Everyday Church
How to Navigate Life
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church, with Pastor Jason Keefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. - Hey, my friends. It's great to be back with you today on the Everyday Church podcast. And just loving the book of 1st John, it's been great so far. And so I hope it's an encouragement to you and to help to you. As always, pass this along. Be sure to like it and subscribe and you'll get alerts whenever new ones are posted. Also, if you have any questions or there's more information you would like about the ministry that we're a part of with Everyday Church, or obviously asked to a Baptist Church, or our school, or anything that we can do to help you, you can visit asstoobabstchurch.com. That's a great place to get all the information that you need. And be sure to check that out. You can get linked up and find ways to get connected into different groups and serve with people and just be involved. The idea, the hope, the goal is that everyday we are the church, right? Not just on Sunday, not just on Wednesday, but Sunday through Saturday, everyday we're the body of Christ, working and functioning together, growing in Him. So today we're gonna pick up in first John chapter two and verse 15. Big statement here in this verse that he kicks off and great instruction for us in helping us to navigate life and to walk in holiness as opposed to walking in worldliness. And so in first John 2.15, he says this, love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. And then he goes on to describe, he breaks that down in three ways. The love of the world, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes the way and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. What is a great, great, powerful three verses in kind of again helping us be aware, kind of to assess our spiritual life, right? So if these believers were struggling in their faith and they're struggling in their walk with Christ, you know, it's not, it can often be attributed to the fact that maybe we've gotten our eyes on the world and gotten our eyes off of Christ. And so what is John said, tells them, he says, look, don't love the world and don't love the things that are in the world. So he breaks it down and lets us know that it gets very practical here, right? The things in the world, the things of this world, we're not to love those. And he says, if any man does, he says, the love of the Father is not in them. What does that tell us that I can't, as a believer, if my love, my passion, my drive, my motivation, what drives me in life is the world, according to the scriptures, the love of the Father is not in us. And I think that that should be something as a believer that I should really just be using as a navigational tool through life, right? It's my love, my desire, my passion. Closhing is three. If you then be risen with Christ, if you then be risen with Christ, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. There's just this constant message throughout the Word of God, really through the whole Word of God, but especially the New Testament believers in the New Testament of there's another kingdom, there's a spiritual kingdom. There's the kingdom of the world that my flesh is drawn to, my fleshly desires are drawn to, my will is drawn to, my spirit is drawn to. And so I need to be able to understand there's some tools to help me navigate that. So I don't get overtaken by that. And so he breaks it down in this way, verse 16, for all that is in the world. So everything that's in the world can be broken down into three things, three categories. Number one, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, the desire to do, the desire to do. I wanna do what the flesh wants to do. That's what Paul said in me is no good thing because he determined that because of his desires. Remember in John, Romans seven, he said, with my mind, I serve the law of Christ, but man with my flesh, the law of sin, because there's this desire to constantly do. And I see that a lot of times, even in my own life, where maybe I'm called to sacrifice some time for Christ. But I wanna do this, and I'm learning. If I wanna grow in Christ in a way that bears much fruit, if I want to grow as a dad, as a spiritual dad, leader in my home, as a godly husband, as a pastor, if I wanna grow in those areas as a believer, there is gonna be a sacrifice there. And so I can't constantly be drawn away by the desire to do, and I'm just gonna shoot straight. I think so many believers today are just, they're distracted, and the greatest distraction is this desire to constantly be doing things that are us having fun and just always being drawn away from building in the kingdom of God because we're always here doing this, I'm always there doing that. And there's nothing wrong with doing things. There's nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, my wife and I have to church on Sunday, we're headed up to Tallahassee, and football season's kicked off, and as someone gave me tickets to the football game on Monday night, and we're gonna spend a couple days up there and have a lot of fun, and just relax and enjoy ourselves. But if that's my life, right, if I'm just in love with that and the things in this world, it's gonna be a problem, I'm gonna get out of balance. And there's really no balance to be had there. The fact is I should just passionately love Christ, I should just passionately love Christ. So the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, not only to the lust of the flesh, it's the desire to do. The lust of the eyes is the desire to have. I think of many, many times in my life where I couldn't do what I needed to do for Christ because I had wanted things. And I would go after those things, and in doing that, you set yourself up to where you then can't serve God with the way he wants us to. And there's nothing wrong with having nice things. I think God that I have a nice house, and I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that I drive him around in a car that I don't have to worry about it breaking down. I don't have to. I'm very thankful for that. But I think that what can happen is we live in such a materialistic society where we're just constantly driven to have more and have more, and there's always this need to have really more than what we even need. I think if we looked at our lives sometimes and said, "Man, how could I better steward resources in my life "so that I could serve God "and that it would show my love for God?" And I wanna tell you, the way you steward your resources in life is a direct reflection of your love for Christ. It really is. And so the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and then he says the pride of life. This is the desire to be something, to accomplish something. There's nothing wrong with accomplishing things. There's nothing wrong with being successful. But when that is your life, right? When I love the world, when I love the system of the world that's created for the need to be successful. Like when my identity becomes based on what I have, what I do, what I am, that's a direct, the message there is that I'm in love with the world. The message there is that I'm not passionately in love with Christ. When I'm passionately in love with Christ, the pride of life really is overcome with my identity in Christ. I'm no longer seeking to be known by what I do. I'm no longer seeking to be known by what am I accomplishing. But yet daily I'm looking at my life and saying, "Lord, how can your will be fulfilled through my life today? "How can your will be accomplished through me today?" And, "Lord, I just want to yield myself in that way." And so the interesting thing is all this passes away. Verse 17, he says, "And the world passeth away." So love not the world. Don't love that which is gonna pass away anyway. Don't anchor your stakes and your life into something that's not gonna last. It's not gonna be here forever, but yet in Christ. And he says, "But he that doeth the will of God, "a biteeth forever, the will of God, "the plan of God's is gonna last for all eternity." Love that, love his work, love what he's done in you and what he's doing through you. And through that, I think when you begin to know God in that greater sense, then we begin to passionately serve God through our desires, through who we are. And we see our love changing. It's a fight, it is a fight. It is a, the world is constantly tugged from the world and from the flesh. I think what Jesus said when he said, "What is it profit a man to gain the whole world "and to lose his own soul?" And so really in verse 16, he really did tell us what the whole world is, right? It is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. So Jesus said, "What is it profit "if I can gain everything I could want? "What does it profit me if I can be "everything I want it to be? "What if it, what does it profit me if I gain, "if I do everything I want to do? "But yet in the process I lose my own soul, "I lose who I am." I think there's just a lot of Christians that lose their way because they love the world. That's just shooting straight. Like you can't love the world and the things that are in the world. They're unholy, they're ungodly. I think that sometimes even in my own life, I've got to look at things and say, "Well, what am I being entertained by?" I step back, sometimes I'm like, "Man, the people that entertained me, "they hate God, they even deny there's a God. "They have no use for God." And yet, I love that, if I'm not careful. My flesh eats that up. And so I think we got to be careful. There is a difference between the believer, the life of the believer and the life of the unbeliever. We're not better, nobody's better than anybody. But it's just that when you're saved, God has separated you unto himself. He's called you out of darkness, Peter said, into his marvelous light. You're a chosen generation, royal priesthood, a holy nation, all that so that we should show forth the works. Our works should show forth the goodness of God, the praises of God. Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men "that they may see your good works "and glorify your Father in heaven." And I wonder today, do my works, what story do my works tell? Do they tell the story that Jason loves Jesus? Or do they tell the story that Jason is just really in love with the world? That really is kind of the question we have to ask ourselves. And so I just encourage you as you go throughout the day today and just maybe take a few moments even now and just kind of look at your life and say, "Lord, what's kind of my driving force? "What is it that makes me tick? "What is it that I'm searching for? "What is it that's causing me? "What is it that sets my schedule every week? "What is it that sets my financial agenda? "What is it? "And if it's the love of the world and the need to have "and accomplish things, "I should really check that out with the Lord." And I really feel like that, you know what? My love for Christ is gonna set things in a proper perspective. So I love you and I'm praying for you today and I just pray God's grace upon you. And be sure to like this, share it. Let's help one another, amen? As we continue going through life together and just working together as the church, growing together, learning together and ultimately serving Christ together. And when I have a word of prayer with you, before we go today and just praying for you as you go throughout the day. Father, thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your goodness and your love for us. Lord, we just come to you and Father, our desires get so out of whack sometimes, Father. So many times that if I'm honest with myself, I feel myself even slipping off into these times where you just, you're falling in love with this life and this world and what it has to offer. And Father, help us to not be deceived in that. Help us to take a stand in our own personal life, a stand for holiness and a stand for loving you. In your name we pray, amen. (upbeat music) - Thank you for listening to Everyday Church, a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together and serve together. If this episode was an encouragement to you, be sure to hit like, share it, and subscribe for future content. (upbeat music)