Love Not Your Life
I.
1 John 2:15-Love not the
world
A. Love-An inordinate affection (An excessive love, liking,
fondness, regard for), to be fond of, to love dearly; You can love earthly
things and life on this earth and they can mean too much to you and mean more
to you than they should
1.
World-World affairs, the
aggregate (cumulative, total) of things earthly; whole circle of earthly goods,
endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures
2.
Don’t
have an inordinate affection, a love for, an excessive liking for, a fondness
of and a regard for the aggregate of things earthly; All this, don’t have an
excessive love, liking and regard for it and don’t be too fond of it
a. JB-Never
give your hearts to
this world or to any of the things in it. A man cannot love the Father &
love the world at the same time
3.
You can develop a wrong
relationship with the world (earthly life) and the things in the world; It’s
setting your affection on your life on this earth and just loving all that your
life consists of and clinging to it like it’s everything
a. Someone who love’s the
world and the things in it is a picture of someone who is very fond of earthly
life; They give their thoughts and focus to earthy things and life, they
pursue, seek, and strive after earthly things and life, they value, esteem and
treasure earthly things and life, they are passionate about earthly things and life,
they choose earthly things and life over other things – In short they
live for earthly life
b. It’s a picture of someone’s life who is full of earthly
things and absent of Kingdom purpose and call and they are completely okay with
their life the way it is; The problem is not the earthly things, the problem is
that’s all your life consist of and it’s void of Kingdom purpose and call
B. If you’re too fond of it
and love it too much you won’t be able to give of it when you need to-Mark
10:22-30
1.
To fulfill the plan of
God for your life it will be required of you that you give of your life and
choose God over everything else
a. The rich young ruler
couldn’t let go of his life because he loved it too much and as a result he
missed God’s plan for his life
1)
If you love your life you
won’t be able to give of it and you won’t be able to fulfill the plan of God
for your life
b. EX: People have said, “My
house and my family and my job, I just couldn’t leave all this and move
somewhere else.” – That’s because you love your life and yourself more
than you do him
2.
B/C
he set his affection on things in the earth when it was time to pick between
earthly things & Jesus he couldn’t pick Jesus
a. Whatever you set your affection on you can’t choose something
else over it; If you’re affection is on that you’re going to choose that over
other things; You got to move your affection to change your choice
b. When your affection is on
God and his things and they mean more to you than anything else, it’ll be easy
to choose kingdom things over earthly things
3.
You
can’t set your affection two places – If you love the world, love for the
father is not in you
a. What does the rich young
ruler love the most? He loves his life and love for God is not in him
1)
TLB-When you love these
things you show that don’t really love God – The rich young
ruler showed us something
b. You have to confront this
truth – YOU HAVE TO PICK, where will you set your affection, who are you
going to cast your lot in with
1)
Matthew
6:24-You can’t serve two masters, you can’t set one cup on two tables
c. His love for his life,
the world, earthly things squeezed out love for God – There’s not enough
room for two
1)
MSG-Love of the world squeezes
out love for the Father
4.
Whatever
you do give of your life to fulfill the plan of God for your life, you have
God’s word that He’ll get it back to you 100 fold
5.
Say This: I love God more than my life
C. Love-To be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing
– Don’t be satisfied or content with the aggregate of things earthly
1.
It’s having a life full
of earthly things and absent of Kingdom purpose and call and being completely
okay with your life the way it is
a. The Earth and the things
of the earth and earthly life just isn’t enough; A nice house, a nice family, a
nice car, a nice vacation isn’t enough for me to be satisfied and content
2.
If you loved God and his
things then you’d have to do what he sent you to do and earthly life wouldn’t
be enough for you
a. If this earthly life is
enough and you’re content b/c of the “life” you possess and you are not doing
what God sent you to do then you love this life (earthly things) too much and
love for God is not in you
3.
I don’t love earthly life
that much (for it to be enough) – Don’t be enamored with earthly
things, this earthly life
a. Heavenly things should
have an affect on you that no earthly thing can; Earthly things shouldn’t hit
you like kingdom things
D. 16-The earthly things
that your flesh and eyes just have to have and the pride that comes from having
those things, that didn’t come from God, that came from the world and it is
placing too much importance and emphasis on earthly things
1.
All
that is in the world
a. The lust (desire) of the
flesh – The stuff your human nature, earthly nature desires and wants (This
could refer to more sinful stuff)
1)
Flesh-Mere human nature, the
earthly nature of man apart from divine influence, physical nature
2)
Lust-Desire, covet, turn upon,
seek, passion; concupiscence-coveting
of carnal things, irregular appetite for worldly good
b. The lust (desire) of the
eyes – The earthly stuff your eyes see and desire and have to have (This
is stuff that maybe is not sin)
1)
What
you desire, what you crave, what you seek after and covet is what you value, is
what’s important to you
c. The pride of life –
The pride of life is thinking your something b/c of the earthly life and things
you desired and now possess
2.
It’s
the pursing of these (earthly) things and the pride that comes from having them
– That’s a messed up value system
a. If you’re pursuing these
things and then have this feeling of great importance when you possess them,
one would think these must be pretty valuable/important things; But the reality
is they may be important to the world/in the earth, but they are not to the
Lord
1)
It’s the desire and
pursuing of things that aren’t valuable to God and then thinking your something
because you’ve accumulated those things
2)
MSG-Don’t love the
world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love
for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting
your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear
important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from
him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way
out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
b. This coveting and pursuing of earthly things and the pride
that comes from having them, that value system is of the world and is not of
God, it didn’t come from God; That is placing too much emphasis and importance
on earthly things
1)
If you think you’re
something or somebody b/c of the earthly life you possess you have placed too
much value on earthly life
2)
JB-For the whole world-system, based as it is
on men’s primitive desires, their greedy ambitions and the glamour of all that they think splendid, is not
derived from the Father at all, but from the world itself.
c. When you’re value system
is messed up you’ll love the wrong things – People love the world because
their value system has been set by the world
E. What God does value is
people who will do the will of God
1.
God
knows that the world will pass away and the desire of the world will too so he
doesn’t place very much value on it
a. 17-This earth, life on
this earth and earthly things will pass away and won’t last so how much does it
mean
2.
He that DOES THE WILL OF
THE GOD abides forever-This is what should mean something to you, this is what
you should love, this is what should do something for you, what you should
covet and strive after and get you stirred up and excited
a. 17-You’re talking about
stuff that won’t last and stuff that will last
b. AMP-He who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever
c. JB-The world and all its passionate desires
will one day disappear. But the man who is following God’s will is part of the permanent
II.
Love not your life
A. John 12:23-26-If you love
your life in this world you’ll lose it, if you hate your life in this world you
care for your life unto fullness of life
1.
Should
we love our life in this world? According to Jesus the answer is no (Love-Be fond of, Describes affection)
a. This is Jesus saying
don’t set your affection on and be fond of your life
b. We should not love and
set our affection on and cling to our life in this world
2.
If
you love your life in this world, set your affection on it, cling to it, won’t
give of it you’ll waste it (Lose-Perish,
ruined, rendered useless)
a. The way to not waste your life is not to love and cling to
it, but to give of it and do what God sent you to do with it
3.
What
does it mean to hate your life? I value doing what God sent me to do, more than
I do “my life”
a. Hate-Detest, Radical violent aversion to something
1)
Life
in this world, without God, without doing what God sent me to do I detest it,
the idea of it
b. Hate-Love means set your affection on it, be fond of it; Hate
means you haven’t set your affection on it and you aren’t fond of it; You’re
not fond of it, you haven’t set your affection on it, but rather there is a
disinterest, an indifference, and neglect, to love less because you love something
else more, despise in the sense of not to value
1)
Luke
14:26-If anyone comes to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters and his own life also he cannot be my
disciple (AMP-In the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in
comparison with his attitude toward God)
2)
Matthew
10:37-He that loves father or mother
more is not worthy of me: and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me (AMP-Takes more pleasure in)
3)
AMP-Whoever has no love
for, concern for, no regard for his
life here on earth, but despises it,
preserves his life forever
4)
TLB-If you love your life
down here you will lose it. If you despise
your life down here – you will exchange if for eternal glory
c. To hate your life means the biggest thing in your life is not
your life (in this world)
1)
The
thing I value the most, the thing I love the most is not my life in this world,
but the Lord and doing what he sent me to do
2)
I
value life here for the opportunity it affords me to do something for God;
outside of that life down here isn’t that much to me
3)
If you value the Lord and
doing what He sent you to do more than you do your life in this world you’ll
keep your life from being wasted and it will lead to absolute fullness of life
that never ends (Keep-Guard from being lost or perishing)
4.
You got to die to earthly
life if you want to fulfill your Heavenly purpose (and what that means is that
this earthly life doesn’t do much for you)-2 Timothy 2:11, Galatians 6:14-Earthly
things shouldn’t do much for the believer
a. Colossians 3:3-TLB-Let Heaven fill your thoughts; don’t spend
your time worrying bout things down here. You
should have as little desire for this world as a dead person does.
b. MSG-Listen carefully: Unless a grain of
wheat is buried in the ground, dead to
the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried,
it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is
destroys that life. But if you let it
go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal. “If
any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice.
The Father will honor & reward anyone who serves me.
B. Revelation 12:11-They
loved not their lives unto death (ERV-They did not love their lives too much)
1.
To them life was not
something to cling to, but something to give of in service of God
a. In the face of the death
they weren’t clinging to their life saying oh no, oh no – Their attitude
was doing what he sent us to do is primary and life down here and living longer
down here is secondary
b. Dying doing what God
called them to do was okay with them; If it was live and not what He called
them to do or die and do what they called them to do, they chose die and do
what God sent us to do
2.
The
overcame the enemy through three avenues 1) The Blood 2) Their Words 3) Not
loving their life
a. The people who walk in
victory in this life are the ones to whom this life is not the biggest thing;
but doing what God sent them to do is the biggest thing
b. If the enemy can get you
to love your life, he can get you to waste your life and a part of overcoming
him is not loving your life b/c when you don’t love your life you’ll be willing
to spend your life on anything the Lord wants and that would be a victorious
life
c. To walk in constant victory you can’t love anything more than
you love the Lord and that includes this life
C. Acts 20:22-24-The biggest
thing to him is not his life, it’s doing what God sent him to do
1.
Life for himself, life of
itself he didn’t count has a precious thing to be held in honor, but rather he
didn’t value it all that much
a. Dear-Precious, esteemed, held in honor, as of great price
b. He’s talking about life
of itself apart from doing what God sent you to do – Just life without
kingdom purpose and call
c. What was dear to him was
doing what God sent him to do and finishing the Father’s work
2.
The thing that makes life
valuable is being able to use it to do what God sent you to do and if you take
that out of it, then life on earth ain’t all that much; this is what makes life
on Earth worth something
a. VOICE-22 Now I feel that the Holy Spirit has taken
me captive. I am being led to Jerusalem. My future is uncertain, 23 but I know—the Holy Spirit has told
me—that everywhere I go from now on, I will find imprisonment and
persecution waiting for me. 24 But that’s OK. That’s
no tragedy for me because I don’t cling to my life for my own sake.
The only value I place on my life is that I may finish my race, that I may
fulfill the ministry that Jesus our King has given me, that I may gladly
tell the good news of God’s grace.
b. TLB-But life is worth nothing unless I use it
for doing the work assigned me by
the Lord Jesus
1)
What’s
the point of “life on earth” if it’s not going to be used to do what God sent
you to do
2)
You
take God, fulfilling the call of God, doing what God sent you to do out of life
on this Earth and this life is not worth living and there is nothing about this
life that is sweet and fulfilling
3.
What should matter most
to us is not just “living life” or “building a life for ourselves” but to do
what the master sent us to do
a. ERV- I
don’t care about my own life. The most important thing is that I finish my work. I want to finish the work that the Lord
Jesus gave me to do—to tell people the Good News about God’s grace.
b. MSG-What matters most
to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me
c. The biggest thing in in
the believers life is the Kingdom of God, is the plan of God
4.
To
finish your course with joy and the ministry which you have received you can’t
love your life because while you run your race and finish you’re course you’ll
have to continually choose the Lord over your life and if you love your life
more than Him you’ll chose your life over him and you won’t finish your course
D. 1 Timothy 6:17-You can
and should enjoy earthly things and this earthly life that’s God’s will, but
you are not to love them
1.
Enjoyment-Enjoy
the pleasures, Feel pleasure, to be happy
2.
Things
will produce enjoyment, they will not produce fulfillment
a. There’s a lot of stuff on
this Earth that you’ll enjoy, that won’t do much for your inside
b. EX: I received Amber’s
engagement ring by faith I wasn’t rejoicing over the ring but over the fact I
was learning to use my faith
3.
Enjoyment
is not love and you may enjoy some things, but never love what you should only
enjoy