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Confidence is Crucial · Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st

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Good morning church family, If you have your copy of God's
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word, go and make your way to 1st John chapter 5.
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First John chapter 5, verses 13 through 21 will be our text this
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morning as we finish our series from First John on the vitals of
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our faith. I can't believe that our time
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has passed so quick in this New Testament letter.
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I don't know about you, but it's been a blessing to me.
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First John just comes plain and simple and straight at the truth
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and praise God for his Word and how it guides us and feeds us
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and instructs us and changes us. So I hope that maybe you took
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that challenge early on to just spend time in First John
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yourself. And if you haven't, it's not too
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late to do that, to just let the word of God dwell in you and let
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it work God's will in your life. Big thanks to Stephen James, our
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associate pastor, who filled in for me last week as my family
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and I were out of town for a little bit and Mystery Church.
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It's so good to be back, but thankful for him.
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And, and praise God for our kids leading us in worship today,
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right? The joy of the Lord on their
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faces, seeing them experience the truth of Jesus and worship
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him. What a joy that is and thankful
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to the leaders that made that possible this morning.
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Y'all, I think you would agree with this statement that life
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requires some confidence to live life.
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At some point it takes acquiring a little bit of confidence.
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Some of my most vivid memories are moments, especially when I
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was younger, growing up and maturing, when I walk through
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experiences where I was lacking confidence.
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Maybe some of your most vivid memories involved the same
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scenario. I remember my first day of high
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school after moving from Americus, GA where I had done 1
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semester of 9th grade and been in a small private school, to my
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second semester of 9th grade in a county public school in
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Columbus, Ms. I was lacking some confidence on that day.
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I remember I came home, told my mom after all the emotions of
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that day and the nervousness of that day that I didn't know
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where to laugh or to cry. It was all sorts of experiences
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all in one. That first day, a day I was
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lacking in some confidence. I remember the first time I
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attempted to speak in public. It was just an opportunity to
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really informally share among the youth group things God was
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doing in our lives. I remember being a junior high.
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I remember feeling prompted by God to share what was on my
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heart and all I could choke out with some tears and I started
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crying. It didn't even be able to say
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what I wanted to say a moment. I was lacking some confidence.
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I remember my first date. Now Lauren was in the first
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service and heard this, but it wasn't with her.
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So anyway, I gave her a little preface about that.
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Praise God, God worked all that out.
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But I remember my first date, by the way, my parents were in the
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back of the movie theater. Hint to parents, right?
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I was under parental surveillance, right?
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But I remember lacking some confidence in this moment, and I
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really wanted to put my arm around my date, you know, in the
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back of the chair at least, right?
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But I lacked the confidence to just make the move while she sat
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there. So eventually she got up, went
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to the restroom before the movie started her to get popcorn or
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something. Or I think I'd already bought
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that, hopefully. Anyway, I saw my moment to make
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my move, so I moved my arm around the back of her chair.
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When she came back, of course, I was already in position.
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So that was the move that I made, lacking some confidence.
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All right, I remember that my first Friday night high school
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football game. I remember the sound of the
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crowd when I was still in the locker room.
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I remember the sound of the cheers, the lights and noise and
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the knots in my stomach right before running out on the field.
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I remember my first interview. Do you remember the knots and
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the butterflies in your stomach the first time you sat across
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from a group of people to answer their questions?
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I mean, all these experiences when I was lacking some
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confidence, but all that's part of growing up, right?
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It's part of the maturing process of part of going from
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childhood to adulthood is growing in that confidence that
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life requires. But the deal is, as you all
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know, it's not just physical life that requires confidence.
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More importantly, it is the Christian life.
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And John has written this entire letter to give us confidence as
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Christians. In fact, the one thing that I
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want you to get from this last portion of first John is simply
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this. Before we read the text
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Christian, your confidence is crucial.
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Your confidence as a Christian is absolutely crucial.
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I want you to listen to the word of God first.
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John 5 verses 13 through 21. John writes.
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I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son
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of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
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And this is the here it is confidence that we have toward
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him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears
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us. And if we know that He hears us
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and whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we
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have asked of him. If anyone sees his brother
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committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God
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will give him life to those who commit sins that do not lead to
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death. There is sin that leads to
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death. I do not say that one should
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pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there
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is sin that does not lead to death.
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We know that everyone who's been born of God does not keep on
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sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil 1
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does not touch him. We know that we are from God,
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and the whole world lies in the power of the evil 1 And we know
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that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so
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that we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is
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true in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God in eternal
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life. Little children, keep yourselves
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from idols. John has written this entire
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letter for the sake of our confidence as Christians.
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We've referred to verse 13 over and over again because it's the
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essence of the purpose and motivation of the letter.
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I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son
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of God. John is writing to people who
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have proclaimed that they have chosen to follow Jesus as Lord.
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He's choosing to write to believers that what reason why
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that you may know that you may have 100 percent assurance that
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you may have confidence, right? That you have eternal life.
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John knows if we're going to successfully live the Christian
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life, we've got to know who we are and what we believe and whom
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we've believed in. What does it mean to believe in
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the name of the Son of God? Because this is the essence of
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what it means to be a Christian and you might be in the room,
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you might be watching online and you might want to know what is
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the essence of being a Christian.
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It is one who believes in the name of the Son of God, Jesus
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Christ. What does that mean?
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To have believed on Jesus and to continue to believe means
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there's been a moment you chose to believe in Jesus for
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salvation from your sin. You realized your sin, which is
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wrongdoing. Any wrong done against God and
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thought and action and word, or indeed it's anything that breaks
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God's law. It's anything that's short of
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God's perfection in his righteousness.
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And we all have sinned, the Bible says, and fallen short of
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the glory of God. The moment you realize that you
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have an uh oh moment, a Eureka moment where it's like, OK, this
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is a problem. This is the problem.
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Because if God's perfect and I'm not, then that's incompatible.
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The Bible says it's incompatible for eternity with him.
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It's incompatible with a relationship with him.
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God and sin don't cohabitate. So what has to happen is God
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could only do something ultimately about this.
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You've realized your sin, but then you realize God must punish
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sin. And then if all that there is
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this punishment and wrath for sin, you're going to pay for
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that sin. But this is when you realize
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God, who is holy, is also a God of love and justice and mercy,
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who had a plan to send his one and only Son to take on human
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flesh to live a sinless life. How?
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So? He could pay for sin on the
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cross and then defeat the wages of sin, death itself by rising
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from the dead. So we could live a sinless life
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for you. Die for your sin, defeat death
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itself by rising from the dead to offer you forgiveness of sin
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and life forever. So God could do something about
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your sin. When you realize that, and you
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choose by faith to trust Jesus, the one and only solution, you
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believe on the name of the Son of God.
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You give your life to him as Lord and Master.
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Have you done that? If you haven't, then the one and
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only, the one and only real decision, real action for you
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this morning is to choose to believe on Jesus as your Savior,
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to call on him even now in your heart of hearts, in your soul,
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and say, Lord Jesus, would you forgive me of my sin?
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I want to trust you as my Lord. I'm giving my life to you.
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That's who's believed on the name of the Son of God.
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For those who've made that decision who have believed, John
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wants to tell us about the confidence we ought to have and
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that we ought to live in as Christians.
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And So what is that confidence? Well, let's ask it first like
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this. What difference does our
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confidence as Christians make? What difference does our
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confidence as Christians make? This is verses 14 through 17.
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There's three actually. 2 to begin with differences.
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John says it makes #1 our confidence causes us to rightly
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relate to God. Our confidence causes us to
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rightly relate to God. Listen to verse 14 again.
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It says, and this is the confidence we have toward him,
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that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears
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us. And if we know that He hears us
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in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have
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asked of him. John says the very first
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difference that our confidence should make is that we have in
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God and whom we believe is that our confidence in whom we
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believe and that we've been saved is going to impact the way
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we relate to God in prayer. You may think, well that's kind
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of random to just relate our confidence to God and how we
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pray until you realize, well, what is the most basic element
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of a relationship? Your communication, what's at
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the core of any friendship, your dialogue in exchange, what is
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prayer? At its heart, it's simply
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communicating with God. It's your, it's your fellowship,
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it's your conversation, it's your, it's your communion with
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God. This is what prayers and the
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very first thing your confidence in God and in your salvation is
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going to make is in the way you relate to God in prayer.
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And of course, prayer involves our request.
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John is talking here about how it's going to impact the way we
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ask God for things, about things we request from God right now.
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Before we get into that, we need to understand a little about
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what prayer is and what prayer is not.
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Because prayer certainly involves our request.
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Hallelujah, God says to bring your request to Him.
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God wants and longs to hear our request.
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He knows them before we can voice them.
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We ought to bring them to Him, right?
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And yet we ought to understand that prayer, right is not an app
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to ask God for what we want. Prayer is not necessarily,
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bottom line, a genie. God is not a genie in a bottle
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saying Your wish is my command. That's not necessarily what
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prayer is, right? You don't go to God in prayer
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the way you go to Ingalls or Kroger or Walmart or wherever
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you do your grocery shopping and expect when you check out out
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the end to be asked by God. At the end of your prayer, did
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you find everything you were looking for?
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OK, that's not the way prayer works, right?
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Prayer is not a divine credit card to swipe whenever your
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heart desires something. Now, that doesn't mean we can't
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bring our request before God. We certainly can't.
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But that's not most fundamentally what prayer is
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that To understand prayer is to understand this.
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Prayer is not first and foremost a app to get what we want from
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God. Prayer is God's app for God to
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give us what He wants for us in prayer.
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The way to think about that is that God knows what we need and
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want more than and better than we know what we should need and
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want. And so ultimately, our prayer
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life should sound more or not so like God.
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Here's my list for today. Would you do this, this, this,
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this, and this? Thanks.
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We'll talk to you later. Prayer should be more like God.
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I'm coming today to offer my life again as a living
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sacrifice. God, I want to thank you for
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saving me, and I'm offering my life back to you.
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And thanks today for your glory. God, I want to pray today about
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some things on my heart, but I'm praying not my will, but thy
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will be done. And so God, I am desiring this.
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If this is your will, would you provide this God?
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I, I think I really need this would if it's your will, would
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you provide that God? I'm asking that a situation
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change. I really want it to change God.
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If it's your will to change XY or Z God, would you?
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If it be your will, would you change XY or Z?
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Prayer is a it is a means by which God provides us our
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request, but the key is praying in accordance with his will.
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Now you're like, well, how? How do I know if I'm praying
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according to God's will? That's a great question because
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John says you ought to have the assurance when you pray
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according to God's will. Guess what?
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You can mark it down as said, done and delivered when you pray
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according to God's will. So how do you pray according to
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God's will? Well, the first and foremost
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thing to do is to soak yourself in Scripture.
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If your mind and heart is not saturated in the Word of God,
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you're not going to pray according to the will of God,
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because guess what? The Word of God is the will of
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God spoken, written there for us to have, there for us to read
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and study and understand and be guided by.
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So the word of God guides us in the will of God.
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If before you pray you don't spend some time listening to God
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through his word, you ought to, if you don't pray the Word of
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God back to God, you ought to pray the word of God saying,
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God, these things I just read, may they be true in my life.
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God, what you just said is true about you, and I praise you
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about it. God, what you said ought to be
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true about me. I want to pray that it's true
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about me. You can be sure when you're
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praying the word of God, you're praying according to the will of
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God. But a second thing would be is
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that prayer in your life cannot be just an emergency 911 call.
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It's got to be a daily habit, a daily habit, because when it
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becomes a daily habit, guess what?
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You're used to talking to God, you know His voice, and you're
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sensitive to the Holy Spirit's guidance as you pray.
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If prayer, if all prayer is it, it's an emergency call to talk
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to somebody you don't really know and don't talk to you very
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much. Conversation is pretty awkward
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But when it gets real familiar and intimate because you know
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Him and He knows you because you talk daily.
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Holy Spirit has the slightest ability just like that little
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nudge impression here lead there to lead you in praying the will
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of God versus what's not the will of God.
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Y'all? What difference does our
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confidence as Christians make #1 It'll change the way you relate
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to God in prayer #2 Our confidence causes us to relate
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rightly to one another. Listen to verse 16 again.
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If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to
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death, he shall ask. God will give him life to those
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who commit sins that do not lead to death.
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There is sin that leads to death.
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I do not say that one should pray for that.
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All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to
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death. I don't know about you, but you
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might be thinking, what in the world is John talking about?
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Right? Well, bottom line here John is
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saying and speaking to the difference our confidence as
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Christians should make when we experience or see or witness one
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another sin. By the way, this is a moment
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when maturity is needed. And by the way, we all are going
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to witness one another sin if we're around each other enough.
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Amen. OK, Sin still happens in the
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lives of believers. We'll talk about that more as we
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go. Some people, I was talking to a
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man this past week who's not in church, and his first excuse was
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the sin that he says he see, sees or has seen in the lives of
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believers. And you, you bet sometimes sin
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in the lives of believers can ruin someone's witness and turn
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people off. And that ought not be the case.
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But we as Christians are not in church because we're claiming to
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be sinless. We're in church because we know
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we've sinned and we know the one who is sinless and we're seeking
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to walk after him by the power of the Holy Spirit, right?
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So we're going to see, we're going to witness one another
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sin. How do we rightly respond to one
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another? Well, notice here it says if
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anyone sees his brother committing a sin, not if anyone
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hears about his brother committing a sin or hears from
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the neighbor or gets a text or hears A rumor or gets a phone
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call, right? Sees like point blank, 100%
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black and white. I witnessed.
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There's no doubt this just happened.
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Maybe it was even maybe against you or against someone else.
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There's plain and obvious rumors don't count.
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John says when that happens, when you see a brother and
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sister in Christ, it can be one of two types of sin he lists
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here he says #1A sin that doesn't lead to death.
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And he says there's sin that does lead to death.
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So first of all, what in the world is John talking about?
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Sin not leading to death, Sin leading to death?
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Well, let's kind of get into it like this.
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See if we can try to make this clear.
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Death is either physical death or spiritual death.
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All right, let me just be trying to be even more clear.
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We all know what physical death is, right?
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When body stops working and body and soul separate and soul
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enters eternity, OK, that's physical death.
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We're all familiar with that. Then there's also spiritual
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death. Well, spiritual death is not
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physical death. It is the separation not of body
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and soul, but of soul from Creator for forever in eternity.
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So which one does John mean there's a sin leading?
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Is it, is it physical death he means or is it a spiritual death
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he means? If he means physical death, this
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would mean, if this is what he means, that a Christian can sin
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in such a way that God may choose to take that Christian
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out of this world prematurely. By physical death.
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You say, Kyle, that sounds a little extreme.
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Let me just give you some real but very rare scenarios of this
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very thing happening in the New Testament.
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Do you remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira, a couple
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in the New Testament church that under the pretense of selling a
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piece of property, under the impression to the church that
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they were going to give 100% of the profits to the church to use
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for meeting physical needs. But in actuality, what they were
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going to do was to keep back a certain percentage for
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themselves. And what happened?
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You don't really want to say out loud, do you?
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But God took them home. Physical death.
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You remember talks about in First Corinthians Chapter 11
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verse 28 through 30, some of the Christians in Corinth were
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partaking of the Lord's Supper in such a disobedient manner
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that as a result God calls some he said caused some to get sick
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and some to even die. Now I know that maybe throws a
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monkey wrench in like, you know what is that, right?
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These are instances in the New Testament of sin actually
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leading to physical death, right?
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And as one preacher put it, you might call this form, when God
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chooses to use it, God, God's form of this form of God's
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discipline, God's dishonorable discharge.
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In other words, when he from his sovereign, all perfect, all
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knowing perspective, realizes that maybe so and so would do
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more harm on earth than good, it's time to go, brings them
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home. Now you, I'm sure, like me, got
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a lot of questions about that that I don't have the answers
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to. All I know is that it's happened
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in the New Testament and John brings it up here.
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If that's what he means by physical death, what what if he
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means spiritual death? What if he means there's sin
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that leads to spiritual death? And what he would mean by
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spiritual death again, would be eternal separation from God, IE
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no salvation. What?
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What? What would he mean by that?
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Well, if that's what he means, then he's obviously speaking
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about someone who claims to be a Christian on the outside, but
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it's not actually on the inside because guess what?
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He just clarifies for us in verse 18.
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I want you to look back. In fact, I think John
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anticipates this question. Well, John, are you arguing
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someone can lose their salvation?
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Look at what he says in verse 18.
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We know that everyone who's been born of God does not keep on
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sinning. That doesn't mean they never
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sin. Again.
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I'll explain more in a bit. Does not keep on sinning.
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But he who has been born of God protects him and the evil one,
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what does not touch him? John says if one has been born
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of God, you got Jesus protecting you and Satan can't touch you.
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So obviously, if there's a sin that leads to spiritual death,
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it's sin by someone who's never been truly forgiven of their sin
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because they've never really truly trusted Christ for
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forgiveness. And yes, that sin is going to
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lead to their eternal separation from God, which all leads us
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back to what is, what is a sin that doesn't lead to death?
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And how should we respond? How should we rightly relate to
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one another here? Well, this is the sin that we
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all stumble in. This is the sin when we say
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things we shouldn't say. This is the sin when we do
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things we shouldn't do, when we're unkind to our spouse, when
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we're selfish with our neighbors or friends or employees.
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When we lose our self-control and get angry, when we act out
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of the out of and away from the influence of the Holy Spirit, we
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do things that are conceited or prideful or mean or arrogant,
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right? I mean, we all, we all struggle.
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We all, we all fight and get entangled and sin, we stumble.
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We don't want to do it, but but what we still, what, we still do
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it, don't we? That sin nature, we fight.
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There's sin that doesn't lead to death, and yet we still stumble
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into it, John says. When you see a brother or sister
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stumble and sin phone a friend, is that what he says?
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Confront him immediately. Is that what he says?
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Talk to a talk to a mentor? What does he say do?
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How do we rightly relate to one another even when we send?
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John says we we pray for them, we'd love them enough to go to
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God about what we've seen and witnessed before ever talking to
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them, before talking to someone else.
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There's other steps the New Testament gives, but the first
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most foundational way that our confidence in who we are ought
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to have an effect in our lives is that when we see sin or sin
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against is we love that person enough knowing who we are in
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Christ, We go to God about that and pray.
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What if that was our most consistent response when we saw
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or witnessed sent in the lives of believers?
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What changes would that make in a church?
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What changes would that make in a marriage, in a relationship, a
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friendship with Co workers, with neighbors, with friends, church
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members? I can tell you the difference it
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would make because look what God says he'll do.
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God says when we do, he will restore, he'll heal, he'll
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forgive, he'll preserve how much brokenness and shattered
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relationships and tension and the all the effects of sin
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remain in our lives because we don't do the most fundamental,
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basic, most practical thing the Bible tells us to do towards one
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another out of our confidence and who we are in Christ, which
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is to pray for one another when we witness one another sin,
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right? This would this would be a game
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changer. Change how we relate to one
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another. Y'all, our confidence as
25:30
Christians is crucial. It changes the way we relate to
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God. Change the way we relate to one
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another #2 what are let's ask this question.
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What are the truths that we have confidence in?
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What are the truths we have confidence in?
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This is verse 18 through 20, and I'm going to start speeding up
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number one. First truth.
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We know a Christian cannot keep on sinning.
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I told you we returned to this one because John says we know it
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and we know that everyone who's been born of God does not keep
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on sinning. That does not mean we never sin
25:59
again. What that means is, is that when
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someone becomes a Christian, they do not continually, in an
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ongoing, willful, knowing, rebellious, refusing to repent
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kind of way, sin in the face of God and don't try to do anything
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about it. One of the things I love is when
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people get saved, especially later in life, potentially like
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teenagers or adults, and they've lived a number of years not
26:30
following Christ. They got habits and they got
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rhythms and they got patterns and they got practices in their
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lives that are ungodly. And all of a sudden when they
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hear the word of God and they're studying and they're reading it
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and they're hearing it preached and light bulbs are going off
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and they're like, Oh my goodness, I didn't know.
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I didn't know this didn't honor God.
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I didn't know this didn't honor Jesus.
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I didn't know this was disobedience.
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And yet when they discover it, I love the light bulb moment going
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off because it's the desires that God has given them because
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they've been changed. They're like, Oh my goodness, I
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can't keep living like this. I've got to, I've got to do,
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I've got to change. I can't keep in being involved
27:04
in this. I've got to walk away from that.
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I love. Why watching the Holy Spirit
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take someone and do the 180 in their living because of they've
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been born of God. That's what this means doesn't
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mean once they got saved they never sinned again, but it's
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they're actively fighting sin because they know it doesn't
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honor God anywhere When they sin they choose to repent.
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Christian doesn't keep on sinning.
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The second thing, the truth that our we have confidence in as we
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know we belong to God and the world belongs to Satan.
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This is verse 19. Listen to this first again, we
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know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the
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power of the evil. 1 How do we know that we belong to God?
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What Do you remember all the tests that John gave us in the
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first part of this letter that we ought to take and see if we
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pass with positive results. Do you remember the light test?
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God is light and in him there is no do you walk in the light?
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Do you remember the like test, the call to live, walk, to
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literally walk? The metaphor is like Jesus.
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Do you walk like? I'm not saying perfectly, but is
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there any resemblance? Do you walk like Jesus?
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John asked. Do you remember the love test?
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God is love. If God is love, brothers and
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sisters, we ought to love one another.
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Do you love your neighbor? The like test, the like like
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test, the love test. These tests reveal the truth
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that we are not of this world, not because we perfectly passed
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the test, but because there's an obvious difference in our lives
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because of coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
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But then listen to this. We know we're from God.
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And then look at what John says and we also know this truth.
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The whole world lies in the power of the evil. 1 I want you
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to just let that truth sink in for a moment.
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The whole world as I speak right now and until Jesus returns and
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establishes fully and finally his reign and his rule right now
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until Satan is finally defeated, the whole world, the whole world
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lies in the power of the evil one.
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Lots of people want to ask why is our world so full of sin,
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suffering, brokenness and destruction and corruption?
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Ladies and gentlemen, that's the answer.
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It's because the whole world lies in the power of the evil 1
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and the evil 1 is actively working to kill and steal and
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destroy. And the main way he works is
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through deception, blinding the eyes of people so they will not
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choose to see and believe Jesus Christ and believe on the name
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of the Son of God who is light and life.
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One of the reasons that you're still breathing and alive as a
30:09
believer is so that God can use you to rescue those who
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desperately need to hear and see the truth of the light and life
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of Jesus Christ. That's not just the job of a
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pastor. That is the job of every
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Christian for you, living your life, letting Jesus live through
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you in the midst of the darkness, because Jesus as the
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light of the world has entrusted you to shine your light before
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men, to be a light in a Dark World under the power of the
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evil. 1 #3 Truth we know is that Jesus Christ is the one true God
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who has come in the flesh and given us eternal life.
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This is verse 20, and this is the crowning confidence of a
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Christian, that God the Father so love the world that he sent
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his one and only Son, that whosoever would believe in him
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should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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This truth is the truth we've staked our lives on Jesus, who
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is God and who alone offers eternal life.
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By the way, if someone ever asks you how do you know Jesus was
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truly God, all you got to do is point him to this text.
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Listen to what John says here. He is into verse 20.
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He is the true God and eternal life.
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People often want to deny that Jesus was God.
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Jesus was crucified because he claimed to be God.
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And as we've said before, Jesus is either Lord or a liar or a
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lunatic. But those are your only three
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options. He's either who he says he is or
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he's not. Christian.
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Your confidence is crucial. These are the truths our
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confidence in. But one final question #3 is
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this? What is John's warning?
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What is John's warning concerning our confidence?
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It's in verse 21. I want you to read it out loud
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with me. You ready?
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Here we go, little children. Keep yourselves from idols.
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Keep yourselves from idols. What's an idol?
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It's a counterfeit God. It's anything short.
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It's anything that's not the one true living big G creator of all
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things, sustainer of all things God.
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It's anything we put in our lives in the place of God.
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It's anything that's in the way of our worship of God.
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It's anything that that is less than God's revelation of
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himself. It's anything of our
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imagination, or it might be of wood or stone, or it could be a
32:48
person, place or thing, any noun that gets in the way of our
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right and first and foremost, worship of God.
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John's One Warning deals with the fact, as we know well, that
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our hearts are prone to wonder. As the song says, Lord, I feel
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it prone to leave the God I love.
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This has been a temptation for people throughout history,
33:11
right? Even God's people in the Old
33:12
Testament constantly struggled with idolatry.
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Why? Because they lived in a world
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under the power of who? The evil one who's constantly
33:22
seeking to kill, steal, and destroy through deception.
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The number one thing the enemy would want you to do is just
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worship a false God. He knows you were made to
33:29
worship. You're going to worship
33:31
something. You don't have a choice.
33:32
You may disagree with that, but it's just true.
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You'll worship yourself. You'll worship something you'll
33:37
worship. The question is, whom are you
33:39
worshiping? John says you better not worship
33:41
anything, anyone but the one true God.
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And so even in the Old Testament, kings would often
33:47
seek to restore right worship of God.
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But you often read this little phrase.
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But the high places were not removed.
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The cultural landmarks of what the culture said one should
34:01
worship and where one should worship.
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They tried to do right worship, but they kept a little bit of
34:07
what the culture worshiped. It was a thorn in their sign.
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This warning for us here is not a warning.
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I don't think anybody in the room is going to be tempted to
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bow down to wood or stone this afternoon, OK?
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But we have cultural high places that we're tempted to worship at
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sometimes alongside of worshiping the one true God.
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And we say, well, we want to involve and include the worship
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of this or the worship of that. What are some of those things?
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Let me just tell you what some of them are.
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Our culture has high places of worship at certain standards of
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living and financial success. Our culture has high places of
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worship at earthly success at all cost.
34:55
Our culture has high places of worship of our kids and their
34:59
success, especially in sports. Our culture worships at the high
35:05
place of busyness. It worships at the high place of
35:08
social standing and reputation, especially in the modern form of
35:12
influence, likes and followers. Our culture worships at the high
35:18
place of personal self-expression, especially the
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pursuit of happiness or sexual orientation or fulfillment or
35:25
whatever it is one says identifies them or makes them
35:28
happy, even if it cuts straight across the grain of the Word of
35:31
God. These are all places our culture
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worships at, by the way. We can be tempted to worship at
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them too. Part of the problem, if you look
35:45
at the landscape, I think of the American church in general.
35:47
One of our problems in America, I think in general as believers
35:51
is lack of maturity in our faith, lack of knowing what we
35:56
believe, why we believe it, and boldness to stand for it and
36:00
boldness to share it. And an immovable anchored
36:04
concrete in the truth roots down deep so we can produce fruit far
36:08
and wide. And when you're immature in your
36:10
faith, when your surface level right, so often you say, well,
36:13
I'm going to worship God, but I'm going to carry some of these
36:15
high places with me. And no wonder Christians, in
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their immaturity and continuing to worship some false gods in
36:21
their life, continue to experience some misery, some
36:24
lack of fulfillment, lack of joy, because they've just not
36:27
surrendered all to Jesus and they don't have confidence in
36:31
who He is, who they are, and what He's called them to do in
36:33
their lives. And they return to the high
36:37
places seeking what only God can provide.
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Christian, don't give your confidence to a counterfeit.
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Don't give your confidence to a counterfeit.
36:50
Your confidence is crucial. It'll change the way you relate
36:53
to God. It'll change the way we relate
36:55
to one another. It'll change your grounding in
36:57
the truth. And it will prevent you from
36:59
running after fakes because you know the real thing.
37:05
This past week, Lauren and I and the kids and we took a road trip
37:09
that involved pulling our, our camper behind us and somewhere
37:14
north of, yeah, northwest of Muskogee, OK, Had my first
37:19
blowout of two within two hours. Lord and I, we're having certain
37:26
conversations that weren't super pleasant, but I was trying to
37:30
stay full of the Holy Spirit. I was certain that let me get
37:37
back in the light here. I was certain that I was
37:40
probably going to need some help.
37:42
I could tell that the side of the camper, the flap over the
37:45
wheels was half blown off and the metal skirting in the side
37:49
was rippled and insulation had blown out.
37:53
I thought, man, I'm looking at a mess, I'm going to need some
37:55
help. So I called for some help.
37:57
Praise God, I was able to get the tire changed before help
38:00
arrived. But that help I called.
38:02
I met them at the next Love's Travel stop about a mile down
38:04
the road. And there, by God's Providence,
38:09
I met a man by the name of Michael.
38:11
Now, I had prayed before I left on this trip.
38:13
God, if there's anyone I'm supposed to cross paths with,
38:16
anyone I'm supposed to share with, God, help me know in the
38:19
moment. You know, the problem is God
38:21
will do this to you when you're not really feeling it.
38:22
You know what I'm saying? When, yeah, your mind is
38:27
everywhere else. Your heart's everywhere else.
38:30
But I'm thinking I don't believe things happen for no reason.
38:33
So I'm like, OK, God, I'm looking.
38:35
I'm looking. So sure enough, I was looking
38:38
for the air. Finally, I found the air.
38:40
A man named Michael helped me find it.
38:42
And Michael's helping me assess the damage.
38:44
And I'd use some different things and tools.
38:46
I had to try to get the camper back in somewhat aerodynamic
38:49
shape. All right.
38:51
And so Michael has a blessing to me.
38:53
And I said, Michael, man, you've been a blessing to me.
38:55
And at this whole time, this guy was so nice.
38:57
I was like, God, you obviously want me to talk to this guy.
39:00
He worked for loves middle of nowhere maintenance guy.
39:05
And I said, man, you've been a blessing to me.
39:08
How, how could I pray for you? I'd love to be a blessing to
39:11
you. How could I pray for you?
39:14
And he said, man, I'm, I'm a brain cancer survivor, But the
39:19
doctor said it's just a matter of time before it's back and you
39:23
could pray for me about that. I said, Michael, do you, do you
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have a knowledge of Jesus and knowledge of what's going to
39:30
happen when you die? They said, man, I've studied
39:33
theology and you know, really I've got to a place where I'm
39:35
just, I'm doing as much good as I can.
39:40
So here's the deal. Michael was a man is a man that
39:46
is confident he's going to die. By the way, you ought to be too,
39:52
OK? It's coming for me.
39:54
It's coming for you. Brain cancer is just helping
39:57
Michael process it with a little more clarity, OK?
40:02
But Michael was not a man. Is not a man confident of what's
40:06
going to happen when he died. Do you see the difference?
40:12
It's one thing to be confident that you're going to die.
40:15
It's a whole another thing not to be confident about what's
40:18
going to happen when you do. So I looked at Michael and I
40:21
said, man, listen, it's not about what you do.
40:26
You can't help enough people like me on this road to get to
40:29
heaven. There's only one His name is
40:33
Jesus. And when you die, it's going to
40:36
boil down to Michael, whether you've trusted your life to him,
40:40
receive forgiveness from him, and whether or not you're going
40:43
to spend eternity with him because of what he's done, not
40:46
because of what you've done. Michael, do you realize God made
40:51
you to have 100% confidence in what's going to happen when you
40:55
die? I want to ask you, do you have
40:59
100% confidence of what's going to happen when you die?
41:06
And if you don't, and John and Praise team come out in just a
41:08
second, I want you to come talk to me.
41:10
If you don't, God wants you to. Maybe there's things in your
41:17
life like high places that are robbing you of confidence
41:23
because you've been going and looking for things that only God
41:25
can provide in the wrong places. Maybe you got some sin in your
41:30
life you need to walk away from, it's robbing you of confidence.
41:35
Maybe you've never trusted Christ with your whole heart to
41:39
save you from your sin and it's the day to do that today, to
41:42
believe on the name of the Son of God.
41:46
Maybe you seem to come get on your knees or come stand and say
41:48
God, these are my things causing me to lack confidence and I
41:51
don't want to live that way. I want to live the way you
41:54
designed me to live, knowing without a doubt, Father, I want
41:59
to pray that as we respond to you in your word, Father, that
42:03
you would give us the confidence we need.
42:05
God, I want. I want to pray for Michael.
42:09
God, I know that he heard the gospel.
42:12
I don't know what he's done with it.
42:15
Father, I know there's someone here today.
42:16
Perhaps it's just like him that doesn't fully know, but needs to
42:22
that God they crossed paths with the message this morning so they
42:24
could respond by faith. I pray they would God give us
42:27
confidence, help us to walk in it rightly relate to you and to
42:30
one another to know the truth so we believed and not to run after
42:34
fakes. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
42:36
Would you stand with me? We're going to sing and respond.
42:39
You come as the Lord leads. I'm going to wait for you.