The Correction

1 John 2:1-6 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

The qualifications of heaven: Perfection

-Explain what perfection is.

-Illustrate how one sin drops us from perfection

Edwin Bliss said, "The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time."

Water and Food Coloring

God solved our problem in the person of Jesus.

-Jesus is the righteousness that we can never be. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

What this means is that you and I could never pay the debt for our sins, therefore God would have to punish us because He is just. But He did not want to spend eternity without His children, so Jesus came and He took the punishment for us while simultaneously living the life that would purchase a ticket to heaven. This is why He was the only fitting sacrifice for the sins of the world.

The sinless taking the place of the sinful. Now, when we place our trust in Him, our sins are transferred from our accounts into His. We are effectively made clean, and have been given eternal life.

After we have placed our trust in Him, and only after, Jesus is our intercessor.

Intercessor: a person who intervenes on behalf of another, especially by prayer

Romans 8:34 “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

Hebrews 7:25 “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

Jesus is already seen in scripture praying petitions for the Lord on His followers behalves.

John 17:1–26 ESV

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

So why does Jesus intercede for us?

Because we fail. The devil will go before God at times and seek to put us down, but Jesus reminds Him of the price He paid, and the faith that you guys have. Christ sits at the right hand of God and reminds Him of how precious we are and that we are redeemed. Those who do not have Him as their intercessor, it is only a matter of time until your luck runs out and God’s wrath descends on you.

If we have a relationship with Him then we ought to walk the way that His word tells us to.

-Those who love Him love to follow His word. It may be difficult, but they strive to abide.

-When you fail, return to the course and strive to do well again. (Jesus told the woman in adultery to go forward and sin no more. Now we know that that is impossible, but that is why John said “If anyone does sin, we have a remedy for that in Christ.”)

So, as always, Read God’s word, apply it to your lives, and walk in harmony with Him. If you know the Lord, you are familiar to His ways. Those who say that they are close to the Lord yet they do not follow His words are only fooling themselves.

Do your best to follow God closely, but know that when you make a mistake, Jesus is covering us. Do not be fake. If you are not trying to walk with the Lord, then don’t lie to those around you as if you were. Do some soul searching, and either decide to get in or get out. The Lord cannot stand people who are lukewarm and indifferent. Stand in Him, or set out, but don’t lie to yourself and others.

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Have you guys been working on your packets?