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There are several passages of scripture that "bother" me when I read them and that stir up something within me to cause me to want to get alone with God and search myself to make sure that I am right in God's sight. Call me paranoid. Call me careful. Call me whatever you want, but there is something about the story of Judas Iscariot that makes me stop and rethink my relationship with God. When I think about how that a man could walk with Jesus Christ day in and day out, be used to preach the tremendous message of hope, and yet get turned around by such simple things as money and greed that he betrays and sells out His Messiah, that bothers me. I have often wondered how long Judas Iscariot walked honestly before the greed struck and began his downward spiral. I have often wondered what it was exactly that he did to open such a door that someone so close to heaven on earth could yet lose out with God in the end. There's something about his story that causes me to get off a "I've got it made" attitude and began to earnestly ask myself, "have I allowed something to take root in my heart and my life that will cause me to betray the One who loved me enough to die that I could be saved?"

Perhaps I'm not alone and maybe there is a story in scripture that always causes you stop and take stock of where you are in God and where you are headed. Maybe there is a passage of scripture or a theme that sobers you when you are reminded of it. The verses and themes of scripture that have this effect on me are scriptures such as the warnings in Revelation to the church in Laodicea who had their doctrine correct, and their good works in order, and yet had grown lukewarm in God. His warning to them was that if they remained in their lukewarm state that He would "spew them" out of His mouth. That bothers me simply because it makes me realize the importance of staying "on fire" for God. Likewise the passage where Jesus said that "many" would come to Him in the day of judgment and say "we cast out devils out in your name, and we did many great works in your name" and yet He will look at them and say "depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you" (Matthew 7:22-23). It bothers me that Jesus said that "many" would say to Him one day. That "many" people would fall into a trap of thinking that seeing an occasional move of the Spirit of God indicates that they are okay with Him and would allow sin and worldliness to come in and hinder their relationship with Jesus so much that He will look at some people who perfectly know the power of His name and all of the stories, and yet say "I never knew you." That bothers me so much that it causes me to check myself constantly and ask myself "are you being used of God, or are you using God?" Because that scripture shows that there is a huge difference between the two! Such a big difference that those who are being used of God will spend forever in eternal life and those who only use God for their own agendas or glory will spend forever in a lake of fire of eternal damnation. That bothers me enough that I want to make sure that I am really submitting to the perfect will of God in every area of my life. It bothers me enough to make me stop and ask God to search my heart and life and to pray just one more time "God create a clean heart within me."

In fact, it seems to be the stories of people like Solomon who were so close to God and so blessed by Him and yet fall away into sin and lose out with God in the end that mentally grab ahold of me and make me realize the seriousness of why I am in church today and why I have gathered together with the saints of God on this beautiful day. That Solomon could see the visible presence of the Shekina glory of God descend into that magnificent temple and hear the voice of God speaking to him in the still of the night and to be given earthly wisdom without measure and financial blessing beyond compare and to have been given the spiritual lineage of such a daddy as King David, and yet at the end of his life turn from the one, true God and bow before a lifeless idol that he paid to be built and formed: that bothers me because it let's me know that no matter how far advanced I get in life; no matter how rich or blessed I ever become; no matter how high I have attained in the kingdom of God; that I must be award and on guard of letting my passion and my zeal for God and His kingdom die. If someone as blessed as a Solomon or a Judas can turn their back on the true living, God, then I must not allow myself to become comfortable in my relationship with God where I think that I can pray and live on spiritual "autopilot," coasting through this world. If they can fall away, then I must admit -- even though it is a very sobering thought -- I can also fall away if I repeat the same mistakes. And I thank God that such stories do bother me. In fact, I would be more worried if I was not affected by such tales.

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In our text, the Apostle John is writing to people in the Apostolic Church and I want you to notice that the tone of his writing is a warning.

The term "little children" in verse 12 is different in the Greek from the term translated "little children" in verse 13. Verse 13 would be more accurately translated "beloved children." So the Apostle John actually identifies in this letter four specific groups of people in the church around 90 A.D. that he is writing to. The four groups are:

1. Fathers

2. Young Men

3. Little Children (Greek: paidia)

4. Beloved Children (Greek: teknia)

Twice John says that he is writing to the "Fathers" because they have known Jesus Christ "from the beginning." In other words, this group of people were those who had been alive and believers during Jesus' earthly ministry and were still serving God 60 years later. These were people who had had the Holy Ghost and been faithful for over 60 years! "Young men" refers to people reaching a spiritual maturity and in the prime of their spiritual life. "Little Children" refers to people who had not been a part of the church for long but that had received the Spirit of God and were convinced of the truth of Apostolic Doctrine. "Beloved Children" refers to brand new "babes" in the Lord, ie... people who had just began to learn about the Apostolic way of life.

In other words, whatever John is about to warn them about, it is important for every person in the church of God. His warning is not going to identify just a problem area for new converts, or spiritual warriors but an area that must be guarded against by every level of Christianity. Obviously, for John to spend three verses simply identifying all of the groups of the church so that they would all realize that he was speaking directly to them, this warning must be something that he was very concerned about. With that in mind, look at the warning:

The warning of John was not "watch out for the devil's attack." Not "guard yourself against the forces of evil." But "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." There it is, simple and plain: the greatest danger to any Christian's walk is not some guerilla warfare tactic in the spirit by Satan or some great trial that would threaten to sweep away our faith although those things may cause the fall of some. The greatest danger of any Christian of any level is to allow themselves to love the world and the things of the world.

John goes on to give the three categories of the things in the world:

1.) lust of the flesh - things that our flesh falls in love with and craves such as sexual sin, vices, and sinful pleasure. For that matter it refers to pleasure that is not sinful when such things steal our attention and efforts from serving God. There is nothing wrong with playing golf, but if I let my love and obsession of golf to keep me out of the house of God and to crimp me financially so that I have the latest driver and clubs and yet cringe every time the offering plate is passed, then I have surrendered to the lust of the flesh in an area that is not by itself sinful! If you will not blink to spend five hours of your off day on a deer stand in the cold and yet you think church over one hour is excess and gripe about services being on your "off day," what are you proving that you love more?

2.) lust of the eye - the sin of coveting things that we see. It is the sin of greed that has such a hold of America today. We see the latest style portrayed by some star and we will rob Peter to pay Paul so that we can have that style. We see an ad for a new car or truck and despite having perfectly good working cars we get "car fever" and go way into debt which causes stress on our marriage, and our relationship with God because we are continually worried about the bill and have to work overtime to pay for the "things" that we have." The world knows the power of "lust of the eyes" and that is why they pay billions of dollars in advertising each year. There's nothing wrong with having nice things if they are within your means of financial ability but if we are not careful, the love of "things" will dull our spiritual appetite so that we are not really hungry for more of God. And what we receive in the kingdom of God is in direct proportion to how hungry that we really are!

3.) pride of life - that is getting caught up in the rat-race of life, the everyday things of making a living and raising a family and paying the bills and doing the normal things so much that we forget about God and to make His will priority in our life. The "pride of life" is when you trust more in earthly things than in spiritual things. When you really do not feel as if you really need God in your life because you have everything taken care of by yourself. When you feel so independent that really God loses His priority in your life. When you are more faithful to work than the house of God, something is wrong. When you are more faithful to "your routine" and that routine does not include prayer and fasting, then something is wrong. There is a love issue that is messed up because you are falling in love with the things of the world.

Why is this important preacher? Because John adds these sobering words:

What a sobering thought especially now that we know that he is particularly addressing Christians who have received the Spirit of God and the power of God working in their life! If you love the world, then the love of the Father is not within you! You cannot love both the things of this world and the things of God! And the greatest danger of a Christian is to love the world. To not feel happy unless the things of the world are going your way. To put the things of this world in first place in your life. Because you cannot, you do not have the ability, to love God as you need to make it if you love the world at the same time.

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Your serving God or not serving God really is a "love issue" isn't it?! Your faithfulness or lack thereof to the things of God simply reveal outwardly what you really love. You see, I'm here today serving God and in His house not because I am the pastor and the preacher. If I was not a pastor and not called to be a preacher, I would still have reason to be in the Lord's house today. I know that because I felt the need to be in the house of God long before I was ever the pastor or even knew that I was called to preach. Yes, I have pastorly and spiritual duties to fulfill today, but that is not the primary reason why I am in the house of God. I am here worshipping my God and to allow His Word to change my life because above everything else in my life, I must be saved! And I'm and only going to be saved if I love God more than the things of this world. Jesus asked:

I can answer those questions for you! If I were to gain the entire world and achieve fortunes and fame and homes and friends and success and beauty as this world measures it and yet die without being ready to meet God, then my worldly life will not have amounted to much! I will have been a failure no matter what the acclaims of man said about me! What is the price of a man's soul? The part of him that lives forever? There is no price worth losing your soul to a devil's hell! There is nothing -- not bitterness, tradition, pride, trials, temptations, lusts, whatever -- that is worth going to hell over. But can I tell you that the things of this world, the blessings and the cars and houses and the land and the money and the promotions and the positions, none of that is worth losing out with God over either! And that is really why I am here: I want to please the One who loved me enough that He gave His very life to save me from such a horrible fate by loving Him completely and totally and more than anything else! He has provided the road map and the way to eternal life, yet He also cannot lie and I know that no uncleanness or unrepented sin will enter into such a life. Our God is a holy God. He is clean and pure. There will be nothing that defileth or perverteth or brings confusion enter into the place that He has prepared for us. I want you to realize a horrible truth that sobers me, that bothers me: most people in America claim to be Christians and claim to love Jesus Christ, but not everyone in America is going to be saved. In fact, according to scripture, MOST people in America will be lost. Jesus said:

That's "strait" not "straight" as so many confuse. It means "extremely narrow." And Jesus said that most people are going to be lost and that the road to heaven is an extremely narrow one and "few there be that find it." I realize that such preaching goes against what most religions today teach, but those are the words of Jesus! It only takes a small thing getting in our craw against our brother to keep us out of heaven! It only takes a small white lie. It only takes one word of scripture that we would rather ignore and not obey. It only takes something as subtle as a desire of this world slipping in and becoming our reason for living or our true love to cause us to lose out on this precious love of God. Call me "narrow minded" or "strait laced" if you will, but I must be saved! Peter wrote it like this:

I love to worship God with good music and singing and outward praise, but if I dance around, clap my hands, enjoy the music and yet allow a love of the world to stay in my life without repenting of it, then what good has that worship done? I love fellowship and being around other people who love the things of God, but if I become friends with every saint in town, and do good things for the community and yet still here Him say "I never knew you," in the end because I really did not make getting closer to God and how He wanted me live in His Word a priority, then what good has my good times brought me? You see, the reason I enjoy and even crave the fellowship of fellow Christians and the reason why I worship such a Holy God is because whatever it takes, and whatever I have to be willing to change, I must be saved! I refuse to go to hell! I refuse to barely miss heaven. I refuse to take a haphazard approach to such things as where I will be forever! This is very serious to me, and that is why I want a preacher that will preach me the truth. Someone who will call sin "sin" and get down to what the Word of God really says. "Preacher, preach to me what I must do and what I mustn't do!" "Don't just make me feel good and send me home lost." "Don't preach a pretty message and close this service without giving someone a chance to kneel at an altar and place everything -- I mean everything -- into the hands of a merciful savior that wants to be Lord of All." Above all else I must be saved!

And if I am to be saved, then the love of the world must not be within me, but I must guard against it! It is a great danger. Each group of people, John mentioned only once, but the "fathers in the faith," those who had had the Holy Ghost the longest, John mentioned twice that he was writing to them. Just because I am a pastor and I have had the Holy Ghost a while doesn't mean that I can sit back and grow complacent and stagnant spiritually. In fact it means that I must guard that much more against a love of the world that will try to slip into my life. The devil may not be able to get me to "return to my vomit" like the second chapter of II Peter describes backsliders. He may never get me to return to a life of open rebellion and sinfulness, but if I give in to a love of the world and the things in this world, then my end will be the same. It's really about what I allow myself to love the most! I must love God and the things of God. I must not allow, even in the smallest area, the love of the world to slip in my life!

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Of all the stories in scripture the little information that we know about a man called Demas bothers me the most. He is mentioned in scripture in only three separate verses. Yet what is recorded about him grabbed at me the past few weeks and caused me to ask God to search my heart lest I fall as he did.

The first two mentions of Demas are very positive. He is mentioned in the book of Colossians and again in the book of Philemon as having been a fellow minister and preacher and missionary of the Apostle Paul. Those books were written somewhere between the years of A.D 60 and A.D. 63. Demas sends his greetings along with Paul to the churches that are being written to and ministered to by the Apostle. But the third and last mention of Demas is what bothers me. It is found in the last book that the Apostle Paul would ever write, the book of II Timothy which was written in either A.D. 66 or A.D. 67. We read this passage as our text:

In just four or five years, something dramatically changed in the life of the man called Demas! He left Paul in Rome and that in itself would not be a shame or something even worth mentioning, but he obviously left for the wrong reasons because Paul felt led to write that Demas left "having loved this present world." It was a love of the world and the things of this world that pulled Demas away.

That's sobering because Demas was not a weak Christian struggling with the simple everyday things of life. He was taught by the greatest Bible teacher that ever lived. He had seen the Holy Ghost do great works throughout the towns and the villages where they had traveled. Not only did Demas have the Holy Ghost but he had a call of God on his life that was calling him to a powerful ministry. The anointing and power of God was upon Demas' life and God had a great and magnificent plan for Demas to fulfill in His kingdom. No doubt Demas prayed for the sick and they recovered. No doubt he saw the blinded eyes opened and cast out devils in the name of Jesus. No doubt he delivered powerful sermons and saw thousands filled with the Holy Ghost just as his missionary companions experienced.

But in this godly and powerful man's life, something crept in that caused him to walk away from the will of God. It wasn't an evil woman's enticing looks that caused this preacher to fall. It wasn't murder or unforgiveness or bitterness against a brother or sister. It wasn't some elaborate trap or trial instituted by Satan that caused Demas to stumble and give up hope. He made it through the persecution in Asia and the public humiliation. It wasn't false doctrine that crept in and caused him to believe a lie and be damned. It was simply a love for the world. Somewhere, Demas began to hate the sacrifice of doing God's will and the things that had to be set aside in order to serve God. Somewhere Demas begin to give into the pull of this world that said "be normal, come and get a house and a wife and settle in and give up the mission field and just be normal." Somewhere, Demas got his love off of reaching souls for Jesus and from the joy that comes from seeing God change someone's life completely and changed into a love for this world. I don't believe that Demas fell into some great sin, but that he just stopped fighting for the kingdom of God. The call to live a normal life won him over.

Oh, I'm sure that Demas had some excuse that he gave Paul for leaving. People always can make grand and important reasons why they cannot serve God. Perhaps its some great "confusion" that they have over doctrine. Perhaps its because some minister hurt them supposedly beyond repair, and I know that there are times when such hurts or questions cause us to limp while walking with God. But, usually the issue is never the issue when someone walks away from God. They may have whatever excuse that they dream up, but the true issue is usually that they loved the things of the world more than the things of God. It really comes down to a love issue.

If you really love Jesus Christ, then there are very few hurts that can cause you to walk away from His glorious church. If you are looking for an excuse to not serve Him, then you can find one, but when you really love someone, you find and excuse to stay with them, not leave them. I have been let down and hurt severely by men in positions and even ministers and pastors. I have been hurt by some of my closest friends. I have had the ones that I was doing the most for turn and bite the hand that fed them. I've had trials where I wondered when God would come through. I've walked through the valley of the shadow of death when I knew that the loved one who was being buried was not right with God. I've given money to causes only to see the powers that be misuse the power and the finance. I've felt the pull of this world to be a success financially and felt the twinge of "what if I had this or that?" I've been offered positions in the secular world making much more money than I am now but that would require me to give up teaching others the word of God and missing the church services. Whatever excuse you may have and however valid it may seem to you, really it's probably not the issue. The issue when someone has trouble selling out to Jesus Christ is that they love the things of this world more than they do Jesus Christ. Your everyday actions loudly prove who you truly love.

Demas is never mentioned again in scripture or in history. We absolutely know nothing else about him. He obviously started a career and probably had a family. Maybe Demas died wealthy with a nice house and nice horses and a family and the acclaim of his neighbors. Maybe he died a success in every way that a man can be a success in this world, but I can guarantee you that -- even if he did eventually have his heart's desires -- he died unhappy. Because money can't truly satisfy you and fame and "being normal" are not the answers to life. If they were, then there would be a whole lot more happier people in this world. But even the rich are searching for that missing ingredient. They know that riches and power are only trying to force a square peg into a round hole. And that hole in their heart can only be filled by Jesus Christ.