Christ-Rooted Confidence | 1 John 3:19-24
Notes
Transcript
[Scripture Reading]
19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. 20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
23 And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
FCF: I wanna tell y’all about a time a couple years ago when I messed up.
As many of y’all know, I’m originally from Dublin, GA. And in the year leading up to me leaving Dublin to move up here, I was a real estate agent. The name of the brokerage I worked for was Premier Properties and my boss’ name was Phil.
Now every Tuesday morning at Premier Properties we had a weekly sales meeting where all the agents got together to discuss their prospects and closings. On one particular Tuesday, I was exhausted from the previous day and didn’t get much sleep the night before so I wasn’t really feeling up to going to the sales meeting. So when my alarm went off that Tuesday morning I actually texted my boss and said I wasn’t feeling good and went back to sleep.
I remember waking up later that morning feeling so guilty. I tried to tell this half-truth to my boss by saying I didn’t feel too great (which basically meant I wanted more sleep), but it was really a bold-faced lie and I knew it. Later that day, my boss called me to ask how I was feeling. As my phone rang, I just remember thinking, “I don’t want to face my boss right now. I just lied to him this morning.”
Have you ever sinned against God and thought, “I don’t want to face God right now. My sin was too bad.” And you may even make up this lie in your mind that God doesn’t want to talk to you. Why do you feel this way?
Our passage tonight is gonna answer that for us. Let’s take a look at verses 19 and 20 of our passage tonight.
19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. 20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
1. The gospel produces confidence (vv. 19-20)
1. The gospel produces confidence (vv. 19-20)
Explanation: In our last passage, we talked about what it means to love others. Now we’re shifting gears a bit and talking about confidence. And not just confidence, but why we’re able to be confident before God and addressing those times that we may feel insecure when we come before God.
We start our passage with verse 19, and it says that our actions will show that we belong to the truth. If you take a look back to verse 18, we can see that our actions here are acts of love. It says that we shouldn’t merely say we love one another, but that we should show this by our actions. So we belong to the truth (or we are christians), and we show this to others through acts of love to others. And then after that we see that because we belong to this truth, we can be confident when we stand before God.
Did you know that as a christian you never have to be insecure before God? I know you’ve probably heard that a million times, but do you KNOW it? Do you live that out?
Illustration: If you’re like me, confidence is not something you naturally have. Especially when it comes to approaching to God. I think back on the sins I’ve committed and I feel insecure about it. And that seems to be the natural tendency for many nowadays. When we do something wrong we immediately want to escape the situation. Because we don’t want to accept the fact that we’re flawed people. We want to forget what we did ever happened.
When I randomly remember a time where I might have said something stupid in a conversation, I cringe at the thought of it. Because I want to forget I ever did that. We do the same thing with God. We want to forget about our sin, so why would we approach God who is the exact one who hates sin.
Application: But God knew we would do this. Look at verse 20, it says He knows everything. So He knew we’d sin. Enter the gospel. When Jesus died on the cross for your sins, He paid that debt for you. He took the shame of your sin; he bore the wrath so that you might be able to approach the throne of God with confidence. Put that into perspective for a moment. You have the incredible gift given to you by Jesus to approach the God of the universe in prayer with confidence; unhindered by the sin you’ve committed against Him. I encourage y’all, rest in the gospel. Don’t ever think you’ve outgrown it or that you should move on from it. Rest easy knowing what Jesus has done for you. When you sin against God, you’re sins are paid for. And there’s nothing else that produces confidence before God.
Argumentation: Now you might be thinking, “praying with confidence to God is easier said than done.” Trust me, I understand it. It’s tough to just accept that you can confidently approach the very God that you’re sinning against every day. But I have even more good news for you. Let’s take a look at verse 20.
20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
Even if you feel guilty, God’s greater than those feelings. Even if it hurts to come to God with what you’re struggling with; even if you’re not in the least bit confident, do it anyway. God is greater than those feelings. He knows your heart. He knows you want to do good.
2. Confidence produces a relationship (vv. 21-23)
2. Confidence produces a relationship (vv. 21-23)
Illustration: Imagine for a moment that you’ve met someone that you’ve already heard great things about and you’re thinking would be a great friend in your life. But in every conversation you have with them, you’re super anxious and you’re never able to open up to them because in every conversation you’re always trying to come up with the next thing you’re gonna say, you’re making sure you smile or nod at all the right moments. You’re not confident in who you are around them, and you don’t want to share anything vulnerable with them because you don’t want to them to see you as a flawed person. And because of this, they might be an acquaintance that you’ve hung out with and had a few conversations with, but you’re not really friends with them. For you to be friends with them, you need to open up and not worry so much about coming off as a flawed person cause we’re all flawed people.
In the same way, in verse 21 it says:
21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.
Explanation: Because we don’t feel guilty, because Jesus paid for our sin, because we’ve been given new life through Christ, we can come to God in confidence. And through this confidence before God, we are able to have a relationship with Him. Let’s take a look at verse 22:
22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
Because of this relationship we have with God, we will receive whatever we ask. That’s a puzzling verse. Has everything you prayed to God come true? Not for me. If everything I prayed to God came true, I’d have an awesome life from a worldly standpoint! I’d have so much money, I’d never have to work, and I’d prolly be kicked back on a beach chair in the Bahamas sipping out of a coconut with a little umbrella.
But notice the second part of that verse. “… because we obey Him and do the things that please Him.” You see we’ve been talking a lot about love. And the nature of love. How it’s not just this list of things that we do for others, it’s a heart that has compassion for others. It’s a heart that sees a person in need and does what it can to meet those needs. That’s what John is referring to here. Let’s read on to verse 23:
23 And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.
The heart that believes in Jesus and has love for others receives whatever it asks God in prayer.
Illustration: Let’s go back to our scenario we were just talking about. If we want a relationship with someone, we need to open up to them with confidence. As we do this, we develop a relationship with them. As our relationship grows with that person, we are able to understand them at a deeper level. We love the things they love, we hate the things they have, we are passionate about the things they are passionate about. Loving others is what is pleasing to God. It’s what God is passionate about. Through our relationship with God, we know Him more fully and so when we pray to Him, what we ask is what He already wants and He grants it.
Did y’all know that every big revival that has happened in the history of the world has happened as a result of fervent prayer to God? It was because a group of people united in Christ, who understood the heart of Christ, prayed for people to come to know Christ, and God granted it and revival broke out.
Application: God answers prayer. I know it may not seem like it, but He does. Continue to seek Him, understand more fully who He is. And you may even realize what you were praying doesn’t align with His will. He may have another plan. But I promise His plan is gonna be so much better than anything we could have imagined. So I encourage y’all. Pray. Pray. Pray.
3. A relationship produces obedience (vv. 19a; 22b; 23-24)
3. A relationship produces obedience (vv. 19a; 22b; 23-24)
Explanation: Verse 24 says:
24 Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
This verse says that someone who obeys God’s commandments is someone who has fellowship with God. But as we talked about earlier, we don’t have a relationship with God because we obey His commandments, we obey His commandments because we have a relationship with Him. How do we know this? Because His Spirit dwells within us; making us more like Him. Our relationship with God will produce obedience in us. Over the span of our life, God will prune the bad branches in our life (or our sin) and produce good fruit.
Illustration: Let me show you what a relationship with God looks like. Let’s go back to the story at the beginning of this message when I didn’t go to that sales meeting and let’s say God is my boss. Everything about that story stays the same except for this, when God calls and asks how I’m doing, I don’t feel guilty and I don’t lie to Him, I respond with, “I’m not really sick. What I told you earlier was a lie. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” And He responds with, “You’re forgiven. The blood of my Son has paid for your sin.”
But it doesn’t even stop there. The next Tuesday when I wake up really tired not wanting to the sales meeting, through the power of the Holy Spirit in my heart, I’ll get up anyway and I’ll go.
Application: Now let’s replace the sales meeting with something else. Maybe instead of reading your Bible you’ve been watching TV, maybe instead of surrounding yourself with biblical community you’ve been hanging out with the wrong crowd. Whatever it is, surrender it to God. Surrender whatever sin you’re holding onto at the feet of Jesus. If it’s less TV time, surrender it, if it’s new friends to keep you accountable, surrender it, if it’s fear that you’ll get rejected for your faith, surrender it. In our last message we talked about sins of omission or sins that we commit from not doing something. Now I’m not saying don’t ever rest, but anytime you reject God you’re committing a sin of omission. So if you haven’t spent any time with God and you choose to watch TV or play games, that’s laziness or sloth and you’re rejecting God! If you have an opportunity to share your faith with someone and you choose not to, that’s fear and you’re rejecting God! Approach God with confidence and ask Him to change your heart.
Maybe for some of you, the reason you don’t want to approach God is because you don’t want your sin to be exposed. Maybe you don’t know Jesus and you don’t want to accept that you’re a sinner in need of a Savior. I can speak from experience that you are a sinner, I am too join the club, and you need Jesus. Jesus loves you and He died for your sins. He took the penalty of your sin when He died on a cross. And He rose from the grave three days later so that you might have a relationship with Him. All you have to do is accept Him as your Savior. Please, if that’s you, come talk to me or another leader and we’d love to walk with you through that.
For others, you may already be a Christian, but there’s a sin you’re holding onto that you need to let go of. And that’s why you don’t want to approach God with confidence, because you’re not willing to let go of this sin quite yet. You want to enjoy it for a little longer. I can assure you that it’s not worth it. It’s not worth the pain and suffering that comes as a result of that sin. Again, if that’s you, please come talk to one of us. We really would love to talk through that with you.
Let’s pray.