Fundamentals of the Abundant Life in Jesus - 1st John - The Fundamental of Living, Working, Powerful Abundant Faith

GREET AND INTRO

Good morning everyone!! Good morning on everyone worshiping this morning through live stream.

If I have not had a chance to meet you either in person or through live stream;  My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship. 

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FUNDAMENTALS OF

knowing Joy

True Fellowship

Salvation

Growth, Adding and multiplying

Truth

The Holy Spirit as a Child of God

Killing Sin

Loving Well

Testing the Spirits

Knowing the Love of God and Loving others

PRAYER

This morning my prayer is that each one of us would step deeper, farther, riskier and more abundantly and firmly in to living this abundant life by Faith -

The word says that It is the righteous live not by sight - not in what we see - not in what we know - not what we can understand - not in our circumstances that we think are on us.

Not by Might - not in what we can do - not in what our resources are - not in our numbers - not in our gifting, talents, skills, or abilities -

The Bible says that the righteous live by faith. When the Bible uses the word Faith - It means several things that we must grab onto an never let go of. It means Belief in the claims - It means agreement with God - and Lastly it means TRUST -

TRUST in what God has done - TRUST in what God can do through us - TRUST in the Plans of God - TRUST in the decrees of God - TRUST in the commands of GOD - TRUST in the ordinances of God.

TRUST in His movement of HIS Spirit.

TRUST is FAITH and FAITH is TRUST -

PRAY for the persecuted Church -

PRAY FOR OUR FAITH!

LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES

either electronic version or the actual book kind -

Open it to 1st John Chapter 5 as we will look at vs 1 through 21 this morning as we Come to the conclusion in our Fall series understanding the Fundamentals of living the abundant life that Jesus came to give us - walking together through the 1 st letter of John the Apostle and very best friend of Jesus.

TRUTH

1 John 5:1–21 NASB95

1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. 18 We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

ENGAGEMENT

Divided - Segregation - Separate - Exclusive -

When you hear these words chat comes to your mind?

You know the world that we live in is so separated - Segregated, Divided -

You know that some of us grew up with separation as a part of our culture and in many places today we can still hear the mantra of separation -

“They live on the other side of the tracks”

And we are separate - WE separate ourselves into group all so easily - Separation by Neighborhoods we live in -

Separation by Education -

Separation by age group -

Separation by sociao economics - Upper class, Upper middle class - Middle Class - Lower middle Class - The poor -

Separation by State of origin - Separation by country -

Separation by culture, language and dress and traditions -

Separation by hobbies, habits and hangups.

Separation by criminal conviction

Separation by political affiliation

Separation of values -Life Style, world view and belief systems

and finally separation by skin color or origins.

What is interesting is that what ever one or multiple separation characteristics that we fond our selves in we usually like our group that have other of these characteristics like us and we have something intrinsically in common with them - and we fell safer in most cases in those groups.

SO at some level we like our separation - and believe this our not the beginning of our separation from each other came from God.

NOW don't mistake what I am saying - What happened way back in Genesis Chapter 11 is all of mankind used to speak one language and they began to desire to bring glory to man instead of bring glory to God and so what God did was separate the human population by language and then spread them across the planet.

What we have done, instead of looking at this separation as something to more and realize the cause of and bring glory to God we have become comfortable with the separation at some level.

TENSION

The problem is that when we take our comfort of separation - what ever that comfort level may or may not be - When we take that into our relationship with God and our understanding of the things of God -

Three things can Emerge and manifest in our life -

We begin to accept the separation and there for with draw away from the Them in our life. The Them’s its the same thing as the THEY s in our life -

When that happens we then step into and us and them frameworks and that will stifle our declaration of the Gospel to Anyone- Anytime Anywhere.

3. and as we continue to see the word in all of these groups - We will deny the supernatural calling that God is or could be placing on us by thinking “God is not calling me to those or to them”

4. WHen that happens our faith is reduced to belief or agreement ot certain facts and trust begins to be left our tof the equasion.

BUT YOU SEE -

GOD DOES NOT SEE THE WORLD DIVIDED LIKE WE SEE THE WORLD

So that begs the question: How Does God see the world?

With that lets unpack out text?

BEFORE

Before we so some unpacking of chapter 5 lets understand the three overarching sessions that this chapter is laid out.

in vs 1-5 John lays out the Gospel and what and who can see the victory over the world -

6-12 the testimony of the three witnesses of Jesus being the Son of God -

13-21 The 5 certainties of our Trust in God

UNPACKING

VS1

John open up with WHOSOEVER - Meaning ANYONE - ANYWHERE or ANYTIME -

Believes - The word that means TO place TRUST in - Like to Place trust in a weapon or Skill - IF you are putting your Trust in a weapon or Skill that only way that you are demonstrating that Trust is that you are actively using that weapon or Skill.

You see right OF THE BAT - John says - Who So EVER TRUST IN THE FACT That Jesus is the Anointed of God -

That is what Christ means - The anointed one -

Anyone - Any time Any where who trust Jesus is who Jesus said He was and did what He said He did and pits that Faith that Trust to work is born of God -

another word is Begotten of God - This word carries the Idea of being Born again -

and Whoever loves the father loves the Child born of Him.

VS2

John says “there is a way we can know that we love the Children who have been born again”

We love GOD and Observe His commandments -

Now in our language the word Observe has some interesting applications - In English to observe means to look at - Sot of like looking at the red light as we ran through it -

Like looking at the speed limit and saying “hey look that sign says 55 mile per hour and I m going 75.

But in the language of the new testament - The word OBSERVE literally ment “to do”

SO What John has Just concluded is that Love of God - Love of Each other and the world are tied to Doing what Jesus said to do -

VS3

John then makes it Chrystal clear that the Love of God is doing what God says to do -

Some of us think about that and it is Overwhelming to us to keep the commands of God - But in the back half of the verse He says something very interesting -

His commands are not burdensome - This word burdensome in the new testament means Heavy to the point of being painful -

What John has Just done is pointed us back to Jesus - You see John being the very best friend of Jesus would have been there when Jesus said -Come to me all who are tired and heavy with burdens and learn of me and I will give you rest as my yolk is easy and my burden is light -

Jesus says that the weight that He puts on us is “His yolk “ The responsibilities he lays on each one of us as His followers is Easy and Light -

many today think that this is license to do nothing or very little for his kingdom - By Jesus said there is a yolk and there is a burden -

In these first three verses John has over and over pointed us back to Jesus -

In relationship to keeping the Commands of Jesus I love what Oswald Chambers wrote - as he let the scriptures talk to His soul -

My Utmost for His Highest (November 2nd—Authority and Independence)

If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments. John 14:15 (R.V.).

Our Lord never insists upon obedience; He tells us very emphatically what we ought to do, but He never takes means to make us do it. We have to obey Him out of oneness of spirit. That is why when Our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an IF—you do not need to unless you like. “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself”; let him give up his right to himself to Me. Our Lord is not talking of eternal positions, but of being of value to Himself in this order of things, that is why He sounds so stern (cf. Luke 14:26). Never interpret these words apart from the One who uttered them.The Lord does not give me rules, He makes His standard very clear, and if my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without any hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone else in competition with Him, viz., myself. Jesus Christ will not help me to obey Him, I must obey Him; and when I do obey Him, I fulfil my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small petty incidents, altogether unnoticeable and mean, but if I obey Jesus Christ in the haphazard circumstances, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God, and when I stand face to face with God I shall discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When once God’s Redemption comes to the point of obedience in a human soul, it always creates. If I obey Jesus Christ, the Redemption of God will rush through me to other lives, because behind the deed of obedience is the Reality of Almighty God.

‌‌This is what John has just said to us - If we love God we will keep His commands -

What are the Commands of Jesus?

Repent and Believe -

Be Baptized -

PRAY -

Go into the world with the agenda of making disciples of mine-

Love - Love God, Love each other - Love the world -

Worship God by persevering through all that life throws at you.

Gather together as a family His Body -

Wen you gather Participate in His table of Communion

Give of your time talent and treasure to His work.

VS4

John then says something Very interesting - What ever is born of GOD - What Ever is made new by God what Ever is born again by God what ever is regenerated by God - over comes the world - VICTORY overcoming the world and the things of the world and the things in the world -

OUR FAITH - OUR TRUST -

Jesus is the overseers of the over comers and we must trust Him in everything if we are to see victory in HIM -

VS5

John then asks the concluding question and give a concluding answer - Who is the one that over comes the world? but He who believes that Jesus is the son of God - He who Trusts - Remember Trusting is not just simply a mental decisions - Trust in the new testament is like trusting a weapon or skill set - That is only lived out when you are using it - When you are doing something - becasue you trust - Trust - Belief and Faith in Jesus - Same thing -

VS6

john the begins the Testimony of who Jesus is -

AS we begin this passage it is important to remember what Validated the truthfulness of a claim back then - Three witnesses - If three witnesses gave the same cooperating testimony of the same event then the claim was considered truthful -

John Says - THIS IS THE ONE -

Who is the One? Jesus! Jesus The Son of God the Promised one of Israel - The Conventional promise of God to David -

Jesus - Jesus came by water - when He was baptized in the River Jordan an the Dove descended and Everyone who was there Heard the voice from heaven “this is my son in whom i am well pleased -

Blood - Refers to his death - When the vail was torn and the earth shook and the clouds were darkened -

These gave testimony and then John backs it up again - THE SPIRIT testifies becasue the Spirit is Truth -

You see God said this is my son - HE used water to testify - He used Blood to testify and He sent the Spirit of Truth to testify -

VS7

it is these three that testify -

In the old testament it was required that a truth claim be validated by the testimony of two witnesses and God has provided three -

The Blood - The Water and The Spirit.

VS8

and these three are in agreement

VS9-12

John Lays out for us the way that God sees the world and everyone in it - and He takes everyone in the world and puts them in one of two camps - Those who have eternal life becasue they believe meaning trust the testimony of God by the water and the blood and the Spirit and those who do not -

Those who have heard the truth and deny it are attempting to say that the claims of His son that God has made by the blood and the water and the spirit are not true - In other words people who don't believe are calling God a liar -

John then encapsulates the Gospel - The Testimony from God is that HE has given eternal life - and this eternal life is in His Son jesus.

Have Jesus have life - Don’t have Jesus don't have life -

VS13

John the begins to relay 5 Certainties that we can enjoy if our Trust - If our Faith our TRUST is Powerful Active - Abiding and Abundant -

The First thing - Assurance of Eternal Life - John Says This is why HE wrote these things that IF we BELIEVE 0-IF WE TRUST - in the name of the of the Son of God = we would KNOW that we have Eternal life-

ONE of the things that we can count on and know - NOT think or speculate or come to a reasonable conclusion is that we can KNOW that we have eternal life

VS 14

the Second thing that we have if we have eternal life because we Trust in the Name of the Son of God is - CONFIDENCE BEFORE GOD - The God will hear our prayers in accordance of His will.

VS 15

Is a concluding statement built on 14 : if we have Confidence that God hears us in what ever we ask - Then we also know that we have it - God has already granted it - We might not know when - We might not know where and we might not know How but what we do know - IT is done -

VS 16

John now makes an interesting turn - and in a sense is dealing with the framework of prayer mentioned in VS 14-15

John also indicates that there are two types of Sin - One leading to death and one not leading to death -

Lets deal with sin leading to death here in a minute -

John says if anyone sees His brother - Is witness of another person who has trusted Jesus Believer in the name of the Son of God - If ANYONE sees his fellow jesus follower committing sin that does not lead to death then pray that God will give life to those who do not commit sin leading to death -

In the bottom part of 16 John says “there is a sin leading to death - John says “im ot saying that anybody should pray for this one.

This can be understood in the frameworks of prayer that 1 - We should never pray for God to recompence another brother with death - and TWO John is saying that is someone does commit a sin that leads to death - There might not be much that can be prayed for -

Let’s adders the statement “there is a sin leading to death”

Is there a Sin that a believer can commit that would lead to His or Her Immediate or soon physical death at the hand of GOD -

I think most of us would say “certainly not” - Well not so fast -

in Acts chapter 5 we can read of a couple named Ananias and Sapphira

In short what they did is lie to the holy spirit. And their physical death was immediate - Both of them . What is very interesting is they lied about the subject of material wealth.

Here is what we do know about sin

VS 17

All unrighteousness is sin - There is a sin that does not lead to immediate or soon death but we also know what the wages of sin is physical and if not trusting in christ to make us new and wash us clean - eternal death and separation from God.

VS 18

John then turns his attention to Jesus - Here is the 4th certainty that we have as believers - No one that is born of God sins. Now let us be clear - john just came off of two verses talking about believers sinning - one sin that leads to death and one that does not.

Here is what John is saying - John is speaking about our positional relationship with God through our trust in Christ - God does not see us in the reality of our sin and so we are not children of wrath and we are not dead in our trespasses and sin and so Johns assurance is that God sees us through the lends of Jesus - No longer seen through sin and death but in Jesus truth and life. This is the eternal perspective - John then turns to Jesus in the HIM who was BORN OF GOD the assurance in Christ is that He keeps us. and the Evil one does not touch Jesus

Ultimately this gives us the complete victory over sin and death.

as He concludes in vs 19

VS19

We know that we are of God and we also know that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

VS20

John the circles back to the Gospel -

the Last things that as Believers who live our in abundant faith can know is that Jesus has come - WE know that Jesus give understanding

That understanding is give to us so that we may know Jesus and the Spirit of Truth -

We also can know that we are in Jesus and In the Spirit of Truth - In Jesus His Son

John then says something that divides Jesus from all the Rest -

This is the True God and Eternal life.

You see in this world there are presented literally thousands of gods’ But the problem they are all false - they do not exist - they are not real they are not in competition with Jesus because they are not real - Because what John has just said “this is the true God” the only one that exist and eternal life.

VS 21

John then says “guard your selves from idols” from gods that are fake and do not exist and cannot give eternal life.

APPLICATION -

as Emanuela and her team and the prayer team comes -

I think that there are many of us today that need to understand that faith and believing means that we trust and that trust is put into full action and so we need to pray in a continual way a prayer from the book of Hebrews

PRAY the pray of faith from Hebrews -

Hebrews 11:6

6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Give us the faith to Trust that all that is seen was made simply by your word - That we would trust like Able whose offering was of His first fruits and accepted over Cains - That we would trust like Enoch and not see death - That we would trust like Noah and prepare for the salvation of our household - That we would trust like Abraham and GO as you have called us to go not knowing where we might go but that we would receive the inheritance that you have reserved for us. Trust like Abraham did living in this land as aliens - Trust like Abraham did and offer up everything that is most precious to us to you- Trust like Sara and receive that which you have in store for us. Trust like the parents of Moses and Hide away until the time the gifts you want to use fro your glory - Trust like Moses and refuse to take on labels that are not who we are - Trust like Moses keeping our eyes on Jesus and His greater riches than the riches of this world. Trust Like moses to not fear - Trust Like moses to keep your ordinances and commands - Trust like Moses that you will lead us our of the mud and onto dry land - Trust like Joshua that the wall of resistance would come down that we might receive from your provision the blessing you have for us. Trust like Rehab to work your works in peace - TO TRUST like Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Jephthah David Samuel and the Prophets who becasue of their trust in you - Through them you concurred kingdoms, brought acts of Righteousness, Delivered promises, shut the mouth of lions - Quenched the power of fire, Save them from the edge of the sword, and made them that were weak strong to become might warriors of your to put enemies to flight - Father make us trust like these that Even though we might loose children, be torched, experience mockings and beatings and chains and imprisonment, we might be stoned sawn in two, tempted and tried walking in sheep skins and goat skins and some times destitute afflicted and ill treated and sometimes feel like were wondering mountains and deserts and caves and holes in the ground - Let us TRUST you in all things and gain favor and approval in your sight becasue WE TRUSTED the finished work of Jesus.

THE OTHER application is an application of Self discovery

IF you have never surrendered your life to Jesus - confessing Him as lord and trusting that God raised Him from the dead and have never acted on that. You are in the group that God would consider and view as dead in your trespasses and Sin - Te Calling of GOd this morning is that you would come to him in trust - Fully trusting the divine testimony of water blood and spirit that Jesus is who He said he is - That Jesus has paid for your sind against God and Satisfied Gods wrath against you - That Jesus has concurred Death -

Trust God, use the trust actively and surrender all to Jesus. When you take those steps by Faith by trust, God will do something miraculous - He will make you new - He will transfer you form the kingdom of darkness in to is glorious kingdom of light - HE will adopt you by His spirit He will place his light and easy burden on you and make you His child and give you eternal life.

COME TO JESUS!

PRAYER TEAM

INTRO STAN, KRIS, RACHAEL. NEW MEMBERS