Why Want What The World Has?

Introduction

Angry words all last and ever from the tongue on bridal slip may the heart best and full server check the mayor they fall love one another the fist of savor children obey the father’s blessed command love one another the fan children obey blessed to pure and hold me friendship is to take for more thus to death and more love one another the safe savor children obey the father’s bless comes love one another thus if the savior children obey bless coming words are lightly spoken Beatrice thoughts are resting stirred displays of life or broken by a single angry word. Love one another, lust the Savior, children obey the Father’s blessing. Love one and Savior. Children obey his blessed. Please be seated. We’re going to be looking briefly as we begin this morning at four verses in the New Testament, and I want you to see what these four verses have in common.

The first is 1 John chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away and also its lust. But the one who does the will of God abides forever. In Colossians chapter 3, Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth.

James chapter 4 and verse 4. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And finally, in Romans chapter 12 and in verse 2, we are admonished to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Well, I’m pretty sure you see the connection. These passages describe the Christian’s relationship with the world. We are not to love the world, set our minds on the world, be friends with the world, or to be conformed to the world. And the reason why is because the values of the world are antagonistic toward God.

And the things of this world pass away. And only the one who does the will of God abides forever. Now I’ve gone through that hurriedly. Many of us know these verses and have heard these verses about the world, and we may even have these verses memorized, but we are pulled to the world like pyromaniacs to a fire.

So surrounded by the world. Sometimes it’s hard for us to think of anything else. In addition, we have a strong desire to fit in. We live in a society that supposedly values individuality, and yet everybody’s trying to look like everybody else. Isn’t that odd? Somebody develops some crazy hairstyle, and then everybody has it. Somebody’s interest goes viral, and then everybody’s interested in it. Just look at what’s happened with tattoos in our culture. Did Dennis Rodman really start this? If you’re going to be a basketball player now, you’ve got to have tattoos running down both arms, or you can’t be the real thing. Can’t be a real MBA player. Everybody’s got a tattoo. It reminds me of watching a flock of birds. You ever notice what happens?

They’re all sitting there doing what birds do, and then all of a sudden one bird takes off. And then all the other birds take off. Or one bird changes direction. And then all the other birds change direction. And that helps the hunters, doesn’t it? We know what those birds are going to do. Satan knows how we like to flock and follow the things of the world. That’s exactly what’s going on. In a very pivotal moment in the history of the nation of Israel. The question we’re asking this morning is why want what the world wants. And the illustration of which I speak is found in 1 Samuel chapter 8, verses 1 through 22. And here’s what I want you to get this morning. When we want what the world has, when that’s the value that is motivating us.

1. Wanting the World Rejects God as King

I want to be like the world. When we get that in our minds, and that motivates what we decide to do in our lives. The things we do, the things we wear, the way we think, then we reject God as our king. And Israel illustrates that to us in this familiar text in 1 Samuel chapter 8. Let’s read together here, beginning in 1 Samuel chapter 8, and in verse 1. Of course, the judge’s period that we’ve read about was a very turbulent time for the nation of Israel. And at this time, Samuel, the last judge, is serving his people, and yet he has grown old. As verse 1 indicates, his children are thus named, his sons, who were also judging in Beersheba. However, his sons were not of noble and righteous character as Samuel has been.

They took bribes and they perverted justice, and apparently they were known for that. Isn’t that sad? That Israel knows these young men, young men of a great father, who have become corrupt and not walked in their father’s ways. And so the elders of Israel come together to Samuel, and they say to him, Behold, you have grown old. Don’t we love to hear that? And your sons do not walk in your ways. That’s worse. And then this. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations. But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them, like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt, even to this day, in that they have forsaken me and served other gods.

So they are doing to you also. Now then listen to their voice. However, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them.

And obviously, according to this text, this is an evil request that they make an unapproved request. Samuel could have taken this really personally. It seems he did partly take it personally. Again, nobody likes to be told you’re old and that your kids aren’t any good, your kids are rotten. But the thing that displeased Samuel was the request for a king. It’s hard to know what God had in mind when he spoke of Judah many centuries earlier. And he said in that prophetic announcement regarding the descendants of that son of Jacob, the scepter shall not depart from Judah. Obviously, he sees king in their future. David would be the second king, and his descendants shall not lack a man to sit upon a throne, a very dramatic prophecy in 2 Samuel chapter 7.

And not only that, in Deuteronomy chapter 17, in the law of Moses, many years before this incident in 1 Samuel chapter 8, he talks about them having a king and the procedure of the king. And so was all of that just anticipatory of this evil request. Perhaps it was not that they wanted a king that was a real problem. But as God states to Samuel, it is why they wanted the king. And that it is that they had rejected God as their king. That seems to be the real issue going on here in 1 Samuel chapter 8. He says, they’ve always been this way, forsaking me and going after other things to follow. And they would continue to do so in their future. As things were really dire in the days of Jeremiah, just before the Babylonian destruction in 586 BC, God says, My people have committed two evils.

2. A Damaging Request: God Gives, but Kings Take

They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewn them out, hewn themselves out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 13. Wanting to be like the world is like an idol that takes the place of God in our hearts. This was a damaging request. He says, I want you to tell them, Samuel, what this king is going to do. The procedure of the king. I want you to solemnly warn them this is going to be a serious matter. And he says, Here’s what this king is going to do. So Samuel says, Okay, you want a king? He’s going to appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do as plowing and to reap his harvest in verse 12 to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

He’s going to take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers, and he will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. Hmm. Sort of sounds like taxation. Sort of sounds like our government. Scary. And he will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants, and he will take your male servants and your female servants. He’ll take a tenth of your flocks. And you yourselves will become his servants. And then you will cry out in that day, because of your king, whom you’ve chosen for yourselves. You think you want this, but you don’t know what you’re asking for. But the Lord will not answer you in that day.

God gives, but kings take.

A damaging request. Oh, we’re sorry, God, we shouldn’t have asked for this. Especially for the reason we ask it, because we want to be like all the nations surrounding us, because they have it going on. No. They didn’t get it. Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. And they said, No. But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. Now, after Samuel had heard all of the words of the people, he repeated them in the Lord’s hearing. And the Lord said to Samuel, listen to their voice and appoint them a king. So Samuel said to the men of Israel, go every man to his city.

3. Wanting What the World Has Makes Us Deaf to God

And then for the next couple of chapters, we see the selection of Saul, who was choice and handsome to be the king. And we find in chapter 12 that another reason why they wanted this king is because of their fear of another king, of Nahash, the king of the sons of Ammon, who had started to threaten them, according to 2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 12. And so God gives them what they want. They persist, and he gives them their king. The things that God warned them about came true. But I want you to get something here, a very important point in this lesson. When you want what the world has, and that’s your motivating force, you will become like they did. Deaf to God.

4. It Sounds Reasonable: The Wisdom of This World

They were more motivated by the fact that they wanted to be like the world, and so they’re going to tune God out. When our motives become to be like the world or to approve of a person more than submit ourselves to God, we will reject what God says. And it doesn’t matter how eloquently it’s said or how persuasive it is delivered. Because our decision has been, I’m going to want what the world wants. Dangerous indeed. Well, why do we want to be like the world? Why did they want to be like all the nations surrounding them? Well, it sounds so absolutely reasonable. It makes sense. Let’s have a king. Let’s let’s, you know, this tribal independence thing during the judge’s period. It just didn’t seem to be working out.

It wasn’t working out because they weren’t trusting in God. And yet, while it sounds so reasonable, God says, It’s rejecting my authority. It is, you see, the wisdom of this world. And what does God say about the wisdom of this world? What often seems so sensible to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 19 through 21, the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, he is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that they are useless. So then let no one boast in men. He warrants.

Remember what we just read in verse 20? We need a king to go out first and fight these battles. What? That’s outrageous. You want to know why that’s outrageous? Have you read the preceding chapters in 1 Samuel? Chapter 4 through 7. You know what happened? Remember they lost the Ark? The Ark of the Covenant? They thought, oh man, this thing’s not going well. Let’s let’s do something dramatic. Let’s bring the ark into the camp. And they bring the ark into the camp. Foolish. Like it’s some kind of magical icon that’s going to make all of their poor decisions go away. It’s going to change their fortunes. No, they lost the ark. Well, great story. Philistines get the ark, and they wish they hadn’t gotten it. God strikes them with all kinds of problems, and then their God falls down and bows before the Ark, and his head is cut off and all that.

Hey, would you take this thing back? But God then they cry out to the Lord in their distress, and God delivers them from the Philistine oppression at that time. And when they’re delivered, you know what they do? Here I raise my Ebenezer. Remember that? We have a song about that. Oh, thou found of every blessing that mentions the Ebenezer. It’s a reference to this text. In 1 Samuel chapter 7, the stone of help. God has helped us. He’s delivered us. The next chapter. We need a king. He just delivered. He just raised your Ebenezer. The stone of help. And now they’re already saying in chapter 8, nope, no, we need a king to be like all the nations. That’s the problem of the idol of human wisdom.

5. It Makes Us Feel Accepted

And human wisdom can often become the idol that we worship rather than God. And we need to be careful about exalting our own wisdom or even the wisdom of others. And that’s the second part of this that it makes us feel accepted. We’re going to be like everybody else. Hey, Israel, they’re not so odd and strange anymore. Have you ever thought about that? Of all the nations surrounding them, they’re the only ones that don’t have a king. We don’t fit in. We’re different. I think sometimes that affects the thinking of brethren when they want to engage in product projects that don’t have the authority of Scripture. They certainly God doesn’t care about this. And if we do this, we’ll be like the other churches around us.

We’ll fit in. People won’t come in and say, those strange people don’t have instruments. They just sing with their voices. Why do they do that? Why are they so different? And the nature of their services just seems so archaic. Where’s contemporary stuff? Emphasis on the Bible. And they meet twice on Sunday. And they study again on Wednesday night. That’s so strange. That’s so different. They actually seem to have standards that they expect their people to live a certain way. Or they get in trouble. That’s so unlike religion in our times. Look, we have not been called to fit in, but to shine out. We have a different view of success than the world has. We have a different speech. We have faithfulness in our marriages. We have compassion for those in need.

6. Want the Lord More Than the World

We have a passion for worship over entertainment. And as Ralph Davis wrote, we prefer to enjoy God than to wallow after fulfillment. Okay. Why do we want to be like the world? Well, it just sounds reasonable. Everybody else is doing this. It’ll make us feel accepted. But remember what God says. It’s going to take. It will take all that you have when your desire is to be like the world. We must consider the price tag for such a choice. And thus God warns them. God wants to save us from a life like this. So what is the message of this lesson this morning? It’s pretty simple. We need to want the Lord more than we want the world. And he tells us how to do that.

Go over, as I mentioned to 1 Samuel chapter 12 and read with me the conclusion of the story. When finally the king is chosen and Saul is installed. He says, God is going to send thunder and rain to show you that he disapproves of your choice. And so when God says that, he does exactly that. And it says, the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. Did you know that part of the story? Then all the people said to Samuel, Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die. Oh, if we could just generate that kind of respect for the power of God and his judgment. For we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.

Now they get it. And Samuel says to the people, do not fear. You have committed all this evil. He didn’t say, Oh, don’t worry about it wasn’t that big a deal. No, you’ve done wrong. You’ve committed this evil. Yet, where are you going to go from here? Do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And you must not turn aside. For then you would go after futile things, which cannot profit or deliver. Because they are futile. So much of what the world does and the world wants you to do is to follow after futile things that do not profit. And he says, They’re not going to benefit you. For the Lord will not abandon his people on account of his great name.

Because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for himself. I want you to see the application to us as his people. We are a people for God’s own possession. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. But I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king shall be swept away. And I want you to notice what they did when they realized that they were following after human wisdom, the result of their poor choice to be like the world.

They turned to the source of forgiveness. When we find ourselves longing for the wrong things, when we find ourselves wanting to conform to the world rather than to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, when we find ourselves following after the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and we realize that we started down a path which is the wrong direction. We need to make a course correction. And we need to chart a straight path that fears the Lord and obeys him. According to Proverbs chapter 4, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flows the issues of life. And fix your eyes straight ahead of you. You’ve got to determine to follow the right course and to fill your mind with God’s things and his ways and the proper affections rather than the things of the world.

And revel in the fact that God is good and he is just, and he wants us for his own. I have marveled so many times as I think of the concept. God has redeemed us from our sin, our foolishness. Jesus dies on the cross for us. Even though some of us knew that when we were little kids, we still go our own way and sin against God. And then there’s this provision for our salvation and our forgiveness. That this situation can be rectified. That’s really what the rest of the Bible story is about. After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God’s got to fix this problem. All of these centuries and all that God works out, finally Christ comes, He’s rejected, becomes our sin sacrifice, and then the message of the New Testament.

You can be forgiven of your sins, even though Jesus died on account of your sins. Repent and be baptized. Turn from your foolishness, be immersed in Christ. Rise to walk in newness of life. That’s an incredible thing. And then it’s not over. We still sometimes choose foolishly. And there’s epistle after epistle in the New Testament written to Christians who did that very thing. You would expect better. Surely they’ve learned their lesson. Surely there will not be any stumbling and foolishness anymore. But every one of these epistles to these brethren, to these churches, troubles, spiritual failings, Timothy, flee youthful us. You know when we read that passage, we flee youthful us. And we’re talking to our young people, and perhaps even us, we realize we’re susceptible to.

Flee youthful us. But you know when Paul first wrote that, he’s talking to one person. One who’s preaching the gospel. He’s telling Timothy, you keep yourself pure. Well, Timothy knew that, right? Sure he did. We know that too, right? Sure we did.

But that world is always pulling us in, sucking us in. Wanting us to conform and be like it. Do not be conformed to this world. Why did he tell the Romans that? Why did he tell the people, John tell the people he was writing to or being influenced by Gnosticism? Don’t love the world. Gnostics, man, what a great, what a great religion. You can love the world and still be pleasing to God. That was the essence of their teaching. John said, do not love the world. He who does the will of God abides forever. Is that your affection on things above? Why did he tell the church at Colossae that? He knows of the struggle. You would think, after realizing the awful cost to provide our redemption, that we wouldn’t make any more mistakes after that.

But we still do. The wonder of another opportunity. And another opportunity after that. Wouldn’t it be great if we had an atmosphere where everybody could say, I’ve messed up this many times since I became a Christian? And number them. Man, I don’t even want to try to number them. We can number them. How many times? Since you became a Christian, since your sins were washed away, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed you when you were baptized into Christ, I’ve erred this many times since then. And I think it’s one of the reasons why we say, I can’t do this. I can’t live this. I’m a failure. I’m obviously not the real thing. I need to just give up. I think we think like that sometimes.

Conclusion

But these messages, these passages that we’ve looked at in the New Testament are telling you, no. You don’t give up. You wicked Israelites. Just like you’ve always done, wanting to be like the world, give us a king. Oh, we’re so sorry. They finally come to their senses in chapter 12. Samuel said, Yeah, you messed up. God has done with you, awful creatures. That’s not what he said. Forgiveness. Take a new path. The one that God has prescribed for you. Fill your mind with God’s things. Remember, God is good, he is just. Trust in him. And there is yet pardon for those who will do that. If you’re not a Christian, if you’ve never done what I mentioned earlier, if you’ve not been baptized into Christ, what are you waiting on?

The world offers nothing that’s going to last. It’s futile. Don’t follow for that. Don’t fall for that. Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins. Calling on the name of the Lord. But if you’ve done that and you find yourself again loving the world and wanting the world and being like the Israelites and being stubborn and persistent about it. No, I really think this is the way to go.

Remember what it’s going to take. It’s going to take all that you have.

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