Does this visual represent your life? It communicates without words a serious problem with our world and a serious problem in all our lives. Why is it that people want to fill their hearts and lives with as much as they can get. We do not stop to consider what our appetites do to us and the pain and devastation it can cause to those around us. In fact, you probably do not even consider them wrong and do not even call them evil, would you describe yourself as an enemy of God? There is a verse in the Bible from James 4:4 that says:

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (ESV)

We all know what adultery is but if you are a child of the modern world then you would probably use the word cheater. So the verse above you could say it like this:

You say you love God and you say you are closer to Him than a wife or a husband, yet you continuously cheat on God! Did you not know that loving this world equals war with God? So whoever loves this world and the things of this world and what the world has to offer is an enemy of God. (Paraphrase)

You are God's enemy

This will take some serious honesty on your part to identify what it is that you love in this world and what you have filled your whole life with. From a young age we do not need to be taught or shown how to be self-centered but as we get older it turns into a more sinister beast within us. Each decision we make leads us further and further down a dark path, even though we know deep down what is right and wrong. Every choice you make is yours but let’s quickly answer a series of quick questions that show some of the things in your life that you did not decide:

• Did you decide to be born? 
• Did you have a say in who your Mum and Dad are? 
• Did you make any decision at all over your DNA, your place of birth? 
• Did you call yourself into existence? 

The answer to all of these is no.

You have serious moral and spiritual choices to make, life is not a game, each choice carries deep consequences. You have to make these choices based on the simple realisation that you are not God. Every single decision and action you take has a consequence and we tend to make really bad choices.

You have to acknowledge a few things, namely:

1. You are not a god.
2. You have been created by the One true God.
3. You have to give an account to Him when you die, in fact, you need to give an account to Him right now.
4. You need to acknowledge to God that you are broken, that you want Him to heal you and save you.
5. You need to turn to God in faith and repent of your sin.

Why you ask? Because we are guilty of breaking God's law which means that we must be punished. God is just, he has to deal with you as you deserve. God will give you the dignity of your choices. In rejecting God, you are actively choosing hell. Why? Because you have rejected him in everything you have done and every decision you make, which is tainted by your self-centred, self-pleasing, and even self-righteous life. You may even think you are a good person and that you are ok.

God hates cultural gluttony

If the above confuses you and you feel like your head is spinning then please consider what you (along with all people) are guilty of.

• We fill our hearts with what we want and what we love. We do not love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
• We chase after pleasure in any form that we want or takes our fancy. Sex, porn, sports, news, social media, money, music and as much TV and Netflix as we can possibly inject into our bloodstreams.
• We fill our hearts with all these pursuits, which leave us empty and wanting more, they never satisfy us.
• We are poisoned by these lusts and it destroys, blinds, and rots us to the core.
• We have a low view of marriage, divorce rates are over 50% and we have generations of kids who see parent's breaking up as normal.
• We do whatever it takes to get our own way, even if it's at the expense of others.
• We use people for our own gain and pleasure.
• We give our culture a "god-like" status, worshipping and following the current accepted desires and lusts of the age.

Loving this world equals war with God. Do you want to continue in this way? Do you really want to reject your Maker and forgo true happiness? You need to stop, face your sin, own up and start to take responsibility for every action you take.

Good news!

Ok, now what? Where do you turn? Well, there is good news and that good news is that God has made a way that you can be right with Him. It is through the only way of salvation that God has provided. That way is Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh. The staggering truth is that God loves you so much that He was prepared to suffer and die as a man in the person of Jesus and take all of God’s wrath on Himself and die in your place.

When you come to the cross all your sin is put to Jesus account, the sinless One takes the punishment you deserve. All you need to do is look to Jesus and that poison will start to be drawn out of your veins as God puts a new spirit in you, His Spirit.

A quick word to ‘Christians’

If you are living in a pattern of sin and you love the things that you have seen in the visual sermon, then you need to repent again and turn away. Remember that there is a type of false confession of sins, where you just try to make yourself feel better. True repentance is marked by a complete turning away from sin. That does not mean you are sinless, it means you see the sinfulness of sin and you hate that sin in your heart that you cherish so much. Repentance is a turning away from sin, your love for it and running toward God.

You need to look to the sanctifying love of Jesus, which is a love that led him to die the eternal punishment you deserve on the cross. Take that love and cut the cords of this world, which keep you shackled to this world. If you do not turn away from these things then know that God is not happy with you and you could completely shipwreck your faith and fall away. The bible is clear that this can happen if your faith is shown to be false, a clear warning is 2 Peter 2:20-22. Read this and make sure that your heart is set on following Christ alone!

Make sure you kill your sin each day by turning to the Word of God and communing with him through prayer. If you are unsure how to get into a good habit then contact us and get yourself back to a good bible based church immediately. Remember 90% of Jesus teachings are directed at people who claim to be saved and are living in a false delusion that they are saved. So remember Philippians 2:12

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling... (ESV)

LORD, why are you far from me?

If you are confused why you feel far from the Lord, then pray that God will reveal to you the sin that so easily entangles you. Which robs you of true joy and a close walk with God, it will also rob you of your effectiveness for Christ in being a light in this dark world. If the illustration below stirs you up and you feel the guilt and you can see the problem, then right now pray and confess your sin to God, through your savior Jesus and ask for Him to wash you clean and then turn away from your sin.

Colossians 3:5–10 says:
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (ESV)