The Village Church
Massage Your Muscle Cramps - Audio
[music] Father God, above all that we are, above all the things that we have, above our reputation, above our material things, above all of our dreams, above all that we know, that here's only one who took the fall for us. There's only one who was crucified for us, there's only one who lived to die for us, there's only one who lived the perfect life and died of death, that we all should die, and that is Jesus. He is the one, He is the one. Father God, I pray that as the word is preached, that your spirit will take it to our hearts and speak to our hearts and speak it into our life. Without the spirit, preaching is nothing, the spirit gives an hour, the spirit makes it a thing within our life, so the spirit will call upon you to glory Father Father, and to glory Father Son, through His word, perhaps in my brain. Amen. You all doing well this morning? This past Wednesday, I woke up with a cramp in my calf muscle, and I used to get those all the time when I played football in high school, and you know the look you get when you catch a cramp, you know you're like oh no, because it hurts. And I don't care what you're doing, if you ever get a muscle cramp, you stop, it stops you, it calls for your attention, it can bring you to your knees, all you want is relief from the cramp, and that's what I want to know Wednesday, so my lovely wife, you know she brushed to my side, and she massaged my calf muscle, and the cramp eventually went away. You see many of us included myself, we have muscle cramps in our relationship with Jesus, in our Christian life, so you need someone or something to come in and to massage those cramps out, to massage out the cramps in your life that take your attention away from Jesus, because they do. And so John, this morning, he's going to do that for us, and the thing about a cramp is that even when it goes away, you still feel the soreness of it, so you may be able to store when you leave this morning, but it'd be good, it'd be good for you. So if you have your bowels open to 1 John, chapter 2, beginning in verse 15, do not love the world or the things in the world, if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in him, the man who loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, pride and possessions, it's not from the Father, but it's from the world. The world is passing away along with its desires, that whoever does the will of God abides forever. You see, last week, we talked about keeping the gospel in its proper context, and that is loving God and loving our neighbor, and that's positive. That's what we should love, God and our neighbor. But here John goes in the opposite direction, he deals with a negative, he tells us what we should not love. He commands us not to love, there's something, there's something is the reason you have muscle cramps in your life, because you love it so much, and it gives you muscle cramps. You muscle cramps and you walk with Christ, what shouldn't we love, do not love the world, are the things in the world, if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. John is saying that since your sins are forgiven, since you are a believer, since you have overcome the evil one, since you know the Father, since you have the word in you, since you are part of God's family, then you have no need to love the world, if you're part of God's family, other things in the world. You see what John meant for positive last week, keeping God's word, you know, evidence, keeping God's word is evidence that we love God, loving your neighbor is evidence that you love God. But here in verses 15 and 16, not loving the world is evidence that you don't love God. You see, you're going to love him or you're going to love something else, you can't love him and everything else, he wants all your affection, he wants all your attention. And so John is saying, do not walk according to the world, do not keep the world's values, the ways of the world, you're not to let the world shape you, you should not let the world guide you. Because if we do, it means you love it and the love of the Father is not in you. So what is the world? What is it? It's John saying, you should just elderly reject the world, just isolate yourself from it, go get in your own Christian hurdle, build up your little wall and keep everybody out and keep the world out, is that what he's saying? No, he's not saying that and we know that can't be true because in the gospel he says God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him to have everlasting life. And we know that God is the creator of his world and the earth belongs to him and it is good. One pastor, his name is Tim Keller, he says, good relationships, laughter, beauty, music, work, good food and drink are all gifts from God meant for all pleasure in our enjoyment. You see God wants us to enjoy his creation without worshipping it and there's a difference. And remember, I've said this before, I always say this, you've got to have balance in your understanding of this. You have to have balance in your understanding of a lot of things. And here's what I mean, when the Bible talks about the world, it talks about it positively and it talks about it negatively. The positive is the stuff I just said, but here in 1 John, 1 John, 2 verse 15, it's negative, it's a negative. It's God, it's us, it's the world systems that are in opposition to God. Think about it, you watch the news, you know the culture we live in? It's the world, the ideals and policies that set themselves up against our God and his kingdom. It ignores God, it rebels against God, it don't even acknowledge God. It wants to be independent of God, worldly. It's what it means to be worldly. And we are not to love the world and things in the world that goes against God's standards, that goes against God's word, goes against God's kingdom. You have to treat them like a plague and run from them, run from them, run for us, run. Because if you don't run from them, you're going to end up loving them. And then you're going to have most of cramps throughout your rest of your life. The world, it dims the light in you. You got to know that. It dims your light. And some of our lights are dim. We look no different than our neighbors, we don't know Jesus. We value the same stuff. We have a dim light. When my kid and I first got married, we had two favorite shows that we watched every night. You know, it was King of Queens and everyone loves Raymond. And in this one episode, Raymond's brother, he was having money problems. You know, he couldn't, he didn't have any money to pay his bills. And so he had that look on his face. So Ray and Deborah decided to give Robert $1,000 to help out with his bills. But instead of paying for his bills, Robert, he puts a trip to Vegas with $1,000. And so Ray gets upset. He goes, he confronts Robert. He said, "I thought you didn't have money to pay your bills. How can you afford to go to Vegas?" He said, "Well, I couldn't until you gave me $1,000." And that's how we do with God. We use God's gifts in ways he didn't intend for them to be used. And then we get mad with him when he calls it out on him. You see that? That's world in this. And world in this is in our heart now. It's not in stuff. It's here. Our affections, our attitudes, our love, it deals here. All that is in the world. What are those things that are in the world? What are they? Verse 16, "The desires of the flesh, their desires of our eyes, pride in possessions." They are not from the Father, but from the world. Now, desires of the eyes and flesh. So don't make the mistake again. You've got to have balance because you can't say all of our desires are evil. You can't say all of our desires are worldly. You can't say they have to have balance. You see the desire to have a good marriage, to have intimacy, to have love, to have shelter, to have food, and to earn a decent living. The desire for your kids to have a good wellbeing. There's nothing evil about that. That's good. The desire to have a better life for you and your family. It's not bad. And neither is the desire or dream to have a nice home or a better-paying job. Those things are not evil, in and of themselves. The problem is when you are mastered by them. When they control you, then it turns into lust. Then it turns into a craving because you've got to have it. You've got to have it now. Your life's going to fall apart if you don't get this thing. And that's lust. That's the difference. Your desires in controlling you. And it's called in lust as one pastor says. It's the abuse of something that is naturally and perfectly right in legitimate. You abuse it. It's us perverting God's gifts for our own benefit and our own intentions. Using them again in ways he didn't intend for them to be used. Lust. First we'll have what? We'll have to answer the flesh. Cravings of the flesh. And it is what you think it is. It's giving into all and more passions and it'll be a simple nature. In the many forms that it takes, you watch the news, you read the newspaper, you know what I was talking about. I don't have to list all that stuff off. You know what it is. You know we can use food to live a gut in its life. You can use your body for things that are not honoring to God. You can use your money, your job, your position of authority to abuse and oppress other people for your own greed and for your own benefit. Lust of the flesh. Living a lifestyle dominated by untamed pleasure. It's just all pleasure, itself gratification, endless self gratification, instant self gratification. And the culture that we live in, we live in a quick service culture. And we know this. As Americans we want it now. We don't want it five minutes later or ten minutes later. We want it now. That's the culture we live in. Because we deserve it. We're Americans. We're crying that loud. We don't have to wait. That's worldly. And it's not from the father. It's not from the father. Second, lust of the eyes. What is that? That is to covet an envy for other people have. It's you trying to keep up with those Joneses, man. Keeping up with those Joneses. With material stuff. Money, house, cars and food. Whatever. Even in the church. We have that attitude. Keeping up with the Joneses spiritually. Trying to look like someone else. And all of us struggle with this. Every person. Every culture. I don't care if you reach a point. You struggle with materialism. You struggle. What about you? Do you struggle with that? Are you battling that right now? If you're not, I might get you better than me. Another thing we do is that you try to keep up with Joneses and social status as well. Status in the job. Status in the community. Your status as a parent. Status as a pastor. You know, it's the way the world views our kids. All of that status. And all of these things are a lust of our eyes. And this Proverbs 27 says, "The eyes of a man are never satisfied. Never satisfied. You won't ever satisfy that lust. You will always want more stuff. You're going to always want more status. The lust of your eyes will keep you in a never in a cycle of being the Joneses. Trying to keep up with the Joneses. Back to being the Joneses. And back to trying to keep up with the Joneses. I mean, honestly, your life really becomes like the old Spice Man commercial. Look at the Joneses. Look at you. Now, back to the Joneses. You go back and forth. You mean you should have a crampion next for all the turning. Stop it. Are you tired? Are you tired of the cycle? Are you? And the reality is that the Joneses, they're going to keep moving up. They're going to keep moving up. And you're going to keep trying to keep up with them. You're going to continue to try to keep up with them. Because the reality is this. Throughout your life, you're going to always meet people who got more stuff than you, who have more status than you. That's the nature of life. And if you live by the list of your eyes, you're going to continue to try to keep up with them. You're going to always meet people who have more. And hitting the thing is that if you could be the fly on the wall in the house of the people you try to be like, you would know something about them. See, we all have the Joneses in our life. We all have people in our life like, man, they got it together. I wish my life looked like that. I wish my house looked like that. I wish my car looked like that. I wish my kids behaved like that. I wish my husband was like that. We all have them. We all have them. And if you are fly on the wall in the house, you know what you would see? It is that your Joneses have Joneses that they're trying to be like too. They're dating, satisfying with their life. But you're going to be like them. And so what you see is that you go from dissatisfaction to dissatisfaction is what you're doing. Because your eyes will never be satisfied with stuff. It won't be. Only God can satisfy you that way. Not status, not material possessions. We all have to be content with what you have and thankful for what you have. You see, God has called us to better things than living for materialism and social status as God's people. It's called to be better things, called to live for greater things than that. Now the final thing is pride and possessions. This is the boasting of what you have and do. It's self-glorification, self-righteousness. And as Lord Jones says, it's ambition and it includes contempt for others. Look down on others as well. So your pride of life means you have pride in yourself at the expense of other people. It's like the task letting them perferacy all over again. Thank you, God. I'm not like this task. I have my life together. I'm better than him. And I preached in a few weeks ago. You see, it's idol worship of what you have in your life. It creates an attitude of privilege and entitlement. Because you worked hard. You went to school. You have the right last name. So you deserve certain things, certain rights, certain things you can enjoy because of who you are. And so what you do is that we wrap our arms and run our stuff like this. You know, it was like a kid in the candy store and we don't want anyone to have our goodies. Because it's my house. It's my money. It's my car. It's my business. It's my church. It's my ministry. It's my culture. It's my government. It's my company. My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my. It's all about you. And as I said a few weeks ago, that's false pride. False pride in what you have. And what happens is that your identity falls into those things. What you are is what you have and what you do, not who you are in Christ. And along with that, you have a sense of superiority over other people. Because I'm the man. And you could be the man if you're more like me. Pride and possessions. That is willingness. And the danger of that in our culture is that it's very subtle. It's very subtle. You can't always see it. You can't always notice it. You see, our culture, it's a perfect storm for believers to ride the highway of a really life. It is. It makes it easy for us to be this because of all the freedoms that we have. And a lot of us live life, not ever thinking about that. Because God want me to have a good life, right? Where I get all that I want. I've enjoyed reading through a commentary by F.F. Bruce on First John. And he was a professor at the University of Manchester in England. And I've gotten a lot of good insights from that commentary. And he writes this. He says, "It used to be said by insightful foreign observers that Christians in this country have a difficulty in distinguishing the interests of the kingdom of God from the interests of the British Empire." You see what he's saying there? What about Christians in America? Is it difficult for us to distinguish the interests of the kingdom from the interests of the United States of America? And Christians in America, can we do that? Can you do that? Can I do that? If we can't do that, then we're guilty of loneliness. And the point he makes here is that in some cultures, the Christians in that culture confuse the gospel with politics, social stuff, and political economics agendas. We confuse them together. And a Christian in America is guilty of that. And the two things we do the most in is race and politics. We have a conflict of loyalties. Either it's going to be the interests of God's kingdom, or it's going to be the interests of something else. Who's interests are you protecting in your life right now? Is it the kingdom, or is it something else? Let me give you an example when I'm talking about. When I worked at Chick-fil-A in Greenville, South Carolina, I worked with a guy who was called a core conservative man. So we usually have interesting conversations in the back kitchen making chicken biscuits. He said one day to me, "You know what, Alex? Alex, man, I don't really see how you can be a Christian in a Democrat. I don't know how you can be that. I don't think you can be that." And I was like, "I guess, man. I don't know. I don't know what I guess." It made six to him, he couldn't understand how he could be both. On the other side, last week, I was reading the article on the internet. And after I read the article on the internet, I let it read the comments, so what people leave. And I came across one that was pretty bad. And listen to what this guy says. He says, "If you vote Republican, you receive the mark of the beast upon your hand, upon your forehead, and use a cure place for you among the damn. Repent while you can, you Republicans, you white wingers, and escape the clutches of the beast." Now, what's wrong with both of those things? What are those two people guilty of? They have confused the gospel with some other agenda. And when you do that, that's worthy. The gospel stands alone. They don't need to be, they don't pick it back on anything else. They're not, it doesn't handle any other code. And if you are a Christian and you do this, then you guilty of righteousness. I don't care how conservative you are, I don't care how much you love the poor. The gospel stands alone. And when you do this, when you do this, you know what you're doing to your faith? You pimp out your own faith for something else. You're pimping it out. And it's beneath you to do that. And if you're upset about that, go do business with Jesus. It's in the Word. You see, we are called not to confuse the gospel with anything else. And America is guilty of that. And if you can't see it, if you can't see it, then you need to go ask the Spirit to help you to see it. How do we get to a place where we can fight against these things? These three things, how can we get there? So we have to get to a place where we can actually be what Jesus says, being in the world, but not of the world. That's where we have to be as believers. If you're not there, then you're worthy. In the world, but not of the world. And the first thing is you've got to be filled with the love of the Father. Only if you catch what John does here, but I love it. Verse 15, the second part of verse 15 says the love of the Father is not in Him. It's not in the person who loves the world. And that's the consequence of loving the world. And I ask myself, is this love for God? Is that God love for me or my love for God? I think it's both. Because if you're not being filled with the love of God, you're not going to love Him in return. That's how it works. When I read earlier in this chapter, this is the first time John uses love of the Father. In the beginning of the chapter, he uses love of God. And I ask myself, why did that? What is he hitting at? And I believe he's wanting us to see this. If you are not growing in your understanding of what it means for God to be your Father, then you're going to be worthy. You're going to be worthy. Why? What does a Father do? A Father provides for His kids. A Father protects His kids. The Father gives good gifts to His kids. And God is our Father, it's a personal Father who is involved in our life. He gives us what our daily bread. And if you are loving the world, what you are actually doing is you're wanting the world to be your substitute dad, to give to you the things that your Father can give to you. It's your our Father, and it's not the real Father. Our Father gives you everything you want, but the true Father always gives you what you need. You need to understand that about God. That's why John says, "All that is from the world is not from the Father." Because all that is in the world is where everything we want. All of this is where everything we need. But we know from the Father, we'll always give His people what they need. Are you growing in your understanding of who God is as your Father? You got to. That helps fight against the things that are in the world. The second thing is learning to do the will of God. We see in verse 17, it says, "The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." In this context, what does it mean to do the will of God? It means you are learning to bring everything in the world under the microscope of God's Word. You don't take nothing in without checking it here first. You take whatever you hear in the news, whatever you hear from some political agenda, from wherever you hear from anybody, and you bring it under the microscope of God's Word. Because if you don't, you're going to end up in shape by that same stuff. And when you bring it under the microscope of God's Word, you really see that the world is passing away. That it ain't going to fill you. It ain't going to satisfy you. It ain't going to make you more happier. It ain't going to make you have more purpose in life because you always want more. Those things cannot be Jesus to you. They cannot be your God. And what we actually have to do is what Paul says in Ephesians 5, "Look carefully how you walk." Now, that's unwise, but it's wise. Making the most of your time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand the will of God. You can't do that if you never, ever come to this. If you never, ever let this shape everything about your life, this is how you do it. The Word has to be a lamp unto your feet, a light unto your path. That's what it has to do. And the dangers of our culture is that it shapes our views of things. It tries to shape our worldview. That's the dangers of it. And that's the dangers of it. And you have to fight against that. You have to think about that stuff. Everybody has an agenda. Every new station has an agenda. And you have to be mindful of that because they try to shape you. If they shape your view of life, they shape everything about you. You have to fight against that with God's Word. And here's an example. I got this in the mill, April the 9th, from Tidal Max. Listen to this. Listen to the church now. To whom it may concern. Spring is just around the corner. If you like all of us, you are ready to get out and enjoy the sunshine and make the most of God's beauty. At Tidal Max, we enjoy being partners with local churches. One of the things that make our community so special is our attitude of giving back. We know that your youth group and other special groups are having fundraising opportunities for trips and camps and VBS. We want to help you in our location in Huntsville, South Parkway. We are looking for youth groups and other church groups that set up outside our office for bait cells and sidewalk cells. It would give you a great opportunity to make good cells. Our best days for the customer traffic is Fridays and Mondays. We are open from 9 to 7. Please give us a call to reserve a spot out in front of our store. In addition for providing space for fundraising, as a service to your Urban Evidence Committee, let us remind you that we provide loan services to the public. Who do these people play on? Who did they play on? You see, any church that partners with this, you are guilty. You are guilty of roving this. I won't say anybody to this. Upon the title of that car, how is that helping people, putting them in 500 inches long? This is what I mean. If you can't see the evil in that, then you are worthy as a believer. You got to be able to look at that and say that's wrong. You got to be balanced. That means even in our good culture, you should be able to believe to see the good things about our society, that are not a God. You should be able to see the things in it that doesn't. You should be able to be balanced in your perspective, balanced in your approach of life. That's what I mean. That's what we have to be. And the reality is that we are not going to ever get to a place where you are not going to have to fight that. You are going to fight that to the day you die. And you are going to continue to get most of the cramps from the world because that's life on this side of heaven. But we have the grace to overcome them because the spirit lives in us. And for all of us, for all of us, your soul, your spirit, and your heart, you know, it needs the day at the spa. That's what it needs because it's tired. It's tired. It needs this. Sometimes you just need to get away, get on the back porch, go sit outside and just feel your soul with this. So it can be healed from all the stuff that's receiving from the world. It cannot live the Christian life like you need to live it. If God's Word is not here, it has to be here. He can't just come here on Sunday and just listen to a sermon. But you've got to read it, people. You've got to be in your heart. Let us pray. Father God, I thank you that you are here to protect your own interests and the interests of your kingdom. Not the interests of any country, any government, or any particular group of people, but you are about your business. And that is advancing your kingdom here and drawing other peoples into your kingdom to bring us to glory one day. And Lord, we look forward to that day that when He does return, we can go home. And so I pray for all of us, including myself, that you will help us to see the ways in which we are worthy and blind to it and lead us to repentance. Lord, lead us to the abnormal we can repent of our sin and be healed of it. So spirit, do your job in our heart. Christ in my prayer. Amen. (wind blowing) (whooshing)