The New Testament scripture reading for this morning is 1 John chapter 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message which we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Let's pray and ask God's blessing on the reading of his word. Father in heaven, we do thank you that your word has been tested and it has been shown to be true and that by your word, you are the protector of all who put their trust in you. We ask, Lord, that you would help us now even beyond our bodies to learn how to guard our minds. May you help us to fortify ourselves against the world. May you help us to fortify ourselves against ourselves. I pray, Father, that in this you would help us to live out the truths of the gospel that we would truly demonstrate with our lives that we are your children. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. When a person indulges in a sinful lifestyle, it is impossible to separate what that person does and how they live from what they think. It is impossible to separate a sinful lifestyle from the philosophy behind that lifestyle that drives it. I had a missionary to Haiti one time. He's actually a Haitian national one time. I asked him about the spiritual condition of Haiti. Because we've all seen what happens in Haiti, right? Just the massive amount of killing and murder and just horrific things that happen against the government, in the name of the government. And death is always the result, it seems. And I asked this gentleman, I said, what is the spiritual condition of Haiti? He said, Haiti is 80% Roman Catholic. It's 20% Protestant. It is 100% voodoo. If you don't know about voodoo, voodoo is a syncretism that engages African pagan religious and stuff like that and fuses it with forms of Christianity, whether that's Protestant or Catholic. But essentially what he's saying is that every single person there is stuck in the milieu of voodooism. And even when they don't know that they're engaging, they tend to be engaging. Well, what's the result of that? If you worship, According to a cult that values death, what will you promote? Death. What have we seen in Haiti? Death. The same can be said, though, about every aberrant philosophy, every aberrant theology, that it's all backed by something. You think of the Marxism that stands behind what's called liberation theology, or the humanism that stands behind modern liberalism, or even something that we wouldn't think about, but the idea, the philosophy of materialism that drives, it drives, it forces forward, literally, large portions of what is deemed the Christian Church today in the prosperity gospel. It's materialism that drives men like Benny Hinn and Creflo Dollar and all of these other people. Jesse Duplantis. It's materialism What do they tell you? Obey God and God will give you material wealth, physical wealth. You exercise your faith and God will make you rich. And when you look at them, it seems to have worked for them. You exercise your faith and they were made rich. But folks, that aberrant theology has a philosophy behind it, doesn't it? It is the philosophy of materialism, that the greatest good you can expect in this life is to be made materially wealthy. It's very, very small openings here and there for martyrs or a Christian suffering persecution. Because if you back them into a corner and make them consistent, it's all about materialism. Folks, this tendency is not new. Your philosophy will always bank your lifestyle. It's not new. in the first century, at the end of the first century here, there was a scourge that was about to be unleashed across Christianity, and it's a scourge that continues to haunt Christianity to this very day. And it was called Gnosticism. Gnosticism was basically a philosophy that blended the neoplatonic philosophy, which was dualistic, kind of in its presentation, that there is duality. and there is evil, and there are these equal forces, and the good is God, and the evil is, as Plato termed it, Plato came up with the term, the Demiurge, this force that is organizing all of the chaos that God created, and ultimately in Neoplatonism, what it came up with was that God made this great, wonderful, spiritual reality, and in an attempt to fix it all, this demi-urge, tried to organize the spiritual reality, and he formed it into the physical reality. But the more something becomes physical, the less spiritual it is, right? That would make sense. And the less spiritual something is, the less like God it is. So if it's less like God, that makes it more evil. And the dividing line, as far as this philosophy was, between good and evil, was the dividing line between spiritual and physical. If it was physical, it was evil. If it was spiritual, It was good. This philosophy emerges right at the end of the first century. Now think about this. This epistle of 1 John is written to the church somewhere around 95 AD. This is written right at the end of the first century. That means that when John writes this, the fomenting and the beginnings and the genesis of this philosophy of Gnosticism which takes Greek philosophy and tries to, and Greek paganism basically, and tries to fuse it with Christianity, with Judaism and then Christianity, it's already there. The beginnings of that are already there, and all John is doing is he's saying, look, I'm looking out on the horizon, and what I see on the horizon, in fact, what I see even closer than the horizon, approaching the church in an onslaught is this doctrine, and we need to put it to rest. And so in this epistle, he issues a warning. He says, listen, there is a worldly philosophy out there. And the worldly philosophy will make you think that if you don't think the way they want you to think, that you're just unintellectual. I mean, if you don't understand the truth of the demiurge, then you're one of those backwards Palestinian Jews. You haven't been out in the world. You're one of those backwards, kind of originalist Christians. You just kind of take what Jesus said seriously and you don't see the grand Hellenistic underpinnings that is so much broader than Jesus in that little towns there of Judea could have ever thought. You have to understand Jesus' part in the grand scheme. If you don't understand that, then you're just not very smart. Now folks, we can be called a lot of things in this world, right? But when people start calling us dumb, and it's no different. These Christians are caught up in the world that's around them and they don't want to be on whatever their version of social media blast was. If you're a Christian, hey, we heard that guy that owns that market down there is one of those backwards Christians. He doesn't even believe in the Demiurge. And it becomes so incorporated into the city and the atmosphere in which you move that you don't even know that you're lapsing into thoughts of this and that. And the more maybe for your business. You know, I need to keep these guys close to me because of my business, so I'll compromise this, and I'll compromise here, and I'll compromise that. And so John writes, and the theme of this comes right in the middle of this entire epistle in chapter 2, verse 19. I mean, excuse me, chapter 2, verse 15, where he says as plainly and as clearly as possible, he simply says, do not love the world. And folks, listen, we apply that in so many different ways. We say, oh, don't listen to the world's music, or don't dress like the world, or don't go to places that the world likes to go and stuff. That is not what John is addressing. John is addressing the underlying philosophy that drives everything. John's not saying, don't go there, don't wear this. John is saying, don't think this way. And folks, it is much more fundamental than what you're wearing today or what you listen to on the radio. Radio? Do people listen to the radio anymore? What your playlist is on Spotify. Is that still going on? I don't even know because I don't do it, so. This philosophy, folks, strikes at the heart of the identity of Jesus as the Messiah. This is where it hits. This is where it hits. It strikes at the heart of who God himself is. Now, you remember that I said The foundational philosophy behind what would become Gnosticism is the idea that material is bad, spiritual is good. So what was read this morning demonstrates for us how John attacked this right at the outset of his book. He says, that which was from the beginning which we have heard, why did we hear it? We heard it not in our hearts, he's saying, we heard it with our ears because it was a physical sound. We saw it. How could we have seen it? Speaking of Jesus, how could we have seen it? Because he was a physical being. We looked upon, in other words, it wasn't a glancing gaze. We held our gaze upon him and saw him there. It wasn't an apparition in our peripheral vision. And then he says, and our hands touched him, physical, the real body of Jesus. Right off the bat, he begins to attack this philosophy. What I want us to do this morning is just go through this book and just see how John encourages us to combat these kinds of philosophies that do war against the person and work of Jesus Christ so that we know how it is that we ought not to love the world. It might include changing your Spotify list. I don't know. It might include changing your wardrobe. I don't know. Neither does anybody else. What I do know it will include is fortifying your mind with the person and work of Jesus Christ. He does say in verse 5, God is light. God is light. This is a theme that shows up throughout just the rest of this entire book, an idea of light, because The sense from the pre-Gnostic group that was kind of forming these ideas was that as God emanates Godness in the world and his creative force, he creates all of this spiritual reality. As that reality gets further and further from him, it doesn't just lose something, it actually gains something. It loses its Godness and gains evil. It loses goodness and gains evil. The further it gets away, the more evil it becomes. And so what emanates from God then ultimately, according to them, is evil. Can you even imagine that, putting it that way? And so John says, no, God is light. And in Him is no darkness at all. That means that there is no emanation that ultimately turns dark. If it's dark, it's not from God. Chapter 2, verse 8 says, at the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away. See, it's not the light that's passing away. It's the darkness that's passing away and it says, and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Now there's a practical application of this philosophy. What's the application? If you say I'm in the light, But you hate your brother, he's saying you're in darkness. Why is that important? Because he's just said God is light and in him is no darkness at all. What's the implication of that? If you hate your brother, you can't be in him. Flowing then from God's very nature is the command to his people to love. Love. The one who hates his brother is in darkness. And that is impossible for a Christian to remain in darkness. Why? Because God is what? He's light. And mind you, this is written to Christians. Can I just say this? I think Christianity is due for many, many critiques. I think there are branches of Christianity and branches of so-called Christianity which need to be critiqued. They need to be brought to bear in light of God's Word, and the light needs to shine on these things, and the darkness needs to flee. Okay, so we got that. That needs to happen. But folks, I really wonder, when you can constantly bash on Christianity Speak, Lord, your servant here. I did it last week, so don't worry about it. This week it wasn't my fault. The point in all of this is that if you can constantly run Christians down and bash Christians, then I think there's something wrong with you. And you need to re-examine your faith, because if you hate your brother, and that's the dividing line is, right? Helpful and hateful. A helpful critique is good. A hateful criticism is bad. If your criticism is more hateful than helpful, then you need to re-examine what you're doing. You need to re-examine how you're thinking, and to be frank, you need to re-examine whether you are in the light. Now, he says that this kind of temptation is going to arise, right? God is light. In him, no darkness at all. Chapter 2, verse 17 says that The world is passing away and its desires are passing away. In other words, they're all temporary. He says, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. And then he gives practical advice about how this works out. This is just ingenious. Verse 12, children. It is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour." So he's writing to them as little children. I'm sorry, this is all back in verse 12. I was reading the wrong one. It says, I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven. This here is an issue of spiritual growth, not salvation. He's already called them children. They've already been justified, and he's saying that that's what makes you a child. You have fulfilled the minimal contribution, which is God saved you. I shouldn't say contribution, because that sounds like work salvation. Scratch that, add in a word that makes more theological sense. Sorry, I didn't think that through. But he's talking here about the fact that they're already Christians. Why? Because they've been forgiven. He's not laying out criteria as if you are justified by spiritual growth. This is actually what the Roman Catholic Church teaches, that your salvation is an ongoing process. It's not, your justification is not an ongoing process, only how your sanctification is. And that's why he starts by talking about children. Only criteria for you to be a child is that you were born. How were you born? Your sins were forgiven. I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven. That's it. It's going to develop the end of 13, they know the father. And even children recognize their father. But there's no, it's a description. The only reason that they're there is because they were born. Then verse 14 turns to another category. Excuse me, verse 13 turns to another category. I'm writing to you, fathers, because you know whom who is from the beginning. I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. You have overcome the evil one. He says later, young men, in verse 14, I write to you, young men, because you are strong. The word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. You have overcome Satan, young men. Young men, you have overcome Satan. Think about that. John, really? You think it's the young men who are overcoming Satan? Doesn't that sound rather counterintuitive? Maybe not for the women. Those old men here and those who are currently young men, I think you probably understand that you lose a lot to Satan. It's an ongoing struggle. Young men are the ones that overcome Satan. The point here, though, isn't that they have actually overcome in any physical way, not that they're not sinning in any way. In fact, we'll read later about that, that the sin part has nothing to do with Satan. This has to do with a young man, and you could say even a young Christian's propensity to want to fight. Right? Go look at everybody's YouTube history and you can probably, you can probably bank it where you have, the older you get, the more you're listening to stuff about maybe financial advice or about how you ought to, you know, this theological issue or that theological issue. When you're a young man, what's your playlist on that? Apologetics. Let's get in a debate. I'll show you how you wrong. It's characteristic of them. Have you overcome sin? Now, since we're not so inclined to share our failures with everyone, you might be under the impression that normal Christians sin way less than you do. Like you might look at your life and go, you know, if I could just tell everybody who I really am, they would see I'm a horrible Christian. I'm like the worst Christian here. The point here, though, is that you just keep overcoming Satan. Satan here in this passage isn't even addressed, I mean he is addressed, but he's not addressed as the perpetrator of sin. Because remember, fundamentally this book isn't about specific sin, this book is about false doctrine. So when John says to the young men that you have overcome the evil one, or Satan, he's not saying that you're living now a less sinful life than you lived before, or that in the sweet spot of your age range, that then you're going to have this spiritual strength that is going to allow you to power through all temptation. Because the fact of the matter is, temptation doesn't usually come from Satan. James 1, each one is tempted. Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. So where does temptation come from? It doesn't come from out there somewhere. It comes from right here. So if that's not the case, then what is Satan in 1 John? Satan is the perpetrator of this false doctrine. And he's saying, you are the guys, the young men are the ones out there, standing up, shouting down, fighting the fight. Tearing down the strongholds. Satan, then, is not necessarily invested in our moral failure as much as he is invested in our false religions. False religion that turns people from Christ, he is invested in turning the masses from Christ. Now look at verse 14. I write to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. Yes, you have overcome the wicked. Yes, you are strong. Why? Because the word of God abides in you. What is it that is your strength as a young man? It's going to have to always be the Word of God. In your spiritual childhood, you began to imbibe the Word of God. You voraciously consumed every word that proceeds from the mouth of Christ. You learn how to eat. Now you take that accumulated strength as the Word of God dwells in you and you tear down the strongholds of the wicked. Second Corinthians 10 says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, in other words, they're not of the flesh, but they're mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every, listen to this, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. He's saying you've done battle in this realm of thoughts, of philosophy, and you've won. So you're not little children, but there's still yet another level to go. And that's where he addresses fathers. Fathers. Notice here, the only thing really that is positive about fathers is their knowledge of Christ. 13, I am writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. Verse 14, I write to you fathers because you knew him who is from the beginning. Fathers, whatever else experience you may have, and we're talking about fathers maybe even more so in a spiritual You're aged. You should be a sage by now. Listen and understand this. Your wisdom as a man of God doesn't come from your ability to turn a question over and over and over and over and over again and get to the heart of whatever it is. No. Because if you come to the wrong answer, then all of that turning is worthless, right? Your strength as a man of God is in this, that you know who Christ is. You've been through the battles of a young man. You've stood in the trench next to Christ. You've gone to war against false religion, and now as you've passed through all of this, you know what Christ loves. You know the passion of Christ's heart. You know Him. Whatever else experience you may have in this life, you remember what the Apostle Paul calls it? He calls it skubalon. That don't mean nothing in a church, English-speaking church, right? If I were to say that in a first century Greek-speaking church, they might kick me out for swearing. That's how bad that word was, and Paul uses it. He says, I count it all as the old King James says, dung, which is kind of accurate. The newer translations say rubbish, not as accurate. If you get my drift. Everything else is worthless. You know Christ. As you come to the end of chapter 2, the beginning of chapter 3, he then says, this is what's important. Look at verse 27, he says, but the anointing that you receive from him abides in you and you have no need that anyone should teach you. Man, so many people love that part. You have no need for anyone to teach you. Like, ah, you see, we don't need pastors and churches and blah, blah, blah, blah, because I can just learn on my own. It usually starts as home church, right? I mean, we are home church, then it's just an our family church, and then it's just, you know, we'll pray before meals church, and then the whole charade goes out the window. I've seen it happen. I'm not just saying that. I'm literally thinking of an illustration of an actual person who were too spiritual to go to church, So they isolated, we're gonna have a home church, and then of course, nobody wanted to come to his home because he had nothing worthwhile to say. And then his family, they just read the Bible together on Sunday mornings, and then pretty soon, Sunday mornings went out. Now all of his children have apostatized. I think one or two have stayed with the faith, but five or six of them have turned from Christ altogether. The point of this, though, isn't that you have no need to be taught. The point of this here is the anointing. Now, folks, we live in a milieu of charismaticism, don't we? When you hear the word anointing, don't you just see Benny Hinn, you know, waving his jacket around or something like that? I'm going to pray for a mighty anointing to bless you, or whatever it is he says. This here, and sometimes the word anointing does talk about a special empowerment to do something. This anointing here doesn't talk about that. Fundamentally, what the word anoint means is to rub oil on something. And it was the way that they would sanctify something and dedicate something for the Lord's use. You take a candlestick, you rub oil on it, and you pray over it according to the prescriptions of the Levitical law, and that candlestick now was dedicated for temple service. You could not use that candlestick in your house. It belonged to God. You couldn't just use it however you wanted to use it. It belonged to God. This is what we're talking about here. The anointing here is that sanctifying rubbing of oil. It could be a reference to the Holy Spirit, but it doesn't have to be. The idea here, though, is that you have been set apart. You have been set apart for God. Don't use yourself. Don't use yourself to do anything else. You're anointed. Now what's that going to look like? Well, 29 tells us, if you've been anointed, if you've been set apart for Christ, he says, if you know that he is righteous, verse 29, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. So what are you going to do? If you've been anointed, you're going to practice righteousness. Look at verse 1 of chapter 3. If you've been anointed, then you're going to recognize the love of Christ. See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God. We are going to see and have hope in the redemption of Christ. Look in verse 2. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. There's a hope of redemption. There's hope of something in the future. The perfection of the future. There's a promise of comfort. See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we might be called the sons of God. But there's another thing in here that will be characteristic of us, right? Look at the end of verse one. We should be called the sons of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. You understand that in a society in which there is so much pressure to conform with the philosophical bent of the world, that a fundamental defense is to understand from the very beginning that they're just not gonna like you. You can say and do everything. You can be as charming as you want to be. I always tell people I make a great first impression. People that get to know me and have to live with me for a little longer, you know, they might have a problem with me. But a first impression, great, charming guy. Even if I do say so myself, but it's my birthday, so I can't. It doesn't matter what your charm is. They're not going to like you, because they don't know you, because they don't recognize your Father in heaven. In fact, it goes beyond that, because if you look at 1, it says they won't know you. Look down at verse 13. Verse 1 says, yeah, they're not going to know you. And then verse 13 says, and don't be surprised, brothers, when the world hates you. Hate, hate, hate. You got that? Man, I love to explain the Bible to people, and I love it when people who, even unbelievers, when you tell them something and they're just like, I don't understand, I don't understand, and you say, okay, but if you shift your thinking like this, then you just, and it just clicks. And you see even unbelievers, but you know what? When people are impressed that they've all of a sudden understood something and the Lord has used me to do that, I am under absolutely no delusion. that outside of repentance and trust in Christ, that person will come to a place in their life where they hate me. And I know that by faith because I read it in the word of God. And I know it by experience for a myriad of reasons. And you will too. Don't think that you can charm your way into the world's good graces. It doesn't know Christ. Chapter 3, verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers Whoever does not love abides in death. Then we get to the two concluding chapters, because chapter three ends by talking about this love that we ought to have for one another. Once again, I emphasize to you, if you are just constantly Christian bashing, you need to examine yourself. Chapter 4, then becomes very pointed back to the false teachers. Test the spirits, he says, verse 1. Test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. Many false prophets have gone out into the world. So you need to test the spirits. Chapter 5, then, verse 1 says, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Everyone who believes that Jesus is Christ has been born of God. Why is that important? Because he's trying to emphasize here that there is no dichotomy between Jesus and the Christ, which is exactly what the false teachers were teaching. There is the physical Jesus, and then there's the spiritual Christ. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. What he's saying here is that if you love the greater God, then you will love the lesser, his children. Then he brings back to the Gnostic warning. Look at verse six. This is he who came by water and blood. Why water and blood? This is speaking about his baptism and his death. And notice the ESV says, who came by water and blood, but I think the ESV has it exactly wrong, because the word by there should be translated through. The emphasis I think that John is making is that before the water, he was there. He came through it, which means he had to be there to come through it, right? Through water, through blood. He came through the water, he came through the blood. The sacrifice on the cross, many of the Gnostics later claimed that Jesus didn't actually die on the cross because death is a physical thing and he couldn't be physical. It's where the Muslims actually get their doctrine from 400 years after that. So here he says this is by through water, through the blood, and if he's gone through water that means before the water he was Jesus the Christ, after the blood he is Jesus the Christ. All of those things are true. Jesus then is the object of the faith. He is the object of our faith. Just to believe is not good enough. You have to believe in Christ and the totality of who he is. He is the one who passed through water and passed through blood. Not just one event, not just half a person, but the whole of what he did. Gnostics taught that Jesus never died. His baptism is where he had this bifurcation. He became the Christ after being Jesus as a human. Now, why is this a huge deal? In fact, they say, well, he didn't actually die then. He just seemed to die. Why is this a big deal? This is a big deal because the whole issue is, why did Jesus come in the first place? He was born. so that he could die. If he didn't die, then why did he come? That's where they had to come up with the idea that, well, he was just a really good teacher. He came to teach. But the Gospels don't bear that out. He didn't come just to drop some knowledge and then hit the exit. If the God-man didn't die, then what are we all doing here? The blood, the cross was always his plan. When he sat down on the mountain to teach, he sat down on the mountain to teach so that he could one day die. When the angels declared peace on earth, goodwill to men, to the shepherds outside Bethlehem, they declared that because the peace would only come through the death of Jesus Christ. When he walked on water, he walked so that his feet could take him. to the mount where he was crucified. He was always here for the cross, he was always here to shed his blood, and this is why if you get the object of the faith wrong, then all of it falls apart. Well, let's skip to the end. Look at the very last verse. After this big theological buildup, we have this verse that ends this way. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Huh? Way to get to the very last word in your letter, John, and introduce a completely foreign concept, because up to this point, he hasn't talked about idols at all. Is it an afterthought? I don't think it is. I think the reason that this ends so abruptly in this has everything to do with the entire thing is about because any Christ that is sub-Christ is no Christ. It's an idol, right? It's an idol. He is Lord. He is God. He is the Messiah. He is Christ. To live like he is anything less than all of those things is idolatry. Idolatry. Are you living like an idolater? Verse 20 says, we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true and we are in him who is true. In his Son, Jesus Christ, he is the true God in eternal life. And then he says, keep from idols. Live like anything less is idolatry. What if you are living in that? If you're in that arena? Repent. Repent, worship God. Worship the Son of God in the fullness of who He is. And who is He? If John doesn't make it clear in 1 John who Jesus is as the Messiah, he doesn't hold back in the book of Revelation, does he? Same writer. Chapter 5 of Revelation says this, Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders. The number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing and every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, such as are in the sea, and all that is in them, I heard saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever. Don't be an idolater. Worship that Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we love you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the encouragement from your word. That which brings us life. We pray, Lord, that as we consider how we may have been influenced by the philosophies of this world, I ask, Lord, that at the center of our thinking, at the center of our philosophy would be the glory of your son, that he is who he says he is. We pray, Father, that you would help us to love him as we ought to love him, to worship him in truth. In his name we ask these things, amen.