Reading this morning is going to be a little bit different Normally we read just a passage straight through this morning because of the nature of the sermon I want to read a selection of verses So feel free to just keep your Bible in hand and just listen as I read this morning The heavens are yours the earth also is yours the world and all that is in it you have founded them We know that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. He established the world by his wisdom and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. 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 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Religion that is pure and undefiled before the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. And all of God's people said, amen. He may be seated this morning. And let's pray as we come to God's word. Father, the only way that we can understand your word is if you enlighten our hearts If you come down this moment now and open our ears and our eyes to see what you have said, to reveal to us the meaning of what you have said, that we might have discernment and wisdom to understand what you have said and to apply it to our lives and to our hearts and to our faith. Father, give us wisdom. May the meditations of our hearts and the words of my mouth be a pleasing aroma to you this morning. Father, come in the name of Christ we pray. Amen. Amen. in the context of the letters in Revelation, the letters that Jesus writes to the churches in Asia Minor, I want us to look at one of the most important words a Christian can understand. And that word, as you might have gathered from the readings, is the word world. World. What does the word world mean? What is the first thing that you think of when you hear this word? What's the first image that comes to mind when you hear it read aloud or when you yourself read it in scripture? It's a very common word, the Greek word for world, cosmos, appears almost 200 times in the New Testament. And it is a vitally central word to the Christian faith, for how we define this word world shapes how we live, how we do ministry, our hope, our assurance, the very nature of our calling as disciples of Jesus. And it also happens to be one of the most confused and misinterpreted words in the New Testament vocabulary. But not without reason, right? Reading through those verses, you feel whiplash almost. It's like back and forth. What are you saying, Lord? Do you want to ask the Lord? Well, which is it? Is the world yours or is it Satan's? Does the kingdom of the world belong to Jesus or not? Is it founded on wisdom or on wickedness? Are we to love the world like you did or not love the world like you commanded? Are we to keep ourselves unstained from the world and separate or go into the world and preach? Is the world being filled with the gospel, the fruit of the gospel, or filled with hatred for us? Are we to avoid friendship with the world or are we to actively engage in reconciling the world to the Father? It's easy to see why we find this word, world, to be so confusing. And that confusion can create some serious tension in our lives. For instance, how often do our assumed interpretations of verses like, come out of the world and be separate, or friendship with the world is enmity with God, how often Do our understanding of those verses paralyze us in fear when it comes to actually going out into the messy world, the dark world, to bring to all the world the good news of the gospel? The people that need the gospel most are often the people we feel we need to be separated from most. So what does obedience actually look like? Now, if the word world meant one thing and one thing only, then we would be justified in our confusion. but it doesn't. Words are not two by fours. They have a range of things they can refer to based on context. The Hebrew word to bell and the Greek word cosmos, both translated simply as world. And both of the words behind the words world that I read in, in those passages from scripture, they both have three distinct meanings in the Bible. And so what I want to do this morning is briefly look at each of these three worlds and how we are called by God to simultaneously enjoy the world, hate the world, and love the world. And so let me briefly define each one before we dive in a little deeper. First, this world refers to this created universe, this created planet, the created order, everything that God made in six literal days nearly 6,000 years ago. The world is everything physically that we see around us. Psalm 24, 1 and 2 that we read for response of the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. This is the world that we are called to enjoy. The second thing, the world, the word world refers to in scripture is the spiritual systems and paradigms and philosophies of unbelief that undergird and define what we call the wisdom of the world. They are the governing principles of our flesh and of our sinful and rebellious rejection of God. John evokes this sense when he says in 1 John 2 16, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father, but is from the world. This is the sense in which we are to hate the world. Thirdly, and most simply, the world also refers to every man, woman and child born on this planet. You, me, every person we will ever meet. We are the world. This is the sense meant when Jesus says in John 3, 17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. And this is the sense in which we are to love the world. So how does this all play out? How are we to think, act, live, believe, fight, stand strong, worship, and love in this world which is so beautiful and full of wonders, and yet at the same time is so dark and full of sin, and at the same time is so hungry and full of the need of the gospel? How can we with prudence, as Proverbs 14 says, wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way? How can we with prudence discern our way through these three worlds and understand what holiness and love require of us in each case? Because it is really, honestly, it is really easy to fall back into a lazy assumption that we know how we are supposed to act. It's easy to take one of those verses, just one of the verses that I read earlier, and decide to make that one verse paradigmatic for how we approach all of life. God commands us to be separate from the world. That must mean that I should reject all the pleasurable things that God made in creation. Satan is the ruler of this world. Well, that must mean that he has universal power over nature and over every human being The Lord exhorts me to not be friends with the world. That means that I I shouldn't get to know my unbelieving neighbor that these would be false assumptions, right? Highlighting the need to discern with wisdom and to live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God, not just the ones that are convenient for us and not just the ones that we think we understand. So, first, how do we understand this world simply as creation? Simply as creation, as the world that God formed. Listen to these few verses from Genesis 1 and 2. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Then God said, let us make man in our image and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." Reading over these verses, there are two things that I want to bring before us briefly. First, this world is God's creation. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, which by the way, was written after the fall. This is God's created world, not Satan's, not the forces of darkness. We'll get to those guys in a bit. But right up front, I want us to see that this created world is something that God still loves. He delights in it. He owns it, and He has freely given it to us to use, to enjoy, to take dominion of. God formed it. God established it. He thought of it and decided that it was a good idea. He filled it with abundance. He made it beautiful. He made it wonderful. He made it delicious He made it exciting And so when we say that this is a dark world We emphatically do not mean the physical planet or the universe in which it hangs This is God's world In this sense, the world, the tangible created universe, every tree, every waterfall, every drop in the ocean, every grain of sand on the shore, every rock in the mountains, every cloud in the sky, every bird in the heavens, and fish in the sea, all the things that walk along the paths of the sea, all of it is magnificently glorious, putting on display for all to see the power and majesty of our God. This world and everything in it is an open book in which God shows us what he is like. Remember what Paul says in Romans 1? 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 he has made. That didn't stop with the fall. That didn't stop with the incursion of sin and death in this world. And so if you're ever tempted to say in your heart, man, I just wish that God would speak to me. I just wish that God would reveal himself to me. I wish I could just get a sense for what he is like. You've got to realize in that moment that you're thinking like the fish who is wishing he could understand the true character and nature of water. Everything around us, wherever we are, wherever we go, we are experiencing the character and nature of God. Simply by breathing, you are experiencing the kind gift of the Father, who He is, is clearly perceived. So that means if you can't see Him, if you're wandering around wishing that He would reveal Himself to you, it's not His fault. It's not His fault. The second thing that is necessary and helpful to point out from these verses in Genesis 1 is this. We were created to be masters of this world. That means in a very real sense, now work with me here, that means in a very real sense that this is our home. There is a sense in which it isn't and we'll get there in a moment, but as human beings we are created for a physical earthly existence. We have a purpose here. We were not created to figure out how to shed this yucky physical body and live as spirits only, floating around in bright heavenly clouds playing spiritual harps. That is not what we were created for. No, this world was created, then we were created to take dominion over it. And it's significant, have you noticed this in reading Genesis 1 and 2? It's significant that we are the only thing not created out of nothing. Everything, light, the oceans, land, vegetation, the birds in the heavens, the sun, moon, stars, the fish in the sea, the land, or the animals on the land, they're all created out of nothing. But then when it comes to man, God steps down, stoops down, picks up a clump of dirt and makes us out of that. That means this is where we belong. We belong on Earth. We belong in a created universe. We belong on a physical planet. And more than that, we were created to receive the goodness of this world. to enjoy it, to exercise authority over it, and to be fruitful in it, here and now. The Lord gave us a universe that was very good, with trees that were pleasant to sight, and good for food. He gave us a garden to tend, ground to farm, plants to cultivate, and a world to explore. One of my favorite verses in Genesis 2 is where he describes, Moses describes, four rivers coming out of the garden. And he says, down this river there's gold. Outside of Eden, out in the world. Down this river there's onyx, down this river there's bdellium, and it's good there. Good metals. Go, find it. Go, get it. Explore. Take dominion. We are created to receive the goodness of this world. He gave us a universe that was very good with trees and things that were pleasant for us and to us. And that fall, when we fell, and we did fall, but when we fell, that didn't change our responsibility. When we fell, God didn't say, well, so much for taking dominion. I guess you can all just hang out now until you die. Not at all. The fall changed nothing regarding our duty to subdue the earth, to be fruitful, to multiply. Except, the only thing the fall did was, was make it harder. Now we have thorns, now we have pain, but the task is still before us. The world is still before us. Our sin broke this world. Yes, it brought death, and so it is true. There is a new earth coming. A new earth where there will be no more tears, no more sorrows, no more thorns. And in that sense, the New Earth, where Christ will be with us in person, that is our ultimate home. That is our home, that New Earth. In that sense, we are living in exile here. Yes, it is true. We are pilgrims passing through. But that doesn't free us from our responsibility to obey God in the here and now with what he has given us to do in the here and now. We are not stuck in Vietnam at the end of the war waiting for the last helicopter out of Saigon. We have work to do. We have a physical planet to subdue and exercise authority over. We're not just twiddling our thumbs on a rickety train station platform waiting for the train to leave the station. Judah in in Babylon, exiled in Babylon, is a perfect picture of what it is like for us to be living in exile, us to be living in our spiritual Babylon that is this world. And so when the Lord through Jeremiah wrote the exiles a letter explaining how he wanted them to be living in exile, we can see that at the same time he is writing to us, he's encouraging us, he's telling us how we ought to be living in our spiritual Babylon. Judah, living in exile, knowing they were going to very soon return to their promised land, just like we are living in exile here, knowing that we are very soon going to be brought at the end of history to our promised land, the new earth, Judah was told this. This is Jeremiah 29. Build houses and live in them. Again, this is to the exiles living in Babylon for about 70 years. God says, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there, do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Living in Babylon, living in exile, living in the midst of the consequences for their sins, Judah was reminded that they were still called to be fruitful and to multiply, to build homes and gardens, to get married and have lots of kids. For us, living in this world, living in exile, living in the midst of the consequence of our sin in Adam, we are reminded that we still have work to do too. We are called to be fruitful and to multiply. Do not decrease, the Lord says. Yes, I know that you are in exile. I know that you live in a dark place. I know that you're living in a world that makes it hard for you to raise kids the way that you want to. But do not decrease, because I am with you, says the Lord. And I have placed you where you are in, in order to be fruitful there. to multiply there, to take dominion of the earth, to plant gardens, to build homes, to start companies, to invent cool new things, to become bankers, carpenters, painters, teachers, scientists, doctors, computer programmers, whatever God puts on your heart to do. Do it in obedience to me, he says. Seek the welfare of your city, for in their welfare will be your welfare. We are called to live, play, rejoice, and work here. We are called to faithfulness and obedience and energetic fruitfulness here, even if only for a brief season, even if only for 70 years of exile. We must not ignore this world. We must not simply hole up in our rooms waiting for the rapture. We must be actively pursuing faithful fruitfulness in this world, even though this world isn't going to last. Judah was in Babylon and was going to only be in Babylon for about 70 years, and then Babylon would get destroyed, right? Along with all those houses and gardens that they built. One can imagine them going, well, what's the point then? All this is going to burn. Still, they were commanded to subdue their land to be fruitful and multiply. And the same holds true for us. Put it another way, our jobs and our lives here in this world are not simply placeholders for heaven. Our work in this world is our worship. Our work is our obedience to Jesus. Our work, our play, our fellowship, our energy spent in this world is all part of seeking the kingdom here, planting the kingdom here, obeying Jesus here. Is it all going to burn someday? Of course. God will come back and resurrect the world. That means putting it to death and raising it again. Everything is going to burn. Does that change anything with regard to our obedience here and now? No, not a bit. Not at all. The sum total of our lives, because Jesus came and inaugurated the kingdom 2,000 years ago, is now oriented toward that goal. Everything that we are is now all about the kingdom. That is the gas in our engines. That is what our work is for. Through us and in Christ, the Father is reconciling the world to himself. We are called not just to be fruitful and multiply, but also now, in addition, to do battle with the rulers and authorities and cosmic powers that reign over this present darkness, with the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Just as we are created to subdue the physical earth, so now have we been recreated to also subdue the powers of darkness through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus. We are called to subdue this world for Christ, for the sake of his kingdom, to go make disciples of the nations, to not only increase in terms of physical children, but also increase in terms of spiritual children. And just as there are physical thorns in the ground, so too there are spiritual thorns in the heavenly places and in our hearts. Spiritual obstacles to spiritual fruitfulness. These are the forces of evil that we fight, the flesh in us that hates God. The darkness that is here because of sin and death. The systems of unbelief and rebellion against God. And this is the second sense in which we use this word world. And this is the world that we are called to hate, and to hate with every ounce of our being, fighting for truth and light and God's righteousness. This is the sense in which we call this world dark, in which the world is blinded by the ruler of this world, which is Satan. But it's important to note that this is the only sense in which Satan rules. As ruler of this world, as ruler of this present darkness, he has no sovereign authority over creation itself, over the first world. Jesus and Jesus alone sits on that throne. Nor does he sovereignly reign over mankind in general, the third world that we're going to get to in a bit. Again, Jesus and Jesus alone sits on that throne. The only power Satan has, and even here it is a temporary unleashed power, is over the systems of worldly wisdom and empty deceit, and over the hearts of men who have been blinded by such self-aggrandizing lies. Satan is the ruler of this world, but only again in this limited sense. Furthermore, it is a power compared to which the power of the gospel is infinitely stronger. infinitely stronger. First John 4, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. We can sometimes freak ourselves out by attributing far more power and authority to Satan than he actually has, which he loves, right? He loves it whenever we minimize the power and authority of Christ in any way, for any reason. He delights in our fear. which is why we must hate, and I mean hate, every lie, every form of deception, every fear, every thought or attitude that takes our eyes off of the glory and the majesty and the authority and demeaning of the Lord Jesus Christ who lives and rules and reigns forever and ever. Amen. Remember that this is what Jesus commends the Ephesians for in Revelation 2. that they hate the works of the Nicolaitans. Notice he doesn't say, hate the Nicolaitans, again we'll get to that in a bit, but the works of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus also hates. This is the sense in which John tells us, do not love the world, nor the things in the world. This is an either-or situation. Either we love the world and hate God, or we love God and hate the world. For the world in the second sense and the Lord are diametrically opposed to one another. John isn't saying don't love people, don't love apple trees. He's saying don't love the paradigms and narratives of unbelief. The systems set up by rebellious rulers and cosmic powers, rulers and powers that have already been conquered and put to open shame on the cross. Do not love the world. This is what James means when he says friendship with the world is enmity with God. Again, he's not saying if you like plums, you're an enemy of God. Or if you like people, you're an enemy of God. No. Friendship with the world in this second sense makes us enemies of God. He doesn't mean run and hide when you see an unbeliever walking toward you. He means, do not be friendly with sin, with the things that promote sin in your life, with entertainment that devalues the life that God made, with things that desensitize us to the wickedness that God hates. As a guide, take Philippians 4.8.9 and flip it, right? Whatever is not true, Whatever is not honorable, whatever is not just, whatever is not pure, whatever is not lovely, whatever is not commendable, if there's anything detestable, if there's anything worthy of censure, do not think about these things. Do not be friendly with these things. Do not entertain or tolerate these thoughts in your heart and mind. For if you practice these unlovely things, the God of peace will not be with you. The world in this sense, in the sense that it is the sum total of every false and deceptive philosophy, stands for everything that God hates. Because, and this is important, He hates it, not because He's hateful, but because it brings destruction to the other two worlds, the created universe and to His image-bearers. God hates sin because He loves justice. God hates sin because He loves righteousness. God hates sin because He loves joy and life and peace and wants His creation to live in that joy and life and peace. But sin stands in the way. The world, in this sense, lies in the power of the evil one, and God hates it. Because God has always hated sin and death He was not content to just let it slip away and to let sin and death have the final word was he no This is why he first saved the world through Noah and then more permanently through Christ This is why Jesus came to crush the head of Satan and why he is now crushing the head of Satan beneath our feet Romans 16 20 God hates the world God hates the world because He loved the world, so much so that He gave His only begotten Son to save the world by destroying the world on the cross. Did you catch that? Let me say that again. God hates the systems and paradigms and attitudes of sin and wickedness and deceptive teaching because He loves His created image-bearers. And those systems of sin and deception do nothing but destroy and tear down the creation that God loves. And so he is now reconciling to himself through Christ, rescuing from death those who were in bondage to that darkness. Those who were under the power and dominion of the evil one, dead in their own trespasses and sins. And he has done this by destroying the power of death on the cross. for Jesus came not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Is hell a reality? Yes. Will all those who refuse to bow the knee to Christ in this life be thrown into the lake of fire in the final judgment? Yes. But they will be thrown into the lake of fire because they refused to repent of their sins. And brothers and sisters, let them do that over our dead bodies. Let them do that with us grabbing hold of their ankles, pleading and being dragged with them. We'll get to that in a bit too. They will have persisted. The reason why they will be in judgment, the reason why they will be there in that final day is that because they will have persisted in loving the world more than God. loving sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, effeminacy, homosexuality, stealing, greed, drunkenness, reviling, and swindling others more than they loved Jesus Christ, more than they loved His holiness and purity, goodness and grace, and so they will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. And this is why we must hate, and again let me say it, hate is not too strong a word for this, We must hate every form of sexual immorality with a passion in our own hearts first, Christian, and then also in the lives of others. If it is not repented of, it will destroy us. This is why we must hate idolatry first in our own hearts and also in the lives of others. If it is not dealt with by the blood of Jesus, it will lead us away from the only source of life. We cannot afford to tolerate the ideologies and the philosophies of this world for one nanosecond. The stakes are far too high, Christians. We cannot afford to dally with friendship with the deep things of Satan, no matter how shiny or bright or innocuous they may appear. They are death to our souls and to the creation we are called to nurture and love because God nurtures it and God loves it. We must be ruthless in purging every grain of leaven out of our heart, our mind, our family culture, the things that we watch on TV, the things that we listen to, and the things that we read. And this means, just to take one example, if my movie collection is causing me to sin, It is better to be maimed and enter the kingdom of heaven than to enter into the outer darkness clinging on to just a bunch of silly movies. Again, the stakes are high, and if we are not actively eliminating the things in our life that cause us to stumble, the things that take our minds off of the supremacy, majesty, glory, and loveliness of Christ, the things that devalue the life that God has so lovingly and purposefully created, desensitizing us to the wickedness of sin and distracting us from our ultimate purpose in this world. If we are not proactively rejecting those things, then we are needlessly and foolishly giving the world a foothold in our heart. If we are not killing sin, sin will be killing us. And if you're not sure about something, err on the side of caution. the joy and the loveliness of Christ more than makes up for anything that you might have to abstain from in this world. For friendship with the world, indulgence in this world, tolerating the lies of this world in your heart and mind makes you an enemy of God. Whoever loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It is in this sense that Paul says at the end of 2 Corinthians 6, Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing, then I will welcome you. and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." Paul continues, since we have these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. Now these kinds of warnings have the power to freak us out. And so in response, we often decide that holiness means just closing the door of my bedroom and hiding from the greater world outside. This is the strategy of monks and nuns. TV is the problem, so I'll just throw my TV away. That will make me holy. And at first that might sound like a good idea, right? If I can't see the world, the world can't see me. But the problem isn't the TV. There's nothing inherently evil in a TV, or in watching movies, or in entertainment in general, or in anything in this world that God has made. The problem is that the world, in the second sense that we have just been talking about, the world is inside me. It is the world that we carry around in our flesh. So simply becoming a hermit does absolutely nothing to put to death the deeds of the flesh. In fact, it just makes it worse. Hiding away Now, hiding away just makes it worse because now on top of the sin of our own heart that we cannot get away from, we are disobeying God when He calls us to go out in the world. If I say, ah, the world, let me hide, let me just shut the door, let me just stay here, now we're adding to our sin that we couldn't get away from by doing that, now we're adding to it by not going out into the world like He has commanded us. So if we are called to be separate from this world, and now we understand this to mean to flee the deceptive habits and attitudes and philosophies of unbelief and pursue purity and holiness and loveliness through faith in Christ, what does it mean then to go out into all the world? This is the third and final sense that we have already alluded to. The world that the Father so loves, the world that we are to reach with the gospel, the world that is being reconciled to God through Christ, the world that is being filled with the fruit of the good news, that world, in this third and final sense, is simply people. You, me, every mother's son of us. We are the world. We are the world that God so loved that he sent his only begotten son to save through faith in him. We are the world that desperately needs to hear the good news of Jesus. We are the world for whose sins Christ became the propitiation. To love God is to love the things that God loves, which is to love the people that God has put in our path to love, which is to share the gospel of Jesus with them. And the gospel is not just something that we share with unbelievers, it's not just a tool we take out of our belt when we come across someone who doesn't believe, right? The gospel is something that we share with everyone, with one another, because the gospel is who we are now. It's something that we are, we are the living testimonies of the good news of His grace. We are the walking examples of God's mercy as revealed in Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who now lives in me. I am a new creation in Him. We are with a new mandate now to go out into the world, to search out every last corner of the world, which means to search out every last person in the world, and to bring to them the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ. We are to love people, show compassion to people, believe all things about people, be patient with people, die to ourselves for the sake of people. And not just people in general, right? It's easy to go, well, yeah, I love people. But I'm talking about the person three rows up and five seats over. That person who just really gets under your skin, right? Now, don't go looking. But that person, that's who you're called to love. The neighbor back home who hates Jesus, you are called to love that person. The co-worker who is uber liberal and has the co-exist bumper sticker on their car, you're called to love that person. The friend or relative who has now embraced openly the nonsense and rebellion of the gay agenda, you're called to love that person. and to love them in the same way that God has loved you, right? That is, considering their needs as more important than your own, considering yourself as less significant than them, seeing in them the same brokenness that once dominated your own life, and letting that realization fill you with such a fervent compassion that you will do anything possible to be the testimony of the gospel in their life. It means loving them with your words, thoughts, attitudes, responses. Confessing your sin when you have wronged them. Seeking their forgiveness. It means being ready and willing at the drop of a hat to forgive them when they have wronged you. In short, it means being the hands and face of Jesus to them. Because that is what you are. And you were given that gift, not so you could bury it in the ground, like the wicked servant, right? but to rather go out with that talent, invest that talent in people, and be fruitful. To go out and multiply the kingdom, trusting the Spirit to bring the increase. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that we, the world, might be saved through him. It is really easy to look at the darkness of this world, second sense, and get fed up, therefore, with the people in this world, third sense. But realize what it is we are doing in that moment. We are getting fed up at prisoners in chains, acting like prisoners in chains, chains which we only have recently been freed from. Where is our compassion? Where is our perspective? Where is our Christ-likeness? Our first thought needs to be the question, how can I reach them with the gospel of Jesus? How could Jesus use me to be the instrument of their deliverance? Like Isaiah in Isaiah 6, after being undone by both the majesty of Christ and the beauty of his forgiveness, what does Isaiah say? Here I am, Lord, send me. Send me. We are to be busy waging war against the strongholds of sin and deception, against the arguments of the one who appears as an angel of light, against every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. Your first impulse when confronted with the wickedness of this world must not be, Lord, get me out of here. Jesus himself prays in John 17, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. We might ask, why not Lord? Please take us home. Please take us out of this mess. Why are you letting us stay here? Why? Why? Why Lord? He explains a couple verses later. I do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word that They may all be one just as you father are in me and I in you that they also may be in us And this is why I don't want them out of the world so that the world may believe that you sent me We wage war because there are people in bondage to sin who need to believe that Jesus was sent by the father and offers them hope Brothers and sisters, we have work to do. What was Paul's attitude in Philippians 1? For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which shall I choose? I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. Are you hard pressed between those two options? I'm not. Take me home, Lord. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith." Paul didn't ask to be helicoptered out of here. He valued the needs of the Philippians even more than being with Jesus. Do you see that? It's out of our attitude. I know it's not my attitude, but this is what we need to be on our knees praying for every day. Father. Give me a holy passion to be your light in this world. Let my need seem utterly insignificant compared to the work of the kingdom, the work of rescuing those who are being led away to death, work that is found in whatever sphere of life you have put me, no matter my vocation, no matter my age, no matter my financial status. May my heart, like Paul, be convinced that it is for this that we remain and continue in this world. If you have breath in your lungs right now, you have purpose. And that purpose is to be the light of the gospel in this dark world. Second sense. So what does all this mean for us here and now living in these three different worlds? It means first getting outside and pursuing fruitfulness with whatever talents and passions that God has given you. It means knowing this world and subduing it within the sphere of your own personal influence. It means fully enjoying the things that God has made. Go have a steak, potatoes, good vegetables. Enjoy it. Feast. Delight yourself in what God has given you to delight yourself in. Giving praise to Him. Giving thanks to Him. It means fully enjoying the things that God has made, the things that we, in turn, create from those elements, always willing to let them go, lest they become an idol and distract us from the magnifying Jesus in all that we do. It also means hating sin and unbelief. First and foremost, the sin and belief that remains in me. It means hating with a passion the tendency in my own heart to follow after self rather than Jesus. to seek my needs before the needs of my neighbor, to consider myself as more important than others. It also means hating with righteous anger the systems of sin and tyranny that exist in the world. It means hating the deceptions and lies of Satan and his minions. It means picking up the sword of truth and destroying the strongholds and arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Because those systems and those paradigms and those strongholds are holding fellow human beings in the bondage of sin and death. Realize that, Christian. And so it means loving people. Hating the sin, loving the sinner. Recognizing that every person you will ever meet is an image-bearing, broken brother or sister in Adam who, just like you, is in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ. who just like you were once are in bondage to sin and darkness, and just like you are in need of God's kindness, mercy, and grace. It means recognizing that you could very well be the conduit of that grace and that mercy, that God has put you in that person's life for such a time as this. that through your kindness, your friendship, your patience, your endurance, your faithfulness, your testimony, your witness, your words, and your love, they might taste and see that the Lord is good. So, go now and enjoy the world. Receive all that God has made with gratitude and joy, rejoicing the things that he has freely given to us. Hate the world, the flesh that remains, every foothold of unbelief and self-sufficiency. Attack it daily, hourly, minute by minute, with the full strength of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit within you. And love the world just like our Father in Heaven, who far more than us is patient wanting all to reach repentance, and has filled us with that same love for that very same purpose, to go and to share that love with the nations, teaching them to obey all that Jesus has taught us, baptizing them in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and Amen. Father, it is so easy