Do You Love This Present World?
Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:10Devotional Series: Preparing for Persecution
Teaching: Preparing For Persecution pt. 4 (WED 2021-04-21) by Pastor Star R Scott
The world will go always the way of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes—and the third one we don’t give as much attention to—the pride of life, and yet that’s the real culprit. It’s not these external things; it’s not the fact that our natural man and carnal man are drawn away to physical appetites, lusts, passions, that lust of the eye factor that comes into us. Oh beloved, we need to put a watch over our eyes; amen? You can’t stare at all of the stuff of the world and the natural man in you not want to rise up and possess it. Well, does that mean we’re to walk around with our eyes closed? No, but we need to put our eyes more frequently on the Word of God, amen? Let’s put our eyes on the promises of God’s Word; let’s put our eyes on what He said should be our treasures that are being laid up in heaven. Everything that’s on this earth is going to pass and be tried by fire, and everything that we’ve laid up in heaven, thieves can’t break in and steal, moth and rust cannot pollute.
These are just all admonitions that come because we’re talking about preparing for persecution and trials that are going to come on the church; this is how you prepare. And you keep your eyes on the things that are above. We look for that city whose builder and maker is God; amen? We’re not of this world; to be a friend of the world is to be the enemy of God. We have to guard our minds against the secular philosophies and how those can draw you away and how Demas had forsaken. The Bible says, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.” Another way to think of this is, “Demas has forsaken us, having loved this present Demas”—the old man rising back up and falling in love with himself again instead of loving Jesus with all of his heart and all of his strength and his neighbor as himself.
Persecution is coming; what do we do to prepare? Faith needs to grow in our lives. Faith brings trials, trials bring patience, and those that endure to the end shall be saved, praise God! How do we prepare for persecution? Well, all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Get more godly, you’ll get more persecution, you’ll develop patience, and you’ll stand; hallelujah! We would rather, of course, have our faith hold at bay all adversities, and difficulties, and trials, and if I have enough faith then, I won’t ever have any adversities. But, that’s not Bible; amen?
We need the shield of faith. How does that thing work? It quenches every fiery dart of the enemy; amen? What are those fiery darts? All of the lies of Satan. If we’re going to let our faith grow, if we’re going to continue and have this shield of faith up, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If we’re going to have this shield in place, if the fiery darts are going to be quenched, we have to spend that time in the Word of God, meditating day and night, and then shall our way be made prosperous, and then we should have good success; amen? Oh hallelujah! Good success, more money, better car… No, good success in standing for Jesus, good success in bringing our flesh under control, good success in laying up treasures in heaven. Don’t lean to the right hand or to the left, in all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He’s going to direct our path, and He’s going to set us on course.
These are just all admonitions that come because we’re talking about preparing for persecution and trials that are going to come on the church; this is how you prepare. And you keep your eyes on the things that are above. We look for that city whose builder and maker is God; amen? We’re not of this world; to be a friend of the world is to be the enemy of God. We have to guard our minds against the secular philosophies and how those can draw you away and how Demas had forsaken. The Bible says, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.” Another way to think of this is, “Demas has forsaken us, having loved this present Demas”—the old man rising back up and falling in love with himself again instead of loving Jesus with all of his heart and all of his strength and his neighbor as himself.
Persecution is coming; what do we do to prepare? Faith needs to grow in our lives. Faith brings trials, trials bring patience, and those that endure to the end shall be saved, praise God! How do we prepare for persecution? Well, all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Get more godly, you’ll get more persecution, you’ll develop patience, and you’ll stand; hallelujah! We would rather, of course, have our faith hold at bay all adversities, and difficulties, and trials, and if I have enough faith then, I won’t ever have any adversities. But, that’s not Bible; amen?
We need the shield of faith. How does that thing work? It quenches every fiery dart of the enemy; amen? What are those fiery darts? All of the lies of Satan. If we’re going to let our faith grow, if we’re going to continue and have this shield of faith up, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If we’re going to have this shield in place, if the fiery darts are going to be quenched, we have to spend that time in the Word of God, meditating day and night, and then shall our way be made prosperous, and then we should have good success; amen? Oh hallelujah! Good success, more money, better car… No, good success in standing for Jesus, good success in bringing our flesh under control, good success in laying up treasures in heaven. Don’t lean to the right hand or to the left, in all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He’s going to direct our path, and He’s going to set us on course.