You know, there's a word that seemed to be on the increase in the use of our vocabulary

these days and probably hear it more now than I've ever heard it in the past.

It's that word of conflicted.

That's a word that really, I would say, even 20 years ago, was not a word that is so common.

And of course, social scientists are very anxious to immediately

give you an explanation and said, 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. Conflictiveness has always been part of the human heart to a different

degrees. Ever since Adam and Eve went their own way and went against the Word of God

and disobeyed the Word of the Lord, they become not only conflicted,

but they pass this condition of conflictedness to all of us and to all of humanity.

What is the condition of being conflicted and how you overcome it?

Well, 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. You sure can lose 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

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