All Is Not Right in the World

Take your Bibles this morning, if you would, and I hope you will, and open them to 1 John.

It's time to get back to that. Started that sometime back and had to get away from that through the holidays, but we'll get back to that this morning. And if you would find chapter 2, our text for this morning will be verses 15 through 17. So just a short little passage, pretty important passage though, and not perhaps one of those, certainly not one of those warm fuzzy passages in the Bible. But we'll take those three verses this morning, so let me read them. Here's what John writes, inspired by the Holy Spirit. So this is a word from God, a command of God. Verse 15, do not love the world or the things of the world, in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. Okay, short passage. Our subject, really I think we could say very clearly, the subject of the passage is essentially love. Okay, perhaps not the subject you thought it was about, but it is. It's love. And again, though due to the holidays we've had a rather lengthy hiatus from our study of 1 John, you may remember that love was the subject in the previous passage that we studied so long ago. I even, you might remember the title, I entitled the message,

What's Love Got to Do With It? So you kind of remember the subject there. And the answer, of course, from 1 John is when it comes to the proof of genuine salvation, love has everything to do with it.

And really that subject is continued on here. Though in the previous passage, John defines it this way, he who hates his brother is in darkness. That's verse 11. All right, so John's subject, I would say to you in our passage for this morning, is still love. But obviously the admonition has changed, right?

The admonition really, in this sense, a command this time is do not love. So that's just kind of on the other side of it, isn't it? Do not love. And you know, as Christians, there are certain things we are not to love. We're not to love. And one of them, according to this passage, and it's a big one, is the world. This world, we are not to love. And the important thing to understand about this passage is not loving this world is yet another proof of genuine salvation, true salvation. Because this is John's purpose in writing, that we would know that we know that we're saved, so that we would be filled with assurance of our salvation. And so he offers a number of proofs. We've already looked at a few of them, and this is yet another one. A proof that you are genuinely saved as you do not love this world.

All right, this is essentially what John is saying to us here. Now, John, of course, puts it in the negative sense. John says, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him or her, okay?

That is, you're not a Christian. That's just basically what he's saying. Now, it sounds very blunt, very dogmatic, very narrow, and certainly it is. And so it naturally brings up some questions that need to be answered so that we can understand what John's talking about here. And perhaps the first and most pertinent question would be, what does John mean by the word world? We've got to understand that.

I mean, what is it a reference to when he uses this term world? And perhaps another question would be, what is John talking about when he says, do not love the world? That's a natural progression of questioning, inquiry that we would have about the passage. What does the word world refer to, and what does he mean by not loving it? Well, do not love the world. I mean, doesn't the Bible say that even God loves the world? John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. Doesn't the Bible say that? So this is a question that we have as we approach this passage. And possibly another question would be, how is it possible to live in this world and not love some of it? And if we love some of it, again, not yet defining the word world, if we love some of it, is that sinful?

I mean, is it a sin for me to love the Smoky Mountains as I do? And I talk about them quite often. Is it sin for me to love them? Is it sin for many of you to love college football?

And a lot of you say, no, as long as you're an OU fan or OSU fan, I don't want to leave anybody out here, okay? Otherwise, it's sinful, most likely, okay? Right? I mean, is it sin? I mean, this is this, seriously, are we to have, or rather hate, everything that pertains to this world? Is that what John is saying? And so I guess really the most germane question to ask is, what does obedience to this command really look like or what should it look like in the life of the true Christian? I mean, if this is a proof of true salvation, then what does it look like to obey this command? Do not love the world and all that is in it. And so I want us to see three things this morning from this passage in 1 John. And first of all, and this is just kind of taking it as it comes in the passage, and really the first verse is very important that we understand it or we're going to misunderstand the rest of it. And so here is the first thing I want you to see, the command of the Father.

The command of God the Father, and this is a command. I mean, there's no question about it. It's perfectly clear. No debate about that. Really no argument about that. This is a command. It's even given in the form of a command. Verse 15 says, do not love the world. That is a command. Do not do a certain thing. And in the Greek translation, it begins with a very strong negative. It's the Greek word may, and it's very strong negative in the Greek language. And then we have the word agape.

Agape. A little different form here, but it is from this word. And that word you're familiar with in the Greek language, that is our word for love. And by definition, it's not talking about an emotion of love or a feeling of love, but rather a committed love. Agape. And the form of this verb in the passage is in the present tense imperative. Now, present tense is important because that's kind of ongoing, continuous, but imperative is the thing I want you to notice. It's an imperative verb, and that means a command, right? Plain and simple. And so we could translate it this way, bringing in the present tense form of the verb. And in the present tense, it's a word that's a word that's a word that's a word or from the word cosmos. That's a word you probably have heard before as well. It's the world, the cosmos, which can, by the way, refer to the entire universe. In fact, usually that's what we think of when someone uses the word cosmos, you know, we look up and we see the stars and we can look through a telescope and see the planets and solar systems and galaxies, and we think of cosmos, the cosmos in that sense.

But in this sense here in the passage, it refers to our world, our cosmos. And so we're to stop loving it.

All right, now, that's a command, but you really cannot obey a command until you understand it, fully understand just what the command is. And in this case, we've got to understand this command by defining the word world. This word world, as I've said, the Greek, well, I haven't said yet, the Greek word cosmos, that word means order. It means order. That's its basic meaning. And by the way, ladies, from this word cosmos, we get our word cosmetics. Did you know that? It means order.

It means putting your face in order. And some guys, of course, use cosmetics as well. That's basically what it means, to put things in order. Now, that's interesting, perhaps, but that doesn't really help us much in our understanding of what John's talking about here in the passage. You're not talking about cosmetics. But he's talking about something that has an order to it, right? That's what the word cosmos mean. And so we need to consider, then, the various ways that the word world is used in the Bible, so that we can discover how it is used in this particular passage. And, you know, words have multiple meanings, don't they? For example, you could just take our word ball, B-A-L-L, for an example.

I mean, we can throw a ball, catch a ball. We can dance at a ball. And there are a lot of idioms out there, too. We can drop the ball, carry the ball, play ball, run with the ball, keep the ball rolling.

We can be on the ball, and we can have a ball. Are you having a ball? Okay, thank you. And, you know, if you're thoroughly confused with what I'm talking about here, that means you're probably all balled up inside, okay? The word ball can have many different meanings and nuances and usages and so forth, and the same is true of many, many, in fact, we could possibly say all common words in our language, and the same is true in the Greek language, and true of all languages. And so what we have to do when we study Scripture and we study the words of a certain passage, we need to discover what those words mean, not just a dictionary mean, but meaning, or but how the author is using the word. And that helps, I think, illustrate how important it is we understand this word world. Now, basically, in fact, we can really kind of dwindle it down to three possibilities. That is, in terms of how the

Scriptures use the word world or cosmos. First place, it can mean the planet, the planet earth, as I've said. It can mean the planet earth, this physical world, and the Bible uses the word world in reference to that in a number of places. For example, Acts chapter 17, verse 24, God made the world.

And everything in it. But now, John's not talking about the planet here, is he? I mean, it's okay to love the planet. I mean, it really is. Now, to a point, there are some people who love the planet so much they worship the planet, make the planet its God, you know, mother earth, and so forth. And that's really getting into a different usage of the word world that we'll get to here in just a minute.

But John's not talking here about the physical world, this planet. I mean, God himself loves the physical, his physical creation. You can go all the way back to Genesis chapter 1, verse 31, and it's kind of the culmination of a number of other times that God says this, where the Bible says God saw everything that he had made. That's the created order, created world. He saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So, you know, that's great news to me. You know, we're to love the physical world, and I can love the smoky mountains and not be in sin before God, all right?

We can care for the planet and protect the planet and do some things that are good for the planet. We can enjoy this planet. We can do all those things. And this is not what John is talking about.

Second, the word world is also used to refer to people, the people of the planet, all right? So it can refer to the planet itself, the physical world, creation, or it can refer to the people of the planet. John used the word, the word world in this sense earlier in this letter, and it's been a while since we've been there, but you might remember the passage in 1 John 2, 2, where the Bible says, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins, the satisfaction for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Same word, cosmos. Not the physical planet, but rather the people, people who populate it, all right? But here in 1 John 2, 15, our passage, he is not talking about the people, per se, though people are involved in it. He's not talking about the people who inhabit the planet. He is not commanding us to hate the people, all right? And so far, everything I've said, you say, why? Of course,

I know that. You just kind of know it intuitively. That God is certainly not commanding us to hate this physical planet, the physical creation, to hate it. No, certainly not. It's okay to love it.

He's certainly not telling us to hate people. In fact, we're given the admonition a number of times in Scripture, love, love people. So he's not talking about that at all. I mean, God himself loves the people on this planet. And I go back to John 3, 16, for God so loved the what? The world.

The world. Same word. That's here in our passage in 1 John, cosmos. Only here, of course, it refers to the people of this planet, and we are to love them. So there's yet a third usage of the word world found in the New Testament, and it's found a number of times in the New Testament. In fact, many, many times, and actually John is the one who uses it in this sense more than any other author.

And it's not this planet, not the people of this planet, but it is the philosophy, the philosophy of the people of this planet, the mindset, the way of thinking that includes all things like loves and desires and affections and goals and decisions and way of living and so forth. It's the philosophy of the people of this planet. For example, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, 2. And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world. Or the way of this world, as other versions translate it. The way of the world.

and this is the world, the sense of the word world that we are commanded to stop loving. To stop loving, which suggests that we can love it, but we can't love it in an ongoing way and claim to be a Christian.

We're to stop loving it. We stop committing our lives to it, our loves to it, our affections to it, our devotions to it.

We're to stop that. And this is talking about something that is essentially invisible, though its manifestation is very visible.

But it's something invisible, it's something spiritual, it's the spiritual system of everything that is contrary to God. Therefore, everything that is evil and wicked, which is under the control of Satan.

In fact, John even addresses this a little bit later in this letter, in 1 John 5, 19. He says, the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

This is the spirit, also the spirit of Antichrist, John says in 1 John 4, 3, the spirit of Antichrist in the world.

Now, remember what I said about the word cosmos. It means order, and so John is talking about the world order. The world order of things.

That's the meaning of cosmos. It is the sum total of fallen human philosophy, way of thinking.

The ordered world of fallen man that is apart from God, separated from God, alienated from God, and not only that, but hostile toward God.

And we can see this, can't we? It's all around us. Let me quote S. Lewis Johnson. I think he really pegged it good. He said, from the time that Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, there was introduced the world as a system of organized rebellion against God.

Now, that's putting it perfectly. And if you love it, this world system organized against God, if you love it, that is, if you set your heart on it, your desire, your affections, everything in your life is directed toward that, if this world order, under the sway of Satan, is what drives the deepest part of your heart and life, then you're not saved.

That's not what I say. That's what John said. That's what God said. You're not saved. Now, what does this cosmos, this worldly system look like?

Well, the Bible describes it in many, many places, many, many ways. And we know what it looks like because we can see it all around us. But in reality, if it is invisible and spiritual, first and foremost, and if it is what Satan holds under his sway, then where does it exist?

This world system that is contrary and rebellious against God, where does it exist? Now, again, it's manifestation in the world is not invisible.

It's something easy to see. We see it all around us. And it's disturbing. But it's home. This is what we're talking about here.

It's habitation. Maybe we could use that word. Or where it emanates from. Where is that? That is invisible. It's something spiritual. Now, where is that?

And exactly what is it? Now, John doesn't give us this long, detailed, specific list of things so that we can just take that list and turn on the news and say, well, there that is and there's that.

And we can go out into the world and we can take our list and say, yeah, I see that here and I see that. And say, let's avoid all those specific things. He doesn't give us that kind of list. But rather gives us a broad, kind of broad categories.

Kind of describing for us just where this emanates from. So that we will not have any part of it. And so we have the command of the Father and then now second, the cravings of the flesh.

That really describes where this emanates from. It's home. It's habitation. The sinful flesh, which is in every single one of us.

Yes, even us. The sinful flesh. All right, so the source, the habitation of this world system over which Satan holds sway is the flesh.

That unredeemed part of us that's still there, that's polluted by sin. I'm sorry if this is some enlightenment to you, but this exists in you and me, all of us.

It's that unredeemed part of us, flesh. It is saturated, polluted with sin. And it must be crucified every day.

Every single day. More than once a day. And it will not be completely eradicated until the resurrection. Till we're delivered from this, as Paul put it, body of death.

In Romans 8. Romans 7. Till we're delivered from it. Till Jesus comes. Till the resurrection.

Till our bodies are changed like his glorious body. God. So, but for the majority of people in this world, people who live all around us, and even some who are even in the church, but for the majority of people in the world today, the flesh rules.

It rules. Virtually unchecked. And really, it's only checked by laws and the enforcement of those laws. And that's important.

We could even argue from Scripture that it's checked by the Holy Spirit, by the very presence of the church here in this world, which one day will be taken out of here.

But primarily, we could say, the flesh rules. And we see the evidence of that all around us. The flesh is the habitation of all that is wicked and evil in this world.

And its cravings, its appetites, John says, are not from God. Really, the distortion of those appetites.

The corruption of even good appetites. This is not from God. Verse 16, For all that is in the world, again, not the physical world, not the people of the world per se, but the philosophy of the world.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of God, but it is of the world. This world system. A system that is enthusiastically, committedly, against God, hostile to God.

That helps us understand why things are the way they are. So, John provides us with three characteristics of this. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

A kind of a trinity of evil. And this is the origin of all that is worldly and therefore hostile to God.

Let's take each one of these. First, the lust of the flesh. Lust of the flesh. Now, what does that mean? Well, someone has called this, and I think it's a good way to put it, it's appetites gone wrong.

You might remember it that way. Although it's no laughing matter, is it? Appetites, many of them, some of them, you know, at least originally, good and wholesome appetites, but they've gone wrong.

Totally wrong. You see, God created us with certain natural appetites, or cravings. I've used the word cravings. Things that we desire.

And one, we all have an appetite for food. Don't we? I'm sorry to bring this up right after the holidays, but really, you know, essentially, an appetite for food is a good thing, and we all have an appetite for food.

God gave it to us. We have to have food to live. All right? We just don't need as much of it as we do eat. And that brings up the issue. You see, when the appetite for food goes wrong, the natural appetite, the good appetite, the healthy appetite for food, when it goes wrong and becomes, in a sense, we become a slave to it, that's the lust of the flesh.

Perhaps not the example you would start with, but I thought I would start with that. And I'm not going to go through and give you a detailed, exhaustive list of all the various appetites of the flesh or appetites that have gone wrong.

We could name this one, of course, and this is one that everyone is thinking about. Perhaps we have an appetite for physical intimacy with a person of the opposite sex.

God's made us that way. There's nothing wrong with that. It's a gift of God. It's not sin. But when we seek to satisfy that appetite outside of the divine institution of marriage, or, which is more and more prevalent in our day, when we seek to satisfy that God-given appetite with a person of the same gender, and I could even go on with more heinous corruptions of that appetite, that's the lust of the flesh.

Lust of the flesh. And that is not of God. That's not of God. Nothing beautiful about it. Nothing good about it. You know, I just don't want to get too specific here.

But you know what I'm talking about. And we can apply this to almost everything that we have, in a sense, a natural craving for. It's part of our physical nature, not necessarily yet, though really it is, part of our sinful nature.

But it was given, first of all, in a very natural way, in a very good way. Our cravings, our desires for material things is not in and of itself a bad thing or sinful thing.

It's the corruption of it. Corrupted by sin. Because the flesh is hostile toward God and so it becomes distorted and corrupted.

And that's what has happened with all of the God-given appetites, cravings that we have. Craving for, to be influential, to, I mean, there's a good side of that.

To influence people for good. That's become corrupted. The appetite for, for sexual things, as I've said, or the appetite for self-esteem, just pure self-esteem.

There isn't anything wrong with having a good self-esteem. We all ought to have it. But it's been corrupted in how we go about getting that and obtaining that is not from God.

Or how about just plain old happiness? A desire to be happy. To be content. But you can see how that has become distorted.

Corrupted. So that the things we begin to seek for that we think will make us happy are contrary to God. In fact, in fact, it's so contrary that our desire for them, for these things, whatever they may be, means that we must be, then, an enemy of God.

We're hostile toward God because He wants those appetites to be fulfilled a certain way, a perfect way, in fact, a very blessed way. In fact, we'll be more happy if our appetites are satisfied by the way God has intended.

And so, to go beyond that is to become hostile toward God. And this is the philosophy of this world in which we live. And, by the way, when did it go wrong to begin with?

If it's true that essentially at the heart of every wicked thing in this world is a God-given appetite that has gone wrong, been corrupted.

If that's true, then when did that happen? Well, it happened way back there in the Garden of Eden. Didn't it? And that leads us to the second characteristic of this world order, and that is the lust of the eyes.

It's rather interesting. Back in Genesis 3, you might surely remember that God placed a certain tree in the Garden. Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Remember, it was, I think, a test tree for Adam and Eve. And God commanded Adam and Eve, you know the story, He commanded them not to eat of the fruit of that tree.

They could eat of the fruit of all the other trees, many other trees that God provided. Overwhelmingly, God gave them everything their hearts could ever desire, but He said, this one tree, the fruit of that tree, you're not to eat from it.

In Genesis, but in Genesis 3, 6, the Bible says, so when the woman, that's Eve, of course, Adam, Adam's right there with her, okay?

when the woman saw, see, with the eyes, saw that the tree, that one tree that God created, said not to touch it, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, see, and a tree desirable to make one wise, what did she do?

She took its fruit and ate it. She saw it, took it, ate it. It began with the eyes, it's the lust of the eyes.

And I can kind of imagine Eve, you know, maybe for I don't know how many days, every day, eating fruit from one of the many trees that God provided, that provided wonderful fruit and food and luscious fruit.

And she's eating, maybe perhaps it's a beautiful apple. And she's taking a bite out of that and her eyes look over at that tree, the knowledge of good and evil.

She looks and she sees it. While she's got that wonderful apple in her mouth, I mean, this great apple, this wonderful, delicious, apple that God has provided for her and for Adam.

And even while she is tasting the luscious fruit that God has provided for her, her eyes glance over at this tree of the knowledge of good and evil and she sees the fruit hanging from that, this luscious fruit that's hanging from that, that forbidden tree.

And she sees that it looks so good that she takes it and eats it. She wants it. I mean, it's a perfect illustration of how this works.

While you're enjoying the wonderful things that God has blessed you with, we're not satisfied with that. It's something that looks even better. And it's something God has said you cannot have.

It's not good for you. But you want it. Do you understand? I can imagine myself driving down the highway, maybe down Washington Boulevard here and driving down the street in my 2003 Ford Explorer, you know, with 130,000 miles on it and a paint job that has all kinds of dings on it and it's worn out on the interior.

And when I stop at a light, a brand new red Corvette. I'd like you, red Corvette. Drives up beside me and I look at that thing and I want it.

It could be any car actually that's newer than mine, better than mine, more expensive than mine. How do I say it's a Lexus for you or a Cadillac for some of you old timers?

You know, I had a Cadillac years ago and my sons just kept calling it a ghetto sled and so I finally had to get rid of it. I think Cadillacs are still pretty cool cars, right?

You know what I'm talking about, you just kind of look over there, oh, I wish I had that. It could be a house and a newer house or a bigger house, it can be clothes, it can be anything.

There's nothing wrong with my Ford Explorer. It gets me around, it's a great car. This is something, you know, a red Corvette.

I can imagine myself driving around in a red Corvette. And I want it.

You see, it's the lust of the eyes. And we can go to the Bible and find examples. I mean, Lot's wife basically looked back at her friends and home and Sodom.

And she missed that and she wanted that and God turned her into a pillar of salt. I mean, why do you think the Bible says she looked back? I mean, she looked back with her eyes.

It's the lust of the eyes. And Achan, you remember, in Judges, looked upon the precious gold, the forbidden gold of Jericho. And he took some of it and hid it in his tent, buried it under the floor of his tent.

And God exacted a very permanent judgment upon Achan and also his family for his disobedience. It began with the eyes, you see.

David, walking along the terrace of his palace, and he looks down into the private garden of Bathsheba. and sees her there bathing, and he wants her, and he takes her, commits adultery and murder to boot.

It's the lust of the eyes. You know, and the things that we desire really only offer a temporary satisfaction.

These things that God, you know, God doesn't provide, they're not from God. If we lust after them and want them, and quite often, especially in our society, we can get them.

God didn't want us to have them. And we think we'll be satisfied by them, but we're never satisfied by them. I mean, a guy can be walking around barefooted and see some guy in tennis shoes and lust after his tennis shoes.

And he can get those tennis shoes and be walking around and see some guy riding around on a bicycle and he lusts after that bicycle. He wants that and he gets it and he can be riding around on his bicycle and see some guy drive by in a car and he wants that car.

And the car's not enough, you know. Then I see some guy being chauffeured around in his limousine and I want that. And then I hear about people flying around their own private jets and I want that.

Perhaps there's some limit. But you see what we're talking about, it's the lust of the eyes and really the things that we see become like a God to us.

And really though we don't realize it, we're worshiping it. That's what we have a desire for. The cravings of our flesh are directed toward those things rather than toward God and we become hostile to God.

C.S. Lewis called it the sweet poison of the false infinite, false God, sweet poison of it. Be it more sex, more stuff, more salary, more scotch on the rocks, whatever it is, it doesn't matter.

It's never enough. And you know, here's the problem for us in our society, we can see, literally see with our eyes everything our hearts could ever desire.

We have that access to see anything and everything. I mean, we're a visual culture. We can see things, we can see anything we want to see that we might ever want to desire.

John could not have imagined the things that we're able to see and have. I mean, television, commercialism, vast shopping malls that offer everything, anything you can imagine that you want.

And now the internet, of course. I mean, we're never more than a click or a tap away from seeing anything and everything we could ever want and our wicked hearts could want to desire.

And it can be on our doorstep in 24 hours. The world is drunk with the instant gratification of the lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes.

And what we see, we want it now and we can get it now. Usually, in most cases. And third, the pride of life.

And this is perhaps the most damning of all. And why is that? Because this is self-sufficiency. This really, we could even say this is the ultimate conclusion of it all.

Self-sufficiency. There's no need for God. We don't need God. We don't need to wait for God to provide the things that we need, even want.

we don't have to pray about it. We don't even need God. And ours really is a selfie society. I'm not just talking about pictures. Psalm 10, verse 3, listen to this.

For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul. And the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.

in the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God. His ways prosper at all times, yet, your judgments are on high out of his sight.

Isn't that true? Judgments are there and they're coming, but the wicked don't see that. And he says in his heart, I shall not be moved.

Throughout all generations, I shall not meet adversity. It's the pride of life. And it's absolutely hostile toward God.

Now we need to wrap this up this morning. Three things, the command of the Father, the cravings of the flesh, and third, ends on a good note, the continuance of the faithful, but just the faithful.

Verse 17, and the world is passing away and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. It's interesting that the Greek verb translated, really translated in three English words, is passing away.

It's present tense. is passing away. That is, the world is right now passing away. At the very least, how pointless to set your affections upon it.

But it's worse than just simply being pointless. It's passing away. And if you have invested your life in it, I mean, emotionally, you know, mentally, spiritually, certainly physically, invested your life in this world order, way of thinking, philosophy that's hostile toward God, you have invested your life in something that is even now passing away.

passing away. I mean, that really adds a whole lot more to the adage, you can't take it with you.

But it's even worse than that. Because if you have invested your affections, the deepest part of your heart, to the things of this world, then you are not saved.

That's what John said. Now, this world is passing away. But if you have invested your life in living for God, I mean, living for Him, that includes not just the things you do, but everything you have, everything you desire.

is all marshaled to living for God and advancing His kingdom, then the returns on your investment are eternal.

Eternal in the heavens. You know, I've been troubled lately about, just to get a little bit political here, okay, troubled about the almost euphoric reaction of many Christians, Bible-believing Christians today over the election of Donald Trump.

There's no mystery. I shared this with you before the election. I voted for the guy. It's just amazing to me kind of the mentality that has changed now.

and, you know, we watch as the stock market moves dramatically up in value. And we watch as these giant corporations seem to be cowing down to, you know, the power and authority of Donald Trump, you know, president-elect.

And, you know, we listen as the promises are made. We even have the idea that they truly will be fulfilled concerning immigration and health care and terrorism, and I could list many other things.

And there's just almost this kind of mentality that, finally, all is right in the world. well, it's not, it's not right, and it wouldn't matter who was elected.

It's not right, and it never will be until the return of the king, King Jesus. So, what then should we do?

Stop loving the world. Stop loving it. this world system, this world order. Stop directing your affections toward it, and your desires, and your goals, and making your decisions based upon the philosophies of this world.

Stop it. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Thank you.