Episode Transcript
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If you would please remain standing and
let's give our attention to God's word in
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First John, a first John Chapter
two, verses fifteen through seventeen, the
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spirit rites. Do not love the
world or the things in the world.
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If anyone loves the world, the
love of the father is not in him,
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for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and
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the desires of the eyes and pride
and possessions, is not from the father,
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but is from the world, and
the world is passing away along with
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its desires. But whoever does the
will of God abides forever. Amen,
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you may be seated. What I've
just read to you from First John Chapter
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two, verses fifteen through seventeen,
is the first a direct command that John
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gives to us in this letter.
I'm there have been many implicit things that
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have been suggested, or rather things
that we should assume whom or take away
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of regarding God's will for our lives, and we've talked about some of those.
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But here is the first direct one. Do not write a command.
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Do not love the world or the
things in the world. If anyone loves
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the world, the love of the
father is not in him. He goes
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on and we will as well.
But the point is to emphasize that there's
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a this is a strong thing to
say. There's a kind of framing that
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is going on here, a way
in which God wants us to think about
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our lives. In fact, every
aspect of our lives is summed up in
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these words, the things that we
are to do and, specific and in
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particular, the things we are not
to do. Do Not love the world.
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Now, when John writes this,
remember that he's writing a two Christians,
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as we went over last week,
and you can listen to that sermon
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online if you would, if you
wish. John has just written to these
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Christians with much tenderness and compassion.
If you go back to verse twelve,
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he says, I'm writing to you, little children. This is his tender
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way of expressing his love towards them
and his confidence that they are not just
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his children in the faith, but
they are the Lord's children. Why?
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Because their sins are forgiven, because
of Jesus, because they know God,
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because they have overcome the evil one. So he's writing to Christians, as
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he says, do not love the
world or the things in the world.
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People that do that aren't you,
he says. People that do that aren't
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Christians. The love of the father
is not in them. The world and
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these things are passing away, but
you, who have been loved by God
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and now, as a result,
are loving God by doing his will,
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you abide forever. This is your
calling, this is what you have been
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saved unto now, of course,
if you are not a Christian, this
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supplies as well. On this command, though, directly to believers, is
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a call and a warning to those
who do not believe, because if the
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things of this world are passing away
and only the Kingdom of God will last
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forever, it's a warning that if
you cling to the things of this world,
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you will pass away along with them. You will not inherit eternal life,
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you will not be saved from your
sins. So I want to speak
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to you today about how we should
not love the world, but the things
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of God instead, about how important
that is. Now that make you seem
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like an obvious thing to you.
Don't love the world, Love God,
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but I can promise you that this
is something we ought to we all need
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to think much more deeply about.
It's one of the things that are is
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of highest importance when it comes to
choosing how we ought to live our lives.
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Let's start by thinking about two words
defining what they mean so we can
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make sure we understand what John is
saying. Love and world. Do Not
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love the world. What does he
mean? Well, the first one's fairly
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easy. Right, to love something
is to set your affection affections on it
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above other things. When you love
something, that thing gets, or that
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person get, special attention and special
importance in your life. You might sacrifice
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things for it. You would turn
away from one thing in order to have
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something else. Maybe it's something as
as silly as a TV show. I
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love this show, you say,
and what do you do? You you
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watch it instead of other things.
Or I love this woman, I've fallen
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in love with her. What happens? Well, and that moment you set
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your sights on her, you give
your particular attention to her. Or maybe
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that's of a friend or an animal
or a favorite vacation spot or anything.
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That's how love works, right.
It's a setting of our affections on something,
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a love other things. Now,
of course, there are different orders
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and degrees of love. There are
ways in which we say we love something,
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but it doesn't mean we love it
as equally as something else. It
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just means that in some way it's
set aside as special. When God says
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do not love the world, but
the things of God, here we are
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talking about things of the highest order, two categories in which everything, in
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your experience and in your life and
in your thinking and in your heart,
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everything can be divided into either this
box or this box, loving the world
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or loving God. One or the
other is going to be supreme, the
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love of the world or the love
of God. Which one are you going
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to set your affections on? Which
one is going to have the highest importance?
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Which one are you going to sacrifice
for, make decisions about, a
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prioritize above all things, not just
in your mind and not just theoretically,
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but in your heart. Which one
do you think about? Which one do
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you desire? So That's love,
then what is the world? This is
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a word that can mean various things. It can have a lot of different
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meanings, and at times it does
in scripture, in John his writings,
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it typically means anything that is antithetical
to God and his kingdom and the things
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that God loves. The world has
already been mentioned once before in John's letter
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that's in verse two of this chapter
we read he is the propitiation for our
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sins, not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole
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world. Now that's a very positive
statement, right. God has given Jesus
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to us in order to turn away
his wrath from us. That's a good
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thing. And he says he's not
just done that for John and the people
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in Jesus is immediate context, but
for the whole world. So it's a
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positive statement overall, but it says
something negative about the world. The verse
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teaches us that the world is something
that is sinful, that the world is
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something that needs God's wrath turned away
from it. Does that make sense?
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That God sent his son is a
propitiation for the world means that the world
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was not a good place. It
means that the world was under the judgment
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of God and John, and John
writes about this on various places in his
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Gospel as well, if you want
to look, in Chapter Nine and chapter
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twelve, but here in verses fifteen
through seventeen, we see this point very
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clearly made. The world and the
things of the world are not from God,
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and neither are those who love the
world instead of him. The do
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not love the world or the things
of the world. If anyone loves the
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world, the love of the father
is not in him. Now, Paul
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are, I'm sorry. John is
talking about states in a way, or
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habits or ways of living. It's
not as though the love of the father
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kind of goes in and out and
in and out of us in as as
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we attach ourselves to the things of
the world and attach ourselves to God,
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and back and forth and back and
forth. No, when God saves us,
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he brings us into his kingdom and
where they're permanently and but and and
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the opposite of that is also true. If you are not in the Kingdom
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of God and you don't belong there, then you are still in the world.
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What John is talking about in a
way is this this strange thing that
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happens where you're in the kingdom and
yet loving the things that are not of
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the kingdom. And he's saying this
doesn't make sense. Right. It's like
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saying, well, never mind,
it doesn't make sense. He says,
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if anyone loves the world, the
love of the father is not in him.
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So why would you be loving the
world? It doesn't belong to you.
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It's not a part of you,
and of course we know this.
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Like we read in Galatians, these
things are at war with each other,
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of a flesh and the spirit.
They don't belong together, like oil and
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water. But let's get specific.
What kinds of things do we love when
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we love the world? John gives
three examples in verse sixteen. The first
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thing he points out is the desires
of the flesh, the desires of the
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flesh. Now, our bodies have
natural desires, whole good desires, desires
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that aren't sinful in and of themselves. As I said earlier, in the
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service, God made us to have
desires. In our natural bodies we need
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and desire things like food, water, sleep, affection, work, play.
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These are things that we need.
There things that we desire in a
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way, and in each of these
things we can love God with our bodies.
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We can serve God with our bodies. The Apostle Paul writes, whether
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you eat or drink or whatever you
do, do all to the glory of
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God. There's a way in which
we can eat and love and rest and
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play and do it to the glory
of God and enjoy and desire these things.
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But when the love of the world
instead of love of God is framing
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everything for us. Then the desires
of the flesh, as he talks about
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it here, replace our desires for
God. They're not used in thankfulness toward
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him or obedience toward him or in
service toward him, but they're used for
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their own ends. We become consumed
by consuming. Our appetites become nothing but
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a constant drives that only want to
sell feed. God, of course,
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knows how to satisfy our hearts,
but when we ask food to do that,
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or play or work or sex or
money or anything other than him,
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we set our things on things that
can't satisfy, things that, it's John
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says, are passing away. You
can see what a kind of dreadful cycle
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this is, and it is dreadful. These desires of the flesh, these
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temptations, are the way that seem
works in our flesh. It it tempts
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us away from the Lord. It
uses the good things that God has given
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us and perverts them and twists them
and makes them into God's. This leads
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to all kinds of evils like gluttony
and drunkenness, grieved, sexual immorality,
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all kinds of things that, when
our flesh now desires these things over and
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against God. We want to find
our satisfaction in them. Our hope is
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in them, our confidences in them. If I can just get this thing
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that I want, I'll feel better. If I can just get this thing
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I want, my life will maybe
make more sense. It's not always quite
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as rational as that, of course. The desires of the flesh aren't quite
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so calculating, although sometimes we rationalize
them in that way. Sometimes they're just
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urges which we ignore and give into. The second way in which the love
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of the World Makes US stumble is
the desire of the eyes. Now this
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may sound similar to the first condemnation. It may sound something like lust and
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greed, and in a way it
is, but I think certain commentators are
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right who say this probably refers more
directly to the short sidedness, the short
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sidedness of our eyes when it comes
to living and, or sorry, loving
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the world. In other words,
the distinguishing trait that connects these things is
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that the world is passing away and
what the desires of our eyes are.
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This is this kind of short sidedness
that fails to see that. It's like
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a child going through the gift store
at the Grand Canyon or something like that.
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Just I want that and I want
that and I want that. Everything's
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exciting, everything's wonderful. There are
these things that our eyes just desire because,
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well, they're right there and they're
great. It's, of course,
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not just in gift shops that this
happens, but it happens all the time.
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Our temptations desire things simply because we
see them, because they're there,
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even if they're junk, even if
we know this thing is going to break
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in an hour or in a year, or we know that I'm going to
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buy this thing and its value is
going to immediately depreciate, and yet I'm
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going to set all my affections on
it. Or, even worse, we
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know that this thing that we're about
to do or partake of is going to
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destroy us. It's poison, it
hurts. That might be physically. We
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know it will cause pain to our
body, and yet we do it anyway.
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Or maybe it's relationally. We know
that it's going to hurt the people
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that we love, the people that
we care about, the Lord whom we
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serve, and yet we well,
just do it anyway. That's that kind
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of short sidedness, this desire of
the eyes, these these things that we
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see, and we just have to
have them because here they are. This
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is love of the world. Love
of the world means desires of the flesh,
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this perverted, twisted lifting up of
of our appetites into God's. But
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it's also this short sidedness that we
have forgetting that the things that we see,
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most of the things that we see, will not last. They will,
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as he writes here in seventeen,
they will pass away, they will
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pass away. Love of the world
exhibits itself in a tendency to think that
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everything we hear and everything that we
see right now is going to be forever,
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and the things that God has promised, well then, maybe, maybe
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not. That's what love of the
world is, and so the lover of
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the world is the one who clings
to the all the things that he sees,
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forgetting that there are things that he
does not see that will that won't
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pass away and that will last forever. I want you to turn your attention
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over to psalm forty nine. You
can look there if you have your bibles,
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or you can listen here. The
sons of Cora speak to us and
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they give us this very strong warning
about these things. It speaks two believers.
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It's slant it, it's like John
and that it speaks too believers,
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and in particular, but of course
anyone who's listening in ought to pay attention
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and become believers, believers in what
the Lord is, who he is and
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what he's doing. I'm going to
read the whole psalm to you and because
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there's many things here that illustrate for
us and really impress upon our hearts the
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things that John is saying. The
ultimate message here is like John's, don't
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trust the things of this world.
They don't get you anywhere. Psalm forty
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nine here, this all people's give
ear all inhabitants of the world, both
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low and high, rich and pour
together. All right, so pay attention,
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listen up everyone. My mouth shall
speak wisdom. The Meditation of my
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heart shall be understanding. I will
incline my ear to a proverb. I
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will solve my riddle to the music
of the liar. That might mean this
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is going to be easy, it's
going to be fun, you're going to
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get this verse five. Why should
I fear in times of trouble, when
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the iniquity of those who cheat me
surrounds me? Those who trust in their
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wealth and boast in the abundance of
their riches. Right. So why should
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I fear these things, these people
who say that they are stronger and higher
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and more powerful, people that are
actively cheating me here and now? Well,
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I why shall I fear that?
Answer Verse Seven. Truly, no
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man can ransom another or give to
God the price of his life, for
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the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice that he should live
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on forever and never see the pit. In other words, you can't buy
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your way out of head or out
of out of hell. You can't buy
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your way out of death. Man's
life is too costly. There's nothing that
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no nothing you can pay that can
save you from that, for he sees
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that even the Wise Dye, the
fool and the stupid alike must perish and
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leave their wealth to others. Their
graves are their homes forever, they are
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dwelling places to all generations, though
they be called by their own names.
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Is this great irony that happens here, right, you name an empire after
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yourself, Chalpka Dum, and then
you end up buried in a grave in
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the land that is supposedly this vast
testament to your power and strength. And
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there you are, in this tidy
little plot of place, six feet under.
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Man in his pomp will not remain. He is like the beasts that
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perish. He ain't nothing. This
is the path of those who have foolish
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confidence. Yet after them people approve
of their boasts. Right. This is,
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this is the way that this is
that you you take pride in yourself
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and your pomp, in the desires
of your flesh and the pride of life
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and all that you have accomplished,
you're going to end up in the grave.
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This is the way it goes,
and what happens? Everyone goes Ra,
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Ra Ra, keep going, more
achievements, more rewards. You can
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do it. Verse Fourteen. Like
sheep, they are appointed for she'll.
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Death shall be their Shepherd and the
upright shall rule them. In the morning,
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their form shall be consumed in Sheel, with no place to dwell.
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But God will ran some my soul
from the power of Fual for he will
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receive me. What man cannot buy, God can. Where are you going
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to place your trust? In pomp
and in wealth and pride and lands,
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or in the God who can bring
you out of the pit, out of
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death and into life. It's sort
of a no brainer, guys, but
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our hearts are tempted, aren't they? They strive after these things and ambitions
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and appetites. I know that it's
in me too, but that's why God
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speaks to us and tells us and
reminds us and speaks to us again,
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because we're forgetful. Listen to his
words. Verse Sixteen. Be Not afraid
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when a man becomes rich, when
the glory of his house increases, for
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when he dies he will carry nothing
away. His glory will not go down
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after him, for though while he
lives he counts himself blessed, and though
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you get praise when you do well
for yourself, his soul will go to
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the generation of his father's, who
will never again see light. Man in
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his pomp yet without under standing,
is like the beasts that perish. Do
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not love the world or the things
of the world. If anyone loves the
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world, the love of the father
is not in him. For All that's
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in the world, the desires of
the flesh, the desires of the Ey'd
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pride and possessions, or in the
accomplishments and the things in which life is
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carried forward, it's not from the
father, but it's from the world,
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and the world is passing away along
with its desires. But whoever does the
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will of God abides forever. Life, in our life, as we relate
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to the world, is a complicated
one. Jesus says this himself in John
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Seventeen. He says, I want
you to be in the world, but
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not of the world. Right,
complicated, difficult, not always easy.
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But John gives us this command here
that we can't ignore. Though we are
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in the world, though, we
are constantly surrounded by temptation, by shying
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me things, by promises of the
evil one. God remind God is reminding
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us this morning to not exchange the
things of lasting value for the things that
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pass away. As you take a
mental checklist of your life over the last
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week, you ask yourself, where
are the instances in which I have loved
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the world more than God? No
doubt you will find yourself a feeling not
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a little sickened or embarrassed, either
from fearing those that are in power and
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have wealth and glory and fear overly, fearing them as though your destiny lies
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or falls with them, or maybe
trusting them and hoping in them and wanting
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to become them. As we think
of these things and as we find embarrassment
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or sorrow, let Remont let me
remind you of what John wrote in verses
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twelve through fourteen. There he writes
and he tells us that God has done
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something in our lives that can help
us to live in the world and not
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be of it. Listen to these
strong words again. From verse fourteen he
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says, I write to you,
young men, because you are strong,
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the word of God abides in you
and you have overcome the evil one.
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This is something he repeats not just
to young men but to all people later
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on, I believe it's in chapter
five. If you see the world in
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this way, if you have rightly, if you are rightly at this moment,
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seeing things as God aught, as
you ought to see them, as
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God has told them to you,
the love of the world versus love of
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God, and you're asking yourself,
what can be done, how can I
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make sure that I don't attach myself
to the things of this world and pass
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away with them and judgment and in
death, and instead attach myself to God
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and his things, then let me
tell you. First things first, there's
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nothing that you can do on your
own and in your own strength to accomplish
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that goal. Let me explain.
Would it make any sense if I told
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you that the way to love God
as the chief of all things and defined
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all of your hope and salvation and
confidences in him was to love above all
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things and trust in your own ability
and strength to love God? Do you
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see what I'm saying? You can't
say I know the way to love God
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above all things is to love and
trust in myself above all things. Just
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doesn't work. The only way to
love and trust in God above all things,
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to hold him for every confidence,
to fear him above everything else,
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is to do exactly that, and
you can't do that by simply trusting in
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yourself or doing a bunch of things
in your life. What scripture says is
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that you must be reborn. Something
has to happen in you, were the
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makeup of yourself changes, where you
are spiritually constituted in a different way,
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a way that will even progress to
the point where one day you will be
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physically reconstituted in a glorified body.
You must be reborn, and what John
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says, quoting Jesus and John Chapter
Three, is that this doesn't happen by
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the will of man or by flesh
or blood. You can't make that happen.
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You can't do anything to bring about
the power of God in your life.
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What can you do then? Well, you ask him to do it.
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You go to him and you say, Lord, I know that I
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can't cause myself to be born of
you as much as I could cause myself
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to be borne from my own biological
mother, but I know you can do
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that, and so do it.
Cause me to be reborn, give me
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your spirit that I might love you, change my heart, forgive my sins.
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And the amazing thing is this not
only sort of logically, all makes
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sense, but this is what God
has promised to us. He has said,
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come to me and I will give
you life, I will give to
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you the thing that you cannot provide
for yourself. Come to him with your
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brokenness, with your empty hands,
with your perverted heart. Come to him
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and confess your sins, and he
will give you his spirit that you might
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love him. He will change you
so that your affections also change. And
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as he does that, what will
happen is that he will put his spirit
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into you, so that you will
walk in the spirit. How do you
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love the world and are sorry,
Love God and not the things of this
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world, in the same way in
which we receive the newness of life by
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asking him for it, by trusting
him for it. When temptation comes in
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its pressuring, pressuring, pressuring and
you want this other thing so bad and
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you know it's sinful, what do
you do? Well, before they're all
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kinds of practical things we might suggest, but at the bottom of it all
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has to come a trust that the
Lord himself can change your heart and then
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acting on that. In that light, I'm going to turn away from this
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sin because I know that God is
working in me, because I know that
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God wants this for me. When
we fall, it means going to him
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for forgiveness and for life and for
hope. It means, again and again,
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going to him in submission and saying, Lord, please save me,
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and knowing that he will. You
can't love God by loving and trusting the
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things of this world. You can't
say I'm going to love God and strive
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after him by making up rituals of
my own or impressing him with my wealth
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or showing him how spiritual I am, or joining the right churches or having
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the right friends or whatever else you
might come up with. Those might be
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good things, they might even be
things that God wants you to do,
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but if, even if you're replacing
those things, if you're replacing him with
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anything, then you will not succeed. I know it sounds maybe overly simple,
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but the way to love God is
to love God. It's to fully
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attach yourself in every way to him, knowing that even that is impossible apart
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from his love working in you.
So do not fear the things of this
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world, do not trust the things
of this world, but set your heart
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fully on him. He will save
you and you will not go down to
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the pit like the beasts and see
no light forever, but you'll rise on
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the last day and you will live
for the rest of eternity in the light
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of the son of God in his
kingdom forever. Let's pray and ask that
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God would do these things in our
lives, in our Church
