[0:01]Well, good morning. It's great to see you all. My name is Luke. I'm one of the pastors here and I'm part of our preaching team. My family and I were recently going through some old pictures. You know, those, anybody remember photo albums? Like the kind that actually were in print, you know, you would used to print your, you know, best pictures and we were going through those. And it's crazy when you look back at a decade or two or three and you start looking at those pictures and you, you go, what was I wearing? I mean, and then what was going on with my hair? Like, like I thought I looked so cool and I thought I looked so great. What in the world was happening? And and the thing that's absolutely nuts about that is that uh you'll look back on the clothes you're wearing now. And think, what was I wearing? Right? Like, like that whole thing never changes. Like you, you know, I I guess some of us just decide, hey, this is what I'm going with, right? And you just kind of keep the 80s hair as long as you're going to live, you're going to stay there. But most of us we're changing constantly and yet the styles and the fashions are changing constantly. Some of the things come back, right? You live long enough and some stuff comes back. It's been wild watching college baseball to see mullets and mustaches. Come back. Right? That's been kind of fun. And then for the ladies, I mean, I like this trend that the Birkenstocks and the overalls are back. I loved the Birkenstock overall look, ladies, in the nineties. That was a good one and it is back. Actually the first article of clothing I ever bought for Molly when we were dating was a pair of overalls. Because I just thought, oh man, she looked so good in overalls and she did. And uh, so I'm glad that trend's back. Um, Other trends have mercifully passed away like Zubas. Anybody remember Zubas pants? The Zubas pants, this was a big, crazy. These are the all pro quarterbacks of the nineties wearing Zubas. Right? And when I was a kid, I just, oh man, I just, I would die for a pair of Zubas. And now Zubas are dead. They are gone. They have passed away. And that passed away is, is one of the ideas that that brackets this passage today. If you have your Bible, look at chapter two, verse eight. It says, the darkness is passing away. We're supposed to love a certain way because if we don't love, we're in the darkness and the darkness is passing away. And then if you look at chapter two, verse seventeen, it says the world is passing away along with its desires. That's why we're not to love the world. So, some things pass away. They're here today, they're gone tomorrow, some things come back, but a lot just goes away. Other things, by the way, last forever, like, like the little black dress. And the little black dress, that thing ain't going out of style, right? Audrey Hepburn wore the little black dress a long time ago and that thing is still going. So, so here's the thing, God is basically saying, I want you to prioritize what lasts. I want you to love what lasts. And so here's the thing, rather than loving Zubas, love the little black dress. Love the thing that's going to last, love the thing that's going to go. So, here's the big idea today is that in a dark world that is passing away, love what lasts. A lot of times we'll talk about love that lasts. Today, we're talking about love what lasts. Let's invest ourselves. Let's give ourselves away. Let's sacrifice for something that's going to last. That's what we're doing. So, this is part four of our study in the book of First John. This book was written by the Apostle John. John describes himself in the Gospel of John as the disciple who Jesus loved. They had a close relationship. John was a teenager probably during the life of Jesus. Now, a lot of time has passed, he's an older man. Lots of scholars actually suggest that perhaps at the time of writing this, John might be the last apostle standing. That all the other ones have died for their faith. All the other ones have been martyred. But John is there and he's, he's doing a lot of writing at this time. He's trying to reflect on what he's been up to. And so this letter, which some ways feels a little bit like a sermon, is written to a a church of people who are discouraged and they're despairing and they're even deconstructing. They're wondering, man, this life is so hard and I thought the promises of God were going to make it easier and it's not easier. Is this worth it? They're looking at all these different competing narratives about what's true and going, well, can anything be trusted? And so they're doubting and they're discouraged and they're despairing and they're deconstructing. And John's writing this letter to try to encourage them to hold on. To hang in there. Jesus is worth it is what he's saying. Now, one factor, this is true back then, this is true now, that that contributes to people deconstructing and doubting their faith. One of the things that contributes to that is when Christians love the wrong thing. Right? When Christians say some things really important, but they live in a totally different way, like, that makes a lot of people go, is this thing real? Can this thing be trusted? What, what is this thing even about? And we fall into this as followers of Jesus, where we start loving the wrong things. We, we say that we believe it's better to, to give than receive. But we kill ourselves to amass and accumulate wealth for ourselves.
[5:05]We say that love is the greatest command, but we bite and devour each other. We say that we believe that God's vision for sex is best. But we spend hours every week using pornography. We say that Jesus is the ultimate king. And then we obsess over American politicians. Friends, we, we have to love what lasts. We got to fix our eyes on Jesus, fix our eyes on his people. And move from loving all these other distracting things to loving him. To focusing on him, to going after him. The, the word love, key in the idea of love is the idea of sacrifice. That when you love something, you sacrifice for it. You make a willing sacrifice. You choose to sacrifice for the things you love. You sacrifice your time, your money, your energy, your attention, your emotion, your care, your concern. You sacrifice for what and who you love. That's what love is. So, so what are you, what are we going to love? What are we going to sacrifice for? Let's sacrifice and love for what lasts. That's what we're trying to try to do today. So, pray with me and we'll look at this. Father, we come, we ask you to help us to love what lasts. We pray that you would redirect our attention and our focus. Give us a reset so that we could love what you love in Jesus name. Amen. All right, here's how this passage works. It works a little bit, I'm going to call it a love sandwich and you can see this actually, if you just look at the formatting of the text. If you have your Bible, you can look at it, there's a, there's a solid paragraph of verses seven to eleven. That's like the top piece of bread. Then in the middle is verses twelve to fourteen and you see it, it starts to look like poetry, even just the way it's formatted there in your Bible. That's like the meat of the sandwich. And then you have another paragraph verses fifteen to seventeen, that's like the bottom part of the sandwich. Uh that's another solid thing. So the, we're going to look at this love sandwich. We're going to look at the first piece of bread, the second piece of bread, we'll go back to the middle. So, here's how I'm describing this is we're going to look at what to love, what not to love and how to redirect your love. What to love, what not to love, how to redirect your love. So, first, what to love? This is in verses seven and eight. He says, beloved, I'm writing you, no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. He's used this word over and over. Commandment. I'm giving you a commandment, a commandment. Was it old? Is it new? First of all, let's say, well, what is it? What is this commandment? Well, this commandment is clearly spoken in chapter three, verse twenty-three. John alludes to it throughout the book, but in three twenty-three, he really says, here's what it is. For, here's what it says. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us. That's his commandment. Believe in the name of his son, love the Lord, and love one another. So, in verses seven and eight, back in chapter two, he's going, hey, you know, this really isn't actually a new commandment, it's kind of an old one. Right? Deuteronomy five, Leviticus nineteen, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Leviticus nineteen, love your neighbor as yourself. So, he's going, on the one hand, this isn't really new. On the other hand, it is kind of new because Jesus took it to a whole another level. When Jesus says in John thirteen thirty-four, you know, as I have loved you, now you love one another, that's like just going whole next level. Right? That's not just saying love your neighbor yourself, it's saying love your neighbor like I've loved you. Right? This is like I, I've always loved in the summer, just the smell of cooking hamburgers. Is that great when you go out in the afternoon and you smell burgers? Right? I love cooking burgers. Um, you know, and so making good burgers, that's nothing really all that new. But then last summer, I got, I got a a Blackstone. And now I'm making smash burgers. And that's a whole another level, friends. I mean that is next level. That's what's going on. He's going, hey, you've this commandment, it's not, it's not really that new.
[10:00]But, but Jesus took it to smash burger level, right? That's what's going on. This is serious. This is a big deal. Love God, love one another. That's the command. So, that's what we're to love. We're going to love God, love one another.
[10:19]And then he continues, verse nine. Whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there's no cause for stumbling, but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Verse nine, whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother, still in darkness. Here's the idea. You cannot be enlightened and unloving. You can't say, well, I got it figured out. I know the truth. I know God. I have access to spiritual reality. I have access to everything that's true. And then be unloving. That doesn't work in God's economy. Now, now listen, that totally works with the way the world is. Absolutely in the world, here's the deal. If you have enlightenment, if you have the truth, if you have insight, you have to hate people who don't have it, or who resist it. Right? You see this like crazy right now in right, one of these huge cultural flashpoint issues right now, the whole LGBTQ conversation. Right? You look at the irreligious left, who feel like we have enlightenment. We've moved past gender binaries. We've moved past all that sort of stuff. And we know that love is love, and we know that you can just be whoever you are, just look inside, find who you are. Like they have a sense of, we have found the truth. We're enlightened.
[12:00]But are they compassionate toward people who don't have that perspective? No. They hate them. You've never met someone meaner than a transactivist. These people are violent and these people are mean and these people are hateful. Why? Because in the world, without Christ, if you're enlightened, you have to hate the other side. Now, take the same issue and go to the non-religious right. Because they think, well, we're enlightened. We know how bodies work. And we watched Matt Walsh's documentary and we pay attention to Ben Shapiro's podcast, and we know how this goes. We know that you are, you know, how you're born. And do they go, well, you know what, these poor people on their side, they just don't understand. No, it's, we hate them. They're evil. They're horrible. You can't have any kindness or compassion. It is just full on war all the time. Why? Because in the world, without Christ, if you're enlightened, you have to hate the other side. Listen, own the libs is an irreligious idea. Love your enemies is a Jesus idea.
[13:45]You cannot be enlightened and unloving. And look at the word he uses a couple times is hate. Whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother still in darkness. Verse eleven, whoever hates his brother. Now, here's the thing. I have not met a Christian yet, who has confessed to me that they believe they struggle with hate. None of us do. We go, I well, I, I don't hate anybody. I just strongly dislike some people. I don't, but I don't hate him. I don't hate anybody. I just, if I, if I have anything to do with them, I don't want anything to do with them. But I don't hate them. Okay, well, I just did you a favor and I looked up the New Oxford American dictionary for the word hate. Here's what it says, definition of hate, to feel intense or passionate dislike for someone. Have a strong aversion to. If you can't say, amen, you better say, ouch. See, see the scripture is not just a window to look out to critique the world. But it's actually a mirror to hold up to ourselves and to have God seek and examine our hearts. And when he does that, what we find is we actually do hate some people. We actually do have strong dislike, passionate, intense, disregard, strong aversion for different people. And we need to repent from that. Because we need to love what God loves and what does God say? Believe in Jesus, love one another. So, what is love? Well, we said earlier that, that love is something you're going to sacrifice for. Okay, well, what is Christian love then? Here's the definition we use. We got this from Paul Tripp, Christian love is the willing self-sacrifice for the good of another that does not demand payback or that the person is deserving. That's the definition of Christian love. Love is a willing self-sacrifice. It's something you choose to do. You don't have to do. You want to do. You lay yourself down. It's a willing self-sacrifice for the good of someone else. By the way, not necessarily for the enjoyment of someone else, but for the good of someone else. They might not always like it. But you're going to willingly self-sacrifice for their good. Even when they aren't deserving and can't pay you back. Now, what does that sound like? That sounds exactly how Jesus loved us. He willingly self-sacrifice for our good when we couldn't pay him back and we weren't deserving. That's Christian love. So, what to love? Love God, love people, love this intense, self-sacrificial way. We have to repent of our hatred. That's what we're to love. So, that's the first part of the sandwich. The second part of the sandwich is what not to love. So, again, here we jump down to verses fifteen to seventeen. And again, we're commanded about what not to love. Look at what it says in verse fifteen. 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. That's an interesting thing, by the way. Just think about that. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. This is like saying it's one or the other, you got to choose. Right? This is like a dog who picks up a tennis ball and then sees a shinier, better tennis ball and says, let me try to pick that up too. And one's going to fall out. You can't hold two of them. That's what he's saying. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Verse sixteen, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. Five times the word world is used here. It does not refer to world as then the people of the world because we know God loves them. John three sixteen, for God so loved the world. Right? God loves the people of the world. It's not that. Here, it's, it's not a reference to the created world, though sometimes that Greek word means that. Here, it's talking about the system of the world. The world's values, the world's structures, the world's priorities, the world's, uh, sense of here's what matters most. One theologian said it this way, that, that the world here is the life of human society as organized under the power of evil. So, people are to be loved, that's John three sixteen, the system of the world is to be rejected. Verse fifteen here, do not love the world. And again, the key idea here is love. Love is a willing sacrifice. So, he's saying, don't lay yourself down for the pleasures of this world. Don't lay yourself down for, verse sixteen, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life. Don't willingly sacrifice, this is what so many of us do. We live for the world, we live for the world of our career and we sacrifice our children. We live for the world of advancement and we sacrifice our health. We live for the world of our children's opportunities and we sacrifice our commitment to faith. We live for the world and so we make all kinds of sacrifices. He's saying, no, no, no, don't do that.
[19:53]And don't be asking what will gratify me now? That's the, that's the question of the world. That's the question that everyone is spending billions of dollars to get you to ask. What will gratify me now? That's a, that's the wrong question. That's not a question for Christians. If you're asking that question, beware. It's crowding out the love you have for God. Now, loving the world, sometimes that's big stuff. We talk here a lot about the the dangers of sex and money and power. Bible, over and over. I mean, it's just, it's the same song on repeat. Sex, money, power, sex, money, power, sex, money, power. These things are constantly derailing the people of God. We know what God says about sex, we deviate from it, it ruins us. We know that money is a big deal because it's the, the love of it is this root of all kinds of evil because it's a, it's a terrible replacement for God. If you look to money to find your security, and to find your freedom, and to find your comfort, to find your hope for the future, to find your ease, like, you'll find it there for a while, but it won't last. And power, it's so seductive. Because we want to be in control. We want to be like God. So, maybe it's those kind of big things like sex, money, power, but sometimes it, this love of the world can be even more subtle. I, I love this quote by John Piper, I've shared this with you before. Here's what he says. He says, the greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for Heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. The most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. And this can be real hard. Because you go like, ah man, I, there's all kinds of things in the world I love. I like, I, I love the smell of fresh cut grass, and I love the taste of lightly roasted espresso. Not dark roasted, but we can debate about that. Right? And I, and I love walking through Costco and smelling the tires. Oh, that's a great smell. Like that's just incredible. You know, and I, and I love the sound of a, of a bat really connecting with a baseball and knocking it out of the park. Right? There's a lot in the world to love. And and get this, the Bible says every good and perfect gift is from above. And it says that God has lots of good gifts that are meant to be enjoyed. So, it, it doesn't mean you, you have to not enjoy any of the physical things in the world, but it's saying, hey, there's this reality that the world's system is seductive. And it can get its claws in you and you have to watch out. Why? What, why is it so dangerous? Well, here's the first reason, it's incompatible with loving God. Look at verses fifteen and sixteen again. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It's saying you can't love God and the world in the same way. You can't lay yourself down, self-sacrificially for the good of others, while you are sacrificing others to fill yourself up on the world. You can't do it. It just doesn't work.
[23:51]And then verse sixteen, for all that's in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life. It's not from the Father, but it's from the world. And let, let's actually go back and look and see this. That that combination, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life, that is at the root of humanity's very first sin. Look at what it says in Genesis three about Eve. It says, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life, she saw, she delighted, she desired, she took. And and friends, that pattern repeats over and over in the scriptures. At one point in the book of Joshua, the people of Israel after totally routing one army, they end up losing to an army they should have totally wiped out. And they go, what happened? Well, what happened was, God had told them, hey, don't keep any of this plunder for yourself, but one person had, Achan had, he'd buried some of the treasure in his tent. And so they go on a search to figure out who, who, who, who broke this rule, who broke this law and it turned out it was Achan. And when Achan explains himself, look at what he says in Joshua seven. When I saw among the spoil, a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath. I saw, I coveted, I took. We tragically see the same thing with King David, when he should be out at battle, instead he's up on the roof. And it says, it happened late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful. So David sent messengers and took her. Saw, desired, took. It's incompatible with love for God. Instead, we see the beauty of God's creation, and we worship him for it. We, we don't, we don't seek to seize it. We don't lust after it. We don't crave that we've got to be in control of it to dominate it. No, no, no. We see the good things in the world, and we rejoice in God's goodness and we thank him for it, and we enjoy it, but we don't take. We don't desire. We don't seize. Because if you have that approach, here's what he's saying. It is incompatible with loving God. But it's also get this, it's incomparable with eternity. Look at verse seventeen, and the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. The world is passing away. This system is passing away. By the way, creation is going to be made new. Creation's not going to be junked. God doesn't make junk, and God doesn't junk what he makes. But the world system is passing away. So, so to love the world, to sacrifice the world is to, is to commit yourself to something that's incomparable with eternity. Now, imagine I came to you and I said, all right, um, I'm going to give you ten million dollars. What would you do with it? First of all, you'd go, liar. You, I know you don't have ten million dollars. And you would be correct. But imagine I came to you, I said, hey, what would you do with ten million dollars? Oh, man, I'd, I'd buy this house and I'd, I'd give, I'd give some to the church. Uh, and I, you know, and I'd invest in this thing for my kids, and I'd, what, what would you do with ten million dollars? Now, what if I said, what would you do with ten million dollars of Confederate money?
