I was going to make you stand during the whole message, but you just went ahead and sat down. Okay. A couple of quick things before we begin that I neglected. First of all, I want to say it's good to see Michael with us this morning. If you remember, we prayed for Michael for a while. He had to have brain surgery last year. Yeah, and so God brought him through that and to see him here today is a huge praise. The other thing, a prayer request. Please pray for hope. This week, hopefully, We'll have a new arrival, so just pray for her this week and that the Lord is good and all of that and delivery and everything there. So be in prayer for her. And if you would, I consider this sort of a prayer and a praise. Pray for my family. Many of you know that I asked for prayer for my Uncle and his wife, Kenny and Nancy. Kenny was on hospice care. And I got the text message yesterday morning that he passed away. So I say that as a praise. Why do I say that as a praise? Because he has been healed. He is in glory. He is with the Lord, and he is better than he ever has been before. And a prayer request, because my dear sweet aunt is... They're carrying a heavy weight right now, but they know where he is. And so, it's... Many of you know, as a believer, it's a bittersweet time. They are very special to Mary and I. They were the only ones out of my extended family that drove all the way to Tennessee for our wedding. and along with my grandparents who are both with the Lord now. But also, they've been very special to us and caring for us during different times in our marriage. And so, just pray for them. And we may, I think we're going to try to attend the funeral whenever we find that one, that is. So, turn with me to your Bibles to 1 John 2. 1 John 2. 1 John 2. And we come to the passage now in 1 John 2 that many know, many have heard quoted several times, familiar with. It's the passage, I'm familiar with it in the Old King James, "...love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." And so, I heard that passage a lot growing up and in Bible college and preaching. And so, when you think about that passage, from my background in the area of fundamentalism, the admonition is there in Scripture, and it is appropriate to preach to not love the world. However, to understand the world and its allurements, and we're gonna get into that this morning in this text, One of the things that you may wonder about when you hear that kind of admonition is, I'm in the world, I know I'm not supposed to be of the world, But the world is tempting. So how do I not love the world? And the answer that I grew up with, and the answer that I received in college, and many times in my background, I believe is an insufficient, inadequate, and quite simply an unbiblical answer. See, the answer to not loving the world that I was educated with was what I like to call isolationism. Don't love the world. Separate from the world as much as you can. I believe that is a wrong answer. And I believe that the text provides us this morning with the answer to how not to love the world. So, I hope that as we go along this text with me, you'll see that as well at a better answer, a more biblical answer, and a so much better way of living your Christian life than isolationism from the world. Let's look at this this morning. We've gone through 1 John, up to chapter 2, verse 15. So, let's do this this morning. Let's do our reading this morning, beginning in verse 1 of chapter 2. We'll go down to verse 17 this morning. So, let's begin reading in chapter 2, verse 1, and we'll go down to verse 17. My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in him. He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light. There is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His namesake. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong. The Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. Here's our text this morning. 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 lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. and the world is passing away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever." We have been walking through this text for a few weeks now, and as we began in chapter 1, we know that this letter was written by the apostle John. to the church in Asia Minor, mainly specifically the Church of Ephesus, and they were combating a false doctrine, a false teaching that had come up in the area and was now trying to make its way through the church, and that is Gnosticism, and many offshoots of Gnosticism. And so there was issues coming in with the false teaching of Gnosticism, and then the people in the church either grasping onto it listening to those teaching it, or even struggling with where they were at, what does constitute a Christian? What constitutes someone being actually in Christ? So he begins the letter off in the first four verses stating the hard and fast truth that I walked with Jesus. I know Jesus. Him who was from the beginning, we were with him. And he declares who Jesus is. He was not what the Gnostics tried to teach about his humanity being wrong and only his spirituality. He's like, I was with him personally. He then moves into some proofs of those who are in Christ when he gets to verses 5 through 10. And he says those who walk in the light as he is in the light. And then moving over to chapter two, he explains that one of the purposes for writing this is so that they don't continue in sin because the Gnostics tried to teach that only that is spiritual is good. Therefore, that which is material is bad and sin that you live in the flesh and you live in that material, then it doesn't really matter what you do. So therefore live how you want because only that whenever you become spirit is that which is good. And so, therefore, there was this, what we call today, using a big term here this morning, antinomianism, was infectious in the church. Meaning, it doesn't matter how we live, we're under grace, we can live however we want. And so John was combating that. And he dealt with some other things. He gave a doctrinal test in the first couple verses about obeying the commandments of God. Those that know Him keep His commandments. Then the moral test or the love test. Those who hate their brother but say they know him as a liar. The truth is not in him. You must love your brother. Then I believe he stops from what he's done, which I would say some hard truths that he's given them, and direction that he's given them, and then he moves over into some encouragement to encourage them. Listen, you, who I'm writing to, are in the faith. And let me explain to you how you should know that. Your sins have been forgiven. You know the Father. You know Him. You have overcome the wicked one, the evil one." And he gives them these encouragements that we went over last week. And then he shifts gears one more time. He goes from the encouraging part of it to now another admonition, another prohibition. What is this prohibition? It is the world. It is the loving or the desire or the pull of your heart towards the world. I believe this text this morning is the main point, the main gist of it is this. Love and desire for God cannot coexist with love and desire for the world. Therefore, be on guard for the alluring temptations of the world because they will lead you astray from that which will last forever, doing the will of God. That is my encapsulation, rearranging of what is written in this text. But we have to establish a couple of things. When we say these things over and over again, don't love the world, maybe you want to ask this question. Well, what is the world? I need to identify what this is so I know not to love it. What is it that I'm not to love here? Because it can be confusing, right? Because doesn't the same author, John Wright and John 316, God so loved the world. Now, I'm not going to rehash a lot of that understanding of the word cosmos and the usage of the world, because we went over that in verses 1 and 2 about the propitiation, but not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world, and understanding the context of this. So, we understand that there is different usages depending on the context of the term world. But let's define this morning what this is. So, the first part here, verse 15, the prohibition of loving the world. We see first the command In the first part of this, verse 15, what is the command? Do not love the world. So let's ask that question, what is the world? I really put in there a conglomeration just to, it's really a just, yeah, there's redundancy in it, but I just combined all of the different definitions that I came across for the way the world is, what this is talking about. So this is what we have here. It is the organized body over which Satan is the head. the kingdom of darkness. It is the system of this age which is led by Satan, who works against Christ and his people. The world magnifies humanity, celebrates depravity, and rejects God's Word. Think about that. Think about what we live in even today. The world magnifies humanity, celebrates depravity and rejects God's Word, the life of human society as organized under the power of evil. That is the world. Madison, could you give me some water? That is the world. This is what we live in. Now, if you're a believer and you're a Christian and I just read that to you or you read it on the screen and followed along with me, I dare say you have somewhat of an understanding of what I'm talking about. You get it because you see it. You see that around us when we turn on the television when we go out in public when we see these things you have the the spiritual Enlightenment because of Christ in you the Holy Spirit in you that you see What they're talking about when we see when we say this this use this terminology the world this evil world system that is against Christ and his people And so we must be aware of it. Warren Rearsby said this, love for the world can also be called worldliness. Worldliness is opposed to godliness. But we must remember that worldliness is not so much a matter of activity as of attitude. For worldliness is a matter of the heart. See, here's the big difference. do you desire to run to from the inside? See, that's where isolationism falls short. Because isolationism thinks the world looks like this, so we're gonna dress this way and not look like the world, therefore we're not worldly. But you haven't dressed up the heart. Because even though you can throw this and you can make your kids look like this and you can do these things, you haven't addressed the heart. Because what is the heart still drifting to? It's wanting those things. What about yourself? Here's another point that I had this morning before we move on from this subject. And that is simply this. You think about even the temptation that Christians may find towards the world. But this is another truth we must remember. The world doesn't love you. The world hates you. Still in 1 John, look over at chapter 3. Look at verse 13. I could go to many passages, especially in the Gospels, John, but let's just look at this one. Verse 13. John says, Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren and he who does not love his brother abides in death. What did Jesus say? If they hated me, they will hate you. The world hates you. The world hates this. Turn on some of the major news stations and just listen to it for 30 minutes. you will see an antagonism for every belief and truth that you believe based out of Scripture. Because they hate it. What they want, the only tolerance they will have of a New Testament Christianity is that which meets and exists but believes what they believe. You must drop and reinterpret and change what you have. And this is infecting the major denominations for the last 50 years, 60 years. You could probably say longer than that. But this is the fight that people are having in some of these major denominations. As the world's ideologies seep into these denominations and the fight that is happening. My friend is involved in the Southern Baptist Convention. And it seems like the last five years, one of the main phrases that gets said from the convention floor whenever they're discussing what they consider controversial issues is, remember brothers, the world is watching. I just laugh at that. What is that supposed to mean? Yes, the world's watching and it hates you. If you're following Christ, if you're following God, we expect them to like us? So this is an aspect of trying to love the world is the antithesis of loving God. Because the world, this system, hates God. So if you are with God, then you must expect and be ready for its hatred of you. He says, do not love the world, in verse number 15. And then he says, or the things of the world. So don't love the things of the world. Before we... He explains this, and now this is built out of this, in the next verse, in verse 16. But before he does, let me ask you a couple of questions. Does outward prosperity appeal to you more than growth and godliness? These are questions that get to the heart of where you are in your temptation and allurement for love for the world. Where's your desire? Does outward prosperity appeal to you more than growth in godliness? Do you esteem and crave the approval of those around you? Do you go to great lengths to avoid looking foolish or being rejected for your Christian faith? Do you go to great lengths to avoid looking foolish or being rejected for your Christian faith? Do you consider present and material results more important than eternal reward? This happens a lot in churches and church leadership. Do you consider present and material results more important than eternal reward? And have you departed from God and adopted idols instead?" So, here's the reason. Do not love the world or the things in the world. What's the reason? Well, he gives the negative form of it. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That's your reason. Very clear, very simple. But turn that around. Turn it around. What's the positive form of it? If you love the Father, you will not what? love the world. This is starting to get at my application or my point that I made at the beginning in the introduction about the biblical and better way of the answer to not loving the world. Matthew 6.24 This is even given to us by Christ. 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. You cannot serve God and money. But we could quite easily say you cannot serve God and anything else. The reason you shouldn't love the world is that you cannot love the world and love God at the same time. Love for the world. Love for the world pushes out love for God. And love for God pushes out love for the world. James 4. Verse 4, 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 makes himself an enemy of God. So, are you feeling the weight of this? Are you understanding this? We have to be on guard for not loving the world. So that's the first idea here. This is the first prohibition, commendation, admonition, however you want to say it. This is it. This is the point. Don't love the world. All right, now everything that flows after that, he gives us his reasoning. Then he's going to give us the why in verse 16, because this is what the love of the world is. And then in verse 17, he's going to explain to us and it gets part of that in verse 17. And then he gives us to the point of what the world does and then what actually lasts forever. So let's look at verse 16. Number two, the product of the world, the product of the world. He says it. Verse 16, "...for all that is in the world." And then he breaks this down. Some of your translations have this as a dash there to explain what is in the world. So what is the world? We've explained that a little bit. It's the evil system. But then John explains it for us in these three categories. These three categories of temptation that even though you're a believer, you will face these temptations. What are these three categories? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. This is nothing new. In fact, John is actually giving us a strategy meeting here. This is a defense strategy. This is battle plan 101, okay? He takes something that has been part of the devil's repertoire, his arsenal, since the beginning, and he's now breaking it down for us so we know how to be on guard. For instance, hold your finger in verse John and go with me over to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. You immediately hear Genesis chapter 3 and you know what I'm getting ready to go to, most of you, right? The fall of man. Genesis chapter 3. God has created the earth. He's created man and woman. Everything is great. It's paradise. It's perfect. There's no sin on the earth. And then... Chapter 3, verse 1, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? So he asked this question. And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. The serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. You see his deception, the lying here. and continues on with this line, for God knows that in the day you will eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Now what John is talking about in 1 John 2, 15 through 17, we see broken down for us right here ever since Genesis 3. Watch this. So when the woman did what? Saw that the tree was good for, what? Food, lust of the flesh. That it was pleasant to thee, what? Eyes. Lust of the eyes. And that it was desirable to make one wise. Pride of life. He's been using the same battle plan since the beginning. Because it's been working for him. And so John is giving us... He's giving... It's like they went back and God gave him... This is what he's doing. Let them know so they know how to fight. Alright? This is what we're getting here. It's the same thing He used on the Savior during His temptation. Turn with me now to Luke 4. Turn with me to Luke 4. Luke 4. You can also go to Matthew 4, but we're going to go to Luke 4. This is the temptation of Christ. The temptation of Christ. Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days he ate nothing. And afterward, when they had ended, he was hungry. And the devil said to him, If you're the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. Temptation number one. What is he coming after him with? The lust of the flesh. He's hungry. Your flesh wants food when you're hungry, all right? He's coming at him with the lust of the flesh. So what does he do? He says, use your divine power to command these stones to become bread. Jesus answered him saying, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Then the devil, taking him up, taking him up on a high mountain, verse 5, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, all this authority I will give you for their what? Glory. For this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you worship before me, all this will be yours. Now, what does it say? Look at verse 5 again. So we've seen the lust of the flesh, command the stones to become bread. Look at verse 5, then the devil taking him up on a high mountain and did what? What's the word? Showed the lust of the eyes. He's putting things, the praise and glory of the people in front of him, tempting him. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes. Continue on. Verse number 8, Jesus answered and said, Verse nine, then he brought him to Jerusalem and said to him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. What is he saying here? He's telling them, he brings them before the temple, right now the people were confused by him, many of them were hating him, and he says, throw yourself down, you will do your Superman thing and just be caught in the air, nothing's gonna harm you, they're going to see it, and then they're gonna change their minds and know and love you. We've seen the temptation of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes. He showed him these things on the high mount and now the pride of life. You will have this position in front of the people. What does Jesus say? He answered him and said, it has been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. Same temptation, same strategy he used on Eve, same strategy he used on Jesus is the same strategy he still uses on us today. Now did you notice something? I know we're not in that text, we're not expositing Luke 4 this morning, but did you notice something? How Jesus defeated him every single time? It is written. It is written. It is written. He goes back to the Word of God. Back to the Word of God. Now, back to 1 John 2, verse 16. Let's define some of these things. What is the lust of the flesh? What is the lust of the flesh? This is the motivation for sin. pleasure. The motivation for sin in this is pleasure. It manifests itself not only in sexual sin, which is what most people think about when they come to this part, but that which determines life goals and making decisions on the basis of comfort and ease. These are the inordinate desires in the areas of food, sleep, and sex. Now listen to me very carefully this morning. All of those things are good things. All right? We're going to finish here this morning. When we finish, after we have communion, you're going to go and do what? Eat lunch. It is good that you eat lunch. It is good that you eat. All right? You need that sustenance. That's how God created you. But, The lust of the flesh is not satisfied with that which sustains us, but it wants more. See, the lust of the flesh takes food to an inordinate desire and way past what it should be to the form of gluttony. or other areas, all right? So this is the lust of the flesh. It is when you take food to an inordinate degree, into an inordinate desire for that and are misusing it. What about sleep? We need sleep. I know some of you don't think you do need sleep, okay? You need sleep. Sleep is always a reminder that we are not God. All right, we must have sleep. In fact, this is actually something that I've been a little interested in lately, and there's been a lot of research actually being done about the effects of non-sleep on your body. In fact, one of my favorite teachers that I like to listen to, Dr. Daniel Berger, just wrote a book, and the book is about 800 pages on the subject of schizophrenia. He actually has a large portion of that book on the area of sleep. because of its effects on the person and the body as a whole that then will come and demonstrate the effects of what many in our modern day culture have classified as schizophrenia. Did you know that the normal person, the average human being, if they go six days without sleep will die? You cannot live past that. If you go longer than 48 hours without sleep, okay? Longer than 48 hours without sleep, you will begin to exhibit the characteristics of someone who has taken a psychedelic, like LSD. They actually have a name for this. It's called sleep paralysis. You need sleep. That is God given. Now there's others in this room that want to say a hearty amen. They're like, I could sleep. I could sleep like, I'm probably the best sleeper in this church. Okay. All right. So, but here's the area where we must be on guard for is whenever that sleep gets a hold of our desires and we go too far with it to where it becomes laziness. where we could just stay there knowing we have responsibilities that we need to get up and do. And we're not saying no to our flesh, but instead we're saying yes to our flesh. This is the lust of the flesh. Then there's the area of sex. Sex is God-given. It is a good blessing and gift from God in the confines, in the parameters that He's given us biblically in marriage between a man and a woman. And it is beautiful, and it is wonderful, and it is absolutely great. But what happens is this is one of the most common areas in our culture and in our churches where it is perverted and taken way out of the purpose which God had designed it for. And therefore, it becomes a lust of the flesh to go beyond that which what God had designed it for. So these are the lusts of the flesh. Martin Luther said this. He said, the lust of the flesh is that pleasure with which I desire to indulge my flesh such as adultery, fornication, gluttony, ease, and sleep. Next, the lust of the eyes. The motivation for sin in this area is possessions. This moves from the temptation from within to temptations without. This is the lust of things that I see that I want. This absolutely tends to attack the contentment in a believer. The areas that you have of struggle with discontentment in your life normally are tied to the lust of the eyes. Douglas Sean O'Donnell in his commentary on the book of 1st John says, Satan wants us to covet all that is opposed to God, whether it is ungodly status, success, pursuits, possessions, or people. Then there's the pride of life. The pride of life. the pride of life, the motivation for sin, and this area is position. Position it is the pride of what you are and what you have for the mere purpose to gain praise from others and can I tell you this I think that the more that I Spend time in the ministry world. I believe that this is one of the besetting sins of many preachers and our churches and something that I I have to be on guard for I We see this with the advent of social media, do we not? The influencer culture. YouTube channels. Everybody wants to have a voice. Everybody wants to influence somebody else. Everyone wants to build their brand. And I dare wonder if so many times they have fallen prey to the pride of life. to the pride of life, being known, being invited to speak on the conference stage, being asked to write a book, the next work that will influence the church culture. O'Donnell says about this, this is the attitude of someone who refuses to rely on God as Father while he boasts in what he has seemingly gained by himself. It is the self-dependence and self-glorification. Do we not also struggle with this aspect of it? Instead of stopping and recognizing God and our own frailty and our own weakness and our own sinfulness, we say, like many of our children do when they begin to talk, I got it. Me do it, that's what I hear around my house many times. Me know how. And how many times do we as adults do that in the face of God? I got it. I can do it. And God, like us with our children, look down and just, they don't understand. That's what John says, or Jesus said in the high priestly prayer, or maybe it wasn't the high priestly prayer, but in the gospel of John, he says, without me, you can do nothing. This is the opposite of the gospel. The gospel calls us to humble ourselves and come to the cross for forgiveness from the one who should not have died, but died in our place. If you're here this morning and you have not got that settled in your own life, that's the call to you this morning, to humble yourself. Stop walking and trying to live in front of others in your own pride. But humble yourself, recognizing your need for Christ and His death on the cross. Because He lives forevermore. He lives to give His grace and mercy and forgiveness for His elect. So this brings us to verse number 17, the result of the world. The result of the world. First, that which vanishes away and then that which lasts forever. Verse 17, and the world is passing away. The world is passing away. This is why. Do not love the world. nor the things in it, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, it vanishes away." Kids, how many of you like cotton candy? Raise your hand. How many of you would like to live for breakfast, lunch, and dinner of cotton candy? Anybody? You like it that much? A couple of hands. A couple of hands. Now, the parents and the older people are thinking, Why? Cotton candy is not susceptible. I hate cotton candy. I do not like cotton candy, because it looks like, oh, the sugary goodness. It has all these flavors, and it looks so fluffy. And I'm like, oh, I want to chomp down on it. And by the time I just get a bite, it's gone. It disappears on your tongue. I hate it. It's like a deception to me. I do not like the cotton candy. That's the world. That's the world. The world is cotton candy. Because everything that it allures you with, it tempts you with, whether it's the lust of your flesh, whether it's those things, those possessions, those material things that you are tempted to, or whether it's the position and the pride of life that you think you want, it deceives you. It deceives you because it is empty. It is empty. It is nothing. And it vanishes away. It vanishes away. So what's the alternative? What's the put on, if we like to say, in verse 17 that John gives us? But he who does the will of God abides forever. He who does the will of God abides forever. Now what is the will of God? Well, this is not gonna be a message on what the will of God is. I have a message on that. But simply this, let's just say it this way this morning. The will of God is the word of God. You want to know what God's will is for you? Study His Word and obey it. Do what He commands you to do in His Word. That's the will of God for your life. Now watch this. Let me bring it back and answer the question or the thing that I proposed at the beginning. The answer to not loving the world or the temptation to love the world is not isolationism. But according to the Bible, it is a better love. It is not separationism. It is love for God. It is only as the love of God fills you and the will of God motivates you that the world can be conquered. Let me say this, doing the will of God is a joy for those living in love with God. See, the supreme desire that you must replace the desire of the world with is that of Christ, of God. This is why Jesus said, In the parable in Matthew, he says, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who, walking by a field, looks over into that field and sees a treasure. and the treasure is so worthwhile and so valuable and so exciting and precious to him that he makes it his pursuit and purpose to sell everything he owns, all of his heirlooms, all of the sentimental value he has in his possessions, everything he can to get the sum of money to purchase the field so he can attain the treasure. That's the pursuit and desire of God that we need to replace that temptation and desire for the world with. That we go so hard and so strivingly forward towards the love of God, towards Him, towards Christ, that everything else matters not. That makes sense when you begin to look at passages where he who loves father and mother is not worthy of me. He wasn't saying don't love your father and mother. He's saying that if you're loving others and people, even those within your family more, if that is estimated more to you than love for God, you're not gonna be with him. When you lose your pleasure in God, you will always find it more difficult to obey God's will. This is the constant battle we have that we're going to be fighting. But what did we just get in this text? Satan's strategy to form our battle plan. But the greatest weapon we have is the pursuit and desire for God, for Christ. Therefore, anything in your life that causes you to lose that devotion to God or desire to do His will must be identified as worldliness and resisted strongly. I love this hymn. And in fact, I think I've used it before at the closing of a message, but I just, I love it. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. There is light for a look at the Savior and life more abundant and free. His word shall not fail you, he promised. Believe him. and all will be well, then go to a world that is dying, his perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face." And what did the hymn writer get so great in the next line? The things of the earth will grow strangely dim. in the light of His glory and His grace. That's it. That's it. That is how we defeat and conquer the world. This is one of the reasons why it is so important for us to continue the practice of the Lord's table of communion. It is done, it is told to us to do this in remembrance of Christ. Let us always be striving in our daily lives to remember Christ, to keep him ever before us and to work on the cross ever before us. So let us pray this morning and then we will begin to go to the Lord's table. Father, we come before you, your church, your assembly, your people who are in the world. Father, since you have saved us and brought us to your wondrous grace, we are no longer of the world. But the world and this state that we are in still holds temptations for many. So God, we pray that you will equip us, strengthen us, help us always to be fighting and vigilant against the world. So therefore, let us strive, press forward, and pursue Christ with all of our hearts. Let us love Him supremely and see Him as the greatest treasure for our lives. Father, we pray that you are glorified and worshiped as we partake in communion this morning, as we think and remember on the broken body of Christ and the shed blood of him and the sacrifice and atonement for our sins that he made. Father, we pray that you're glorified. We love you.