1 John 5:13-21

1 John 5:13-21

Intro

Think about your last big test, you studied all day for. Going into the test how certain were you that you knew 100% of the stuff. Or think about the last time someone asked you are really hard question, maybe it was how do you killer the ender dragon in Minecraft. Did you answer with confidence that you knew 100% the way to do it. Was it the right way or just a way?

John is writing to the churches, and we are reading it to remind us something important. He is writing so we can be sure of our relationship with Christ. All of this is adding up to this end point. That you may know Jesus, and that you may live a different life because of the things we know.

Truth

If you have ever been to a concert you purchase a ticket but you do not spend your time leading up to the concert thinking, will this get me in the door. You know you purchased it from a valid place, you know that you belong at the concert.

God does not want us to hope or guess, do we belong to him. He wants us to sure that we know we are apart of his children.

John says this

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Jn 5:13.

He is making it clear for us to remember that we have eternal life because of the things that Christ did for us. Not anything that we did to receive it. Just like the concert, we have a ticket to eternity and we know that we belong because of what Jesus did.

If you believe in Jesus, you can be confident you are saved. You do not have to second doubt, you do not need to be re baptized. You can stop second guessing. If you have truly and honestly put your faith in Jesus and have been baptized, you have eternal life now.

John goes on to speak more about confidence to help us better grasp that reality.

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward 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 that we have asked of him.

16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Jn 5:14–17.

God hears us when we pray to him. That means pray with boldness, pray knowing He listens and answers according to His will. That does not mean to try and use prayer to manipulate God to give you what you want, but pray to God that he will give you what you need.

But we must not just pray boldly about our own life. John is reminding us that we must be praying for others. There is power in prayer, and there is power for praying for others. When we pray for other people we are going in their behalf to God and lifting them up. Showing there is unity in community.

Pray for others if they are dealing with sins that they have confessed to you. Help them fight their battle in understanding that they are not alone, they have brother and sisters in christ praying for them. Pray like it matters, because it does. Prayer is us connecting with our creator in a real and meaningful way.

But we have to do more than just pray to live differently, we have to actually live differently. If we are in Christ then we are being transformed into new life.

18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

19 We know that we are from God, and 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. He is the true God and eternal life.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Jn 5:18–20.

If we belong to Jesus that means our old way of life is dead, and a new way of living must happen. That means we do not continue to sin, but actively repent and turn away from that.

The world is full of lies and temptations trying to get us away from God, but Jesus is the truth that we must root ourself in on. That means we must pay attention to what we are consuming in terms of content. Is it taking us away from God or moving us closer?

If it is taking us away is it becoming an idol. is it becoming a thing that we are turning to instead of turning to God when we are tired, lonely, or need help? Idols are not just statues, they are anything that we put before God, sports, grade, popularity, phones, you get the idea. What are the idols in your life that you need to turn away from, that you must turn away from in order to connect deeper with God?

What is stealing your heart from Jesus, because that is what idols do. In our daily life we must chose Jesus first. If we are chasing anything else we are just playing with temptations to take us further away from God.

In all of this we can be confident in 3 things.

We belong to Jesus and if we put our faith in him we have eternal life. That eternal life happens now. Because it happens now we must live like it matters, not like it is something off in the distant future that we can not see.

We must pray to God. There is power in prayer. I remember when my brother was little he was very sick. My grandfather took him to church for the men to pray over him. miracaously he was healed. The Dr could not explain it. The only thing that could explain it was the faithfulness of the men praying boldly to a God that they knew has the ability to heal. Are you praying boldly, or just praying that you graduate high school.

Last this we have confident in. We have to live differently. Jesus protect us and leads, but he also calls us to change. We must be transformed and repent from our old ways. That means we must turn away from the temptations and lean into the redeeming power of the cross.

This week, live with confidence in Jesus, pray boldly, stand firm in your faith, and keep Jesus first.

As we go into communion I want you to ask God to reveal in your life one area that you need to surrender to Jesus.