You know that song we sang earlier, change my heart, change my heart oh God, make it ever true. Why does that resonate so much with us? Well, it resonates with us so much because we realize that no matter how much we love God, do you love God? No matter how much we love God, no matter how much we delight to worship Him, to walk in His ways, no matter how much we warm to His voice in Scripture, we still constantly hear the voice of another suitor, another lover, if you will. Do you know what I'm saying? Earthly enticements call out for our hearts' attention constantly. Worldly priorities and values compete quite vigorously for our attention. And it would be bad enough if we were simply tempted by outside influences as we are. But we realize that we're plagued with a sin nature. An inward drive that actually wants to listen to the messages of this other suitor. That is inclined toward lesser gods. Some of us here this morning have been worshipping lesser gods. And so we need this warning. 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. This is 1 John 2 verse 15. Many of you have already turned there, I know. John is saying, those of you who are loving the world right now, you're giving your affection, your attention, your primary energy to transitory things, utterly earthly things. You must stop this now. Now why is this so urgent? You recall 1 John is all about what? Real Christianity, it's on the screen people, right? Okay? Real Christianity. What is real Christianity? Well, to be a Christian is to be married to God. To be a Christian is to be married to God. In the days of Jeremiah, God said to his people, Israel, return, oh backsliding children, for I am married to you. You're cheating on me. Today, on this side of the cross, we who comprise the church, the very bride of Christ. Christ's bride is to be faithful as he is faithful, though we're constantly tempted toward other loves. Real Christianity, friends, demands a divorce from the world. Now, as we often do. Let's read Scripture now to make sure that that's actually true. 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. I want you to notice with me that this command, do not love the world, is a present imperative. That means that there's something that was happening among John's first listeners. And John is saying, this isn't a hypothetical. On the off chance that some of you might be tempted to, no, no, no. Some of you are loving the world. You're cheating on God. Stop that. I forbid you to continue this loving of the world and the things in the world. And we need to know what this is so that we're not confused by it. Because every person in this room would at least have the inclination to say, well, good heavens, of course I don't love the world. I mean, that just sounds monstrous, doesn't it? To love the world? What does that even mean? Or we might be confused by it. Doesn't the Bible say God so loved the world? So God loves the world, but God's people are not to love the world. What is this even about? You know, when I was a kid, you guys have time for a story? You're gonna get it anyway, you know that. But when I was a kid, I used to sit at the breakfast table on weekdays with my sister, and mostly we ate in silence. We just rarely spoke. It was just too early for that. And I remember one particular morning, were sitting at opposite ends of the table, and nothing had been said. And just out of the blue, she hollered at me, stop it! And she said it again, stop it! And then she said what all big sisters say, mom, you know. And here comes mom, and as mom's coming, I'm thinking, good heavens, what is it now? I know she wants me to not exist. But that can't be what this is about. What does she want? Well, as it turns out, I had this annoying habit of eating my breakfast cereal with one eye closed. I didn't even know that. I just did it. And it came quite naturally to me, particularly in the morning. And it drove her insane. And of course, once I knew this, Here's the thing, this love for the world, listen, this love, that's just a dumb story. This love for the world, that we're to stop, it comes so naturally to us, friends. We don't even know that we're moving in that direction. And here the Word of God says to us as His children, stop this. And we want to just recognize that this is something that comes so natural to us. We need to know what it means to love the world. What is it that we're so inclined to do that we're admonished to stop doing if perhaps we've started it? Well, John the Apostle has just reminded these precious believers in first century Ephesus, that they have been redeemed by the immense overwhelming love of God for them. That they are completely forgiven of their sin because of God's love for them and the love that he put into practice by sending Jesus into this world to live a perfect life for them, to die an atoning death for them at Calvary, to rise again from that tomb for them. He wanted them to know in the midst of all of these sort of harsh, in-your-face warnings that, hey, you guys belong to God. You're approved of God. There's nothing that's going to change that, okay? He's just encouraged them with that wonderful truth. Whether you're young in the Lord, you're a new Christian, whether you're kind of a half-step from glory, not as young as you once were, or you're in that vast group of kind of in-betweeners, hey, you are God's child and you're precious to Him. And it is this great love of God that we just sang about and we just read about last week in particular that compels us to love Him. and to resist other affections that seek to draw us away from Him. This is not a passage that compels us to come up with a list of stuff we need to stop doing. There's no hope in that. This is a passage that drives us to the love of God and reminds us to constantly be relating to God in such a way that we are overwhelmed by His great love for us. Because it is love for God that overwhelms this natural inclination you and I have to put other things before God. Well, what on earth is meant by the world? Do not love the world. Do not love the things that are in the world. We live in the world. We're surrounded by the things of the world. What does it mean to not love them? Well, the word world there, cosmos, it's not speaking about the natural order of things. Trees, mountains, oceans, that sort of thing. And it's not talking about people, okay? The word cosmos here is that entire system of values and behaviors and thoughts that are opposed to God's word, that are opposed to God's will. They are utterly godless in that sense. There are godless influences and ideas and things that we are tempted to give affection to. We seek approval of the world sometimes. We seek to find contentment in the world sometimes. There are some of us here, no doubt, this morning who are struggling with contentment. And one of our struggles with contentment is we're trying to suck joy and purpose and hope out of that which God has said, there's no joy, there's no purpose, there's no hope in that. The world is the darkness that we've been liberated from. The world is the darkness into which the light of God in Jesus Christ is shining. And there's a great danger in this passage that we might underestimate its application to our own hearts. Because after all, we're good church people, right? I mean, who in the world goes to church at eight o'clock? I mean, the elect of God are here, right? This is a terribly early time to be up and about. Amen. We might see in others an affection for the world and yet insist that in our own hearts we're free from this sort of spiritual adultery. We have a tendency to rationalize our love for the world, to spiritualize even our love for the world. And we do this because we have far too small a view of what worldliness really is. So at the risk of straining your patience, let me just take another swing at it here. Worldliness is the mindset and priorities of people who ignore God. In other words, it's the perfectly normative life that is lived in this world apart from God. People who live as if God does not exist, who don't recognize God and therefore live independent of God or imagine themselves to be doing so. Worldliness, as I said earlier, describes the typical life of the typical person who is not redeemed. Okay? Now let me just ask you something. Is it possible that from the world's perspective, There isn't that big of a difference in some cases between the professing Christian in our culture and the person who lives out in the wide world apart from God. Worldliness and godliness, this passage is telling us, can't coexist. They are always at war. So let me just encourage you. Are you okay being encouraged? If that battle is raging within you, you do feel the pull of love toward the world and earthly things. There's a sense in which you should rejoice because that is an indication that the Spirit of God is working in you to warn you away from these things. If that battle is not taking place in you, let me honor scripture this morning by begging you to turn to Jesus. Because it is only the love of God poured into you. It is only the love of God poured into you that will bring this to your attention, this love for the world. What does John mean, though, when he says stop loving the world? Well, he simply means this. We're to stop living to gratify our carnal nature. He means that we're to stop living for the world's approval. He means that we should stop seeking as a first priority the world's favor, the world's comforts, its values. As a Christian, we're constantly warring against this in the power of the Spirit because the pull of the world is so strong. Again, it's the darkness that we've been saved out of. if we're redeemed people. That's what John means when he says in verse 15, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You cannot love God and love the world at the same time. It's not possible. The world being that whole system that is governed by Satan and his values and purposes. And so here very much is a warning that if we have no love for God, if our only affections, if our only attention goes to temporary, transitory things, then the love of the Father is not in us. Listen, love for the world is the natural disposition of all who are apart from and opposed to God. This is why you can't help but read the New Testament and conclude that Christians are called to be radically different kinds of people than those who are apart from salvation by faith in Christ. Now, here's the challenge in a passage like this. As long as we speak in generalities, we're safe. Do you like to be safe? Boy, I do. And have you ever noticed that about the Bible? I mean, as long as we speak in sort of broad, general terms, everybody's jiggy with it, right? But here's the thing. Here is a passage that won't let us do that. Look at verse 16. For all that is in the world, okay, there's the broad term, the lust of the flesh, uh-oh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. See, worldliness travels into your heart and into my heart on very broad avenues. The flesh, the eyes, the pride of life. And here's what this verse is saying. The danger of worldliness is not out there someplace. The danger of worldliness is in here. It's within me. It's within my own heart. This morning, I got up at 4.30. I do every Sunday morning. It just takes me a while to get ready. And the first thing I did when I got up, I grabbed my smartphone. I went into the other room so Pam wouldn't see me doing this. And I checked to see the Cougar score. I went to bed before the end of the game. And that was the first thing on my mind. As a person who's going to stand up in front of God's people and say something akin to this is what God says. Did I mention I'm a pastor? And I just thought, Lord, what's going on here? I got up knowing I was going to preach to you about not loving the world. Now, was there anything wrong with checking scores? I certainly hope not, because I do it all the time. But here's the thing. It was a reminder to me. how prevalent that is within us. We don't even know that it's happening when we become preoccupied with these things that have their place but become disproportionately important to us when they ought not to. The danger of worldliness is not outside of me, it's within me. Some of you know I used to be in journalism and I, for the longest time, as a journalist, was a little bit of a, of a workaholic. I don't mean in a way that you should admire. I mean in kind of an unhealthy way. My whole perspective on work was totally out of whack. My family suffered from that. And I thought to myself when God had called me out of journalism that, well, that solves that problem. Because the problem, as you all know, was the job. I mean, it just demanded that much of me, right? No, no, because as a vocational pastor, that habit went with me. It turns out it wasn't the job at all. It was Steve. And there was something very wrong about that. And God loves me enough to have brought that to my attention over the years. And the problem isn't out there, you know. It's in here. It's in here. Worldliness at its core is a matter of the heart. If your heart is captured by the world, you will love the things of the world. If your heart is captured by the love of God, you will be drawn to the things of God. This is not complicated. So in our lingo today, how would we explain the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life? Well, many words could be chosen, I suppose. I'm choosing the words sensuality. Let's talk about that. I've chosen the word covetousness, lust of the eyes, and ego. Anybody here have an ego? If you are given to sensuality, If you are given to covetousness, if you are controlled by ego, you are loving the world and the things that are in the world. You see, the problem isn't out there someplace, it's in here. When we think of love for the world, we're not meant to simply think of, oh, I guess I'm too attached to some material thing. Well, it might involve that, but we need to examine our own hearts. So let's just do that. Let's look at verse 16. You guys okay? The lust of the flesh. You know, God has actually created us to desire things. You know, desire is a good thing. There's nothing wrong with desire. Desires that are God-given are right and proper. When we're hungry, we desire to eat. When we're thirsty, we desire to drink. We were created for relationship. It's normal to desire companionship. It is normal to desire romantic love in its proper context. All of those desires are God-given. They're all in that broad category of things that God said when He rested from creation. It's all very good. It's all very good, okay? But the lust of the flesh, sensuality, is to live for these things, to gratify our senses above all else. And you say, well, what does that look like? Anybody here wonder what that looks like? Of course not. But let's just say you were from another planet, and you wanted to know what that looked like. It looks like America. It looks like America. Our whole culture is built around indulging the senses. Material things, food, drink, sex, whatever. To place those things that gratify the senses above all else, to give sensual things priority in our lives so that they are primary, they are a preoccupation with us. God says, you know what? You're cheating on me, man. do not love the world or the things that are in the world. Sensuality is simply what? It's the abuse of natural desires that are part of my human nature, okay? The desires aren't the issue. It's the abuse of those desires. I have a friend who years ago retired from his job as an engineer, and he doesn't attend church here, so don't look around the room. Not that you would do that, but. And he said, man, I'm just so glad that we're retired now. And I said, well, man, what are you going to do? And he says, well, we're going to travel the world. And we got it all charted out for like the next five years. They had all these trips lined up. And they were really cool trips. And so, as he was justifying his sensuality, I was justifying my covetousness. And we had a really spiritual conversation about it. But the thing of it is, five, six years have gone by now. And I had an opportunity to spend some time with my friend earlier this year. I said, well, hey, how's it going, you world traveler, you? And he said, you know, He says we're really struggling because we can't seem to find a home church that we can get connected to. We don't really have a sense that we're engaged in God's work. Do you ever have one of those times where God just helps you find your spine? I had one of those moments. It was fleeting, but I had it. I said, well, good heavens, how could you? You never stand still. You're always gone. And your whole goal is to run around and indulge your senses, basically. That's retirement. And I think we're still friends. I don't know. But you see how easy it is to get something that would be normal and healthy totally out of whack so that it becomes the main thing in life and actually competes with our affection for God and the kingdom of God. Arthur Pink, in his commentary, puts it this way. When God created man, don't try to write this down, you'll hurt yourself, but just listen to this. When God created man, He endowed him with an appetite for food, for marriage, for the beauties of Eden, but sin perverts those appetites and carries them to excess so that their gratification becomes only too often gluttony, uncleanness, covetousness. This is what John is saying. Look at verse 16 again. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. What's the lust of the eyes? Well, it's covetousness. It's covetousness. It's seeing the appearance of something that's so appealing to us, we then adopt that. I've got to have this thing. Even though it isn't something that God has given. And it may not be a material thing. It may be an attitude of other people toward us. I've got to have that. God hasn't given me that, but I'm going to pursue it anyway. Boy, how many of our burdens, our shipwrecks are caused by looking at things and coveting them over what God has given to us. We maneuver to possess what God has not given. Israel coveted a king. She wanted a king as her neighbors had kings. How did that work out? David coveted Bathsheba. Ahab had a wonderful garden and yet he coveted and plotted to steal someone else's property, you see? This vulnerability to covetousness is in view when the psalmist cries out, turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and revive me in your way. Do you know that psalm came to my mind the other day as I was looking at the newspaper? People still read newspapers. And you know all the ads that are in there? And I found myself doing exactly what the advertiser wanted me to do. I started seeing certain things thinking, I should have that. In fact, some of you have it, and I think I should have it too. Some of you don't have it, and I think it'd be fine if you had it. And you see that the whole advertising agency is based on that. Bait. And I thought, Lord, what am I doing here? I don't need that thing I see advertised there. Why am I so drawn to it? Well, that's what covetousness does. And how often do we need to pray, Lord, I don't even want to look at these worthless things because I know within my own heart there is a tendency to be inordinately attracted to such things. And then John warns them against the pride of life. All of this fits under the heading of worldliness, that general idea that we all feel safe in as long as we don't get too specific. What's the pride of life? Well, it's simply pride in self, self-glorification. It's our pride of life that causes us to keep up appearances, to pretend to be somebody that we're not. to try to outdo one another in whatever measure we can think of. It's pride of life that has us carry around that sort of spirit of superiority and arrogance and whatnot. Self-love, really, is what this is talking about. It's interesting to me how quickly many of us were to recognize pride of life in someone like President-elect Donald Trump. You see pride of life there. You don't have to be judgmental to just recognize there's something of an ego involved there, right? But here's the thing. We're not so quick to see our own heart's desire to be perceived in a certain way. to be elevated above others, to be thought more of than others, okay? I was sharing with someone the other day, jokes, we were trading jokes, and these two friends of mine have the spiritual gift of no sense of humor, and so all of their jokes are just absolutely horrible. And I said, okay, I got one for ya. Pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the person who has it. Now, that's not really a joke, is it? I mean, you can see it in others. And it turns you a certain way, doesn't it? You don't see it in yourself. Not so often. Isn't it amazing how any God-given virtue any of the good things of God can be sources of pride in self. That's human nature to turn that around and not to give God the glory, but to glorify self. Oswald Chambers puts it this way. Again, don't try to write this down. Nothing is more distasteful to God than self-conceit. If we are honest, when we measure ourselves by the life of our Lord who humbled himself even to the death on a cross, we cannot but be overcome with the shabbiness, even the vileness of our own hearts. And you see, this is John's point. He's saying, look, still in verse 16, all of this, it's not of the Father, it's of the world. It's of the world. Worldliness leads me away from God. A person might think, well, what's the issue with this, really? I mean, what's the danger here? The danger is that if your life is utterly consumed with what John calls worldliness, or love for the world, rather, the love of God is not in you. But among those who are saved people, this competes with our love for the Lord. It competes with our love for the Lord. Now in the next verse, we'll end with this, since it's the last verse. In the next verse, we get a third reason why we're warned against worldliness. Verse 15 told us that love for the world actually characterizes those who are apart from God. And verse 16 said that You know, those broad avenues to worldliness, sensuality, covetousness, pride. If you follow them, they lead you away from God. OK, they mess with your relationship with God. Look at verse 17. And the world is passing away. Here's the kicker and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. The great lie is what? the world's pleasures, the world's values, the world's ambitions. They're all hollow and they're all temporary. They're all passing away. Can you imagine? Any of you stay in a hotel recently? Sometime this year? Maybe last year? Nobody wants to admit this? Okay. Can you imagine checking into your hotel and thinking, you know, I don't really like that chest of drawers. First of all, why do you even use it if you do? But does anybody do that? That's not normal. Anyway. You know, I don't really like this chest of drawers. Let's go get a new one. Let's get one that looks better in this room. And the bed, you know, it's not as comfortable as it could be. Let's run down. There's a mattress store just down the street. Let's see if we can't spice this place up a little bit, change the pictures, that kind of, that's insanity. I mean, that is insanity. If you were to do that, that would make you not a normal person, right? Okay, but think of what John is saying here. That's how insane it is for the children of God to be so consumed with the things of this world that we spend the vast majority of our energy and time and money and thoughts on things that are utterly transitory. You're not staying here. You can't take it with you. Let me just encourage you, if you're here today and your career has become your God, repent of that. If you're here today and your house has become your God, I mean, you worship that house with your time, your money, your preoccupying thoughts, repent of that, turn from that. It's messing with your love for God. It's messing with your ability to be engaged in kingdom purposes. Enjoy the house. Just keep it in its proper perspective. If you're here this morning and the Holy Spirit has been whispering to your heart what other people are afraid to say to you, which is you're in love with yourself, repent of that. Repent of that. That is to love the world and the things that are in the world. They're not of the Father. How can we resist this strong current of worldliness when we live in the world? I mean, what's the solution here? Do we come up with a longer list than the one I just gave, which relates to my own heart, by the way? What do we do? Well, look at the last part of verse 17. He who does the will of God abides forever. Now, John has just said to these people, who is it who does the will of God? Those who love God, you see. So those who are walking in the love of God, those who are living as those loved of God, who live out their own love for God in the form of obedience, doing His will, then you won't find yourself. listening more than you want to to the voice of this utter other suitor. We nurture our love toward God by by worshiping him and getting to know him in his word and and actually doing his will, not just talking about it and carrying out his mission in the world, not just singing about it. And we will be less and less attentive to this call that the world is always crying out to us. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this admonition because it is needful to us. We thank you that you know our hearts perfectly, more than we know our own. We thank you, Jesus, that you have poured your love into us. You have given us a love for you. You have given us by your spirit the ability to recognize the lies of the world and its system. And Lord, I pray that Our love for you would grow, that it would burn hotter. Lord, that we would be preoccupied with you and your kingdom purposes. Lord, that we might not be pulled away by competing affections. We pray this, Jesus, in your name. Amen.