As promised I wanted to send you a little further word on how to fight loving the world and the things of the world. (I’ve been away for a couple of days, so this is coming a little in the week than usual.) For those who weren’t able to be with us, and/or for those of you who want to review the sermon, you can find it downloaded here: http://www.harrisonhills.org/index.php
Those who were present will recall that our premise was stated this way: You cannot love God AND love the world – you must choose one or the other. We looked at one uncompromising command (15), and spent some time thinking about how one must choose between heaven and hell (16-17). One of the observations about choosing between heaven and hell was the necessity to guard our desires (from vs 16). It is on that point that I want to offer some additional teaching . . .
Question: Are all desires bad? Answer: No, God said all things were created good (Gen 1.31) Question: Then, how do we discern between good and bad desires? Here are some thoughts and some application (it would be helpful to have your Bible handy to read the verses indicated below):
1) Remember, it is not desire itself – desire is part of human nature, woven into us by God
2) Here are some comparisons that help me differentiate between godly & ungodly desires:
Baseline for godly desire: the fulfillment of the desire would not offend God or violate His commandments – things like eating, drinking, sexual intimacy, nice things, financial security – are not necessarily bad.
Ungodly desire would be the opposite; no matter what the desire is – if the fulfillment of the desire would offend God or violate His law, it would be ungodly by definition
3) To be able to discern between good and bad desires, we must know what God’s word says; that is how we guard our desires. I have found 2 Peter 1 very helpful for my thinking, especially verses 3-8 (Read 2 Pet 1.3-8)
a.Fundamentally, Peter reminds us that God equips us to guard our desires, so we are not left to our own whims or abilities (v3-4): “His divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness”. We are “partakers of the divine nature”– that’s stunning, and we should never take it for granted. Instead, we should pray and practice so that the “divine nature” in us becomes increasingly influential (controlling!) in our thoughts, words, deeds.
b.Peter also tells us that we guard our desires by “growing in knowledge of God” (v3).
c.Peter reminds us that guarding our desires will require spiritual toil and spiritual sweat “make every effort” (v5). See the principle? Knowing is not enough; we must apply what we learn; guarding = doing.
Now, we might shift to Paul’s teaching for some help in the “doing” of guarding our desires.
d.First, Paul reminds us that everyone who is in Christ is a new creature the old has passed away (2 Cor 5.17). We know that the old is dying, but not completely dead. Our desires can still tend toward the ungodly. So, Paul directs us to get a little more intentional; we are to put off our old desires and put on new ones (read Eph 4.22-24). We guard against bad desires by putting on good desires (that’s part of what Peter calls “mak every effort to supplement your faith”; 2 Pet 1.5)
You are probably like me, and you find that sanctifying your desires is hard, and you do not always succeed. Jesus knew that would be the case long before you and I experienced it – and He prayed for us. Read John 17.14-16.
4) Finally, be encouraged. Endure in fighting against bad desires. As you are enduring, keep trusting the promises of God’s word and keep leaning on Christ. Not only did He pray for you 2000 years ago, He is still praying for you. Read Heb 7.25. Read these great truths and be re-energized in your efforts to sanctify your desires. That is how we seek to love God and the things of God and resist loving the world and the things of the world.
Enduring, fighting, trusting, and leaning with you,
Pastor Gary