Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.highlandparkbaptist.net/sermons/95173/in-it-but-not-of-it/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] 1 John, will you please stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word together.

[0:22] ! Beginning in verse 15. Do not love the world or the things 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 desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. May God add a blessing to the reading of his Word. Would you please be seated? One of the most well-known verses in the Bible is John 3, 16. It's the first verse that most Christians commit to memory.

[1:12] For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3, 16 was written by the same John who wrote 1 John. And in one place, he talks about God's great love for the world demonstrated in his sending Jesus to save sinners.

[1:36] And then in another place, he talks about not loving the world and how those who do, do not have the love of God within them. It sounds confusing. It sounds like John here is having some kind of love-hate relationship with the world, acting kind of like a teenager who one might be moment. The moment, affectionately cuddles mom and dad on the couch. And then the next moment, storms off and slams their door behind him, talking about how much they hate them.

[2:16] Or maybe John, you know, he's an old man at this point in his life. And maybe he's just grouchy. Maybe he's just grumpy. Maybe when he wrote this, he woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

[2:30] And at this point in his life, he's had enough and he's reached his limit. And he's just ready to say, curse you, cruel world. On the surface, this seems a bit perplexing, doesn't it?

[2:47] But if we use Scripture to interpret Scripture, it isn't. John is not using the term world here to describe the physical, material world. Though the physical world is marred by the fall, it still maintains a beauty that reflects the glory of its Creator. We read in Psalm 19.1, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaim His handiwork. The design and order of the physical world testify to the existence of God, its Creator. In Romans 1, Paul says, for what can be known about God is plain to them, those who do not believe. God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. John is also not using the term world here to describe the people who inhabit the physical world either. And that's the sense in which world is used in John 3.16, describing the people who inhabit the earth. Jesus died and was raised to save people from their sins. And He commands His followers to share the gospel worldwide, that others would be saved. 2 Corinthians 5, 18 through 19, we read, all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So this command not to love the world can't refer to the physical world or its inhabitants.

[4:54] So who then or what then is it referring to? Well, on the night before His crucifixion, Jesus met with His disciples in the upper room. And He was preparing them in that moment for His death and His resurrection and their ministry after He ascended back to heaven. And John records that discourse in his gospel, which includes a warning from Jesus about the world. In John 15, Jesus said, If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. So here is a world that hated Jesus. Why? What was it about Jesus that they hated? Well, in John 7, Jesus is approached by His half-brothers. At this point, they did not believe that He was the Son of God, though later they would after His resurrection.

[6:07] And John records a conversation that Jesus had with His half-brothers while they are discouraging Him in His ministry. And this is what He said, For the world cannot hate you, but it hates Me. Why?

[6:21] Because I testify that its works are evil. The world Jesus is talking about there in John 7, and what John is talking about here in chapter 2, verse 15, is the same world that we are commanded not to love. It's a world. It's a system. It's a philosophy. It's an attitude. It's a perspective that opposes God and His will. And it's a system that is governed by Satan, who Jesus called the ruler of this world. And Satan uses this system to blind unbelievers to the truth. And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, 4, in their case, the God of this world, referring to Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

[7:27] The world that we are commanded not to love is a system operated by Satan that opposes all that God loves.

[7:40] It's a system designed to blind people to reality and compel them to exchange the truth of God for a lie.

[7:52] And so I ask you, how can Christians love a system like that? Every day, I get an email from Ministry Watch, and those emails contain articles about the misdeeds of pastors, churches, and Christian ministries.

[8:22] Just this week was a report of a pastor back in my hometown in Shawnee, Kansas, who attempted to murder his family and then set his house on fire.

[8:36] And thankfully, everybody survived, and he is in jail. Same email had another article of a mega church pastor, and I'll just tell you who it is. It's Andy Stanley. So you guys know.

[8:47] You need to be aware of people who claim to know the gospel and follow Christ, but who do things that are incompatible and out of line with his will and his word. And he has invited people into his church, people who are openly living and affirming a homosexual lifestyle.

[9:08] Now, just about every email has some article about some church staff member that has abused children or stolen money from the church.

[9:20] And just about every email contains reports of pastors and churches that support and champion beliefs and ideas that come from the world of Satan, the world that Satan rules, that opposes what God wills, what God loves, and what God desires.

[9:40] These are things that you don't do. These are things that you don't approve of if you truly know the love of God.

[9:56] But unfortunately for America, the time that Paul warned about in 2 Timothy 4, 3 through 4 has come. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

[10:26] Brother, sister, the world is what we leave when we come to Christ. Christ, Christians should not seek to have the best of both worlds. As John says in our text today, what the world loves cannot coexist with what God loves.

[10:45] And that's the main idea that he is communicating to us through these verses this morning. Love for God and love for the world cannot coexist. Love for God and love for the world cannot coexist.

[11:02] Christian, as a born-again child of God, Satan cannot touch your salvation, but he'll definitely try to hinder your spiritual growth by tempting you with worldly things to lure you into complacency and to lull you into spiritual lethargy.

[11:25] He will tempt you to flirt with and fall in love with the things of this world, the world that he rules and which hates all that God loves.

[11:37] He wants you to let down your guard and consume what the world promotes. He wants you to feast on what this world and its system produces to make you a Christian couch potato.

[11:57] I like fried foods, and I love sweet treats and sugary sodas. But if my diet consisted of nothing but those things, I'd be really unhealthy.

[12:14] I'd look like Jabba the Hutt. And Christian, that's what Satan is trying to turn you into. He wants you to crave what this world produces.

[12:29] He doesn't want you to feast on God's Word. He wants you to become a glutton of this world system that, again, opposes all that God loves and all that God declares as being good and good for you.

[12:49] We need to be careful about what we are consuming. I have a good friend who is a devoted Christian and a loving father.

[13:01] And he has a son with special needs. My friend knows that his son with special needs is never going to be able to live independently of him and his wife.

[13:16] And so what my friend does is he maintains a strict diet and exercise routine to improve his health and ensure that he is fit enough to be able to care for his son for a really long time, as much as he possibly can.

[13:37] The unbelieving world needs Christians with an attitude like that, Christians who are strong, Christians who are spiritually fit, Christians who are not ashamed of Christ, and they are not ashamed of talking like Christ, Christians who are fit for the mission that Jesus has commanded them to carry out, Christians who do not love the world because they know that love for God and love for the world cannot coexist.

[14:17] And so John gives us here three reasons why love for God and love for the world cannot coexist. Maybe.

[14:31] Maybe today you love the world more than you realize. Maybe you've been enticed by the world into spiritual lethargy.

[14:42] Maybe. Perhaps you are of the mind that you can live in both worlds. My hope is that through God's word today, God's spirit will begin a purging in your life, that you will stand firm in the faith, that you will be strengthened by God to combat the enemy, resisting his attempts to convince you to love what this world loves, and suppressing the knowledge that God has given you of what he loves.

[15:31] And so the first reason John gives why what God loves and what the world loves cannot coexist is that the things the world loves contradict what God loves.

[15:42] The things that the world loves contradict what God loves. Let's look again at verse 15. Do not love the world or the things, and John will tell us more about what those things are in verse 16, in the world.

[15:57] If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now, do not love in the Greek is written in the imperative mood. That's a command, not a suggestion.

[16:11] If you could hear John's voice in this text, it would sound like a mother seeing their child about to touch a hot stove. Don't touch that, is what she would say.

[16:24] And so what John is saying to us here is, do not love the world. John's giving an order. He wants to solidify in the minds of his readers that a Christian cannot love the world or the things in the world because they would be loving things that God hates.

[16:45] Does that surprise you? That God hates some things. The Bible says that God's love is perfect and pure and holy.

[17:03] He loves all that is good and righteous and in harmony with his will and with his purpose. What this means is that he simultaneously hates whatever threatens to oppose the things that he loves.

[17:23] And the perfect love of God demands that those who love him share in his hatred of those things that oppose him.

[17:33] The Bible tells us this. In Psalm 9710, we read, Oh, you who love the Lord, hate evil.

[17:45] He preserves the lives of his saints. He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Proverbs 6, 16 through 19 says, There are six things that the Lord hates.

[17:59] Seven that are an abomination to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

[18:22] There are some things that are good to hate. Don't you hate evil? Don't you hate the lies that Satan tells and how he uses his influence to keep people in bondage to sin?

[18:41] All these things that God hates, Satan seeks to redefine as good things that are good for you.

[18:54] This is what he did in the very beginning with Adam and Eve. Oh, look at that. Why can't you have that? Well, God said not to.

[19:06] God told you not to because he knows something that you don't know that if you eat that, you'll be like God. And so he takes this forbidden thing and he tries to pass it off as a good thing.

[19:19] And he's doing, he's done that from the beginning and he will continue to do it until he is cast forever into the lake of fire. A truly loving person is someone who stands by and says that evil is evil and will not buy into the ways that Satan seeks to redefine what evil means.

[19:50] You know, as Christians, we are called to be peacemakers, but the peace that we seek to make is not with sin. We seek for unbelieving sinners to have peace with God.

[20:02] And there is no other way for a person to have peace with God but through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, his son.

[20:15] All roads do not lead to heaven. It doesn't matter how sincerely you believe something. It doesn't matter how devout you are to whatever faith outside of Christianity it is that you hold.

[20:32] The Bible says, Jesus said, you are either in him, in Christ, and a part of God's family, or you are a child of Satan. And if that sounds harsh to you, listen, I'm only repeating what Jesus said himself.

[20:50] In John 8, 44 through 45, for example, and he's talking to the Pharisees, Pharisees, he says to them, you are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

[21:06] He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

[21:18] But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. This is all Jesus did. I mean, many things that he did right, but whatever he did, it was always a testimony to the truth.

[21:34] He was always exposing sin. Jesus in his earthly life was always going against culture and the lies that it exchanged the truth of God for.

[21:48] To truly follow Christ, means that you must be all in and following him. You can't have one foot in this world and one foot in his world.

[22:03] There are two gates. There are two paths. And each of those paths leads to two different eternal destinations. Love for God and love for the world cannot coexist because they contradict one another.

[22:25] And speaking of coexistence, let me say something about those bumper stickers. And I know that maybe they're not as popular as they once were, but I see them from time to time.

[22:38] And there's a number of things that are wrong with those stickers. First, all those beliefs that spell coexist, they teach different things.

[22:52] They contradict one another. And so logically, they can't all be true. And secondly, by stating that we should all coexist, what the person with that sticker is telling me to do, Christians to do, is to give up what I believe to accept what they believe.

[23:17] And in that case, you're asking me to do the same thing that you have a problem with me doing. And third, it promotes the impossible because sin makes it impossible.

[23:34] Only Christianity addresses the problem of sin. a problem that we all have. And only Christianity has the solution.

[23:48] Romans 3, 21 through 24 says, But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

[24:02] For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone.

[24:18] And so, Christian, we are called, we are commanded to expose the world system and how it contradicts who God is and what God loves.

[24:36] 2 Corinthians 10, 3 through 5 tell us, For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

[24:50] We destroy arguments and every lofty thought raised against the knowledge of God, these arguments, these thoughts that come from the world system, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

[25:04] In my office, there is a sign in front of me in the corner and it's a quote from R.C. Sproul and it says, You are responsible to preach and to teach what the Bible says, not what you want it to say.

[25:19] And I have it there in front of me so I see it every day when I'm preparing the sermon for Sunday as a reminder because guess what?

[25:30] I can be tempted. And that quote comes from Titus 1.9 talking of an elder in the church.

[25:41] He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and able to rebuke those who contradict it.

[25:51] And so a pastor's job isn't to entertain people and fill up pews by how culturally relevant they are.

[26:06] It's to preach the word. And for pastors and for Christians as well, it's to preach the word, it's to proclaim the word, and be okay with being unpopular for doing that.

[26:18] In fact, a true Christian will never win a popularity contest in this world. So they contradict one another.

[26:30] The second reason that John gives us for why God's love and what the world loves cannot coexist is that the things the world loves coerce you to sin.

[26:41] The things that the world loves coerce you to sin. Look again with me at verse 16. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life are not from the Father but is from the world.

[27:00] And so in this verse, John further explains why love for God and love for the world cannot coexist. If you love what the world loves, it will pull you away from God and from the truth.

[27:17] The Bible says that we are all born with a sin nature and when John talks about the desires of the flesh, that's what he has in mind. What the sin nature desires.

[27:31] What it desires is to take God's good things and pervert them and take them beyond the limits that God has established for them.

[27:45] Paul warned the Galatians about the immoral excesses the sinful flesh desires in Galatians chapter 5. Now the works of the flesh are evident.

[27:58] Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

[28:17] I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. See, the world is always trying to put these things before your eyes to coerce you to lay down your Christian convictions.

[28:43] And Jesus warned again about the eye and what we are looking at in Matthew 6. The eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness.

[28:57] If then the light in you is darkness how great is the darkness. See an example of this from King David in the Old Testament don't we?

[29:11] Here's a man that God said was after his own heart and he was a valiant warrior. He was anointed king.

[29:22] God gave him the kingdom but then he got lethargic and he got lazy and during the time when kings are supposed to be out to battle with their warriors King David was where he wasn't supposed to be.

[29:36] He was at home and he was bored and so he goes for a walk on his rooftop and guess what happens? He sees a beautiful woman bathing and he calls to her and he knows her and she conceives a child and then he tries to cover it up by killing the husband of that woman and there were consequences for that.

[30:01] God forgave him but there were consequences for David and for his family for the rest of his life. He wasn't careful with his eyes.

[30:15] You know we used to sing a song in church when I was a kid maybe it's still sung but we'll be careful little eyes what you see for the father up above is looking down in love so be careful little eyes what you see.

[30:31] The world is always trying to divert your eyes from God and from what is true and to fill your heart with the pride of life.

[30:45] The pride of life refers to I think wanting more not being content with what you have. The pride of life creates a sense of envy and rivalry and burning jealousy.

[31:02] It craves more and it makes those who have what you want people that you hate. It also seeks to accumulate the world's treasures I think so that others will be envious of you.

[31:21] Look at me. Look at what I have. It's a desire to outshine or to outrank others to make you feel better about yourself and make them feel worse about themselves.

[31:36] and I think in a twisted way this is how some people become famous like the Kardashian family for example.

[31:49] Often the popularity of celebrities is due to their ability to stir dissatisfaction within us and advertisers prey on that using celebrities to endorse their products with the promise that if you buy this you'll be satisfied.

[32:12] You'll be happy. Other people will be jealous of you. Won't that make you feel good about yourself? Loving the world will coerce you to believe that its treasures and its philosophies its priorities can give you a better life than the life that God can give you.

[32:33] Jesus said in Matthew 6 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Jesus also warned in Matthew 6 24 no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

[32:56] You cannot serve God and money. Money is one of the gods of this world. Money isn't evil but the desires it elicits in individuals creates all kinds of sinful actions and feelings.

[33:20] Many people look to money to what they should look to God for. Purpose and security and a love for money has caused many people to be jealous of those who have more of it.

[33:35] Love for money has put people in bad financial situations going into debt borrowing more buying things that they can't truly afford to feel better about themselves and hampering their ability to be a gracious giver as God commands.

[33:55] Love for money has turned many people into workaholics and absent parents. Our culture has made a God of money.

[34:06] It's what people in our world worship. But when a Christian is born again, they are converted. And God becomes in their hearts who He is, who He's always been.

[34:21] When you are saved, you cease putting ultimate value on the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

[34:33] God's glory takes more weight, more value in your heart. Has that happened for you? The third reason why these loves can't coexist is because the things that the world loves will cease.

[34:51] The things that the world loves will cease. Verse 17, And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

[35:06] John says that love for God and love for the world cannot coexist because God and the things of God and the people of God abide forever.

[35:17] But this world and what it values and what it promotes and what it celebrates will meet a disastrous end. Mark 8, it says, in calling the crowd to him with his disciples, Jesus said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

[35:43] For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake in the gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

[35:57] For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

[36:18] Jesus, when you are saved, when you are following Jesus, you realize that everything you give up in the world to follow him, you'll gain in eternity.

[36:38] would you rather have the world's treasures for a brief time or God's treasures for eternity?

[36:50] as Christians, we are commanded to follow Jesus. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit and his word to do that.

[37:07] And being like Jesus, I hope you've seen through the reference verses that I've used, being like Jesus means condemning what the world loves and what God hates.

[37:26] And that's the adjustment that I think we all need to make. Condemn what God hates and love what God loves.

[37:42] It's important that you understand the scriptures used before. What we're condemning is the system, the ideas, the thoughts, the beliefs, the arguments.

[37:56] And how we condemn it is we speak against it. And as we speak against it, we speak the truth in love. That's a lie, that's not true, and let me tell you why that's a lie and that's not true, and never forget to share the gospel when you do that.

[38:15] love. And another thing that I think is important as we think about condemning what God hates and loving what God loves is to apply it in the church.

[38:27] In the church. When you come into this building, the church isn't a building, but when you come into this place to worship, it's not as if Satan, there's some kind of, you know, barrier where Satan can't be at work to create problems and to create worldly attitudes within us.

[38:48] James warned about that in James 4.4. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions, lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, pride of life, are at war within you?

[39:04] You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

[39:21] You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world, listen to this, whoever wishes to be a friend of this world makes himself an enemy of God.

[39:52] You know, my prayer every week when I begin working on a sermon is that God will first convict me. And there are things in my life where I realize, you know what?

[40:08] It's too worldly. And maybe at times I feel a little too at home and too comfortable in this world.

[40:25] David Allen, he's given seven signs of loving the world and I felt that these were helpful for me just to pray through and to think about, to identify what are those areas, Lord, what are those places where the world just has too great of a hold on me?

[40:42] I want to share them with you. Number one, when the things of this world become our last thought before going to bed and our first thought when we wake up in the morning, what do you daydream about?

[40:57] what is your worst nightmare? It might help you identify something, some way, somehow the world has too strong of a hold on you.

[41:08] Number two, when we are unwilling to let go of something that God has told us to let go, something that God has told us to let go of, maybe it's an unhealthy relationship, maybe it's an unhealthy habit, what is that thing that if God asked you to let go of it that it would be hard for you to let go of?

[41:31] That might be another way in which the world has a grip on you. Number three, discontentment with your portion of the world's goods. Being envious of those who have more than you, thinking that you should have more than others, and just failing to thank God for what you have.

[41:58] Number four, when we pursue earthly treasures with greater joy than we do when pursuing the Lord. Do you find joy in your pursuit of the Lord, spending time with Him, in His Word, and in prayer, and in serving Him?

[42:17] Or are there things that are of this world that you enjoy and pursue more than that? Might be a way that Satan has a grip on you through this world system.

[42:31] Number five, priding ourselves on earthly distinctions. Seeking praise and envy of others based on what we have or what titles we accumulate.

[42:44] You make a purchase and maybe you think, ah, my neighbors are going to be jealous of me. Wait until they see me ride up to work in this new car or wearing these new clothes.

[42:57] Number six, attaining possessions by worldly means. Lying. Cheating. Brown-nosing. Doing whatever it takes in sinning to attain and have more.

[43:15] And then number seven, pretending. Pretending. Acting as if you've got it all together. Pretending as if you have no problems, no struggles with sin.

[43:35] Acting as if you don't need Jesus. That's pretending. Pretending. We must be on our guard.

[43:47] Because Satan, the Bible says, is like a lion on the prowl, seeking someone to devour. And if you've ever seen a lion hunt, they don't go for the fastest and the strongest in the herd, do they?

[44:02] They go for the one that's going to be the easy kill. And so you must be on your guard. If you're an unbeliever here this morning, I'm glad that you are here. You need to hear this truth as Christians need to be reminded of it.

[44:16] This is what Satan does. He's done it from the very beginning. Trying to tempt you to believe that what he can give you is better than what God has to offer you. It's enticing.

[44:31] It might taste good at first, but it ends in ruin and misery and eternal separation from God. He did the same thing to Jesus, remember? Before Jesus started his earthly ministry and he was led by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.

[44:49] And it was after fasting for that time that Satan thought he had his opportunity. And he tempted him with things that would tempt us. Things that John warns about here.

[45:02] Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Jesus, being sinless, obviously resisted Satan's temptations, but do you remember how he did it? What was the primary instrument he used to resist Satan?

[45:16] The Word. The Bible. It is written. And we must do the same. Be in God's Word.

[45:28] Abide in it. Abide in the truth. An unbeliever, trust in Jesus for your salvation. And I promise you that a life that you'll have in him is far better, far greater than any life that this world could offer you.

[45:49] Four application questions for you to look at today, this week, for us to discuss in our community groups tonight. Question number one. There are so many other things that could have been said that couldn't.

[46:01] I encourage you to go back and look at some of these passages. One, read John 17, 11 through 15. What did Jesus pray for regarding the Christian's relationship with the world?

[46:11] What was his prayer to the Father regarding our relationship with the world? And the follow-up, what does it look like to be in the world but not of the world?

[46:23] We're not commanded to isolate. We're commanded to go into the world. How else are they going to hear the gospel unless we go? But we have to understand what those limitations and what those boundaries look like.

[46:35] Question number two. Does not loving the world mean that it is wrong for Christians to seek to succeed in business or career? Why or why not? And I'll partially answer that question again.

[46:48] There's nothing wrong with money in and of itself. And God has blessed many with careers that they've been able to use to be a blessing to so many others. But have fun discussion question number two tonight.

[47:03] Question number three. Why might it be shocking for some to hear that God hates certain things? Why might it be shocking for some to hear that God hates certain things? Especially in our culture and what people say about God.

[47:19] And the follow-up, why is it important for us to not lose sight of this hatred? Finally, read Revelation 2, 1 through 29, and then chapter 3, verses 14 through 19.

[47:34] What warnings do these passages give to churches that love the world? What warning did Jesus give to those churches who had been flirting with the world and falling in love with it?

[47:48] May we never be a church like that. Let's pray. Lord, we know that the ruler of this world seeks to blind the eyes of unbelievers and is at work tirelessly to try to tempt us, to let down our guard, coerce us into sin, and take our eyes off of you.

[48:18] God, we're bombarded every day with the messages that this world system promotes.

[48:30] And God, we know that you have given us your spirit, you have given us our word to be able to discern what is true and what is false. And Lord, you've also given us your command that we're to be like you and to talk like you did.

[48:44] You didn't turn a blind eye to these things. You didn't let these thoughts go on without you speaking truth to it and warning those of what thoughts, what those thoughts, what those attitudes, what those beliefs lead to.

[49:00] And so, God, may we do it the same way. That, Lord, in our love for you and our love for unbelievers, that we would follow your example and speak the truth and love to them as we abide in your word, as we take these thoughts captive and as we use your word to expose air that more and more people, we pray, would know the truth and walk in your ways.

[49:23]  We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.