1 John: How To Know

Alright, so this morning we're going to be focusing on verse first John again. We're going to be in 1st John Ruby and focusing on verses on chapter 3 verses 19 through 24. I'm titled the message how to know how to know because that's what John's major point is in this whole section right here first 19 starts by saying by this. We shall know that we are of the truth. By this we should know that we are of the truth around my time here as as a pastor at Countryside. I've encountered person after person after person. That says things like I'm not sure if I'm saved I don't I don't feel like it anymore. I feel like I've fallen out of relationship with God those those kinds of things, right we

I would say that all of us from time to time as had these Tendencies to kind of forget who we are set to forget to lose confidence in who we are as children of God. Maybe we don't react quite the way we used to or should according to God's word. Maybe we don't react to our our family co-workers people out on the road. I know I don't sometimes.

Maybe we haven't been to church for a while. We're like man. I've just falling away. God doesn't love me anymore. He doesn't he doesn't I don't deserve his grace anymore. Those are the kind of things. We we think about our heart tells us those things. What we're going to discuss this morning is how to know that you're still in his loving grass even when you don't feel like it.

I'm going to read this passage real quick. So it's chapter 3 verses 19 through 24. He says by this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him for whenever our hearts condemn us. God is greater than our heart and he knows everything beloved. If our heart does not condemn us. We have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his Commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his Commandment that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he has commanded us whoever keeps his Commandments abides in God and God in him and by this we know that he abides in Us by the spirit whom he is giving us

Now before proceeding into the rest of this passage, we got to ask one question because he says he starts off verse 19. He says by this we know by what we have to ask that question by what is he says by this we know will by what? Well, we need to look back at the last 2 weeks because Pastor Bill is covered 1st John 3 11 through 18, and he talked about the course of love in the course of hate which I mentioned just a little bit ago and he contrasted those two courses one courses the way of God the way of love and one course is the way of the world the way of human nature the course of hate we we we sometimes we sugarcoat the word hate.

But it's still. When it's not love, it's hate. Okay, so it's either one of the other and John is going to remind us of where this love comes from. They can only come from one decision one person one one person that we put our faith in our trust in our hope it and that's Jesus Christ.

Before we begin let's pray. So father. I just thank you. I thank you for your word Lord. I Thank you that you

That you abide in us even when we don't feel like it even when we even when we lose track of who we are and what we're supposed to be doing God. You still love us and you still guide us. Holy spirit you still live in US.

We thank you for that Lord, teach us this morning.

In Jesus name amen. Alright these first couple of verses here verses 19 and 20 by this we should know that we are of the truth and reissue our hearts before him for whenever our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. Sony's first two verses John is saying two things that the human heart number one the human heart has a tendency to deceive us.

Okay. Number two is that we can reassure our heart by standing on the truth. K Human Nature has the tendency to look at performance. Don't we? I think all of us can relate to that statement, we all have the tendency to look at our performance.

I'm sure that we've all to one degree or another have have have looked at our performance and said well, that wasn't very Godly was it right? Have you ever have you ever reacted to somebody or or interacted with somebody or a driver cut you off or somebody at work makes you mad and we react in a way that's not consistent with what the Bible says right? It's not consistent with the way Jesus would have handled things right and

Maybe there's a sin you keep coming back to maybe there's something in your life that you just can't seem to shake. It just comes back over and over you're like I got this and then you fall back into whatever it is.

There are so many possible scenarios that you each and everyone of us encounter everyday.

That kind of eat at you and they if they build up if you let them build up they you start to wonder who you are. Why why is this happening to me? Why am I not the way I should be

And we start to say things like I wonder if I'm even a Christian. I wonder if I'm even saved. I wonder if Jesus came back today, what would that be? Like, where would I be standing? A David David is a major character in The Bible. David was described by God to be a man after God's Own Heart. He says your heart is like my heart. He tells David that now David if you know anything about him, if you don't know anything about him at one point in his life in the middle, he was king of Israel. He was God's chosen one God's anointed one. He had a strong relationship with God. I think I would say according to scripture.

But David became a murderer an adulterer a liar all in one big stupid decision that you made. Okay. And yet after that God still says your man after my own heart. You're you're a man that has a heart like mine. That's what John is saying here. John says. John says that

He says by this we shall know that we are of the truth Andrea reassure our heart before him for whenever our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart. So that's that's what we're talking about here. He saying listen when your heart deceives you and the even David said the heart is deceitful above all things. He says you're at your heart does not tell you the truth. The things coming out of the human nature of the heart. Do not tell you the truth. No lie to you don't deceive you. Okay, and what John is say here when your heart starts to lie to you and when you start to hear those condemnation things like saying I'm not I wonder if I'm saved anymore. I wonder what would happen if Jesus comes back all those things when you start to hear those things that your heart lying to you and he saying listen God is bigger than your heart God's truth is what matters not what your heart says. Okay, why do people say Follow Your Heart Right? Don't do that. Don't do that. That's not how we live our life as Christians. I was look at the next couple of verses and follow his train of thought here beloved. If our heart does not condemn us. We have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his Commandments and do what pleases him.

So what's John saying here? If you can tell your heart to stop it, if you can say stop it say stop it. Stop it. I don't want it. I don't want to I'm not listening to you. God says something different about me. God says that I'm his child. God says that I'm love I've messed up. I've I've I've done things that I shouldn't have done but that doesn't change who God says that I am what you see it. That's what he say in here. He saying he saying your heart is going to lie to you and if you can just tell it to stop it, then you're going to have confidence. Why is that?

When you when you tell your heart to stop it, we say shut up. I'm not listening to you. I'm listening to what God says then your heart releases you. Gay it releases you to be able to live out what God desires for you. You don't have those feelings of condemnation. Listen, how can you come to God so you saying we can come boldly before God, right? We can we can we have confidence before God. We can't have confidence before God for hardest telling us that were that were a filthy Sinner and we can't we can't come to God. We don't deserve it. You don't deserve God's grace and mercy. Well, that's true. You don't and that's the point. We don't deserve God's grace and mercy, but he gave it to us anyway, because he loves us so much. The confidence to go before God and ask him for things talk to him about our life. Comes from not living in a state of condemnation not living in the state of defeat. Now, let me stop for a minute here. So so what I'm not saying is it we just live our lives flippantly. However, we want to live. We just live in God's going to take care of it all and Boo-Boo, but that's that's not what I'm saying. Okay.

Say you have a a feeling of hatred towards someone and like I said, we like to sugarcoat that word say let's just say it's disliked still hatred according to the Bible when that happens. That's a good time. When you when you feel that or when you when you realize that happen when your heart maybe starts to condemn you that's a good time to say stop. It part. I'm not listening to you. But that's also a good time to say God. I know I messed up. I don't know what to do about it. I keep do I keep going through this thing. I need your help. That's what he wants us to do. It's called Fellowship. It's called communication with him. We're saying I can't do this on my own. We all know that right. Is anybody here can do that on their own know right? It's not a willpower thing. It's a god power thing. You say show me your love so that I can replicate that love to others because that's what you told me to do. Is that is that desire to please God is that desire to?

It's at desire to do the things that God wants me to do.

gay verse 22 whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his Commandments and do what pleases him. Now how many view of ever ask God for anything and not seen it happen?

I would I would suspect it all of you that every single one of us have asked God for things. And we haven't seen it fulfilled.

Are we haven't seen it? We we think we haven't seen it answered. Okay now for those of you that raise your hand how many of you are God? Okay, that's good. I'm glad nobody or is your hand?

Sometimes our request seem reasonable to us for like men this this seems like a reasonable request God. Sometimes they seem like they're in keeping with his will there they're all the things we line up these things. We say we process this by all of these proofs that this should be enough. This should be okay and we expect God to answer in a certain way. We expect him to do a certain thing. Which is okay. We're supposed to come expectantly when we ask for things in Jesus name.

But we're not God. We don't see everything. We don't know everything.

God does we have to trust him we have to trust him and be confident in who he is as the Creator God.

And say I don't understand. But I trust you, we just sang about that couple of times. One song in particular. But anyway listen We got to just trust him. Maybe it maybe it comes out in a way that we That we didn't expect but it really is an answer to that request. But we just we don't even see it because we're like the way we would have done it just completely different. Okay, so all of those things are factors. So we can suffice it to say that God is God and I'm not and that's where we need to stand on that. Okay. So let's read verse 22 again and whatever we ask we receive from him. We talked about that because we keep his Commandments and do what pleases him now many people stopped at this verse. I say we we asked and we received from him whatever we ask.

Because we keep his Commandments and we do what pleases him. Okay, so

So what we tend to do is we look into our life. We say I see this this this week. We went we make a list dial shalt not murder Thou shalt not we don't kill we don't cheat. We don't why we don't steal right? We we we we have this list and we and we we tell ourselves well. I haven't kept this list perfectly. I haven't kept this list perfectly so it doesn't make it. So it makes sense to me that God doesn't hear my prayers. And in fact, I have her teachings on that but if it's where we stopped at verse 22 and say see you didn't keep his commandments. So that's why he doesn't answer your prayers. Well this problem is we don't read the next verse. Verse 23 verse 23 says and this is his Commandment that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he is commanded now that puts the Commandment to John's talking about here until a different perspective. It's not a list of things we do and don't do. it's that we love God and we love people that's what he saying he saying hey all these people around you you love them you believe in the name of the son of God of Jesus Christ and all that that entails which is a lot Jesus says this and Matthew 22 34 through 39. The Pharisees came to him and said hey, what's the greatest commandment? What Jesus say? Love God. Love God with all your heart soul mind strength and love your neighbor as yourself. That's what he says. That's the greatest commandment love God love people. So in the context of this passage when John uses the word command, he's talking about that. He's talking about loving God loving people believing in Jesus bleep. Okay, so so

We believe and keep believing that God loves us so much. Did He sent Jesus For those of us, which is all of us for those of us. Which is all of us. I'll say that again. They don't deserve it. They didn't deserve it. They didn't do anything to earn it.

He says you don't you don't deserve my grace.

But I'm giving it to you anyway, because I love you and I would have that love if we can look at Jesus and say because of what happened on that cross. I can love other people I can forgive if God forgave me. Then I can forgive anybody else. That's what John is saying here. That's where that love comes from. We talked about that 2 weeks ago. This is where the love comes from that God first loved us. He demonstrated it. You said this is what it looks like to self asleep selflessly. Lay your life down for others. We are going to love perfectly. We are going to do this perfectly. God knows that. God knows all things right said that little bit ago.

What gods what kinds of wanting from you is the desire to do things perfectly? Say God I want to do what you say that I'm supposed to do. I want to demonstrate your love the love that you that you gave to me. I want to demonstrate that to others. That's the heart when he looked at David. That's the heart David had. Yeah, I messed up big-time. But I still believe in you. And I still love other people. That's what God's looking for from us. Verse 24 whoever keeps his Commandments abides in God and God in him and by this we know that he abides in US years that we know again, right and by this we know that he abides in Us by the spirit whom he is giving us.

Remember in this context the Commandments we're talking about here. Whoever keeps his Commandments. The Commandments are to believe in Jesus and love people.

Then God abides in him in and we abide in God. Now we do this. this part

this whole thing where God abides in US. Is is beyond the scope of my mind?

You could say that it should be beyond the scope of all of our minds. But he says I come and make my place with you. I come and live with you and abide with you. That's what that word. Abide means is to live with two to be a part of UK.

And then he says this in the way we know that he is a biting in us. It's by the Holy Spirit who he is giving us worship team meeting. Come on up.

No, I want to go back real quick to what I said about our heart deceiving us as we wrap up here this morning.

Inverse 20 John says that our heart condemns us right sometimes our heart condemns us it leads us astray. It says hey, you're not worthy of this. You're not worth this.

We start thinking or feeling like God can't possibly love us anymore. All that stuff we talked about right? We're not saved anymore. We're not or we never wore to begin with or whatever. We think.

But we have two things inside of us. Okay, we have we have our heart which to see is this and we have the Holy Spirit. right

and he guides us. No, these two things in us our heart in the Holy Spirit. They speak different languages. They speak vastly different languages.

When you start to hear those those words of condemnation those words of of you're not good enough. You don't you don't do things right? I don't feel like I'm say all those things that you feel. That's not God. That's not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has a much more gentle voice. And listen to this this is this is the key. The Holy Spirit if if we will if we will train ourselves to listen to the Holy Spirit first, when we do that mess up when we step out of bounds when we when we treat our spouse wrong or our kids wrong or our co-workers wrong when we fall out of this love when we don't love perfectly the holy spirit's going to whisper to us. He's going to say I hate you think that was a good response think that was a good idea. He's going to say things like that. And if we respond to that at that moment. It will respond back to God and say yes, that was wrong. I'm sorry. Forgive me help me to see this in the future so I don't react this way again next time. If will do those things or heart will never have a chance to condemn us. It'll get shut up right away.

And that's where we need to stand. So with that please stand.