You know, I think I've said this before, but before I speak, every single week, and in every pastor in every trade, whatever you're in, you have a rhythm to things, right? So every time I walk up these steps, kind of over here to my ride on your left, I just ask God, I’m like God, I mean, I want to be all about you. I want your word to shine and get me out of the way. All right? That's the first part of my rhythm. And then, before I hit the last step, right at the last step, I checked my zipper. It's kind of the part of the normal flow of my rhythm. Well, that saved me this morning at the first service of a lot of embarrassment. And I was like, well, thank you, Lord. been doing that for years. I don't know why. It's just kind of a nervous tic, I don't know. but this morning, it saved me. So God is good. Amen. he is good. Well, hey, I know that. 

Before we jump into the message, I want to remind you that this Thursday is our national day of prayer. Millions of people across the nation will be joining together this week at different places, at different times, and in different ways. to pray over some very specific things. There are seven of them. We're going to be praying over our nation's leaders, our military, our media, the businesses in the United States, our educational system, and just families in our country. And here's what we want to do as a church to join this movement. We're not going to have a breakfast. We're not having lunch or worship that night. But what we are going to do is ask anyone who is associated with or part of Burnt Hickory to go online, whether it's through the app, the QR code, the worship guide, or the website, and you can do it anyway. go online and opt in for some text messages on Thursday. There are going to be three of them. They just remind you through the day to pray over these specific things. All right. We're not going to spam you, I promise. All right. You're not opting into those. Hey, I want to buy your house. You know I'm not. None of those are right. What we want you to do is just be reminded throughout the day to join in prayer over these things. Okay? 

Now, you don't have to do it right when they come out. Nothing weird like that, you know, to drop down in a meeting, right? Excuse me—nothing like that. But I just want to remind you that it is a moment for us to join together, and I pray that everybody participates this week because I can't think of another time when we need to be lifting our country up. All right. So jump online if you can't figure all that out. Call the church office and just say, hey, pastor Matt says something about a prayer text. They will handle you. at that point this week. All right. 

We're going to jump into the word if today is your first day. Welcome. If you haven't been here in a few weeks, we are in a series that we're just calling Blessed Assurance. We're walking through the small little letter of First John, the small little letter by none other than the Apostle John that he wrote to these churches throughout the kind of modern-day Turkey in an area where Christianity has been a generation or two past when Jesus died on the cross. Now, what we're doing in this letter is we're just hitting some of the major themes of the apostle John, or really God, to where he leans into this idea that God wants us to live in the assurance of our faith. He wants us to live in it and out of it. He wants us to, as I've said every week, know that we know that we know that he is ours and we are his. And he wants us to know that we're saved. The reality is that some of us grew up in churches that looked at salvation as this little carrot that they put in front of people that kind of helps them just be obedient. And if you got off track, or if you did something weird, or if you sinned, or if you had something pop up in your life, your particular church would tell you you're not saved. There's no way you're saved. It was like this fear-based obedience mindset that God says never works. Well, what John does through this whole book of letters or this whole letter to these churches is he says I want you to know that you're his, or I want you to know and at least have the information to know that you're his. And then the decision is up to you. 

Now, the series is particularly important in my heart for a couple of reasons. First, because here's the first reason. I just mean, I have such a concern for so many people, but even in this church who have told me over the years something like this, Matt, I know that I'm saved because somebody told me to pray a prayer one day. Or I know that I'm saved because I filled out a piece of paper at a summer camp one day. Or I know that I'm saved because I got baptized one day. Or I know that I'm saved because my parents did something for me, christened or baptized or whatever, or I have a Bible. Or even worse than that, I know that I was saved because I was just born a Christian or I was just born to the church. 

Well, what we're seeing throughout this whole letter, and we're a heartbeat in this letter, is that there is only one way to be saved, and that is to trust in the finished work of Jesus and to surrender our hearts and lives over to him as our Savior and Lord. And I just want us to be sure. The second reason I think this is an important message series is because I said, because of what I said in week one. That is, until we really understand and are assured of who Jesus is in our lives, our faith will never take off. Our faith will never mean what it can be. In other words, your spiritual life will never move and grow how God wants it to until you have the assurance of where you stand with God. Assurance: I said this in week one: It is the fuel that fuels everything else in our relationship with God. Think about it this way: you will never risk anything for God until you're sure that he's yours. You will never give up anything in your life until you know that you know that you know that you are his. You will never give generously. You will never sacrifice your life until you're sure about his sacrifice. You will never point toward the next eternity, right? Until eternity, until you're sure what he's done in you. 

Your love for God only grows in the assurance of knowing that he loves you. So here's what John does for us in this letter. Throughout this letter, John gives us these tests, if you would, these exercises to see if our faith is real. Last week was a huge theological one that kind of wrapped this idea around. If we don't understand sin, what sin does for us, and the reality of needing a Savior, then there's no way that we can be saved. This week is a really, really practical one, and it's a practical test this week that John just looks at you, and he looks at me, and he says, look, if you don't pass this test, if you can't answer this test in a way the Scripture answers it, then we have a spiritual problem. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to jump back into First John. We're going to start in chapter two. 

We were in chapter two last week. We're going to start in the 15th verse. And we're going to look at what I would just call the worldly love test today. First John two. We'll start in verse 15. For all of you Type-A people, I'm going to warn you: we're only going to look at three verses today. So don't get antsy. We're going to get out on time. All right, here it is. Here's what it says. The apostle John says this. He says, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. Now that's the diagnosis, right? That is what he's trying to tell us. He's trying to say, man, don't love the world. Or that shows where your devotion is, where your heart is, and where your God is. And here's what he says after that. In verse 16, he says, for everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life come not from the Father but from the world. 

Now, let me start addressing the first statement from John because it's a totally confusing statement. If you just kind of read it and don't lean into it a little bit, Let me reread it to you in verse 15. Here's what John says. He says, do not love the world or anything in the world. Now to which a lot of us will go, Matt, wasn't Tuesday Earth Day? I mean, how am I supposed to balance those two things kind of together? Or if you've lived around church for a long time, you'll say it like this. Matt, doesn't God tell us we're to love God and love others and love the world and show God, show them who God is? Or, by the way, isn't this whole don't love the world kind of the opposite of what John says? And the most famous verse For God so loved the world, right? It's so confusing if you just read it quickly. There's on one side you're looking at John saying, don't love the world, but over here you're looking at John saying, love the world, right? So which one is it? It's confusing if you just read it like that. Let me explain it to you like this. 

I want to tell you what John is not saying first, and then I want to tell you what John is saying. See, John is not saying right here that Christians should not love God's creation. They should not love the created order of things or the things that he has gifted us with. No. Listen, God has given us the world. He's given us these common graces. He's given us the goodness of the world. In fact, they are a gift to us to enjoy, and enjoying them shows us just the small percentage of what God is going to give us one day and how God is going to bless us one day. So listen closely. Following Jesus does not mean that you cannot enjoy the things that God gives you. Some of you grew up in churches. That's what they told you. Some of you grew up in churches that told you you should just despise everything else and hate everything else. And you grew up an angry person, right? Because of that. John says, no, that's not what it means. Following Jesus doesn't mean you can't enjoy material things or the blessings of the world or creation. I mean, for goodness sake, when God created the world, what did he say? It is good, right? He said it was good. 

Now it's had some problems, but he said it's good, right? When Jesus was walking on this earth, right when Jesus was there, he enjoyed the world so much that there was a slur against him that said that he was what? A glutton and a drunkard, for goodness sake. Right? You read the Gospel of John, I mean the Gospel of Luke. You will see that Jesus is always either on his way to a party, at a party, or coming out of a party, right? He loved to enjoy the world. That's not what it says. So here. Listen. We should follow Jesus and enjoy the things that he has given us that glorify God. But we have to hold that intention and not make those things our God. That's the difference here. So when you enjoy what God has given you, you enjoy it from the idea of man. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for doing this. So, for goodness sake, have a good steak today. Take a great vacation today, but do it under the guise of thank you, Lord Jesus, for who you are, but don't let the good thing become a God thing. That's the difference. So he's not saying don't love the world, but he's also saying that the Christian shouldn't love culture. That's not what he's saying. 

I mean, there's nowhere in the Bible that says that as a Christian, you should just not love good culture. No, he's not saying that. Nowhere in the Bible does it say you should just separate yourself completely from everything that is not the church. Open up your own family compound. Quit cutting your hair. Quit wearing makeup and wear a jean jumper. Right. That's not what he's saying. That's not where he's going in this thing. Even though I think those are cool again, I don't know. But here's the deal. Right? He hasn't even asked you to associate only with Christians. That's not what he said. Look at Jesus's life. That's not how he lived. John is also not saying that Christians should not love other people because they aren't like them. That's not. Now, I've met Christians in my life. Or let me just put the air quotes right: so-called Christians in my life to kind of take pride in hating people who are not like them. That's not what John is saying. 

John is not saying that. John clearly tells us in John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God didn't send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to do what? To save the world through him. Can I just remind you that God loved you before you gave your heart to him? That God didn't hate the world that he sent his son to. So what is John saying here when he says, don't love the world or anything in the world? 

Let me give you a principle you can take home for the week. Here it is. What he's saying is this. Here's the principle: do not love the elements of the world that are operating in quiet or open rebellion against God's love and commands. That's what he's saying. He's saying don't. Now, notice I put a couple of things in here. Don't love those elements of the world that are operating in quiet. That's like a secret. Like those secret plans or just open rebellion against how God tells us to live and how God tells us he loves us. That doesn't mean you can enjoy the common graces of the world. It just means that when you pull up to something that is not of God, it is not following God. It is not from him. Then we don't need to have anything to do with it. That's what he means by not loving the world. 

To which we say, okay, Matt, what does that even mean? What does that look like? Well, I'm glad you asked. What John does in the next verse is he clarifies what he means about the things that we should not be chasing after. Here's what he says. Let me read it to us again. Verse 15. It says, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. Why? Because we're not loving the father. We're not with the father. We're chasing the world. Here's what he says. Pay close attention. Here's the follow-up. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life come not from the Father but from the world. 

Now, the word lust here is incredibly important. It's incredibly important. In fact, even just me saying that word out loud. Right? As soon as you see this word matter, most of our minds go to the idea or straight to sex or sexual things. That's just kind of where our mind points to the first chance, right? But that is correct. But it's not complete. In fact, there's this word here that is used for lust, or maybe in your version, is desire. It’s just the same thing. It's the Greek word epithumeo, epithumeo. You may write that down somewhere because it's a huge word throughout the whole New Testament that describes something in our lives that has taken on much weight and importance, and it begins to dominate my emotions. It dictates my actions, and it describes a glory that I'm chasing or a craving that is drawing me in. Now, here's how this word works in our lives. When we have an epithumeo. When we have a desire, when we have a lust in us, what it begins to do is it begins to control us. 

Now, whether that's directly or indirectly, it is something that draws me or pulls me into something. Now, this word can be used positively, but in the English language, no one uses the word lust positively, right? It's just not. But if you're thinking of things, of God, if you're lusting after God, if that controls you, you can use it. But we just kind of used this word epithumeo and kind of pulled it out as negative, which is how it's being used here. Here, what John is doing is warning us of the things that draw us away from God, that call our attention away from God, and they pull us away from God and really indicate that we don't walk with God. And he gives us these three categories. I love how he does this. He doesn't give us a list of what we're going to fail at miserably. He doesn't give us a huge list of terms. 

He pulls it into three categories that we need to do a little self-assessment work in. The first category that he lists in verse 16 is the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, is an appeal. Here's the word I gave you: to our appetites, to our appetites. And that doesn't mean that it's like 11:46, and we're ready for lunch. Right? Appetite is a way bigger word for that. What it means is, is this. It's an appeal to our appetites, our cravings, or being fulfilled. Here are the words I want you to remember. No matter the consequence to God or God's will. That's what it means. The lust of the flesh is when a good thing that God has given us, that God has created for us, becomes so important to you that you feel like you cannot be happy without it, and you are willing to break God's laws. Break God's love in order to have it in your life. Let me put it like this. It's when you. It's just when you feel like you need something so much that you look at the Lord, and you go. I know you say this is not good for me, but I really don't care right now because my soul says that I need it. 

Let me give you an example of this, the one you're already thinking of. And let's just use the example of sex, right? Sex is a good thing. Amen. It's a it's a good thing. I know you're squirming already. We don't like to talk about this in the Baptist church a whole lot. Is it right? You're like, I don't even know how I should answer that question. Right? I don't know. Listen, sex is a good thing. You wouldn't be here without it. I mean, what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying? Some of you are like, Matt, don't do it. Don't do it. I got my kids here. We have a kids' ministry that's on you. Here's the deal. Right? Here's the deal. Sex is a good thing. It's a good thing, right? It's given to us for procreation. I'll use big words so that it will help. It’s for procreation. It's a good creation to God. It's given to us to be enjoyed by God. But the problem is when you say I want it, regardless of whether or not I'm doing it, how God has created it. That's when the good thing really becomes the God thing in our life, and we're chasing after the lust of the flesh. That's when it crosses the line. That's when it becomes a worldly thing. That's when my lust for it outweighs my desire for God. That's what it means. And this is so dangerous not just in sex but in so many things that we just crave. 

Then we just feel like I have to have it in order to fill in the blank. And this is so dangerous. Why? Because we're so drawn to so many of these epithumeos right? These lusts of the flesh, and we have a bent towards them. Our minds go to them. Why? Because they feel so right, and so many people walk in that way. It seems so fun. It seems so attractive. It seems like it's not going to hurt anybody else. But listen, they're like a worm on a hook for a fish. It looks really good until it grabs you. That's what he's saying. John says, listen, the lust of the flesh. If that is where your heart is chasing, then you have a God problem. You’ve got a God problem. It doesn't stop there. The second category is the lust of the eyes. Now, the lust of the eyes is an appeal; primarily, there's the word I gave you to your affections. To your affections. 

You see, the lust of the eyes is when you look. All right. Let's use the eyes. When you see something good in the world. But it becomes so important to you that you feel like you will never be happy without it. Does that make sense to you? You feel like you will never be able to be fulfilled without it. Let me give you an example: let's just use money, right? Or financial status. Right. When you see something that your life cannot be without, what do you do when it comes to money? When you see something that you can't be happy without. What do you do? You chase it. You forsake everything else, and you run after it. Or you see something that somebody else has. And you can't be happy without that thing. It leads you to jealousy and resentment and coveting, and then it leads you to unwise financial decisions in pursuit of that thing. And then what do you do then? You either have to steal to get it or cheat to get it, or you have to use your family as secondary in your life to take this other job, to take this other thing that you know is going to steal you away from it, or you have to go into major credit card debt. Here's what you do. You do know that the reason for most credit card debt in America is the lust of the eyes. It is. Why? Because we look at things and say, I will not have happiness until I have that. I mean, I cannot be happy until I have that car, until I have that vacation, until I have that house, and until I have these clothes. Or better yet, for our little neck of the woods. I can't be happy unless my kids have those things. And so what do we do? 

Our eyes take us away from God's leadership and our life, and then it leads us down to jealousy and strife, at least down to here and message on giving. And then I'm like, I can't give. Look at my debt; I can't give. Look at my payments; I can't give them. Look at my lifestyle. All I can do is work. All I can do is work. All I can do is take another shift. Look at our expenses right here. I can't serve, and I can't be involved in how God calls me to be. You see how this is working now, right? It's bigger than the thing. It's just like my eyes told me I'll never be happy without it. And so I chased it. I chased it. Listen, John says if that's where your life is pointed, if that's the theme of your life, then you have a God problem in your life. Here's the third one he uses. He uses the category of the pride of life. The pride of life. 

Now, the pride of life primarily appeals to our accomplishments, to our accomplishments. The pride of life is either winning financial status or your ambitions, or your accomplishments become something you take so much pride in. You take God off the throne, and you put yourself on to it. Now, here's the thing. There is nothing wrong with accomplishments and ambitions. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with being the best. But when they point you to you, they point you away from God, and they point you to your gifts and not the gifts that God has given you. It's a worldly lust because you take God off the throne, and you put yourself on the throne. It's so dangerous. Why? Because in ambition, here's what we do. We steal God of His glory, and we give it to ourselves. Because I made it. Because I got there. Because I did it. Listen, I'm not saying, man, I would love it if we had a church of 500 CEOs and business owners. Do you know why? Do you know what we could do with the kingdom when those people get on fire for Jesus? But here's what I'm not saying, man. I do not want a church of self-consumed people who look at themselves as God. Because that's what this does in the pride of life. It leads us down a huge, huge road. And John says that is a God problem. 

John says, don't be consumed with these things. In fact, look at verse 15: do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. Do you know what it means when the love of the Father is not in you? It means that you are not a child of God, that you haven't given your life to him, that he is not your Savior, that he is not your Lord, and that he is not the King of your life. It means you're so consumed with these things that God is not ruling your life. It shows that God has been displaced by the epithumeo, the lust of the world. Not that they're bad things. It's just been too much weight put on them, too much glory put on them, and they now show that you've taken the glory off God and put it on whichever one of these you struggle with. John uses this message so much in his Gospel of John, as well as in this letter of John. 

In fact, I want to show you how he closes up this whole book because he swings back around and he mentions this again. It's the weirdest closing of any letter of the New Testament. You know, most letters are like, oh dear children, have a great day. You know what? Say hello to this person. Watch how John closes First John in chapter five, verse 21. He says, dear children, keep yourself from idols. He drops them like, right? That's all he's got. That's his closing. This has confused scholars for years, but really, it's just John rolling back around to this theme of man: what is the God of your life? Let me give you a principle that maybe can clear all of this up in our minds. Here it is. True salvation is when God's glory takes on the ultimate weight of your heart, and you quit putting the weight on the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Church, that's salvation. Salvation is not a card you fill out. It's not a prayer that you may or may not have prayed. It's not a class that you went to. Salvation is when you look at yourself and run away from yourself. You run to the father, and you place the weight of everything you have on him. That is repentance. Repentance is turning from your false worship of these idols and worshiping the God that deserves it. It's then when God now is your epithumeo. He is your desire. He is where the weight is going. 

So let me just ask you this morning. Has that happened to you? Has it happened to you? Has it happened in your life? Have you submitted your heart to God? Have you given the weight back to God? Have you repented from the idolatry in your heart? You say, Matt, idolatry? What does that mean? That means you're still chasing the love and pursuit of this world and not of God. Adultery is when you love anything more than God. When you pursue anything, when you depend on anything, when you obey anything more than God, and when it's in idolatry, it is when a good thing becomes a God thing. What John is saying is that it is a sign that something's wrong. Something's wrong. 

So let me just ask you, what is it in your life that you put the most weight on? What is it in your life that, if it was taken from you today, literally, you don't think you could take another step? What is it in your life that you listen to the most? What is it that drives you the most? What is it that most of your obedience goes to? What is it that you could not do without? If every one of those questions does not emphatically say the Lord, then you might have a love problem. It’s what John is saying. Either that means that as a child of God, I need to repent and I need to turn back to him because I've stumbled, or it means that I might not have ever been a real son or daughter of the King, and I need to meet him. So let me do this—the close of the message. I'm not closing if I have time. That's just a preacher trick. Here it is. Let me do this to close the message. 

Let me give you three quick walkaways from what John is really saying in this letter. And I've said them all. I just want to give it to you in sentence form. Here's number one. Here's what he's teaching us. He's teaching us that chasing worldly glory and lust shows that God's presence is missing from our lives. That's what he's teaching us here. You say, Matt, how does how does that show us that? Well, here's the deal. Just as sincerely as I can put it. If you deeply crave the things of this world. I'm not saying if you stumble. I'm not saying if you sin. I'm not even saying that if you fall this afternoon and you're like, I can't believe I did that. 

But listen, if you deeply crave the things of the world, here's what it shows. It shows that God is not filling your heart. That's what John is saying. Why? Because the love of God fully satisfies you. It fully satisfies you. You see, our hearts were created with capacity for God. And if God is not there, we will always try to put something in that place. And what John is saying here is that we don't have a worship problem. We have a direction of worship problem, and we will always try to, whether it's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. We will always try to put something in the place of God if God is not the one filling up that hole. Chasing worldly lust will never lead to completely fulfilling you, and it will always chase out God from the Lord's position in your life. Look, you will never be satisfied until you are satisfied in Jesus. That's what this whole letter is about. It's not about even actions. It's about you meeting Jesus. It's about you knowing Jesus and experiencing Jesus. You will know that you know that you know when he satisfies your soul. And when you look back at the other things in you, you're like, wow, what in the world was I doing? This leads me to number two: the way to lessen the glory and lust of the world is to experience the love of God fully. That's how you lessen the grip of these things. 

Can I just bring you into a little Christian secret right here? Let me tell you this. Maybe nobody's ever said to you before. Beating yourself up for loving and chasing the world will never change your heart. It won't do it. I promise you it won't do it. In fact, just trying harder will never change your heart. Listen closely. Your heart will only be changed, according to John, when you fully embrace the love that the Father has for you. That is the only way your heart's going to be changed. It's till you fully embrace. Listen. That it is God that gives salvation. It's God that gives hope. It's God that gives eternity. It's God who has given us Jesus and His perfect love and the gift of salvation. And now, because of that, we can rest fully in the life-giving, life-exposing, eternal love of the Father. That's what gets us there. To be saved is to realize that I now trust and rest in the finished work of Jesus. 

In fact, we read the first John 4:19 every week. We love because he first loved us. So, the more we know in our hearts and not just our minds of what God has done and who God is. Here's the trick. The less the other things become tempting, the less they even become attractive. Why? Because of the new affection that I have for God. Do you get this? The more. That's why every week, I just want to preach about Jesus. I want to tell you about Jesus. I want to show you how Jesus fills you. Why? Because trying harder is never going to get you there, but realizing who Jesus is, what Jesus did, and what Jesus offers you can put you on track to where the things that you used to crave now become repulsive to you. Some of you that are a little farther down the road, you know what I'm saying. Because you've seen how God has done this in your life. You didn't fight against the sin. Man, you fell more and more and more in love with Jesus. And the things of this earth grew what? Strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. That's how it works. And what happens is, listen, the best way to overcome worldly cravings. Listen to this, teenagers. Man, listen, I wish somebody told me this. 

It's not just to fight the old ones, but it's to replace them with things that are bigger and better things of God. Bigger and better. So listen, the idea is not just to fight the lusts of the world. That's not it. But man, when we replace those things with the things that are God, we begin to realize that God is better than money. He's better than human love. He's better than accomplishment, worldly pleasure. He's better than power. He's better than popularity. And then you begin to compare God to everything else. And I can promise you that God always wins. He fills you more. He satisfies you more. He loves you more. God's gifts last. That's the difference. 

This leads me to number three. It's really long, but I couldn't do it any shorter. I promise I tried. Here it is. Trading the glory and lusts of the world for the glory of God is worth it. It's worth it. Everything we give up in this world is nothing compared to what we gain in eternity. It's worth it. I know this whole series. You're like, man, this is kind of harsh, man. This is kind of harsh, man. This is kind of harsh. No, it would be harsh for me not to tell you because the stuff that we get in return for being a son of the king, for being a daughter of the king, for being a true follower of Jesus always outweighs the junk this world has to offer. It is like a cheap toy on Christmas morning that doesn't even make it to New Year's is what the world wants to give you. But what God wants to give you the lust of the not of the flesh, but of the holy nature of God will give you life and eternity. Let me remind you this. 

Whatever epithumeo, whatever lust, whatever craving, whatever idol, whatever in life that you give your devotion to on this earth, it's going to go away one day. You're going to die. Listen, you're going to die one day. And whatever that thing was that you were chasing, it isn’t going to last. Okay. Can I make you a promise, CEO? Before you get cold in your box when you're dead, they'll change that name on the door. I promise you, they will. Family, let me tell you this. If all you got is given to family, given the family, given the family. And it's not the eternal thing. I can tell you this: within 2 or 3 generations, they might remember your name. Maybe. For those of you who are in friendships, they might not last till tomorrow. Amen. That's the point that John is making. 

You're going to lose it. But when we put our devotion to the things of God and His kingdom, we will continually experience them even better in eternity. That's a wise investment. In fact, let me close with this. And I really mean it this time. Watch this. Verse 17 is the next verse in the text. He says this. He says the world and its desires pass away. This is the verse on my brother's tombstone. But whoever or the man of God who does the will of God lives forever. Let me reread it. The world and its desires pass away. But whoever does the will of God lives forever. Listen as we walk into the invitation. I just want you to ask yourself what John is asking right here. 

Am I chasing the epithumeo? The lusts flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life? Or am I chasing after the kingdom of God? And here's the deal, church: I'm not being mean about this. I'm just saying this. If that is not an emphatic, I am chasing the things of God, then I have some heart work to do. I have some heart work to do. I would be a terrible human being if I didn't tell you about a train that was coming your way if you were standing on a train track. I would be a terrible pastor if I didn't join in with John right here and say this. If the cravings of your life revolve around those three areas and not the kingdom of God, then man, you need to do some salvation work. I'm not saying you're not a Christian. 

I'm saying that John says the love of the Father is not in you, and you need to do some work. So here's the walkout this morning. Number one, maybe through reading this, you've realized, Matt, I don't think I've ever given my life to Jesus. I don't think I've ever surrendered control. I don't think I've ever surrendered my life. I don't think I've ever allowed him to be the Lord. Forgive me, my Savior, and for me to pursue him. Man, this morning, can I just tell you you need him? Invite him into your life. Give him the lordship position, and he'll redeem you. Whatever you used to be, you will not be you any longer because he saves you. Do you need to do that this morning? Matt, I've been in church my whole life. That's not what I'm talking about. Matt, I’ve filled out five forms. That's not what I'm talking about. I've rededicated my life. That doesn't matter. Do you need to give your heart to Jesus? You might just say this morning, but Matt, I am a Christian. I do know Jesus. But man, I got some epithumeo things that I need to settle. Yeah, we all do. We all fall down. But thanks be to God; he forgives us and picks us back up. 

Lord Jesus, this morning. God, in the best way we know how, Lord Jesus, we invite you into this place. God, I just ask today if there are people who are struggling over salvation. God, give them the boldness to invite you into their lives. Give them the boldness in just a second during this invitation to walk right over to this Next Steps banner and tell one of the counselors over there I need Jesus. Or better yet, I met Jesus today for the first time for him. Give them the boldness to jump on to the next steps form and just say, hey, today I invited Christ to be my Savior and my Lord. If that's you today, welcome to the Kingdom of God. But also, God, walk with us today and say that they are believers, but they're just struggling. God, I don't know what area it is. I don't know if it's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. But God, today may be the day of repentance and walking with you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for loving us. Thank you for walking with us. Thank you for these next couple of minutes as we worship you. It's in your name that we pray. 

Amen. Amen. 

Would you stand and sing with us this morning?