3.1-10 Reasons to Live Right

Reasons to Live Right When You Want to Go Left

1 John 3:1-10

1.  Because God loves us.

1 John 3:1-10
1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (What we should be)

A group of teenagers were enjoying a party, and someone suggested that they go to a certain restaurant for a good time.

“I’d rather you took me home,” Jan said to her date. “My parents don’t approve of that place.”

“Afraid your father will hurt you?” one of the girls asked sarcastically.

“No,” Jan replied, “I’m not afraid my father will hurt me, but I am afraid I might hurt him.”

2.  Because Jesus died for us.

Jesus appeared to take away our sins

4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.

5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

Ÿ         A lamb and a pig in the mud – the lamb wants out, the pig wants to stay.

Ÿ         Sin is a matter of the will – our will vs. God’s will = rebellion

Little Judy was riding in the car with her father. She decided to stand up in the front seat. Her father commanded her to sit down and put on the seat belt, but she declined. He told her a second time, and again she refused.

“If you don’t sit down immediately, I’ll pull over to the side of the road and spank you!” Dad finally said, and at this the little girl obeyed. But in a few minutes she said quietly, “Daddy, I’m still standing up inside.”

Jesus appeared to destroy the works of the devil

7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

Ÿ         If a man belongs to God he will obey God, If he belongs to the devil he will obey the devil

Ÿ         Destroy does not mean “annihilate” here it means “to render inoperative, to rob of power”

Ÿ         Satan has not been annihilated but his power has been reduced and his weapons impaired

Reasons to Live Right When You Want to Go Left

3.  Because the Holy Spirit lives in us.

9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

Ÿ         Born of God – you will not continue to practice sinning

Ÿ         God’s seed = new nature—Gods Word +God’s Spirit = new birth (regeneration re = again, generation = born)

Ÿ         Just as physical children bare the nature of their parents, so God’s spiritual nature, bare His nature.

Ÿ         The old nature produces sin, but the new nature leads one into a holy life. A Christian’s responsibility is to live according to his new nature, not the old nature.

A converted Indian explained, “I have two dogs living in me—a mean dog and a good dog. They are always fighting. The mean dog wants me to do bad things, and the good dog wants me to do good things. Do you want to know which dog wins? The one I feed the most!”

Romans 13:13-14
13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Application

Ÿ         Look into the mirror of God’s Word daily and examine your self

James 1:22-25 (NIV)
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror
24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

Ÿ         Confess your sins and claim God’s forgiveness 1 John 1:9