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The enemy tries to distract us from living a life for God by focusing on worldly things and following worldly systems. The authentic identity we have in Christ is not based on our experiences or the life we have carved out for ourselves, but on who God has created us to be. The enemy, who is the God of this world, tries to blind us from the truth of the gospel and tempt us with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Pursuing physical pleasure and worldly desires only leads to hurt and takes away from true life. enemy will deceive us into putting our focus on all of these other things in this world and following the systems of this world and doing things the way the world says to do it and following this actor and following this singer and doing what they say and listening to the politicians and listening to the virtue signaling and listening to all this stuff and saying this is how I got to live my life and every last bit of it is a distraction from the real life that God has called us to live. Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama with Pastor John DiQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message and welcome to Elevate. Now we've been talking a lot in this church over the last several weeks about authentic identity. Everybody say it with me. Authentic identity. You know we're all living our lives and we're all we all have different childhoods whether those were good childhoods or bad childhoods. We've all had different experiences. We've made different decisions. We have different career paths. Some of you are on top of the world right now. Some of you are struggling right now, but we have different goals and we have different dreams and we have different hopes and we have different plans for our lives. And the person that we are is often shaped by the sum total of all of these variables in our lives. That's the life we live or we did live before Christ. But the Bible tells us this in 2nd Corinthians 517. He says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone. The old is gone and the new is here. When we come into a relationship with Jesus, the Bible says that we become a new creation, a new person. If we truly are following Christ and we embrace the word of God and live according to it, he begins to do something in us. He begins to transform our lives from who we were to whom God has created us to be. And that's the authentic you. The real you is the one that God created for you to be. Nothing necessarily the life that you have carved out for yourself. That's the false identity, but the authentic identity, your authentic identity is not the sum of your experiences and the life that you've been handed. It's the blueprint. It's the blueprint for your life that God planned out before the foundations of the world were ever laid. It's the reason he made you. It's the purpose for your life. And he transforms you from the inside out in order to live that life. That is your authentic identity, and it can only be found in Christ. And that's what we're all about here at Authentic Life Church. We are a church that exists to build a community of fully devoted, authentic followers of Jesus Christ, people that are walking in their authentic identity. But know this. There's an enemy of our soul out there, there is an enemy of our soul, the devil or Satan or Lucifer or whatever you want to call him, but he will do anything he can to subvert God's authentic identity for us and get us chasing all kinds of other things that we think is life. And that's what I want to really get into today. And hopefully we will see the lies of the enemy for what they are and choose to walk authentically with Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to 1 John chapter two, and we're going to begin in verse 15. And it says this. 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. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this word, Lord Jesus. I thank you for your, for this, this scripture, Lord, that gives us a very clear understanding of what it is that we ought to be living for. And I pray, God, that as these next few minutes, as the word of God goes forth, I pray, Lord, that you would take my words, God, not because I'm a good speaker or because I, I've gone, I've got anything clever written in my notes, God, but because you're the king of kings, God, and you want to change hearts and lives. And I pray that the anointing of God would change hearts and lives today through the word of God. In the name of Jesus, the scripture that we just read starts with a very clear command. Do not love the world or anything in the world. That's what he said. Do not love the world. I know that you say, well, that's your job. Aren't we supposed to love people? You know, God still loved the world. Shouldn't we also love the world? Well, this word world, this is a Greek word cosmos, and it can mean several different things. And it can talk about creation. When he talks about the world, that word can mean the entirety of all of creation, but also the word cosmos can mean people, right? When, when, when he says for God, so love the world, he's talking about people, right? He didn't, he, God didn't send his son to, to, to die for the plants and the animals, right? He sent his son to die for people, for humanity. We are in this, in that sense, the world, but it also refers to, and that's what this scripture, this is the meaning of this Greek word in this scripture, cosmos, meaning the world's systems, the world's systems and the world's systems are telling us that, well, what the scripture is telling us is, is not that we shouldn't love people when he says, don't love the world. Not that we shouldn't love people. He's saying, don't fall in love with the world's teachings. Don't fall in love with the world's systems. Don't fall in love with the way that the world does things, ways, these things that lie to us about what it truly means to live in authentic identity in Christ Jesus. So if we look at the, at verse 16 in first John, we just read, he says for everything in the world. And he explains what that is. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the odds and the pride of life. And we'll come back to that, but he says for everything in the world comes not from the father, but from the world. Now let's see where these things come from, right? For everything in the world comes not from the father, but from the world, everything, it comes from the world, but it's more than just the world, right? There is a God of this world. We talked about it a minute ago, right? The enemy of our souls. Look at what it says in second Corinthians chapter four, verse four, Satan, who is the God of this world. Realize that Satan has been given free reign over this world in this season that we're in and we can see what's happening. We can see what's happening in the world all around us, right? It's a little bit terrifying when you put on the news. Sometimes if your faith is not in Christ Jesus, if your hope is not for a future of eternity and glory with him, it can be a little bit scary to watch the news and to see what is happening all around our world. Satan, who is the God of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe they are unable to see the glorious light of the good news or the gospel, right? They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. You see this, the God of this world has blinded the eyes of people in the world so they cannot see the truth of the gospel of Christ so that people can't see the truth of what it means to live a life in Christ, truly being who he's called you to be living your real life, living your authentic identity. And so if we go back to our original scripture, we see that the God of this world has given us three things that distract us from living authentically in Jesus. Let's just read it one more time. Verse sixteen for everything in the world, everything that comes from the God of this world, right? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes not from the father, but from the world or from the God of this world. The one that's running things down here, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Let's talk about these three things. Let's discuss what they are and understand that these three things that the enemy throws at us, that the God of this world throws at us are distractions from truly walking in who God has called us to be. So we'll start with the lust of the flesh. This is the idea that feeding your physical desires will bring you life. Things like food and drink and sex and drugs or anything else that makes you feel good. The world says that if you just pursue what will bring you physical pleasure, then you will really experience life and you will be happy. There's a problem with that way of thinking, and most of you in this room have some sort of testimony as to what I'm about to say, but pursuing physical pleasure, the things that just make me feel good, whether it's sex or it's or it's the high from drugs or alcohol or the food that you eat, if that's the pleasure that you're seeking, it usually lands you in a world of hurts. And I'm not going to say usually, I'm going to say it always lands you in a world of hurts. It's not worth living for, right? Eat all you can drink, all you can smoke, all you can shoot up all you can be with as many women or as many men as you can. Right? That does not lead anywhere. Good. Nobody ever praised the positive effects of sleeping around getting high every day, overeating. It all feels good. And that's the hook. The pleasure of it is the hook, but it takes life away from you rather than giving life to you. And you don't have to be a Christian to believe that, right? There wouldn't be drug and alcohol rehab, rehabilitation centers all over the world, all over the world. If this can give you life, it takes life from you. We've all seen the effects who live for a person who lives for physical pleasure, right? Disease, addiction, unhealthiness. It's a mess when we live for those things. It is a mess. I'm not saying that we can't enjoy things in life. I'd like to eat a good steak. I just don't live for steak. Now I'm borderline about pizza and I'm really asking the Lord to help me in that area. But it's just what happens when your last name is the quattro. You just enjoy. Thanks, dad. But when we live for these things, it becomes a distraction from who God truly has called us to be. The second that the lust of the flesh, the second thing is the lust of the eyes and another tactic of the enemy to get you distracted from the gospel and from your authentic life in Christ is the lust of the eyes that is believing that feeding your visible desires will bring life. Now, how is that different than what we just talked about? Well, here we are. Typically in America, we like to we like to to measure our success by the things that we have our possessions, right? We need to have the finer things in life. We all deserve them. We've worked hard. We deserve to have these things. So we need a better car and a bigger house and we need the next generation of iPhone. We need those Air Jordans or those Air Force ones. We've got to have the hundred fifty dollar jeans. We've got to have a coach purse or a Michael Coors purse, right? Got to get them nails done. Got to get the toes done. I know I'm meddling right now. I understand that. That's why we can't get away from commercials, guys. If y'all stop buying stuff, there won't be so many commercials on TV and preaching good now. Got to have that. Got to have that fine living. You got to look good. The problem is not that we shouldn't have nice things. I have nice things, right? You have nice things. The issue is when our pursuit in life is the thing, right? I like that. I live in a nice house. My wife and I look at each other all the time and go, I really love our house. We have. We think it's a nice house. You might not think it's a nice house. We think it's a nice house, right? It's good. It's OK to have nice things, but the idea that my life will be better if I just get this or if I just buy that. Now, come on, husbands and wives, you know, you've gone to your spouse and said, listen, the one thing that I've I've been looking for and I really, really need it. I found it. I did a lot of research. It's on Amazon. Yeah, you didn't do a lot of research, but life then becomes this rat race of how much that we can accumulate and we hope that it'll make us feel better and it'll give us life. And it does for five minutes. And then we get stuck with the bill. Or we get bored with it and we need something else. Or we just found out the thing was actually junk and is useless. Or we see what somebody else has and we decide I need that too. Am I right? It's a distraction. It is a distraction from the authentic life that God has called you to. Let me tell you, the more that you accumulate, the more that you buy, the more debt that you get into, the more hours you have to work, the more stress that you have in your life in order to pay for those things, right? The more you're focused, it becomes about having and not being. It's a distraction and it's from the God of this world. The lust of the flesh feeding our physical desires, the lust of the eyes feeding our visual desires, we see we have to have. The third one is the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. The last thing that John says that the enemy will use to distract you from your authentic life in Christ is believing that feeding your prideful desires will bring you life. You know, it's human nature to, to pursue and seek prestige and power and fame, things that will make us feel good about ourselves and about who we are or make others see us in a certain light. We don't realize that we do this, but so much in life, we're always doing this. We're trying to gain the upper hand, even if it's just to say, Oh, look what that person's doing, right? If we could tear somebody else down, that automatically lifts us up a notch, right? We're pursuing that. We love to exalt ourselves and we feel that when we achieve a certain level of respect or prestige or power or street cred or reputation, then that is what I need to have a full, fulfilled, abundant life. And it's not true. It's like chasing a phantom. Can I tell you that going after prestige and power and fame and, and, and respect and, and reputation and credit and street credit like that, that is like chasing a phantom. You can reach out, get real close and try to grab it, but you'll never actually be able to grab it because it's not real. It's an illusion, but it certainly keeps us running that race. Doesn't it? It guides our decisions and motivates our life so that we, to be somebody not for ourselves, but so that everybody else can see that we're somebody it's amazing how many people listen to what actors and musicians have to say about life, politics, about morality, as if they're more qualified than anybody else, but because they're famous, because they're well-respected, we exalt their opinion. And that's what we see all the time. Everyone listens to these people that are well-respected and famous and have a lot of money. So we want to be more and more like that. When I tell you something with Taylor Swift or Kanye West or Ariana Grande or Ryan Reynolds or Robert Downey Jr. Whatever they have to say is meaningless. They do not hold the keys to life. Listen, just because they got a good role and got rich from playing in the Avengers movies does not make them an expert on life. It does not make them an expert on morality or on politics. It just makes them a good actor. Listen, worldly fame, power, prestige, reputation means nothing. It does not guarantee happiness or a fulfilled life. It is said about Jesus that he was a man of little reputation. None of these things fit the bill. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, none of these things fit the bill. Now one of the most famous and wealthiest people that ever have lived in the history of the world is King Solomon. And he wrote a book in the Bible called Ecclesiastes. And I want you to see what King Solomon says about the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. Because this dude had everything. There was nothing in this world that Solomon, that could be gained that Solomon didn't have. And look at what he says. We're going to read here a little, a little bit of a lengthy passage, but this is incredibly interesting, important and eye opening. Ecclesiastes chapter two, beginning in verse one. I said to myself, this is King Solomon talking. I said to myself, come on, let's try pleasure. Let's look for the good things in life. But I found that this too was meaningless. So I said, laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure? So after much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world. I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and planning beautiful vineyards. I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. I bought slaves, both men and women and others were born into my household. I also owned large herds and flocks more than any of the kings who had ever lived in Jerusalem before me. I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers in that hiring people to sing, follow you around the Mariachi band following you around. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many beautiful concubines. In fact, he had seven hundred women. Turn to your spouse right now and say one is enough. I had everything a man could desire, so I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all meaningless, like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere. Those guys, King Solomon, had money. He had houses, he had women, and he had a bunch of excessive things that nobody ever needs. Meaningless. That's what he said about all of it. That was the end result. After living the most... What's the word I'm looking for? Extravagant, lavish, and everybody looked to him and wanted it. Living that kind of a life, the most envious life. That's the word I was looking for. Living the most envious life, and that's what he came down to. It was meaningless. And our enemy will deceive us into putting our focus on all of these other things in this world and following the systems of this world and doing things the way the world says to do it and following this actor and following this singer and doing what they say and listening to the politicians and listening to the virtue signaling and listening to all this stuff and saying, this is how I got to live my life. And every last bit of it is a distraction from the real life that God has called us to live. It's chasing a false self. It's a fake existence. But look at Solomon's conclusion at the end of Ecclesiastes. He writes 12 chapters about this, about trying to get everything he can, and it's all meaningless. And he says this at the end in chapter 12, beginning in verse 13. He says, that's the whole story here now is my final conclusion. Fear God and obey his commands for this is everyone's duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad. This is the wealthiest person to ever have lived. And his conclusion is get on board with God's agenda, not your own. And the story. Look at what John says in first John. Well, we read this, but in verse 17, right? He says this, the world and its desires pass away. But whoever does the will of God lives forever. The world and its desires pass away. Listen, all of this is going to burn. And if it doesn't burn, it's going to crumble and fade all the money, all the cars and the houses, the iPhones, the TVs and the laptops. Let me listen. Some of you that are a little older in this room, maybe you bought your first new car when you were twenty five years old, right? Felt like top of the world, king or queen of the world, right? You bought that car. Where is it now? When you die, it won't even take the world very long to forget that you ever lived. I'm just being real. Your accomplishments, ancient history, all your toys will be broken. Your house will be sold and you will stand before God with none of that stuff. You're going to, that's it. You're to stand before God, not with a sack full of money. You're not going to have a briefcase full of money when you stand before God. You're just not. You're not even going to stand before God with your spouse. You're going to be there by yourself, naked with nothing. So then what was it all worth? You won't be able to show God your money or your success or your achievements. He's going to ask you one thing. What did you do? Did you do what I placed you on this earth to do? Did you live your authentic life? The real life that I created for you? Did you accept my plan of salvation through my son, Jesus Christ, and live in the fullness of the entire reason that I placed you on this earth? Did you do that? So here's what matters. See, we live in a, in a fallen, in a sinful, selfish world, and we'll never measure up to God's standard of perfection. Never. It doesn't matter. Billy Graham didn't live up to God's standard of perfection. And therefore our default destiny from the moment that we are born is judgment for all of eternity. That's just it. Like God doesn't send anybody to hell. That was your default destination when you got here, but God sent his son, Jesus to the earth. Jesus lived a perfect life. Jesus taught the true heart of God. Jesus taught us how to live. And then he took the weight of all of our sins on his back and he died on a cross. Three days later, after being in a tomb, he rose from the dead and conquered death along with all of our sins. And today, if we place our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, we can be assured that even though we don't meet God's perfect standard by ourselves, we know that Jesus has met it for us. That's the good news. That's the gospel. I don't measure up, but Jesus does. And I get to place my faith in him. And by virtue of that relationship, I stand righteous before God so that when all my stuff burns up and it's all left here on the earth and I'm naked before God by myself with nothing, he says, well done, good and faithful servant, because of what Jesus did. Now, instead of getting hung up on earthly things, things that will pass away, things that will cease to exist, things that have no bearing on eternity, money, pleasure, power, prestige. Now, none of those things are bad in and of themselves, but instead of placing our faith and focus in all of the world systems and all of the world things here, we put it squarely on Jesus Christ, his word, his plan, his purposes for us. Then and only then can we truly live our authentic identity. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We hope this message encouraged, inspired, and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website, AuthenticLife.tv, for more information about Authentic Life Church, to find out what we have going on, or to make a donation. You can also find us on Facebook. We'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs, so bring the family. For Pastor John DeQuatro, I'm Scott Chestnut. Thanks again for listening, and God bless you.
