Don't Love the World (1 John 2:15-17)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
With COVID, which if you're looking for fun things to do this fall, don't put that on your list. Not the most fun experience, but glad to be back up here. We're gonna be in 1 John chapter 2 verses 15 through 17. So COVID for me was, it was not fun, but my doctor said, hey listen, you should get what's called a monoclonal antibody treatment. You're eligible for this, you totally should do it. And I heard about this and I heard it was like the game changer that it just like kills COVID.
So I said, yes, I'm in because I feel terrible. So I went, but I knew that this was going to be a difficult experience for me because it's about a 30 to 45 minute IV drip treatment. And I don't do well with IVs. I have what's called a vasovagal response, which is the fancy medical word for you faint. So I, I can get a shot and it's fine, but you leave it in me and you're taking blood out and you're putting stuff in.
It's like, nope. And about a month and a half ago, I was like, I got, I got to get blood, uh, blood work done. And I was like, I went through the whole time. I did not, I didn't faint. And I was like, you know what? You're doing it, man.
I think you're getting over this. And then I walked into the treatment facility and I was like, no, no, this is, this is happening. Like I saw all the people. There's like 10 different people getting the treatment at once. And there's a recliner there right beside them for me. And I was like, no, no, I'm going down.
Like, this is not, this is not going to go well for me. And I told the nurses, I said, listen, I have this response. It's involuntary. I can't help it. And sometimes I have to tell nurses this because sometimes when I pass out, they just get mad. I was like, I told you that was going to happen.
Like I told you this was a possibility. It's a 50, 50 shot. I'm going to go. And they put it in me and about, I don't know how many minutes it took. I was gone. Just completely passed out.
And they were pros. They handled it like a champ. They took my mask off, let me breathe. All of a sudden, a couple minutes, I'm back to it. And then all of a sudden I'm breakout and it's cold, just awful sweat. And I'm just like, I'm just, I'm just kind of like this.
And then the nausea sets in. And, and I know that you came from a medical history. So I might as well go deeper. I can't, about 10 years ago, I had a stomach surgery to where I can't throw up. I literally cannot throw up. I can dry heat, but I can't throw up.
So the nausea sets in and like, I'm just like dry. I'm like, ah, like I'm just like, I'm dry even. And there are all these people who are like behind me, beside me, are handling their treatment like a pro, like an adult. I'm just like dying. And it's just for 30 to 45 minutes of just intense suffering. But I know, like I, the mindset I have when I go in, in the midst of all this, this humiliating experience for me, is like, this is temporary.
Like it's not, like I, I know what's going to happen. Like if I, if I can make it through the next hour and get through the end of the day, like tomorrow, I'm going to feel better. And it's going to be great. And guess what? I woke up the next day and it killed COVID. Like it was, it was an amazing, like it was just a complete turnaround.
But I had to have this mindset, like I needed to keep the bigger picture in play. I had to tell myself, this is really hard, but just get through it. Get to the other side and it's going to be better. All right. Sometimes you got to reframe your reality. You got to have a proper perspective and understand how things are so that you can make it through it.
And that is what we get to do in first John today. First John is going to give us a big picture for how to approach some of the more difficult teachings that he's giving us, that he's going to call us to some really difficult obedience as he's already done, but he's going to reframe it in a way that helps us understand why we do this, that helps us understand the purpose behind this. And the hope is that as we receive difficult teaching, we can take a step back, we can reframe our reality so that we can do this in a way that is helpful and good for us. So let me read 15 through 17, then we will jump in.
15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. So let me pray and then we'll jump in.
Father, you are good. We are thankful that your steadfast love endures forever. Lord, you call us to difficult teachings and difficult obedience. God, I pray that you'd help us understand this in light of your greater purposes and your will for us in our lives. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, so verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So if you were here last week, we got to walk through some really encouraging verses. Like John feels this tension of, I am calling you to some difficult teaching, some difficult obedience. And we just, we actually originally had last week's text and this week's text together.
But we're just like, no, we, 1 John is a lot. So we need to just take a moment and just appreciate, like being encouraged, who we are in Christ. And he does that and then jumps right back into a really difficult statement that is heavy. Do not love the world or the things in the world. Now, you can take that as kind of a blanket statement and run with it in a lot of different directions. Like what does that mean, not love the world?
We don't love the literal world. Do not love the world like culture. I mean, you could fill that in with whatever boogeyman you want from the world. Don't, do not love socialists. Like you could just fill in the blank with whatever you want. Does that mean that whatever it is, whatever the world is, we just need to like remove ourselves from it?
Do we need to go and live like monks out in the wilderness and get away from the world? Like what is he calling us to? Now, when you study the Bible, you don't try to say, what does the text mean to me? All right? That's one of things, if you've been with us in community groups the last couple of months, we're walking through 1 John, we're trying to grow in studying the Bible. But the text actually has meaning.
There's interpretation that is meant to, that isn't just whatever we feel it is, that actually, if you study it closely, the Bible tells us what it means. And in this passage specifically, it doesn't just leave us hanging where we can fill world in with whatever we want to. It actually goes on to define what the world is in verse 16. So he says, for all that is in the world. And then he goes, hyphen, okay? This is what's going to define the world.
This is what he means when he is using world in 1 John. He says, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. Okay? So that is how John is using in 1 John world. Desires of the flesh, desires of the eye, pride of life. All right?
Does it mean that every time you see world elsewhere in the scriptures, that's exactly how it's being used, but it means for right here in its context, this is what he's getting at. And these worldly loves are in opposition to the love of the Father. They're in opposition to the love of God. They are not from the Father. They are from the world. So understanding what this is, is incredibly important for our faith.
When I was a kid, I learned that if you lit a candle, you didn't have to, if you wanted to extinguish the flame, you didn't just have to blow it out. You could just take the lid and you could cover it up and then it would snuff it out. Like that flames, that fire needs air. And if you don't have air, it's just going to go out. So I would take the top and I just kind of put it over the top and watch the flame kind of slowly flicker and dwindle.
And then I'd open it back up and flood it with air and then the flame would come back to life. I'd do that over and over again until finally, like it would finally just completely just be out. So we need the love of God and it is the air that actually breathes life into our faith. It is the air that breathes life into the flame of our faith. And when you remove it, you're just, you're taking that top and you're putting it right over the candle. You're putting it right over your faith.
You are taking out the love of God in the way that actually sustains our faith. It gives life to our faith. And when you choose to love the world and the things in the world, you are removing the love of God. You're removing the love of the Father. So if that is true, if we need this type of love to sustain us, we need to remove the love of the world that will extinguish our faith.
And we need to understand what he is getting at when he talks about the world. We need to understand these three different statements. I want to walk through these three different descriptions of what the world is, starting with the desires of the flesh. So desires of the flesh. The Greek word for desires there is the Greek word epithumium. So every now and then, just like to help us understand this, the New Testament is written in Greek.
The Old Testament was written down in Hebrew and Aramaic. What we have in English are amazing translations of those languages. Amazing translations. So if any of you get really excited about translations and like to argue over which one's the best, just stop. First off, almost nobody wants to hear that. And second, we're really blessed in the English language to have like 200 different translations and many of them are very, very good.
But the word for desires there is epithumium. Now, when that word is used in the New Testament in different areas, it takes on the word desires. It also takes on the word passions. And it also takes on the word lusts. So that's kind of the idea that it's capturing.
And what it's getting here is this strong desire. This strong desire, passion, lust for. That we have these strong desires in the flesh. Now, that can be fairly broad and have a broad range of meaning. That can mean like strong desires of the flesh, like desire for substances, like alcohol or for weed or for pills. Like there can be strong desire for that.
I can also range all the way to, which is one of the clear pictures that we get from this, which is lust of the flesh, which is sexual sin. One commentator puts it this way. He says that this should, he translates this, whatever the body hankers for. Whatever your body, whatever your flesh craves for. And a lot of time, the most immediate meaning, and it's one of the bigger impacts on not just our culture, but all cultures throughout the last 2,000 years, it is talking about sexual sin. That sexual sin is something that is bound up in the desires of the flesh.
And it is something that can extinguish the flame of faith within us. I was listening to Tim Keller, who is a pastor that we look up to. And I was reading this. He was retelling a story about a college pastor that he was talking with. And the college pastor told him, said, listen, I have students. They're in college and they're learning different things in academia.
And some of them come to me and they have this conversation that says, I'm really struggling right now. I don't know if I believe this anymore. I don't believe this aspect of the Bible anymore. And he would listen to them and some of their struggles with some of the harder things that are understood about our faith and light of this world. And then when they get done talking, he would look at them and just say, all right, so who are you sleeping with? And he's real blunt.
And he said, they just immediately, their face just like, man, God, how did you know? He said, because this is what happens. Because when you start to engage in this and then you start to question everything. I've seen this with people that I've walked with. We've seen this in the life of our church. That all of a sudden someone starts removing themselves from community.
They start removing themselves from the body of Christ. They're not coming to group. They're not coming on Sundays. And then a few months go by and you start to ask questions. And you realize that they have a new boyfriend, a new girlfriend. And they start to chase after this at the cost of the love of God and pursuing him.
And what happens when you chase after the world is that it begins to capture your heart. It begins to capture your allegiance. If you study the recent history of espionage, you can find there's a lot of different stories of spies who defect to the culture that they're spying on. And that's not just Russian spies, although there are quite a few of those that have defected to Americans, to our American ways. Because we have Star Spangled Banner and awesomeness and it just woos them. It's not just that though.
Like we've got, there are American spies that defect. British spies, Indian spies. And what happens is they get immersed in the culture that they're spying on. They get immersed in that culture. They live it. They eat it.
They breathe it. They sleep in it. And all of a sudden it captures their allegiance. It captures their love and they defect to that country. If you immerse yourself in the world, and specifically if you immerse yourself in sexual sin, it can capture your allegiance. And we don't believe that God leaves us.
If you've been around our preaching long enough, you know that God, when he saves us, he holds us firmly in the grasp of his hand. But the reality is, is that you just stop loving God. That changes your heart and your affection story. You don't want God anymore. That's the danger of the desires of the flesh. James 1 teaches this, gives a vivid picture of how this works.
It says, But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. The desire, when it's conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death. We chase after this, after being tempted and lured, and it's birthed in us. And then eventually it grows and matures until it destroys us. Now, I know that when we preach on this, I know the response can be is that Christians just exaggerate this a lot.
I love that I was reading this study this week from the NIH, the National Institute of Health. And they actually were doing a study on sex addiction and pornography addiction. One of the things they realized was, when I was reading the abstract, is that there are, when someone is looking at pornography, there is, the reward center of their brain is stimulated in a way that when they come back to it, it's not enough. That they need more explicit content, more pervasive images to continue this reward center being rewarded. That there's something that happens in our brain. We need to keep, we need more of this.
We need more of this. We need more of this. Now, that's the NIH. NIH. It's not a Christian organization. That's the government.
But that's the consensus amongst psychology, neuroscience. And the reality is, as Christians, I find those studies helpful. But we don't actually need that to understand this is what happens within us. We need brain scans to tell us of what's happening in our souls. It's never been just sex. It's never been just sex.
The more that you pursue it, the more that you want it, the more that it removes the joy for the Lord within you. It robs you of the love of the Father. Now, we do this not just with sexual sin, but the desires of the flesh. This happens with lots of different things. It can happen with substances. That's why you have one substance that you take, and then all of a sudden you need more, and you need more, and you need more.
Like, I felt that back in the day when I was not following Jesus. It was getting drunk, and then it was marijuana, and then it was more and the more, and then luckily God snatched me out of that and saved me. But there's this part of us that craves and craves and craves and wants more. We do this with gluttony. That's the desire of the flesh. We fill this empty void of just eating and eating and eating and being satisfied with food.
We do this. There are some people who have fleshly desires to want to hurt others, to be violent towards others, to say mean and cruel, hateful things towards others. The book of Galatians, chapter 5, gives a whole list of desires of the flesh, works of the flesh. It says in verse 19, Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. We have these desires of the flesh, and what's important for us as Christians is to identify and be honest with what those actually are.
To understand ourselves and the danger that those things impose upon us if left unchecked in pursuit. So, desires of the flesh, part of how he's defining the world. Then he moves to desires of the eyes. Now, I looked at desires of the eyes. Chet and I both looked at this this week. And it's not, it's not the clearest of the three to understand.
Like, it's not super clear. Alright, so same word for desire, lust, passion, right? Same word, but now it shifts from the flesh to the eyes. Now, it's possible that it could be further explaining that first concept, right? Desires of the flesh, but it's more of a visual thing. It's possible it could roll into the next one.
We'll get you a pride of life in a moment. It's possible it could be hitting on both of those. There's a few different commentators that looked at this, and I thought that there's an element of this that I found to be helpful in understanding it. They said that part of this is covetousness. It's this visual desires of the eyes. It's not just what you have in your flesh that you're tempted by.
It's seeing what you don't have in coveting it. So, I have three children. We actually got a pile of children in this church. And when you get them together, one of the things that's kind of funny to watch is, especially young children, they... You can visually see covetousness on their face. Like, it's just...
It's visual. Like, they see a toy that they don't have at a friend's house, and it's like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. My precious. Like, they cue in, and it's like, if you watch it, you're like, that kid's going to steal that toy. That's small enough to fit in their pocket. That...
We're getting a phone call in a few days. That will not be here by the end of the night. Like, they see it, and they want it. Like, there's this strong desire that says, I want this. Now, when you become an adult, you realize that's socially unacceptable to stare at people like that. But we...
So, you find more socially acceptable ways to covet. And it shows up in a lot of different ways. It shows up in the promotion that you don't get. Somebody at work gets that promotion. You're not just going to stare at them from across the cubicle, because that's weird. But you just...
You are stewing. You're angry, because they got something that you wanted. We covet when we look at the marriages that we don't have. We covet when we... There are men or women that we want and we don't have. We covet the friendships we don't have.
We covet the life that we don't have. The desires of the eyes look around and find the things we don't have. And ultimately, this is a picture of putting hope in stock in the things of this world. It's putting our hope in things or in people as opposed to God. As opposed to finding our hope and satisfaction in Him. So, that's desires of the eyes.
And then it moves to this third aspect, which is the pride of life. The pride of life. So, pride of life is an interesting phrase that he uses here. The meaning really comes to life when you look more into it. No pun intended. But you look at this word and how it's being used.
And it doesn't just mean our literal life. What it's conveying here a little bit is our lifestyle. The things that make up your life. So, don't love your life and the lifestyle that you live. And what's in that phrase. And what different translators and commentators are all catching the same thing.
This is the stuff in your life. So, John moves from coveting the things that you don't have. To putting pride in the things that you do have. The stuff that makes up your life. There is vanity bound up in loving the stuff that is in your life. One of my favorite short stories is a French short story called The Necklace.
And the gist of it is that there is this couple. And they're in lower middle class French society. And they so badly want to level up into the next kind of higher, more elite classes. And which is, I mean, this is the 19th century. So, this is very typical of that culture. But it just, they so badly want to advance.
And the husband gets invited to this work party. And at this party are going to be all the different elite people. All the different elite classes. And they know that this is their chance. They want to level up and move up. They can use this party as a way to brush arms to different people.
So, they can move into this part of society. So, the wife, who's really desperate to get out of this lower middle class life. She says, I need a dress. I need something that's beautiful. I need to stun people. So, he goes and he spends money that they really don't have.
And they get this dress for her. And then she's like, I'm just missing something. I need jewels. I need something that just makes me stand out. So, she has a friend who's kind of in those social elites. It's the only friend they have in those elite circles.
And she has this beautiful necklace. So, she goes to her and she asks to borrow it. And then she borrows it. And they go to the party and they kill. I mean, they just, she's beautiful. The talk of the party.
He's making connections. This is their moment. Their opportunity. And then they go home. When they get home, they realize the necklace is gone. They have lost this beautiful necklace.
And they have a choice to make. They can either go to the woman they borrowed it from and say, we're so sorry. And admit what happened. And if they do this, risk being really excommunicated from ever being a part of those, that elite circle of people again. Or they can sell and mortgage everything for the next ten years. Buy when it looks like it and replace it.
And they choose the latter. They go. They mortgage the next ten years. They're in deep, deep financial debt. They buy it. They replace this.
And their whole lives fall apart. Their marriage suffers. I mean, everything. It's so bad that when you fast forward ten years, that woman runs into the woman she borrowed the necklace from. And that woman looks at her and goes, oh, dear, like, life has been so hard on you these last ten years. Which is a total French thing to do, to be so blunt.
And then she goes, oh, well, let me tell you why that is. And she tells the whole story, the whole back story of why the last ten years have been so hard. And then she looks at her and says, oh, dear, those were costume jewels. Those weren't real. And that's how it ends. And when you hear the ending, immediately it clicks.
It just makes sense. The whole point is it's so vain to put so much hope in moving up. And so much hope in having money and riches and moving up in this world. And you hear that and it clicks. But the reality is that's us.
We do this. Like, we put hope in this world. We say, if I could just have this. If I could just, if we could just move to this part of town. If we could just move up and be here. Then we'll be okay.
And we've seen this parable play out in our own lives over and over and over again. We know this. And yet, it's something the American church has failed to address on a meaningful level. Like, I was reading a study that was published this week. And it said that the median giving for evangelical American Christians. Okay?
The median giving is 0.57%. Alright? That's half of 1% to the church. And then, the extra charitable giving was 0.1%. That's one-tenth of a percent. That's the median giving for us.
And as we're going to see, that points to putting a hope in this world and the pride of this life. We're going to see that in the next chapter in 1 John 3. That attaches this idea of a lack of generosity towards other Christians to putting pride and hope in this life. That we do this. And some of us are like, yeah, I get this. I know.
Like, I feel this. There are a lot of things that I want. That I'm chasing after. And it's hard to make the Numbers work and give. And there are others of us that are like, but I do give. I give 5%.
I give the 10%. I do the 10% plus. Like, I'm giving to this. I'm giving to that. I'm giving to this. What happens is, we can hear this.
We can hear this and exclude ourselves from it. We can say, no, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. Sorry. I'm doing what I'm called to do as a Christian. There's not much room for me to actually give to something else. We don't have room in the budget.
And the reality is, is that the reason why we don't have room is because we love our stuff. Our budget is filled with subscriptions and things that we love. And what I realized was, in preparing for this, is that if you've been with us the last few years, this isn't new. Like, we know this. Like, we, the studies on giving have only gotten worse over the last few years. And we also know, if you've been with us for a few years, that we have our gift series coming up.
If you haven't been with us for a gift series, our gift series, every year in December, we walk through generosity because we want to actively combat materialism in our lives. And we tackle a gift project every year, which is a ton of fun, that we can, we can serve and give towards different things that we've tackled over the last few years. And we know the gift series is coming up. And I, and I'm, I'm preparing for it. And I go through this kind of this thing every year where, as a pastor, I, I appreciate, I appreciate the gift series. Because it schedules this subject as a part of our discussion every year.
Because Jesus didn't flinch when he talked about money. He talked about it a lot. I mean, he understood that money is connected to the things that we worship and desire in this life. So, I, I appreciate that it's a part of what we talk about every year. I'm not a huge, it's hard for me to get in the zone to be ready for it because I know, I mean, very practically, I've, I've got to do some repenting and self-reflection as I prepared for the gift series every year. And it's like, oh, that's a lot to do.
Like, I've got to prepare how, look at all the ways in which I'm not growing in generosity. And also, as, I mean, just cards on the table, as a pastor, I hate to play into stereotypes. So, I hate to play into stereotypes that, like, the church just cares about your money, the pastors just want you to give. It's like, I, I'm not a huge fan of playing into stereotypes. So, selfishly, I'd just rather not talk about it at all. But then I repent every year around this time.
And then I get excited about it. You know what? Give is fun every year. And it's exciting. And then we get to do a gift project. We tackle it.
And we love it. And then January hits. And the credit card bills hit from Christmas. And, man, it's like we're right back in it. We're right back to where we were. We do this.
We go through this every year. And I ask myself this week, like, why do we do this? Why do we do this to ourselves? And it's very clear. It's because we love our stuff. Do not love this world or the things in this world.
We put pride and hope in things. We love our stuff. You know, I love, when I get to drive a full-size truck, it is awesome. Because it's like driving a tank. Especially because I drive a little matchbox car that runs on hopes and dreams and is good for the environment. Like, I love to drive a full-size truck.
Because I feel like I can just drive over any vehicle as opposed to being threatened by every vehicle. Like, I love it. It's a lot of fun. I love the Buy Now button on Amazon. It is great that you can just hit the button. And then, like, a day or less than a day.
Like, it just shows up on your doorstep. I love, on my Christmas list this year, I've got some nicer preaching shirts. So, just shirts that are alright for preaching. Especially in the summertime. I've been told that I wear the same shirts a lot. And it's because I don't have a lot of those kind of nicer preaching shirts.
But I'm excited about that. That I've got some nicely fitting shirts. Because there are people who preach up here that sometimes wear shirts that don't fit very nicely. So, I want to step our game up just a little bit and say, let's actually... I'm excited about that. We love expensive decor that we buy that makes our house look better.
Even though that's going to go out of style in like a year or two. And we'll do it again. We love Christmas. If you have kids, you love Christmas morning. It's a lot of fun seeing your kids get to open presents. You know what's crazy?
We're only few cultures in the world that replaces their toys every year. You know what the majority of the world does? They get a soccer ball and they keep it for seven years. Like, they get a few things and then they don't toss it. And we're lucky if that stuff makes it to the summer. And we do it all again.
Why do we do it? Because we love our stuff. We love all of it. Now, if you've been with us long enough, you know what the opt-out from getting conviction there is. It's like, listen, those things aren't inherently evil. None of that's inherently evil.
We know it's just about not making idols of it. Don't worship that stuff. And that's how I excuse myself from it, right? That's how we excuse ourselves from the conviction weighing over us, right? It's like, just don't make an idol of it. It's okay.
It's fine. But if... Here's the deal. If God started to poke and pry at your heart and saying, You know what? That money that you've been saving up for, that you want to upgrade your vehicle, you want to upgrade this, you want to... How about don't?
Drive that thing for a few more years and give to missions. Like, the moment that happens, we just plug our ears. Like, no, no, no. I don't want... I give here. We've worked on saving for this right now.
Like, I just... I know. Like, I should always be generous. I get it. But, like, I... No.
And we just plug our ears and we try to move forward. And don't let the conviction of the Holy Spirit actually lead us to not love the things of this world. Maybe you don't do that. But I... That's what I do. To get out of having to not love our stuff.
We love it. We love how it feels. We love how we're perceived in it. We love the status that it gives to us. And the scriptures in 1 John is teaching that that love of stuff is incompatible with the love of God. Because pride in this life is a cheap substitute for God.
That you will look to your things and your lifestyle for status, for security, for comfort, for hope. And it's like, it's not worth it. Those things are meant to be found in Christ. So he says, don't do it. Don't fall in love with the things of this world. Don't make...
Put your hope in the pride of this life. It says, desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, pride of this life. The pride of life. Don't do it. Don't fall for it. Don't buy it.
Don't fall for the passion for pleasure and the pride in your possessions. Because if you do this, it ends up in hopelessness. So, it's a difficult thing to receive. I'm thankful that verse 17 exists. Because it gives us a remedy. He says in verse 17, And the world is passing away, along with its desires.
But whoever does the will of God, abides forever. And that is the perspective that we need. That is how we take a step back from loving this world. The desires of the flesh. The desires of our eyes. The pride of life.
17 Is the perspective that we need. To be eternally focused. In a way that we would see the things that we have and look past them. Like, I love that John is just so logical here. He says, don't you see? Those things are going to pass away.
Like, they don't last into eternity. And pass away. It's a very clean way of saying that those are going to be burned up in judgment. They won't last. And if you pursue those things wholeheartedly, you will follow that path too. Don't do it.
That's why I think a few months back I mentioned this. And every now and then I want to help us see that sometimes you just have got to play the logic out. Of what your sin is pursuing. And realize where that goes. That it doesn't end well. Like, I'll do this.
Like, if there's sexual temptation. Like, alright. If I give in here, then it leads to this. And if it leads to this, then I can wreck my family. My marriage. My wife.
And I ultimately know that if I chase after this, that it's going to grab my affections. And I'm not going to want Jesus anymore. And if I go after this headlong, it leads into destruction. And judgment. And I play that out for a thousand years to come. And I'm like, I'm not doing it.
I'm not doing it. I'm not taking that step forward. And we've got to do that. We've got to reframe your understanding to see past the things that you want in this present life. And look into eternity. And reframe your reality.
And say, is the click worth it? Is swiping right worth it? Is leveling up and putting all of your hope in moving up, is that worth it? Is it worth it in filling our days with gadgets and toys and trinkets and things that will not last? Is it worth it? It's not worth it.
One of my favorite moments in the New Testament is when Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane. And there's this moment where you just see his humanity. You just see he doesn't want to go to the cross. Because he understands what's waiting there. It's not just the immense suffering of being tortured, having his flesh ripped open, and suffocating slowly to death on the cross. It's not just the physical suffering that awaits him.
It is the disfellowship with God the Father when the full cup of his wrath is poured out on him. It's the spiritual, intense suffering that awaits him. He understands what's ahead of him. And what I love about what he does, he says, I'm going to obey the will of the Father. Because temporary suffering is worth it. Because he understands that he buys us and purchases us eternal satisfaction and joy in Christ.
And his temporary suffering is at the cost of the eternal joy of you and me and those who have trusted in Christ. Like Jesus gets it. He gets this eternal mindset that it's worth it. It's why Augustine says, hold fast to Christ. For he became temporal so that you might partake of eternity. He does this for us so that we can experience eternal joy in Christ.
And we have to get out of the next just few days or few weeks or few years mindset and see past that to where it's blurred out. And we see that as it resounds into eternity. You all ever seen the show, Let's Make a Deal? Right? Pretty easy show. Bring on a contestant.
Compete for some prizes. And really the main part of the show is they have this prize that they've won. And they say, alright, let's make a deal. You can take this prize right here. Or behind that curtain over there is another prize. You can't see it.
But you can take the risk and get it. Alright? Either keep the prize that you have or go behind what's the curtain over there. Now, if you played that game and they said, hey, you know what? You came with your best friend? They actually can stand at the curtain, peek behind it, and tell you if you should take it or not.
It would be a boring show. There would be a pilot episode and everyone would go, this show is dumb. Because the suspense of not knowing what's there is what keeps you there. But the reality is, is that we get that in Christ. Right? That we have this present world that's in front of us.
And Jesus stands at the curtain and he's looking behind and says, oh, you want this. You want what's waiting you. Just ditch that. Don't go after that. Go forth this. It's way better.
And what we do is, is that we look at what's right in front of us. We look at this life. Desires of the flesh. The desires of the eyes. The pride of life. When we say, I don't know.
I don't know what I've got. It's pretty good right now. And we reject that. And that shows that we don't actually trust Jesus when he says, what I offer is better than everything else. Do not love the world or the things in the world. The world is passing away along with its desires.
But whoever does the will of God abides forever. That's the hope. Saying no to the desires of the flesh. The desires of the eyes. The pride of this life. Is hard.
It's difficult. No doubt. Like it's hard. And sometimes it feels like suffering. Because you feel like you're denying what's actually good. What's actually isn't.
Joyable. But we have to take a step back and reframe our reality in light of eternity. Because sacrificing your budget so that you don't get the newest and the nicest all the time. Feeling the squeeze of that. Trusting God. That's hard.
That's choosing hardship over temporary ease. That's choosing to get the antibody treatment now so that you can be better later. We have to trust him in this. I mean he says that we are storing up riches in heaven. We don't know what that is. We know that if you're in Christ you get Jesus forever.
But there's some additional reward on top of that when you are obedient to him. Like we don't know. The scripture doesn't give us real clear handles. But what he's saying is that it's good. And that it's worth it. And it's not just that the eternal riches that are bound up in that.
It's the temporary of joy knowing that you're not a slave to the things in this earth now. That you're not a slave to trinkets, into toys, into promotions. That you're free. Free to be satisfied in him. Choosing not to give in to the desires of the flesh in your eyes. Whatever that is for you is hard.
The denial of self is hard. But Jesus says if you do it, you'll abide forever. You will abide forever. That 10,000 years from now you will still be joyfully worshipping the God of the universe. Like you will abide forever. That's worth it.
We just need the faith to be able to see that falling for what's right in front of us pales in comparison to what awaits us. Don't love this world. Love Christ.