What Are You Trying to Be?
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sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. (NIV)
Rom 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good,
pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)
A terrible thing has happened to the church in America. Too often, you cannot tell the Christians
from the non-Christians. There is little difference between the church and the world. If Jesus or
Paul were to enter into many of our churches, they would probably wonder where the believers
went. They would probably think they were in the wrong place.
The thing that really troubles me is that this attitude it spreading throughout the world and has
reached Albania and other places. I see young people everywhere conforming to the world –
conform-ing to what they see on TV and movies – conforming to the world-liness they see on music
videos and concerts. I see young people conforming to fashions and practices that the world says
are desir-able, but the Bible calls unacceptable.
It troubles me, because I see a whole generation being led into a trap from which there may be no
return.
Jesus said: Mt 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road
that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. (NIV)
Mt 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (NIV)
I will tell you that the wide gate is the way of the world. It is to follow the crowd. The wide gate is to
imitate the world. And the wide gate leads to destruction. Most of you are too young to know yet
the misery of the soul when you have gotten so far away from God that you cannot see your way
back. But I want to warn you that sin and worldliness will take you ‘farther than you want to go,
keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay’.
I will tell you that the world, and the devil, will promise anything and everything, but he cannot and
will not deliver. Everything he gives you will rot in your hands. It will poison your soul. And in the
end, he will own you and you will have nothing but misery. Satan is a liar. He is a thief. He is a
destroyer. He will not help you. He is helping himself.
What the world has to offer is the same. It will spoil you. It will destroy you in the end.
Jas 4:4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards
God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (NIV)
1Jo 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.
1Jo 2:16 For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the
boasting of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the world. (NIV)
I ask you, who are you trying to be like? Who are patterning after? Are you truly trying to please
God, are you trying to fit in with the crowd? Fit in with the crowd and you will fit really well in hell,
because the wide gate leads to destruction and many enter through it.
I want you to know I am watching over you like a shepherd watches over his sheep. And sometimes
I see some things that worry me. What I ask is that you examine your life – examine your motives –
ask yourself, “Who am I living for? Is my life pleasing to God? Is the way I dress pleasing to God?
Is the way I act pleasing to God? Is my life holy or worldly?”
Rom 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good,
pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)
A terrible thing has happened to the church in America. Too often, you cannot tell the Christians
from the non-Christians. There is little difference between the church and the world. If Jesus or
Paul were to enter into many of our churches, they would probably wonder where the believers
went. They would probably think they were in the wrong place.
The thing that really troubles me is that this attitude it spreading throughout the world and has
reached Albania and other places. I see young people everywhere conforming to the world –
conform-ing to what they see on TV and movies – conforming to the world-liness they see on music
videos and concerts. I see young people conforming to fashions and practices that the world says
are desir-able, but the Bible calls unacceptable.
It troubles me, because I see a whole generation being led into a trap from which there may be no
return.
Jesus said: Mt 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road
that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. (NIV)
Mt 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (NIV)
I will tell you that the wide gate is the way of the world. It is to follow the crowd. The wide gate is to
imitate the world. And the wide gate leads to destruction. Most of you are too young to know yet
the misery of the soul when you have gotten so far away from God that you cannot see your way
back. But I want to warn you that sin and worldliness will take you ‘farther than you want to go,
keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay’.
I will tell you that the world, and the devil, will promise anything and everything, but he cannot and
will not deliver. Everything he gives you will rot in your hands. It will poison your soul. And in the
end, he will own you and you will have nothing but misery. Satan is a liar. He is a thief. He is a
destroyer. He will not help you. He is helping himself.
What the world has to offer is the same. It will spoil you. It will destroy you in the end.
Jas 4:4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards
God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (NIV)
1Jo 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.
1Jo 2:16 For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the
boasting of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the world. (NIV)
I ask you, who are you trying to be like? Who are patterning after? Are you truly trying to please
God, are you trying to fit in with the crowd? Fit in with the crowd and you will fit really well in hell,
because the wide gate leads to destruction and many enter through it.
I want you to know I am watching over you like a shepherd watches over his sheep. And sometimes
I see some things that worry me. What I ask is that you examine your life – examine your motives –
ask yourself, “Who am I living for? Is my life pleasing to God? Is the way I dress pleasing to God?
Is the way I act pleasing to God? Is my life holy or worldly?”