1 John

We're doing a series in 1 John. If you want to, turn back to that passage, that'll be fantastic. For the help us now, please help us teach us, warn us, encourage us, inspire us by your holy word, We thank you that this book is not just a book. It is the very word of the Holy Spirit. We thank you that by this word, it it informs us and creates faith in us and causes us to understand and grow in love for you.

So please give us ears to hear that we may be doers of what we hear you say. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, I don't know whether you've ever watched a program. I guess many of you have watched a program or even a whole film without any sound on or you've turned the sound off or the sound hasn't been working. I was once on a plane all the way to America And it was in the days when you didn't have those little individual screens, on it, on every seat, but you had just 1 big screen for the whole sort of coach to watch.

And it was also in the days where they wanted to charge for everything, although it's like that now. And they charged you for the headphones so that you could hear the film. Well, I wasn't gonna pay for that. So I watched an entire film without the sound. It starred Meg Ryan.

I can barely watch a film with Meg Ryan in it anymore because the sound wasn't on. I studied her extraordinarily bad overacting. And I just can't stand the woman anymore. It's probably not fair, but that's what happened. But the point I'm trying to make is that I watched that film that had been written by someone.

There was a script written by someone. It was directed by someone to tell a story. And I watched the film with the sound down, and I made up my own dialogue, and I made up my own story. Megg Ryan was an evil witch. That's how it went.

And every time she smiled and there was a lot of that going on, It was really evil. Anyway, many years ago, I don't know whether you've ever done that, I'm sure you have. But many years ago, there was 1 of the big David Attumbra, big TV shows. It was called life on earth. It was 1 of the big ones.

And, David Attembroke, as we know, is is perhaps 1 of the the blokes that's shown us how amazing our planet is and you know how intriguing and and complex and beautiful and just awe inspiring. He's probably done that more than more more than any other person with his whole film crew. But here's the problem. He leaves god out. His commentary on these beautiful things that we see, he leaves god out.

He leaves god out of any explanation about how life on planet earth works. So he has a soundtrack, and it becomes an earworm if we're not careful. It it goes into our minds that life on earth without god. God's not really important. It separates life and all of this beauty from god himself.

So god is not relevant or he's not needed to explain the things that are before our eyes. And he's certainly not thanked and he's certainly not praised as we look at the film. There's a soundtrack that denies what we're seeing. And it's very loud. Just after that program was originally, shown on BBC, which I think was in 19 79 or something like that.

I'd just become a Christian, and I was in a church, and I heard the story of a man who had become a Christian. And he was an atheist. He said he had no time for god. He thought the whole thing about god and creation and all of that was absolutely stupid. It was not only alien to him.

It was a stupid illogical system to believe in god. He talked about himself considering himself a thinker, but he actually discovered that he just accepted the atheistic worldview without really thinking. And even though he argued for it, he it just sort of came out with non thinking stuff. He had been talking to a Christian And, he had come home thinking how stupid Christians were and how intelligent he was, and he turned life on earth on the David Attenberg program, but his telly wasn't working properly. The sound was down, he couldn't hear the commentary.

So he just watched. With a pint of beer in his hand, in his comfortable seat, he watched. And he said, I saw for the first time. There had to be a creator god. There had to be a maker.

It was so wonderful. Without the commentary, He saw the truth. Listen to those words that we read from Psalm 19. The heavens, that's talking about, you know, the sky and the stars and so forth. The heavens declare the glory of god.

The skies proclaim the work of his hand day after day, they pour forth speech night after night, they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, They use no words, no sound is heard from them, yet their voice goes out into all the earth their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens, god has pitched his tent for the sun. Do you hear? Look at the stars, it's saying.

Look at the planet. Look at the sun. See its beauty. Stand in wide eyed wonder at it, investigate it, get the cameras looking at it, understand how they're made up, learn about the orbits, think about the gases, that make up their, atmosphere. Think about how far away they are.

Think about the different colors. Think about the orbiting and hear them proclaim. Enjoy me, they say, really investigate me, revell in my beauty, marvel at me, but I'm not god, and I'm not an accident. And I didn't create myself. Marvel at me and enjoy me, but listen to the sermon.

My sermon is the glory of God. Look at life on earth. With all its breathtaking diversity, gaze in wide eyed wonder at it, investigate what they do, how they live, what their habitat is, how they mate, get the cameras close. Let's have a look. But hear what they're proclaiming, and they proclaim enjoy me.

Investigators me. Revel in me. See my magnificence, but don't you dare stop there? I'm not god. I'm not an accident.

I didn't create myself. Listen to my sermon. God is glorious. But you see the world, what does the world do? It turns the sound off.

It turns the voices of heaven down. It overdubs its own soundtrack. It drowns out the sermon glory to god with the voice of Professor Brian Cox or David Attenborough. The overdubbing simply leaves god out altogether. Shows us the beauty, but in a godless way, or perhaps even in an antigod way.

Now the Bible says that behind all of this sort of blindness and deafness, to, creation shouting out to us is the god of this age. The devil himself, that's what the Bible says, the father of lies. In fact, you know, really, he's the script writer. He's the 1 that lays the script over what you're seeing in the world. He writes the soundtrack and god is either bad, or he's ugly.

We don't like him, or he's non existent. Or is simply, and this is probably the worst, just totally irrelevant to anything in this world. Life on earth, edit got out. What I'm trying to tell you is that the world that you and I live in has an agenda. It has a constant commentary.

It preaches to us. It preaches to us loudly, powerfully. It uses all the media at its disposal. We're constantly being preached at. By this world, constantly night and day, and it's pouring forth speech, and it all comes from not necessarily anti god, although it does, but just god lessness.

It just said it's god out. So we come to 1 John. What has this got to do with 1 John? Here's John writing this fantastic little letter and he won John chapter 2. He says in verse 15, do not love the world or anything in it.

Do not love the world, he says. That's my first point that I want you to get. Do not love the world, but why? Why? I mean, god made this intricate fantastic world.

Aren't I stand back and in awe and gaze in in awe? God made it. Why don't I love why shouldn't I love the world, John? What are you talking about? It's beautiful.

Do not love the world, he says. Doesn't Paul say, and actually we'll read it in just a minute, doesn't Paul say that that god has given us everything in the world to richly enjoy? What do you mean don't love the world? Am I to become a nun? Am I to become a sort of like a monk or something?

Am I to close myself up in some kind of religious holy huddle and close myself off from the world and Do not love the world. Don't you write John in your gospel? You wrote this letter but didn't you write earlier on in your gospel the most famous verse in the whole Bible for god so loved the world? That he gave his 1 and only son. But why are you telling believers not to love what god obviously does love?

What are you talking about here? Don't love the world. The word world in the Bible is used in different ways. It's the same word cosmos, but it's used in different ways. And you have to look at the context to see what they actually mean the writers.

We have the same word. We have the word world. And we use it in different ways. We talk about the ancient world. It wasn't a different world, but we talk about the ancient world, the animal world.

Or we talk about the next world or, the world is at his feet, which say things like that, or I went unfortunately looking for furniture, came back with nothing, obviously. I went into furniture world. What what an extraordinary place that must be? I mean, I couldn't help think that we all turn into furniture when you go in there. And you know, I'm a chair and Anne becomes a settee.

I actually didn't mean anything by that, but Anne becomes a settee and I'm I'm a setty or a lazy boy or whatever it is, and then we just sort of live in this anyway, forget that, forget my imagination. But we we use the word world in different ways. Well, the word world comes from the word order. Order or system, an ordered system, and that is how John is using it here. John's talking about an order or a system that rejects god.

An order or a system that hasn't got anything to say spiritually or any spiritual understanding or has a sinister spiritual understanding. A system that's taken up with time and looks and matter and things only, a system that writes its own soundtrack and plays it loudly to interpret our world and our life. So that's what he's talking about. The world that magnifies humans, that puts down god, that celebrates depravity that rejects god's word. The world with its values and pleasures and pastimes and aspirations and has no room for god, except in some weird, worldly religious way.

No respect for the lord Jesus Christ. No love for the followers of Jesus. That's what he's talking about. In these 3 verses, verses 15 to 17, which are the ones we're particularly looking at, in these 3 verses, he uses that word world 6 times a system that can look at the beautiful creation and edit god out. That's the system.

A system that may be antagonistic to god organized by Satan himself, a system that promotes unbelief that promotes human pride and self achievement that promotes self love that may love the world and want to save the world and loves the world but will not listen to the preaching of the world that there is a glorious, wonderful god. It's an anti god system. Or a godless system. It is satan's system, all about the material, all about stopping here all about experiencing only stuff in this order in this world. Satan's kingdom, where sin and lawlessness are good news.

Now a Christian is someone whom god in his kindness has turned the volume of his word up and blasted out the soundtrack of this world. That's really a good definition of a Christian. It's miraculous. He's opened up our ears. He's opened up our eyes like that atheist bloke.

Turned the soundtrack of the world down, and he suddenly sees. Gordon is kindness, did that. And a Christian is someone who's come where we're told and we've seen it in John, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. A Christian is someone who has their whole world reinterpreted. The real soundtrack they suddenly hear, we're under a new world order, so says John, don't love the world.

Don't love that old soundtrack. You're different now. You're influenced by a different soundtrack, a different word a different in interpretation, don't love the world. That's the first point. But it leads me to my second point, because he spells it out even clearer.

Don't love the world, but suddenly you see the story of 2 loves 2 loves go to war. Look at verses 15 to 17 again. Let me just read them. Versus 15 to 17. Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love for the father is not in them. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life comes not from the father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away but whoever does the will of god lives forever. You know, you you can see something I mean, the word warfare isn't used there. But you can see something, can't you?

Of the sort of battle that's going on here, between 2 loves, love for the father or love for the world. There's there's a sense of this warfare going on. Why? Because we as Christians are in the world, but we're not of the world. We're in the world, but we don't love the world, that system.

Now it's true that some Christians try to run away from this battle and I don't think it does us any good. They overreacts to verse 15, where it says do not love the world or anything in the world and they say, okay, that means we must have hate everything. So I'm not even gonna look at any nature programs. I don't have anything to do with the world. I hate it all.

There there are some Christians that go to that extreme. You know, they won't like anything beautiful because that would be to love the world. There are others that sort of take that approach, but slightly lesser, they just become total isolation isolationists. And they love lists of what to do and not to do. Don't eat this.

Don't drink this. Don't go there. And there are lots of lists that come out. Christian shouldn't have a TV, shouldn't go to the cinema. It's called cinema, remember.

And there are certain books and and phones and so forth. And so there are Christians that have this list. It's interesting that John doesn't put a list like that. He he makes it much more to do with love. It's bigger than that.

Jesus even says when he's praying for us, as Christians before he goes to the father. In that great prayer that he prays in John 17, he says I don't ask you take them out of the world. I don't ask you take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil 1. Do you see the sense of battle that's going on here? I I want you I want them to stay in the world, kept from the world.

They're in the world, but not of the world. They're kept from the evil 1. So god's will for believers is not isolation. We're not to become monks or some weird religious group that don't know anything about what's going on in the world and never feel the tragedies what's going on in the world. We're not to be like that.

We're living in the world and we're supposed to be salt and light to the world. We're supposed to evangelize the world, and we can't do that by living in Christian Ghettos. Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. He's writing to Christians and listen to what he says here. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral people.

Now if we put the full stop there, we'll get it wrong. Don't associate with anyone immoral, but then listen to what he says. I wrote that I did not at all mean that immoral people of this world. Well, who did he mean then? He means the immoral people that are claiming to be Christians.

Those who are immoral don't associate with them have nothing to do with those people who claim to be followers of god and are listening to the devil. That's what he's saying, but he says I did not mean at all the immoral people of the world, all the covetous and swindlers, all the idolaters, and then he says for then you would have to go out of the world. And then he says, what I have to it it it tells us not to judge the outsider. Because god will judge those persons. So it's not when Port John says don't love the world, we're to go in our little Christian Ghettos we then throw stones judging the world, look at those filthy people out there.

Aren't they disgusting? I don't want anything to do with them. Jesus Paul John tells us to go into the world to be salt and light of the world. You're in the world. You're in the world, but not of the world.

We're not told to be otherworldly like a monk, but we are told not to be worldly, We don't submit to the devil. We submit to Christ. We don't submit to the standards that are preached to us by the world we submit to Christ. The world's standards want us to do what we want. Christ's standards wants us to love him and love the father and be in the family of god.

Our hope is more to do with, I hope I'm more holy and more like Christ, and I look forward to heaven. The world's hope is more stuff More for me, more now. So says John, and I hope you get this. Because we're in the world of not and not of the world, there is this battle going on because we love the father and not the world. There is this battle going on, and you can't love the lord and love the world at the same time.

So verse 15 do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love for the father is not in them. 2 different systems warring against each other for our attention. Jesus says no person can serve 2 masters. No 1 can serve 2 masters.

He says, either you will hate the 1 and love the other or you'll be devoted to the 1 and despise the other. You cannot serve both god and money. And when he says money, it's it's mhmm, it's of this world, the the power source of the world, which is money. Then listen to him. He gives an illustration.

He says, do not worry saying, what shall I eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the pagans that the world lives. The pagans run after these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them, but seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well. When you love the world, you think about these material things, but don't think about them think about serving god, and then the things will fit in their place. So we're lovers, We're lovers of god. We're citizens of a different kingdom.

We're marching to a different drum beat. See the battle that's going on here, and John in his kindness is writing us. And showing us that you gotta remember John is very fatherly and I think we've seen that in sermons before. He's writing because he's an old man now, an old man are worth listening to. I'm really losing that more and more.

I listened to myself constantly. Old man are worth listening to because If they love you as a father and they know the world you're in, they'll know what's going on. See what he does. It go just go back to verses 12 to 14. I won't read them all, but he writes to them in different sort of groups.

You know, children and young men and fathers and so forth. And we looked at that last week a bit, but but actually if you add up all the things he's writing fatherly caring for them. He shows them what they are as a Christian. What are you as a Christian? If you take all it he says?

Well, sins are forgiven for his namesake. They know him who has been from the beginning. They've overcome the evil 1. They know God as father. They know him who has been from the beginning.

He rubs set in They're strong and the word of god lives lives in them and they've overcome the evil 1. So here's father John, if you like. He's a loving kind man and he says, I know what you are. You know the father. You're on the winning side.

You're a follower of the lord Jesus Christ. You love the father. Be reassured. You are a follower of God, and you love him. Be reassured, so now don't love the world.

Don't go back to the world. It's your choice now. You can obey this or not. He's given it as a command for those who are in the father you've overcome by Christ, the powers of the evil 1. You've listened to the father.

You're in the family. Don't listen to the world. In my lifetime of ministry, I've learned something. In fact, like, this was the easier lesson that young people that become Christians need to understand very quickly because they often don't how dangerous the world is. It's so dangerous to your spiritual life because it's preaching at you constantly reinterpreting everything constantly.

You must turn the soundtrack of the word of god up. I've learned that. That's that's an easy lesson. But what I have been learning is the older and mature Christians think they've grown out after the temptations of Christ. I've been surprised by that.

And are quite disheartened by that at at times. Paul says that him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he falls. I think sometimes older Christians think that they can go into the world and they've battled away and so they know it and and then they lose. The truth is we need these warnings. Please don't be careless, John is saying This is what you are in God.

You know the father. Don't love the world. Love the father. Love the father. That's my second point.

Here's the third point. There are 3 steps, if you want to love the world, 3 steps to loving the world. See if you can see them. Verse 16. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, comes not from the father but from the world.

3 steps. If you want to love the world, there's 3 steps. If you don't wanna love the world, you need to know these steps so that you don't take the steps. Love the world. You approve of it.

You identify with it. You're glued to it. All of the information from the world you're glued to you're influenced by it, you use its reasoning, you're captivated by it. It takes up your time and energy. That's what loving the world is.

3 steps to doing that. Very simple. 1, Step 1, the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh, step 1. You wanna love the world, step 1, lust of the flesh.

That word lust literally means craving, passionate desires. It's not so much the person who's hungry and is looking forward to a nice meal. It's it's the alcoholic that can't do without it. It's the drug addict that this the whole life if you if you ever talk to drug addicts, the whole life is about getting money to get the next drug. The whole life is committed to that 1 thing.

The lusts of the flesh. The word flesh is a very interesting word and you should know this word actually. It's socks. I love that word. Socks.

It's like a monster, the monster socks, s a r x. Socks. That's what flesh is. And it's the monster that is within. It's very often the physical.

It's the base. It's the internal battle that we have as Christians with the flesh, the carnal, some sometimes is expressed as the the socks, the self ambition, the self serving objectives that we have It's all powerful me, myself and I, the sarks, it's hungry, it's a monster inside, and it demands food. I demand it, and this lust is craving for me. That's what it is. That's the socks.

You've got 1 of them. You you see it in the 2 year olds, They can't control a fluke filthy thing. The monster is grand. You only gotta go to a playground or you've come to Monday tots, and you see socks everywhere. Yeah?

Those of you with lovely little babies that are gurgling and just about saying you'll see the Sarks monster come out. It's amazing. It comes out everywhere, not just from the nappy. That is definitely a version of it. But it comes out.

It's physical. It stinks. It's me, myself, and I. It's my comfort my possessions, my money, my future, my career, my hopes, my feelings. It's all about me, myself, and I.

It starts with me. It ends with me, and it has me in the middle. There's even an advert for a holiday company called Chewy. We cross the Ts and dot the I's and put you in the middle. It's a horrible, never go with chewy.

We dot the i's, we cross the t and put you in the middle. What are nonsense? That's the world, and the world promotes it, and it knows how to feed the palette of Sark's monster, me, me, me. We have to battle with that. It does just what that noise did.

It'll interrupt us with its bings and bleeps and It's constantly buzzing and ringing and bleeping and tweeting to bring us away from the word of god to reinterpret. There's a better word This is why I, you know, please, if you've got your if you're using your phone now, I'm not gonna try and look at anyone. If you're using your phone now, right? Please don't look at anyone. If you're using the buy I know you've got your Bible on your phone.

It's a problem though. I would encourage you to get a Bible. It's a terrific thing when you're on the train and the plane and you're mobile, and you've got the word of god. It's fantastic. So don't get me wrong.

But the problem with with looking at your bible on your phone right now is that there's a being and a buzzer. Oh, there's a new thing about what's happening with Boris. Did you know what's happening with Megan? And you can't help it. You're distracted.

It's the world. That's world. That's that's the world. It's loud. It shouts.

It overdubs. So alongside reading the word of god, you've got adverts for new trousers or new shoes or whatever you've been looking up. That's the world. See, it's not necessarily evil, is it? But it's taking you away.

So I recommend a paper bible. Now you can argument of me on that, you know, fine. But listen, do you see what it does? It buzzes, it rings, it bleeps, it tweets. Step 1 to loving the world, feed the socks monster.

And there's plenty of food for it. Me. Second step, to loving the world is the lust of the eyes. So be careful what your eyes are looking at. Be careful what they're looking at.

You know, our eyes get so big. We envy. We want. We buy things we don't need. You know, I see it.

I want it. I have it. It doesn't really matter about the morality involved in it. Everybody else has got 1, so why can't I? It's 1 of the problems with all kind all kinds of issues in our lives.

I haven't got a baby, but I want a baby. I demand a baby. It's my right to have a baby, and so we'll go any immoral right way of getting a baby. It's not that a baby is wrong or having a baby or being a parent. It's wonderful.

It's a natural desire. But we want it at any cost, the lust of the eyes. Someone wrote this. I thought this was really helpful. I hope you I hope you get it.

They said the lust of the eyes is this, basically, love of beauty without the love of goodness. In other words, the love of something good without the love of goodness. But I'd go a next step because of my illustration at the beginning, of this talk, is that it would be the love of beauty without the love of god. You you see what the world does? They show us the beauty, but we don't go the stage that's supposed to make us love god.

You see what it does? That's what Edinburgh does. That's what people are shouting out to save our planet through. It's all just about we stop here. We don't go beyond.

And what what's it about? What's the planet listen to the soundtrack that points us to the glory of god. And so the second step is is our eyes take over from listening to the word of god. It's the same old sin that happened, in, in the garden of Eden, the devil used with Adam and Eve, you know, turn down the volume of god's word distort god's word a bit with a bit of, you know, distortion and then turn up the eyes. Look, And when she saw That's the world.

That's what it does. When you watch a film, when you listen to a program, when you watch a box set, when you watch David Dunborough. Be careful. You're in a battle. The world is preaching at you, even David Attenborough is preaching at you because he just leaves god out.

Reeds Psalm 19 before you look at Attumbra or during Attumbra or after Attumbra or all. In other words, you've come into the program, the film, and what is it preaching at me? And I I need the word of god to be I'm not saying you don't watch it, but what it's what's what's the message I don't just go. I haven't been yet, but I don't just go to a film like the Joker to see the Joker just for entertainment. Do that and I'm in trouble because it's preaching.

It's written as a message for me. So if I have go to that film, I need to say, what is it saying? What is its soundtrack? What does god say? What do I learn about god and godlessness in this film?

What do I learn to help me with the battle? Some shouldn't go to see it because the battle's too strong there. When you turn a program on, You've gotta remember, you've gotta turn god's word up. You've gotta think Christianly and the volume must be. Otherwise, that will preach at you and get you.

In the end, it will get you the lusts of the eye. Or the third step the pride of life. I mean, we hear about pride all over the place. In my lifetime, that word has changed. People would net it would be embarrassing if you said.

I'm proud of something. It would it would have been an utter embarrassment, but it's not now. It's embarrassing if you're not proud of it. We have pride marches. Have you ever thought about the how ridiculous that is?

We're proud. We're proud of our thinking, our jobs, our background, our money, our blood, our philosophy, our religion, Religion, we can be very proud about that. We have all of pomp and religious ceremonies. We're proud about the celebrity culture that sells themselves and just talk about themselves and their latest thing that they've got out. You know, when you were watching the chat show, Be careful.

They're there to sell. It's just a dirty, great, big advert. You're not really there to hear anything about them other than that they're wonderful and I need their book or their CD or the film or whatever it is they're selling me. It's just an advert. That's how the adverts work.

The whole celebrity culture, I love this. This is from Billy Graham. I thought this was really helpful, particularly under this 1. He says this. Have a listen.

Satan is a liar and a deceiver. He is a great imitator. As we've seen far back, in the Garden of Eden, satan's purpose, listen to this, satan's purpose was not to make Eve as ungodly as possible, but to make her as godlike as possible without god. Isn't that brilliant? And of course that makes you ungodly.

And that's pride. It puts me in the center It makes me as godlike as possible. Look at me. This is me. I've made me.

I create me. And in the end I'm godless. There's these temptations, brothers, and sisters, all around us, constantly around us. Be careful of them. Let me just turn you to 1 passage.

1 we're nearly finished. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 17. Because This is someone that Paul Paul is writing to that just shows you how we can get things the wrong way around. Someone's sort of you know, change the price tags, if you like. He says command those who are rich in this present world.

That's us. However, poor you are in this country, we're we're rich. We're so rich that people will, you know, 39 of them will go into a an incredibly dangerous place and die to get to here because we are so rich. So don't think you're not rich. Command those who are rich in this present world, not to be arrogant.

See the pride there? Or to put their hopes in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in god who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. So you can be rich and have a lot of provision But it's always god centered, you see? The soundtrack is god, command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, They will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of life that is truly life.

The pride of life that comes through riches, the subtle prides that we're better because we're rich, and are holding on to it in an ungenerous way. So do you see the steps? Lost of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life? All this is a cocktail of craving. It's a it's a It's a toxic poison that promotes the father of lies to not think about god.

And John is warning us. So, dear, please, please. If you're younger, will you listen to this? If you're a Christian, you wanna go with Christ, please. Monday morning, as we leave here, you're gonna get it bombarded.

Don't go out without turning the word of god up. But there's 1 last point. There's 2 destinies just to rub it in. 2 destinies. Look at verse 17.

The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of god lives forever. Do you see how separate these 2 loves are? These 2 loves are so at war that in the end their destinies are so far apart, they're totally incompatible because they're eternally gonna be separated. The world in its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of god lives forever. Here's an illustration.

You're on a cruise ship. Know whether you've ever wanted to take a cruise, I couldn't think of anything worse myself, but you're on a cruise ship. Yeah. And you're cruising away and you're in second class perhaps third class or whatever they call it these days. It's a lovely crucial, and the captain comes on.

Now the captain knows something you don't know, but he hasn't told you. He says to everyone, from now on, everyone goes first class, everyone. Yeah? Just eat everything. Actually, from now on, there are no rules.

You can sleep in any bed, you can do anything you like. There are no rules. On the ship. It's fantastic. If you wanna play football where there's that great chandelier and Leonardo De Caprios walking up and down the staircases, you can play football in that and you can kick it around and if you smash it doesn't matter who cares there's no rules to anything you like eat anything, do anything you like.

You wanna drive the ship, come and drive the thing. Yeah? If you want to turn it up to full volume, then turn it up to full volume. And you think, wow, this is amazing. What a trip?

But what he hasn't told you, is that the ship is sinking. Everything around you is going to go to destruction. Now the Christian should know that. If you don't know that, it's because you are so taken up with the world. If you don't know that your life is coming to an end, my goodness.

What is up with you? It will be very sad, won't it, if your life right at the end. If suddenly you said, you know what? I loved what I shouldn't have loved, and I didn't love what I should have loved. All the things I loved are now going to sync.

And I wish I'd put more love into the father. So us finish, do not love the world, who are you listening to? Last week, we saw a command do love your brothers and sisters. You see? 1 of the ways of not loving the world is to love the church.

God's people. If you don't love that, you're gonna love the world. Love a father's not in you. So what needs to change in your life? This week?

Because you're gonna hear this, aren't you, and that's it. What needs to change? You're gonna sort of think. I I I need change them. I I need I need to turn up the volume on the word of god.

Otherwise, I'm just gonna listen to what everybody tells me. I mean, maybe you're just too addicted to you to your phone. You're constantly buzzing. It constantly takes your attention. I saw a thing, the other day that was saying that even, you know, when people come and they even turn their phones off, but they always put them on the table when you have a meeting.

That even that very presence, apparently, of the phone, actually means that you won't concentrate, even though it won't go off because you've turned it off. We're so psychologically attached to it. And what is it? I mean, I don't wanna make a law about this because they're very useful things. But you've got to work this out.

So if I put laws down and you obey them, you'll think I'm doing well. That's just not the way it goes. It's it's love. Where's the love? So enjoy the planet, but hear the preach.

Enjoy the creation, but hear the preach. Do you thank god? Are you praising him? Or do you live a godless life? Do you know the battle here?

Take this battle seriously, please. Take it seriously, or you will fall. You're dealing with those 3 things, the Sark monster in you. It's wanting food right now. Me, me, me, feed, feed, feed.

If they kill that filthy thing, but it raises its head up. It's like that thing in can't even remember what it is. It's come to my mind, but in Greek mythology, You know, you chop its arm off and it grows 2 more. And it's a battle. It's a constant battle.

What about your eyes? What are they looking at? What about the pride? Remember last week? Jesus washed feet He's the son of god, but he bent down and served Remember the 2 destinies, don't live for the now.

Remember it'll all be sunk Only in a few years, won't be long, won't be long. Remember those things, don't love the world, love the father. So have a moment of quiet, and then Chris will take over.