Leading The Way

Dr. Michael Youssef: If you love Christ and his family, you are in the light. But if you hate, you are living in spiritual darkness. And you will remain there until you get up and move from darkness to light. And here John is saying, love Jesus, love his family, but there is a love that you need to avoid. What is it? Love for the world.

Guest (Male): Life at its best is available for you when you live a spirit-led and filled life. Up next, Dr. Youssef expands on that with a heartfelt challenge to avoid an unhealthy love for the world. Hello, welcome to Leading the Way Audio with long-time pastor, international Bible teacher, and best-selling author, Dr. Michael Youssef.

We know you're busy. You may not be able to hear all of today's message in one sitting. So, we want to invite you to listen and watch this and additional content from Dr. Youssef and ministry teams at ltw.org. Be sure to look for the listen and the watch link right there at the top of the page. But since you're with us now, join me for Dr. Michael Youssef's message, "Overcoming Conflictedness."

Dr. Michael Youssef: You know, there's a word that seems to be on the increase in the use of our vocabulary these days, and probably I hear it more now than I've ever heard it in the past. It's that word of "conflicted." Of course, social scientists are very anxious to immediately give you an explanation and say, "Well, the reason there are more people conflicted today than they've ever been before is because our culture moves so fast, and technology, and they cannot cope with the changes, fast changes of culture." Other people, of course, will put a different spin on it.

But the reality is we are more conscious of it now, but it has always been the condition of the human heart. Ever since Adam and Eve went their own way and went against the Word of God and disobeyed the Word of the Lord, they became not only conflicted, but they passed this condition of conflictedness to all of us and to all of humanity. What is the condition of being conflicted and how do you overcome it?

John gives us the answer. Today, I want to show you three things from the second part of chapter two on keeping you from losing life at its best. You say, "Wait a minute, Michael, can you lose life at its best?" Well, you sure can lose its joy. You sure can lose its benefits. You sure can lose its blessings, the peace that comes from life at its best.

And you can lose it for a minute or an hour or a day or a month or a year or years, depending on your desire to come out of that loss and turn back on the road to life at its best. Because continuous life of being conflicted is not only harmful to your health, but is a sure way of depriving you from the joy of life at its best.

Being conflicted is like the man who went to a baseball game but he was rooting for both teams vigorously, enthusiastically. True story. This man was enthusiastically and vigorously cheering for both teams. No matter which team made a hit, which team made a run, he cheers boisterously. Well, both sides were mad at him. Both sides were angry at him.

But here's his explanation. He says, "Well, I live way out in the country and I don't get to too many games, so I pull for both sides. That way, no matter who wins, I go home happy." But I hate to tell you, I shudder when I think about his future, especially with the boisterous fans of certain teams. Well, I'll move on.

But John gives us those three things to avoid being conflicted, to stop rooting for both teams, and to avoid the loss of the joy that comes from being conflicted. Here they are. Number one, he said keep your gates tightly shut, verses 15 to 17. Secondly, he says keep your eyes wide open, verses 18 to 23. Thirdly, he said keep your mind firmly anchored, verses 24 to 29.

Keep your gates tightly shut. In the last message, we saw how those who hate members of Christ's family are living in spiritual darkness. In the last message, we saw how love and light live together and die together. If you love Christ and his family, you are in the light. But if you hate, you are living in spiritual darkness and you'll remain there until you get up and move from darkness to light.

And here John is saying now there's another kind of love that you need not to exercise. Love Jesus, love his family, but there is a love that you need to avoid. He's saying there is a good love that you must exercise, but there's a bad love that you shouldn't do. What is it? Love for the world.

But somebody told me actually not so long ago, he said, "You know this thing about not loving the world, and here I read in John 3:16, 'For God so loved the world.' How come God loves the world but I don't get to love the world?" Well, the question is that of motive. Listen to me. When God loves the world, it's because he wants to redeem his children out of that world.

But when we love the world, we want to be part of that world. When Christ loves the world, it's because he wants to save his children from their sin. But when we love the world, it's because we love the sin that's in the world. When God loves the world, it is out of compassion for his children who are in the world.

But when we love the world, it's because of indulgence that we want to find ourselves in the world. When Christ loves the world, it is out of sacrificial love. But when we love the world, it's out of selfishness. See, it's a question of motive. Well, someone still may say, "Michael, what is that world anyway? What does it mean 'the world'?"

When the Bible talks about the world, when John particularly in the way he uses the word cosmos, the word "world," he is talking about the world system, not the creation of God. And I'm going to come to that in a second. He is talking about anything that is contrary to the Word of God. Whether it be indulgence, whether it be immorality, whether it is sensuality, whether it is compromises here and there, whether it is selfishness, whatever it may be.

Anything that is contrary to the Word of God is the world. Anything contrary to the nature of God, that's the world. Anything that is contrary to the character of God, that's the world. But he's not talking about the beautiful nature that God created. That's not what he's talking about because the created world is God's world and he owns it all.

But the world system and God are in constant enmity with one another. And one is incapable to love both. You can never love God and the world at the same time. In fact, James said you've got to hate one and love the other. You can't love them both. I want to illustrate this.

If I touch an exposed electric wire with my hand, I'm going to be burnt toast right in a very short order. But if a bird alights on that same exposed wire, nothing happens. Do you know why? Because the bird's safety is in the fact that when it comes in touch with the electric wire, it is not touching anything else. It is wholly, totally, completely on that wire.

But when I touch that same live wire, I'm either standing on the ground or leaning or holding to something else, and that something else serves as the ground. And the current will go through me like there's no tomorrow. It works the same way in my spiritual walk and in your spiritual walk. It works the same way.

Whenever I have one foot in the world and one foot with Christ, whenever I keep one eye on the Lord and one eye on the world, whenever I have one hand holding onto Jesus and the other hand holding onto the world and the world system, it will fry me spiritually speaking. The electricity will go through me and I'll be fried.

And the reason why there are so many believers who are spiritually fried today is because they are keeping all of those gates wide open for the current to come in. What are these gates? Three in number. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. In fact, they are sequential.

The first gate is "I want that." The second gate and the eye bulges with saying, "I cannot rest until I get it." And then the third gate is the bragging about it, "Hey, I got it." It's so simple. It's the craving, it's the grabbing, and it's the bragging. It's that simple. The three things, three gates that he's talked about.

I want to be clear on this one. Listen to me very carefully. I am not talking about, I don't think the Apostle John is talking about somebody who works hard and accomplishes things and achieves things and have things that they need for life. I'm not, that's not what he's talking about. Don't lay false guilt on yourself on this one.

But he is talking about greed. He's talking about covetousness. He's talking about pride. And these are the three gates that John is talking about. That's why he calls them the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And did you know that these are precisely the same three gates that Satan walked Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?

It's exactly the same three gates. Oh, if you can get it, you will be like God. And then look at it, doesn't it look good? It looks so great, doesn't it? And then they got it and bragged about it. And when they allowed Satan to come through these three gates in their lives, they not only plunged themselves into darkness of disobedience but all of humanity.

But listen, here's the good news. These are the very same three gates that Satan tried to take the Lord Jesus Christ through in the wilderness, in the temptation. You remember the temptation in the wilderness. Those are the same three gates. But praise God, Jesus shut the gates tightly.

And therefore, because of that, you and I are saved and have eternal life. But that's not all. We have been given the power to shut these gates, too. So it's not just a matter of saying, "I gotta shut the gates, everyone I gotta shut the...". No, no, no. It's a relax, the Christian life is not an uptight life. It's surrender.

It's coming up with those gates every morning and saying, "Lord, I surrender them to you, shut them." And he will. You ask him, he will do it. Craving what somebody else has, grabbing all you can and bragging about it. These are the three gates that we must close tight. So keep the gates shut tightly.

Secondly, and keep your eyes wide open, verses 18 to 23. John is basically telling us, look, you have to understand that we will always be involved in a battle for the truth. That battle for the truth never goes on vacation. That battle for the truth never takes a holiday. That battle for the truth never goes to sleep.

And yet it is a battle that we must win, that we have no option but to win. You've heard it said you are what you eat, but I want to tell you, you are what you believe. You are what you believe. And to allow yourself to be taken in by the novelty religious salesmen, by the spiritual merchants of mirages, by the smooth talking of false teachers, by watering down of biblical truth, all will inevitably lead you into doubt.

And doubt will lead you into out-and-out departure from the truth. Look at verse 18. John said there is an Antichrist, but there are also many antichrists in the plural. The antichrists' job is to soften our hearts toward God and toward the truth and to prepare us for the big lie of the Antichrist.

The antichrists' job will preach to us pluralism and tolerance of sin and compromises here and compromises there. And when that is accomplished, the Antichrist will come in and outright oppose Christ. All of the antichrists will deny the divinity of Christ. That's what John said.

And they will make it to be acceptable. And they will try to get us ever so slowly and very smoothly into the point of saying, "Well, all religion the same, we've got to respect all religions, we're the all same and we can actually even worship together." That's what the antichrists are doing. Then the Antichrist in the singular will outlaw the Christian faith.

Keep your eyes wide open. Keep your eyes wide open for those in the churches. You see, those antichrists are not out there in the world. They are in the churches because they can do more harm than the enemies of Christ. Why? Because they are softening us for the Antichrist. They are soothing us for the kill. They are wooing us into the wilderness and away from the truth into doubt.

They try to manipulate us and intimidate us into shutting our mouths. And then we've become an easy prey for Satan. Keep your eyes wide open. Say no and say no a million times. Stand firm and accept criticism. There is no price too dear. And please don't ever forget what John says here is that you have God's anointing.

What does it mean? You have God's grace, you have God's power, you have God's authority. You're not alone. You don't stand alone. And John is saying, look, I'm not telling you anything new. You know all this. I am not giving you some novelty. I'm not telling you about some spectacular thing. I am merely reminding you of the truth, of what you already know.

When you are tempted by doubt, don't surrender to it. When you're tempted by fear, don't give into it. When you're tempted by weariness, go and get spiritual refreshments, but keep your eyes wide open to the truth of the Word of God. When you're tempted to stay away from Christian fellowship, get back as soon as you can.

Get back immediately because that is how Satan tries to get you away. And once he gets you away, like getting a log out of a fire, it's going to be surely die down. Keep your gates tightly shut. Keep your eyes wide open. Thirdly, keep your mind firmly anchored, verses 24 to 29. You know, beloved, there are so many believers in Jesus who think the Christian life can go on an autopilot.

You know, my pilot friends tell me all about that. Well, you know, I signed the decision card, I walked down the aisle, I made my profession of faith back yonder, and I've done this and I've done this, and then the rest of my Christian life is just on autopilot. It's okay for the 747 to go on autopilot, but it's not okay for you, it's not okay for me.

Or think about it like a plant that constantly needs nurturing, that constantly needs watering, that constantly needs sunlight. And your spiritual walk to stay and not to lose life at its best, you have to daily, daily, daily, daily feed upon the Word of God. Six times in six verses, John says: remain, continue, abide.

They're all the same word in Greek and he just keeps repeating it and keeps repeating it, and the translators into English kind of give you different words. It's the same thing. Hang on there every day. Stay. Look at verse 28, "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 want to live life at its best, always ask yourself the question: what if Jesus showed up at my house? What if Jesus showed up at my office? What if Jesus shows up in the time in my private thoughts? What if Jesus shows up? Will I be ashamed or is it, "Lord, the confidence I have is in the confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit that has been empowering me to please you"?

That's what John is saying here. Ask yourself the question: would you be embarrassed? Would you say there's some things I should have done, I'm sorry? Or would it be confidence? Because daily I'm keeping short accounts, daily I'm walking, daily I'm cleansing, daily I am renewed. Confidence or shame? That's the two choices you have and I have.

And the secrets for either is whether you are abiding in Christ, trusting him, obeying him, or your life is on autopilot and living away from his Word. You say, "How do I know that I'm abiding in Christ? How do I know, so that I don't lose the joy, so that I don't lose that peace, so that I don't lose that contentment, the real happiness that comes from abiding in him?"

Well, you know Jesus said in John chapter 15 verse five, he said, "If you stick to me just like a branch sticks to a vine, you will bear much fruit." That's when you know that you are abiding. And so the question that you need to ask yourself is this: am I fruit-bearing believer or am I drying up on the vine?

Am I productive or destructive? Am I producing or consuming? Am I dynamic or deadly? Am I a blessing or coasting? Am I giving or taking? Am I enriching or impoverishing? Am I increasing or decreasing? And then ask yourself the question: am I on the road that is leading me and taking me to life at its best?

Whatever the source of your conflictedness, whatever the cause of your conflictedness, I can tell you on the authority of the Word of God, and I can tell you as a first-hand witness, as a personal testimony, you can overcome. You can overcome because God wants you to be an overcomer. He does not want you to be defeated.

He does not want you to live conflicted life. He does not want you to live in misery. He wants you to live in joy and bringing glory to his name. Because if you're going to continue in this condition of conflictedness, you could become spiritually fried and you're not even aware of it.

Ask yourself, do I have a divided allegiance to Christ? Do I have a divided heart? Do I have divided loyalty? And if the answer is yes, that's okay because listen to me, honesty honors God. You can tell God anything because he already knows anyway. The opposite is true: hiding it from him is dishonoring to him.

So that's okay. Say, "Yes, I'm conflicted, Lord, and why? And here's why. And today I'm calling upon your power to cleanse me, to empower me, so that I'll be able to keep those gates tightly shut, that I will keep my eyes wide open, that I may keep my mind firmly anchored in you."

Guest (Male): Dr. Michael Youssef passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth on Leading the Way. Connect further by subscribing to Dr. Youssef's free monthly My Journal when you call 866-626-4356 or visit ltw.org. Have you checked out Dr. Youssef's groundbreaking new digital assistant called My Faith Assistant?

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My Faith Assistant is guiding thousands to the truth of God's Word for answers to faith and life questions. Look for it at ltw.org. Well, the invitation is open for you to join Dr. Michael Youssef right here next time when he passionately proclaims uncompromising truth, sharing another message in his series "Life at Its Best" on Leading the Way.

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