When Michael Jackson died on a Saturday that next Monday morning I was sitting in the sauna with a bunch of black friends, some being preachers and pastors. Many of my friends in the sauna were extolling Michael’s praises saying what a great singer and dancer Michael Jackson was how he changed music and dance forever well I chimed in and added, “I bet when Michael Jackson stood before God (and we all will someday) He was not asking Michael about singing and dancing (that all was over), but I would think God would have asked Michael Jackson, “what did you do with My Son Jesus?” There was no singing and dancing then no thriller only tears and maybe some gnashing of teeth at this time. Now I am not sure where Michael Jackson is right now (I wish no one to go to hell because it is the most horrible place ever created) God is the final judge and in His final judgment He alone makes the call out from our obedience to His word in our lives, but if Michael Jackson loved the world and the things therein more than he loved God then his destination has been sealed for all eternity.
Did you know nowhere is the love for this world seen any greater than in the many graveyards dotted around the world. They are filled with people who started out in God full of His promise, but finished their lives, most times early, in shame, open despair, and total loss because of a love for the world and its things. Graveyards are filled with broken dreams and unfulfilled promises from God that people have allowed to fall to the ground in direct disobedience to God and His word. Remember when God speaks something to us (like a promise) it is always His intention in seeing it come to pass, however, whether it comes to pass or not depends not on God (it is His intention, it is His wishes), but on us are we willing to walk in the way we must go to allow the promises of God to be fulfilled in our lives? Are we willing to be limited and restricted to only the words God spoke to us? God wants whatsoever to come to pass in our lives, but whether it does or not is not up to God it all depends on us. My friend for God’s word to be completed in our lives we must “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” How can God’s will and plan for our lives come to pass if we love not God or nor the things of God? Either we love God or we do not love God. Either we love the things of God or we love the things of the world. Now we may try to hide (we Christians sometimes are good hiders) the truth from our friends and family, but make no mistake my friend there is no hiding this truth from God. God looks at our heart and knows if we really love Him and if we really love His things. God will not settle for part-time devotion, oh no God wants all of our heart, all of our devotion, all of our obedience. In 1 John Jesus lays this sobering directive down for our total compliance, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1 John 2:15-17) Now please notice we are not to “love the world” and “neither the things that are in the world.” Verse 15 continues and we find out why we must not love the world and the things in the world, “If any man love the world (and the things in the world), the love of the Father is not in him.” How can we do the things of God and become what God wants us to become if the love of the Father is not in us? Sadly we cannot. Now please notice there are two bits of truth moving in this verse: (1) love of the world and (2) love for the things of the world, so does this means we can have a love for God, but not for His ways? Or does this mean we do not love God, but have a love for the ways or things of God? The answer is both cases is yes. Strange as it may seem we can love God, but not love His ways. We humans are a fickle bunch we can have a deep love in our heart for someone, but not love the way they do things. There are some people (especially Christians) I love, but they do and say some things that is (I believe) contrary to the word God. Now God is not like man. When God says he hates something He means it. God’s hate is a part of His nature and it is the behavior and the person that is the focus of His hatred. We today try to spin things and say, God hates the behavior, but He still likes the person well not so. All throughout the Bible there are things and people God says He hates guess what, He hates them, but He always gives people a chance to repent and change before He brings judgment and punishment. Oh America take heed to these words before it is too late. God’s hate is as much a part of His nature as His love and when God says He loves someone He loves them and when God says He hates something or someone He means it. Here is a small list of verses (many more in the Scriptures) where God hates: Psalms 5:5, Proverbs 6:16, 8:13, Amos 5:21-23. I do not know about you my friend, but I think it is high time for us to begin to hate the things that God hates.
Now please understand the earth is not the world. I taught this lesson one day to some students at the middle school where I teach. David in the Psalms tells us, “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psalms 24:1) We see three things here: the earth, the world, and people. The earth was created by God (it is His and will always be His) and He loves the earth. When He created the earth He said it was good, but the world is not the earth. The world is an ungodly way of thinking, a system that is totally anti-Christ and wants to destroy everything that is good and everything God and His people stand for. The world is what appeals to our pride and flesh, it is what appeals to the vanity of our eyes and heart. Today the world is the law-giving system in America that says it is okay to take the life of a baby when God calls it murder. The world says it is okay and normal to be gay, but God says it is an abomination. The world says get politically connected and get your human rights, but God says I am enough. The world says it is okay to get tattoos, paint your hair, and pierce your body, but God says our body is not ours to mark up and mutilate. The world says it is okay to be all you can be, jump higher, score goals, hone your body and mind into becoming a champion, but God says I want you to become like Me. The world says forget about your life you are a nobody, watch TV and go to the movies lust for the lives of the rich and famous, the Hollywood elite, but God says I want you to know Me in an intimate way. The world says come to know people with text messages, on Facebook, and every gadgets you can buy, but God says He wants to know us heart-to-heart and wants us to love our neighbour (person-to-person) as our self. The Christian world says give money to get from God, but God says give so that others may receive. The Christian world is obsessed with being blessed and having earthly things, but God says I am enough. The Christian world is drunk with works, ungodly music, immoral dancing, and deceptive religion, but God says He wants us to drawn near to Him with our whole heart. Paul tells us, “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 20And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.” (1 Corinthians 3:18-20) The world, its ways, and its wisdom is foolish to God. Please do not make the big mistake of confusing the world with the earth.
Many Christians may love the LORD, have asked Jesus to forgive them of their sins, but at the same time they are in the streets as activists fighting in the anti-abortion struggle of the world. They attend rallies and marches, carry signs, yelling and screaming (sometimes obscenities) at the pro-abortion forces, is this the Christian witness Jesus would have us be? We have the truth do we not? This is an example of loving the things in the world. Another area we often see is the eco-Christians they may love the LORD and have asked Jesus to forgive them of their sins, but they are eco-environmentalists (tree-huggers) and some are even eco-terrorist who target business, churches, and religious organizations they love mother earth more than God. Now we must be a good steward on the earth, but we must never worship (like the eco-Christians do) the earth, worshiping the creation of God, but denying the power of the Creator. Still another example of loving things of the world is the Church’s (worldwide) acceptance of homosexuality. Oh they may love the LORD and have asked Jesus to forgive them of their sins, but they preach ungodly diversity and wink at homosexuality, things God said (no matter how you spin it or wrap it up in love) are an abomination and sin. Today many Christians ignore the word of God and preach this “just love someone and they will be okay,” well this my friend is a lie it takes more than love to have our sins cleansed, it takes obedience to God’s word and without this we all are lost, undone, and on our way to hell. Christians love things in the world they love the ease and pleasure the finer “things” of life can afford, the nice home, the big car, the big powerful job, the fine clothing, the expensive jewelry, but God said love not the things in the world. And why? Because the end thereof is loss, destruction, and death. As I said the graveyards are filled with Christians who started out in God, but ended in the world and died. The King of Rock-n-Roll Elvis Presley was such a person. My mother knew his father and she said his father said they would put Elvis up on the altar and he would sing (for the glory of God) the good old hymns of the church, but as time went on and he grew into a man his love for the world also grew. In September 1957 when Elvis appeared (the first time) on the Ed Sullivan Program little did he know in a brief 20 years he would be dead. Many of Elvis’ friends recall the times when Elvis would sit on his piano bench and cried (tears just streamed down his face) while singing the old gospel hymns of the church, but sadly the King of Rock and Roll died while falling off the commode, naked, on a cool hard bathroom floor 16 August 1977. Recently the Queen of Pop Whitney Houston died. Sadly God brought Whitney Houston back around for her Hollywood style funeral to the very church she began her humble singing career. Whitney started off singing in a church choir in Newark, NJ like most famous singers, but along the way her love for drugs and the world grew more than her love for God. Her love for the world and the things thereof side tracked her and her worldly lifestyle spun her out of control destroying everything she touched. When we fall from God we often bring many people with us. And like Elvis Whitney Houston died (some say she committed suicide I hope not) naked submerged in water from a cocktail of numerous drugs and alcohol. Like Elvis she was naked. The world has a way of stripping the life of God out of us and we end up naked. Make no mistake my friend God will bring us back around again and again until He says enough. When we lived in Germany we had a wonderful friend from New Zealand who attended our church and we just adored her, everyone in our family in Germany and back in the States just loved Jackie, but she got offended at us and God. I will never forget the day she pointed her finger at me and said, “I do not need your church, I do not need you, and I do not need your God” and stormed out of our home. Well to make a long story short God brought Jackie back to the very spot on our couch where she said “I do not need your church, I do not need you, and I do not need your God,” but now her testimony was “I need your church, I need you, and I need your God.” Make no mistake my friend God has ways of dealing with our pride, attitudes, presumption, disobedience, and our love for the world and the things therein. Written by David Stahl.
