Sermon Transcript
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Sun, Feb 25, 2024 10 AM • 1:00:30SUMMARY KEYWORDSJesus, bible, god, talk, people, sin, word, church, walk, good, john, false teachers, love, children, read, pastor, today, truth, remember, heard
Good morning.
Welcome. If you're new here among us, my name is Gene I serve here at C3 church as your pastor.
And I heard a story.
I heard a story about a prosecutor in a small town courtroom. He's about to call his first witness to the stand and elderly woman whom he knows. He thinks he has his strategy, calls her up, and asked her a question, Mrs. Jones. Do you know me?
Oh, yes, Mr. Williams, I know you. I've known you since you were a little boy. And quite frankly, I'm disappointed.
You lie. You cheat people.
You manipulate. You think you're a big shot under that fancy suit? Under it all, you're worse than everyone you're prosecuting.
Not what he was expecting. So not knowing what to do. He points to the defense attorney and he says, Jones, do you know him? Yeah, I've known him too since he was a little boy. In fact, I used the baby soon. What a disappointment. He's lazy, bigoted, and you know what? He has a drinking problem. Underneath that fancy suit. He's a mess. Now the courtroom erupts small town, everybody kind of knows everybody else. And the judge is banging the gavel trying to get control the courtroom. Finally everybody comes down. He calls the two lawyers to the bench. And he says in a quiet but menacing tone.
Listen, if either one of you asks that woman as she knows me, I'll hold you both in contempt of court!
Indeed, today, we'll see that if you talk the talk, you shouldn't be walking the walk. Right? So last week, we looked at First and Second Peter, where we saw this encouragement not to jump ship, the faith. Today, we're going to look at first through third John and see what it is to be really on board as a Christian. So just a bit of a setup here for what we're going to be seeing. This has been a nice long series, which is a good thing, because we're really trying to honor the entirety of God's Word. So rebuilding this culture. It's been about three years, I think. And we've been making our way through the Bible, every word of it between this and Bible study and really honoring it, we've learned so much. But as we get towards the end of the Bible, we must remember that the best commentary on the Old Testament is the new and the best commentary on the New Testament is the New Testament itself, right? So while it's not in chronological order that we've learned, we've learned, you know, Jesus, we have the Gospels here. But then Paul clarifies a lot of things right. So these are the latter letters that clarify a lot of what he said, what he might have left out what's going on here. Well, as we get towards the end of the Bible, again, not in chronological order, but these are later letters, we see certain themes start to repeat. So if you were listening last week, it really did. And first and second, Peter, it felt like even for me reading it, like, didn't they just that exact sentence. So you get these themes of suffering, not falling away from the faith, big on false teachers. We're going to approach Jude where that's the whole thing, not a long letter, but it's really all about that. So what's happening here is, you end up with certain heresies arising in the early church, one big one is that Jesus is not God. And then you have all these false teachers coming in to infect it. So the worry here the teachers is, hey, you know, look out for these guys. It's bad news. So this is what you're going to see. Now, just a quick note, if you're new here, this today might, sadly, be a little unusual to you, if you're not new here, you know what to expect. You know, I'm basically just going to read you the Bible today. What's going to happen with a few jokes, maybe about fish or something else? Whatever comes to mind. They were bad last week, was it last week already? They were bad. Alright, but anyway, usually is. But anyway, I tried to mix it up. But it's a lot of God's Word. And this is really important for us as Christians to think because so many Christians out there, if they're being very honest, have not read the whole Bible. They have not read the whole Bible. Right? Even if they have you talked to me, I read it once. You know, okay, I saw a movie once. 10 years ago, I forgotten most of it, right? So, you know, they don't really read the whole thing. They don't read the whole thing in short periods of time. So from one end to another, it's hard for people to connect the whole thing, yet. They have very definitive opinions about what it says.
That really doesn't make much sense does it? So it would be like doing a book report having not really read the book or finished it. Alright, so you draw your conclusion. Well, this is what it's all about. You probably get a pretty bad grade, but that's what Christians are doing. So what we're going to do is we're going to
Read through
almost everything here, I'm going to paraphrase some spaces in here. And I'm going to, but I just I'm trying not to say important verses because it's all very important. But just paraphrase some certain things for you to get our application here, but I'm going to encourage all of you don't. And this is true for any pastor, even if there are 1000s others also just reading the Bible to their people. Don't take my word for it, please get a Bible and read it yourself. Right? Just you need to read God's word and formulate your opinion based on the truth. Right? So don't just blanketly believe anyone check it. So that's why we have people here with Bibles. If you're not used to that culture, reading along, it's I don't take any offense to it. I encouraged them to do it. Right. All right, so let's hop right in. First, John, First John, one we proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, who we have heard and seen, we saw him with our own eyes and touch them with their own hands, he is the word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us and we have seen him and now he testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us, we proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, we are writing these things so that you can fully share our joy. So again, we have these heresies coming in. First John is going to sound a lot like the Gospel of John, In the beginning was the word that word was with God, the Word was God, he was in the beginning with God. So basically saying, Jesus is God. He's talking about Jesus, He is the Word of life. Really important fighting these heresies. This is probably a later letter, your John's probably an older guy at this point. And people are saying, Jesus is not God. So right from the beginning, he's clearing that up, but purpose for writing so that you may share this joy or we have joy in eternal life, living in the light, first, John, one, five, this message we heard from Jesus, and now declared here, this is the message, God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God, but go on living in or walking in, if you're new, and I bracket things that's closer to what the Greek says it just throw it in there for you. spiritual darkness, we're not practicing the truth. But if we are living in or walking in the light, God is in the light, and we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin. So here's this theme, walking in things, walking in the truth. Walking in the light, you're going to hear John talks about this a lot. But it's not the first time we saw we saw in Ephesians, this idea of walking in the light being children of the light.
The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about this as well, right? We must walk in the light can't walk in darkness, and sin is left in the shadow. So it means that Jesus is the light of the world. And we walk in His footsteps, right, we follow we do what he did that is walking in the light. So now we come to something that may or may not seem a bit out of place. So I'm going to explain this to you first, John, when he, if we claim we have no sin, we're only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. And if we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that His word has no place in our hearts. Okay. So you may have heard this, and this is really where a lot of people just like to stop. And then they close the book of John, there is no chapter breaks in the original, right? So nobody turns the page here. They just stop right here, right? Okay. But just real quick, did you notice that it was past tense. Okay. And it is not a place if we keep reading turn the page first on to one, My dear children, I'm writing this to you, so that you will not soon. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father is Jesus Christ, when it was truly righteous. He Himself is the sacrifice that atone for our sins, and not only our sins, but the sins of all the world, and we can be sure that we know him if we obey His commandments. And if someone claims I know God, but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar. And he's not living in the truth. But those who obey God's words were truly show how completely they love they love him. This is how we know we are living in Him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did literally the one who says that he resides in him to walk just as that one walk that one is Jesus, right? So we have this theme of walking again. Again, walk the walk now.
So here's the balance. I've had you This is really funny. I've had people do this when I talk about sin and how we're really not supposed to be going around sinning. They'll quote First John one. And I'm like,
turn the page please just please keep Can you please keep reading right. So it's really important. One who says they know God, but doesn't walk the walk is a liar.
Now remember last week, you shouldn't be completely unfamiliar. If you're familiar with the Bible, what it both First and Second Peter says, Put it up just for some review. First Peter for one. So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourself with the same attitude he had to be ready to suffer to. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. Second, Peter 110. So dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. So what's going on here? Right? Well, first of all, the sin is in the past tense. But if we say we have no sin, right, there's just no sin as well. So essentially, think about it, why would Jesus have to die? We all have that sinful nature, the nature of the flesh. And we've seen this Galatians The spirit and the flesh, right? They're kind of at war with one another. But what you have here, again, is a paradox. Very, very common in the Bible, where you have two seemingly contradictory statements that are made. But when you keep reading, you look at the full counsel of it. Makes sense. So that's what's going on here. Now, the big thing just to take you back to Hebrews, we're going to go to Hebrews a couple of times, did I not? I won't put up and I'll just say, you know, look at Hebrews 10. What was the issue there? If someone goes around, intentionally sending that's the big thing here, that's what we're looking for. So we need to look to the full council of God's word, intention. So you're going to have that sinful nature, right? We all do, even as a pastor. I said, when asked my wife, right, so
I mess it up. Right? But if it's brought to my attention, what do I do?
Actually fix it. Tell them, okay.
This is the part where it's okay for you to talk in church. So
I went over that too. We're not going to go back to Yeah, all right. Anyway, intentionally right. So it's the intent, right? Don't prowls around like a lion. But we don't want to be that lion. We don't want to be looking for sin. It's you mess up. So it brings it to your attention wanting the Holy Spirit, like lets you know, you, repent, don't do that anymore. So that's, that's the big deal here. That's what's going on so that you understand. Alright, so new commandment, love, right. So first, John, to nine. If anyone claims I'm living the light, but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. Anyone who loves a fellow believers living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living in and there it is walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go haven't been blinded by the darkness, his darkness can blind you. So he's writing, because people will claim they're a believer, right. So that's the issue here. Anyone who hates is still walking in darkness, and jumped down do not love this world. First of all, to 15 do not love this world, nor the things that offers you. For when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see and pride in our achievements and possession. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what got pleases God. Live will live forever. So.
So this is a major rebuke. Right to the prosperity gospel. Have you heard that a major review? They won't read this in their churches? Right? The things that people crave are the things of this world, right? And that's kind of ironic, I just find it kind of funny, where it's like some of these denominations are called Word of faith. But how did Hebrews 11 Define faith? Faith is about what we hope for it is about what cannot be seen. So it's almost ironic.
They're calling themselves faithful. No, these things are not from the Father. Did you notice something else? Pride is a sin. Pride is always a sin in the Bible. I've demonstrated that see in the past, in the Greek, some translations, it's very innocent kind of thing. They'll say like, you're my pride and joy. And it's an idiom you have going on there, but it never says that pride is a good thing in the entire context of God's Word. The Word is fading away. Doesn't this sound a lot like Second Peter?
Yes, right. So as we get towards the end of the Bible, we see that everything got that's it it's over all melted in flames. No more Earth, right? We're waiting for new Heaven, New Earth. That's what our focus has to be. Now we get to Antichrists Ooh, right. So in today's language, false teachers first on to 18 Dear children, the last hours here, you have heard that the Antichrist is coming. And already many such Antichrists have appeared from this. We know the last hours come these people left our churches but never really belong with us otherwise, they would have stayed with us. When they left it proved they did not belong to us. So a couple of things here.
Antichrist Did you notice plural again?
But there's a plural here. False teachers, right? So anyone who denies that Jesus is God, Jesus is Lord, that person is an antichrist. There's not just like one. And remember, we can deny Jesus, what does it say in Titus, by the way we live. That's another thing. People leaving churches, this is interesting. This is going to kind of come up later here.
We've had, you're already too. But anyway, people who don't really belong with us, they will be repelled by the word of God. That's what's going to happen. They're going to hear the Word of God, and they're going to go, that didn't make me feel good, right? I didn't like that. It alarms me. I've had people in the church literally leave or never come back and say, Man, you read too much of the Bible. I'm like
Are you a Christian? You know what I'm getting as I get older, you get like shorter with people. So it's kind of cool.
Okay, Satan, you can leave like,
that's fine. Don't even get behind me just Yeah.
Like, like Paul said, Levin, you're like one thing. 11 one bad apple. Get out of here. Right. So but we've had that happen. We've just literally I've had people come up like, Yeah, that's great. But man, you know, like, he can? No, no, I can't. So anyway, there's another question that comes up. And this is kind of the answer to it. Hebrews six out of that people will begin to theologically argue whether you can lose your faith or not. And then he got stuck in this like holding pattern. And they come up with all these opinions. But they just needed to keep reading the Bible, because it tells us it's not that you're losing your salvation, is that you were never genuine about it.
That's what first so if you ever hear anyone to be can you lose your salvation, and it's going to be like on YouTube. And it's a two hour video with like, this clickbait picture and everything. Just don't watch that.
Just read your Bible, it explains it very clearly. They were saying they were Christians, but they never really were. If you are just filled with the Holy Spirit, you are baptized in the Spirit. You love Jesus, don't worry. Like he's never going to abandon you. You know, don't worry about that. These people are not right. So again, this thing you can talk to talk.
But do you walk the walk? Alright, here are some key things I'm writing these things to warn you about those who will lead you astray. So he talks about living as children of God. And in case you didn't get the clarification from before, I'd like to highlight this first, John, for you, for everyone who sins is breaking God's law. For all sin is contrary to the law of God. And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there's no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in him, will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. Your children. Don't let anyone deceive you about this. When people do what is right. It shows that they're righteous even as Christ is righteous. When people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sitting since the beginning. This is where I get my material from, by the way. But the son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning. Because they're children of God. Now we can tell who are children of God, and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously does not love and does not love other believers does not belong to God. So here's some major clarification about that first chapter, correct. And that's all these people need to do is keep reading, but they don't want to do that. Right? It shows what we really belong to what our deeds, that's interesting shows who we belong to, and it's why we need to keep reading, so goes into loving one another talks about Cain who murdered his brother, if you're, you're familiar with the Old Testament, right? Don't be like him. Don't do that. If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead, right? She's talking about eternal life. First, John 316. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. Hmm. And someone has enough money to live well, and sees a brother or a sister and a need but shows no compassion. how can God's love in that person? Your children, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth. So be confident, we stand for God, even if we are guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. So just to put this out there again. What do we believe here? The Bible, what the Bible say about our salvation in Jesus Ephesians two, we are saved by grace through faith, not my work so that no one can boast.
Stop that
So that is yes, that's our say, right? We are created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so that we can walk in. That's what it says. So it all comes together, right? Did you hear me? Okay?
So we're saved by grace through faith, but actions are required. So last week, we saw God's promises require a response if we're unresponsive.
Right? So our actions show the truth about what we really believe. And on actions speaking louder than words, first and foremost, dear friends do not believe everyone who can claim to speak by the Spirit, you must test them see if the Spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God. If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has a spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet, and does not acknowledge through truth about Jesus, that person is not from God, such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming to the world and is already here. Well, there you go, the false teachers. So
it's weird, like, why is John picking? Just that? Right? So if a person, you know acknowledges that Jesus came in, so what is he saying, again? What was the first heresy that Jesus wasn't God? So basically turn it around that God didn't come here in a real body if someone doesn't acknowledge that, that Jesus is God, they're an antichrist and fake Jesus. Don't listen to them. Now, indeed, we have many false prophets today. Many false prophets out there today a lot, right? So you have to test them, they need to be tested. It's very, very important. But what's interesting is,
a lot of Christians out there wouldn't think we do like you see it on college campus. Oh, Jesus wasn't God, Christianity is not good. You know, worldview, that kind of thing. Yes, we do see that. It's pretty prevalent, but it's more probably in the church than you think. There are denominations claiming to be Christian, that deny Jesus, His deity, and certain ones are not doing so outwardly. But if you look at what they really believe, that is, Jesus is a God, not the God and you can be a god like Jesus and have your own planet and starts to get really weird. So they don't put that they don't put that stuff out there. But I bet a lot of you have actually either given them money, or subscribe to what they're putting out there. Because if you watch probably the most popular Christian show out there, they've gotten in your head. So what you should do if you watch any Christian show that claims to be based on the Bible, pick your Bible up and read along.
And you're going to see there's a whole bunch of stuff that's not in the Bible, about 75% of these shows. And in them, they do things like have like, let's say, John three, John, a special conversation with Nicodemus and Jesus were in Nicodemus, and the Bible has like three lines, but his dialogue and this show goes on for 20 minutes.
And then when he tries to worship Jesus, Jesus says, You don't have to do that.
said Jesus never, never denied worship. And so all of these seeds in the gospels they worshipped Him. Except it. Why, pray tell, would you throw that in there?
Wolves in sheep's clothing. It'd be very careful. So always tested, you're watching shows tested the Word of God. And if they start throwing in dialogue that's not in there, turn it off and turn it off. But does anyone turn off? Like, oh,
I'm close, right? Okay. So be careful, test everything against the word of God. We're told in the Word of God, I'm not going to go too long today. But in the Word of God, we are not to add anything to it or take anything away, both Old and New Testament, someone who does that is cursed. Right? Don't add anything to don't take anything away. First, on fourth, fourth, but you belong to God, My dear children, you have already won a victory over those people because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the Spirit lives in the world. Those people belong to this world. So they speak the World Viewpoint from the world's viewpoint in the world listens to them, but we belong to God. And those who know God, listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has a spirit of truth in the spirit of deception. So false teachers preach worldly things, right. That's the indicator there. Now, again, like I said, we've actually had this happen, right? They don't listen to the word. So these are these people that leave and I'm not talking about just like, leave and go into the church now leave and they don't belong to us. They get repelled by the word they don't like hearing it. That's another indicator that someone's not filled with the Spirit. Someone's filled with the Spirit. They're going to be like, ah, God's word, right. So that's how I get fed. Right Man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God, so it's going to
You know that that's it. But people who don't they argue that it feels uncomfortable.
Scary, right? loving one another. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other God lives in us. And his love is brought to full expression in us. Now, here's another one, right? So all the PhDs get stuck on this. What does he mean by no one's ever seen God? Well, the Old Testament to it turns back to Moses. And again, all these crazy conversations again, there's another one to two hour YouTube video. But was that the point about what John just said?
No, the point is love. But then they debate. They don't love one another. They started fighting and arguing with one another about what who's seen God, have we not seen God? And you just missed? That was the commandment. Right? So what does it mean? Because now you're going to ask that question. So fine. It means that it's talking about the entirety of God, the entire folded remember, he created the universe, no one can even comprehend Him. Right? That's most likely what it means. But don't miss the point.
supposed to love one another. For son for 16. We know how much God loves us. And we have put our trust in His love. God is love. And all who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. Do not be afraid on the Day of Judgment, we can face it with confidence because we live like Jesus here in the world. Such love has no fear. But because perfect we hear love expels all fear, sorry, if we are afraid it is for fear of punishment. And this shows that we have not fully expressed his love. We love each other because he loved us first, since kind of laughing to myself as going through that. So most people take verse 18 as a standalone, alright, and that's it and they get it wrong. It's nothing sounds great. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.
They'll say anything else, right? You've heard that. But did you hear the rest? Right? If you're afraid because for fear of punishment, so a couple quick things going to do really, really fast not going to do this because I've done it 100 times, but the Bible does not say if you're not 365 times, if you've seen that meeting, the person posting it does not know the Word of God, it's impossible. So it's about 80 Something times it says fear not fear about 511 times by my account. And most of the time it's saying you should be afraid.
Fear the Lord, right. So it's the beginning of all wisdom and insight. Proverbs 1416. The wise fear is just cautious, cross it out. It's like phobia in Greek fear.
Fear, right. It's a good thing sometimes. So what's happening? Remember that paradox? Right? It's a both kind of thing. Now, there's another reason why reading the whole letter is really important. Wait, because what's the context? judgment? Judgment is the context here. So we saw this, especially in First Peter, we've seen all over the Bible, Christians will be judged. Yes. But you need to think about it rightly. Right, because people don't know vocabulary, right? So let's go back and study some vocabulary words, you can be judged to be judged means that God will just judge you. Right? But you can be judged and then found not guilty.
That's fine. All right. And that's why we're not afraid. We talked about his Bible study, I think on Wednesday, First Corinthians 11. Right. So it's good to read because it clears that up a little bit. The difference between condemnation and judgment, there's difference, we will be judged, but if we are in Christ, will not be condemned with the rest of the world. That is the difference. That's the key thing here to remember. So remember, so that fear not having fear. You're not afraid during judgment, because you know, you won't be condemned. That's what he's talking about. Perfect love here. Remember, love was at play here. So that's what's going on. You don't have to fear if you're truly walking in His love. And so for someone for 20, if someone says, I love God, but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar. For if we don't love people, we can see how can we love God and we cannot see. And he's given us this command. Those who love God must also love their fellow believers again. So who is a liar? The one who hates right, the one who is talking to talk but not walking the walk, personify one. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His children, too. We know we love God's children, if we love God and obey his commands. Loving God means keeping His commandments, that his commandments are not burdensome, for every child of God defeats this evil world and we achieved this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God? So, again, we know those who love by what? Those who obey his commandments and walk the walk, and Jesus Christ was revealed.
There's God's Son by his baptism in water and by shedding His blood on the cross, not by water only, but by water and blood. And the spirit was truth confirmed with his testimony. We have these things, the three witnesses, the spirit, the water and the blood just quickly, this might be very confusing to you. But if you read the gospels, the Gospel of John 19, what happens Jon's a witness to Jesus's side getting pierced, and the blood and the water come out. And then Jesus talks about his testimony being a witness to that. So he's bringing that into play goes back to the beginning, what did you say he was a witness very important.
key verse first on 513, I have written this to you, I believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. Here's that hope and joy, that that's what we hope and full circle. Quick thing here not even put on the screen, because people read it. And we are confident that he hears us whenever we asked for anything that pleases Him. And since we know He hears us, when we make our request, we also know that he'll give us what we asked for.
Yeah, okay, so remember, the things of this world? If we read the whole thing, what did we learn about the things of this world? Right? The last, the pleasures, the cravings of this? We're not supposed to be asking for that. So when people use this to go, oh, it's going to give me what? Nope, you didn't read the whole? Okay. I'm not going to get started. So when we ask for what pleases him remember in First Peter, that thing about the husband's,
like, the wives a lot of stuff for the wives, and what to say about the husbands, right? If you're not loving your wife or not treating her honorably? Yeah, your prayers will get hindered. And he said it twice in there. Alright, so there are times when.
And we talked about this through the Old Testament to like Isaiah one equals five. Simon if no, he wants righteous living, that's true worship Romans 12. What's true? Were being a loving living sacrifice, right? So not about what?
Right? It's about doing. Jesus clarify. So
sometimes you will take Matthew seven and run with it, right? So it's this whole thing where, you know, if you fathers your child asks you, you know, for a piece of bread, you're not going to give them a stone? Are you a fish? You're not going to give them a sneak? Are you? So how much more? Will your Heavenly Father give you anything you asked for? Right? And they stop. But no. Luke clarifies Luke 11. How much more will your Father give you the Holy Spirit?
If you ask him? Right, so he will give us what pleases Him. And so we see it all over the Bible, Paul's Thorn other places where no, not even Paul gets everything that he wants. And remember, the devil is the ruler of this world, he can bless us, too. So, second Corinthians four, four, just for one example, right? He's the ruler of this world here. We'll see it again. First on 518. We know that God's children do not make a practice of sitting. There it is, again, for God's Son holds them securely, and even when cannot touch them. We know that we are children of God, that the world around us is under control of the evil one.
Again, people who espouse that prosperity gospel should start thinking about that. When you start constantly asking and obsessing over worldly things, who pray tell, might you be praying to
the ruler of this world? Right, so remember, Jesus has temptations? The devil tried to bless Jesus. Right? So no, he concludes your children keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts literally keep away from idols, which are things replacements for God. Now I'm going to go over second and third, John very quickly. So the first two there, these are like one page letters that are really quick.
They are addressed to individuals. But there are things that apply to us that we can learn from. So I'll just kind of give you the point here, you're going to see this theme, like walking in the truth. So John is going to keep going along with the theme. So he's John the elder, right? So he could be like an elder in a church or an older guy, he's writing to the chosen lady and her children. So this could be an actual lady or it could be the church. Some think it's the church most usually say it's going to be the church. Right? So
who might I love in truth, as does everyone else who knows the truth? Because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever. So again, what I'm just reading here in trying to deal with translation. So aleetheea is truth in Greek. So it comes up a lot here. So truth, truth, truth, truth, Grace, mercy and peace again, set setting that tone here for joy, Grace, mercy and peace, like theater and Paul's letters, living the truth. Second, John, one for how happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to or walking in the truth. Just as a Father commanded, I'm writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one
We have had from the beginning, love means doing what God has commanded walking according to His commandments. And He has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning, again, the steam, walking in love, love means doing what God commanded. Now, here, he's going to say I say this because many deceivers come into the world. So he goes into this whole thing about like, not welcoming them into your home, right, so don't have any fellowship with these deceitful false teachers, again, walking the walk, he concludes both of these letters. Second, and Third John, very much the same way again, serves translates into, I have much more to say to you, but I don't want to do it with paper and ink for I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face, then our job will be completed. So face to face is an example of like, no translation is going to be totally literal. It's a stoma plus stoma. So it's like, if you're Greek or you know, Greek mouth to mouth. So if it was literal, he'd say, I want to come and speak with your mouth to mouth. And you're like, it's going to resuscitate me.
So I'm just giving you guys a playful example of something where it's best sometimes not to do a literal translation. So what is he trying to say? I want to, you know, I can use paper and I want to meet with you face to face. So we would say, Third John, again, letter from John Elder to gay us or Gaius, a guy here. What's the issue? Well, traveling teachers, so he's glad that guy has and people like him are providing for these traveling teachers. So again, we've seen this, we saw this in let's see, first Timothy, you've seen all over the place, right? You're supposed to take care of your teachers, you know, provide for them 100 times what everyone is making plus a private jet.
Just take care of them. Right. And that's what's going on here. But atrophies. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And they do help he puts them out of the church. Right? So he's just giving this contrast and saying this is a bad guy. Third, John 111. Dear friend, don't let this bad example influence you fall only what is good. Remember that those who do good, prove that they are God's children, and those who do evil, prove that they do not know God.
The theme here again, we're known by our actions.
Indeed, today.
There are many calling themselves Christians that talk the talk.
They say they are.
But are they walking the walk?
I hear the phrase. If it quacks like a duck. It's another old one like the TV.
it quacks like a duck, or is it walks like a duck.
Then it's a duck. What does that mean? What? What we read today? That's what that means. Right? If it looks like a duck quacks, it's probably a duck. Right? So we know who the children of the devil are, we know who the children of God are by how they walk.
Simple is that.
I've given this example, before in the past, and it kind of fits here. So I'll have a variable. I'll give you a variation on this kind of illustration here. But in this is kind of funny, as I kind of thought through like this example, I realized, like, I'm coming up with examples of something that this person would do. I'm like, Oh, I've met that guy. Oh, I met that guy. So here, this is really funny. So maybe you have someone come into church, right? And they get greeted, they're like, Ah, whatever. That kind of thing. No joy at all right now. We're threatened to stab you. That's happened.
But don't worry, you're safe.
But you know, either and they go for the coffee or I'm going to pick up some of the literature on their way.
Like whenever they go for the coffee, they push everybody out of their way to get to the coffee, they drink it and throw the cup all over the place. Again, everywhere they come in, they sit down for service, right and don't talk to anybody. Leave me alone. Whatever it is. The music comes on right? Ah, oh, it's so loud.
Right? The Bible says write with joyful shouts and clanging loud clanging cymbals don't read Psalms. Anyway, so like anyway when you're it's all out in here is modern music where my hymns you know that kind of thing. So if that's you get out so anyway
but anyway, yeah, but
but anyways complaining right instead of worshiping right complaining about everything. Like what did you come here for? You know, but it's about me I'm thinking. So they listen to the message like well, he's just reading me the Bible you know, what is this all about? Make me feel good pastor Shut up clown do your job, right, you know, that kind of thing. So, you know, this kind of just complaining about everything. I've seen it right. I can don't do that now because now I will call you up. Right and let's start looking at I don't care.
Oh,
Anyway, right looking at the watch like fine. Finally we're done. I had to listen to one hour of God's Word. You know, go home and watch four hours of sports. They get upstairs, right?
They get upstairs, right they go right for the food line. Heard about the Stromboli. There it is.
Push the kids out of the way. Take all the Stromboli. Listen, we got to talk about that. Because I got Yeah, I got some confessions from people. We got to work on the Stromboli thing.
Take it's a real thing. I'm not going to look at anyone in particular.
But it's a real thing. Like, I know you'd like it, but we some for everybody else. Okay, so this guy takes the whole plate sits down. The table just starts counting down now. We're good here. See three? Right? We know how many guys knew. It's okay. I've been there. Like just last week, I was taking all this trouble. So now let's, let's see, you know, it starts honking Ah, so Hey, Are you new here? You know what's going on? You're in a church be like, no, no, no. I've been a Christian my whole life.
Okay, let's define what Christian is. Right. So But no, we don't do that grace, right. We lead with grace. It's okay. So I'm trying to talk you know, so, you know, I struggle with sin, too. I get it. You know, I do some things I shouldn't be doing and I'm working on. I'm doing my best to get some good accountability here. So maybe you know, you need an accountability partner. So he decides to open up. He's like,
Yeah,
I struggle with sin, too.
Okay, you can you can tell me anything. It's okay, man. I've been here done. Really?
Okay.
Murder. I really struggled with murdering people. It's tough. It's been rough. And I just I can't stop. But I, I got to a point where I just do it on the weekends.
So I mean, you know, in person.
Today, today we can.
As funny as that is, right. There are many talking to talk but not walking. And I'm serious. Like I met that guy.
The murder thing was not current. But you know, look, I met they maybe if you've been in church at all, if you've met a variation of that guy, or seen some of these things, and I'm like, but hold on.
What do you what's today all about to you.
Serious, you know. So like the duck. How you walk says everything about who you really are.
Is just does. What you do says more about what you believe in anything they say.
So what are you really believe and this is kind of a funny thing. I'll just take one second, just to compliment you guys.
There is a part where we're going through a major transition here. So to get from mainstream Christianity to where we are today, it's very difficult, because it's unfortunately not normative. It's nothing like the early church. Just, it's really, it's just annoying.
So as a pastor, this is why the burnout rate among pastors about 37% now is huge. And one of the main reasons like I'm just very honest, I'll tell you, one of the main reasons is a we get sick of watering rocks are terrible. So we get sick of it. It's just it's not listening. And what's the point? Right, and we get sick of it to pastors before me actually expressed this at a board meeting before, you know being called somewhere else, by God is that I'm sick of looking at a bunch of people who are on the highway to hell.
It's depressing. It's very sad, a lot of tears.
So you're done, or you get sick of it. And so there's a point at which the transition to became personally an opening up to very frustrating for me, because, you know, like, we have a board and all the money stays with the board. I don't do anything they did, thank goodness, they don't tell me anything about the money I don't want to hear. I want to know, because I don't want anything I do or say to be motivated by money. Right? So they just don't tell me how things are going. I really don't know.
But you can tell it's getting tight, right? Because, you know, everyone who does the money is starting a little bit more on edge, you know, or like, I asked for something, you know, like, Hey, can I buy myself a Bible? And they're like, no.
So, you know, you just know, you know, the Holy Spirit is a part of that you just kind of you know, like, and you just got to preach through it. And there was a point at which I really thought like, I could just go back to the business world, right? I'm just done. Like, I just can't take this anymore several times. And I just thought I think I've expressed it to you and some others. But you know, it was like if I had to like just give parting words like just say something and drop the mic. That's I'm done.
This is what I would say. We've I've learned about most Christians
and this is not yours.
With the way most of us
Christians are behaving. There is absolutely no way you actually believe this.
That's the problem.
If you believe this, it's like, I mean, it's
it's amazing, you know, like what God did for us, but he's no way, way most Christians are behaving this way.
You do not believe this?
Is a country club or something else do you? I don't know. Right.
But for you guys, I just want to say like, I complimented the Bible study on Wednesday. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for staying on board. It is so refreshing. Like, I just, I don't know if I get to talk to my old pastor friends anymore, because I think they complain, but I really don't have those complaints anymore. They just don't.
They're not here. They're just not here. So thank you. Thank you. That's been wonderful. So what do people really believe? Well,
there's what people are being fed, right? So there's a lot of false teachers in mainstream Christianity. We're going to talk a little bit more about that next week. So I won't go too far here. But I mean, you know, think about it. We talked about consumerism in the church. Why did you come here? Was the sound on the website? Worship Service, most of us, like, call it a worship service?
Do you know what worship means? Well, first of all, the Bible defines it as being a living sacrifice.
Right. But do you know or is it means right? So worship? Have you seen the movies like, oh, you know, worship? It's not about you. It's about not about your comfort. It's about your discomfort before the Lord, before your God. No, but most Christians come to church, and it's kind of like this. It's kind of like going to someone's birthday party, but bringing a present for yourself.
Right and think about it. Have you done that? Do you know people who do that? This is like Jesus's birthday pirate. All the Gifts are for him. Right? And yes, I get it. There's edification. I know. Please, like I get it. I get it. You have personalized it. Yes. We're supposed to build each other up, right. But each other up not yourself. Right. You build each other up. I get that. But the main part, the main part is worship. And worship is not about you, unless you're worshiping yourself.
It's worship. Get this consumerism it's what I can get out of the church, right? What kind of snacks and coffee do you have and what? What can I get? How am I going to get my batteries recharged? How am I going to get fed today?
It's going to stop.
But wait, what do we live on?
The Word of God. Thank you. So somebody's listening. So
but people first, John, I've had pastors point that out and like, they don't know the rest of our stuff. Like this idea. It's okay to sin. We're good.
What did we just put me just read? If that's your takeaway?
It's good.
Reading comprehension skills, right? Like you can't read. You can't comprehend. There's a problem. Right?
It's not okay. Right? That should not be our goal. It's not like, Oh, we're just going to send or whatever. No.
It's not what it says. But there are people who teach that. And so you get this whole idea, this new modern belief that there's no judgment, there's nothing I have to do. Sin is fine. I God's always forever and ever got to meet me where I am. And it's okay. It's like, alright, but what did we read today? Right? If you don't belong to him.
There's a problem. So if that attitude is adopted, there's a problem. You're not genuine about this. Scary. We aren't to walk in the truth. And here's the thing, guys, we have no excuse for not knowing it.
You can just say, Where does it say? Well, it's on the false teacher, the false teacher goes to hell, but you're good.
You're accountable personally, because you've got it right here.
You didn't read the instructions for yourself that's on you.
So are we telling the truth about what we believe because our deeds will expose that our deeds will be used for or against us? In judgment evidence? That's what it's going to be. It's like evidence right. So what caught on TV or been through the process? Where's the evidence? Okay, here it is. All right.
If I get it, right,
that's what it is. It's evidence of our salvation. Now, here's just one quick illustration I want to give you because people kind of behave like this. And it's, it's so wrong.
A lot of people will say, kind of, like, get off my toes faster. You know, just this is my personal business. Well, yeah, it is, right. So if you decide, You know what, I'm not going to go call myself a Christian, I'm going to take the Jesus fish off my car, I'm going to just disassociate with Christianity, I'm not happy, because I know where you're going.
But fine, then it's your business.
But if you're going to go tell everybody your Christian you're going to, you know, you're going to make that known? Nope, that it's not just your business anymore, because the Bible says you can slander the gospel
said that in Titus, we just read it recently. You can slander the gospel. So you know, a lot of business people in Naples, I was a former business person, right? So what's the best form of advertising? Word of mouth? doesn't cost anything, right? You can see the product right before you word of mouth, right? You get reviewed, like the reviews are a big thing, especially nowadays, right? So word of mouth or not. That's the best. That's the best.
But
like, I was in the martial arts in the fitness industry, as well, as in the martial arts industry. This was this is a real thing. It's so anyway, but as a coach, I learned so much as a fighter, but as it occurred, and so as a coach, I would say like really crazy things to the fighters before they got in like a cage or a ring or on the mat. Right. And, and they knew me well, so this was not the first time they'd heard something crazy from me, you know, but I'd get up there. And you know, you always wonder, like, what's the quotes? Or when they go back to the corner, like, what's the corner man saying? Like, what's he saying? Like, if you had a mic on me.
But aside from that, right? This was like one of my signature phrases. Okay, you ready?
Guys ready to go. He's scared, which is always funny. So I'm like, here's what I do to comfort him. Listen.
When you go out there, just the number one thing
Don't embarrass me.
That's a real conversation.
Why? Here's the thing. My fighting style, you represent my brand, my gym, my business. And the cameras are rolling. Right?
That's important you win this fight. We're going to get more students. I'm going to sell more books and DVDs. You lose this fight. They're going to be saying Joe Rogan.
It's going to be annoying. I don't want to hear it. Alright, so important. So this I have used this illustration to you know about the gym. Right? And so you get the gym. Like we ran a real gym, right? So you know, like, the big box gyms and stuff like that. They don't care. Where's the shirt? Right? Or puts the bumper sticker on the car? Like we're like, totally different gym like, Hey, can I have a bumper sticker? You know, I'm like,
no, no, you're going to need to go on a diet. You just can't. Don't say you go here.
Who was that? That? Like no, no, I hear we would openly say things about each other that were crazy. But let me tell you something. People knew where to go. Every cop every bouncer in the area, a lot of military law enforcement. Like if your life's on the line, you need this. Go there. Go there because you're going to learn how to fight. They do not hold that pull punches, literally. Right. So but it's the same thing. Right? Take get that bumper sticker. I'm in the parking lot like scrape and gain 10 pounds. What do you do unless the bumper sticker off?
Don't say you go here. Right? That's embarrassing. So for Christians, take the Jesus fish off the car. Right? So we had that joke in the past. Right? You see pastor Jean in the parking lot scrape and Jesus fishes off, right? You put a little bucket of Jesus fishes and you have these back when you start behaving yourself.
And like some of your life.
But look, as it pertains, here's kind of wrap it up here for you guys. As it pertains like, to me as a good coach. A good coach is someone who cares. That's a good coach. someone cares. So he's going to tell you stuff you really didn't want to hear. That's a good coach, bad coach. Whatever.
They're not going to ask questions. They're not going to challenge you. They're not getting you know,
coaches care. And that's where you are.
So look, how do we get that talk to match the walk or the walk to match the talk? Well, yeah, good coaching and good teaching is a part of it. You need that? A good coaching, good teaching. You need good training partners that you guys, not all your training partners, I mean, teacher training partners, right for some accountability and stuff. Good. We preach that
but all of that is only going to get you so far. Unless you have motivation.
And unless you put in the work
so
thought about putting in the work but motivation.
It's very important to remember who Jesus is, and what he did for you.
Holy is important to remember. So Easter's coming up, and that's a good message, like if you struggle with what I like, the historicity are within his words. And if you struggle with the fact that this is fact right, and you know, if this is historical, the Easter message is always a great message to attend to. I'll, I'll explain a lot of things about what the Bible is and how relevant that is historical document and real thing Jesus was real. So that's important, remember, is a real person's not a fictional character, Jesus is God.
And although right is equal, so it's Philippians. To make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God is something to be taken advantage of, instead of emptied Himself, assuming the former slave took on the likeness of man. And when it comes a man in his external form, he humbled himself about becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross. For this reason, God highly exalted him, and gave him the name that is above every name, so that every knee should bow, those who are in heaven and earth and below the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father,
Jesus.
First, John 316. So you know, John 316, probably everybody here knows that.
For God so loved the world, He gave His Son so we can have eternal life. First, John 316. We know what real love is, because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
Why would you give up your life for anybody?
That's your motivation. Because Jesus did for us. And through that, we get to live we get to have eternal life way better than this one with Him forever.
That's your motivation.
It's keeping those things in mind. And so when it's fully understood, and we adopt that attitude makes its way from here to here, and it finds that fertile soil, remember the parable of the sower, right? There's the rocks, there's the rocky soil, the seed is the word. And when it falls on those things, it doesn't grow, burns up, doesn't grow. When it falls amongst the thorns, the thorns, what are they the worries and the cares of material things? choke up, it's can't grow. But when it finds the fertile soil, it grows up and produces a fruit 30 6100 times.
That'll be natural. But you have to have that motivation with the truth.
That's my encouragement. Jesus tied for you.
Every one of you, no matter what you've done, no matter where you've come from, He died for you. So that by believing in Him, being baptized, what are the Holy Spirit received, that Holy Spirit will carry you through these things bring you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, right? Faithfulness, is able to experience that joy that John is talking about.
So that's my prayer for you this morning. Let me close in prayer.
Lord, I thank you for this church. Everyone who took the time to come in here and fellowship with their fellow believers. For those who are new and curious, Lord, I pray that you've opened hearts today.
And that your word finds fertile soil
where it has penetrated not just their minds, but their hearts
so that they can become vehicles for your grace and mercy, Your love and create a new creation. And then
so they can walk in the light, walk in the truth and walk in these good deeds. So they'll be true witnesses for your gospel, and ask these things in Jesus's name.
Amen.
Good morning.
Welcome. If you're new here among us, my name is Gene I serve here at C3 church as your pastor.
And I heard a story.
I heard a story about a prosecutor in a small town courtroom. He's about to call his first witness to the stand and elderly woman whom he knows. He thinks he has his strategy, calls her up, and asked her a question, Mrs. Jones. Do you know me?
Oh, yes, Mr. Williams, I know you. I've known you since you were a little boy. And quite frankly, I'm disappointed.
You lie. You cheat people.
You manipulate. You think you're a big shot under that fancy suit? Under it all, you're worse than everyone you're prosecuting.
Not what he was expecting. So not knowing what to do. He points to the defense attorney and he says, Jones, do you know him? Yeah, I've known him too since he was a little boy. In fact, I used the baby soon. What a disappointment. He's lazy, bigoted, and you know what? He has a drinking problem. Underneath that fancy suit. He's a mess. Now the courtroom erupts small town, everybody kind of knows everybody else. And the judge is banging the gavel trying to get control the courtroom. Finally everybody comes down. He calls the two lawyers to the bench. And he says in a quiet but menacing tone.
Listen, if either one of you asks that woman as she knows me, I'll hold you both in contempt of court!
Indeed, today, we'll see that if you talk the talk, you shouldn't be walking the walk. Right? So last week, we looked at First and Second Peter, where we saw this encouragement not to jump ship, the faith. Today, we're going to look at first through third John and see what it is to be really on board as a Christian. So just a bit of a setup here for what we're going to be seeing. This has been a nice long series, which is a good thing, because we're really trying to honor the entirety of God's Word. So rebuilding this culture. It's been about three years, I think. And we've been making our way through the Bible, every word of it between this and Bible study and really honoring it, we've learned so much. But as we get towards the end of the Bible, we must remember that the best commentary on the Old Testament is the new and the best commentary on the New Testament is the New Testament itself, right? So while it's not in chronological order that we've learned, we've learned, you know, Jesus, we have the Gospels here. But then Paul clarifies a lot of things right. So these are the latter letters that clarify a lot of what he said, what he might have left out what's going on here. Well, as we get towards the end of the Bible, again, not in chronological order, but these are later letters, we see certain themes start to repeat. So if you were listening last week, it really did. And first and second, Peter, it felt like even for me reading it, like, didn't they just that exact sentence. So you get these themes of suffering, not falling away from the faith, big on false teachers. We're going to approach Jude where that's the whole thing, not a long letter, but it's really all about that. So what's happening here is, you end up with certain heresies arising in the early church, one big one is that Jesus is not God. And then you have all these false teachers coming in to infect it. So the worry here the teachers is, hey, you know, look out for these guys. It's bad news. So this is what you're going to see. Now, just a quick note, if you're new here, this today might, sadly, be a little unusual to you, if you're not new here, you know what to expect. You know, I'm basically just going to read you the Bible today. What's going to happen with a few jokes, maybe about fish or something else? Whatever comes to mind. They were bad last week, was it last week already? They were bad. Alright, but anyway, usually is. But anyway, I tried to mix it up. But it's a lot of God's Word. And this is really important for us as Christians to think because so many Christians out there, if they're being very honest, have not read the whole Bible. They have not read the whole Bible. Right? Even if they have you talked to me, I read it once. You know, okay, I saw a movie once. 10 years ago, I forgotten most of it, right? So, you know, they don't really read the whole thing. They don't read the whole thing in short periods of time. So from one end to another, it's hard for people to connect the whole thing, yet. They have very definitive opinions about what it says.
That really doesn't make much sense does it? So it would be like doing a book report having not really read the book or finished it. Alright, so you draw your conclusion. Well, this is what it's all about. You probably get a pretty bad grade, but that's what Christians are doing. So what we're going to do is we're going to
Read through
almost everything here, I'm going to paraphrase some spaces in here. And I'm going to, but I just I'm trying not to say important verses because it's all very important. But just paraphrase some certain things for you to get our application here, but I'm going to encourage all of you don't. And this is true for any pastor, even if there are 1000s others also just reading the Bible to their people. Don't take my word for it, please get a Bible and read it yourself. Right? Just you need to read God's word and formulate your opinion based on the truth. Right? So don't just blanketly believe anyone check it. So that's why we have people here with Bibles. If you're not used to that culture, reading along, it's I don't take any offense to it. I encouraged them to do it. Right. All right, so let's hop right in. First, John, First John, one we proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, who we have heard and seen, we saw him with our own eyes and touch them with their own hands, he is the word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us and we have seen him and now he testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us, we proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, we are writing these things so that you can fully share our joy. So again, we have these heresies coming in. First John is going to sound a lot like the Gospel of John, In the beginning was the word that word was with God, the Word was God, he was in the beginning with God. So basically saying, Jesus is God. He's talking about Jesus, He is the Word of life. Really important fighting these heresies. This is probably a later letter, your John's probably an older guy at this point. And people are saying, Jesus is not God. So right from the beginning, he's clearing that up, but purpose for writing so that you may share this joy or we have joy in eternal life, living in the light, first, John, one, five, this message we heard from Jesus, and now declared here, this is the message, God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God, but go on living in or walking in, if you're new, and I bracket things that's closer to what the Greek says it just throw it in there for you. spiritual darkness, we're not practicing the truth. But if we are living in or walking in the light, God is in the light, and we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin. So here's this theme, walking in things, walking in the truth. Walking in the light, you're going to hear John talks about this a lot. But it's not the first time we saw we saw in Ephesians, this idea of walking in the light being children of the light.
The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about this as well, right? We must walk in the light can't walk in darkness, and sin is left in the shadow. So it means that Jesus is the light of the world. And we walk in His footsteps, right, we follow we do what he did that is walking in the light. So now we come to something that may or may not seem a bit out of place. So I'm going to explain this to you first, John, when he, if we claim we have no sin, we're only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. And if we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that His word has no place in our hearts. Okay. So you may have heard this, and this is really where a lot of people just like to stop. And then they close the book of John, there is no chapter breaks in the original, right? So nobody turns the page here. They just stop right here, right? Okay. But just real quick, did you notice that it was past tense. Okay. And it is not a place if we keep reading turn the page first on to one, My dear children, I'm writing this to you, so that you will not soon. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father is Jesus Christ, when it was truly righteous. He Himself is the sacrifice that atone for our sins, and not only our sins, but the sins of all the world, and we can be sure that we know him if we obey His commandments. And if someone claims I know God, but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar. And he's not living in the truth. But those who obey God's words were truly show how completely they love they love him. This is how we know we are living in Him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did literally the one who says that he resides in him to walk just as that one walk that one is Jesus, right? So we have this theme of walking again. Again, walk the walk now.
So here's the balance. I've had you This is really funny. I've had people do this when I talk about sin and how we're really not supposed to be going around sinning. They'll quote First John one. And I'm like,
turn the page please just please keep Can you please keep reading right. So it's really important. One who says they know God, but doesn't walk the walk is a liar.
Now remember last week, you shouldn't be completely unfamiliar. If you're familiar with the Bible, what it both First and Second Peter says, Put it up just for some review. First Peter for one. So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourself with the same attitude he had to be ready to suffer to. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. Second, Peter 110. So dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. So what's going on here? Right? Well, first of all, the sin is in the past tense. But if we say we have no sin, right, there's just no sin as well. So essentially, think about it, why would Jesus have to die? We all have that sinful nature, the nature of the flesh. And we've seen this Galatians The spirit and the flesh, right? They're kind of at war with one another. But what you have here, again, is a paradox. Very, very common in the Bible, where you have two seemingly contradictory statements that are made. But when you keep reading, you look at the full counsel of it. Makes sense. So that's what's going on here. Now, the big thing just to take you back to Hebrews, we're going to go to Hebrews a couple of times, did I not? I won't put up and I'll just say, you know, look at Hebrews 10. What was the issue there? If someone goes around, intentionally sending that's the big thing here, that's what we're looking for. So we need to look to the full council of God's word, intention. So you're going to have that sinful nature, right? We all do, even as a pastor. I said, when asked my wife, right, so
I mess it up. Right? But if it's brought to my attention, what do I do?
Actually fix it. Tell them, okay.
This is the part where it's okay for you to talk in church. So
I went over that too. We're not going to go back to Yeah, all right. Anyway, intentionally right. So it's the intent, right? Don't prowls around like a lion. But we don't want to be that lion. We don't want to be looking for sin. It's you mess up. So it brings it to your attention wanting the Holy Spirit, like lets you know, you, repent, don't do that anymore. So that's, that's the big deal here. That's what's going on so that you understand. Alright, so new commandment, love, right. So first, John, to nine. If anyone claims I'm living the light, but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. Anyone who loves a fellow believers living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living in and there it is walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go haven't been blinded by the darkness, his darkness can blind you. So he's writing, because people will claim they're a believer, right. So that's the issue here. Anyone who hates is still walking in darkness, and jumped down do not love this world. First of all, to 15 do not love this world, nor the things that offers you. For when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see and pride in our achievements and possession. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what got pleases God. Live will live forever. So.
So this is a major rebuke. Right to the prosperity gospel. Have you heard that a major review? They won't read this in their churches? Right? The things that people crave are the things of this world, right? And that's kind of ironic, I just find it kind of funny, where it's like some of these denominations are called Word of faith. But how did Hebrews 11 Define faith? Faith is about what we hope for it is about what cannot be seen. So it's almost ironic.
They're calling themselves faithful. No, these things are not from the Father. Did you notice something else? Pride is a sin. Pride is always a sin in the Bible. I've demonstrated that see in the past, in the Greek, some translations, it's very innocent kind of thing. They'll say like, you're my pride and joy. And it's an idiom you have going on there, but it never says that pride is a good thing in the entire context of God's Word. The Word is fading away. Doesn't this sound a lot like Second Peter?
Yes, right. So as we get towards the end of the Bible, we see that everything got that's it it's over all melted in flames. No more Earth, right? We're waiting for new Heaven, New Earth. That's what our focus has to be. Now we get to Antichrists Ooh, right. So in today's language, false teachers first on to 18 Dear children, the last hours here, you have heard that the Antichrist is coming. And already many such Antichrists have appeared from this. We know the last hours come these people left our churches but never really belong with us otherwise, they would have stayed with us. When they left it proved they did not belong to us. So a couple of things here.
Antichrist Did you notice plural again?
But there's a plural here. False teachers, right? So anyone who denies that Jesus is God, Jesus is Lord, that person is an antichrist. There's not just like one. And remember, we can deny Jesus, what does it say in Titus, by the way we live. That's another thing. People leaving churches, this is interesting. This is going to kind of come up later here.
We've had, you're already too. But anyway, people who don't really belong with us, they will be repelled by the word of God. That's what's going to happen. They're going to hear the Word of God, and they're going to go, that didn't make me feel good, right? I didn't like that. It alarms me. I've had people in the church literally leave or never come back and say, Man, you read too much of the Bible. I'm like
Are you a Christian? You know what I'm getting as I get older, you get like shorter with people. So it's kind of cool.
Okay, Satan, you can leave like,
that's fine. Don't even get behind me just Yeah.
Like, like Paul said, Levin, you're like one thing. 11 one bad apple. Get out of here. Right. So but we've had that happen. We've just literally I've had people come up like, Yeah, that's great. But man, you know, like, he can? No, no, I can't. So anyway, there's another question that comes up. And this is kind of the answer to it. Hebrews six out of that people will begin to theologically argue whether you can lose your faith or not. And then he got stuck in this like holding pattern. And they come up with all these opinions. But they just needed to keep reading the Bible, because it tells us it's not that you're losing your salvation, is that you were never genuine about it.
That's what first so if you ever hear anyone to be can you lose your salvation, and it's going to be like on YouTube. And it's a two hour video with like, this clickbait picture and everything. Just don't watch that.
Just read your Bible, it explains it very clearly. They were saying they were Christians, but they never really were. If you are just filled with the Holy Spirit, you are baptized in the Spirit. You love Jesus, don't worry. Like he's never going to abandon you. You know, don't worry about that. These people are not right. So again, this thing you can talk to talk.
But do you walk the walk? Alright, here are some key things I'm writing these things to warn you about those who will lead you astray. So he talks about living as children of God. And in case you didn't get the clarification from before, I'd like to highlight this first, John, for you, for everyone who sins is breaking God's law. For all sin is contrary to the law of God. And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there's no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in him, will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. Your children. Don't let anyone deceive you about this. When people do what is right. It shows that they're righteous even as Christ is righteous. When people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sitting since the beginning. This is where I get my material from, by the way. But the son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning. Because they're children of God. Now we can tell who are children of God, and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously does not love and does not love other believers does not belong to God. So here's some major clarification about that first chapter, correct. And that's all these people need to do is keep reading, but they don't want to do that. Right? It shows what we really belong to what our deeds, that's interesting shows who we belong to, and it's why we need to keep reading, so goes into loving one another talks about Cain who murdered his brother, if you're, you're familiar with the Old Testament, right? Don't be like him. Don't do that. If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead, right? She's talking about eternal life. First, John 316. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. Hmm. And someone has enough money to live well, and sees a brother or a sister and a need but shows no compassion. how can God's love in that person? Your children, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth. So be confident, we stand for God, even if we are guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. So just to put this out there again. What do we believe here? The Bible, what the Bible say about our salvation in Jesus Ephesians two, we are saved by grace through faith, not my work so that no one can boast.
Stop that
So that is yes, that's our say, right? We are created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so that we can walk in. That's what it says. So it all comes together, right? Did you hear me? Okay?
So we're saved by grace through faith, but actions are required. So last week, we saw God's promises require a response if we're unresponsive.
Right? So our actions show the truth about what we really believe. And on actions speaking louder than words, first and foremost, dear friends do not believe everyone who can claim to speak by the Spirit, you must test them see if the Spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God. If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has a spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet, and does not acknowledge through truth about Jesus, that person is not from God, such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming to the world and is already here. Well, there you go, the false teachers. So
it's weird, like, why is John picking? Just that? Right? So if a person, you know acknowledges that Jesus came in, so what is he saying, again? What was the first heresy that Jesus wasn't God? So basically turn it around that God didn't come here in a real body if someone doesn't acknowledge that, that Jesus is God, they're an antichrist and fake Jesus. Don't listen to them. Now, indeed, we have many false prophets today. Many false prophets out there today a lot, right? So you have to test them, they need to be tested. It's very, very important. But what's interesting is,
a lot of Christians out there wouldn't think we do like you see it on college campus. Oh, Jesus wasn't God, Christianity is not good. You know, worldview, that kind of thing. Yes, we do see that. It's pretty prevalent, but it's more probably in the church than you think. There are denominations claiming to be Christian, that deny Jesus, His deity, and certain ones are not doing so outwardly. But if you look at what they really believe, that is, Jesus is a God, not the God and you can be a god like Jesus and have your own planet and starts to get really weird. So they don't put that they don't put that stuff out there. But I bet a lot of you have actually either given them money, or subscribe to what they're putting out there. Because if you watch probably the most popular Christian show out there, they've gotten in your head. So what you should do if you watch any Christian show that claims to be based on the Bible, pick your Bible up and read along.
And you're going to see there's a whole bunch of stuff that's not in the Bible, about 75% of these shows. And in them, they do things like have like, let's say, John three, John, a special conversation with Nicodemus and Jesus were in Nicodemus, and the Bible has like three lines, but his dialogue and this show goes on for 20 minutes.
And then when he tries to worship Jesus, Jesus says, You don't have to do that.
said Jesus never, never denied worship. And so all of these seeds in the gospels they worshipped Him. Except it. Why, pray tell, would you throw that in there?
Wolves in sheep's clothing. It'd be very careful. So always tested, you're watching shows tested the Word of God. And if they start throwing in dialogue that's not in there, turn it off and turn it off. But does anyone turn off? Like, oh,
I'm close, right? Okay. So be careful, test everything against the word of God. We're told in the Word of God, I'm not going to go too long today. But in the Word of God, we are not to add anything to it or take anything away, both Old and New Testament, someone who does that is cursed. Right? Don't add anything to don't take anything away. First, on fourth, fourth, but you belong to God, My dear children, you have already won a victory over those people because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the Spirit lives in the world. Those people belong to this world. So they speak the World Viewpoint from the world's viewpoint in the world listens to them, but we belong to God. And those who know God, listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has a spirit of truth in the spirit of deception. So false teachers preach worldly things, right. That's the indicator there. Now, again, like I said, we've actually had this happen, right? They don't listen to the word. So these are these people that leave and I'm not talking about just like, leave and go into the church now leave and they don't belong to us. They get repelled by the word they don't like hearing it. That's another indicator that someone's not filled with the Spirit. Someone's filled with the Spirit. They're going to be like, ah, God's word, right. So that's how I get fed. Right Man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God, so it's going to
You know that that's it. But people who don't they argue that it feels uncomfortable.
Scary, right? loving one another. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other God lives in us. And his love is brought to full expression in us. Now, here's another one, right? So all the PhDs get stuck on this. What does he mean by no one's ever seen God? Well, the Old Testament to it turns back to Moses. And again, all these crazy conversations again, there's another one to two hour YouTube video. But was that the point about what John just said?
No, the point is love. But then they debate. They don't love one another. They started fighting and arguing with one another about what who's seen God, have we not seen God? And you just missed? That was the commandment. Right? So what does it mean? Because now you're going to ask that question. So fine. It means that it's talking about the entirety of God, the entire folded remember, he created the universe, no one can even comprehend Him. Right? That's most likely what it means. But don't miss the point.
supposed to love one another. For son for 16. We know how much God loves us. And we have put our trust in His love. God is love. And all who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. Do not be afraid on the Day of Judgment, we can face it with confidence because we live like Jesus here in the world. Such love has no fear. But because perfect we hear love expels all fear, sorry, if we are afraid it is for fear of punishment. And this shows that we have not fully expressed his love. We love each other because he loved us first, since kind of laughing to myself as going through that. So most people take verse 18 as a standalone, alright, and that's it and they get it wrong. It's nothing sounds great. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.
They'll say anything else, right? You've heard that. But did you hear the rest? Right? If you're afraid because for fear of punishment, so a couple quick things going to do really, really fast not going to do this because I've done it 100 times, but the Bible does not say if you're not 365 times, if you've seen that meeting, the person posting it does not know the Word of God, it's impossible. So it's about 80 Something times it says fear not fear about 511 times by my account. And most of the time it's saying you should be afraid.
Fear the Lord, right. So it's the beginning of all wisdom and insight. Proverbs 1416. The wise fear is just cautious, cross it out. It's like phobia in Greek fear.
Fear, right. It's a good thing sometimes. So what's happening? Remember that paradox? Right? It's a both kind of thing. Now, there's another reason why reading the whole letter is really important. Wait, because what's the context? judgment? Judgment is the context here. So we saw this, especially in First Peter, we've seen all over the Bible, Christians will be judged. Yes. But you need to think about it rightly. Right, because people don't know vocabulary, right? So let's go back and study some vocabulary words, you can be judged to be judged means that God will just judge you. Right? But you can be judged and then found not guilty.
That's fine. All right. And that's why we're not afraid. We talked about his Bible study, I think on Wednesday, First Corinthians 11. Right. So it's good to read because it clears that up a little bit. The difference between condemnation and judgment, there's difference, we will be judged, but if we are in Christ, will not be condemned with the rest of the world. That is the difference. That's the key thing here to remember. So remember, so that fear not having fear. You're not afraid during judgment, because you know, you won't be condemned. That's what he's talking about. Perfect love here. Remember, love was at play here. So that's what's going on. You don't have to fear if you're truly walking in His love. And so for someone for 20, if someone says, I love God, but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar. For if we don't love people, we can see how can we love God and we cannot see. And he's given us this command. Those who love God must also love their fellow believers again. So who is a liar? The one who hates right, the one who is talking to talk but not walking the walk, personify one. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His children, too. We know we love God's children, if we love God and obey his commands. Loving God means keeping His commandments, that his commandments are not burdensome, for every child of God defeats this evil world and we achieved this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God? So, again, we know those who love by what? Those who obey his commandments and walk the walk, and Jesus Christ was revealed.
There's God's Son by his baptism in water and by shedding His blood on the cross, not by water only, but by water and blood. And the spirit was truth confirmed with his testimony. We have these things, the three witnesses, the spirit, the water and the blood just quickly, this might be very confusing to you. But if you read the gospels, the Gospel of John 19, what happens Jon's a witness to Jesus's side getting pierced, and the blood and the water come out. And then Jesus talks about his testimony being a witness to that. So he's bringing that into play goes back to the beginning, what did you say he was a witness very important.
key verse first on 513, I have written this to you, I believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. Here's that hope and joy, that that's what we hope and full circle. Quick thing here not even put on the screen, because people read it. And we are confident that he hears us whenever we asked for anything that pleases Him. And since we know He hears us, when we make our request, we also know that he'll give us what we asked for.
Yeah, okay, so remember, the things of this world? If we read the whole thing, what did we learn about the things of this world? Right? The last, the pleasures, the cravings of this? We're not supposed to be asking for that. So when people use this to go, oh, it's going to give me what? Nope, you didn't read the whole? Okay. I'm not going to get started. So when we ask for what pleases him remember in First Peter, that thing about the husband's,
like, the wives a lot of stuff for the wives, and what to say about the husbands, right? If you're not loving your wife or not treating her honorably? Yeah, your prayers will get hindered. And he said it twice in there. Alright, so there are times when.
And we talked about this through the Old Testament to like Isaiah one equals five. Simon if no, he wants righteous living, that's true worship Romans 12. What's true? Were being a loving living sacrifice, right? So not about what?
Right? It's about doing. Jesus clarify. So
sometimes you will take Matthew seven and run with it, right? So it's this whole thing where, you know, if you fathers your child asks you, you know, for a piece of bread, you're not going to give them a stone? Are you a fish? You're not going to give them a sneak? Are you? So how much more? Will your Heavenly Father give you anything you asked for? Right? And they stop. But no. Luke clarifies Luke 11. How much more will your Father give you the Holy Spirit?
If you ask him? Right, so he will give us what pleases Him. And so we see it all over the Bible, Paul's Thorn other places where no, not even Paul gets everything that he wants. And remember, the devil is the ruler of this world, he can bless us, too. So, second Corinthians four, four, just for one example, right? He's the ruler of this world here. We'll see it again. First on 518. We know that God's children do not make a practice of sitting. There it is, again, for God's Son holds them securely, and even when cannot touch them. We know that we are children of God, that the world around us is under control of the evil one.
Again, people who espouse that prosperity gospel should start thinking about that. When you start constantly asking and obsessing over worldly things, who pray tell, might you be praying to
the ruler of this world? Right, so remember, Jesus has temptations? The devil tried to bless Jesus. Right? So no, he concludes your children keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts literally keep away from idols, which are things replacements for God. Now I'm going to go over second and third, John very quickly. So the first two there, these are like one page letters that are really quick.
They are addressed to individuals. But there are things that apply to us that we can learn from. So I'll just kind of give you the point here, you're going to see this theme, like walking in the truth. So John is going to keep going along with the theme. So he's John the elder, right? So he could be like an elder in a church or an older guy, he's writing to the chosen lady and her children. So this could be an actual lady or it could be the church. Some think it's the church most usually say it's going to be the church. Right? So
who might I love in truth, as does everyone else who knows the truth? Because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever. So again, what I'm just reading here in trying to deal with translation. So aleetheea is truth in Greek. So it comes up a lot here. So truth, truth, truth, truth, Grace, mercy and peace again, set setting that tone here for joy, Grace, mercy and peace, like theater and Paul's letters, living the truth. Second, John, one for how happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to or walking in the truth. Just as a Father commanded, I'm writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one
We have had from the beginning, love means doing what God has commanded walking according to His commandments. And He has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning, again, the steam, walking in love, love means doing what God commanded. Now, here, he's going to say I say this because many deceivers come into the world. So he goes into this whole thing about like, not welcoming them into your home, right, so don't have any fellowship with these deceitful false teachers, again, walking the walk, he concludes both of these letters. Second, and Third John, very much the same way again, serves translates into, I have much more to say to you, but I don't want to do it with paper and ink for I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face, then our job will be completed. So face to face is an example of like, no translation is going to be totally literal. It's a stoma plus stoma. So it's like, if you're Greek or you know, Greek mouth to mouth. So if it was literal, he'd say, I want to come and speak with your mouth to mouth. And you're like, it's going to resuscitate me.
So I'm just giving you guys a playful example of something where it's best sometimes not to do a literal translation. So what is he trying to say? I want to, you know, I can use paper and I want to meet with you face to face. So we would say, Third John, again, letter from John Elder to gay us or Gaius, a guy here. What's the issue? Well, traveling teachers, so he's glad that guy has and people like him are providing for these traveling teachers. So again, we've seen this, we saw this in let's see, first Timothy, you've seen all over the place, right? You're supposed to take care of your teachers, you know, provide for them 100 times what everyone is making plus a private jet.
Just take care of them. Right. And that's what's going on here. But atrophies. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And they do help he puts them out of the church. Right? So he's just giving this contrast and saying this is a bad guy. Third, John 111. Dear friend, don't let this bad example influence you fall only what is good. Remember that those who do good, prove that they are God's children, and those who do evil, prove that they do not know God.
The theme here again, we're known by our actions.
Indeed, today.
There are many calling themselves Christians that talk the talk.
They say they are.
But are they walking the walk?
I hear the phrase. If it quacks like a duck. It's another old one like the TV.
it quacks like a duck, or is it walks like a duck.
Then it's a duck. What does that mean? What? What we read today? That's what that means. Right? If it looks like a duck quacks, it's probably a duck. Right? So we know who the children of the devil are, we know who the children of God are by how they walk.
Simple is that.
I've given this example, before in the past, and it kind of fits here. So I'll have a variable. I'll give you a variation on this kind of illustration here. But in this is kind of funny, as I kind of thought through like this example, I realized, like, I'm coming up with examples of something that this person would do. I'm like, Oh, I've met that guy. Oh, I met that guy. So here, this is really funny. So maybe you have someone come into church, right? And they get greeted, they're like, Ah, whatever. That kind of thing. No joy at all right now. We're threatened to stab you. That's happened.
But don't worry, you're safe.
But you know, either and they go for the coffee or I'm going to pick up some of the literature on their way.
Like whenever they go for the coffee, they push everybody out of their way to get to the coffee, they drink it and throw the cup all over the place. Again, everywhere they come in, they sit down for service, right and don't talk to anybody. Leave me alone. Whatever it is. The music comes on right? Ah, oh, it's so loud.
Right? The Bible says write with joyful shouts and clanging loud clanging cymbals don't read Psalms. Anyway, so like anyway when you're it's all out in here is modern music where my hymns you know that kind of thing. So if that's you get out so anyway
but anyway, yeah, but
but anyways complaining right instead of worshiping right complaining about everything. Like what did you come here for? You know, but it's about me I'm thinking. So they listen to the message like well, he's just reading me the Bible you know, what is this all about? Make me feel good pastor Shut up clown do your job, right, you know, that kind of thing. So, you know, this kind of just complaining about everything. I've seen it right. I can don't do that now because now I will call you up. Right and let's start looking at I don't care.
Oh,
Anyway, right looking at the watch like fine. Finally we're done. I had to listen to one hour of God's Word. You know, go home and watch four hours of sports. They get upstairs, right?
They get upstairs, right they go right for the food line. Heard about the Stromboli. There it is.
Push the kids out of the way. Take all the Stromboli. Listen, we got to talk about that. Because I got Yeah, I got some confessions from people. We got to work on the Stromboli thing.
Take it's a real thing. I'm not going to look at anyone in particular.
But it's a real thing. Like, I know you'd like it, but we some for everybody else. Okay, so this guy takes the whole plate sits down. The table just starts counting down now. We're good here. See three? Right? We know how many guys knew. It's okay. I've been there. Like just last week, I was taking all this trouble. So now let's, let's see, you know, it starts honking Ah, so Hey, Are you new here? You know what's going on? You're in a church be like, no, no, no. I've been a Christian my whole life.
Okay, let's define what Christian is. Right. So But no, we don't do that grace, right. We lead with grace. It's okay. So I'm trying to talk you know, so, you know, I struggle with sin, too. I get it. You know, I do some things I shouldn't be doing and I'm working on. I'm doing my best to get some good accountability here. So maybe you know, you need an accountability partner. So he decides to open up. He's like,
Yeah,
I struggle with sin, too.
Okay, you can you can tell me anything. It's okay, man. I've been here done. Really?
Okay.
Murder. I really struggled with murdering people. It's tough. It's been rough. And I just I can't stop. But I, I got to a point where I just do it on the weekends.
So I mean, you know, in person.
Today, today we can.
As funny as that is, right. There are many talking to talk but not walking. And I'm serious. Like I met that guy.
The murder thing was not current. But you know, look, I met they maybe if you've been in church at all, if you've met a variation of that guy, or seen some of these things, and I'm like, but hold on.
What do you what's today all about to you.
Serious, you know. So like the duck. How you walk says everything about who you really are.
Is just does. What you do says more about what you believe in anything they say.
So what are you really believe and this is kind of a funny thing. I'll just take one second, just to compliment you guys.
There is a part where we're going through a major transition here. So to get from mainstream Christianity to where we are today, it's very difficult, because it's unfortunately not normative. It's nothing like the early church. Just, it's really, it's just annoying.
So as a pastor, this is why the burnout rate among pastors about 37% now is huge. And one of the main reasons like I'm just very honest, I'll tell you, one of the main reasons is a we get sick of watering rocks are terrible. So we get sick of it. It's just it's not listening. And what's the point? Right, and we get sick of it to pastors before me actually expressed this at a board meeting before, you know being called somewhere else, by God is that I'm sick of looking at a bunch of people who are on the highway to hell.
It's depressing. It's very sad, a lot of tears.
So you're done, or you get sick of it. And so there's a point at which the transition to became personally an opening up to very frustrating for me, because, you know, like, we have a board and all the money stays with the board. I don't do anything they did, thank goodness, they don't tell me anything about the money I don't want to hear. I want to know, because I don't want anything I do or say to be motivated by money. Right? So they just don't tell me how things are going. I really don't know.
But you can tell it's getting tight, right? Because, you know, everyone who does the money is starting a little bit more on edge, you know, or like, I asked for something, you know, like, Hey, can I buy myself a Bible? And they're like, no.
So, you know, you just know, you know, the Holy Spirit is a part of that you just kind of you know, like, and you just got to preach through it. And there was a point at which I really thought like, I could just go back to the business world, right? I'm just done. Like, I just can't take this anymore several times. And I just thought I think I've expressed it to you and some others. But you know, it was like if I had to like just give parting words like just say something and drop the mic. That's I'm done.
This is what I would say. We've I've learned about most Christians
and this is not yours.
With the way most of us
Christians are behaving. There is absolutely no way you actually believe this.
That's the problem.
If you believe this, it's like, I mean, it's
it's amazing, you know, like what God did for us, but he's no way, way most Christians are behaving this way.
You do not believe this?
Is a country club or something else do you? I don't know. Right.
But for you guys, I just want to say like, I complimented the Bible study on Wednesday. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for staying on board. It is so refreshing. Like, I just, I don't know if I get to talk to my old pastor friends anymore, because I think they complain, but I really don't have those complaints anymore. They just don't.
They're not here. They're just not here. So thank you. Thank you. That's been wonderful. So what do people really believe? Well,
there's what people are being fed, right? So there's a lot of false teachers in mainstream Christianity. We're going to talk a little bit more about that next week. So I won't go too far here. But I mean, you know, think about it. We talked about consumerism in the church. Why did you come here? Was the sound on the website? Worship Service, most of us, like, call it a worship service?
Do you know what worship means? Well, first of all, the Bible defines it as being a living sacrifice.
Right. But do you know or is it means right? So worship? Have you seen the movies like, oh, you know, worship? It's not about you. It's about not about your comfort. It's about your discomfort before the Lord, before your God. No, but most Christians come to church, and it's kind of like this. It's kind of like going to someone's birthday party, but bringing a present for yourself.
Right and think about it. Have you done that? Do you know people who do that? This is like Jesus's birthday pirate. All the Gifts are for him. Right? And yes, I get it. There's edification. I know. Please, like I get it. I get it. You have personalized it. Yes. We're supposed to build each other up, right. But each other up not yourself. Right. You build each other up. I get that. But the main part, the main part is worship. And worship is not about you, unless you're worshiping yourself.
It's worship. Get this consumerism it's what I can get out of the church, right? What kind of snacks and coffee do you have and what? What can I get? How am I going to get my batteries recharged? How am I going to get fed today?
It's going to stop.
But wait, what do we live on?
The Word of God. Thank you. So somebody's listening. So
but people first, John, I've had pastors point that out and like, they don't know the rest of our stuff. Like this idea. It's okay to sin. We're good.
What did we just put me just read? If that's your takeaway?
It's good.
Reading comprehension skills, right? Like you can't read. You can't comprehend. There's a problem. Right?
It's not okay. Right? That should not be our goal. It's not like, Oh, we're just going to send or whatever. No.
It's not what it says. But there are people who teach that. And so you get this whole idea, this new modern belief that there's no judgment, there's nothing I have to do. Sin is fine. I God's always forever and ever got to meet me where I am. And it's okay. It's like, alright, but what did we read today? Right? If you don't belong to him.
There's a problem. So if that attitude is adopted, there's a problem. You're not genuine about this. Scary. We aren't to walk in the truth. And here's the thing, guys, we have no excuse for not knowing it.
You can just say, Where does it say? Well, it's on the false teacher, the false teacher goes to hell, but you're good.
You're accountable personally, because you've got it right here.
You didn't read the instructions for yourself that's on you.
So are we telling the truth about what we believe because our deeds will expose that our deeds will be used for or against us? In judgment evidence? That's what it's going to be. It's like evidence right. So what caught on TV or been through the process? Where's the evidence? Okay, here it is. All right.
If I get it, right,
that's what it is. It's evidence of our salvation. Now, here's just one quick illustration I want to give you because people kind of behave like this. And it's, it's so wrong.
A lot of people will say, kind of, like, get off my toes faster. You know, just this is my personal business. Well, yeah, it is, right. So if you decide, You know what, I'm not going to go call myself a Christian, I'm going to take the Jesus fish off my car, I'm going to just disassociate with Christianity, I'm not happy, because I know where you're going.
But fine, then it's your business.
But if you're going to go tell everybody your Christian you're going to, you know, you're going to make that known? Nope, that it's not just your business anymore, because the Bible says you can slander the gospel
said that in Titus, we just read it recently. You can slander the gospel. So you know, a lot of business people in Naples, I was a former business person, right? So what's the best form of advertising? Word of mouth? doesn't cost anything, right? You can see the product right before you word of mouth, right? You get reviewed, like the reviews are a big thing, especially nowadays, right? So word of mouth or not. That's the best. That's the best.
But
like, I was in the martial arts in the fitness industry, as well, as in the martial arts industry. This was this is a real thing. It's so anyway, but as a coach, I learned so much as a fighter, but as it occurred, and so as a coach, I would say like really crazy things to the fighters before they got in like a cage or a ring or on the mat. Right. And, and they knew me well, so this was not the first time they'd heard something crazy from me, you know, but I'd get up there. And you know, you always wonder, like, what's the quotes? Or when they go back to the corner, like, what's the corner man saying? Like, what's he saying? Like, if you had a mic on me.
But aside from that, right? This was like one of my signature phrases. Okay, you ready?
Guys ready to go. He's scared, which is always funny. So I'm like, here's what I do to comfort him. Listen.
When you go out there, just the number one thing
Don't embarrass me.
That's a real conversation.
Why? Here's the thing. My fighting style, you represent my brand, my gym, my business. And the cameras are rolling. Right?
That's important you win this fight. We're going to get more students. I'm going to sell more books and DVDs. You lose this fight. They're going to be saying Joe Rogan.
It's going to be annoying. I don't want to hear it. Alright, so important. So this I have used this illustration to you know about the gym. Right? And so you get the gym. Like we ran a real gym, right? So you know, like, the big box gyms and stuff like that. They don't care. Where's the shirt? Right? Or puts the bumper sticker on the car? Like we're like, totally different gym like, Hey, can I have a bumper sticker? You know, I'm like,
no, no, you're going to need to go on a diet. You just can't. Don't say you go here.
Who was that? That? Like no, no, I hear we would openly say things about each other that were crazy. But let me tell you something. People knew where to go. Every cop every bouncer in the area, a lot of military law enforcement. Like if your life's on the line, you need this. Go there. Go there because you're going to learn how to fight. They do not hold that pull punches, literally. Right. So but it's the same thing. Right? Take get that bumper sticker. I'm in the parking lot like scrape and gain 10 pounds. What do you do unless the bumper sticker off?
Don't say you go here. Right? That's embarrassing. So for Christians, take the Jesus fish off the car. Right? So we had that joke in the past. Right? You see pastor Jean in the parking lot scrape and Jesus fishes off, right? You put a little bucket of Jesus fishes and you have these back when you start behaving yourself.
And like some of your life.
But look, as it pertains, here's kind of wrap it up here for you guys. As it pertains like, to me as a good coach. A good coach is someone who cares. That's a good coach. someone cares. So he's going to tell you stuff you really didn't want to hear. That's a good coach, bad coach. Whatever.
They're not going to ask questions. They're not going to challenge you. They're not getting you know,
coaches care. And that's where you are.
So look, how do we get that talk to match the walk or the walk to match the talk? Well, yeah, good coaching and good teaching is a part of it. You need that? A good coaching, good teaching. You need good training partners that you guys, not all your training partners, I mean, teacher training partners, right for some accountability and stuff. Good. We preach that
but all of that is only going to get you so far. Unless you have motivation.
And unless you put in the work
so
thought about putting in the work but motivation.
It's very important to remember who Jesus is, and what he did for you.
Holy is important to remember. So Easter's coming up, and that's a good message, like if you struggle with what I like, the historicity are within his words. And if you struggle with the fact that this is fact right, and you know, if this is historical, the Easter message is always a great message to attend to. I'll, I'll explain a lot of things about what the Bible is and how relevant that is historical document and real thing Jesus was real. So that's important, remember, is a real person's not a fictional character, Jesus is God.
And although right is equal, so it's Philippians. To make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God is something to be taken advantage of, instead of emptied Himself, assuming the former slave took on the likeness of man. And when it comes a man in his external form, he humbled himself about becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross. For this reason, God highly exalted him, and gave him the name that is above every name, so that every knee should bow, those who are in heaven and earth and below the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father,
Jesus.
First, John 316. So you know, John 316, probably everybody here knows that.
For God so loved the world, He gave His Son so we can have eternal life. First, John 316. We know what real love is, because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
Why would you give up your life for anybody?
That's your motivation. Because Jesus did for us. And through that, we get to live we get to have eternal life way better than this one with Him forever.
That's your motivation.
It's keeping those things in mind. And so when it's fully understood, and we adopt that attitude makes its way from here to here, and it finds that fertile soil, remember the parable of the sower, right? There's the rocks, there's the rocky soil, the seed is the word. And when it falls on those things, it doesn't grow, burns up, doesn't grow. When it falls amongst the thorns, the thorns, what are they the worries and the cares of material things? choke up, it's can't grow. But when it finds the fertile soil, it grows up and produces a fruit 30 6100 times.
That'll be natural. But you have to have that motivation with the truth.
That's my encouragement. Jesus tied for you.
Every one of you, no matter what you've done, no matter where you've come from, He died for you. So that by believing in Him, being baptized, what are the Holy Spirit received, that Holy Spirit will carry you through these things bring you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, right? Faithfulness, is able to experience that joy that John is talking about.
So that's my prayer for you this morning. Let me close in prayer.
Lord, I thank you for this church. Everyone who took the time to come in here and fellowship with their fellow believers. For those who are new and curious, Lord, I pray that you've opened hearts today.
And that your word finds fertile soil
where it has penetrated not just their minds, but their hearts
so that they can become vehicles for your grace and mercy, Your love and create a new creation. And then
so they can walk in the light, walk in the truth and walk in these good deeds. So they'll be true witnesses for your gospel, and ask these things in Jesus's name.
Amen.