Not of this World

We started a series a few weeks ago.

It's a very interesting series.

It's actually been something that has challenged me in preparation more than most.

We call the series What Jesus Wants.

What Jesus Wants.

And what we're doing is we're studying John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

We're going to read a lot of scripture this morning.

And if you're new to church, just know that's not an intimidating thing.

I believe that you were created by God with a capacity to know and understand Him as much as possible.

And so even if you're new to church, if you're new to the whole Jesus thing, this stuff that God has given us through his word, it's for you and it's going to connect with you.

So don't be intimidated by that at all.

We're going to go through a lot of it, but I will say that as far as the intimidation level goes, at least for me teaching, John 17 is about as high as it gets.

Because here's what John 17 is: it is a prayer of Jesus, the Son of God, to God the Father.

And we believe that Jesus is God.

God is God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

It is one being, three persons.

And we talked about that a few weeks back, if you want to listen to that, or just Google it online.

There's tons of people who have explained it really, really well over the years.

One being three persons.

And here we have God the Son praying to God the Father.

So it's God praying to God.

Nothing deep, nothing super layered there, nothing that I could possibly get wrong, no pressure.

But honestly, as I've studied this, one of the first things that I discovered was man, there have not been a lot of books written about this.

I found one from the mid-1800s.

I've been reading it, it's been great.

I have to read some of the paragraphs multiple times to understand it because man, their vocabulary was better than ours a few hundred years ago.

But this is not something that there's just volumes of stuff written about, at least that I've been able to find.

Because it's just it's very unique.

It is God praying to God.

But here's the cool thing: it's God praying to God about us.

Jesus, the Son, is praying to God the Father, and He's praying for us, for His followers, His immediate disciples, and all that would come after them.

And in this prayer, we get to see what it is that Jesus really desired for us.

Right after this, he gets arrested.

He goes to the cross, and he knows that that's coming.

It doesn't catch him by surprise at all.

And so here we have Jesus right before he's crucified saying, Father, this is what I want my disciples to be.

This is how I want them to live.

This is what I'm asking you to do for them.

What that means is that this is a prayer that we can live out.

You can live your life in such a way that Jesus sees you and says, That's exactly what I was praying for.

That's powerful.

And I don't know about you, I love Jesus.

Sometimes I'm not very good at loving Jesus.

I fall short all the time, but I love him very much.

And I want to live this out.

I want to live a life that makes Jesus go, yes, that's what I wanted.

That's what I was praying for.

We get to do that.

That's really cool.

And so we've been going through it bit by bit, just exploring it.

And we're gonna jump into John 17, we're gonna read verses 6 through 17.

We've covered some of this already, but we're gonna look at a little bit of a different angle today.

So John 17, 6 through 17 says, I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world.

They were always yours.

You gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me.

They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me.

My prayer is not for the world, but for those you've given me, because they belong to you.

All who are mine belong to you, and you've given them to me, so they bring me glory.

Now I'm departing from the world.

They are staying in this world, but I'm coming to you.

Holy Father, you've given me your name.

Now protect them by the power of your name, so they will be united just as we are.

During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me.

I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the scriptures foretold.

He's talking about Judas.

Now I am coming to you.

I told them many things while I was with them in this world, so they would be filled with my joy.

I've given them your word.

And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world.

Just as I do not belong to the world.

I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.

They do not belong to this world any more than I do.

Make them holy by your truth, teach them your word, which is truth.

Now, last week we talked about this idea of keeping the word.

What does it mean to live a life where we keep God's word?

And we talked about being humble, humble enough to receive his word, and then being obedient to live it out.

But today we're gonna focus on a phrase that pops up very often, or at least a word that pops up very often in this scripture that we just read in this prayer, and it's it's this idea of the world.

Over and over again, Jesus says that he's leaving the world, and he says, I'm not praying for the world in general.

No, I'm praying for my disciples.

He says, They're not gonna leave the world, but they don't belong to the world.

In fact, the world hates them because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world, Jesus said.

So Jesus is praying, and he's definitely praying about our relationship with the world.

And I want to explore that this morning.

What does it mean for us to be in the world, but not part of the world?

To be here, living life in this world, but to no longer belong to the world that we live in.

That's an interesting idea.

A phrase you may have heard if you've been in church for a long time is that we are called to be in the world, but not of the world.

What does that mean?

What we find as we explore some scripture is that Jesus has a very complicated relationship with the world, or at the very least, the world has a pretty complicated relationship with him.

You probably all understand that.

We all have complicated relationships.

You probably had relationships before that seemed pretty simple.

They seemed like you understood the dynamics of the relationship, you had a good hold on how this relationship is, you thought you were in good standing, and then come to find out the relationship's a little different than you thought.

I'll give you an example.

When I was in college, my freshman year of college, in fact, the first semester of my freshman year in college, I bought my wife an engagement ring.

She was still in high school and her dad didn't know, but it's fine.

Um, you know, I didn't I wouldn't recommend the order that I did because I went uh buy engagement ring, get job.

And I think you should go in reverse order, but I did that in the same weekend, so it was fine.

So I was in college in Kansas City, Missouri, and Megan and I had been high school sweethearts, and she was a year behind me in school.

She was still here in Georgia.

I was up in Kansas City, and I I knew she was the one.

I knew.

And I'm walking in downtown Liberty, Missouri, which is a small town outside of Kansas City, and there's this jewelry shop, this old jewelry shop.

And I walk in and there's this old man that owns the shop, and I start talking to him, and I'm I'm a talker, as you guys know.

And so I'm telling him, yeah, I've got this girl, I love her, I'm gonna get married.

I'm just kind of looking at engagement rings.

And so he was talking with me about his relationship with his wife and how long they've been married.

I mean, he was the sweetest old man.

And so we we just keep talking, and I really like the guy.

I feel like this is something about this guy.

And so a few months go on, and uh uh I'm like, I'm looking at other rings, I'm going to the mall, going to the big box stores, and I'm looking at rings, and and those rings were a little bit cheaper than the ones at this little family-owned shop on the square, but there's something about that old man.

He was just so sweet.

And so when it was time to buy the ring, first semester of my my freshman year, I think it was like October, I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna buy this ring and I'm going to that shop.

I just really like that guy.

So I go and I buy the ring and we have another exchange, and he's just the sweetest guy.

And I bought it on layaway, so I went in every few weeks and I put a little bit more money on it, a little bit more money on it, and eventually I had it, and I was so excited, proposed, she said yes, everything went great.

Fast forward a few years, I got my first job out of college and I worked at a marketing company.

And my job was to go get us new clients, you know, so we could do marketing for them and ads and newspapers and direct mail, all kinds of stuff.

And I was thinking, well, who do I know?

Who do I know do I have a relationship with that I could walk in the door and sell them some advertising?

And I thought, about that old man at the Jewish store.

We had such a great relationship.

And so I walked in, and you know, I'm in a different dynamic.

This time, instead of me being a customer who's gonna spend thousands of dollars on a ring, I am now a salesman.

And that was the meanest old man that I mean, like, same dude, different relationship.

When I walked in as a customer, I mean he was all smiles, and he talked to me about his wife and his kids and their entire life, which, as far as I knew, after the second time talking to him was a lie.

He's a crotchety old lonely man, he has to be, okay?

Because I walk in with an opportunity, like, hey, I work for so-and-so, and he was basically like, get out, no solicitors, what are you doing here?

Like, just get.

I was like, that guy is the worst.

But he is who I bought my wife's engagement ring from.

So every time I see it, I think of how sweet he was and also how mean.

No, I don't.

I don't.

I'm just glad she said yes.

But it's just funny how life can work like that, where you think you understand someone, you think you have a certain relationship, and then all of a sudden it changes, or there's a different dynamic to it.

The point is, relationships can be complicated.

And Jesus has a complicated relationship with the world.

Let's look at a classic scripture, John 3.16.

Jesus says this for God so loved the world, we all know this, right?

This is how much God loved the world.

He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

And you're like, whoa, Jesus really loves the world.

God the Father really loves the world.

So much so that he gives his son?

Absolutely.

Jesus gave his life for us.

And he goes on to say, God sent his son into the world, not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him.

But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.

And the judgment is based on this fact: God's light came into the world, but people love the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.

So Jesus loves the world so much that he's going to give his life for the world.

God loves the world so much that he gives everything for us, but then it's complicated because the world has a tendency to reject God.

How about John chapter 15?

John 15 · chapter mention

We see a little bit more of the complicated relationship here, verses 18 through 23.

If the world hates you, Jesus said, talking to his disciples, remember that it hated me first.

The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, that you are no longer part of the world.

I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.

Do you remember what I told you?

A slave is not greater than the master, since they persecuted me naturally, they will persecute you.

If they had listened to me, they would listen to you.

They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.

They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

Anyone who hates me also hates my father.

If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty.

But as it is, they've seen everything I did, yet they still hate me in my father, and this fulfills what is written in their scriptures.

They hated me without cause.

So we've got three scriptures from John.

All of this is Jesus talking.

It's all in the same gospel.

And we have we have Jesus telling his disciples, telling the Father in a prayer that, hey, I'm not praying for the world, I'm praying for my disciples.

They don't belong to the world.

We have Jesus teaching a man named Nicodemus that God loves the world so much that he's sent Jesus here to save the world.

Then we have Jesus telling his disciples that the world's gonna hate them.

And so, suffice it to say, this is a complicated relationship.

And Jesus lets us know that not only does he have a complicated relationship with the world, so will we.

How does this work?

How does this whole like in the world, not of the world, love the world, but the world might hate you?

How do we how do we make sense of this?

Typically, people fall in one of two camps when it comes to this type of uh, and these are extremes, we can find ourselves somewhere in the middle as well, but but people can take this sort of idea of being in the world, but not of the world, not really belonging to this world, loving the people in the world, that's what we're called to do for sure, but not being worldly, not living as part of the world.

It's a very complicated thing, simple in some ways, complicated in others, and typically people fall in one of two extremes.

People can either A, be really good at not being worldly, they don't live like the world, they don't think like the world, they don't have the same values as the world, but they don't actually love the people in it either.

They become self-righteous, they become hardened.

They're not very effective because people don't tend to listen to people who don't love them.

We see this in the Pharisees, for example, when Jesus, early in his ministry, is hanging out with tax collectors and disreputable people, they freak out.

They freak out.

We see this in Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

It says, as Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth.

Follow me and be my disciple, Jesus said to him.

So Matthew got up and followed him.

Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with such scum?

That's an extreme word.

They're aghast.

They can't believe that Jesus is eating with them and he's having fun.

He's enjoying his time with them.

And look, just picture someone, let's have fun.

Let's picture politics for a second.

Yay.

Everyone's favorite subject.

I'm not going to name any names because I don't have to.

Just picture the person on the opposite side of your political persuasion that you view as the embodiment of all that is wrong with the world.

Just imagine you've got a person in your mind, I know you do.

Don't say who it is because the person sitting next to you may have a different person in mind.

And just imagine what it would be like.

You're so convinced that that person is everything wrong with the world, and you're walking along, and you see Jesus having a meal with them, and they're having a good time.

They're laughing.

Jesus seems to be having a good time.

You would be upset.

I mean, honestly, you would be upset.

There's part of you that would be like, no, no.

And that's what the Pharisees saw.

They see Jesus, this teacher, this prophet, and he's with tax collectors.

They were the worst of the worst, and other disreputable sinners.

Scum.

They couldn't handle that.

And Jesus responds beautifully, like he always does.

Verse 12, when Jesus heard this, he said, healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do.

Then he added, Now go and learn the meaning of this scripture.

I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.

For I've come to call not those who think they're righteous, but those who know that they are sinners.

So the Pharisees sort of represent this condition of the heart that all of us are susceptible to, where we we do love God and we are committed not to be like everybody else in the world, but it becomes this self-righteous, judgmental thing.

And yeah, we're not worldly, but we've lost our love for the world.

And that just isn't very effective.

The other extreme is that we do love the people in this world very, very much, super compassionate, but we actually fall in love with the world itself.

So much so that we really don't live that differently in our day-to-day life from everyone else in the world, even those who don't have a relationship with God or a faith in Jesus.

Listen to this quote.

It's from about 150 years ago.

So just imagine what this author would maybe say today.

I don't know.

Professing Christians are a vast deal more like the world than they used to be or ought to be, and the consequence is this they let the world alone, and the world lets them alone.

They make a sort of compromise with the world.

They are worldly enough to suit the world and not Christ-like enough to offend the world.

And that is the honest truth.

It is possible to love the world, and to love the world so much that we are indistinguishable in terms of our values, how we think, how we operate from everybody else in the world.

And it's so clear that Jesus is calling us into this complicated relationship with the world where we are supposed to love every single person in it, regardless of what they believe, how they've lived, what mistakes they've made.

We have zero grounds as followers of Jesus to ever not love someone.

Now, love doesn't mean agreement, love doesn't mean endorsement, but we have zero basis to ever show anyone anything other than self-sacrificial love.

We're supposed to love the people in the world because God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus to save the world, and yet we are called to be very different than the world, not to fall in love with the world, not to be of the world.

John would put it this way in 1 John.

I think this is really clear.

1 John 2, 16 and 17.

For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.

These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

And this world is fading away along with everything that people crave.

But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

Now, John began that statement by actually telling us to not belong to this world, to not love this world or anything in it.

So we're called to love the people in the world, but not be like it.

He goes on to describe that.

Jesus would tell us this in Matthew chapter 5, verse 3.

Matthew 5:3

He says, Be the salt of the earth.

Be the salt of the earth.

Actually, verse 13.

He says, What good is salt if it's lost its flavor?

Can you make it salty again?

It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

We are called to be salty.

Be the salt of the earth.

Bring out the good.

That's what salt does.

It brings out the flavor.

It's a preservative.

And so here we go.

Clearly, all of this taken into consideration, all of it together.

We're to love the people of the world.

We're not to be worldly.

We're supposed to be different than the world.

We're not supposed to fall in love with the world and live indistinguishable lives from the world and give in to all the cravings and all the pleasures of the world.

And so there we go.

That's what we've been told to do.

Let's go out.

Let's just do that.

Be in the world, not of the world.

Go.

I have found, I don't know about you, but I have found that that is easier said than done.

Because this world is sneaky.

It is.

In fact, Jesus would teach a parable where he would compare human hearts to four different types of soil.

And there's a farmer, and the farmer's scattering seed.

You've probably heard this.

If not, just a really simple analogy, really cool.

Some of the seed falls on the road and it doesn't penetrate at all, and it just gets picked up by birds.

Some of it falls into shallow soil and it grows for a little bit, but the second that there's anything hard, it just fades away.

The fourth soil, the last one, is fertile soil.

That is where like a crop is produced and it grows, but there's this third soil, and it's really interesting.

And this is where I find myself struggling sometimes because this soil, it has grown.

The crop is growing, it has taken root, it just gets all choked out by the weeds.

And those weeds are described as the worries of this world.

Things like wealth and all the human relationships that we have and all the busyness that we have, and that stuff, if you're not careful, that stuff can, in a very sneaky, subtle way, that stuff can actually like it can mix in, it can take hold, and we find ourselves divided in our loyalty.

And I I have found that in the last five or six years, it's actually I've surprised myself in different moments with with how often other things that are so much less than God have taken root in my heart, and I have cared about them much more than I thought I did.

Actually, a friend of mine this last week we were having lunch and he described it as sideways energy.

You spend a lot of time investing a lot in sideways energy.

You love God very much, yeah, but then there's all this stuff, and it's not bad stuff.

It's just life.

It's taking care of your family and it's your career, and it's it's all kinds of other things that go along with that.

And all of a sudden, one day you find yourself in a place where you're like, Yeah, I love, I love you, Lord, but there's a lot of weeds.

There's a lot of other things, there's a lot of things in this world that are taking up a lot of my thoughts, a lot of my time, a lot of my energy, a lot of my priorities, and I'm struggling to make sense of it.

How do we, in practicality, live this out?

How are we supposed to be in the world and out of the world?

Because this world is a pretty pervasive thing.

I want to share with you what John said.

We just looked at this.

I think it's an amazing breakdown to help us identify those things that are in the world that we need to avoid, we need to be aware of, we need to reject, versus the things that are just part of everyday life that we can embrace and live with.

Let's let's go back to 1 John 2, verses 16 to 17.

1 John 2:16–17

Just read this a few seconds ago.

He says, the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.

These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

And this world is fading away along with everything that people crave.

Anyone who does what God pleases God will live forever.

So the things of this world, they fade, they crumble, you invest your whole life into it, and it's gone.

And he gives three categories.

This is so helpful.

It's what I love God's Word, because not only does it tell us what we're supposed to do in terms of the big picture goals, but it actually gives us the strategies to get there.

And we're told that we're supposed to avoid, to recognize and avoid cravings of the flesh.

Some translations call it the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

That's kind of the classic translation.

So it's cravings of the flesh, cravings of the eyes, lust of the eyes, and then the pride of life.

Let's break that down for just a little bit.

You guys having fun, by the way?

Woo! Yeah.

Everyone, this is what everyone wants to talk about on a Sunday morning.

Yeah, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.

You know, easy stuff.

And obviously none of us struggle with this.

So this is all hypothetical.

And this is what, you know, this is what the people watching online are struggling with, right?

This is what I'm just teasing.

You guys are fine.

No.

Yeah, lust of the flesh.

Jesus once fasted for 40 days.

Right after he's baptized, he goes out into the wilderness and he fasts for 40 days.

And then Satan comes up to him and offers him something.

What does Satan offer him?

Someone yell it out.

Yeah, stones.

Not bread, stones.

Jesus actually would later on, he'd go on to say, uh, you evil parents, not evil like just normal.

Evil's normal.

He said, Hey, you evil parents, if your child asks for a loaf of bread, would you give them a stone instead?

And he's referencing this, right?

When he's tempted in the desert by Satan, he's hungry and Satan offers him rocks, not bread, but Satan also knows that Jesus has the power to turn them into bread if he wants to.

We see Jesus do food miracles, he can do it for himself.

And so he's starving, he's so hungry.

Think about what his flesh is craving.

How hungry he must be.

In fact, I read a commentator that talked about where Jesus was and the fact that the area is littered with these really small stones in the heat of the day, you're gonna see like the heat wave just coming off of them.

They must have looked like bread baking in an oven.

And if if like I grew up watching Looney Tunes, and I know that when you're really hungry, like your friends turn into food in your eyes.

That's what I saw in those.

So I imagine Jesus, he's like looking at the stones thinking this is bread.

And Satan comes up and he goes, Hey, why don't you just turn them into bread?

He could have done that, but he didn't.

I can't imagine how hungry he must have been.

Not that long ago, I felt like God was calling me to fast.

And I don't like to fast.

I like to eat.

It's way more fun.

But I was like, no, I need to do this.

So I went the whole day, no food, crushing it.

Just super spiritual, you know.

And uh and then it was like eight o'clock, nine o'clock at night, we're cleaning up, and my son, my oldest son, had made some uh boneless wings covered in barbecue sauce, and he left a few on a plate, and I was cleaning up.

And I ate them.

So let's compare me and Jesus.

Uh I felt called by God to fast.

Felt like the Lord told me to do that.

I made it 18-ish hours.

What got me?

Too cold, leftover, microwaved, barbecue, boneless buffalo wings.

That was a low point.

That was a low point like eating them over the trash, you know?

Just like walking back to the sink as a failure.

Maybe going to Taco Bell after that, because once you've messed up, why not?

Who knows?

Not saying that happened, but it could have happened.

Also, that was on Friday.

Uh so that's pretty bad.

And in that moment, like I felt like a total failure, which isn't that strange of a feeling.

And I sorry, I just felt like that before.

Um and I was praying, and it just hit me like, Lord, like you are so good.

Because here I am, and I'm I'm messing up something so stupid that you asked me to do, and I'll I'll start again.

But I was thinking about Jesus 40 days, and how starving he must have been.

And he was preparing for his ministry, he was preparing to go out and love this world and save this world, knowing that he would be rejected.

Like knowing it wasn't gonna go well in a lot of ways.

And when Satan himself came along, Satan didn't show up and offer me leftover wings, okay?

That was just I guess it's really my son's fault, if you think about it.

He should have eaten them all or cleaned his plate.

No.

No, it was just that was just me.

That was just my weakness, and Jesus is so amazing that even in that stage of hunger, he could resist.

See, we we often live dominated by our desires, dominated by the flesh.

In fact, we live in a world that tells us that's just the way it is.

We can't help ourselves.

We can't.

We see this big time right now in our culture when it comes to sexuality.

And I'm not just bringing this up to have a uh a controversial conversation.

But but we see in our world all the time, especially with issues of sexuality, that we're told if you really, really want to, you have to.

Because to deny those feelings, to deny those desires would be to deny your very self.

I can't imagine how tempting it must have been for Jesus in the desert to just satisfy his flesh.

Just eat.

It's been 40 days.

Like, come on.

Just eat.

But he resisted.

He resisted.

Why?

Because we are not slaves to our nature.

No matter how much this world tells us that we can't help ourselves, that we must, because you know, our desires are the core of who we are.

No, they're not.

Not if you have the Holy Spirit.

In fact, Romans chapter 6, verse 6 puts it this way we know that our old sin for sinful selves were crucified with Christ.

Romans 6:6

So that sin might lose its power in our lives.

We are no longer slaves to sin.

And sin often becomes synonymous with just our our basic human desires apart from God.

We're not slaves to our our old nature anymore.

You don't have to.

That thing that you're addicted to, I'm not saying that you don't need to get help and counseling and support and accountability.

I mean, I've I've needed that in my life in all kinds of different areas.

But I am saying that you are not a slave to that.

Not according to God.

You have the Holy Spirit inside of you, the spirit inside of you is addicted to nothing.

The Holy Spirit is not addicted to sex, it's not addicted to alcohol, it's not addicted to a substance, it's not addicted to pornography, it's not addicted to anything.

The Holy Spirit inside of you is holy.

Through the power of God, we are not slaves to our flesh.

So we can actually deny the cravings of the flesh, and we're called to.

Because if we live our lives completely out of impulse, satisfying every little craving of the flesh that comes along, that is us living as part of the world because that's what defines the world.

Do what you feel like doing.

Do what makes you feel good.

Satisfy yourself.

You don't have to.

I want to take a minute and show you guys a video.

This is really cool.

It's a little snippet, two minutes of a podcast.

We'll bring the lights down, yeah.

It's a podcast that we just uploaded a few days ago, and this lady in the podcast that I'm interviewing, her name is MJ Nixon, and she leads this unbelievable ministry.

Um, and it is such a story of how there is no desire so deep, there is no craving so powerful that you can have, that you cannot, through faith, put aside and say, no, that's not for me because it's not of God.

Super cool.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna let MJ share her story for just a second, and then you guys need to watch the whole thing online.

It's just a perfect example of this.

So uh let's go ahead and play that.

Like, I never heard anyone share a story of that they struggled with homosexuality or what we say, same-sex attraction, and actually had hope for our future.

And so I just hid.

I felt so much shame, guilt.

I thought my family would reject me, that no one would love me if I was honest with the inward feelings I had.

And then, like I said, when I got into college, was when I actually started to really live out the desires that I had inside.

But despite that, inwardly, there was a still small voice, it was the Holy Spirit saying, This is not what I have for you, MJ.

There's something so much greater for you if you just would lay down this area.

Because growing up in church, you know, I wanted Jesus in my life, right?

Yeah, but I wasn't fully ready to fully surrender, especially my sexuality, because it felt so costly.

And I encountered Jesus for the first time, like the reality of what the cost was for him.

And the Lord said to me, MJ, if you will lay down your sexuality, like I will not only take it, but I'm going to replace, I'm going to infill, I am going to bring restoration in that moment.

I said for the first time in my life, God, you can have every part of me.

You're not too far gone.

Like, don't let shame bury you.

Every day we get testimonies of people who are saying, I was living this false identity in the LGBT, and Jesus has encountered me right where I'm at, and I'm on this process of sanctification.

And it's been so beautiful to walk with hundreds, if not thousands, of others who, like myself, have encountered a real God who really loves us, and we've surrendered our lives to his love and his truth.

Yeah.

MJ has, yeah.

If I ever met someone that said, you just don't understand, there's no way I can say no to whatever desire it might be, whatever craving of the flesh it might be, I just introduced you to MJ.

And she leads this amazing ministry now called Rainbow Revival, and they, it's completely made up of people who at one point in time identified as part of the LGBT world, and then recognize that this is not what God has asked us to do.

And they've laid that aside out of faith in Jesus.

And it's the most powerful thing I've honestly, there's nothing like it.

She's she's really awesome.

And so check out her whole God story because we have that online right now on our podcast and on YouTube.

Point of that, the reason I wanted to share that now and not just as a preview before the message like we normally do, is because what an example of how through faith and through Jesus, there is no desire, no matter how deep, that you're a slave to.

And so if you're struggling, if there's some part of the world that has its hooks in you and you feel like you can't help yourself, like you have to, it's just such a strong desire, that's not true.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus in your life, you can reject the lust of the flesh.

Because part of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control.

So if we want to live lives where we're in the world but not of the world, we've got to identify, hey, is this behavior that I have in my life, is it, is it healthy, or is it a lust of the flesh?

Is this just something that I can't help myself with?

And that's really the easy place to start.

Is this something that I feel like I am powerless to it?

I have to satisfy these cravings.

That's lust of the flesh.

You don't have to.

What about the second one?

Lust of the eyes.

We'll go through these next two a little more quickly.

Lust of the eyes.

Um, I want to shout out a friend of mine named Paul Brewer.

Paul and his wife Rachel actually lead our young married couples group.

And so if you're a young married couple or engaged, they meet a couple times a month.

They have a great group of people.

I know some of the people in that group, like Garrett and Madden, you guys are awesome.

Some really great people.

And so you should definitely connect with that group.

Paul and I were talking a few weeks ago, and Paul was talking about how hard it is for him to live here and not be obsessed with money.

He's from South Georgia, and he said, Man, there's just something about this area.

You know, talking about Cherokee County, and he's like driving around, it's just crazy how much, just how much wealth there is on display, and having to fight thinking about that and constantly thinking about, ooh, I don't have that, I want that.

Like where I where I live, I kind of live in the northern part of Cherokee County.

In the last five years, I think there was a law passed.

I wasn't even aware of this, that uh every week there must be a giant white farmhouse built, and uh and they have to be kind of angled to where they don't quite face directly on the road, they're like kind of sideways pointing.

I don't know if you've seen these.

And if you have one, by the way, no knock on you, great.

I just I don't have one.

And uh I didn't see any of these five years ago, and now it's like every street is like giant white farmhouse, giant white farmhouse, but giant white farmhouse.

Oh, what are they building?

A giant white farmhouse.

Um and what's funny is uh, you know, I used to think my house was pretty cool until they started building those giant white farmhouses.

And my kids are like, that house is cool, and I'm like, our house is cool too.

You know, it's just cool in a different way.

It's cool in a quaint kind of way compared to those.

But that's how life works, right?

That's how our eyes work.

All of a sudden, you see people have more than you have or have something you don't have, and it wasn't even on your mind.

But now it is.

Now you want that, and you can actually become so consumed by that that your entire life becomes about pursuing something that you didn't care about until you saw it.

That's lust of the eyes.

We see it, it wasn't even on our radar, but we gotta have it.

It's a temptation, by the way, that goes way, way back.

Genesis chapter 3, when Satan is tempting Eve.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

She didn't do as well as Jesus.

Uh that says that the woman was convinced.

She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her.

She was convinced by what?

By what she saw.

Just because something looks good doesn't mean it is good.

Just because something looks great and grand and wonderful doesn't mean it will make our dreams come true.

In fact, many of us have things in our life right now that years ago you're like, I was going after this, this was all that I wanted, and I I pursued it, now I have it.

It's fine.

Ask yourself, if you want to be in the world but not of the world, ask yourself, where did this desire, whatever goal you have, whatever you're pursuing, ask yourself where it came from.

Do you have it because the Lord has put it in your life?

Do you have it because it's just a genuine good thing that you you desire, or or are you pursuing things just because you saw them, you saw other people have them, and you feel like if you don't have that, you're not gonna be fulfilled.

You're not gonna be enough.

It could be anything.

It could be it could be wealth, it could be a car, it could be a possession, it could be some like physique, some level of fitness, you know.

You go to the gym and and uh man, gyms have changed.

I don't know if you guys have noticed that.

Uh ten years ago when I walked into the locker room at my gym, there weren't like 25 college students flexing in the mirror.

Now there are.

That's weird.

Um, but you'll walk in and you'll just see these guys just like, you know.

I talk to them sometimes.

I have.

I I can be weird like that.

I have said to one of them, like, did anything change?

And uh and he's like, What do you mean?

I was like, I don't know.

You just you've you've been doing that like a bunch.

I just didn't know if something changed.

He didn't think that was funny.

I thought it was funny.

But honestly, like you can go to the gym and you can feel you can feel like you're in pretty good shape.

Like you're your heart's beating and it's good, and all of a sudden you're like, I don't have those, I've never even seen those muscles before.

Uh how do you get those?

And you can all of a sudden go from like content to discontent because it's lust of the eyes.

I saw something and now I gotta be that.

And there's so many people that their life is dominated by lust of the eyes.

I'm just trying to have it.

Why?

Because other people do, because I saw it on social media, because whatever.

If that's where your desires come from, that's the world.

And like John says, that all fades.

That all goes away.

I promise when those guys are 70, they will not be flexing in the mirror like that.

Or when they're 42.

Um, maybe, maybe if they do well.

You know.

Last category.

Last category.

Pride of life.

Ooh, this one's tough.

Pride of life.

Our tendency to get puffed up.

When things go well and we start to put our hope and our pride in the things that we've accomplished.

Ooh, that's that's a constant.

When I was uh, you guys don't know this, but before I was here at his hands, maybe you know this, I was the vice president of marketing at a marketing company in Kansas City, Missouri.

Now, we had three employees.

Um we were all an executive level employee.

But no, seriously, I worked at this marketing company and I worked there for like a year, and my boss, the president, he uh he told me that he wanted to give me a raise, but couldn't afford it.

So instead he was gonna give me a title.

And you know, it's funny because part of me would say I'd prefer the raise, but actually there was a part of me that really just I was like, what title?

And I'll never forget the day the business cards came in.

And you know, this is like early 2000s, 2005 or so, and it said my name, and it said vice president of marketing.

And I was really proud of that.

Forget that it's a three-person company and uh whatever.

No, I was really proud of that.

Like I immediately got on my social media, you know, Facebook was new at the time, and I'm like changing my title, and I'm just you know, I'm just letting the world, just you know, the humble brag, like, hey, so blessed that I got this promotion.

Um, I'm just so grateful to God for my success.

Um I don't even think it was my success.

I think he just felt like I was gonna leave if I didn't get a raise, and so he's just trying to keep me or something like that.

I don't know.

Um, but it's it's ridiculous that something that small, that meaningless, meant so much to me.

Life can be like that.

Where we can live our lives, and we are all about presenting this version of ourselves to the world that just makes people go, wow, ooh, wow.

Or it's like that with our kids.

You know, and and you take pictures and you post those, and it's like our family, oh, we have such an awesome family.

Like, please don't come and actually live in our home for a few days to see what it's like living here.

But I mean, look at how great we all look on this beach.

Um like those that's the world.

The world just challenged you.

Hey, take pride in yourself, take pride in what you have, take pride in your accomplishments and your titles and your family and this and that, and just let the world know, hey, look at this, look at that.

And, you know, Jesus rejected that every time he had an opportunity.

If anyone could have lived with pride, it'd be Jesus.

But he didn't.

He actually referenced the Old Testament once and said that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

And so as you explore your life and you look at where you're at right now, how much are you doing to impress other people?

How much of what you do, how much of your energy, how much of your sideways energy goes to impressing people and presenting some version of yourself to the world that makes people go, wow.

That's the pride of life.

And it will fade, it will leave you empty.

It doesn't last.

If you want to be uh in this world but not of the world, lust of the flesh, you're not a slave to it.

You can say no, you have the Holy Spirit.

Don't be dominated by your desires.

Live with self-control.

Only the Holy Spirit, by the way, can produce that in you truly.

Number two, lust of the eyes, don't be chasing after everything you see that other people have or that you think other people are, trying your best to keep up with everyone around you, thinking that once you have that, once you are that, you're gonna be happy and satisfied.

That is a that is a fruitless endeavor.

That is short-term at best.

And finally, pride of life, humble yourself.

We are all equal in God's eyes.

Like all it's Jesus and all of us.

We are all in the same boat, truly.

There's not one of us that is more capable of heaven if not for the sacrifice of Jesus than anyone else.

We're all dependent on him, and so let that free you.

And if you can see those things, if you can identify it, you go, oh, that's lust of the flesh, ooh, lust of the eyes, oh, pride of life.

That's happening to me.

If you can see it and identify it, you can begin to reject it.

And so pray about that and ask God to give you the strength to do that.

And if you do that, you will be like Jesus wants you to be in this world, loving the people of this world, serving the people of this world, but not becoming consumed by it, uh, which ultimately leaves you empty and wanting because everything in this world fades.

But Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We're gonna finish with Lord's Supper.

And so uh if you're new, by the way, we have these at the back, there's tables, and you can go grab them, this bread and juice.

If you missed it on your way in, it's we're actually trying to figure out a way to make those more visible, but it's you know, it's dark back there.

So uh grab one, you're not gonna mess anything up if you get one right now.

We take this every week.

If you're new, we do this every week.

We have this little meal together.

It's something that Jesus followers have done forever.

The bread represents the body of Jesus, the juice represents his blood.

And when we're done with this, by the way, super quick, we got some people getting baptized, which is super exciting.

Very cool.

I love, I love that we finish with this every week.

Because no matter what, it makes sure that our eyes are on Jesus, as they should be.

And it's amazing to me how much Jesus embodies everything that we talk about each week.

In fact, you know, those three cravings, those three cravings, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, they very much, they very much coincide with the temptation of Jesus.

I mentioned it earlier.

You know, lust of the flesh, he was hungry, there was bread, lust of the eyes.

At one point, Satan says, look at this world, and Jesus saw all the kingdoms of the world, and Satan's like, I'll give it to you.

He forget a big white farmhouse.

He was like everything.

And Jesus is like, no, that's that's some lust of the eyes right there.

And even the pride of life, the second temptation says that Satan takes Jesus to the top of the temple and says, jump off, see if God will protect you.

And a lot of people have debated about what the meaning of that was for a long time, and some scholars have said, well, maybe that was a public thing.

Maybe that maybe Satan was like, hey, jump off the temple and land unharmed, and everyone there, it's a very public place.

They'll see you, they'll worship you.

It's kind of that pride of life.

Prove how much God loves you, show the world how much God takes care of you.

And Jesus rejected all three of those.

There's nothing that he asks us to do that he has not done himself.

And there's nothing that he asks us to do that he will not empower us to do.

And when we take this meal, we remember that we have him.

We don't just follow a religion.

This is not just some belief system, some moral set of values.

No, we have a person who is alive.

He is God, and he is alive, and he is active, and through the Holy Spirit, he's active in us, and he gives us the strength to do this.

He himself did it, and he gives us the strength to do it as well.

So let's take the bread and let's pray.

Father God, we thank you for sending your son to show us the way, to save us, to do what we could not do, and to show us how to do what we can do through your spirit.

And Jesus, we thank you for sacrificing yourself, for giving yourself up for us on the cross, for purchasing freedom from sin for us.

We love you and we thank you.

Let's take the bread.

Now the Jews.

Father, we thank you for this cup.

This is your blood poured out as an offering for our sin, cleansing us.

And Jesus, we thank you for this sacrifice.

Holy Spirit, we thank you.

We thank you for being in our lives.

Just as what we eat and what we drink becomes part of us.

You are part of us.

And Holy Spirit, we ask that you give us the strength to live in this world but not of it.

To reject all of the things that aren't from you and to cling to the things that are.

We pray this in your name.

Let's drink the juice.