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[8:29] I'm going to ask this if you remain standing for our opening song. We're going to be singing Psalm 145, sorry, 145, verses 1 through 9. I will extol.
[9:07] Thank you. Each generation.
[10:07] Thank you. In your benevolence and your abundant grace, they'll celebrate the righteousness that you have shown to them.
[10:59] In praise and joy, so they will relate. The Lord is gracious and compassionate.
[11:20] He's slow to anger, rich in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all that He has made, and merciful to all on earth that move.
[11:51] I'm going to ask Stephen to come up now. He's going to be reading a passage of Scripture from the Old Testament. Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verses 10 through 17. Whoever loves money never has enough.
[12:08] Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This, too, is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefits are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them?
[12:21] The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much. But as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep. I have seen such a grievous evil under the sun.
[12:34] Wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners, or wealth lost through some misfortune. So that when they have children, there is nothing left for them to inherit. Everyone comes from their mother's womb, and everyone comes, so they depart.
[12:49] They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. This, too, is a grievous evil. As everyone comes, so they depart. And what do they gain, since they toil for the wind?
[13:03] All their days they eat in darkness, with great frustration, affliction, and anger. This is God's words. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this Sunday, acknowledging our sin and confessing our sin and our guilt.
[13:25] We acknowledge many times this week we have sinned against your holy law, even today. We have looked for security, satisfaction, goodness and truth, not in you, but in ourselves and in your creation.
[13:44] We know that we are not worthy to be called for us to approach you as our heavenly Father. But we are thankful for the grace and mercy that you've shown to us in Christ.
[13:56] That it's because of his work on the cross that we can be adopted into sonship, and that you can look upon us and forget our sins, and that it is the righteousness of Christ that we have that allows us to be blameless in your sight.
[14:16] We also lift up Keith before you as he comes to preach your word. We pray that you would be able to use him as your instrument to speak to us truth and goodness.
[14:27] We pray that your spirit would be with him. And we just pray for us that we would be listening with hearts and minds open, and that we would be able to respond to your message in faith and repentance.
[14:42] And we just pray this all in your name. Amen. Amen. Well, we're about to stand again to sing our next psalm. This is Psalm 39.
[14:53] And it gives the same message of what we see in Ecclesiastes, the same message that what we're going to see in 1 John 2 about the vanity of life. We're going to be thinking tonight about how we need to have no love for this world and the darkness in it.
[15:07] And so we're going to sing the same thing in our psalm to recognize the brevity of our life, the vanity of our life apart from our love for Christ. Will you stand with me to sing Psalm 39?
[15:18] Lord, show me that my life will end, how many days I'll see, and cause me, Lord, to understand how brief my life will be.
[15:49] O Lord, how short you make my days, before I sink in death.
[16:06] My years are nothing in your sight, man's life is but a breath.
[16:24] Like shadows people go apart, they bustle to and fall.
[16:39] They heap up wealth, but do not know to whom their wealth will go.
[16:56] O Lord, please listen to me, my prayer, and hear my cry for aid.
[17:12] Do not be deaf to the appeal, which I with tears have made.
[17:29] For as your guests I stay a while, I'm like my fathers all.
[17:46] A stranger and a pilgrim here, have mercy when I call.
[18:01] O turn away your eyes from me, let me rejoice again.
[18:17] before I finally depart, and hear no more remain.
[18:33] Amen. Amen. Well, let's turn to the Lord again in prayer.
[18:49] God, we thank you again for the privilege to be in your house this evening, to gather together as your people to give you praise. And we recognize, God, that we are not worthy to be called your people.
[19:01] We are not worthy to be your sons and daughters. As Stephen has already prayed, we recognize our own sin and our own depravity that separates us from your holiness.
[19:13] We recognize that we are children of wrath apart from the grace of God. And so, God, we come to you humbly and repent of our sins.
[19:28] We recognize that we have wandered away from you in thought, in word, and in deed. And we ask for forgiveness. We ask that you may cleanse our hearts by the blood of Jesus.
[19:44] May you see his righteousness in us. And with that reality, Lord, may it transform the way that we live our lives as we've sung and read already to recognize the vanity of our lives, to recognize just how short our time on this earth is, but we desire to make it count for you.
[20:06] God, we think of the many ministries of this church, the activities within this community. And we pray, Lord, that you will allow us to be productive in our mission.
[20:18] That we may see this city, this community, this nation transformed with the truth of the gospel. And so, God, while the task seems so outside of our reach, we can be so overwhelmed by the secular society around us that we think we are losing ground, may we not forget that you are the king and that your kingdom will never fail.
[20:45] And so, God, we ask that you equip us and enable us, give us a desire to serve you. We think of the many practical opportunities even in this church.
[20:55] We think of our international ministry, Connect. We thank you for the numbers that you have brought in recent weeks, both students, middle-aged and elderly, those who are new to our city, those craving relationship, those searching for truth.
[21:12] May we be faithful in pointing them to you. We thank you for the revamping of our toddlers group, for the new faces of parents and children who have come. We pray, Lord, for more in this community to know the opportunity for relationship here, that these families may be loved and served well, that they may come into this building and recognize your presence and your love in a way that they never have before.
[21:40] Lord, we thank you for the many students we have in our midst. And though some cycle through and some are only here for a short amount of time, Lord, we do ask that we may be faithful in loving them and serving them.
[21:54] We know there are many other churches that care for students well also, so we ask that you equip them with the heart and the desire and the ability to transform lives. We pray, Lord, for our students who are in the midst of a very difficult environment where darkness pervades the campus, where Christianity is scoffed at.
[22:17] May they hold firm to their faith. May you be close to them. May you prove yourself faithful to them and may you give them a boldness to share the good news of the gospel.
[22:27] Lord, we pray that for each one of us in our each walks of lives in the corners of this city that we live, that we may be lights in darkness, that we may speak truth in love, that others may come to know you.
[22:42] Lord, as we want to focus more tonight on prayer, may that be our desire not only tonight but throughout our week to be in constant communication with you, to hear what you have to say through your word, to be able to respond through prayer, to recognize that you are close, that you are a God who listens, that you are a God who answers.
[23:04] May we find great comfort and make great assurance in our relationship with you. And so, Lord, we ask that as we gather after this service to pray with one another, that we may be able to do so in sincerity, recognizing that you are a powerful God, that you are sovereign over all, and that you will answer our prayers according to your perfect will.
[23:29] We thank you that you are a God who loves us, that you are a God who cares, and we pray, Lord, that you be with us now as we turn to the preaching of your word. In Jesus' name we pray.
[23:40] Amen. Well, this evening we're going to be continuing our study in the book of 1 John. We're going to be looking specifically in John chapter 2, starting in verse 12.
[23:52] And as we would have seen in recent weeks and we're going to see tonight, how John writes this book is very much like a reminder to the church. And so I wonder how many of us often get reminders from one another.
[24:05] I think in our day and age with technology, we're often getting reminders on our watches, on our phones, on our computers, about appointments and tasks that we have to complete. If you're married, have a spouse, they're likely one to remind you of many things, birthdays, appointments, invitations.
[24:25] If you have children, oftentimes be a reminder to pick up a child here, a reminder that you may be late here, a reminder that you have people coming over to your home for dinner this night.
[24:37] One reminder that I often get is with this Apple Watch. I've had this watch for a number of years. And when you get the watch, it comes with these programmed notifications. And so I get more reminders than I really care to oftentimes.
[24:50] And one of those reminders comes from a mindfulness app. I don't know if any of you have seen this before. And oftentimes throughout the day, it will ding and I'll look at it and it says, don't forget to breathe.
[25:04] There's other reminders that say, stand up or go for a walk. And you think, these kind of seem a little patronizing. Like, I'm not holding my breath here. Of course I'm going to be breathing. And so for some, though, they actually like those.
[25:17] I've disabled those alerts because I don't really find them helpful. But some people do, even though it's a basic reminder that you can kind of split up your day, that can help you to refocus in a way.
[25:28] That's why it's intended. These well-intended reminders that give us a greater purpose to refocus on a task, on what we have going on that day.
[25:38] And I think in a similar way, this is what we see in this letter of 1 John. It's a reminder to the church of who we are and how we're supposed to live.
[25:51] You see, John wrote this letter as a leader of a number of house churches around, likely around Ephesus. And the thing was, this is the same John who wrote the Gospel of John, who would have been and seen and experienced life with Jesus.
[26:09] And so now he's trying to encourage the church in light of what he has experienced, in light of what he knows, and in light of conflict that has come to the church. So he wants to remind the church of the Gospel and how we are to live in light of the Gospel.
[26:24] And so we actually looked at this last week. One of these things that John says, he says, I'm not writing you a new command. What I'm telling you, you would have already heard.
[26:35] In a text that we'll look at later in chapter 2, he says, I'm not writing you because you don't know the truth. I'm writing you because you do know the truth. And so he's reminding the church of what they ought to know.
[26:47] Something very simple, something very basic. A reminder to us as well to understand as he begins in this letter that God is light. And if we want to have fellowship with him, we need to walk in the light.
[27:00] We are to keep his commandments. We're supposed to have this love for one another as James preached last week. And what we're going to see tonight, that we're not to have this love for the world. If we love God and God is light, then we should have no love for the darkness of this world.
[27:18] And so let's read our passage, 1 John chapter 2, starting in verse 12 through 17. I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
[27:31] I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
[27:42] I am writing to you, dear children, because you know the Father. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God lives in you and you have overcome the evil one.
[27:59] Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, comes not from the Father, but from the world.
[28:15] The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. This is the word of God. Pray with me once more.
[28:29] God, as we hear your text and we listen to it preached, we ask, Lord, that the truth of the gospel may penetrate our hearts. So, God, we ask now, even in these moments, that we put away all distraction, that you do a work through your Spirit to soften our hearts, to open our eyes and ears to the reality of the gospel, that it may transform us for our good and your glory.
[28:52] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, I mentioned these reminders. Some of us find reminders helpful. Other of us may really hate reminders. Perhaps if you're a child living at home with your parents, you get reminders frequently for things like brushing your teeth or making your bed or putting your shoes on.
[29:13] My children are already smiling because they're used to these reminders. It's things that they know, but it's things that they need to hear. The thing they don't like to hear it is because, like most of us, we don't like being told what to do oftentimes.
[29:25] And so, as we look at this reminder from this letter tonight from John, he doesn't just come out and just tell us what to do. We're going to see that in this passage, but really his reminder is threefold because, first, he reminds us of our identity, who we are in Christ, what Christ has done for us.
[29:44] Secondly, then he reminds us what are we supposed to do in light of this reality, and thirdly, why we need to do it. And so that's really the three points that we're going to be focusing on tonight, who we are in Christ, what we are to do, and why we are to do it.
[30:02] And so let's consider this first point, who we are. Now, my youngest, Crawford, just turned three, and he's getting to the age where we want him to be a little more independent.
[30:14] We want him to do more things for himself as he grows up. But it doesn't often work if we just tell him, Crawford, do this. The best way to get him to do things is to encourage him that he's becoming a big boy.
[30:28] He wants to be big and strong like his brother, so we encourage him that way. You're getting so big now, you can take your plate to the dishwasher yourself. You're getting so big now, you can clean up after yourself and put away your toys.
[30:41] You're such a big boy now. That's much more useful in getting him to act like a big boy when we encourage him that he is one. And I think the same works for us. We are much more motivated when we are reminded what to do, not just by being told to do it, but by being reminded of our own identity.
[31:00] And that's what we see here in a pattern that actually repeats often throughout the Bible. When we have these commands that are given by God, it's usually preceded by a statement of some sort, reminding us of who we are.
[31:13] The indicative precedes the imperative. And it's both that are important. Both that are important in this passage. Because if we only stress what we're to do without remembering who we are, what does that do to us?
[31:30] We become reliant on the law as a means of our own assurance and approval. Instead, if we do the opposite, if we're only focused on what we're to do without who we actually are, did I say that right?
[31:44] Or did I do that in reverse? If we focus on what we're to do rather than who we are, we focus, we cling to the law, right? If it's the opposite, if we focus on who we are, am I getting this wrong?
[31:57] Am I sounding ridiculous here? If we stress only, if we have this concern for who we are, man, I'm really confusing myself here.
[32:07] I've never done that. If we stress what we're to do without remembering who we are, that leads us to rely on the law, right? If we stress who we are without concern for what we are to do, that leads to a rejection of the law.
[32:20] There we go. And so what John is saying here, that both are really important. And so he starts this phrase by saying, I'm writing to you, I'm writing to you, I'm writing to you over and over again, really in a poetic fashion to really emphasize the assurance that he wants believers to have about what we're to do based on the fact of what Christ has done for us.
[32:45] And so he focuses on these three groups, on children, on fathers, on young men. But really, when we think about it, I don't know if it's really that helpful to kind of distinguish these three groups.
[32:56] Some people say, well, it's kind of he's talking to different stages of spiritual maturity. I don't know if that's really the case here. Because when he talks about little children, this isn't the only time he says in this letter, seven times he talks about little children.
[33:09] Each time, he's referring to believers in general. When he speaks to young men and to fathers, what's true of one is true of the other group as well. These are not mutually exclusive reminders here.
[33:24] And so it's kind of like if you've heard like an announcement, if you've been at a big event or a performance of some sort, and someone gets on the loudspeakers and says, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages.
[33:37] Right? They could have just said everybody who's here. Right? But they're adding a bit of flourish to what they're saying. I think John is doing a very similar thing here. In this poetic flourish, he's addressing everyone in the church.
[33:51] Young and old, mature Christians, those who are new to the faith, and he's reminding them of this. Your sins are forgiven. You know him who is from the beginning.
[34:06] You have overcome the evil one. You know the Father. Again, you know him who is from the beginning. You are strong. The word of God is in you.
[34:18] And I'm going to say it again. You have overcome the evil one. Is this not a good reminder to hear? We can read this and think that John is just talking to this New Testament church without really taking it to heart ourselves.
[34:34] But this is true for you and me if we are believers. And so it's good for that reminder to sink in. If we're here tonight and we feel heavy and burdened by sin in our lives, know this, that your sin is forgiven.
[34:52] If you feel spiritually alone and isolated, be encouraged that you know the Father and his word is in you. If you are spiritually weak and tired and broken, know that you are strong in Christ.
[35:11] That you have overcome the evil one. And so John is not saying this to motivate the church to earn this in any way, to prove themselves so that this may be true.
[35:23] He's not hoping that this may become true for the church. He's speaking as though this is a current reality for those who are in Christ.
[35:36] And so we can take heart and let this be our comfort and our assurance knowing what Christ has already done for us. And it's because we know that sense of identity that we can then listen to this second point, this second reminder because when we know who we are, it makes us much more receptive to listen to what we are to do.
[36:01] Verse 15, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love for the Father is not in them. Now immediately this may raise some red flags for some.
[36:12] those outside the church may try to use this verse in a weaponized fashion to think, look, these Christians they're just a bunch of self-righteous judgmental people who hate everyone who's not like them.
[36:26] Certainly this isn't what John is saying here. But even for Christians this may confuse us because we've heard other verses in the Bible, right? John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
[36:38] So if God loves the world why would he command us to not love the world? How can we reconcile these two things? I think it's important that we define some terms here that we understand what John is trying to say.
[36:50] We need to understand what he's talking about when he says world and understand what he's talking about when he says love. My dad always tells a story when he, years ago when he was starting the practice of law, one of his law partners was doing some wills for this couple and he had completed the wills and he had a secretary wanted to bring them back in so his secretary had this thick southern accent called this couple and said your wheels are done and they had actually just taken their car to the body shop to get new tires on their car and so when they heard that message your wheels are done they thought they said your wheels are done and so they went to the auto body shop to pick up their car even though they got there and realized no one had called and their wheels were not done before they realized their mistake that there was the secretary saying your wills are done not your wheels are done and so in the same way I think it's very important that we understand what's being communicated here when we think about this word world and we think about this word love when the Bible speaks of this word world it speaks of it in two different ways in different passages on the one hand this word world it can mean this physical material world and so we have some religions maybe even some within Christianity who want to think that the physical world is bad they hold it in contrast to the spiritual world and so they want nothing to do with the physical world you might have heard of asceticism before it's these people that deny themselves any worldly pleasure they want to leave society be separated from secular world go live in a commune in the desert somewhere that's not what Paul is saying here in fact that's a harmful way of thinking about the physical world because we recognize that God created the physical world and he called it good and he promises to come again he has promised to redeem the world this physical world from the effects of sin and so this verse it's not saying reject the physical world reject this created world as if it's totally evil instead John is speaking in a different way in this context he speaks of the world as this whole way of life resulting from the fall of humanity he's speaking of a whole value system of attitudes which are opposed to God and so that's what we mean by world what does he mean by this phrase love when John is using love here he's not using the same word or the expression as when we say that God loved the world or God loved his creation with a love in which he's going to rescue humanity here when John talks about this love he's talking about more of an attraction that we have to something that we want to enjoy apart from God and so when we combine these understanding of world and love what we see in John 3.16 is actually very different from what we see in 1 John 2 so we're not confused
[39:54] John 3.16 John is talking about God's divine love divine selfless love of redemption for his creation in their passage tonight John is talking about this humanly selfish love of participation in the evil things of this fallen world and so he goes on to give us a definition of this world really this worldliness that is all around us he says in verse 16 for everything in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life comes not from the father but from the world and so what does this description mean when we hear this word lust I think in modern times we often just automatically relate it to the sexual desires that humans have but I think actually when we look at this word in the Greek it has a much more broad sense of this intense passionate longing for anything and most times when it's talked about in the Bible it's in a negative connotation so here it's this it's this passionate intense longing for the flesh in John 6
[41:02] Jesus is talking to some Jewish leaders and he's talking about how they are to have life and saying you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood obviously we recognize that he's foreshadowing his own crucifixion here but these religious leaders even his own disciples were confused and really grossed out by what he was saying it was hard for them to understand and so he goes to his disciples and says does this offend you?
[41:28] it is the spirit who gives life and the flesh is no help at all it is only through the spirit that we can accept Christ as Savior the flesh only wants to reject him and so this desire of the flesh this lust of the flesh is this longing for anything contrary to God likewise in this lust of the eyes it's not simply talking again about sexual desire though that's included in this but it's referring to this short-sighted desire for what's in front of us and so maybe some of us have been a victim of false advertising in some way we see something on our phones or on the computer or on the television something that we want that looks really attractive maybe something to eat or something to buy and we get it and we realize that's not nearly as good as I thought it was going to be it's what we see here the lust of the eyes is when we are captivated by this outward appearance of something without really assessing its real true value especially in light of eternity and so things like this misplaced sexual desire this lust for possessions and comforts in this world that won't actually provide any sort of lasting satisfaction lastly here this pride of life it's this confidence that we have in our own resources in our own wealth in our own intellect in our own success things that set us up so that we can be self-reliant and self-sufficient forgetting our need to depend and rely on God and so when we combine these descriptions together to get a better understanding of what this worldliness looks like it's really this desire for earthly things that we don't have and a pride in earthly things that we do have and in either case this pushes us further and further away from our Heavenly Father and so we need to ask does this describe us do we have these cravings for the world do these how do these tendencies reveal themselves in the Christian life
[43:35] I think there's really two different ways of thinking about it in one way we may view Christianity as more of an accessory because we focus so much of our time and our energy on our work on our school on our family we're seeking wealth and health and comfort and prosperity and we want Christianity too but it kind of just serves as the cherry on top so to speak to our otherwise carefully curated lives I'll come to church on Sunday I'll volunteer when I can but you know what the rest of the week is really about me achieving my goals for my life the other way of looking at it maybe you think well it's maybe think of yourself in a slightly better light you would say that your relationship with God is foundational you want your faith to shape your life and your priorities but if we're really honest with ourselves sometimes we recognize that this Christian life is hard and the cravings that we have the sense that we thought that a Christian life would gratify us maybe fails to live up to expectation and so we feel like we have to top up our Christian life somehow we try to pile on some of the pleasures of the world so that we may have a more fulfilled life and this can happen in really unassuming ways we don't get up in the morning and think what are the ways that I'm going to sin today to be distracted from the way of God but as the day goes on there are things that come before our eyes there are things that turn our heart and our mind away from God as we seek satisfaction elsewhere and so I wondered if either of these scenarios describe you do we have these desires for things apart from God and it's not that these desires are necessarily bad desires a passion for your family a passion for your work they're good things but it's when these passions these secondary things become primary that ultimately lead us away from God and so John is reminding us here to evaluate our whole value system do we find our satisfaction in the things of this world or in God our deepest desires in creating this own our own little earthly kingdom or do we care more about
[46:11] Christ's eternal kingdom that brings us to our final point we've looked at who we are and what we're to do and John reminds us of why we are to do it verse 16 and 17 for everything in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life comes not from the Father but from the world the world and its desires pass away but whoever does the will of God lives forever John is giving us two reasons here why we are not to love the world first love for the world is incompatible with love for God and secondly love this world is temporary while God and his kingdom are eternal and so let's look at each of them just briefly this first one love for the world is not compatible with love for God I don't know if many of you have been following the news from the hurricane Helene that came through the states Rachel and I have been paying particular attention to it because it came right through our town where we used to live in Greenville
[47:12] South Carolina and up into the mountains of North Carolina and it was devastating what was done we've been chatting with neighbors our own neighborhood which had just these huge oak trees they're still without power eight days after the storm one of my friends was saying that was our neighbor saying there's at least ten houses with trees right on the houses you go up through Greenville into the mountains these little towns where we used to drive and hike have been totally wiped off the map mudslides taking houses away rivers that have completely taken roads that where they are there no more people that are coming in are having to come by helicopter or hike through the woods because there's no other way in total devastation from these rains and winds and I think the same can be true of our hearts when love for the world and our desires for the flesh enter our heart it wants to wipe out every other desire it will erode and destroy our hearts leaving no place for the love of God to dwell it says in James 4 4 don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God therefore anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God see a love for the father and a love for the world can't coexist and so we need to ask ourselves are we focused on our own success on our own comforts on our own collection of possessions or are we striving that our lives may be lived in conformity with the will of God do we delight in his law do we long to be in relationship with him are we passionate about Christ and his coming kingdom
[48:56] Paul says in Galatians 6 14 may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world like Paul are we willing to die to our worldly desires in order that Christ may live in us so that brings us to our second and final reason here why we are not to love the world we don't love the world because it's temporary Stephen read for us from Ecclesiastes a book that talks frequently about the vanity of life how the things of this life are not going to last and they're not going to fulfill our desires Jesus has this same message in Matthew 6 he says don't stow up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and vermin destroy where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourself treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there your heart will be also if you knew of a company that was about to go bankrupt that they were about to go out of business would you invest in that company of course not so why in the world are we so willing to invest our time and our energy and our money and our own love and affection for things in this world that will not last
[50:17] John who wrote this letter is the same John who writes the book of Revelation where he talks about Christ coming again and establishing a new heaven and a new earth that first heaven and the first earth will pass away and God will once again dwell with his people and so again we ask ourselves do we long for the temporary pleasures of this world are we content with investing our time and energy in the fleeting things in this world that will not last and will not satisfy or we desire to follow God's will that leads to eternal life do we long for Christ's return when he will rule and reign forever this is a very very simple reminder that John gives the church reminding us of who we are and what we're to do and why we're to do it a simple reminder with eternal implications and so if you are in Christ brother and sister may this reminder be taken to heart that we may examine the desires of our heart to see whether they lead us to God or away from him may it be our desire to follow after his will for our good and his glory and if this doesn't define you if you are not a believer
[51:40] John is actually not writing to you specifically in this passage we so often times in our lives want to judge the outside world for not living as Christians should why should we expect that they would because they do not have an identity in Christ but what we do see is an invitation an invitation to the lost an invitation to those who are not in Christ to come to find your identity in him to recognize that the things of this world are worthless they will not last but God and his kingdom will and that gives us reason to live for him to receive his love that he may be glorified may that be our prayer let's pray together Lord we thank you that you are a good God who loves us thank you that you are eternal that your kingdom will never end and so may it be our desire and our passion to see your kingdom come may we long for your return and may we put aside the desires of the flesh that distract us that cause us to wander that take us away from you may we find great assurance in what you have done for us and our identity in you may you deepen our love for you that we may desire to live for you and we pray this in Jesus name amen will you stand with me for the singing of our final psalm our final psalm
[53:27] Psalm 93 the Lord reigns please the Lord is king his throne endures majestic in his height the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength and might the world is founded firm and sure removed it cannot be your throne is strong and you are gone from all eternity the seas
[54:28] O Lord have lifted up they lifted up their voice the seas have lifted up their waves and made a mighty noise the Lord in throne their high is strong or powerful receive and thunder up the ocean waves or breakers of the sea your royal statutes Lord stand firm and changing is your word and holiness adores your eyes horrendous days
[55:44] O Lord Lord a reminder for you to stay after if you can that we'll have a few minutes of just sharing time with one another and we'll gather back up in about ten minutes for some group prayer now receive this good word this benediction from the Lord now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to him be glory forever and ever Amen