... if you are flirting ... stop!
• As Christians, we are not to judge, this is true.  BUT ... as Matthew 7:17-18 says, we are known by our fruit.  So, we are to be fruit inspectors and when we see bad fruit, call them on it.  Bro Bill's dad used to tell him this!  Loved it!!!

And now the question that you really need to ask yourself: If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?  We need to be "more concerned with winning souls to Christ" then about what is going on with our friend's friend who had that accident the other day that also had that baby with that man that she no longer sees who is dating my other friend's friend... ouch.  I will leave you with this statistic from a recent survey .... 95% of "Christians" have never helped win a soul to Christ.