Here For It: Wk 3

Intro Illustration:

How many of you all have a younger sibling? How many of you have a younger sibling with an age difference big enough to cause you to have to watch shows that are for someone way below your age? Yeah!

Ok so I never had that growing up at all, but obviously with Eden we are beginning to run into that. Now, she doesn’t watch a ton of tv or anything, we are trying to really be careful with that. But there is one show that we turn to when we are just chilling with Eden for a minute. It’s called Bluey. Anyone heard of that? So, I have a confession…I think Jenna and I like Bluey even more than Eden does. I’m telling y’all this is a well made show! If you don’t know what it is, its a show meant for little kids that is made in Australia about a family of dogs. So you have all these Australian dog character but the show revolves around a family of 4, Bluey is the older sister, Bingo is the younger sister, and you have their mom and dad. But every episode is essentially about this family playing a game that Bluey made up. The creativity is really impressive! But there is one episode where Bluey is playing a game with her friends at a park! The struggle is, one of the friends doesn’t want to play by Bluey’s rules, she wants to make up her own rules to make the game easier or to make sure she always wins and Bluey gets so mad and keeps saying, you can’t change the rules! And in the beginning she asks bluey why she has to follow the rules, but Bluey doesn’t have a good answer. So they continue to play another game called Shadowlands, you could only move through the park by stepping on shadows! Again there comes a moment where Coco wanted to change the rules to make it easier… in fact let’s just watch the end of the episode together.

(VIDEO)

Honestly, I just wanted an excuse to watch Bluey in here! But, we all know people who never played by the rules. Either they cheated or tried to bend the rules in their favor, or just ignore rules all together. And we all know the temptation to break rules when it makes things easier for us or guarantees we will win right? But it’s true, when it comes to games, the rules give the game boundaries and make it a fun game worth playing and satisfying to win.

Unfortunately, this idea of rules isn’t just about games. Many people think Christianity is just about following a certain list of rules. Just follow the right rules and that’s the christian life. We have talked about this a lot in here before so I am sure you all already know that’s not what it’s about. Christianity isn’t about the rules we follow, but the ruler that we follow.

Put another way: As Christians, our identity is not shaped by our activities. Our activities are shaped by our identity.

This is not just about saying this the right way, it makes all the difference in the world that those two things happen in the right order. When activities are put before our identity we just have legalistic rules and empty habits. But when identity in Christ comes first we are transformed into people who walk in the light together!

Transition:

Tonight we will be continuing in 1 John 2 and we will see John break down the difference between the life of Christ and the life of this world. He makes it really clear that obedience is necessary as a follower of Jesus, but it’s the evidence of our faith, not the basis of it!

You can begin to turn to 1 John 2 now. As you do I want us to recap where we’ve been the last two weeks.

First, we began by saying

A community of love must have Jesus at its center. John talked about the word Fellowship and how it was all about our right belief in Jesus unites us to be a community of people who follow Him together as family! Jesus must be the center and foundation of our faith or our community will crumble.

Last week we shifted to our fellowship with God. John taught us, God is light and there is absolutely no darkness in him. That means, God is Life and there is no death in him. So we must be honest about our sins, confess them to God and each other so we can find healing and walk in the light together!

Now, John continues this thought and we are reminded that the Life of God cannot be found in ourselves, it can only be found in Jesus.

Let’s read the passage together.

1 John 2:3–17 (CSB)

This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him: The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the word you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I am writing to you, little children,

since your sins have been forgiven

on account of his name.

I am writing to you, fathers,

because you have come to know

the one who is from the beginning.

I am writing to you, young men,

because you have conquered the evil one.

I have written to you, children,

because you have come to know the Father.

I have written to you, fathers,

because you have come to know

the one who is from the beginning.

I have written to you, young men,

because you are strong,

God’s word remains in you,

and you have conquered the evil one.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.

The Life of Christ:

John Stott, a famous christian leader and theologian said,

Christian obedience is unlike every other kind of obedience. It is not the obedience of slaves or soldiers, but essentially the obedience of lovers who know, love and trust the person who issues the commands.

John Stott

That is precisely what John says in the beginning of this passage.

He begins:

1 John 2:3–4 “This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

Remember who John is writing to, he is writing to the early church, an early group of believers who are doing life as a community of christians for the first time in history. And on top of that they have a group of false teachers trying to lie to them and get them to doubt who Jesus is and how they should live. It makes sense that some of the people in that church would begin to doubt and question if they were truly Christians, if their faith was legitimate and they should keep living like that.

Unfortunately, many people who grow up in church or around christianity, end up at a similar point in their life where they doubt their salvation. They are like wait, am I actually Saved, am I really a christian, do I really believe all this, or should I just start living like everyone else around me?

So, how do we know for sure if we have been saved and have a personal relationship with God?

John puts it simply, “if we keep his commands.”

John is saying the proof is in our obedience to God’s commands. Does our life look like we have a relationship with God or not? Jumping down to verse 6, do we walk the way that Jesus walked?

Again, we need to be careful, John never says if you want to begin a relationship with God you need to start obeying His commands. John says if you want to KNOW that you already have a real relationship with God, check and see how you are obeying Him. Do you see the difference?

John is not saying obedience to God is the way to salvation, he is saying a life of obedience to God is the proof of salvation.

So, you want assurance of your salvation, check your life for obedience to God’s commands. And he goes on to remind us that all of God’s commands come down to loving God and loving people.

That’s why he says : 1 John 2:10–11 “The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

Is your life marked by love? Like, real, selfless, Jesus on the cross type of love? That only comes from a life that has been saved by Jesus.

So again, our identity is not shaped by our activities, but our identity will shape our activities.

So, that’s the life of God in us. Walking in the light.

Obediently following the way of Jesus because we have been saved by him.

The life of the World

But now jump down to verse 15 with me.

Here, John lays out the life that this world has to offer.

1 John 2:15–17 CSB

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.

We will either be transformed by love, or we will be destroyed by desires.

John lays out the basic outline of sin. It comes down to 3 things. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride in ones possessions.

That word lust is usually tied to sexual immorality in our minds today, but the word by itself really just means a deep desire and longing.

The life of this world is all about chasing after our desires.

And people will rewrite the rules, redefine good and evil all to make sure they get what they desire.

Now, desires in and of themselves are not necessarily wrong or right, but it is how we pursue those desires that can either be sinful or righteous.

We must realize that God created us to be known and loved by him and live in that love. Everyone is chasing after those two things. But without Jesus, we chase after them in all of the wrong places. Instead of trusting what God has for us, we think we can go and take it for ourselves from places God didn’t creates us to.

We will lie about others to make ourselves look better.

We will gossip about people to gain attention for ourselves.

We will send inappropriate messages or pictures hoping to here someone compliment us, tell us they love us, and make us feel good about ourselves.

We’ll listen to music with terrible lyrics to try to fit in and be accepted.

We’ll watch shows with profanity or nudity either for our own pleasure or because we know everyone else will be talking about it.

We will idolize people, hobbies, and activities all trying to known and loved by this world.

Our world tells us this will work. It tells us this life will satisfy us. It tells us if we look good enough, if we are good enough athletes, if we make enough money, if we get with enough guys or enough girls, then we will be satisfied and happy and loved in this life. But that simply isn’t true.

John says, this world and all its lust is passing away.

Our desires will always fall short when we pursue them apart from God.

The life of this world is all built on the idea of OURSELVES.

What we want, what we feel like and what we can go take for ourselves.

And then, when something gets in our way, we have to rewrite the rules to make sure we get what we want. Or we cancel what got in our way, call them oppressive and start a movement to make sure no one can ever stop us from pursuing our desires again.

This is not life. It is slavery to desires. This is death.

That is the life of this world.

So, John laid out the life of Christ- it is marked by obedience to God’s commands. He makes the rules and we love to follow them because He is our father, we love and trust him with our lives.

And here we see the life of the world is marked by our pursuit of our own, selfish desires.

So, what makes the difference? Does it really just come down to following God’s rules or making them up for ourselves?

No. As we said that doesn’t give us God’s life, it proves we have it. Sandwiched between those two passages is verses 12-14.

John is reminding them of their identity if Christ.

Simply put, What does it mean to have our identity in Christ?

3 things:

We have been forgiven of our sins.

We believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins and we have received that gift of salvation and been forgiven forever!

2. We have a personal relationship with God.

Because of the cross we are no longer separated from God by our sins, we can know our Creator personally through Jesus and walk with him forever.

3. We have conquered the evil one.

Our spiritual enemy has no power over us anymore. Jesus defeated sin and death forever and has set us free to walk in the light with him, no longer bound to sin anymore. Because Jesus has victory over sin and death, so do we!

Anyone who has surrendered to Jesus as lord, THIS IS YOUR IDENTITY! It is who you are, it is your story, and it will change everything about your life as you learn to live in this new identity day by day.

As a ministry, we must know our identity in Christ or we will fall for whoever the world tells us to be!

The difference is not learning new rules to play by, it is being invited into a brand new life and Jesus is teaching us how to live.

If this is your identity, then of course you follow Jesus’ commands because we know his words bring LIFE!

I want to close with a story of a guy I know.

He was raised in church like many of us. He was raised to be good christian boy, follow the rules, present himself nicely at church and act respectfully at home. But that was all he was taught about being a christian.

This led him to a life full of hiding sins, being controlled by addiction, and living a painful double life.

This all changed when recently he heard a sermon where the pastor plainly said, some people here are calling themselves christians but the’ve never truly surrendered to Jesus as Lord and you need to change that today! In that moment God convicted him in his heart and he knew he needed to be saved- truly saved, not just play the christian game anymore, but follow Jesus as Lord. He cried out in prayer and then was baptized the next week. He told me after that, that he finally felt like he had freedom from all the sin in his life. He had been trying to change things and follow the right rules all those years, but now that he had fully surrendered to Jesus he just felt free and didn’t want to go back to those sins anymore!

Following God’s commands doesn’t save us, Jesus saves us, he fills us with His Spirit and then we are able to know and trust God and a life of obedience flows out of that relationship!

Our identity then shapes our activities.

As a ministry, we must be firmly rooted in our identity in Christ. Our lives and so our ministry should be marked by obedience to God’s commands. WE love and trust God so we obey him. We worship him, we love people, we hate sin. This is how we live as Jesus followers!

Bow your heads with me and lets respond together.

Gospel- Do you have a relationship with Jesus? That is the only thing that changes a person from walking in the love of this world to walking in the love of God! Like my friend, maybe you’re here tonight and nows the time you are ready to say enough. I am done playing the game, I am done living for myself, I’m done just trying to follow rules, I need Jesus to come into my life and save me, make me right with God, and set me free from my sins to walk in eternal life!

2. Christians- does your life look like you’ve been changed by Jesus?Is your life evidently different from the world around you because you have a personal relationship with God? Again, works and rules don’t save us, but a saved life is a changed life! Does your life look like God’s commands or the ways of this world?

We must turn from anything in this world that we are pursuing instead of God. All the things of this world will come to an end but the one who does the will of God will live forever. Is there any activity, attitude, or relationship in your life that is about pursuing your own desires instead of doing the will of God? Confess that to God right now. Ask Him to show you how to be free from that. And then talk to someone else in this room before you leave to have them pray for you and help you through that.

3. Obeying God’s Commands is also loving people! Who can you love this week really well? Who can you share the Gospel with and invite into this community of Jesus followers?

Pray