You Cannot Love Two Masters

Teacher: Pastor Stan

February 3, 2015

You Cannot Love Two Masters

Tonight we get the wonderful teachings from Pastor Stan, who opens up the discussion by asking us to fill in the blank to this heavy statement. Love not ______. Below is a list of words JFC members came up with.

·      Love not “hate” (3)

·      Love not “temptation”

·      Love not “lust”

·      Love not “war”

·      Love not “selfishness”

·      Love not “the world”

As a Christian we live in this world, we are born into this world, and we die in this world. How are we then supposed to treat the world and the things of this world? For it is written in our main verse tonight,

1 John 2:15-17  (NIV)

On Not Loving the World

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[a] is not in them.

Therefore scripture tells us not everything we encounter in life is meant to be loved so the question remains: What is or are the things God does not want us to love?

Well first let us establish what is the world what is a clear definition we can use to set up a basis of our understanding.

What is the world?

·      Anything the flesh wants to be fulfilled because anything that it pushes us to do is seeking to please it and not God.

·      The systems in this realm, the system or way of thinking, motivations, and ideas

How do we know the difference between God’s system and the world’s system?

·      God’s system is about love. The world’s system is about lust.

A sure simple way to see if someone is motivated by lust or love is to remember this Love always seeks to give, lust always seeks to get. The world is constantly seeking what it can get. The first thing the world system wants is your faith, everything in the world’s system is engineered for you to not use your faith. Starting from advertising, commercials, newspapers, magazines, shows, the media, the system designed to attack your faith. They do not want you to use it so they attack your faith. Everything for a Christian is connected by faith it is by faith we have been saved through grace. The Christian life is a faith walk. If the world can get you to not operate in your faith, then everything else like your money, your time, your effort…etc comes with it. If you do not operate in faith then you can get caught up in the world system.

However us as believers find the hardest part is the second part of this verse, “Do not love the world or anything in the world….” This is God’s warning for us.

Why would God warn us about this?

Because it is easy for us to start majoring in the minor (natural) things of life rather than the major things of God’s will. Jesus Christ was not sent into this world for the stuff or things like fame or riches, He was sent into the world for the souls of humanity. God does not want us to be caught up in this stuff to be caught up in the culture of the world. God wants us to be focused on studying and maintaining a relationship with Him, while reaching out for others. It does not mean God does not want us to have stuff like a house or car. He just does not want the things in our lives to control us.

There is a formula to where God can always have first access to our lives. It is

Matthew 6:33

33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

            Make God the first priority always give Him the first fruits of your day.

·      Pray to him first thing in the morning

·      Spend quality time with Him in His word

·      Meditate upon his scripturs

God did not create Hell for any human being because He does not want us to be lost to things of this world. We must be careful do not lose your life over the things in this world we see too many celebrities or common folk rushing to buy the latest shoes or jewelry or save all their money. But trust God, He will always provide for His children. God knows and has plans for our lives because this place is temporary. Heaven is forever and the greatest thing we can do in this life is lead someone else to Christ. Think about how good and faithful God is because He continuously does great things for us.

3 things to keep in mind as to why we do not love the world

1.              Because the world’s things does lift you up

a.     All of us will face trials and tribulations especially since we are Christians, if we get caught up in the world we then will construct a false sense of security. But God gives us blessed assurance that is stronger and far more real than whatever illusions the world or Satan fosters. The things (the addictions we run to alcohol, drugs, TV, instagramming,) of the world is will make us think it will elevate us from our problems but These false things will never last when we face the real test. But we get ourselves caught up in God we find out He is not only an on time God but He is a lifter. God is always available. Do not look to the world to be the answer to our dilemmas but be careful because Satan imitates but does not duplicates. The answer is in Christ.

2.              Because the things of the world will leave you.

a.     A lot of people seek the things of the world like money, because when you die, or when they lay you out, money is not coming with you. Anything the world gives you, your not going to be able to keep, this earth realm is not the end, and it is only a blink of eternity, whether you spend it in heaven or hell. Money or naturally riches cannot buy your way into heaven accepting Christ has to happen now.

3.              There is only one God. And He does not like any other gods before Him.

a.     Matthew 6:24 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

b.     The fastest way to piss God off is to put another idol before Him. You cannot have two masters because you will end up hating one of them. Ask yourself: Do you really want to follow the world or do you really want to follow God’s Word? The reality of it is if you want to be on the winning team you might as well start with the one who created the team. The Devil knows if he can get us to not operate in faith he can make us useless to the kingdom of God. However if you fall in love with Jesus then you will discover he is the best friend you can ever have. When Jesus’s love and mercy hook up it is blessing for us, for when we deserve punishment, His mercy brushes us off and gets us back on track.

What do you think?

What are some “things” of this world you need to let go of?

What can you do to keep God as master of your life?