1 John // Be Aware

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Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your pursuit to love and follow Jesus for life.

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Now let's dive into today's message.

Morning, y'all.

I uh yeah, we we genuinely are thankful for teachers and administrators, bus drivers, facilities, all the things that make it go.

Uh we've got three boys in three different schools, and uh just you get it, right?

If you're getting all the kids to the right places.

Um and then also we wanted to say, hey, thanks for contributing uh to the back to school drive.

If you were a part of that, uh, this is just a great way that we get to partner with a local elementary school here in the Hilliard area, and parents and families can show up with their kids and shop with dignity all free.

And so that's just a great thing that the school does, and we get to partner with them, so we're thankful for that.

And so if you're like, oh man, I meant to do that and I missed it, no worries, we'll have another opportunity to serve uh every month.

We have outreach initiatives, um, ways that we can serve our city, and the the objective is threefold.

We want to make us aware of a need in the community, we want to meet that need in some tangible way, and then we want to unleash our people for service.

And because we believe this isn't just something we do, but it's a way in which we're seeking to live and to cultivate that.

Hey, so um, before we get into the text this morning, I gotta kind of set things up a smidge.

Um I'd like you to just turn to your neighbor, and this some of you are like, please don't.

I'm going to, and it'll get worse.

Um, just turn to your neighbor and say, hey, you like coffee?

Just right now find out if your neighbors like coffee.

You need to know this.

This is important.

Don't don't look straight ahead, it'll be uncomfortable.

All right, all right, knock it off, shouldn't take that long.

All right, now I need you to ask this, because there's lots of ways to take your coffee, right?

So I just need to say, hey, you like creaming your coffee?

Go ahead, just right now and find out, see if they like creaming their coffee.

Go ahead.

Now I want you to ask this, but I want you to ask it this way, this way.

You like a little sugar?

Okay, but don't be weird about it, but ask it that way.

Rob, it's okay, she's your wife.

Just ask Heidi.

You like a little sugar?

Okay?

All right, lock in, lock in.

I was telling uh Mike and Roxanne they they're part of our coffee ministry team, and uh I was like, yeah, I didn't plan to do that.

And then I was like, oh, that'd be kind of fun.

It might be a train wreck, but it was it was fun, all right?

You gotta find out a little about your neighbors.

Um I love coffee, big fan.

Uh I drink mostly decaf.

I'm a naturally caffeinated person.

If you know me well, you know that to be very true.

And uh, but uh but I do, I love coffee.

Um when I'm in Guatemala with our mission team, I love uh our last day there typically um at the hotel we stay at.

Uh there's a breakfast thing that we have there, and they if the very first time I went years ago, they're like, You want cream for your coffee?

I said sure, and they poured like half a jar of cream in my coffee.

It was fantastic, it was great.

That's uh I take it that way there.

But lately I've been doing just sugar in my coffee.

Any any other just sugar in the coffee people?

Just show of hands?

Okay, just me, just me.

All right.

There were three of us, I think, in the first service.

Any just cream in your coffee, just cream in your coffee.

Okay, that one doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but bless your heart.

Uh any any uh people that are hoity-toydy and be like, I drink my coffee black, you know, just raise your hand.

Yeah, okay, yeah.

They usually tell you really regularly, but I do, I love coffee.

And it's one of those things where, depending on who's recommending different spaces, like, oh, you should try this coffee, you should try that coffee.

I love coffee.

It matters what's what we love.

And not everything is worthy of our love.

Uh, for those of you that are black only, if I were to hand you my cup and you took a sip, you'd be like, that is not good.

And I'd say, get behind me, Satan.

But it depends on like how we love.

What is worthy of our love?

And so with that idea in mind, I want to jump into the book of 1 John, chapter 2.

1 John 2 · chapter mention

We're at the end of the New Testament, 1, 2nd, 3rd, John, Jude, and Revelation.

1 John is attributed, like 2 and 3 John, like the Gospel of John, to the Apostle John who would have traveled with Jesus, one of the three that were particularly close to him.

And it reads this way in chapter 2, verses 15 through 17.

And I want to say this at the outset, if it sounds ill or odd fitting to you, that makes sense.

And especially if you're somebody who's like, I'm not sure where I'm at with faith these days, but it's things like this that make me not want to be in faith, I get that.

But just bear with me.

It says, Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world.

The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

The first verse might strike you as odd, at least it should.

Do not love the world or anything in the world.

Wait, wait, what?

So John also wrote John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes in him shouldn't perish, but have eternal life through him.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

And then John is writing here, don't love the world or anything in the world.

Like John, wait, hold up.

Like when you wrote the Gospel of John, were you like early in your ministry cycle and still happy?

And then like this is 30 years later, and you're like grumpy and angry at the world?

Like what's going on?

Context matters.

Words take on different meaning or different intention depending on where they're at.

So what's meant by the world in each verse?

In the book of John, chapter 3, verse 16, for God so loved the world, the idea there is all of humanity.

John 3:16

For God so loved all of humanity that he sent his one and only son, because he didn't send his son into the world to condemn humanity, but to save humanity.

That's the notion that's at play.

And it's easy to understand because God goes out of his way from the beginning of the story through the book of Revelation to show this extravagant love that he has for people, which we'll deal with a little bit next week.

And in John 2.15, the next couple of verses actually provide shape to what the world means.

For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, humanity's not being referred to here, but what's on John's mind is the system of desires, priorities, or values that are antithetical to the way of the kingdom, that are actually opposed to the kingdom of God.

Those systems they lead to brokenness, they lead to the wounding of people.

And because God loves people, he opposes the systems of sin that would wound people.

And so if you see injustice actively played out in the world, like it should stir something in you, like I'm not for this.

If you see brokenness, if you see things in which the world, people are mistreated, those allocation of resources is inappropriate, whatever it might be, like there should be something like I am not for this, I don't love this, I am against this.

So it matters that we're listening and reading to understand with intent.

Now it's possible you'd say, well, it's just like manipulating the words, Bible just disagrees.

I I if I were to tell you this, like last night I had a salad and I had some really good cheddar on my salad.

What's cheddar mean?

It's not a trick question.

Everybody's like, wait a second.

Is this it's cheese, right?

Everybody, we we know this?

And if you didn't know, the more you know.

Doom, doom, doom, or whatever the tune is for PBS.

If I told you, man, when I was a kid, I got my first job, I was so pumped at that first paycheck.

I had so much cheddar.

What did I have?

Cheese, exactly, right?

I they paid me, no, they paid me money.

Context matters.

You've you've done this in work before.

You've misinterpreted an email or misinterpreted something your spouse has said or a colleague has said or a neighbor has said, and you're like, hey, I told you to do X, Y, and Z.

They're like, Well, I thought you meant this, and it's like, no.

So intent matters, and what we're trying to understand, it's important to seek to understand intent, whether that's a book, a conversation, whatever.

And so what John is saying here is listen, the broken systems of our world, systems that actively wound people, systems that hurt people, we should not love them.

We should not make space for them in our lives.

We're not to love the trappings of this world.

It's like John saying, be careful what captures your affection.

Lust and pride are systems and traps that anyone can fall into.

There can be lust for a number of things, there can be pride rooted in a number of things, and neither of them lead to anything good.

Lust is always chasing after, pride is always chasing after, and neither of them will ever be satisfied.

And so John's saying, don't give in to this idea.

Don't be confused about how the world actually is.

Be careful what captures your affection.

Because we're meant for life to the full, so to settle for anything less than that for ourselves or for anyone else just misses the mark, which is, by definition, the Greek for sin, to miss the mark.

Verse 17 makes clear what's at stake.

The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

If we anchor our lives in temporary and fleeting things, first and foremost, then we've made a poor investment.

So John's saying, don't get caught up with the systems, don't get lusting after, don't just let pride, don't root yourself in those spaces because you'll end up with nothing in the end.

So much of what our culture says matters most: status, success, appearance, health, wealth, approval, all of those things are fading away.

And it doesn't matter what system of belief you hold to or if you claim to hold to no system of belief, all of us understand those things fade away.

But the kingdom of God doesn't just offer an alternate list of things to chase after.

Instead, what the kingdom of God does is actually forms an entirely different kind of person.

A person who doesn't say, look what I've accomplished, look what I've achieved, look at all these things that I have that will fade away, but it's a person who's rooted in love and faith and hope, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control.

So we're presented with essentially, when it comes to life, two different investment strategies.

We can spend our lives pursuing what is passing away, or we can invest our lives in that which lasts forever.

And so John wants to say which strategy is worthy of your love.

Which should capture your affection?

One of the clearest images we see of this idea at play in the church is baptism.

Here in a couple weeks we'll celebrate baptism here at the church, and um, it's this process where somebody gets into the water and then we lay them down.

It's like they are buried, they die to sin and they are raised to new life in Christ.

They pass through the waters.

And it's an all-in sort of proposition.

I was talking to two people after first service who were like, hey, I need to take that step.

One's like, I've just never taken that step, and I want to man affirm like essentially that outward sign of the inward grace that God is at work in my life.

Another person was like, hey, last year I was an atheist, but somebody has been making an investment in my life, a member here of the church.

And I said, Sweet, are you gonna baptize them?

Like this will be great.

Let's make this, let's get this going.

This idea of, man, I don't want to invest my life, I don't want to spend my life in that which fades away.

I want to invest in that which is forever.

Like, what is it that's captured my affection?

Following after Jesus, it's an intentional move.

When we declare Jesus as Lord, Jesus curios, this idea, it was literally a statement made in the ancient world that you defied the systems that be, the powers that be.

You said, no, Christ is king, and so nothing else is king.

So I will not participate in systems that go against that practice.

When we declare Jesus as Lord, it means we desire to shape all of our life based first and foremost on our love for God.

And when we love God well, then all the other loves that are life-giving find their place.

Any love that is not life-giving, there's no room for in our lives.

Is that track?

John's saying, don't make room in your life for anything, any system that leads to brokenness.

Don't make room for anything, any system in your life that leads to the wounding of people.

If Jesus is Lord, if love of God is our first priority, then those truths should also shape the voices that we listen to because there's a number of competing voices and narratives at play in our world.

John wants us to say, okay, what's captured my affection?

I gotta be careful to know this.

But then what voices am I listening to in the world?

Continue with me in the text.

1 John chapter 2, verses 18 through 27.

1 John 2:18–27

It reads this way Dear children, this is the last hour, and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming.

Wait, what?

Do what?

Antichrist, big scary person, right?

Just Google who's the Antichrist.

You'll find lots of people that are said.

Read the book of Revelation.

You get if you solve all the clues, you can find them, and then you can post on social media who it is.

And that'll help everybody, because that's what the Bible intended for us to do.

It is not.

As you've heard that the Antichrist is coming, hold up, even now, many Antichrists have come.

This is how we know it's the last hour.

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belong to us.

Anyone who is actively opposed to the truth of Jesus as Lord and would encourage others to the same is an antichrist.

John's not just saying I'm dismissing every opponent I have, but listen, anybody that is actively seeking to undercut the truth of the gospel, the message of, like that's what it is.

It's not some deep, mysterious political figure you have to someday figure out.

Like there are people who are anti-the things of God right now.

The text goes on, verse 20.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth.

This is why you can't say, hey, your truth is whatever.

Um, because if there are two truths that are diametrically opposed just from a logic standpoint, they both can't be true.

Verse 22, who is the liar?

It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ, such a person is the Antichrist, denying the Father and the Son.

No one who denies the Son has the Father, whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

As for you, see that what you've heard from the beginning remains in you.

If it does, you also will remain in the Son and of the Father and in the Father, and this is what he promised us eternal life.

In other words, listen, there's a number of competing voices in our world.

Saying, look, this is the right way to go.

This is where we really need to be, this is the truth, like this is what we need to root our lives in, this is how we need to base everything that we approach.

There's a lot of different voices.

And John's saying, Listen, I see those same things, I hear the same voices.

I'm telling you, we got to be wise about what we listen to.

We need to be wise about who we listen to.

Uh there was a band years ago, uh, it was a small Indiana band, so you would not know them.

And they sing the song Garbage In, Garbage Out.

Like what it is we consume in our lives ultimately comes out.

I uh mentioned, so I read a half dozen books in July as part of my sabbatical.

You can read a lot when you don't work at all.

It's fantastic.

And one of them was by an atheist humanist.

Uh, years ago, I was a part of a uh conversation group a friend of mine invited me into who was an atheist that was meant to be ecumenical, and there were a lot of atheists and anti-theists.

An atheist is somebody who believes there is no God, an anti-theist who's somebody who believes it is wrong to believe in God.

Um and we would dialogue about stuff, and I said, Hey, well, tell me some books that you recommend.

And so they there was one that kind of rose to the top, so I read that book, and I think it's good to read a breadth.

But at the same time, like you have to be careful about what you read.

Like the majority of my list wasn't that.

You know this about music too, right?

You I only listen for the beat, just like everybody else.

But when I had kids, all of a sudden I became aware of the lyrics that I was singing anyway.

You you know this?

Do you remember kids and all of a sudden they started singing the lyrics?

You're like, whoop, change the station.

I didn't do that because I had already committed my life to Christ, but some of you probably had, right?

Like it's one of the, like, do I want do I want this going into their lives?

Do I want these voices having sway?

It matters the voices we choose to listen to.

Uh a couple weeks ago when I was on sabbatical, I uh was at another church uh visiting, and uh the speaker that day talked about three of the tactics the enemy uses division, distraction, and deception.

Voices.

You can't trust them.

Create a wedge, drive division.

Distraction is one of the great ones.

Instead of dealing with stuff that's actually meaningful, we get distracted about like nonsense.

John says in verse 26, I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.

There are active voices and storylines in our world that are not true, but they seem compelling, but they lead to a problematic outcome.

I'll give you a few examples in just a moment.

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.

Now, this is where context plays huge, right?

This is why I don't go to church.

Just me and God.

I can read the Bible.

I don't need a pastor to tell me what it means.

I don't need anybody to teach me.

Bible even says it.

In the context, John is actually instructing the people.

So why would he instruct the people to not listen to instruction?

Well, contextually, what we understand from the text is that he's doing something different here.

It's not that he's saying, don't ever receive instruction, he's saying, listen, don't chase every little fad, thought, and idea.

And another place in the Bible that says that people will not put up with sound doctrine anymore or truth, they'll actually chase whatever their itching ears want to hear.

And so we have to be wise, again, about what we're consuming, about what we're taking in.

Not every new idea, concept, or teaching and culture is worth listening to.

But as his anointing, the last half of verse 27, but as his anointing teaches you about all things, and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit, just as it has taught you, remain in him.

Those final words, remain in him.

This is gonna be a theme that's gonna continue on through this portion of the passage.

Remain in Jesus.

John moves from this idea of competing desires to competing voices.

The world doesn't merely offer different pleasures, but different viewpoints, different ideas, different stories about life.

Different definitions of truth, different visions of what, or versions, let me say it this way, of what the good life actually is.

And so, for instance, um, there's a number of competing voices in the world, and we have to choose about what we'll listen to.

We have to discern who will allow to speak into our lives.

And I I love what John says here.

He's like, don't just take my word for it.

Remember what it said at the very beginning of the verse.

This won't be on the screen because I don't have it in the notes.

That which was from the beginning, chapter one, verse one, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at, in other words, that we've investigated, and our hands have touched.

John's saying, listen, the reason I've radically reoriented the entirety of my life is I've actually practically considered this.

I found it to be true, I found it to be life to the full, and so I'm giving myself all to it, and I'm inviting you to consider for yourself the same.

We have to discern who's speaking truth and who's not.

So, one voice in our culture tells that you listen, you want to be happy, you Want to know the good life, it's accumulation.

Your house is nice, but there's nicer ones.

Your apartment's great, but listen, once you can go from the one bed to the two bed, oh it's so much cooler.

Like you can sleep more people, which isn't that wonderful.

I mean, your car, it's great, or your bike, it's great, or whatever, your mode of transportation, your bus path, whatever.

But if you could just, then you'll be happy.

Not everybody has the benefit of being poor at some time in their life.

It really is a blessing.

Um, when you first get started out and you're poor, like you remember what it's like, you have somebody over to your house.

You don't apologize for anything because it's all you have.

Somebody breaks something, you're like, oh, don't worry about it.

You could burn the whole place down, I'm out 50 bucks.

Doesn't matter.

Then as you actually begin to accumulate some stuff, you actually get worried about it.

I've been blessed to never own a car where if somebody scratches, I'm like, oh.

I'm like, it just joins the others.

If you ever drive a car that you have to park, like in the back of the parking lot, just don't buy that car.

This accumulation, it's a trap.

We read about in the news, right?

People that are in despair and people that literally give themselves over to despair, it's it's because they're all just impoverished, right?

No.

We talked about this.

There was an article in the New York Times last summer, not this summer, the summer before.

I mentioned it last fall.

That if you ask the nations of the world, hey, how hopeful are you?

Are things improving?

Are they getting better?

The richest nations in the world say things are getting worse.

The poorest nations in the world say things are getting better.

Why?

Because accumulation is not the answer.

We know this objectively, because we've accumulated something and we thought it would make us happy and it fades so quickly, but it's still a dangerous trap we can fall into.

John says, listen, danger in our world, they're gonna say accumulate, accumulate, accumulate as much as you can, but some of those things lead to systems of violence and brokenness in our world.

Don't fall for it.

Another story that gets told.

Some voices tell us that just if the right political outcome happens, then everything's gonna be finally okay.

Politics matter, Christians should participate thoughtfully.

But no election has ever established the kingdom of God.

Christ is king.

Doesn't matter how the polls turn out, doesn't matter how the votes turn out, doesn't matter who you're for, who you're against, Christ is king.

But the world will tell us, and we're in another election cycle, mute.

The world will tell us, man, if this person gets elected, if that person doesn't get elected, if this measure doesn't pass, if that measure, well then everything's going sideways, everything's messed up, as if God's like, oh, I didn't think about America, I didn't think about that county seat.

No, Christ is king.

And there's broken ways that things play out, and there's life-giving ways that things play out, and we avoid the broken things, we reject the broken things, and we feed into the life-giving things.

But that story is going to continue to unfold.

Still, yet another voice says, Life is short, so enjoy it as much as you can.

Accomplishment, travel, experience.

I mean, that's ultimately the way to have the best life.

If you can just, if you can get to the beach, if you can get to this, if you can get to that other thing, if if you can just have these ex make sure you get a bucket list, a lot of things.

Get your kid in every single thing they can, because I mean, otherwise they just have to spend time with you and grow up like with family.

And I mean, who remembers that when they get older, right?

But it's a narrative that won't go away.

And honestly, it's a tempting story.

But to chase and to chase and to chase, like after everything that's fading away, it John says it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Be careful what captures your affections, be careful what voices you're listening to.

What story are they telling you about how the world actually is?

There's gonna be people who try and lead us astray or into lesser ways of living.

Some do this because honestly, there's just ill intent.

You ever had a salesperson try and sell you something you didn't need?

You know, like this is a dust combobulator.

It whitens your teeth and keeps bugs out of your home.

I don't know.

Like if there was a product like that, I think I'd buy it.

But you ever have somebody sell you something you don't need?

You ever maybe like had a job where they tried to get you to sell something somebody didn't need?

It's not good.

You're essentially trying to take advantage of another person.

And there's people that do this with ill intent.

Then there's situations where people just don't know any better.

You're trying to sell something you don't know or whatever else.

I mean, it's just one of those deals.

There's voices in our world that will actively try and lead us away from the things of God because they mean to, and there's voices that will try and lead us away because they're just chasing after, listen, I get one life, I'm just trying to figure this thing out and everything.

I think it is through experiences.

But John wants to say, be aware of what is worthy of our love in this world and what is not.

And be aware that not all ways of living are worthy of being loved.

Not all voices will call us to what is worthy of our affection.

Is a question to consider.

Is this voice leading me toward Jesus?

Or is it leading me away from him?

Is this voice, when it tells me something about the world, when it says accumulate, accumulate, is this voice leading me toward Jesus or is it not?

Nothing wrong with having stuff.

There is a problem with stuff having you.

Nothing wrong with taking experiences and taking trips, having those things.

There is a problem where if that's what you live for.

There's nothing wrong with being invested in the political arena and the political realm.

There is a big problem if you think that that's where ultimate authority lies.

Maybe you're here today, though, and you're like, I'm not sure where I fit with the Jesus thing, so I don't want to want to follow that.

That's fair.

We're glad you're here.

Then I would tell you to seek this.

Do you believe in truth and deceit?

Yes.

Right?

So seek truth.

Do you believe in life and death?

Yeah, then seek life.

If you'll follow that way, I think you'll end up at Jesus every time.

But chase after those things.

Am I living in ways?

Am I listening to voices that are advocating for truth?

Am I listening to voices that advocate for life?

If not, stay clear of them.

And then finally, John writes this in chapter 1, verses 28 through 29.

He says, And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

John closes the section kind of in the same way he's building towards.

He says, continue in him.

Earlier he had said, remain in him.

It's not a idea, it's the same thread that's been building for some time.

Think about where we've been this morning.

John first asks us to consider, hey, what is worthy of my love?

And then he says, okay, which voices are worthy of trust?

And his answer to both is the same: remain in him.

What's worthy of my love?

God.

Where he would lead you, where he would direct you, where he would guide.

Which voices do I listen to?

Listen to his.

Because if you run everything through that lens of truth or deceit, man, you'll choose truth.

If you run everything through that lens of life or death, choose life.

John's warned us about not everything in life lasts.

Status fades.

Wealth comes and it goes.

Political movements rise and fall.

I mean, it's happened everywhere throughout the history of humanity.

Ideas come in and out of fashion.

Have you noticed baggy jeans are back?

Anyone yet on the train?

Even the strongest cultural trends eventually disappear.

The world is constantly asking us to rearrange our loves and redirect our attention.

John says, don't build your life on things that are already passing away.

Look, I've looked into this, I've investigated it, I've researched it, I've considered it, I have found that a life with Jesus is the life that's worth living.

I'm inviting you to consider the same.

Don't believe me?

Make your choice.

But I'm inviting you to consider the same.

Remaining doesn't mean we'll never have questions.

It doesn't mean that life will always be easy.

Remaining doesn't mean we'll never struggle or wrestle with our faith.

It simply means that through every season we keep returning to Jesus.

God, what do I do in light of this?

How do I handle this situation?

God, how do I steward this opportunity?

How do I steward this blessing?

How do I manage this conflict?

How do I manage this difficulty?

God, what do I do?

God, this seems very compelling.

It seems advantageous.

Is it right to do so?

And notice how John ends.

He doesn't finish with fear.

If you grew up in the church, sometimes the church has missed in the past, and it can still miss today, is just trying to scare the sin out of you.

It doesn't last, it's not fruitful, it's not beneficial.

And the Bible doesn't do this.

Look where John ends.

He says, continue in him so that when he appears we may be confident.

John's not trying to frighten his readers into obedience.

He's inviting them to a life that can stand with confidence because it's anchored in the one who lasts.

It's anchored in the God who never changes.

It's the invitation for us today as well to choose wisely what captures your affection.

Choose wisely which voices shape your imagination.

And above all else, remain in Christ.

What captures my affection?

What voices in this world, what storylines that are unfolding are shaping my imagination about how the world is and about how the world could be?

We do it as parents, we do it as spouses, as employees, as consumers in the world.

You see, when our first love is given to God, all of our other loves find their proper place.

Anything that's life-giving.

And when our lives are anchored in Him, we discover that we don't need to invest so much in that which is temporary, that which is, as John would say, fading away.

We invest ourselves instead in God who stands forever.

Here at the refinery, these ideas are kind of central to who we are.

We talk about this idea of seeking to love and follow Jesus for life, not this dabbling thing, but to literally invest myself to consider is this how I want to spend my life?

And so Christ is king over all my life.

And so then we talk about what it actually looks like practically expressed.

It's to love God and to love people and to help people love God in that order.

So that literally God comes before my family.

Because when He does, when I put God on the throne properly, then I can love and serve my wife, and I can love and serve my boys the way I should.

My family becomes before my job.

I'd peace out of here in a heartbeat if it was broke, leading to brokenness in my family.

Because that's my priority.

And when we order things by the way that God calls us to, we can see, man, this is what's really investing me.

I'm not gonna burn myself out for a job.

Why?

Because the job's gonna, you want to be done eventually, right?

I'm not gonna burn myself out to accumulate some things, go into massive debt to try and impress people that I don't care if they're impressed or not.

In everything we do, we want to remain in Him.

Because we become convinced, like John, after looking into it, after investing, it's honestly it's the life that lasts.

And so I want to end by considering three questions together.

What has captured my affection?

What is it that I love?

And is it life-giving or does it bring death?

Is it rooted in truth or is it deceit?

Is it lasting forever or is it fading away?

What is the priority of my loves?

If love of God is first, it doesn't mean we don't love anything else.

It just means the love of God orders everything else.

Which voices have been shaping my heart?

Am I pouring scripture into my life?

Am I more invested in the news than I am in the scripture?

That's a problem.

Am I more invested in whatever the fear-mongering of the day is, or am I invested in him?

Am I more attentive to the voice of the spirit or the voice of the various influencers?

And then finally, am I remaining in Jesus?

Anchored in him, rooted in him.

John says, listen, I've become convinced of this.

And I invite you to consider it for yourself, because you're not going to be convinced just because I'm convinced.

But whatever you're giving your life to, whatever your investment strategy is for how you're going to spend yourself, make sure it's a wise investment.

I'd invite you to stand with me.

All this is ultimately not a matter of trying harder, it's just a matter of remaining in Jesus.

Rooting our lives more deeply in who God has called us to be.

Attentive to his voice, eager to understand the world through his eyes.

And so as we close this morning, I've got a couple of friends that are going to come to help us with prayer.

Grace and Scott, I believe.

They'll just join me up on either side of the platform.

When I dismiss you with prayer, two things.

One, if you're interested in baptism, you say, hey, I've never been in the waters of baptism, but I want the things of God first and foremost, then I'd invite you to just come.

I'd love to have a conversation with you.

Or if there's something in your life, you're like, hey, I could use somebody praying for me.

We, as was mentioned earlier by Christy, we we love to pray over you.

We we take it as an honor that we get a pray as a staff with you.

But sometimes it's like, before I go, I got this going on in my life, or I'm dealing with this, or hey, I've got a circumstance, a situation, or maybe I struggle with the voices thing.

I'm so obsessed with the news, the latest fat, or whatever.

Could you just pray over me?

We'd love that honor to pray over you.

So let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this day.

Your love, your grace, your kindness, for who you are.

Lord, there's a lot of things in this world that could capture our affection.

And a lot of it's fading away.

And it's not that it's bad, it's not that it's problematic even necessarily, it's just it's not ultimate.

And so, God, I pray that first and foremost we would choose to remain in you.

That we would listen for your voice, that voice that leads us to life away from death.

That you we'd listen for your voice, the voice that leads us to truth and away from deceit, that we would listen for your voice.

A voice that points us to a life invested and spent on things that last forever.

Not ultimately that fade away.

I pray for those in the room that haven't taken the step of baptism, that maybe today would be that day where they say, Hey, I need to start that process.

I want to, I wanna, I need to get in the water.

I pray for those that don't know you.

Maybe they're they're like, I'm not even sure quite what to do with this, but that they would know God loves them dearly, but God does not love the brokenness of this world.

And we can't continue to advance that brokenness.

I pray for each and every one of us that we would consider where our affections first are, what we're listening to, to how to understand this world best, and that ultimately, anyone who's confessed to you as Lord and Savior, that we would seek to remain in you.

Go with us from this place.

May we honor you in all we do.

It's the name of Jesus, we always pray.

Amen.

Thank you so much.

We'd love to pray for you, talk about baptism.

Have a great week.

Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast.

If you're ready to take a next step in your faith, please reach out to us through our website, refineryohio.com, or you can email us at office at refineryohio.com.

We hope you have a blessed day.