We were nothing. We were part of the aimless, mindless crowd that plods through life with no meaning, no purpose other than paying the bills or having as much fun as possible.

Again, in Romans, he repeats this observation:

He is speaking of the lostness of man.

In Romans 11, Paul points out the problem:

Men talk of all the horrible sins that send people to hell. They list various vices and crimes that make your blood curdle, but these are not the things that send people to hell. These are only symptoms of the real problem.

The problem is sin. The problem is unbelief. The problem is that men do not trust or obey god. "In time past, ye have not believed God..

In 1 Timothy, Paul gets more specific with what we were:

Now note, these are the things we were - these are the things we used to be. These are the things we are no longer.

We are strangers and pilgrims. We do not belong to the earth, as one bumper sticker tells us. (Neither does the earth belong to us, as we suppose. "The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.")

We are visitors here - strangers and pilgrims - just traveling through here. We are on our way home. Our home is elsewhere. Our citizenship is in heaven.

We should bless the earth and it’s inhabitants while we are here, but just don’t get too comfortable here. When the trumpet sounds, we’re outta here.

Further, while we are here, we are ambassadors for Christ. We actually represent Him here. (Should that change the way you live? You bet!)

We are here on a mission. We pray for, support, and honor missionaries, but we need to see that we are all missionaries to wherever we live, work, shop, study. . .whatever.

We are workers together with God and Christ. What is He trying to accomplish in this world? We should be trying to accomplish it with Him.

We are partners with God. That means He shares the power with us to get the job done.

Again, we are strangers and sojourners (travelers) here. We do not own anything here - it all belongs to God. We just use what we have here while we are here. The things of earth have no value in heaven. Don’t worry that you can’t take it with you. Why would you want to take it with you.

(It’s like the man who wanted to take a bag of gold into heaven with him. At the gate of heaven they wondered why anyone would want to bring a bag of pavement to heaven.)

Now here’s the scoop - flesh ministers to flesh and spirit ministers to spirit. The flesh will pass away - the spirit will live forever.

Galatians tells us:

there are things that we should not do simply because they dry up the spirit. Your spirit is the most important part of you. You want to take special care of your spirit. So, don’t do things that will harm your spirit.

"The flesh works against the spirit. . ."

Peter advises:

Live an honest and upright life before unbelievers. Unfortunately, they will judge your God by the way you live.

Present, or offer, yourself to God for whatever He desires for you. Nothing you do will ever amount to anything eternal unless it is submitted to God. All you have is wasted if not dedicated to Him. All your accomplishments will perish someday - your dreams will vaporize - your fortunes will lose their value - your fame will fade with time, or the changing mood. But what is done for Christ will last.

Offer yourself a living sacrifice. God doesn’t necessarily want you to die for Him - He wants you to live for Him.

Walk worthy of your calling. If you call yourself a Christian, walk worthy of the name.

Alexander the Great found a young soldier also named Alexander who had run from battle. He said to the young man, "either change your behavior or change your name." I believe Christ would say to many who bear the name ‘Christian’, "Change your behavior or change your name".

Walk worthy of the name of Christ. Bring Him honor by the way you live.

The biggest problem with this country today is that we have lost the fear of the Lord.

The fact is, we’re not afraid of anything. We are so bold as to do anything our hearts desire. And our hearts are desiring some pretty evil things these days.

We had better return to a fear of the Lord before the trumpet sounds. On the day of Judgment, many will learn what the fear of the Lord is all about. I pray that I live my life in such a way that I won’t have to be afraid to stand before Him on that day.

Pay attention! Do you know what is going on in this world? Do you know what is going on in your own heart? Be careful! "Take heed to yourselves. . ."

Surfeiting is excess - anything out of balance or excessive. Paul says in 1 Cor:

He’s saying, "sure, you can do all kinds of things and get away with it. But many things, though they be permissible, are not necessary - they don’t help you or build you up spiritually. You should not be mesmerized by the things of the world. You should by caught up by the power of ‘things’."

These are included in a list of things disallowed by the elders of the early church to the Gentiles who were being saved. Some of the things in the list were of social concern and traditional Jewish concern, which is proper, because if something causes your brother to stumble, you should abstain from it.

But the pollutions of idols and fornication are things that would remain on any list of don’ts for the Christian. Abstain from those things that will destroy your soul.

In keeping with the former injunction, we should mortify, or frustrate - put to death - the works of the flesh. Galatians Lists them:

again, these are in the former list, in Galatiansl., but are repeated here in another setting. He tells us to walk as in the day. In another place, we are told to walk in the light, where all things are open and honest, not in darkness, where we try to hide what we do. Is your conduct such that you need not hide in the shadows so some of your deeds would not be publicly known? Are you walking in the light.

I believe this says it all. Cleanse yourself - get rid of all that dishonors and displeases Christ, both inside and out. Do your best to live holy, counting on his forgiveness when you fail, but doing your best to keep failure down to a minimum.

Here, I believe, is the key. If you walk in the spirit, that is, if you will seek God’s leading and guidance in all things - if you will obey what you know from His Word - if you will allow the Spirit of God to rule in you - you will not give in to the flesh. Every time you give in to the flesh, it is because you ignored the Spirit of God, for He is always there to keep you from falling, unless you refuse His help.

Simple advice - grow up. Stop acting like spoiled, undisciplined children. Do the things that you know will honor God. Follow after holy things - not unholy things.

Get over your love affair with the world. It’s going nowhere but to hell. You cannot serve God and the world at the same time. You cannot have the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world at the same time. Make up your mind. "Choose you this day whom you will serve. . ."