Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places

1 John 2:15-17

Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places!

Introduction

A. Do you remember in Elementary School when a boy or a girl would like you? What did your mom tell you? They are the ones that pick on you.

B. They are the ones you think hate you

C. They are the ones that tell you they can not stand you

D. That is kind of funny when you think back on it.

E. You ask questions like why do they do that

F. Think about something for a second

G. Think about what we claim to hate

H. Think about what we claim to hate but actually love

I. We as Christians are really good at this

J. Just like the elementary child, we act the same way with love for the world and love of sin

K. It is hard to admit that we do love those things but we do.

L. Lets look at them closer and see what we can do to change it

I. The Love of the World (15)

A. Explanation

1. You ask yourself, self, why is John writing this, what is going on that made him want to write this passage

2. READ 15, notice it does not “do not like the world”, It says love, and this is not a causal warning, this is a very strict command

3. We are able to like the world, for example if you do not enjoy spring were the flowers are coming up. The leaves on the trees, what is wrong with you.

4. At the time when John wrote this part there were people who choose their god to be the world, those are the ones that John is after.

5. Loving the world is not a single incident, it is a life style, this is not oops I accidentally loved the world today. This is something this is a life style

6. The expression for “world” here is a funny one. The word is mainly found in John’s writings in fact

7. It carries a meaning more then just the third rock from the sun. There is a strong connection between world and devil. In John’s writing there is not much different. You have to understand that there are a lot more Greek words to choose from then English

8. John tells us not to love the world. However, he does not tell us not to live in separation. To be in the world is not to love the world. Just to separate from the love of the world

B. Application

1. So how is that relevant to our lives today?

2. We face much the same obstacles if not more then the people John was writing about

3. We are not talking about one or so acts we are talking about a lifestyle

4. This could be TV before God

5. This could be Work becoming more important then God

6. This could be our Hobbies more important then God

7. It could be a variety of things

8. The important part is not to let that happen

C. Illustration

1. When I was running Cross Country I got so involved. I love watching my time go down. I worked really really hard. I was never the most gifted runner. I might have been the one that worked the hardest at it though. I would go running in the middle of winter so that I would be ready for the next fall. If you were to talk to me I would relate everything or just bluntly change the subject to running. That was my God. Do not let that happen

II. The Love of Sin

A. Explanation

1. It is a funny idea is it not but it is true, We love sin

2. Knowing that the word world has the devil closely related to it helps us understand what this is saying

3. Read 16 everything that is not from God is from the world, hence everything that is in the world is evil

4. Notice the three that he mentions here, 2 are personal private sins, the other one in a public sin.

5. John choose these ones for a particular reason

6. Cravings of sinful men. Literally desire of the flesh.

a) The phrase craving of sinful man is used collectively and is meant to include both sexual desire and covetousness

7. Lust of the eyes. What John is trying to convey here is what Jesus said in the sermon of the mount (Mathew 5:28) when a man looks at a women lustfully he has committed adultery.

a) We have to understand something here. Men are very sexual in nature. I’m sure if I ask all the men who here has not had a bad thought no one would raise their hands.