WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:02.879 Here's a quote that I read this week about this passage. 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:03.919 Theologian F.F. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:11.039 Bruce said this worldliness does not lie in things we do or in places we frequent. 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:18.160 It lies in the human heart, in the set of human affections and attitudes. 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:21.280 So I did a little online surfing this week. 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:25.679 I found a few advertisements for us to look at to kind of get a feel for worldliness. 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:27.120 Here is a Lexus ad. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:28.320 It says, be inspired. 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:30.480 You probably can't read the little sentence there. 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:38.000 It says, the car that inspires your creativity is now available at a discount price for designers. 00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:43.840 So the first the key part there, they separate, they put on the top sentence, the top line that says, the car that inspires your creativity. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:44.799 Did you know it? 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:47.679 Some of you may, because maybe you own a Lexus, right? 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:50.000 And you're like you are just creative all the time. 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:54.079 Apparently, this is what happens inside of that particular car. 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:57.119 Here's another quote, maybe more relatable to you. 00:00:57.520 --> 00:00:59.920 It says, Change your life with bacon. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:03.439 You've been wondering, Kara knew that bacon can change your life. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:06.239 Ron Swanson knows bacon can change your life. 00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:09.840 Maybe you didn't know it, but it's true, apparently. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:15.439 Here's a video ad I found online, and we're gonna take a look at this. 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:17.599 I mean, we're feeling it all the way through it. 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:21.120 You're like, I know the feeling of being robotic. 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:31.840 I know the feeling of like mundane and meaninglessness, and you're watching this, you're like, yeah, okay, I get like I know this feeling, the music's warming you up, and I set you up, so you're waiting for like, oh, is it clothing? 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:32.719 Is it a watch? 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:33.920 Is it a car, right? 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:34.640 The whole time. 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:37.920 There's a little hint where he brushes his fingers across the couch, right? 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:42.640 And then it ends up being IKEA, which is perhaps, you know, you're like, well, I know IKEA, right? 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:48.079 Like I've been there, he bought the bowl that he dropped his keys in, or maybe you just put together a dresser and it took you three weeks, right? 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:55.840 But the ad is brilliant in a way because we're like attaching ourselves to this concept, this idea of being loved, right? 00:01:56.480 --> 00:02:00.719 I mean, that's what they're attaching, IKEA's attempting to attach themselves to. 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:04.640 But in the end, it's just IKEA, it's just it's just stuff. 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:08.240 Nothing wrong with IKEA, it's just just passing away. 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:09.599 According to F.F. 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:15.439 Bruce, these ads are worldly because they're attached to just stuff that passes away. 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:19.199 But worldliness primarily resides in the human heart. 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:23.280 This word world can mean different things in the scriptures. 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:38.800 Here it has to do with our heart's affection and attitude and the way it gets pulled into the world or a system of merit or a system of escape in the present life to things that pass away. 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:42.479 But John says, you don't have to live that way. 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:44.000 There's a different way. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:46.319 Let's reread the text, work our way through it. 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:48.719 1 John 2, 12 through 14. 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:50.080 I'm writing to you little children. 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:52.159 So there's a few different like addresses here. 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:54.479 He's like little children, young men, fathers. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.080 So he has context here. 00:02:56.159 --> 00:02:58.960 He's writing to people he knows, okay? 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:02.800 I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:05.520 I'm writing to you fathers because you know him who's from the beginning. 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:08.479 I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:10.960 I'm writing to you, children, because you know the father. 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:14.479 I write to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:20.400 I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:28.080 So, point number one is this in Christ we have perpetual, perfect forgiveness. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:32.240 That's where John begins this passage and this train of thought in his letter. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:35.520 I'm writing, little children, because your sins are forgiven. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:43.439 And that word forgiven is the word afame, which means to let go or sinned away. 00:03:43.759 --> 00:04:00.639 So this means all that that weighs you down, that you haven't been able to live up to, or that which you have messed up, and the weight of that guilt, all of that sin has been sinned away. 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:04.879 God doesn't hold it against you, and Christ has already let it go. 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:17.680 He's not the spouse who five months later, after you forgot to pick up your little kid at preschool, and five months later your spouse says, Are you gonna remember to pick up dinner like you like you remembered to pick up little Johnny? 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:18.639 It's not what God does. 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:22.160 He's not holding on to stuff and kind of like putting it in later. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:23.680 That's not what God does. 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:25.199 It's not even there. 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:26.399 It's not there. 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:28.160 It's gone. 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:38.399 We're the ones who need to grow in our awareness of the wealth, of the forgiveness we already have in Christ. 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:43.360 So John addresses these different groups of people as he addresses these different groups of people. 00:04:43.519 --> 00:04:45.439 This word no keeps popping up. 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:48.079 It's there three times in verses 13 through 14. 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:55.839 The word no, as we learned last week, comes from the word gnosko, which means to perceive and understand. 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:04.160 But remember what we learned last week also is this word is also the origination of the Jewish idiom for the word sex. 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:12.399 So this is not like a transactional, religious, moralistic observance, knowing. 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:19.600 This is a loving, relational, and the core of who you are knowing. 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:23.120 And John's saying, you know him. 00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:25.759 You know his goodness. 00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:28.079 You you know this forgiveness. 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:31.759 He doesn't, he doesn't count any of your sin against you. 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:34.480 He's not angry. 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:41.519 He holds no condemnation, he holds no judgment, he sent it away in Christ. 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:42.399 You know him. 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:44.399 That's that's who you know. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:48.959 The other day, my friend Kevin, who's a real estate agent, he called me. 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:50.240 It was 8 30 in the morning. 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:51.600 It was an odd time for him to call me. 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:57.680 You know, when you get those odd times a day phone calls, and the first I was like, oh, oh no, that's my feeling. 00:05:57.759 --> 00:05:58.879 I don't know if that's your feeling. 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:01.279 He's like, oh no, because I've had enough of those phone calls. 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:06.079 And it's 8 30 in the morning, I'm working at my desk at my house, and so I'm working away. 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:07.199 See his name. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:09.360 So I answer it because of the odd time. 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:13.920 I answer right away, and he says, Hey, I'm in Midtown Atlanta. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.040 I have a house that's having a is for sale and I'm selling it. 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:21.279 He's a real estate agent, and the final walkthroughs this morning, but there's a storm last night. 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:24.480 Hey, I'm just concerned that like there's stuff all over. 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:25.519 They're about to do a walk through. 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:26.560 I just want to go smoothly. 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:28.079 Can you can you walk down there? 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:34.560 And do you mind taking your backpack blower and can you blow off the yard and the sidewalk and the patios and all of that, right? 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:36.319 This is the emergency. 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:38.800 I felt relieved by it. 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:41.839 Um, and I just said, sure, no problem. 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:42.319 I'm on it. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:43.040 I said, I'm on it. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:43.920 When do you need it done by? 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:44.560 He said 10 o'clock. 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:45.519 He said, no problem. 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:46.399 No problem. 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:56.959 Now, what's important to know is that I naturally am not interested in taking a break when I'm working to do manual labor for you. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:00.000 That is not something I'm naturally interested in. 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:02.079 So don't think I'm a hero here. 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:04.480 It's very important to know. 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:12.399 But I did it, and I didn't even think about it again until I was studying this passage. 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:24.319 Why would we do anything that's against our nature, against our selfishness, because somebody asked us. 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:43.360 You see when the demand changes when you know your love. 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:47.600 And when you know the instruction comes from love. 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:50.399 Everything about it changes. 00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:55.439 And so we get the demand in verse 15. 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:57.120 And it's a hammer. 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:00.959 Do not love the world or the things in the world. 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:05.839 How are we doing? 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:06.639 Right? 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:08.079 Like, okay. 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:11.920 If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:15.759 Now, this doesn't mean we will never be seduced by the world. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:25.040 This is instruction out of love, and at the same time, it immediately sends us back into those previous verses about perpetual, perfect forgiveness, that's for sure. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:34.240 And what this shows us, what this shows us is that we need to be rooted in that perpetual, perfect forgiveness in that love. 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:40.799 We can't root ourselves in the performance even unto this instruction, even though it's good. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:53.519 And so what John must be saying here is when we give our hearts to the world, we aren't living in the love of God that's already been given to us. 00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:59.679 Point number two is this, and it's the demand, it's summarizing in verse 15. 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:04.000 In Christ, we are called to love God, not the world. 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:06.879 In Christ, we are called to love God, not the world. 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:09.440 I lived in Scotland for four months after college. 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:14.639 I lived in a little village on the eastern shore, about 45 minutes north of Edinburgh. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:17.919 It was wintertime, it was dark, it was cold. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:33.440 I lived there, I slept there, I worked there in a little church, I made friends there, I bought a lot of scarves there, you buy a lot of scarves in Scotland, I had a lot of scarves, I had, I bought some overpriced leather shoes while I was in Scotland. 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:41.120 I looked the part, I could blend in, I learned the money and I learned the trains that could get around without having to ask people questions. 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:51.200 But if I if I ever spoke up, if I ever spoke, it was very clear that I was not from there. 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:56.799 I was not a citizen of the UK, no matter how much I looked like one. 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:02.240 I was a citizen of the US, particularly the South, if you haven't picked up on it. 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:04.720 Even while living in another country. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:07.519 So we live here. 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:10.320 We live in this world, this earth. 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:12.960 We live here in a passing world. 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:15.919 It's all gonna pass. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:20.080 All this that we get so upset about and worked up about. 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:25.600 But our hearts get to live in a kingdom that never passes away. 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:30.720 So John gives us the promise of the perpetual perfect forgiveness. 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:35.519 He gives us that instruction, and now he gives us a reason for the instruction. 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:38.480 So if you're a logical person, you like this part, this part. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:40.320 Verses 16 through 17. 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:47.360 For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:49.200 So he sort of fleshes that out. 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:50.240 He sort of breaks it apart. 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:51.440 We're gonna look at that in a second. 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:57.279 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:00.080 So John just says, hey, logically, it's all passing away. 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:00.799 Do you not get it? 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:02.639 Do you not get that you're gonna die? 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:05.200 Have you forgotten? 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:10.399 And maybe it's coming up in five years, or maybe it's 50 years, but we're all gonna be gone in a few decades. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:13.440 And that's just a good thing to remember. 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:15.440 It's actually quite helpful. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:24.159 Point number three is this all of our worldly wants and prideful boasts will pass away. 00:11:24.559 --> 00:11:29.440 So John breaks down the world into three parts, three ways of the world that he breaks it down. 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:35.279 He says the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:38.000 Number one is the desires of the flesh. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:39.440 Paul helps break this out even further. 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:44.080 He gives us like a just a list of what this is in Galatians 5, 19 through 21. 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:55.039 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. 00:11:55.279 --> 00:12:01.440 I warn you, as I've warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:10.159 Now, again, if it's our entire heart's attitude and affection, maybe we don't know the love of the Father. 00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:15.519 But if you know the love of the Father and you're seduced by this, doesn't mean that you're not in the kingdom. 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:17.840 All of a sudden you're like booted out of the family. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:23.840 What it means is that you are not experienced or connected into the love of the Father that's already been given to you in Jesus. 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:27.440 You've been taken hold of by the desires of the flesh. 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:28.960 It's passing away. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:30.879 All that's gonna pass away. 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:36.720 Desires of the eyes, this is how we lust for things, the next thing, the shiny thing. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:38.559 The next person. 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:43.519 And this is why we're often so restless, isn't it? 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:50.559 I mean, if you're anything like me, it's just why I'm just so restless most of the time, because I'm just always looking for the next thing. 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:56.159 And of course it doesn't work, because it is the desires of the eyes. 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:58.240 And lastly, the pride of life. 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:06.399 So just when we start to get really arrogant in our faith and spirituality and who we are, you know, just when you start to think, well, I'm not that, and I'm not that, and I'm doing pretty good on that. 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:21.440 You know, John drops this, the pride of life, which is saying the very arrogance that you might be superior, or that your status and spirituality or in life might be better than anybody else's, that's the world. 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:22.720 That is also the world. 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:23.600 So he nails you. 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:26.879 He nails you whether you're an irreligion or whether you're in religion. 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:28.960 He just nails you. 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:30.559 C.S. 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:32.960 Lewis says this in The Weight of Glory. 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:38.559 It was seen that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:57.840 We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum, because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:00.879 We are far too easily pleased. 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:04.960 I went out in my yard this morning, I cut a few flowers. 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:06.960 That's what these flowers are right here. 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:10.240 This is a petite lime hydrangea. 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:18.240 I love the petite lime hydrangea because it loves the sun and it doesn't require a lot of water, and so you just get to enjoy it and not have to baby it. 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:18.960 I love that. 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:22.879 And they produce these beautiful blooms all the way through the summer. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:29.120 Here's the deal: as beautiful as they are, they'll pass away. 00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:32.480 The whole plant passes away eventually. 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:35.600 And definitely, if you cut it off, it passes away. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:40.480 A bloom, no matter how beautiful it is, it eventually passes away. 00:14:40.639 --> 00:14:54.320 So, this is like all the good things in the world that we love so much, or we try to use them to justify our identity, to feel loved, righteous, justified, forgiven, absolved. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:56.159 How we use escape? 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:02.480 How we use anything good, even that will fade away. 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:06.639 And then there's some poisonous flowers that are around. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:08.399 I don't have any in my yard, hopefully. 00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:12.559 Uh there's this one flower that I learned about online this week, the Nuium oleander. 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:17.759 It's one of the most toxic, here's a picture of it, one of the most toxic plants in the world. 00:15:17.919 --> 00:15:19.360 You wouldn't know it by looking at it. 00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:20.799 You're like, what a lovely flower, right? 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:21.759 What a lovely flower. 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:23.759 I'll plant some of those by the mailbox. 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:24.799 That would be wonderful. 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:28.000 And you wouldn't know it by planting it or tasting it or burning it. 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:30.480 You wouldn't know it until you get sick or until you die. 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:31.919 You would never know. 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:38.639 The world is a poisonous passing flower. 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:41.840 Man, doesn't it look attractive most of the time? 00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:50.480 We don't even realize it until we're sick, we're restless, or we're filled with anxiety or fear or guilt or shame. 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:53.759 It just holds no lasting love for you. 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:55.039 Or for me. 00:15:57.120 --> 00:15:59.759 And here's the crucial point last thing. 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:04.960 As it fits into our call as Christians to go into the world. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:18.000 We are sent into the world to be people who reveal the kingdom and to redeem evil, but not give our hearts to the worldly values that pass away. 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:31.039 And when we do, because we will, we have a perpetual, perfect forgiveness. 00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:33.440 Do not love the world. 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:36.159 It's the instruction out of love. 00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:38.240 But you also need to know you're already loved. 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:41.840 You are perpetually, perfectly forgiven. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:50.399 My brothers and sisters, grace on all of us as we find greater and greater satisfaction in Christ's great work for us. 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:57.200 Your perpetual, perfect forgiveness of all sin and all change. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:16:58.240 Amen. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:16:59.519 Let's pray together. 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:05.839 God, thank you for your goodness that you love us before. 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:12.720 So we do not have to perform unto an instruction. 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:17.839 But we get to root ourselves into the love you already have for us. 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:20.640 May our hearts be changed by that love. 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.480 As to have desire to honor you. 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:32.000 And in our all of our failure, may we always rest back in your love and forgiveness for us. 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:33.680 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:34.400 Amen.