Radiant Church

This World Has Nothing For Me | David Perkins

“Don’t let love of the world squeeze out love for The Father.”

Join us as Pastor David Perkins brings an encouraging and timely message just for you!

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MusicBed SyncID: MB01SMWFTC7HQ4K

Duration:: 43m
Broadcast on:: 09 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

(upbeat music) - Hey, thanks for listening to The Radiant Church Podcast. This is David Perkins and we're so glad that you're listening. Hey, if you're a part of our family meeting online or in person, we would encourage you to get connected at Radiant Church KC across all social media platforms. God is doing something incredible in Kansas City and we love connecting with you, whether it's through our app or even through all the content available on our YouTube page. Hey, our prayer is that God uses this message to change your life and that you could become a dynamic disciple of Jesus. Thanks for listening, enjoy this message. Amen. (audience applauding) Awesome. Hey, it's great to see all of you. God's doing so many great things. One of the great staff members that we have here, his name is Nick Dimick. I want to invite him to come up here real quick. Can you give a big hand for Nick Dimick? (audience cheering) So Nick came to us from Illinois and in our portable season, there was nobody. It was able to leap over a trailer like Superman and fix everything and be amazing. And in time, he was so amazing that we hired him. And then we went from being portable to this massive space that he leads. And this week, he told us this story about God healing him. And so in addition to just you getting to connect with him, I'd love for him to just share that healing story. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so I've been partially deaf in one of my years for close to 10 years because of different work environments that I was in, working in construction, jobs and different things like that. And so I had thought, I had had people pray for me several times and had kind of been like, God, I'm ready for healing when you're ready to heal me. And so from then I was up at the prayer chapel during the 21 days of prayer healing night. And I felt God stirring me to ask again, to ask someone to pray for me again, to pray for my ear. And so that's what I did. And at first, I didn't really feel like anything was happening. And as soon as he moved his hand away from my ear and I was listening to the room and like I was healed. I could hear normally in that ear which I hadn't been able to hear. (congregation applauding) - Yeah, so good. And it just brought me so much courage and I just want to encourage, there's probably many people here that are still praying for healing and don't give up faith. Keep praying, keep asking for people to pray for you and to be healed because God wants to heal you. And so, yeah, it's just awesome. - Why don't you just pray for us real quick? - Yeah, absolutely. God, thank you for a day, thank you for these people. Thank you for just the miracles that you do God. Thank you that you desire healing God. Thank you that you can heal God. I just pray for everybody here to just keep having faith, keep asking, keep taking steps of faith to be healed. God, we just love you and thank you in Jesus' name, amen. - Amen, praise God, beautiful. Yeah, big hand, so awesome. Let's all stand together for the reading of God's word. We are in a series in First John. And last week we did First John chapter one today. I want to highlight First John chapter two. And so I actually want to invite you like we did last week in this service to read with me. I thought that was enjoyable. So let's read out of verse 15. We'll read it together and then we'll pray. It says this, do not love the world. Go and join me or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and 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. The title of the message today is, this world has nothing for me. Anybody remember what a little cadence call mid '90s, this world has nothing for me? That's our title, Father, we love you. Jesus, we thank you that we get to be saved in this world right now by God. We thank you that you have redeemed us. We thank you that we have the fellowship of believers to encourage us. And we ask Lord Jesus that the things of this age would not creep into our hearts. In the decades that we have to live as Christ followers, we ask Lord Jesus that we would be able to fall more in love with God, more in love with the Father. And we ask that you would push out all other loves. We pray for the strength to resist the enemy. We honor you and we love you in Jesus name, amen. Maybe seated. I want to just ask the question, is it possible for you and I to live in the abundance of Kansas City and the United States in 2024 and not love the world? Like is it possible for you and I to have this text really be true in our lives? Or is it just kind of a theoretical box that we can never really achieve? And so we kind of tolerate reading it but we don't really live it. One of the things in my life that I love is to look at mentors and models. Often you hear me talk about people that have lived in a certain way in the Christian life that I want to learn from. So ultimately we want to be like Jesus and we're not trying to be necessarily exactly like the mentors and models. But one of the things that the enemy often does is try to get us to believe a lie that it's not possible in our generation or in our culture or in our day. And so one of the mentors and models that I've seen that lived out having an abundance and yet basing choices in the present on eternity is the owner of Hobby Lobby, David Green. And so I've worked with some different missions, organizations and Christian universities and Bible translations where David Green who started Hobby Lobby in Oklahoma City with his wife out of their garage making frames, turned it into a massive business. He's the son of a pastor and all of his life though, he had some of these ideas in this verse in his life and then it played out into massive generosity. It played out into massive sacrifice in terms of how he thinks. And so I want to read just a little phrase out of his book and he wrote a book called giving it all away and getting it all back again. And he starts chapter two with this. He writes, "I love British cricketer and missionary "CT studs poem only one life. "The one line that really gets to me is "only what's done for Christ will last. "I have committed my full life to this." Thought if that be true of him and he's lived in such a way where he owns Hobby Lobby and they give so sacrificially to the things that last forever and he embodies a Christ-like character. And I thought maybe if this inspires him, this CT stud, which CT studs name inspires me. Can you imagine being a, I mean, if you were a cricketer star and a missionary and your name was CT stud, you're gonna do all right. But I thought let's read just some of that poem. So I looked up CT studs poem as CT stud was a missionary to China, India, Africa, died in the Congo. And I'll just read you the last half of it. Let's just read it. It says this, it's encouraging. It says, "When this bright world would tempt me sore. "When Satan would a victory score, "when self would seek to have its way, "then help me, Lord, with joy to say, "only one life will soon be passed. "Only what's done for Christ will last. "And give me, Father, a purpose deep, "enjoy our sorrow thy word to keep, "faithful and true what ere the strife, "pleasing thee in my daily life. "Only one life will soon be passed. "Only what's done for Christ will last. "Oh, let my love with fervor burn. "And from the world now, let me turn. "Living for thee and thee alone, "bringing thee pleasure on thy throne. "Only one life will soon be passed. "Only what's done for Christ will last. "Only one life, yes, only one. "Now let me say thy will be done. "And when it lasts, I'll hear the call. "I know I'll say it was worth it all. "Only one life will soon be passed. "Only what's done for Christ will last. "I think you and I want to live that way. "I think you and I would read the verse "out of 1 John 2 about not loving the ways of the world, "but loving the Father. "And I think it's good for us to take moments "and just kind of dial in and ask the question, how? "How is it possible for you and I to live that way, "for you and I for it to be not just a poem "by a famous missionary or a book "by somebody who's lived it in our generation, "living in the United States, a crewing wealth, "and still able to sacrificially live and give like that. "And I want to take just a moment and define "some of these terms because I think when we look at "these three different phrases, it helps get some teeth "on what it means to love the world. "And so let's just look at them. "The first one that John gives us is the lust of the flesh. "So the lust of the flesh would be the body. "It'd be the desires from the inside. "And God gave us these desires. "You are created with desires. "And so these desires can be used for good, "but if exaggerated are used out of bounds in such a way, "then they become the lust of the flesh. "So if you use food correctly, "then it can fulfill the appetite "and you can feast while you eat at Joe's "and just thank God that he is so, so good to you. "Or you can instead of eating to live, "you start to live to eat, right? "And so you can turn that into gluttony "or with sexuality. "In the context and the frames of godly marriage, "you and I could live out godly sexuality and it's a gift. "Or we could turn that bodily desire into an appetite "and we live for sex or we live for that "and we step out of the bounds of what God defines "in the word of God for marriage. "You could do this all day long. "You could do it with comfort. "Without a doubt, all of us need sleep. "All of us need Sabbath. "We need rest. "And done the right way, woo, a good night's sleep "and a Sabbath is a blessing. "But if you live for that appetite "and it's only I start to live for recreation. "I start to live for comforts. "Give me yet another day where I'm watching that screen "and doing nothing." Well, then you can turn that appetite into the lust of the flesh. And so here John is saying, okay, the enemy comes and he attacks, wants to get you to start to overdo the flesh. It's the cravings. And he says the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes would be outward desires. So this is when I look out what I want. And so this is one of the more challenging ones in the United States because of our abundance, because of our wealth. And so it's very easy, especially for a generation that lives with Amazon Prime and cars.com and Zillow. For you to slowly start to put whatever you put in front of your eyes where you say, I want that, I desire that. And so whether it's a screen like this or like this, or while you're driving by, it used to be just in the 90s billboards, but it's way more than that now. Always in front of us the temptation to behold something out here and slowly get the desire on the outside where we start to want it. And say, I'm gonna pursue that. I remember Renaud and I, when we first got married, the first year that we were married, we had someone invite us over to their house for dinner. And we thought it was just good Christian fellowship, but when we arrived, they fed us a meal and then they tried to sell us a business where they told us, here's what we want you to do David. Imagine the dream car that you have set up a picture of it in your house and look at it every day and work our business till you get that car. And I remember driving home and I said, did I just get sold idolatry, Renauda? Like were they telling me to put a car in front of my eyes and give my life to get that car? And for them, it just seemed like common, this is what someone trained them to do. But even at 23, I was able to say, I think that's not the way of the kingdom. And it's so subtle in us, we have it all around us. I like the way that Eugene Peterson wrote this text in his paraphrase. So when we read the message, it's not a translation, it's a paraphrase. It's one guy that's taking all of the biblical texts and it's not a translation, it's a paraphrase. But the fun thing about a paraphrase is sometimes it says it in such a way that you hear it different. Look at the way he says it, I like it. He says, don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out. Love for the father. Ooh, I like that. Practically everything that goes on in the world, wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important has nothing to do with the father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all it's wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out. But whoever does what God wants is set for eternity. So it's possible to be set for eternity and it's God's way instead the world's way. It's the way of setting your heart, your affection, here's the language, your loves on the father instead of the world. And so even to begin to ask yourself the question, is it possible that there are ways that in my own life I've tolerated the lust of the eyes and instead of being filled with love for the father that some of the lust of the eyes is squeezing out love for the father. The last one that he gives is the pride of life. And this is where you boast about what you've accumulated. This is well, I have achieved this or I have purchased this or I look this way. And so in that you wanna boast about it, look at me. I've got it and in our culture all of those things are celebrated. It's the way of the world. The way of the world is, yeah, of course this is your body, do what you want. Yeah, you've got 80 years to go accumulate whatever you want and you live in a nation with goods and services where you can accrue wealth if you want, go get whatever you want, you go do you. And I will celebrate me, this is me. So everybody applaud and look at me. And over time it's very easy for you and I because that's so abundant in our culture. It's so easy for you and I to slowly become just like the world. And here's John, he's writing this epistle of love. It's not to a specific church, it's to many churches. Most of his peers that were the disciples have been martyred and with fatherly affection, desiring for people to endure, for people to make it in the Christian life. He gives these specifics of this is the way that love for the world looks. It's actually through the scriptures. You could look at Genesis chapter three where the serpent comes and temps Eve with the body and then look at the apple which was pleasing or the fruit that was pleasing to the eye and then say you will be like God, the pride of life or many Bible commentators say this looks very similar to even what we see in Matthew chapter four where Satan comes to tempt Jesus and gives those three different temptations. Turn this bread, turn this stone to bread, right? So it's the body and then looking out and saying hey, look at the kingdoms of this world, the eyes, look out, they'll be yours or cast yourself down and be applauded for who you are. Come on now, pride of life and you gotta know that in your life, the enemy's going to be looking at a way to get you to love the world. He's gonna try to get you to in these three ways, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. I think looking at this, another interesting piece is that it specifically says do not love. And I think you and I were tempted to just think about all the things that we're supposed to love but imagine, if not just the list of things that we're supposed to love, like we know the list of things we're supposed to love. You know, Matthew 22, 37, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We know that we're supposed to love others. We know we're supposed to love our enemies, love your neighbor. We know that there's people that we're supposed to love. We know that we are as Christians, we're a people of love. We're driven by love, we're marked by love. And in addition to a love list, there's a do not love list. And that's hard for people, that's hard for the culture because in the culture they say, oh no, don't do that, but we see this list very clearly. And John says do not love. So there is a boundary that you put up when you say I will not love the ways of the world. I have decided that I will love the Father and I will not allow myself. And of course, the mixture of those is what most of us think. I'm okay because I love these things and I love God too. And when we read Jesus, when we read the word of God, what we find is that mixed motive, that desire to have this world and the next actually leads us into deception. That the way of the kingdom is that we love the Father and love for the Father slowly squeezes out other loves, slowly squeezes out the loves of the world. So in your life, you're working diligently to say, these are the thing, I do love the Father and because I love the Father, I actually set up in my life ways that I live my life so that I don't start to allow the lusts of the eye, the lusts of the flesh or the pride of life to creep back in my life. I actually have a list, I actually do things. I actually create boundaries. I actually have a way that I live. And so each one of us does it differently because if set by an outsider, then it can become law. But if set by the person who's in love with the Father, then it's a delight. So the way that you would do with your phone and you would turn it on, do not disturb. And you would say, I'm not letting anything else in right now and I put on, do not disturb. You have said, I'm not gonna let the world disturb me. And I have created a way, I've pushed a button, I've done something so that the world and the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye and the pride of life cannot get in. Or in the same way that you're in a hotel room and you don't want anybody to knock at the door, you put on the door, do not disturb. I don't want anybody coming in, don't mess with me. Many of us, we need that in our lives. And we create that and you create that. And it's driven by love, it's motivated by love. The motive is not legalism, the motive is love, but it does play out in you creating some rules for your life where you say, I'm not going there. I've been there before. And I don't want this back in my life. One of the things that I see so often with Christians is that we give our lives to Jesus oftentimes and there's a real excitement for a few years. But to live the Christian life and grow in love for the Father over decades takes a tangible way that you're intentionally pushing out the ways of the world. And it's in our thought life. It's a thousand little things. Like many of us would just say, I have decided, I love the Father, I don't love the world. But you gotta know that the enemy is coming at you every day and hasn't given up on trying to get you to embrace the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. And so you're making little decisions every single day to choose. I choose to fix my eyes on the Father, to grow in love for the Father, and for that to squeeze out the love of the world. So I'm gonna confess my sin to you today. This is a little bit awkward, but I figure I'm gonna be vulnerable with you, see where this goes, this could backfire, but I'm gonna send you, let me show you this text that I sent this week where the Holy Spirit convicted me. You gotta understand, I am writing a sermon on 1 John chapter two about do not love the world, right? And so Paul Barker, Pastor Paul, he sends me that first one that says, Cowboys, Lamb and Greece, to 136 million dollar deal. Now he sent that to me 'cause he's a Cowboys fan. I'm a sooner fan, so we have CD, Lamb and Common, right? And so he's a wide receiver. And then I say, what world do they get to live in? Interesting, all right? So I'm immediately like, and he goes seriously. And then I say, 136 million is bizarre. He says, Pastor Paul, I know, and here's where I said, here's where I said, I go, we picked the wrong profession. (congregation laughing) Hold on a second, I'm five foot five, Paul's athletic, but he's got no hopes for the NFL. He's called by God to be a pastor, I'm called to be a by God, but I'm five foot five. There's no chance, I know that God's called, I'm thankful for every NFL person that goes into the world of the NFL. Makes it different, let's go Tim Tebow and all the different people that go into the world, be a light into that world, we gotta go into every part of the world. But as for me, I'm called to be a pastor, but you know what caused me to say that, 136 million. (congregation laughing) 136 million, it wasn't like, oh, I wanna go get hit by a defense every week, it wasn't, it was a, yeah. And I literally put, we picked the wrong profession. While I am typing notes about first John, do not love the world. (congregation laughing) And I actually put the word world in the text, what world do they get to live in? And I said that, we picked the wrong profession and I'm not trying to exaggerate it, but literally just like a, I feel like a woo, like a conviction of the Holy Spirit inside of me. And I was like, oh, I seriously, I felt it. And Paul can tell you, I say it really, 'cause I got him before the aha, right? I put actually dash, we will be rewarded in a way that 136 million will look like stew, right? That's preacher joke for, we're not gonna sell our birthright like he saw, right? That's Bible talk right there. (congregation laughing) But the reason why I show that then, Pastor Paul, he's like the nicest man on the planet, that's right, heart. Okay, that's my man. (congregation laughing) All right, but the reason why I show you is 'cause you know what that is, it's so small, it's so small, but in that moment, I gotta go, oh no! No, I am called by God, God's given me a calling. God did not make me to look and act and be as strong as City Land. I am this, and so God, I'm gonna be faithful. I'm gonna keep my eyes on eternity, and same with you. It's through the week, it's all the little moments where you say, I choose not to allow the lust of the age, the lust of the eyes, pride of life, the lust of the flesh. So let's just ask this question, how? How do I know, if I experience a desire, and I'm honest, I have this desire, let's ask the question, how do I know if it's a godly desire? Because you can identify the desire, and is it godly? So let's just look at the text, it's right here in the text, the answer to that question. First would be the question, where does the desire come from, or where's the origin? So it says this, for everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world. So you can ask this simple question, does this desire come from the Father, or does it come from the world? So when I look back, is this any of these things, is this because I am received new birth, and I have the Holy Spirit inside of me, and I have this desire because it's creating love for the Father, or is this desire actually the origins of being the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, or just I want people to, or the pride of life, the boasting, and identify, where's the origin? Where does it start? Because all of this comes down to motive, and churches that just start to say, we're gonna live this way, here's the rules, here's the law, they get so legalistic they become miserable. And everybody's like, I hate it here, it's too many laws. But churches that, if we never talk about putting up boundaries, personally, then we'll be lawless. So the idea is, is that you're with Jesus much, and you start to clarify your own motives, because you can get down to the root, and then play it out, and it might look differently in other people's lives. So they might have, they might, that same motive might play out differently in their life. This is one of the strengths of my father, my dad. My dad, when he was raising teenagers, his favorite thing to do was to get down to the motive of the desire that you had. So we would come to say, and we would say, I want this, I want this. And my dad was not a law guy, he was a motive guy, all right? Let's get down to the motive, let's get down to the why. So I came to my dad when I was in junior high, and I said, dad, all the cool kids, have a Nintendo's. Late 80s, early 90s, I wanted a Nintendo. My dad said, okay, let's get down to the why. And, you know, I was just like my dad's, you know, disciples. So I was like, ugh, turned out. My why got down to where I never got the Nintendo, I actually walked past the arcade in the mall, and I never did it. However, my intelligent brother, who is much smarter than me, six years younger, watched me go without a Nintendo in junior high, and he had a plan, and he looked at my dad, and when my dad asked him about what's your motive, he said, oh dad, this is how I lead my friends to Christ. Now I wanna bring them over here. And I wanna be a light to the world, and dad, we need a place, and would you rather me be out in the street, or would you rather have me be here at home, and you can be present, and my brother, I went through high school with zero. My brother, by the eighth grade, in his bedroom, had a TV. He had a Nintendo, he had like 25 games, he would do it again. He's a pastor in Colorado, he's doing just fine. But here's why I tell you that, because for many of us, we'll get real judgmental, we'll get real critical on others. Here's the goal, you do you. All right, God, what are you calling me to? And that would be really, really, be really honest. What's the origin of this? What's my real motive? It's between you and God. At the end of the day, it's you and God getting down to that root. And then the second one would be this, how is this desire affecting me right now? So the first question is about the past, what's the origins? Second question is in the present, right here, right now, how is this affecting me? Is it causing me to love the father or love the world? And I love the way that Eugene Peterson wrote that phrase, love of the world squeezes out love for the father. So is this desire, is it squeezing out love for the father? And I'll tell you that actually if you go the other way, it's true too. Love for the father pushes out love for the world or squeezes out love for the world. So that's why I want to encourage you, we just finished 21 Days of Prayer because every fall and every January, we're going after we want to grow in love with God, we want to grow in love with the father. Now as we grow in love with the father, as we grow in love with God, it squeezes out other loves. As we get close to him, that's why we come in here and we stand in the congregation and we sing like we did a moment ago, worthy is the land. We declare how awesome Jesus is. So you get here and you turn your radio and flip it from the constant temptations to I'm going to worship as I drive or whatever is your way. And I'm not telling you exactly the way you should do it. I'm just giving you ideas. I'm just presenting options, you make choices. But you're creating choices of how do I get to work about that love for the father? It's one of the quickest ways to even have the love for the age just kind of fall away. So tricky to do, I believe in the United States. Because it is the norm. Like literally I feel like when I'm studying it this week, Bible commentaries, I'm recognizing, I feel like the pathways for these things are even what's presented to me when I was young. Public high school, I mean, when I look back, it was literally like, hey, this is UBU, like you do what you want, the less of the flesh. It literally is like the whole world's available. Here you go. Like before we do da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, like you've got all this out in front of you. And then you could be celebrated, you could boast. And it wasn't, it was just normal life. In fact, I remember being 17, talking to one of my friends and he said, I've got three goals for my life. Now this was not the typical God that I thought would have like goals in high school for his life. And I said, what are your goals? We're seniors in high school. And it goes, I got three goals. One, I'm gonna be hot, true, I'm not making this up. Two, I'm gonna be wealthy and I'm gonna be famous. Today, it's been 30 years, we're 47, he's 47. He's one of the three. It's not hot, by the way, that's like awkward for me to say that, ha ha, that's awkward. No, and he's not famous. But I watched the last 30 years, and of course you can imagine, I'm still his friend, and my prayer is that at some point, he would say the ways of the world cannot deliver. And at some point, he would say, I desire Christ. But I would tell you that even right now, watching these three decades hasn't paid off, and that ache, that longing, the world can't even satisfy. Even the pursuit of it is ashes, and it's the lie of the enemy, and it literally deceives our generation, generations past, all over the world, and it's really simple. It's coming back, being honest with these ideas, coming, getting real before God. Third, if you're going to go after trying to identify, if that desire is of the world, or love for the Father, love for the world, or love for the Father, last question is, where will this desire lead me? 'Cause this is the last idea that we find here in the text. The ways of this world are passing away. But he who builds his life for the Father. Love for the Father, has an investment in eternity. It's future-oriented. So first question is, what's the origin? Second is present tense, am I growing in love for the Father, in love for the world? And third, does this desire, if I pursue it, does it invest my time, talent, treasure in eternity, and what lasts forever? Or is it in what's temporary right now? And I intentionally told you that story about David Green, because I think it's enjoyable to see people right now that have had the ability to have what many of us live on the treadmill trying to get, and saying, it doesn't provide. Those aches, those longings, they don't come through. So Jim Carrey is one of the famous actors of our generation, and he said this, I think everybody should get rich and famous, and do everything they ever dreamed of, so they can see that it's not the answer. It's ashes. And so we, no matter where you're at, if you're 50, or 80, or 20, if you start to say, okay, God, today, in my life right now, I'm Amy, love for the Father, pushes out the love for the world. And I live in this time, where I'm making choices for the future. And does that desire, is that desire have eternal reward, or is it fleeting and temporary? Is it a desire that's going to pass away? That's the language that John uses here. The world is passing away. I liked that idea. It's passing away, it's done. There was a moment when we were transitioning as a church, we had prayed and asked God for this miracle building. We were believing God for this space, and then there was the moment where we closed on the building, and there was a season between closing on our miracle building, but we were still portable at Fiorellis, events center, right? And if you recall, in that season, we knew where our future home was. We knew where we would no longer be portable. We knew that that was the place that God had for us, and it was a done deal, it was our future home. But we were presently still at Fiorellis and Portal, but we started to make all of our choices, not based on, hey, let's pray in the parking lot of Fiorellis, and let's raise funds to renovate Fiorellis. Now, all of our drawings, prayers, looking at the building, it was all about where we were headed. It was all about where it was gonna be for decades from now, not for weeks from now. Are you with me? And this is the Christian life. When you said yes to Jesus, and he saved you, and he redeemed you, and he rescued you from sin, and you are bought by the blood of the Lamb, and your future home is in heaven. There's an overlap season where you're still here, and you're making choices. You're still portable, baby. It's still Fiorellis days for you. But there will be a day where you will reach home, and you will be with him forever and ever and ever. And the choices that you make in that season have either eternal investment, or they're passing away. They're fleeting, they're gone. Oh, how crazy if we would have all said together, let's sacrificially give, and I know we've got, we've got Quavira and 135th in our future, but let's sink all of our investment in 135th and Antioch. We would have been like, oh, how foolish. That's our future. That's where we're gonna be. But many of us were sinking all of our investment in what's passing away. The way that we think, talk, what we treasure. Here's encouragement. It's not me, it's the first John chapter two. Which one lasts for eternity? Which one is passing away? And so then we'd start to ask the question, okay, God? As I get down to the little tiny text messages that I send, the way that I pray, the way that I give, the way that I love, the way that I serve, the way that I respond, do I gossip or not? Gossip is tolerated in our culture so easily. God, I want to make a difference in what lasts for eternity. So down to every choice, I'm looking towards what is this desire? Oh, it's my flesh. I'm saying these things because deep down, I am filled with flesh. Deep down, it's what is not look like the kingdom. And it's walking by faith to live that way, which is the Christian life. It's the choice. I have decided. It's easy for you and me for me to pray a prayer, verbalize that I've got the hope of heaven, but still live like I'm in love with the world. It is, it's common. And so, forget other people, you look at you and just, God, help me make the choices. Help me live in such a way where I am squeezing out the lust of the flesh and be real about it. Is there a possibility that in the way that I look at my food, sexuality, comfort? My words, what is it? God, when I look at, even what I want to attain, what's the why? Where's it going? The choices that you make, pride of life. Why you post? Ooh, I'm telling you that third one, pride of life, that's gonna mess with your social media. 'Cause it's down here, we all, we all got motive. And the crazy thing is, is that you've got some people that they can go to their motive, and they can have a kingdom motive, and other people do the same act, and they have the pride of life. And that's the challenge, is you can't just create all the laws and rules and say, "This is good, and this is bad." "No, what you're doing is you're going, "Okay, it's down to this heart." And it comes down to you being really real. I want to be really honest, and you're walking by faith on what God's called you to do. I've told you the story about how early 2005, spring of 2005, I led a team to Thailand to go do tsunami relief. The pastor that I served, I worked at the same church for 14 and a half years. He said, "David, I would like for you to lead a team "to go do tsunami relief." There's a whole lot of things that happened to me on that trip, but one of the intriguing things was, the actually the hotel where we, we went to three different cities, but one of the places, the hotel, half of the hotel had been swept away, and the other half remained. And so it was extremely cheap, which is why I chose it. And the lobby was still there, and half the hotel was there, and half was gone. But I just remember staying there thinking, "Wow, half of this went to sea. "It's gone." And I think it's a great picture for you and me. There will be choices that you make that are an investment in eternity. There will be choices that you make that endure, and there will be some, it's fleeting, passes away. It's gone, it's a waste. I love this idea that love of the father, love for the world, because it's talking about our affection. Now I would encourage you not to waste your love. Here's what I mean by that. If you have limited affection, and the language is, it's squeezed out, so you're spending your love, just like you would spend your money, or spend your time on something, and you're spending your love on something. And if you have limited capacity, limited affection, oh, the tragedy of allowing the loves of the age, the loves of this world to get into our heart and squeeze out love for the father. Focus your love on the father. Let your focused love push out the love for this world, and you'll watch your life be transformed. You'll be surprised. You could be like this billionaire, you know, or multidisillionaire that I was talking about, David Green. And instead of buying helicopters and yachts, he's paying for a missionaries to go where the gospel has never been. The Bible to be translated, and his grandchildren aren't gonna get the yachts. He's giving it all away, that's what the book's about. Why, a biblical conviction that causes him to make a decision that's crazy in the culture, but rewarded in the kingdom. Will you bow your heads with me, and let's just pray together? I'm just gonna give you 15 seconds for you to just ask the Holy Spirit what he's inviting you to today. Just be real with God. (gentle music) Lest of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Would you ask the Lord to just ask you what's a next step for me? What's just one step that I can apply this scripture to my life? If you're here today, and you would say, I am desiring the life that Jesus gives. I would encourage you, Jesus is far better than anything this world can offer. This world has nothing for you. And Jesus has everything that lasts for you. Jesus, God's only son. He came to earth. He died on a cross in your place for your sin so that you could have his life, eternal life, life that lasts. And today, whether it's a recommitment or a first-time commitment, if you would like to make this choice, I want to receive salvation from Jesus and have new life in Christ. I didn't invite you to pray this prayer. I'll just pray it, invite you just to say it to God. At your seat, it's between you and him. Would you just say, father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. And I give you my life. I ask that you would give me yours. Change me from the inside out. Make me a new person. I desire to know you and be with you forever. Save me in Jesus' name.