Children of God: A war of loves - James Murray

Hey guys, Pastor James Murray here and I want to welcome you to the Abide Sydney podcast. This whole podcast is designed to help you on the journey of discipleship and our mission is to make disciples of the people of Sydney, but maybe not from Sydney. We hope this blesses you, so sit back, relax and enjoy this podcast. Okay, so we've been doing a journey through the book of one John, this is part four. The series has been called Children of God. The reason being is because this is the majority of the theme that John the Apostle writes. He actually has this idea of children or uses this affectionate terminology of little children or children. And that's not because he's trying to talk down, but he is speaking like an older man, which he is most likely 80 years old when he writes this letter. He is the last remaining disciple of the twelve that follow Christ. In fact, they believe that he was probably the last person who saw Christ in flesh, and now he is an old man penning down what he saw. So he writes the gospel of John, which is amazing, and then he writes one John, and second John, etc. So all of these things at the later end of his life, what I love about the Apostle John is that he had a title when he first started following Jesus. He was called, him and his brother James, they were called Sons of Thunder. Anyone like that nickname? I'm like, come on, that would be a great tattoo at Sons of Thunder. Anyway, so Sons of Thunder, and the reason why they got that was actually, it was semi-negative. The reason being is because they had reached a town, a Samaritan village, and they didn't accept Christ coming into the village, and they said, do you want us to call that fire and destroy the village? So they had faith, but they didn't have love. So they had faith, yeah, we can call that fire if you want us to, but they didn't have love. So if you guys, Sons of Thunder, chill out, that's not our mission. Our mission isn't to destroy the world, it's to redeem the world. And John, later on in his life, would go from Son of Thunder to Apostle of Love. So this work of God does such an amazing thing in him, where now he's not about destroying the world, but about saving the world through Christ, and so he now writes as an old man, and here we go, we're going to pick up in one John chapter 2 and verse 12. This sounds like a song, these first few verses, they believe that maybe this was a hymn that was sung at gatherings when they got together as the church in John's time. And he says this, "I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his namesake. I am writing to you fathers because you know him who was from the beginning. I'm writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you children because you know the father. I write to you fathers because you know him who was from the beginning. I write to you young men because you are strong. And the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one." And then it goes to verse 15, "Do not love the world." Turn the person next and say, "Stop it." Don't do it, John would say. And there's a reason why, and before you think, "God hates the world," no, no, no, you can understand the real meaning of this word, "world," which we'll get to. He says, "Do not love the world, all 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." Watch this, the desires of the flesh, 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. This is God's Word. I want to speak to you this morning, part four about children of God series around this topic, a war of loves, a war of loves, because that's what you and I are in. A war of loves, and I have a big point, I always have one, because hopefully what starts as a monologue, me talking to you, you becomes a dialogue this week, but here's my big point I want to make through this text here today. The gospel changes our lives by changing our loves. The gospel changes our lives. How many people recognize they need for change? Yep. How many people know the first next? You definitely need to change. Yep, good. So, that was a little too quick, stop that, okay? But the gospel, watch this, it changes our lives by changing our loves, changing our loves. So let's pray and commit these moments to the Lord. So Lord, we thank You for our time together, and I thank You as we come around Your Word, God, we don't want to be just hearers of the Word we want to be doers. We want to live this out, but we know we cannot do that in our own strength, and so we ask Holy Spirit, would You come and not just illuminate this truth this morning, but would You activate it in us? That we would be people who let Your love and Your work, Your redeeming work, do a deep work in us so that we can look more like Your Son, we can look more like Jesus, but ultimately we can live the changed life that You invited us into, a transformed life, transformed by Your love. So we ask, now, would You come Holy Spirit, do what only You can do? In Jesus' mighty name we pray, amen, amen, as You grab Your seat, turn the person next and say, "You definitely need to change your loves?" Definitely, definitely, goodness me. By show of hands, how many people here would call themselves a fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Give me a little wave. Lord of the Rings, yes, one of the—oh, there's a lot. This is my church. Come on. Love the Lord of the Rings. In fact, how many people here have watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy way too many times? How many people have been on a long flight and you're like, "You know what? Let's do it." I'm going to watch all three back to back. We've got time. Okay. So I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now if you don't know this but Tolkien, when he wrote the Lord of the Rings, I don't know if you know this, but he is actually a believer. He was a Christian man and what he was trying to do was capture not just a beautiful story, but he was actually trying to create for us a deeper meaning. He was trying to lead the reader into understanding something far deeper and Tolkien actually—he was trying to paint the image of, yes, good versus evil, but there's even more nuance to it. So when he's writing the books or when you're watching the movie, you can see that this story is not just a story about Frodo the Hobbit, it's about humanity. Now I personally love the Lord of the Rings because it just reminds everyone that little guys have big impact. That was a little mean, so anyway. But when he is writing or when this movie is playing out, the movie is all about what? It's about this ring, this ring of power and how they realize this ring is detrimental. It's dangerous and they need to do their best not to keep it or to wield it, but to destroy it. And they said, who is going to destroy this? We need to take it to mount Doom and throw it into the fires of Immortal. And so they're like, who's going to do it? Everyone starts arguing and then this Hobbit stands up and he says, I shall destroy the ring. I shall take the journey. And I'm like, come on Frodo. I almost thought like dressing like him today just to really capture the moment. But then you start to watch the movie and what you realize is that the story is so much more about Frodo taking the ring to mortar to destroy it, but it's a lot more about what the ring starts to do inside of Frodo. Like this ring that he knows is bad, that he must destroy, he actually starts becoming quite fond of it. And all throughout the movie, you see him and his love starts to grow towards something that he knows he should destroy. He knows this is wicked. He knows it is capable of doing disastrous things, but yet he succumbs to this kind of desire that this ring is putting off. And what starts as Frodo willingly saying, yep, I'm going to destroy it towards the end, you see Frodo with a different posture. He is standing over this precipice where this kind of like this lover is and he knows he needs to throw it into the lover to destroy it, but yet he's captivated by it. And he's like, I don't know if I want to do it. And like, what started as this external battle became more of an internal one. And so now what is something like, yes, I can't wait to destroy it. This is the right thing to do. He now turns into like, you know, I'm not going to do it. But he's going to like, he's now, it's precious to him. It's precious. Now the reason why I tell you that story is this, the greatest threat to Frodo isn't just the enemies chasing him, it was the affection growing within him. That is what the story is now portraying. And the reason why I say that is because when it comes to you and I in the human condition, many of us think our biggest problem is what we are doing. Our habits, our behaviors, our mistakes, our temptations, our failures. But beneath every behavior is an affection. People have you have, there is an affection beneath every action is a love. So listen to me, your deepest problem is it's not necessarily this that we sin, it's that we love things more than we love God. That's what it comes down to. So that's why listen, that's why behavioral modification does not work in the long run. So some people here like me and I just got to change my routines, I just got to change My habits are going to change my environments and they're all good. things, are they not? But if it's purely about changing things on the outside and not changing things on the inside, guess what? You're just going to go back. Why? Because you still love it. You still love it. See, if your love remains unchanged, sooner or later you will drift back to whatever your heart treasures most. So some of you here, like you've made some really good external choices. I'm coming to church now. I'm reading my Bible now. I'm hanging out with these people now. These are all beautiful things to do. However, you've found yourself drifting back into sin patterns and behaviors. And you're like, why do I keep doing this? John would say, it's not because of your actions, it's because of your loves. Your love has not changed. And you're still loving the things you once love. And that's why your life would drift back to that same place over and over again. And he's not saying it in condemnation. He's saying, this is a reality of the human condition. Now, Augustine for the win. I love this quote. He says this, my weight is my love. Wherever I am carried, my love is carrying me. What Augustine is saying here, he's saying this, wherever I end up, it's actually my love that's taken me there. Good or bad? I have a love, this deep love for that thing. And the reason why I end up in that place is not because, well, I'm just a bad person. No, I keep loving that thing. And that's why I keep going back to that place where our deepest problems don't come from what we are doing. It comes from what we are loving. We're loving. And this is why I love the gospel because the gospel doesn't start by telling us to change our behavior. It begins by giving us a greater love. That's what the gospel is doing. The gospel doesn't merely call us to stop loving the world and invites us to experience a greater love. It's an invitation. So ready, I'm going to put this up on the screen because you know it's serious when it goes on the screen. Ready? You can't truly change your life until you change your loves. You can't. You cannot truly change your life until you change your loves. So again, well meaning, beautiful people in this room this morning. And you're like, yeah, but I'm trying to change this and I'm changing that. But your life isn't truly changed. You keep going back to certain things. The reason why it's because you haven't changed your loves. You still love that. And this is why the gospel is so good. Why? Because the gospel changes our lives by changing our loves. So you ready? Here is where we go into this portion of one John chapter two. John is an old man and guess who's writing to? He's writing to a church in a Roman Empire. The Roman Empire is what? It's all about this hedonistic way of life. In other words, pursue pleasure, avoid pain. Does that sound similar to Sidney? Do whatever it takes to get as much pleasure out of life as you can and do whatever it takes to avoid as much pain. So whatever is it inconvenience, trying to stop you from the pleasures of life, just get rid of that and just pursue pleasure instead. And so this is the start, this is the lifestyle that John is now writing to in the Roman Empire. In fact, pleasure, wealth, power, idolatry. It was all of the the culture that this church that John is writing to exists within. And what is encouraging us to do is not just to, he's not asking us like, what are you doing? He's actually asking, what are you loving? That's what he's doing here. He's not merely confronting behavior. He's exposing affection. He's saying, where is your affection line? What is the thing that your heart is ultimately drawn to? Let's start there. Now this is huge. Listen to me. Some of you are spiritually exhausted in this room. You are like on a treadmill of change, putting out so much energy and effort trying to change to become more like Christ and you're exhausted because you've made it all about changing these behaviors as opposed to changing affections. Or I should say, letting Jesus change your affections. So I believe today is going to be a great day of liberty. You ready for this? Because I think what we want here is to be changed. Do we not? But the gospel changes their lives by changing our loves. Okay, here we go. That was just the groundwork. Okay, let's jump into the text. Are you ready? So the three things the gospel does. And this is what John is saying in one John chapter two in these verses. Number one, the gospel tells us who we are before it tells us what to do. It tells us who we are before it tells us what to do. He uses this terminology. I'm writing to you little children, fathers, young men will get to that in a moment. But it is almost like he's using these affirming statements. And this is huge. How many people know that affirmation is extremely important to the human condition? In fact, everyone in this room is looking for some form of affirmation or validation. And we look for it in many different places, some of them unhealthy, some of them good. But you're going to recognize the words, the affirming words that have filled our lives have largely shaped who we are today. In fact, I came across this tragic story in 2016 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is in America. There was a report about a little girl that was living in just terrible situation. So the police came and they found this four-year-old girl reports of severe abuse. And when the police gently asked her, "Hey, what is your name?" What is your name? Her response was, "My name is Idiot." My name is Idiot. And here's the thing, she believed that, because not because her name was that, but because her mother's boyfriend had called her idiot so consistently, then instead of using her real name, she used that. To which, again, she wasn't born, believing she was an idiot, she believed it because that's what she had heard over and over again. This is massive. The names or words, listen to me, the names or words spoken over us eventually become the identities we live from unless the truth breaks in. So some of you have had affirming words of a negative sense spoken over you for a year. You're just like your father. You're just like your mother. You'll always be like this. You're always going to do that. And what it's done is it's actually shaped your identity. It's affirmed something. It solidified something in your mind that you are now living out of. And John says, what we need to do is recognize affirmation is really, really powerful. What does affirmation mean? It means a confirmation that something is true. But here's the thing, John now does it. He says, "No, don't let everything else affirm you. Let the gospel. Let Jesus affirm you." And he goes through these affirming stages. Now, I've worked really hard on this, so you better like it. So ready? John, he actually starts to put these three different titles, but they're three stages of three gospel affirmations of the Christian walk. Three gospel affirmations of the Christian walk. So watch this. He firstly, he says, "Children." And then he says, "Young men." Then he says, "Fathers." Do you notice that when we read the text, "Children, fathers, and young men?" And when he's saying this, he's not literally speaking to children, literally speaking to fathers and young men. He's talking about the journey of faith, people who are children, what? They are young in their faith. People who are young men, they've been a long, a little while, but not super long. And then there's fathers, people who've been following Jesus for a long time. And he says, "At each stage of life, there's certain affirmations you need to say of who you are in Christ." Ready? These are the affirmations. Children, you are young to face. So you're in the room. You've been saved. You've come to Christ. You're now following him. You may be walking with Jesus for a couple of months, even just a couple of years, but still early in the journey. He says this, "You need to be affirmed that all your sins are forgiven and God is your ever-present loving Father." That's the thing you need to hear and ruminate on the most. So you'll need a faith here. Listen to me. You need to know this. Stop focusing so much on like, "I've got to do this and I've got to do that." And again, there's nothing wrong with some healthy Christian practices, but he's saying, "No, no, affirm first and foremost all my sins have been forgiven." All of them. And I have access to a loving Father. And you need to tell yourself that over and over. You need to wake up tomorrow morning and say, "All my sins have been forgiven." And I have access to a loving Father. I need to tell yourself that over and again. Now, I'm a visual person, anyone else? Okay. So I'm like, "How do I best paint the picture for you who are children in your faith that would best capture what I've just said?" And it would be this. I did this in Chat GBT. Praise the Lord. Okay. I said, "Chat GBT created a picture of a man standing in mud but under a raging waterfall." And I want to say to you, if you're young in your faith, to follow Christ, it is not a perfect journey forward. In fact, most of the time, we're stumbling our way forward. We keep falling back into the mud, not intentionally, but that is part of the human condition. We are not fully chained. Not fully transformed, but we keep making these mistakes. Like, how many people have sinned since you've met Jesus? Yeah, you better put your hand up. Okay. But we stumble, but what John is saying, he's saying, "Hey, just remember, yes, you might have fallen in the mud, but don't stay in the mud. Stand back up and receive the inexhaustible love and forgiveness of the Father pouring all over you again, washing you clean." And he says, "Your sins have been forgiven, not just your past, not just your present, but your future." Do you realize Jesus doesn't keep dying on the cross for your sins? He died once and for all, the atonement of all sins. So when we fall, what we must do is yes, repent of the sin, but then stand back up and just be washed with his forgiveness once again. And if you're new to faith, you need to hear that today. I'm forgiven. Hey, get up out of the mud. I'm forgiven. I'm not going to stay there. I need to be reminded that over again. The next thing he says to young men, in other words, they've been on the journey for a little while. He's been on the journey for a little bit. He says, "You need to be a firm that you've already overcome. evil one, you're stronger than you think God is in you. So maybe you're not new to faith here today, but you've been doing this for a little while, John would say one of the affirming things you need to know is hey, listen me, you've overcome. You've overcome. Hey, listen me, that's that's not who you are. That's not who you are. I've overcome this. This is huge. Why? Because in our world, activity determines identity. So if I if I do that, that's what I am in the kingdom it's upside down. It's the other way it's reverse. I am this and my identity determines my activity. So I need to affirm. No, no, I've actually overcome this. But James, I still struggle with that. No, no, you've overcome it. So you need to affirm over and over again, guess what the Bible says of you. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You doesn't say you will be righteous. It says you are righteous. What does righteous mean? Ready? Pleasing, presentable without shame. You've overcome. And so I say this to young guys and again, by the way, when it says children, young men, fathers, it's not excluding you, ladies, because it's a patriarchal society. And so it's using those terminology. It's for everyone. But when he says young men, you've overcome, he's saying, remind yourself, you've overcome this. But James, I just did it. No biggie, you've overcome it. I've firm that. So I will sit with young guys, young adults, men across, you know, the years of passering. And they'll talk about, for example, the very real example, like James, I'll struggle with pornography. And I'll go, okay, listen, what you need to do in that struggle, good that you spoke to someone, good you got accountability, good you're confessing sin, super good, great steps forward. But what you also need to do is affirm that's not who I am. I'm not that behavior. I'm not that addiction. What I need to do is I am the righteous of God in Christ Jesus, because that's what he says of you. You have past tense, you have overcome. So when you face sin, what you need to do is like, that's not, that doesn't define me anymore. I'm actually an overcomer. And the more you start to affirm your identity in Christ that I am an overcomer, guess what? You will overcome. Amen? So there's some young in the faith people, you need to hear that. But then he gets to fathers. And he's speaking fathers or mothers, you can use that terminology, you've been following Jesus for a long time. And guess what he says, you need to be affirmed that intimacy with God is life's greatest achievement. That's the greatest achievement. Intervencey with God. Do you find this fascinating? Verse 13, he says, what, I am writing to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning. Verse 14, I am writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. He says the same thing twice. Why? It's not because Paul's like, it's Paul's typo. Dang, it's papyrus. I can't really rub it out. I'm going to keep it there, be it discounted on his scripture forever. No, he's actually saying something that repetitive things in scripture are not there because there's trying to be repetitive. It's there to reinforce a truth that's really important. And saying fathers, you know that you know the greatest thing? Like if you're old in your faith, do you know the most important thing? Intimacy with God. Intimacy. And guess what he says, he says, because you have known him who is from the beginning. Guess what the word "no" is? We've spoken about this before. It's the Greek word "gonozko," which means what? "No" through personal experience or to "no" absolutely. So when he says you've known, he's actually talking about something deeper than, oh, I just know. It's like, no, I know. So I have this year in September, I've been married 24 years to my first wife, Alanna. Love her. And guess what? There is facts about my wife, Alanna. And there's things I know about my wife, Alanna. Fact. Ready? I've only got one actually. Fact. She's very mysterious. Fact. Her favorite color is blue. She loves blue. And that's a fact. And if you were to meet her, in fact, next time you see her, you go, "Hey, Alanna, her's your favorite color is blue." Well done. And you'd know a fact about her. But after 24 years of being with my wife, Alanna, I guess what I know about her, she's one of the most selfless people I've ever met. Always puts everyone else first before herself. She's always second. To our kids, to me, to people in her world, her family, she always puts herself second. Now, guess how I found that out? Not from a fact, because I did life with her intimately. And now I know something about her that only time an intimacy have revealed. And when John is writing about people who have done the journey of faith, he's saying, "Guess what? You are knowing things about God that children and young men won't know, but you know." And you need to be as, "Listen to me, spiritual fathers and mothers in the house, we need you desperately right now." Paul writes to the church in Corinth, he says, "You've got 10,000 teachers, but you've got no fathers. What's the difference between a teacher and a father?" Teachers tell people what to do, fathers tell people who they are. And we need more voices in this world, because they've got so many people telling them what to do. On social media or other platforms, do this, do that. But what they need is the affirming voice of a spiritual father and mother saying, "No, no, this is who you are. Keep holding on to Jesus, because guess what he's going to reveal something to you and it's better than anything you've ever had." He actually is saying this to you for those who are fathers in the faith. The goal of our faith isn't merely to accumulate knowledge about God, but to cultivate such deep fellowship with him that we can say we have known him who is from the beginning. That's the goal. Isn't that profound? Somebody think the goal is, "I get to read the Bible, I'm going to read the Bible once a year every year for the rest of my life." That's the goal. Good goal? John says, "No, there's a better goal." And the goal is what? Good no, let's go. I just, I know God. Man do I know. He's revealed himself to me in such beautiful ways that I can never unsee. He is so faithful. He is so kind. He is better. He's better. Bad English. Better works. He's better than I thought. That's what happens if you keep remaining on the journey of faith. Again, this is so important within point one. The world says your activity determines your identity, but the kingdom says your identity determines your activity. So you need to, this is who I am, and that would change the way I live, and we must continually anchor ourselves in this truth all the time, all the time. Number two, what does this tell us? This text, "The gospel continually re-orients our loves." It re-orients our loves. This is what the gospel is doing. He says, "It's verse 15. Do not love the world, all the things of the world." If anyone loves the world, the love of the phab is not used to that whole text that we read earlier, and it starts talking about loves, and this is a big part of our conversation today. Now, if you are thinking about the journey of faith, of following God, many people would say, if there's a picture to capture, what does it mean to follow God? I think people would have this image. Let's check this image up on the screen. Okay, I've gone so nerdy today. I've gone from Lord of the Rings to Star Wars. Okay? But God bless you. Okay, so many people would see it like this. This is a beautiful scene from Empire Strikes Back, anyone? Okay, tough crowd. Right. But it's like Luke Skywalker, like Skywalker, and he's battling against Darth Vader, and some people think that is what faith journey is like. I am, I'm just trying to live for Christ, and the enemies just try to attack me, and I'm trying to do my best to live for Jesus, but there's all these external things that are trying to tear me down and break me down in my faith, and there is truth to that, that that is part of the faith journey. We do have an enemy who is trying to, again, he can't, but he's trying to deter us from trusting in the Lord and hinder our faith journey. Would you agree with that? But I would say this, the faith journey, in my opinion, is less like us fighting the enemy, and it's more like this. I think the faith journey is more about you and I internally, our old self, wrestling with the renewed self. You're old self. In other words, the things that you used to do, the things you used to love, the things that once you found pleasure in, the things that you once found satisfaction, and the relationships, the habits, all of these things, they're still a part of us. Would you agree? They're saying, come on, and it's trying to pull us back. In fact, Paul writes the church in Galatians 5, and he says, hey, there is a battle on the inside of us, me paraphrasing here, he says that there is the flesh in the spirit, and the flesh wants to do what's contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh. In other words, there is a war of the world on the inside, and there's a party going, come on, come back to the old way, come back to the old pleasures, come back to the old desires, but then there's this renewed self, they're saying, no, no, no, come on. And so there's this internal, and this is the thing, it's this internal tug of war that is happening on the inside of us. So if that's what you're feeling in your faith journey, can I say this? Welcome. Welcome to life with God. Because one day, we will be totally renewed, and we won't have those those luring pools and tugs on the inside of our heart trying to take us away from renewed life. We will be a totally new creation, but we are still in this sinful body, forward, say, and I'm on the journey of renewal, but I need to listen to me daily, which one am I going to give into? Which one am I going to give more attention to, the old self or the renewed self? But John says, what makes it even more difficult, if you think it's already a little bit difficult, is saying, there's this thing you live in, it's called the world. And when he says, do not love the world, he actually uses this word, it's the word cosmos in Greek. And cosmos is not just the cosmos, the universe, the atmosphere that we live in, he's actually speaking, this word cosmos means order or system. So when he says do not love the world, here's what he's saying. Do not love the anti-god system. There is an anti-god system in the world. Have you noticed this? From, listen, this has been something from the beginning. Hey, don't trust God. Why did you eat the fruit and become God? Don't be, be anti-god. He's the thing. The devil's not trying to make you worship him. He's trying to make you worship you. He's trying to get you to say don't worship God. Don't put him first. Put you first. That's the order in which you're going to be best satisfied and it is a lie. And this anti-god, this cosmos, this system we live in is perpetuating that message all the time. All the time, yeah, don't trust God. No, no, be anti-god. You could even say, in the revelation, they talk about this thing called the anti-Christ. Oh, here we go. James, get off TikTok. No, no. This is an anti-Christ spirit. It's a spirit, which is what? It's just anti-god, anti-Jesus. Don't trust God, trust you. And so he says, when he says, do not love the world, he's saying, don't love that system. Don't let your heart be drawn into that system. Because it doesn't leave, listen, that system comes to steal, kill and destroy. But my way is what? Life and life more abundantly. But you've got to trust. In fact, if you're ever reading scripture and you're like, oh, that's a bit difficult to understand, I would encourage you to get a message Bible. The message Bible is a paraphrase. So I wouldn't say it's a Bible, it's a paraphrase. It's a great resource to read the Bible with. And Eugene Peterson, who wrote it, was a pastor. And the reason why he wrote this is because he's church is like, I don't quite understand this text, which is true. It's deep, it's rich. But he said, let me write it in a way that's more palatable to my church. And so he wrote the message Bible. Now, when you read this verse, we read earlier, in the message Bible, he says it like this, do not love the world's ways, do not love the world's goods. Ready? Love of the world squeezes out, love for the Father. It's squeezing it out. It's fascinating. Practically, everything that goes on in the world, wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear more important, has nothing to do with the Father. Hey, question, can we go there for a second? Wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear more important. Sydney, Sydney, Sydney. All of them. That's how you're going to be more fulfilled. That's you live in at the peak of life. Just what? Just get your own way, just get everything you want for yourself and just make yourself seem super important. And that system is a lie. Have you ever spoken to someone who's got what they thought they wanted? And then when they get there, they're like, huh? They didn't have a response. It's literally just a sound. As if to say, it wasn't what I thought. It didn't promise what I thought. Didn't give me what I thought. You look at famous people throughout history and they'll get exactly what they want, the money they want, the prominence they want, all of these things. And they'll say, I thought it would be more. In fact, I now need more. Because maybe if I get more, it'll do more. But it's like drinking ocean water. This makes you thirstier. And so what John is saying here is don't let yourself get caught up in that system. Because that system's a lie. In fact, watch this. Augustine, who I quoted earlier, heavy weight in the church history. If you don't know much about Augustine, he was a bishop in a place called hippo, which was the North, the Roman North Africa at the time. And so when he's there, the Roman Empire ran about 330 AD or something like that. Actually became a Christian empire. So yep, Christianity is the one we're going to go behind. And it flourished. The church flourished to a degree within that environment. But eventually it all turned in on itself again and the empire totally employed it. So the Roman Empire is not going to look here today. Have you noticed that? Yep. So it implodes. Augustine was actually a bishop in the time, both of pre-implosion and post-implosion. And when the church imploded around the Roman Empire, people like men, is this Christian thing going to work? Like maybe the whole Christian faith is going to crumble with the empire. And he then says, no, no, no, it's not going to crumble. Because this kingdom is unshakable. You know that scripture say that. The kingdom we're apart of is unshakable. And he says, I'm going to write a rebuttal. And so he wrote this piece of literature called The City of God in 426 AD. And in the city of God, it's quite dense. There's a lot in there. But if you feel like reading it, it's good to read. And he speaks about this idea of two cities. Ready? We're going to nerd out a little bit more. Because we've already been there with all of the rings and Star Wars. Let's talk about the, he says, I talked about the earthly city, which is Savitas Taranah in Latin. And it means what? The earthly city consisting of those whose supreme love is themselves. What is it defined by? Love of self, pride, power, possession, self-rule, temporary glory. But then he says there's also another city. You could say there's another kingdom. And it's Savitas Day, which means what? The city of God, which is made up of all those who ultimately love God above all else. And they define by what? Love of God, humility, worship, obedience, eternal hope, and peace found in God. And what he's saying here is that there are two kingdoms that we live in or two cities. Listen, you don't just live in Sydney, the city, you live in the kingdom of God. And they're both opposing each other because they have what? Different outcomes, different pursuits, different goals. He actually said this. What's this Augustine writes in the city of God? Two cities have been formed by two loves. Interesting. Just like John the Apostle, he's saying, no, it's not about just two ways of life. It's about it's deeper. It's two loves. The earthly city by love of self, even to the contempt of God, the heavenly city by love of God, even to the contempt of self. Who's saying, we're going to recognize there is a tension on the inside of us. But what God is trying to do through the gospel, through the Holy Spirit is reorient our love. And it's not just one thing, it's constant. So daily, what we need to do is we need to wake up. And before we get going into the system of this world, we need to pray Holy Spirit, keep turning my heart towards what I want to love most. I want to love this, but I also want to love that. So would you help me to put my affections in the right place? How many people think that's a good prayer to pray, not at the end of the day, but the beginning? And if you would trust in the Lord, sometimes you're going to be shaken in this. I don't know if you've ever got a compass. I know we live like in modern times. But if you've had a compass, if you shake a compass up, there's not how much you shake it up, guess what's going to happen? It's going to return to true North. And you will be shaken in this world. But if you keep trusting the Holy Spirit, he will keep on turning your heart back towards the Father. The love of God, his love for you and ultimately starts to change your love for him. So the way to experience the greatest, deepest and most lasting change is to continually ask the Holy Spirit to transform what you love and reorient the desires of your heart towards God. Amen? Amen. Number three, last but not least, the gospel leads us from the temporal to the eternal. Now this is beautiful. He says this in verse 17, the last verse, the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. You catch that? The world, all of these things that people like, that's what's going to make me fulfilled. That's what's going to do it. Guess what? It's passing away. It doesn't last. Not at last. However, whoever does the will of God abides forever. In other words, you're going to be attached to something that is never going to be taken away from you. A fulfillment that nothing in this will can give and nothing in this will can take away. The world didn't give it? Well, can't take it away. Come on. Some day it's cool song, right? But what John's saying here is that the more you follow Christ, he's actually going to point you towards this. He's going to point you towards the difference between the temporal and the eternal. I can put it to you this way. I'm going to show you a picture of two cuisines, you could say. On your left, there is a picture of what? A cheeseburger happy meal. I'm 44 years old. Every now and then, I still want to pound one of those things. Anyone else, like I'm like, yes, I know it's wrong. But how could it be so wrong when it feels so right? Like how? On the other side is a 300 gram piece of wagyu steak, cooked medium-rare, because that's the only way you cook steak. And if you disagree with me, there's plenty other great churches in the city. Now, I'm joking. I'm joking. If you were to come to six-year-old James and say, hey, six-year-old James, hey, it's dinner, what do you want? Guess what six-year-old James would do? I'm going to happy meal every time. I'm going, this is it. Happy meal comes with a toy. Like this is amazing. I would want to go for that every day of the week, but guess what? 44-year-old James is now doing. I'm like, are you kidding? Why would I go for this process meat? Something that I've heard if you leave just in the open air will still be be the same, a thousand years. years from now? Did you know that? I didn't, I just made that up. Anyway, so there's, there's partly truth. Or do you want this? Listen, I'm, my appetite's changed. My desires have changed. And what was just the instant gratification of a cheeseburger happy meal towards a beautifully well-cooked wagist? I'm like, man, I'm going for this every day of the week. Now, what John is saying here, the more you follow Christ, guess what's going to happen? You're going to start to recognize there's things that you once desired, but you're going to get new desires. Can you, can you trust God in that? That he's, what he's doing is actually developing new desires in you. That, that some of you think it's just about, well, I just got to do better try harder. And again, I'm not against, Dallus Willard would say, grace is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning. So it's not saying there's no effort required in our faith journey. But what's going to happen as you follow Christ is he's going to start changing this, your loves. I used to love that. Strange. Doesn't draw me in anymore. Doesn't have the same. And every now and then I'm going to get you attempted. But man, that's so much better. Because I've tasted and seen that it is good. Some 34, right? I've tasted it. And so what, what we got to recognize is that, like C. S. Lewis says a lot this, ready? If we find ourselves with desires that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. It's made for another world, like there is it. There's desires in us. God made us with desires. This is not some Eastern religion where you need to empty yourself with desires. Feel nothing. That is the pinnacle of life. Not at all. We are made with desires. But we're made desiring something that this world cannot give. C. S. Lewis would say, well, maybe it's because it's from out of this world. It's not of this one, in other words, of this city, this kingdom, this system. It's a kingdom that's beyond this. So while the desires of the world are powerful and real, Jesus offers us something even greater and more real. The gospel reminds us not to settle for less than what we were created for. The abundant life and the eternal life of God. That's what you're created for. So don't stop settling for cheeseburgers. Stop listening. Stop settling for it. When you're made for more, there's something that could satisfy you even more. In closing, coming back to my big point, the gospel, this is what it's doing. It's changing our lives by changing our loves. Changing our loves. That is what we're trying to do here. God changed my loves. But I really love that. Yeah, yeah. Just trust him. Just keep trusting him. Keep committing. Keep following that journey of discipleship to Christ. Guess what he's doing? It's going to change this. Change your heart. I'm pretty confident there'll be people in this room who once upon a time you'd say, oh man, I love that way of life so much. And now you're like, oh my gosh, it's like err, err. I can't even think about it anymore because I've tasted something so much better. That's the testimony of what changed love. And external love, the love of the Father, changing the loves that we have. Why don't you stand your feet as we finish? We're trying to be a church that are not just hearers of the word, but doers. And so we like to put some practical questions for response at the end of our time together. And so a couple of questions that I want to ask you to reflect upon. Firstly, are you affirming yourself with the truth of the gospel? Are you affirming yourself? So maybe you're in that young, like child stage of faith, young man stage of faith, fathers, like are you affirming yourself? Some you needed to hear that today. You need to hear that. No, I am, I'm forgiven. I've overcome intimacy with the fathers that got like you need to firm that over and over again. But are you doing it? Next question, have you asked the Holy Spirit to change what you love? That's a good question. Some of you trying to deal with external things, but it's an internal problem. And you just say, Holy Spirit, change my loves. Help me to do that. Help me to change my love from that. What's the best thing we can do with the Lord when we're in prayer is actually admit what we love. Admit it. It's not because he doesn't know. He knows you better than you know you. Hey, God, I actually really love that. Love looking at that stuff. Love being like the applause of people. Love the status that I get from that. Love the money in my, like just admit it. I love it, Lord. But change my love because I know that's temporal. Let's be honest, the Lord meets you at your point of truth. At your point of it, be honest with the Lord, bring it into the light as children of light, which we are. Last but not least, are you trusting God to fulfill the deepest desires of your heart? Are you trusting Him? Ah, but I'm pretty sure he will fulfill that. She will fulfill that. I'm pretty sure that pay rise, that relocation. They're not bad things. They're not bad, but were they truly fulfilled? That's the question we need to all be faced with. But understand that he is the one who comes, he comes to give life and life to the full. Amen? A prayer in closing here today. We're going to pray this together. I'll read it first and then we'll pray it. We do this every week to pray together as a church. And praise this, Father, thank you that you loved me with an inexhaustible love. I confess that my heart is often drawn away by desires that do not ultimately bring true fulfillment. Holy Spirit, I ask you to shape and transform my loves so that I might experience the abundant life of God in Jesus' name. Amen. Can we pray this together? Would you pray that loud? Let's say this. Ready? Father, thank you that you loved me with an inexhaustible love. Amen. Well, we hope this podcast has inspired you on your journey of discipleship to Jesus. If you want to know more about our church, just go to abide.cidney. We'd love to get to know you. If not, you're from another place. Hey, why don't you share this with someone else? And hopefully, it helps them as they continue to follow Jesus. Have a great week.