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Allen Domelle

A Gradual Cooling


Mark 4:19

And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

The verse above is the story of many good people. This verse does not say that they immediately stopped being fruitful, but that they becometh unfruitful. It was a slow process that made a person to become unfruitful. That process consisted of them dabbling in the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, and the more they invested themselves in materialism, the colder their heart became until they were no longer fruitful.

Nobody backslides quickly, but they gradually grow cold until they are out of church and living in sin. Peter did not immediately deny the church, his faith, and his God, but it started slowly when he slept in the garden when he should have been praying. Lot did not immediately live a wicked life, but he cast his tent toward Sodom until he finally moved into the city and became a part of their worldly system. Dinah did not immediately get tied in with a heathen man, but she went out to see the daughters of the world and ended up getting pregnant by a lost man.

Backsliding is a gradual cooling. Nobody intends to backslide; they just gradually cool from the things of God. They slowly lose the fire they once had until they are out of church and living in the world. You cannot get tied into the cares of this world with those cares cooling you down from the things of God. The cares of the world will choke out the fire of God until the things of God no longer interest you. Let me share some thoughts about this truth.

First, we must live in this world. You cannot get out of living in the world, but you don't have to join the world to live in it. I have to work a job in the world to pay my bills, but I don't have to run with those on the job. I have to go to the grocery store to get groceries, but I don't have to become a part of the lives of those in that store. I have to purchase clothing from the world, but I don't have to let worldly styles become a part of my life. I have to save money for retirement, but I don't have to go to the “get rich” seminars that cool my mind to the things of God.

Second, you won't see the affects the world has on you. Many think they are the same as they have always been, but they don't see the gradual cooling of their heart toward the things of God. The world has a way of slowly cooling your heart toward God. Satan is not trying to get you to jump all in to the world; he simply tries to get you to take one step toward the world. Satan knows that if you will take one step toward the world that you will be willing to take another step. The deadliest step in the believer’s walk is the first step away from Christ toward the world. If you never take that first step, you will never grow cold toward the things of God.

Third, you avoid becoming unfruitful by focusing on bringing forth fruit for God. Let your life be a life that is wrapped up in seeing souls saved. Let your heart be immersed in reaching the lost for Christ. When your life is about serving God, your heart will never become cold. You stay away from the cares of this world by serving with Him in His yoke. God says to take His yoke upon you, which means you must lay down the cares of this world to get in the yoke with Christ. If you stay in the yoke with Christ to reach the lost, the cares of this world will never cool your heart to the point that you become backslidden and unfruitful.

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