Revival Conference 2007 - Richard Sipley - Part 3

Keep them from the evil. They are not of the world as I am not of it, to be a bright and shining light in the world. You see, the three wicked ways of his people today are worldliness, powerlessness, and passiveness. And I can't preach on the other two, but we need to be filled with the Spirit, and then we need to be intentional witnesses for Christ bringing people to Jesus. And we went out on Vancouver Island and God came down, and for five years we had two conversions a week, for five years. I'm just saying, God wants to get us to wake up. But anyway, I'm not talking about that, so you get away with it for this time. Now, I want to answer three questions. Number one, what is the world? Now, listen carefully. What is the world? The world is simply this world with all that is in it. Somebody says, Oh, no, no, no, no. You don't have your theology straight. This world means in the Bible this world system, this ungodly system. No, you can't find that in the Bible anywhere. That's not in the Scriptures. All that Jesus had to say about it, if I could give you all those Scriptures this morning, you'd go home and study it. Everything Jesus had to say about the world was about this world. I mean, the whole great big thing. This globe, this earth, with everything that's on it and in it. That's what the world is. And now, Father, glorify me, said in John 17 5, in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. It said before you and I, Father, created the world, you know, I had glory with you. He's talking about this world. He was, if you go to John 1, he was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not recognize him. What world is that? The whole thing. That's what he's talking about. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him, yet to them who received him he gave eternal life. He's talking about the world. John 13 1, listen to this carefully. It was just before the Passover feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having left his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. And so here the Scriptures say he's about to leave this world and go back to the heavenly world. Are we beginning to get it straight? See, if we don't get this part straight, I might as well not preach the rest of it. We have to get this straight in our minds instead of some of the stuff we've been told, or we won't get it straight in our lives. In John 17, Christ prays for his followers, and I'm not going to read it all. What I'm going to do is snatch sentences all the way through it about the world. Before the world began, those who gave me out of the world, I am not praying for the world. I will remain no longer in the world. While I'm still in the world, the world has hated them because they're not of the world. I do not pray for you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world, so that the world may believe. Complete unity to let the world know. You loved me before the creation of the world. The world does not know you. Jesus was an alien. He was a being from another world, and I'm closer to it than most of you. He came, he created this world, and then he came into it. So, the world that Jesus is talking about and that the Scriptures are talking about is simply this world, and everything is in it. Now, what is worldliness? Get this definition carefully. Worldliness is to give priority to the things and matters of this world, rather than the things of God. Now, we have to get this because right here is the crux of it. Right here is the heart of it. Worldliness is to give priority to the things and matters of this world, rather than the things of God. And that is what the church is full of. The people of God are absolutely caught up in it. Jesus said, seek first. Seek first. That's priority. Seek first the King of God and his righteousness, and all these things that you need of this world will be added unto you. Is God able to do that? Certainly he is. But he says, don't make it your priority. Don't make it the number one issue in any situation. Let me give you a test this morning. It's a little different kind of a one. I don't care much about tests myself, but I'm going to impose one on you. Hmm. Which disturbs me most? That's the title of my test. Which disturbs me most? My neighbor dying without Christ, or a scratch on my new car? Well, you see, why did you ask that question? Because I need to stop and confess my own sins. Because I want to help you. We were still living out in Vancouver Island, and I traded my little Plymouth Sundance, which my wife loved, and she's still mad at me about it. I traded it for a brand new Plymouth Acclaim. They don't make them anymore. Every time they make a good car, they quit making it. I traded for a new Plymouth Acclaim. It was off-white, beautiful, brand new. It wasn't very expensive, but it was new and it was mine. It looked so nice. We drove out here to visit our son in Tallmadge. In Tallmadge, there's a place they call the Six Corners, and it's where six roads come together. And there's traffic light, and you wait, you turn. And so, as you come up to it, there are a couple of places where you really kind of come up a steep incline. And so, I was going somewhere, and I came up this incline. There was a car ahead of me, you could call it that. It was more like an accident looking for a place to happen, but it was an old rattletrap, really. And he pulled up and stopped at the traffic light, and I thought, now this is my first mistake, I thought, I'm not going to get too close to that thing. So, I stopped way back, and we're on a hill. And so, we just get stopped, and this car stalls. And then, it starts to roll backwards. Because not only is the motor not any good, the brakes aren't any good either. And so, here the thing starts coming slowly and picking up speed, rolling back toward my brand new car. And so, my first mistake was to stop way back there. If I'd stopped up close, I'd have been better off, right? Less impact. But, way back here. So, the second thing I did that's peculiar was I honked my horn.