Prioritizing God's Love Over Worldly Desires

"Do not love the world or anything in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for everything in this world the Cravings of sinful man the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the father but from the world the world and its desires pass away but the man who does the will of God lives forever." [00:01:58]

"John warns us against loving the world, not in the sense of the people God loves, but the system opposed to God. This love for the world is mutually exclusive with the love of the Father. We cannot serve two masters; our hearts will ultimately point in one direction. As Christians, we must examine our lives to identify rivals for our affections and ensure that God remains our ultimate love." [00:04:28]

"Friends, we as Christians face Temptations and we are helped in not loving the world in stopping loving the world if we know what those Temptations are if we can name them and self-consciously oppose them uh we'll certainly face temptation to care too much what others think of us sometimes we will be thought well of us for something the Lord Has Done in our lives or in our church or in our ministry other times we'll be thought poorly of because of that brothers and sisters we should care more that we present ACC corporate witness that isn't worldly that has stopped loving the world." [00:08:38]

"Friend find what it is that chiefly orders your life what you chiefly love and you will find what you chiefly worship you can't have God as the chief and ultimate end of your life and this world they will too often conflict the world commands you to put it first but God commands you to submit all to him the world continually commands you to engross yourself in its concerns but God commands you to use the world very carefully to hold it lightly." [00:11:36]

"Worldly love stems from selfish desires, while true love comes from God. We must pray for more love for God and for others to come to know Him. This love is a gift from God, not something we can manufacture on our own. As we grow in love for God, our lives are reordered, and we find true fulfillment." [00:18:41]

"Now friend if you're here and you're not a Christian that's what I want you to most understand from this talk feel free and take your after lunch nap now but if you can just remember that part and talk to a Christian friend here afterwards about that about what it means to stop loving the world now for us as Christians and I'll spend most of my time here we need to realize that John was writing these words to those who knew themselves to be Christians and I think Christians today find these words very challenging." [00:06:34]

"Friends, it is a false religion that idolizes the world and the things of the world whether it is land or power or riches or reputation it's too much weight to ask our society or our landholdings or our reputation our job our car to Bear to be the ultimate end of our Lives friends they're just not up for the task that they weren't made for that and so where do such disordered loves come from well the source of this love is one's heart it is selfishness they're simply the desires of our flesh our sinful nature." [00:21:00]

"Worldliness is taking an inferior ior good and treating it as your final ultimate end whether those are the pleasures of your flesh or riches or pride in Earthly Grandeur it is to feel the attraction of it and to have your heart bound up with it this list here is really good list I think for us to pray for ourselves and our own Hearts about my friend as you come to this text though what you want to do you want to ask yourself are you worldly like this I mean examine yourself." [00:22:54]

"Now friends how contrary and inconsistent are these two masters in their commands God Alone is to be our final Master that's why as Christians we can't give our ultimate allegiance to our country that ultimate Allegiance is reserved for God Alone this has cost many Christians their lives around the world and it may again here in this country if public opinion continues to go in the direction that vilifies Christian morality it may at some point be said that in order to have a cohesive pluralistic society no one can teach or perhaps even believe to be true something that is unpopular." [00:12:41]

"Friends we realize the love that we are called to have is not the love of the world but the love of God one matter here that I want us to take a moment and note specifically John writes a little later in 1 John 4:7 dear friends let us love one another for love comes from God everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God the kind of love that we're supposed to have comes only from God you can't work it up yourself you can't take two sticks of your own righteousness and your own works and willpower rub them together and come up with this kind of love this kind of love is a gift of God." [00:26:40]

"Now the idea of living forever would have been new to some of John's hearers new that is with Christianity you may remember the response Paul got when he preached about the bodily Resurrection in Athens partly caused a riot it certainly caused people to dismiss him caused others to be intrigued because it was a new idea well John here is certainly not teaching that we are simply saved by doing the will of God no he's we're saved by the work of Christ and trusting in Christ but doing the will of God is what typifies those who are saved." [00:36:47]

"Friends we are by Nature worshippers we are by Nature lovers so the question that you need for your Soul's sake to answer this afternoon more than any other is do you love God or the world supremely my friend love God today as one Puritan put it remember how dear you pay for your your beloved Idols God Alone can satisfy those Made In His Image what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul." [00:41:02]