Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 5, 2017 | Route 66 - 1 John

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February 5, 2017 | Route 66 - 1 John · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: How are you in the College Avenue building?
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Ha ha, fooled you.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Welcome this morning, whether you're in Mulvaine, College Avenue, online, whatever.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: It's great to have you here today, Topeka Bible Church.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: We're in a series called Route 66, where we go through the Bible and take one book each Sunday, and we're in the last five books.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: 1 John is going to be followed.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: This Sunday is going to be followed by 2 John, 3 John, then Jude, and then Revelation.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm just hoping the Lord comes back before I have to do Revelation.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: So really, are you doing well?
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Wow, and you're lying, you're lying, and it's church.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: You're in church and you're talking to a pastor and you just lied to me.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: So, okay.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, I think the title of 1 John, never heard anybody else say this, so you can discount it.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: It should be Join the Circle.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: And by Join the Circle, I'm sort of thinking of all different kinds of circles.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: I remember, you know, when I got married to Melody, I didn't realize as a total non-dancer that I was marrying a girl who loved to dance.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: And all our children have followed her, not me.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: And uh so, and I've learned that, you know, when the Square Dance caller says uh join the circle, you know, sh I went to the darkest corner of the room and hid out, and she found me.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: And uh so but I learned it wasn't all that bad.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: And um so I'm not gonna get into left alamand and right a la man or do si do, but what happens in uh in in dancing is oftentimes that you join a circle.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, now um, and by the way, guys, if she asks you to dance, just shut up and do it.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't care if you don't dance, so that's the rule.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: But you know, we've been part of circles our whole lives.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when you were in elementary school or when you went to camp, you know, you got around and you held hands and you were in a circle and you played a game, and if if there was a circle and you got left out, you felt bad.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: I mean, remember how good you felt?
2:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh one of the greatest feelings I remember in in when I was in middle school was being told that I had made the basketball team.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a circle, you know, that you're part of, and you're so excited to be part of the circle.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And if you're in the circle, you know, then you're in a special place.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: And at camp, you know, on Friday night or whatever, you sit in a circle around the campfire and you share.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: And some of the people that you still remember from years ago, for some of you, decades ago, have been that circle of friends that you had when you were in third grade or fifth grade or seventh grade.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: This circle of people who you were close to.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: And remember when you were in high school and your dad told you to get a different circle of friends?
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they didn't like your friends, you know, for some of them.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: And they said, you need to find new friends.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: And and maybe you did.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: And and I want to talk to you this morning about friends and about the circle of friends and this remarkable uh book, 1 John, really interesting little book, five chapters, and it's it's actually the easiest book if you're reading it in the original language, which is Greek, it's the easiest book to read in the New Testament.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're if you study Greek your very first year, they'll start diving you into a little bit of 1 John.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: But despite the fact that it's simple words, short words, one-syllable words, really easy stuff, it's really deep concepts, okay?
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Very deep ideas, 1 John is, and and it has a message that no other book in the Bible has quite the same message.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: It's a message about Jesus and friends, and the invitation that is extended to you to join this circle of friends of God and and and his son Jesus and and the apostles.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: It's a remarkable idea.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize that that you could actually walk with God as a companion of his, that you could um you could know Jesus as a friend, that you could actually participate in the circle of friends established by the Trinity and the Apostles.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't say that just, you know, making it up.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: I say that on the basis of the fact that the person who is closest to Jesus on earth, John, passes this on to us in this book.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: This is this is John who who walks with Jesus every single day as his companion, who knew Jesus better than anyone else.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: People who knew them called John the beloved disciple.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: They were that close.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: And it's in this book that John says, Listen, I'd like to invite you into this circle.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Now open this book, whether it's on your cell phone or iPhone watch or Bible or whatever.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you need to look at this.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read the number of verses in this book.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: And um even though it's really hot in here, um, isn't it?
5:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't think that's me.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: I am I have I haven't brought the judgment down yet.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: So but uh but it's really hot.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: So um somebody was playing with the um by the way, let me tell you something one other thing about this book.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Oh thanks, David.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Um so you know, you know how the Gospel John tells you all about faith.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: These are written that you might believe that yeah, he's walking up.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's watching him right now.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: So he's walking up.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: That's David.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: He just adjusted, yeah, and he's adjusting the oh I can feel the fan.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: Can you feel the fan coming on?
5:52
SPEAKER_00: Okay, everybody's smiling.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: I'll look back up here for just a second.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, I'm really envious of the attention being paid to David right now.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Just jealous of this.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: So, uh, and in College Avenue building, you need to have somebody walk up and around to anyway.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: So uh John's about how to trust Christ as you say.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, believing him and have life through his name 98 times, believe, get eternal life, okay?
6:19
SPEAKER_00: So it's all about faith, but but then you get to chapter 13 and you have what's called the upper room discourse or the Last Supper, where Jesus washes their feet, you know, it's just his disciples, and Jesus shares with them these astounding principles of how to live the rest of their lives in communion and fellowship in this circle, okay, that with himself and with and with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Now the beloved disciple turns to us and he says, at the end of his life, he says, Listen, let me share these principles with you, okay?
6:48
SPEAKER_00: So that's 1 John.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: And the book starts this way.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: What was from the beginning, he said, which sounds a lot like his gospel, doesn't it?
6:56
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: So he uses the same word he did in the beginning of his gospel.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: Another reason why I think the same guy wrote him, and he says, What was from the beginning?
7:08
SPEAKER_00: What we have heard, we heard him.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: We were walking around with him.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: We, not just me, not just me and Peter, not just me and Peter and James, but all of the disciples, what we heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed, what we've touched with our hands concerning the word of life.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: That life was revealed, and we've seen it, and now what are we doing?
7:28
SPEAKER_00: We're testifying and declaring to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: And now we're going to tell you about this, he says.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: We want to tell you a ball about this for two reasons.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first one, verse three.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: What we have seen and heard, we declare to you.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Why?
7:45
SPEAKER_00: So that you may have fellowship along with us.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is, okay, okay, scholars call this the apostolic circle.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: John and the other disciples or apostles say, we're sort of in the middle of this baton thing, you know, where we're going to pass something down to you in this book, but it's really not original with us.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: We got it because the Trinity's been doing it for a billion years.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, they've been doing it since before.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: There's been a circle of fellowship and friendship in heaven forever, the Father and the Son and so forth.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: And so our fellowship is with him, and we're going to pass this on to you because we want to invite you into the circle.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know that that's what he means because just two verses later he says, now this is, he's starting the book, now this is the message.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: We have heard, we apostles have heard from him, God the Father, Jesus Christ, so forth, and we declare it to you.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: That's why, you know, that's why on the slide I put, you know, a picture of Topeka Bible Church at the bottom, because this is to you and to me, as well as the people in Asia and Turkey and Bithynia and all those people back then that John was writing to.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: It's to all of us.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: This message, this incredible message about joining the circle, about having fellowship, about walking and talking.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses, and the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses, and he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me, what does he tell me?
9:25
SPEAKER_00: I am his own, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known, except for the other 40 billion people who have who've been walked with Christ and who've walked and talked with him.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: But it feels like it's my own relationship, right?
9:39
SPEAKER_00: Now remember, C.S.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Lewis in his wonderful book, The Four Loves, as he talks about Eros and you know, difference between loves and so forth, when he gets to friendship, points out that friendship is the only one of the four loves which works better the more people are involved.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: You're always inviting more friends in.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he's doing here.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I want you to join us.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Please.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
10:03
SPEAKER_00: Think about this for a second.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what a miracle that you and I, peons, could have fellowship, could have could have the sharing relation.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: That's what koin and fellowship is.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: It's a sharing relation.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: I share myself and my stuff with you, and you share yourself and your stuff with me, right?
10:21
SPEAKER_00: That's that's coin and that's a sharing relationship with God.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe the king of the universe, the God, the creator?
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe he actually wants this with you?
10:32
SPEAKER_00: He's not invited the angels into this, but he's inviting you and me?
10:36
SPEAKER_00: What a miracle! What a and not just a miracle, it's a privilege.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that if you'd been living at 1200 AD and King Arthur had extended an invitation to you to become one of the knights of the round table and to fight alongside him and Sir Lancelot and Sir Percival and Gawain and the others.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, can you imagine what an incredible privilege?
10:57
SPEAKER_00: And now the king of the universe says, listen, this is a battle we're in.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to invite you to join my circle and join with me in this incredible fight against the forces of darkness.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: It's been going on for forever.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: What a privilege to be invited into that.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: And what a joy.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, really, because that, and that's the second purpose he states right now.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: This time we're going to tell you about this, the circle of friends, so that you can have fellowship with us, so that what?
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Our joy may be complete.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, maybe your translation.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: If you got the older King James, I think it says your joy, and it may be.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: It's a close call.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've looked at the manuscripts on this, and I think that some of the modern versions are right, which say so that our joy may be complete.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God and Jesus Christ and the Spirit and the Apostles and Peter and James and John are all going, we would be so much happier the more people, the more Christians who are involved in it.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you're a child of God.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you trusted in Him as your Savior, but we want you into something special, not just a child.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: We want you to be a friend.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: We want you to be a daily buddy with us in fellowship with God and with the rest of us.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: We want you to be part of this circle of friends.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: So this invitation, I mean, wow, what an incredible uh, you know, story this is.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: But then he says, I gotta tell you, you know, this is just not for everybody.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: It's not just something you accidentally enter into.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: You get the invitation, but frankly, there are three requirements.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: As I go through this book, maybe you could find uh another one or two, but the fact of the matter is, I'm gonna give you the three main requirements that I see in the book of 1 John to be part of this circle of friends, to be part of this fellowship circle.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: A couple years ago, uh I um I got an invitation from the president of Christian University to join the board, or at least be interviewed for it.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: And we've had him here a couple times, Chip Pollard, and I'll tell you, is John Brown University, I think a lot of the school.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: So I go down and I get interviewed and I sit in a meeting and so forth.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and then the senior member of the board, board, uh university boards, school boards, seminary boards, they're always about 30 people rather than the mission boards I'm on, which are like 15 or 10.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Or like our board.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are about or are being invited right now to serve on TBC's board.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: It's that time of year.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: So um, so so 30 and the senior member, a very famous person, uh, comes to me after the board meeting.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want to talk with you.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: I say, didn't know you even knew me.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, he says, I know all about, you know, they want some people want you on the board.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: And he said, We'd like you to be the 30th member of the board.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: He says, I need to tell you, there are really three things that are expected of a board member.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: I come tell, I said.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: So he said, Well, one is attendance.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: I said, Okay.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: He said, We two meetings a year, they're very important.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can't just you have to be there unless there's a great reason.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: I said, and said, What's the second?
14:02
SPEAKER_00: He said, a contribution.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: You've been invited on for special reason.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you you have, I mean, we're in the middle of LGBT issues here at the school and so forth, and you have experience and knowledge of that, and you've dealt with that.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna need you to weigh in on that.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: So we need a contribution from you in your area of expertise.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: You have to get involved, you have to help out.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: I said, Okay, what's the third?
14:23
SPEAKER_00: He said, Giving.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: I said, Really?
14:25
SPEAKER_00: He says, Yeah, you know, you can tell a person's heart by whether or not they give.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: It's not enough to be a board member.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: You show whether or not you really care by your giving.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna check your giving, but you need to give generously attendance, contribution, and giving.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: And I thought that was reasonable.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is when you come to 1 John, there happen to be three requirements if you want to be in the circle, the special circle of friends.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: And the first one is rather, in some ways it's the simplest, but in other ways it's the hardest, because it requires something of you that at this point in your life, if you've been a Christian for a while, you may be slip-sliding away from.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: You may be wanting to avoid it.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: And it's an honesty requirement.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: And the next seven verses say basically that to walk with God as your companion, you must be honest about your sin.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 1, 5 through 2, 2.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: In other words, and this is the action step, I'll give you a chance in the final prayer to do this.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Confess all your known sins to God.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason I'll spend a little more time on this than the other two is because this is about the only place in all of the whole Bible that really focuses on it.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a verse about confessing your sin in Proverbs, there's a couple in Psalms.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: There's no place in all of the Bible about sin and its confession and daily Christian life and confession of sin, like this passage here.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: So I want to chat with you about it.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: And also know, because I've been a Christian for a while, how sometimes you hesitate, you stop admitting your sin to God, and you block your participation in the circle of fellowship with God and with others because you're not keeping short accounts with God and you're hiding stuff in the dark.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to talk about that.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: And the first verse establishes the basic principle.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: He says, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a significant statement back then, because the main sort of cult or the main, you know, false teaching of that day, name was the name of the teacher was Cyrinthus, was that God was like the force.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: It was like Star Wars sort of a deal.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: He had a yin and a yang, a black and a white.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: There's a darkness in God and a light in God, and therefore, however you behave, you know, whether or not you're you're into the dark force or the white, I mean, you're you're doing your God thing.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's godness expressed one way or the other.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: It's easy, by the way, it's Eastern religion today, you know, that there's this one thing and it's all it's all mixed together.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's very different about that.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: It's that there's one supreme being and he's all light, and there is a Satan, and he's dark, but he's a created being, he's lower and he has no power, and it's not equal.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
17:15
SPEAKER_00: So that's an important doctrinal point.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: So he's saying God's light, there's no darkness in him at all.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: And then what follows in verses six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, those five verses are five responses to this statement.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: There are five ways that you and I can sort of respond to this truth that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: Three of the responses are bad or negative or wrong, and two are good.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: And you'll be able to tell which are bad and which are good if you're looking at the PowerPoint, because I have a shocked face by the bad ones, and I have a smiley face by the good ones.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: And the first one is not a good response.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: If we should say we have fellowship with him, I'm in the circle, yet we walk in darkness, we're lying, and we're not practicing the truth.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, logically, that makes sense.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: If you say, I'm walking with God, I'm walking with Jesus, but he's over there in the light, of course, he's in the light, he is the light.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: But you're over here in the darkness hiding some sins, then logically you're not telling the truth.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: But that happens, doesn't it?
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, it happens in really significant places.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: It happens even at the highest levels of religion.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: It happens with Sunday school teachers and elders and leaders and pastors, because you find they imply that they're walking with God and so forth, then you find out later that there's some embezzlement going on, and there's some sexual shenanigans going on, and there's something else.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: And all along, you know, they may have said, well, they may have rationalized it, and they may even get up later and say, you know, well, you know, I was walking with God even while I was doing that.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: John says, Balderdash.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: You can't say you're having fellowship with, I don't know that John would say Balder Dash, but yeah, we, you know, so so we're lying and we're not practicing.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: You understand what he's saying.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: It's logical.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, on the positive flip side, he says, but if we walk, if we get over there in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, right?
19:16
SPEAKER_00: We're in the circle.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin, which is an interesting thing to say.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Because it makes it clear that the light is not the light of sinlessness.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: Yes, God is sinless.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: He's in the light, he is the light of sinlessness, but the light turns out to be more of an honesty and a transparency of letting God's light shine on us so that we're completely open and completely honest about ourselves and about our sin.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: And when we're completely open and we're completely honest as we walk during the day, then we walk with Him, have fellowship with Him, and His blood continually cleanses us from our sin.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: And I take it that is what the songwriter of the famous old song, The Light of the World is Jesus, meant, or was thinking of when in the second stanza of that song he wrote, No darkness have we who in Jesus abide.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Abide is the word for Christians, or remain or live.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: The light of the world is Jesus.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: We walk in the light when we follow our guide.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: The light of the world is Jesus.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: So you get the point here that he's saying, this is the first thing he'd say to you and to me, you need to step into the light of honesty with God.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, the third thing, uh third response is again a negative response, a bad response.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: He says, if we should say we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves and the truth's not in us.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: What happens is sometimes if you're if you're fellowshipped up and you're doing really well and you think life is going pretty well spiritually, you know, you can think, you know, I've got it pretty well together.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm on top of it.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm sort of above sin right now.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: And what he says is, uh, oh contraire, you know, you have no idea the depths of darkness that can seep into your heart.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: John Newton put it this way, centuries later.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: He said, although my memory's fading, this comes from the movie Amazing Grace, and it's a paraphrase actually of a couple things John Newton said.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: He says, I remember two things very clearly.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm a great sinner, and Christ is a great savior.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: I think I heard a quiet amen.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say it again because I think that's worth more than one.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: I remember two things very clearly.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Say it, say it with me.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm a great sinner, and Christ is a great savior.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
21:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a guy who understood that even though at this point he wasn't perhaps aware of anything he was doing wrong, he understood.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: The depths of depravity that we live in.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, David understood that when he wrote in Psalm 19, who can discern his errors?
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Forgive my hidden faults.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul said something like that in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 4, somewhere in verse, I think verse 4, I'm not sure, but he said, I am not at this point aware of anything against myself, but that doesn't acquit me.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: God examines me.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm not sure.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: And all the greatest men of God down through the ages, and all the greatest women of God down through the ages have been intensely aware of the fact that even at their best, they are ridden with sin.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, we've got to be very careful lest we ever think that we are above sin or have no sin.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: On the positive side, and here's the most famous verse, he says, if we do confess our sins, if when the Spirit shines on us, if we see what we've done wrong, if we understand what we've done, if we've gotten anger, if we lost our temper, if we said something we shouldn't or thought things we shouldn't, if we see that, if we know that, then the question is, will we admit it, will we confess it?
23:14
SPEAKER_00: And if we do, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: The King James more famously says it this way: if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Why does it then go on to repeat itself and to cleanse us from all?
23:36
SPEAKER_00: I take it the reason it moves on is that in the original it happens to say literally, he's faithful and just to forgive us those sins that we've confessed.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: But there are all kinds of other things we may have done.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: And so by his grace, he says, you know, if you'll just be honest with me about the sins that you know of, then I'll move on from there and I'll cleanse you from all unrighteousness and make you absolutely free and clean to walk and talk with me during the day.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: There's a story, an illustration of that in the upper room.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was washing their feet at the very beginning, and he gets close to Peter, who considers himself the big muckety muck, and he sort of was.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: And Peter goes, You gonna wash my feet?
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, duh.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: That's not exactly what he said, but Peter goes, You will by no means ever wash my feet.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm way too humble to allow you to wash my feet.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't play games very well, and so he says, Oh, okay, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: You're not in the circle.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Bye.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: See ya.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: No fellowship.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Peter goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay, bathe me.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: Whole, I'll go all the way under.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answers very interestingly, I've already bathed you guys.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: Judas has already left the room.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: You're already all bathed.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: You're already all perfectly clean.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: When you trust Christ as your Savior, he's saying in a picture, you've been saved from all your sins, past, present, and future.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: You are completely washed clean, but you still live on the earth, therefore you get your feet dirty during the day.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus continues, says, but your feet need continual washing.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: You need to continually confess your sin.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: Because while you've been saved eternally, have eternal life and eternal forgiveness of sins, yet for fellowship's sake, you need to admit your sins to God.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is, and this is the last response, if you claim, no, I haven't sinned, then you make them a liar.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: And his words not.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: If you understand, if he's revealed it to you, and you understand that you some of you are parents, and so you have to have seen this happen.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: You walked into the kitchen and your two or three-year-old child had peanut butter all over his face, or chocolate all over her hands, or candy stuck on their clothes or something, and you said he said to them, like I remember doing with an almost perfect child, so I won't say her name.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: So um, did you get in the peanut butter?
26:14
SPEAKER_00: No.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, are you telling daddy the truth?
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: And somehow a child learns how to lie like that early on, but of course, we're even better at it because somehow we'll know exactly what we've done wrong with our tongue or with our lines or something else.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: And it'll be absolutely clear to us, and yet, for whatever reason, I've already confessed it 34 times this week.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm not about to confess it again.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Or God already knows, or I have really good reasons for that because you know, my wife, you know, or something like that.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: And so we play this game, and and he says, Listen, if you want to claim you haven't sinned, wow, you're making God a liar then, because he's the one that revealed it to you, and his word's not in you, you're not in a circle, I'm sorry.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Walter Wanger, and some of you know him for a famous book he wrote, puts it this way: My denial of my sin, if you say I didn't, I'm not a sinner, I didn't do anything wrong, it protects, preserves, and perpetuates that sin.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: Ugliness in me, as long as I live in illusions, I'm clean.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Ugliness in me while I live in illusions can only grow the uglier.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: This is serious stuff, guys.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: Let me put it, let me put it as simply as I can, just sort of summarize what I think this paragraph is saying.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: I think it's saying that to confess your sins to God is not to tell him anything he doesn't already know.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: But when you confess them, they become the bridge.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: You cross over that bridge.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: And honesty about your sin enables you and God to have a sharing relationship.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: And he welcomes you into the circle.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that's the honesty requirement.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: To walk with God as your companion.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: You must be honest about your sin.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not really a huge requirement.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: It's not as big as the other two.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's sort of like uh when the daughter took her mother to the doctor, her mother was feeling punky, wasn't feeling good, and so forth, and they stop at the doctor's office, and her mom throws open the car door and tries to get out and then just slumps back and says, Wow, I'm feeling even worse than I thought.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: I can't even get up.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: Daughter's worried, she runs over to that side of the car, doors open, she tries, tugs at her, tries to get her up.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: They can't.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't until the third try that she realized she needed to unbuckle the seatbelt.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: I've done that, you know, when the belly goes out a little bit, you don't see the belt as quickly.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: But but you know, the thing is, I think confession is sort of the seatbelt.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: The unlock seat belt.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: Hidden sin is the seatbelt lock.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: You simply need to open up and talk with God about it.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you've talked with them about it before, but you need to confess it again.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: You need to keep short accounts with them, you need to chat with them about it, and that'll open you up and you can stand and walk in the light of the Lord.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: That can get you free to join that circle of friends.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: So that's the honesty requirement, friends.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the obedience requirement.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: The obedience and love requirements are ones that we've talked about from this pulpit repeatedly, because a number of the books of the Bible talk about these requirements.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: In John, in 1 John, to know Christ as your friend, he says, you must obey his commands.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: About a third of the book is filled with verses about being obedient, the action step to line up your behavior with God's word.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: He says in chapter 2, by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: Now, you have to understand the word know is a flexible word in the Bible.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: At times to know him means to if you you know him in the in the sense that you trust him as your savior.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: It's sort of like walking down the aisle with your husband, you know, with the bride or the groom.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know them to a certain extent, right?
30:21
SPEAKER_00: Or else you wouldn't get married.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: You said yes, but then the rest of your life.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: Husband, if you think you know her already, or wife, you think you know him, you know, you don't.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: You have to keep getting to know them better your whole life.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: And so what he's talking about here is this full, rich, lifelong knowledge of God.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: By this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: The one who says, I know him, yet doesn't keep his commandments is a liar.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: Truth's not in him, but whoever keeps his word, truly in him, the love of God is perfected.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is how we know we're in him.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: The one who says he remains or abides or lives in him should walk just as he walked.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Which is a parallel, like I've told you, of the upper room, John 14, 21, where Jesus and the Last Supper says, if anyone loves me, he'll obey my teaching.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: My father will love him, we'll come to him and we'll make our home with him.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: We want you to be part of us, all of you.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: But there are going to be times, you know, if you want to live outside the circle.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: That's your choice.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: Or in the next, John 15, if you keep my commandments, you'll abide in my love, just as I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: These things I've spoken to you, so my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like 1 John 1, 2.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: So this is a daily life of keeping his commandments.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, my response to this, maybe you're a better person than I am, but I'm just constantly aware of the fact that I want to obey or try to obey and then blow it.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Right?
31:48
SPEAKER_00: So, how does how does that work out?
31:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, in 1 John, you read between the lines, I think he would give two responses to you.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: He'd say, number one, check your heart.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Do you long to obey?
32:02
SPEAKER_00: Is that where your desire is?
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to obey?
32:04
SPEAKER_00: Or are you clutching in your back pocket a hidden disobedience that you're not about to be willing to let go?
32:11
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, when you blow it, be honest about it.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: Admit it to him right away.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Dear Lord, I want to admit my sins to you.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: I want to share with you.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: I admit that I've done this this last week, that I've been this way.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: And I want to also tell you, I really struggle even to think about trying to obey you in the future.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: Would you help me by the power of your spirit, by your by your son living through me?
32:35
SPEAKER_00: I really want to, I long to obey.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: So that's the obedience requirement.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: The love requirement, by the way, I with the obedience, with the obedience thing, I was I was reminded in last service of um uh oh, it's just a thing with me and my grandsons, but but I'll tell you, I'll tell you a related story.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: So a grandfather wanted to give his grandsons uh uh remote car, which is close to my situation.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: So, but he says all I have the money is is I just have for one remote car.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: And he says there's three grandsons.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: I want to give it to the one of you who's been most obedient, to your mother, who's done what your mother wanted this last year, who's obeyed your mother, you know, who who who hasn't sassed her, and so forth.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: So this grandson said, Papa, you're gonna have to play with it yourself.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: Which is true, isn't it?
33:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, who's who's been obedient?
33:34
SPEAKER_00: Who's been obedient?
33:35
SPEAKER_00: So you you cry out to God, you say, God, I I'm not, but I long to be.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Please help me.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, finally, the love requirement.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: To live with Christ as a disciple, you must love your brother, your sister, meaning the family of God.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: Now, John's really big on that.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's not as though John would say, Don't give a dollar to the panhandler or whatever, or to someone who you don't know, you know, or to world vision.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: But he would say, he would say, listen, there's a priority list.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: First, your family, Timothy says, first you need to take care of your family.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: Second, you need to take care of the family of God.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: If there's, you better not be quicker to give a dollar to a panhandler than you are to give a dollar to a to a struggling brother or sister in Christ who's needy.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: So, and you lust love your brother and sister.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: So share yourself as the action step.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: Share yourself and your stuff in the circle of love.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: And there loads about a at least a third of the book, almost a half, on love.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: This is the love book, all right?
34:31
SPEAKER_00: We're coming up on Valentine's Day.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for a love verse, go to 1 John.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: This is how we know what love is.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 3, 16 to 18.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, the problem with that, let's just be, let's just not be religious for a second, but be real.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, to live above with saints we love, that will be glory, right?
35:07
SPEAKER_00: But to live below with saints we know, now that's a different story.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, as delicately as I can put it, as delicately as I can put it, some Christians are jerks.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay, no, that wasn't very delicate.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: No, to put it delicately, am I right that there are people that you meet?
35:25
SPEAKER_00: And this is an actual photograph of a church fight, okay?
35:29
SPEAKER_00: Literally, it really happened.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: So there are just times where you know that person is a believer, okay?
35:38
SPEAKER_00: But you also know, and you're right about this, they're not in the circle.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: They're far out of the circle.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: They're a hypocrite, they're lying, they've cheated, they've stolen, they've they've they've done something bad, and they've hurt you in the process, and you don't like them, and you're disgusted at them, and you're really struggling with them.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying this morning that you need to like them, and first John isn't saying that either.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: He's just saying that you need to love them.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: But it's what he's really saying.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that Christ died for them, that you're going to live with them in heaven forever, and I don't care how much you don't like them, that you need to treat them the way Christ treated you when he died on the cross.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, he has all of these verses about loving your family members.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: 4, 7 through 10.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who doesn't love doesn't know God, because God is love.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: In this, the love of God was made manifest among us.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: God sent his own son into the world.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: This was love, not that we loved him, he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: And then he draws it to a climax.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: Dear friends, 1 John 4, 11 and 12, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we're part of the circle.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: And he says four verses later, God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: Two verses later, the most famous verse of all, we love because he first loved us.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: Friends, there's a love requirement.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: If you want to stay in the circle, you can't be mean.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: You can't close your heart to brothers and sisters in Christ.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: You must love your brother and sister.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: Share yourself and your stuff in the circle of love.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: So there's this incredible invitation this morning, all right?
37:46
SPEAKER_00: To this circle of friends.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: That this invitation uh depends on, and maybe to help you remember honesty, obedience, and love.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: Somebody came up after first service and said, you know, spells the first three letters of holy.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: So there it is.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: H-O-L-Y.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: So, so, uh, so um honesty is this simple thing of decide just breaking down and saying, I'll stop hiding.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna open up God and tell you all about me and talk to you.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: By the way, for a hint on prayer, there's very few hints better that I could give or give you on prayer than not praying sort of official prayers or need prayers, but just talking prayers.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, let me tell you how I'm really doing today, Lord.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: I woke up, you know, I was feeling pretty, you know, whatever.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, then I when I went downstairs, there was all this, you know, and you know, so forth.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: And you just talk to him.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: And in the process, you say, I'm really really upset that I that I lusted yesterday, and then I lost my temper and I said that bad word to her, and da da da.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: And you just talk.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: That's honesty.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: And then there's obedience.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'd love to be obedient, I'd love to be loving.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: Help me with that.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: If the Spirit talks to you, if he's talked to you this morning, or if he ever talks to you about this kind of stuff, about honesty and so forth.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you respond.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: If you don't open up, you know, I have a feeling that the, you know how Siri has a voice, you know, on your cell phone or in the car, you know, the guy was driving across country and he had one of those cars and you heard the well-modulated voice going, your fuel level is low.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: And so, but he knew he had 60 miles left and so forth.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: So he kept going, and then it started coming on more often.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Your fuel level is low.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: And he got so sick of her voice after a while, because it just seemed like she was more, you know, there was more of a snotty tone in her voice every time.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: So jerked his car over to the side, and he reached underneath there, found the wire, and jerked it out.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: So shortly after that, car sputtered out of gas.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: He slid over to the side, and as he was walking to the gas station, he swore he could hear her laughing from the car behind him.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens to some extent, of course.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you don't listen to the Spirit when he says, now there, there's something you need to improve on.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: Now, he doesn't ever laugh at you, but he does, he does say, Listen, if you would just talk to me about that and admit that and see that the way I do, get back into the light about that, become transparent.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: I would love to have you back in the circle of friends.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to have you back here.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: This morning at six, about six o'clock, I heard uh my wife cry out something.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: You know how sometimes you hear your spouse say something, and well, they say they've said what she said was, oh no.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: And you hear that, and it doesn't, you know, they say that a lot.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they go, oh no.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: And you know it's it's something special.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: I was up at, I was at the kitchen table and I was going doing 1 John, and she'd gone down to do laundry or something, but it was that kind of a voice that caused me to jump out of my chair and run downstairs.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: And I found her in the bathroom.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: And immediately I knew a part of it, you know, because of the smell.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: So she's pointing at the toilet and she's pointing at the bathtub where it had come up in the bathtub.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't on the floor, but it wasn't, you know, and and then she says, but look at the hallway you just ran down.
41:33
SPEAKER_00: And the hallway, which is laminate, rather new stuff, you know, it looked like the surface of the moon, you know, it had all buckled or something like that, something underneath, and nothing on top, something underneath.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: And and and uh so she said, you know, it's clearly in the main, and and as a result, you know, the plunger didn't help.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: And uh when we got family, we got the kids coming in this week, and you know, and so forth.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: So it's not not a good time to have that happen.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: Now, um last week, you know, we had certain issues at the house that were tied in with Melody's mother passing away uh nine days ago, and we had bills, we have other things and so forth, and all the time we just look at each other and go, there's always something.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: And then a car had problems, it broke, and then they they thought they fixed it, but they didn't.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: And so say, well, there's always something.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: And then uh, and then and then something happened on Saturday that wasn't good, and we looked at each other, so it's always something, and but this morning at six o'clock with the poop, we didn't say it's always something.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: We just go, you know, and then by the way, something happened two hours later at eight o'clock, which was which was bad, but I'm not gonna get into it.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: And we didn't say something happens, but you know, I'm reminded that life is a lot like that.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: You just coasting along, sort of, and then all of a sudden you look down, you realize you're standing in sewage, and the sewage is part of your own life, and things are not, you're not the person you wish you were, and your life is not the way you wish it was, and there's a tendency not to talk with God about that, which is crazy, right?
43:13
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy not to talk with him about it.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy not to be transparent with him because he's the one who really cares.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: And he's going, you know, there's a circle here.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: I want you in the circle.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: Why would you want to hang outside the circle?
43:27
SPEAKER_00: Won't you join my circle of friends?
43:31
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what you want?
43:32
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: Would you bow your head with me for a second?
43:36
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a moment that starts off with saying to him, Lord, I want to come clean.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: Do that, and then just chat with him for a while and then I'll close.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we want to come clean.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: We want to tell you what we're really feeling right now.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit has has been whispering to us this week and this morning, Lord, and um Yeah, we've heard him.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: Really blown away, Lord, that you invite us into your circle, onto your board, onto your the friendship thing, this this fellowship thing.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: What a privilege.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: So we confess that that and this and the other thing, and admit you're right about those things, and tell you that we haven't been obedient either, but we'd we'd like to be.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna need your help on that one.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: Christ live through us, please.
44:45
SPEAKER_00: Spirit guide us and love.
44:49
SPEAKER_00: Doing pretty well with love, except for that guy.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna have to help me a lot with them.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: But again, Lord, thanks that we get to walk with you and to talk with you, that you tell us that we are your own, and the joy we share is we carry there, none other.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: It feels like none other has ever known.
45:19
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for that, in Jesus' name.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.