Today is part two of Pastor Dons message The Dangers of Falling Again if what you read blesses you please like our page and share with others. 1. Anyone can fall They were two young men who enjoyed being with one another. They shared the greatest thing in life. Both had recently saved the last year. I began spending quite a bit of time with them. I was only about 24, but I was excited about the Lord, and I prayed that God would use me to teach them what I knew. I could see the fruit of my labor as they grew, and they looked to me as a mentor. Then it happened. One of the young men defected. The other continued and graduated through Bible school. After Bible College, he went to help start a church. And then it happened. He went back into the evil system the Bible calls the world. There was another young man I met at the church I went to after I was saved. This young man stood out from the rest in that he had had a particularly bad background, but you wouldnt know it. He was a nice guy, and there were times he really helped me. After graduation he spent some time as the pastor of a church, and then it happened. He fell away from God. Another young man was one of the best friends I have ever had. In some ways, we were more like brothers and friends. We did everything together including ministry. After some time in a former ministry, he went to a church as the pastor, and then it happened. He became very discouraged and allow the discouragement to take him down and away from God. He has lost what God had for him. You have to carefully watch yourself. You won’t grow spiritually without making a decision to do so. You can backslide without really knowing it. Backsliding starts in such a way that you that it is almost imperceptible. Samson did not know that the Spirit of God had left him. Mike Yaconelli wrote, “I live in a small, rural community. There are lots of cattle ranches around here, and every once in a while a cow wanders often gets lost. Ask a rancher how cow gets lost, and chances are he will reply, “well, the cow wanders off, gets nibbling on a piece of green grass, and when he finishes it, it looks ahead to the next piece of grass and starts nibbling on that one, and then it goes on another right next to the hole in the fence. It then sees another piece of green grass on the other side of the fence, so it nibbles on that one and then goes on to the next. The next thing you know, the cow has nibbled itself into being lost.” Most people don’t deliberately set out to backslide, but following their appetites or desires, they nibble themselves off of God’s path and into enemy territory. 2. We live in a dangerous spiritual environment Galatians 1:3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. Look at the words, “present evil age.” He is saying he do not live in a Christian friendly environment. We live in a battlefield. Second Peter refers of the “corruption that is in the world.” The word “world” does not refer to this planet. He is talking about the world of people apart from God who live their lives as if there were no God. It is an invisible, organized system of thinking and doing. As a Christian, you are constantly swimming upstream with the current of the world rushing against you. Pay close attention to the word rescue. People only need to be rescued when they are in dangerous situations. A powerful angel named Lucifer leads a host of fallen angels with the intent of taking people away from God. Other spiritual leaders of well-known religions have tried to teach people their ways. Christ did not come just to teach people. He came to rescue people from the evil age we live in. Romans 12:2 this way: “Do not be conformed to this world.” That is simple, clear and concise. But what exactly does Paul mean? Other translations bring out various shades of meaning: Do not act like the sinful people of the world” (New Life). “Do not change yourselves to be like the people of this world” (New Century Version). “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.” (Amplified). “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world” (New Living Translation). And then there is the famous rendering by J. B. Phillips: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.”
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 12:00:00 +0000
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