Latest / Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st / How do we live in the last days?

Transcript

How do we live in the last days? · Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st

0:09
You know, we rarely think about it in our modern 21st century
0:13
context, but the reality is, is that we live most of our lives
0:19
as human beings. Most of us live most of our
0:22
lives indoors. I'm not saying that's a bad
0:25
thing or a good thing. I'm just saying it's a thing.
0:27
Most people, not everybody, but most people these days in our
0:31
context live most of their lives indoors, right?
0:34
I'm assuming most of y'all slept indoors last night, right?
0:38
I mean, obviously you can be in a situation where you don't have
0:41
a roof over your head. That's that is not good, right?
0:44
And obviously we want to be helpful towards anybody in that
0:47
situation. But you probably slept indoors
0:49
last night. If you ate some breakfast, I'm
0:51
assuming you probably ate your breakfast indoors this morning.
0:53
I'm assuming you probably got dressed indoors this morning.
0:57
I can tell most of y'all looked in the mirror.
0:58
Praise God. Amen.
1:00
Right. Did pretty good.
1:02
Yeah, we we we even commuted to church this morning indoors.
1:07
Anybody ride a motorcycle? All right, we got one that came
1:10
outdoors. Praise God.
1:12
Right. Most of us.
1:13
And then if you go really long distance, about 40,000 feet in
1:16
the air, you're still what? Indoors.
1:18
Hallelujah for that, right? We live most of our lives.
1:22
We go to school indoors, most of us work indoors even though some
1:26
work outdoors. But we live most of our lives
1:29
indoors. And when you live indoors, you
1:31
can do life in indoor ways. OK, but what if you happen to
1:37
like the outdoors? And maybe not just the
1:40
activities that have you outdoors for like an hour or
1:42
two, 3 or 4, but what about if you like outdoor activities that
1:45
cause you to be out of doors for like days at a time?
1:49
If you've ever experienced even just overnight outdoors, you
1:52
realize you can't live outdoors in indoor ways.
1:57
At least it ain't going to last very long.
1:59
You got to figure out a whole different way of living.
2:03
I brought a few items, just a little show and tell this
2:05
morning to demonstrate what I'm talking about when it comes to
2:08
living outdoors. If you're going to be outdoors
2:10
for any length of time, you got to embrace a totally different
2:13
way of living. And let's just talk about
2:16
sleeping, for instance, right? You're not hauling the king size
2:19
bed or queen size mattress on your back.
2:21
Now, if you haul a big camper, that's one thing.
2:22
That's glamping. That's not what I'm talking
2:23
about, all right. I'm talking about when you
2:26
outdoors and it's everything on you and your person, all right,
2:29
So sleeping is going to look like maybe on something that
2:31
quite like this and this is as uncomfortable as it looks, all
2:35
right, So that might be a sleeping mat.
2:37
There you go. So you'd sleep a little
2:39
different. By the way, I didn't even bring
2:40
the tent. It just took up too much room.
2:42
But sleeping is different. You know, hygiene outside is
2:45
different. Now this is going above and
2:47
beyond. Most people just embrace the non
2:49
hygiene, but I'm telling you something like this, this is a
2:53
shower and this is a game changer in the outdoors.
2:57
All right, So what you do is you fill this little thing with
2:59
water here, screw the cap on, turn the black side to the sun.
3:02
It's even got a thermostat on it so you know the degree of the
3:05
temperature of the water you're about to experience.
3:07
All right, by the way, it says summer shower right there in the
3:10
winter. This is pretty tough, but
3:11
anyway, it's worth. All right, you got your little
3:13
vanity right here. Here's your mirror.
3:15
All right, see what's between your teeth.
3:18
Know that nothing cares out there outside what you look
3:20
like. And you just turn the nozzle.
3:21
You hang this on a tree by this little strap and you take you a
3:24
shower outside and hope nobody's looking.
3:26
By the way, so hygiene is different out there, right?
3:30
If you want something to drink, you got to do it different, all
3:33
right? You're not going to turn on a
3:34
faucet. There's no spigot.
3:36
There's no refrigerator. There's no, you know, what's
3:40
that thing in the hallway out there?
3:43
Well, that. But then the thing you pay can.
3:45
Yeah, vending machine. That's what I'm going for.
3:49
There's no vending machine. All right, you can.
3:51
What you do is you stick this in a stream right here, and because
3:54
all the microorganisms out there in water you're not used to
3:57
drinking would just, it'll change your life.
3:59
You don't want to do that. You feel this little thing up,
4:03
right? This is a filter and you screw
4:05
that thing on. All the sudden you just pop the
4:08
top. All right, you can roll or
4:09
squeeze this and you got clean drinking water.
4:12
You got to you got to drink different in the outdoors.
4:15
I got a lot of things here, you know, you got to cook different
4:17
in the outdoors. Praise God, my wife loves to
4:19
cook and I'm a man. That's an incredible blessing
4:21
and she does an incredible job. But when you go outdoors, you
4:25
got to do something different. One of the ways you can do that.
4:28
This is kind of cheating at it a little bit, but you can take pre
4:30
prepared meals like this. All right, This is dehydrated
4:33
food. It says homestyle chicken and
4:35
rice. It doesn't taste near as good as
4:37
it sounds. It's not homestyle, I promise
4:40
you, all right, but all you do is heat up your water, add that
4:43
and close it up for about 10 minutes, and then you got a hot
4:46
meal ready to go. How would you heat it up?
4:48
Well, that's where you got to cook different.
4:50
All right, So what that looks like, this is your gas stove top
4:55
right here. All right, you got the gas in
4:57
the little container here. This screws onto the top.
5:00
You turn that knob, light the fire.
5:02
I'm not going to do that this morning.
5:04
Put your little pot on top boil your water make your coffee.
5:08
You got to do cooking different in the outdoors.
5:10
I I, I could go on all right, I mean you got to be able to do
5:13
things like communicate differently.
5:14
See what else I got your cell phone.
5:16
Oh, this is this is one of the neatest things I have right
5:18
here. This is fork, knife and spoon
5:21
all in one. All right, So I'm not sure what
5:24
you call this thing, but it's a do it all.
5:27
So if I can pop this off, there's the fork right here, all
5:31
right, there's the spoon. And then if you turn this,
5:34
there's the knife. All right, So you got to do
5:38
things different if you if you're going to live outdoors
5:42
because you're not living in a way that you normally live.
5:46
My whole point is that today's text is not how to live
5:49
outdoors, but it is how to live different because we're living
5:53
the Bible says in the last days. And John's writing to us in
5:58
first John about how to know. All right, we've already looked
6:00
at how do you know Christianity is true?
6:03
And we've looked at how do you know you're a true Christian?
6:06
And then we looked at how do you know what's dangerous to you as
6:09
a Christian in this world? But now John's going to answer
6:13
this question, How do you live in this world in the last days?
6:19
Because you're living at a different time, at a different
6:21
hour than anybody else has in the New covenant in the New
6:24
Testament as believers in the church.
6:26
So the question is, how do we live?
6:28
How do we live in the last days? I want you to listen to the Word
6:31
of God as I read beginning in chapter 2, picking up in verse
6:35
18. We'll go through verse 27 and
6:38
pick up our final 2 verses toward the end.
6:39
You ready, children? It is the last hour.
6:44
And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now
6:49
many Antichrist have come. Therefore we know that it is the
6:53
last hour. They went out from us, but they
6:57
were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have
7:00
continued with us. But they went out, that it might
7:05
become plain that they all are not of us.
7:09
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have
7:14
knowledge. I write to you, not because you
7:16
do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because
7:20
no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who
7:25
denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist who
7:30
denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has
7:34
the Father. Don't miss that verse.
7:35
No one who denies the Son has the Father.
7:38
Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
7:42
Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.
7:45
And if what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then
7:48
you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
7:51
And this is the promise that He made to us, eternal life.
7:55
I write these things to you about those who trying to
7:58
deceive you. But the anointing that you
8:00
received from him abides in you. And you have no need that anyone
8:03
should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you
8:06
about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught
8:10
you, abide in him. Now, if I could read your mind,
8:14
you're thinking, Kyle, that's a lot right there, all right.
8:15
And it is we're about to walk through this.
8:18
I want you to lean in a little extra close to me.
8:20
All right, because John says a lot in these verses.
8:23
But it really becomes very practical for us as those who
8:25
are living in the last days, as we're going to see.
8:28
Father, I pray that you would open our eyes and our ears to
8:30
hear your word, to hear it clearly and to show us how to
8:33
live it out. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.
8:36
If you follow along in your notes there in the worship God,
8:38
the very first thing John says you need to know in order to
8:41
live in the last days is that the fact is you're living in the
8:46
last days, right? That's the first one thing he
8:47
says right here we are living verse 18 and 19 in the last
8:51
days. John literally calls it the last
8:54
hour. He means the last age, that is
8:57
the period of time before Christ returns.
9:00
And John's not the only one in the New Testament naming this
9:03
particular time. In fact, Acts chapter 2, verse
9:07
16 and 17 puts it like this. But this is what was uttered
9:10
through the prophet Joel. Now this was predicted.
9:12
God told us about this in the prophets, and it says in the
9:15
last days it shall be. God declares that I'll pour out
9:19
my spirit on all flesh. Hebrews chapter one verse 1 and
9:23
2 long ago. Think about this in many times
9:26
and in many ways as described in the Old Testament, God spoke to
9:29
our fathers by the prophets. But in these what last days, he
9:35
has spoken to us by his Son, That's Jesus, whom he has
9:39
appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also, by
9:41
the way, created the world. The last days, or the period of
9:45
time between Jesus's first coming and Jesus's second
9:49
coming, I want you to think about it like this.
9:50
The next great event and God's plan of salvation, the next big
9:55
thing, the next great event is the return of Jesus Christ.
10:00
Don't you think about that? These are the days we're living
10:03
in where the next big thing that God's going to do and his plan
10:07
of salvation is send his son for the second time to claim his own
10:12
and to rule and to reign. These are the last days, y'all?
10:16
We're not living in the first quarter.
10:17
We're not living in the second quarter.
10:19
We're not living in the third quarter.
10:20
We are in the and the guy out there in the lobby said Kyle, I
10:24
believe we're in the last two minutes.
10:25
And I don't think he's probably wrong.
10:28
I think he's closer to being right.
10:31
We don't know the day. God has not given us a countdown
10:34
clock. In fact neither the angels nor
10:37
even the Son knows the exact day the Father does.
10:41
But we know the next great thing is when the Father says Son it's
10:44
time and Jesus returns. John gives us y'all early here.
10:49
2 very simple realities we need to be aware of.
10:52
We're going to see more, but these are two about the last
10:55
days we need to know in order to live in them.
10:57
And the first one is this Antichrist is coming.
11:01
We need to know the Bible says Antichrist is coming.
11:07
John says you've heard that Antichrist is coming.
11:10
Who in the world is he talking about?
11:12
He's talking about the individual that the Bible
11:15
describes who will rise in the end times, that is, in the last
11:19
days as a world ruler according to the Book of Revelation.
11:23
You can read Revelation 13 more descriptively of the Antichrist.
11:27
The person will be energized. This person will be energized by
11:31
and in service to Satan himself. He will exalt himself against
11:37
Christ in his coming Kingdom. He'll have such power, charisma,
11:41
and deceptive ability. The world will follow after him
11:43
and be deceived by him. The world will worship him.
11:46
This is the Antichrist John says is coming in the last days.
11:51
But then he says this. But already many Antichrist,
11:54
plural, have already come. What does he mean?
11:56
He's not saying that the Antichrist has come yet, but he
12:00
is saying that forerunners of the Antichrist, who are they?
12:03
They for those that also deny Jesus is the Christ, many have
12:07
come and they're like Trail Blazers, if you will, for the
12:10
ultimate Antichrist to come, who will deny that Jesus is the
12:14
Christ. In the intensity of this
12:18
opposition against Christ, and it's increasing intensity.
12:22
It's a sure sign, John says, of the last days and the last hour
12:26
in which we live. You know, the essence of this
12:30
one, who will be the Antichrist and the forerunners of the
12:33
Antichrist. And the essence or the principle
12:35
of Antichrist is simply the lie. The essence of it all is the lie
12:40
that Jesus is not the Christ. What do I mean when I say that?
12:46
You may be in the room and really I don't know what Jesus
12:48
is. The Christ means.
12:49
That's the truth, that Jesus is the one and only Savior of the
12:54
world. What do I mean by Savior?
12:56
I mean, He's the one and only one and it stepped into this
12:59
world by the way he made it. He made you, and he loves you.
13:05
The problem is we've sinned against him, the Bible says, and
13:09
that sin separates us from him. But Jesus came and took on human
13:13
flesh to live a sinless life, to die for our sin on the cross.
13:17
And going to the cross, he was laid in the grave tasting death,
13:20
the result of our sin. And on the third day, Jesus
13:23
walked out of the grave alive. Why?
13:27
Because he had the power alone to defeat death and offer us
13:30
forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
13:33
The word Christ means Messiah or anointed one.
13:35
Jesus is the only anointed one who can save you from your sin.
13:41
Have you trusted him as your Lord and as your Savior?
13:44
If you haven't, you can today. The Antichrist is the one who
13:49
propagates the lie that Jesus is not the Christ.
13:54
Reality #2 besides the fact that Antichrist is coming reality #2
13:59
in the last days is that false converts are leaving.
14:03
False converts are leaving. John is recognizing in verse 19
14:06
that people have left the church, and he's not talking
14:09
about one or two. There's obviously a bunch of
14:11
them. There's obviously a group that's
14:13
upset the church. They denied the faith.
14:15
They've walked away from Christ. They denied the fact that He's
14:18
the Savior of the world, and they've left the church, right?
14:21
So here's the deal. Every church, every church deals
14:25
with this issue John speaks of. But John calls this what it is.
14:28
He immediately responds to this as an unveiling of false
14:33
converts. People that have left, John
14:35
says, never were true believers in the 1st place, for if they
14:39
had been genuine Christians, they would have continued
14:41
faithfully with the church following Christ.
14:45
The deal is every single church deals with false Christians.
14:50
That's a reality that every church will face until Jesus
14:53
returns, but they are almost always eventually revealed by
14:58
their failure to remain faithful.
15:03
A man that you probably never heard of by the name of BH
15:06
Carroll was a man who fought in the Civil War.
15:10
He was a lost man. In fact, he was an atheist.
15:14
He experienced a lot of hardship in life, in a failed marriage
15:17
and after the war. He almost was at a point of
15:20
wanting to take his own life. When God did what God does, he
15:26
rescues and he saves and he changes and transforms.
15:31
BH Carroll got saved. And BH Carroll didn't just get
15:34
saved. He got called to preach and
15:36
called to preach. He became a pastor, eventually
15:38
established the religion department at Baylor University,
15:41
now in Waco, TX, and eventually went on in 19 O 8 to start a
15:45
seminary for training ministers on the Texas Prairie.
15:49
At the time, 6 miles South of downtown Fort Worth, where I did
15:53
my ministry training. BH Carroll made this statement.
15:58
He says when you see a star fall, you can be sure it's not a
16:04
star because stars don't fall, they shine.
16:09
When you see a star fall, you can be sure it's not what is he
16:12
saying? What he's saying is right.
16:13
We, we know what he's talking about.
16:15
You watch the night sky and you say, oh, there's a shooting
16:17
star, a falling star, but that's not actually what that is.
16:21
That's astronomically incorrect. That's not how stars die.
16:24
Stars shine. What he means is when you see a
16:28
quote Christian turn his or her back on Jesus and sound doctrine
16:34
and follow false doctrine in the vast majority of cases he's
16:40
saying you can be sure that person never was a genuine
16:43
believer in the 1st place. A way that's been said that goes
16:48
like this is that faith that fizzles before the finish was
16:53
faulty from the first. Faith that fizzles before the
16:58
finish was faulty from the first.
17:01
Brothers and sisters, we're living in the last days.
17:04
Let me just tell you two things you're going to I'm going to
17:06
experience in the last days. People are going to attack the
17:10
truth of Jesus Christ. People are going to say there's
17:14
lots of other ways. He's not really who he said he
17:17
was. They will attack the truth of
17:19
Jesus Christ. You've got to be ready for that.
17:22
Number two, people are going to leave the church.
17:24
People are going to abandon them, especially when life gets
17:26
a little harder to walk by faith and trust Jesus Christ.
17:29
You're going to see people walk away from the church.
17:32
What John says about that is if those who walk away, you can
17:34
almost always be sure they never were genuine believers in the
17:38
1st place. Every church will deal with it
17:39
increasingly so in the last days.
17:42
You're going to see people abandoned the church.
17:43
You're going to see people attack Christ.
17:45
You need to know these things if you're going to live faithfully
17:47
in the last days. But then the second thing we
17:49
need to know is this. We have genuine believers have
17:53
the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
17:55
This is verses 20 and 21 and some others following.
17:58
We have the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
18:00
What's going on here? One of the situations John is
18:03
writing to address in the original situation, as there's
18:06
some false teachers teaching some false doctrine and one of
18:09
the things they were teaching was, hey, y'all, there's some
18:12
higher knowledge and a special anointing that can be had for
18:16
those that are willing and able to receive it.
18:21
John is saying there's some something beyond the Word of
18:24
God. There's something beyond the
18:25
Holy Spirit that can be had. There's more to be had beyond
18:28
what's written to you in the Word that you've heard from the
18:30
beginning. So they're teaching this false
18:33
doctrine. But watch what John says in
18:35
verse 20. But you have been anointed.
18:37
He reminds him, you've been anointed by the Holy One.
18:43
You've been anointed by God. What is he's been, you've been
18:45
anointed with the Holy Spirit, right?
18:47
That's you. He's not just talking to the
18:49
pastors or the staff or the elders or the deacons.
18:52
He's not talking just to the missionaries or church, but he's
18:54
talking to every genuine believer in Jesus Christ.
18:58
You've been anointed by the Holy Spirit.
19:00
All right, Ephesians 113 makes it so clear.
19:04
I want you to listen closely to this verse.
19:05
You ready in him, that's in Jesus.
19:08
You also when you heard, notice when you heard the word of
19:12
truth, the gospel of your salvation.
19:15
The gospel is what I told you earlier.
19:16
Jesus came, lived a sinless life for you, died on the cross for
19:19
you, was raised from the dead for you.
19:21
When you heard the gospel of what Jesus did for you and
19:24
believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
19:31
When were you sealed with the promised Holy Spirit?
19:34
If you're a genuine believer, when you, when you were saved,
19:39
when you heard and when you believed, the moment you
19:42
believed, you got all the Holy Spirit you're ever going to get
19:45
until you see Jesus face to face.
19:47
Mark it down. There's some out there that
19:49
teach, oh, that's just first. That's just first experience.
19:53
You got to have a second higher experience of the Holy Spirit.
19:56
There's more out there to be had.
19:57
That's baloney, according to the Bible.
20:01
The Bible says when you become a believer, when you receive the
20:04
gospel, God gives you the Holy Spirit living inside of you as a
20:08
down, a down payment, a deposit, a guarantee of what's to come.
20:13
The problem with many Christians is not if they're genuine
20:16
believers, is not that they don't have all the Holy Spirit,
20:19
that the Holy Spirit doesn't have all of them.
20:22
What do I mean? Let me be clear, I don't mean
20:23
they don't have all the Holy Spirit.
20:24
They do. What I mean is they're not
20:26
walking in daily surrender in obedience under the leadership
20:29
of the Holy Spirit in their life.
20:31
They're saying no to the Holy Spirit instead of saying yes to
20:34
the Holy Spirit, they're choosing to walk in sin rather
20:36
than walking in what's obedient to God's Word.
20:39
And therefore the Holy Spirit is not having all of them to use
20:41
for His purposes and His glory. Now he says we all have this
20:47
anointing. John says you all have
20:49
knowledge, we know the truth. And now drop down to verse 26
20:52
and 27. What does John mean when he
20:55
says, and you have no need listen to this because this is
20:58
interesting. You have no need that anyone
21:00
should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you
21:04
about everything, that verse right there obviously can be
21:08
ripe for some misunderstanding and misapplication if taken out
21:12
of context. And let me remind you of what
21:15
the context is. It is the fact that some false
21:17
teachers have infiltrated the church and are teaching that
21:20
there's a special anointing. There's something extra, hey,
21:23
there's something that they could grasp it.
21:25
There's a special knowledge to be had beyond what they've heard
21:28
from the beginning in the Word, all right, from Christ and his
21:32
apostles. And so here what John doesn't
21:36
mean, all right? He doesn't mean that Christians
21:39
have no need for any type of human teacher or preacher to say
21:44
or explain the word of God's truth, right?
21:47
If that's what John means, then by the way, he's breaking his
21:50
own rule and contradicting himself by writing to instructor
21:52
teach these Christians in this letter.
21:55
So that's obviously not what John means.
21:57
So John's not seeing, not saying there's no need for pastors or
22:00
teachers. He is saying this.
22:03
You don't have a need for any human teacher that claims to
22:09
have any new information about Christ and the Gospel and
22:13
eternal life other than what you have inspired by the Holy Spirit
22:18
in the Word of God. You already know the truth.
22:23
You know the truth. And guess what?
22:24
You have the teacher, the source.
22:26
You don't need a teacher to be the source of truth for you.
22:30
Like like this. If I was claiming up here to be
22:33
a source of truth for you, you need to get rid of me.
22:37
I need to say Amen to that. All right, All right.
22:40
I'm not claiming to be a source of truth for you.
22:43
I'm claiming to be a proclaimer of the source of truth that is
22:46
this inspired by the Holy Spirit that you have and I have.
22:50
You have no need for someone else to be the source of truth
22:53
for you because you've got it and the teacher, the one who
22:56
inspired it, lives within you. That doesn't mean we can't help
23:00
each other understand it and explain it and teach it, but I'm
23:03
not the source. God is the source.
23:05
The Word is the source. John is simply saying you have
23:08
no need for any other source other than what you've heard in
23:12
the gospel. Y'all, you have the anointing in
23:17
these last days of the Holy Spirit.
23:20
If you're a genuine believer #2 what you need to know #3
23:25
actually is that we have the authority of the Word of God.
23:29
We have the authority of the Word of God.
23:30
This is verses 22 through 25. If you look back up at verse 22,
23:34
it says who is the liar? But he who denies that Jesus is
23:39
the Christ, the ultimate lie, that is the source of every
23:43
other lie, is that Jesus is not the Christ.
23:46
This is exactly what the Antichrist will claim.
23:49
John inserts a little reminder here that one's relationship
23:52
status with God is totally dependent, has everything to do
23:57
with what you believe about Jesus.
24:00
Did you notice verse 23? No one who denies the Son has
24:04
the Father. But listen to this next verse.
24:06
Has this happened in your life? Whoever confesses the Son has
24:10
the Father also. Have you confessed Jesus is the
24:14
Christ? That he is the Lord, that he's
24:16
the Creator, that he's the Maker, the one and only Savior,
24:18
the one who lived for you, died for you, and rose again from the
24:21
dead for you. If you confessed him as your
24:23
Lord, you're not going to have God.
24:24
You don't have salvation. There's no forgiveness outside
24:27
of confessing that Jesus is in fact the Christ.
24:29
Can you see now why the Antichrist has one target for
24:32
his lies? That Jesus is not the the
24:36
Christ? Because if he can take that out,
24:39
then he takes everything else out because that's the lie that
24:42
leads to death, That Jesus is not the Christ he says here.
24:48
So for those of us who have confessed Jesus is Lord, what
24:51
should we do? Verse 24, Let what you heard
24:54
from the beginning abide in you. Then you too will abide in the
24:58
Son and in the Father who has promised us eternal life.
25:01
What they heard from the beginning was the Word of God.
25:04
Y'all we resist and we can overcome the lies of the enemy
25:08
and of the world by abiding in the Word of God.
25:11
I want to talk very simply, very clearly about what does it mean
25:14
to abide in the Word of God #1 abiding in God's word means
25:21
filling your mind with the Word of God.
25:25
By the way, 11 sermon one, one day a week is not filling your
25:30
mind with the word of God. That's not abiding.
25:34
That's drive by. OK, it's it's helpful, but
25:39
you've got to open your Bible for yourself to abide in the
25:45
Word of God. If you don't, this is not going
25:48
to happen. It's got to fill your mind.
25:51
You've got to expose your thoughts to the word of God.
25:54
You got to fill your mind and then abiding in the word means
25:57
letting the word of God direct your will.
26:03
That is guide what you want. That is lead in your decision
26:08
making. All right, so when you read the
26:10
word of God, you're not just filling your mind with Bible
26:13
trivia or facts. That's not doing you any good.
26:17
You read the word of God. So then you hear the truth of
26:20
God. You can say, OK, God, help me
26:22
believe that. Help me live that.
26:24
God help me apply that. God help me say no to what I
26:26
want and yes to what you want. God help me embrace that and
26:30
order my life around that truth. So it's not good.
26:35
I mean, it doesn't do you any good to just have biblical facts
26:38
up here if you're not while reading it, asking God to engage
26:41
your heart so that your desires are guided, right?
26:43
So you're going to fill your mind with God's Word.
26:45
You're going to let it direct your will, and then you're going
26:47
to let it watch this. This is the hard one.
26:49
Transform your affections, your loves, your likes, your values,
27:00
your dreams, your goals. You say, Kyle, I don't know that
27:05
I can change. No, you can't.
27:06
But the word of God can change you.
27:08
And let me just tell you, it's the only thing that can.
27:13
If you will let it fill your mind, if you will read it with a
27:17
heart saying God help me believe it and live it.
27:21
And if you'll say God change my desires to match yours, When you
27:23
explain this as exposed to my life and my mind, I guarantee
27:26
you God will change you. But you can't change yourself.
27:32
Your friend can't change you, no behavioral modification can
27:35
change you, but the word of God will change you.
27:38
I spoke Thursday morning to Woodland Middle's FCA group.
27:42
They got like 200 and something kids.
27:43
Some of your kids are in that group in the gym wide open on a
27:48
Thursday morning. Jason spoke the week before me,
27:50
Amazing. I walked into public school with
27:52
my Bible and walk in and those kids show up 200 strong to hear
27:55
the word of God. I preach that at first.
27:57
John three had a young girl. Amelia, you were there, right?
28:01
I had a word of I had a little girl walk up to me after and ask
28:06
me this question. I'd never seen her before.
28:09
She said, Pastor Kyle, will God still love me if I embrace and
28:14
live XYZ kind of lifestyle? I looked at this young woman and
28:19
I said, sweetie, God will always love you and his love will never
28:23
change. But the question is not will God
28:27
love you? The question is, will you love
28:29
God? Will you love him enough to say,
28:33
God, I believe what you want from me is better than what I
28:35
want for me? Will you love him enough to say,
28:39
God, what I want? I believe what you want is
28:40
better. And so God, I'm going to read
28:43
your word and I'm going to trust your word.
28:44
Even though I got a word for the way I want to live.
28:46
God, you've spoken a word for how I should live, Then I'm
28:49
going to believe it's better. And so therefore God, I'm going
28:51
to say no, what I want. God, I'm going to ask you to
28:53
transform my desires because I'm not God.
28:57
If there's a real God. And so if there's a real God,
28:59
I've got to submit to him. And if he loves me, I can trust
29:03
him. And I got to fill my mind with
29:06
the truth that transforms and let it guide my life.
29:08
The question is not does God love you?
29:10
The question is, do you love him and do you believe him?
29:15
Do you believe he has the power to change your life?
29:19
He will if you ask him. Y'all we resist and overcome the
29:23
spirit of the Antichrist in the last days by remaining in the
29:27
Word of God. All right, if you don't abide,
29:30
let me just tell you this. If you don't abide in the Word
29:32
of God, you might as well be a flag flying on the pole in the
29:35
wind of the ideas of the world, and they will take you down.
29:39
You'll flap this way and you'll flap that way, but you'll never
29:43
fly God's way if you're not abiding in the Word of God.
29:47
So 4th and finally, we must abide in Christ by the Spirit
29:52
and the Word. If you put it all together, you
29:53
can say we must abide in Christ by the Spirit and the Word.
29:56
This is verse 28 and 29. Listen to the Word of God.
29:58
I hadn't read this part yet. And now little children, abide
30:01
in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not
30:05
shrink from Him and shame It is coming.
30:07
If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that
30:10
everyone who practices righteousness has been born of
30:14
of him. We must abide in Christ by the
30:17
Spirit and the Word. To remain is to abide and to
30:21
abide is to obey. All right.
30:23
Now, John has already told us how to abide or remain in
30:26
Christ. That was verse 24.
30:28
By letting the word of God abide in us, all right, But now he's
30:31
telling us why that's so important.
30:33
Notice verse 28 again, the end of it so that when he appears,
30:36
what is the next big thing in God's plan of salvation?
30:41
What are we waiting on in the fourth quarter?
30:43
If I can make a four, there we go, Christ's return.
30:46
And guess what? You want to be found?
30:47
What? When Christ returns, ready.
30:51
Not everyone's going to be found ready so that when He appears,
30:53
we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His
30:59
coming. Let me just point out the
31:00
obvious there, what John is saying.
31:02
There are going to be genuine believers who are ashamed to
31:06
stand before Christ when Jesus returns.
31:11
I didn't make that up. That's what the Bible says right
31:13
there. John would not have brought it
31:15
up if it was not a possibility. So that we will not shrink back
31:19
in shame. You know what happens when
31:21
somebody knocks on your front door and you're less than decent
31:23
to answer it? I'm not going to say what less
31:26
than decent is, but you know what I'm talking about.
31:29
Half dressed or I told you I was going to say anyway.
31:31
You know what I'm talking about. And then some of you, some of
31:34
you hide. Some, you know, I'm not saying.
31:35
Some of you, I need to include myself.
31:37
Some of us hide like nobody's there.
31:41
I don't know if I've done that or not.
31:42
Anyway, moving on. Some of us hide like we're not
31:44
there. Some of us try to like do the
31:48
half inch open door peek so we can't see pajamas you're wearing
31:52
that, whatever, you know, lack thereof anyway, say I go out
31:56
visiting sometimes and knock on doors.
31:58
This is not a normal thing. You know, we got the Ring
32:00
doorbell so we don't even have to interact.
32:01
But anyway, praise God for those of you that have opened the
32:03
door, whether you're ready or not, Jesus is going to open the
32:06
door. He's going to split the eastern
32:08
sky. And what John is saying is even
32:11
as believers, we can be found ready, bold and confident to
32:16
celebrate Christ's return. Or there's a way to live as a
32:19
Christian, to not be ready and to be ashamed, shrinking back.
32:27
Are you ready? Are you ready?
32:30
If Jesus came back today, would you be confident celebrating His
32:34
return? Would you have things in your
32:37
life that would cause you to lack confidence to stand before
32:40
Christ and shrink back? John says we can live ready by
32:45
abiding in Christ and by walking by the Spirit so that we may not
32:51
shrink back. He says this verse 20.
32:52
If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that
32:55
everyone who practices righteousness has been born of
32:57
Him. Y'all, if you print out first
33:00
John, all 5 chapters front and back on some 8 1/2 by 11 paper,
33:03
and if you're reading it, if you're abiding in the Word on a
33:05
daily basis, Amen. You're going to notice John will
33:09
keep circling back to things he said, and this is one instance
33:14
where he just says, hey again, you can know who's genuinely
33:16
following Christ and who's not. It's the one who practices
33:20
righteousness. It's the one who doesn't just
33:22
claim to love Jesus, but the one who puts that love into practice
33:26
in obedience to Jesus. That's the one you can be sure
33:28
has been born of God. It is practicing righteousness
33:31
and ready for ready for Christ return.
33:36
Y'all, we are living in the last days.
33:40
God is calling us to live in light of the hour.
33:45
He's calling you to live like it's the fourth quarter.
33:49
He's calling you to live like Jesus could come back at any
33:51
moment and whether or not you'll be found ready or not and the
33:54
number one way to be found ready is to have confessed Jesus as
33:58
the Christ. If you've never confessed him as
34:00
Lord, I plead, I plead with you today, not let today go by and
34:05
wait another day UN ready for Christ's return.
34:09
I'm going to stand right here in a moment when John and praise
34:11
team come and I'd love whether you have questions or you're
34:14
really ready or not. We're not going to embarrass
34:16
you. I'm not going to, I'm not going
34:17
to put you in front of anybody, but I would love to sit down
34:19
with you, have someone, one of our encouragers, just walk you
34:21
through what does it mean to confess Christ?
34:24
Let me ask you this, are you abiding in the Word?
34:30
Are you abiding or let me just try to make this as simple as I
34:32
can. The two things is you as a
34:33
genuine believer have got to do in the last days.
34:37
The truth of Jesus is going to come under attack and people are
34:39
going to abandon the church. So what do you got to do?
34:41
You got to abide in the Word, filling your mind, surrendering
34:44
your heart, letting it transform your desires.
34:47
And then the second thing to do is you walk by the Spirit.
34:50
You've been given the Teacher. The Holy Spirit dwells in you.
34:53
Is it Kyle? What does that really mean to
34:55
walk by the Spirit, y'all? I don't mean to oversimplify it
34:58
because it's so much more than this, but listen, on a daily
35:00
basis, you know that still small voice on the inside that reminds
35:05
you and guides you and leads you, that puts on your mind and
35:11
your heart. Oh, you know what?
35:12
This is an opportunity to do good.
35:14
This is an opportunity to give glory for Jesus.
35:16
This is an opportunity to share my faith.
35:18
This is an opportunity to the to love and expect nothing in
35:21
return. This is a chance to go out of my
35:23
way to love my neighbor as myself.
35:24
Y'all, that's not you, that's the Holy Spirit.
35:28
The only one was to lead you to live your life in a way that
35:30
honors Jesus and he's not going to shout at you.
35:34
I've never heard his voice audibly praise God if you have,
35:37
but I know that's still small voice.
35:39
But you know what? The more you say no or ignore
35:41
that voice, the harder it gets to hear.
35:46
And so maybe it's a day you say Holy Spirit.
35:50
I don't know that I have. I don't know that I followed
35:54
your lead in a while. Dumb God, would you re sensitize
35:59
me to your voice? God, I want to abide in Your
36:02
word. Maybe you need to make an
36:05
adjustment for living in the last days, and I want to invite
36:08
you to make that adjustment. Whether it's here, treat these
36:10
steps as an altar. You come as the Lord leads.
36:13
We're going to sing about the goodness of God.
36:15
God's arms are open wide to you. God's love for you hasn't
36:18
changed. What He wants is your love in
36:20
return, your life in return, because he's got a plan that's
36:23
better than your plan if you'll let him give it to you.
36:26
Heavenly Father, I pray that as we respond to you today that you
36:29
would have your way in US in Jesus name, Amen.
36:31
Would you stand? I'm going to stand here You come
36:33
as we worship you. Respond as the Lord leads this
36:36
morning.