Desire

Big Idea

•We were made to live substantial lives in Jesus Christ.

A love/hate relationship

•The Army and the world•John 3:16, 1 John 2:15•If we love God do we have to hate everything else?

A pastoral message

•1 John 2:12-17•A deep challenge to all believers

•John sits us down and looks us in the eye; he tells us that he loves us and is proud of us, and that he has something very important to share with us.

The “world”

•v.15 “…the world” – What exactly does he mean?

•kosmos – created world, sinful world, earthly system of values and behaviors in opposition to God

•How do you know if you love the world?

The 3 Desires

•The lust of the flesh – to do

•The lust of the eyes – to have

•The pride of life – to be

The Worlds Appeal

•allay morals & confirm the nature

•stimulates the senses inappropriately

•Wrongly encourages dreams & justifies failures

Deep Desire

•The problem with doing, having and being

•Psalms 1 and 2•Live deeply by wanting life

with God more than anything this world has to offer

Something went wrong

•The unbalanced inner self was caused by Sin. We are left with relying on something or someone to help us from our own self-centered inner nature that inevitably plagues us.

•We were deliberately designed to live a successful spiritual and moral life by influences outside our inner self. Our selfish nature was designed to be too powerful when pitted against our weaker moral one and thus forces us, by design, to seek spiritual community. By ourselves, we will slowly, and usually subconsciously, be drawn towards a selfishly lived life.