Sermon Manuscript052706
Sermon Manuscript – 5/27/2006 Robert Hutcherson, Jr.
Sermon: “Where we Stand”
TEXT
1 John 5:9-13
One of the most miserable periods in my life was when I was employed by a company that first split in two, then the half I worked for was bought by another company, that was bought in turn by still another company! I never knew where I stood within the company! I was always in doubt. Things could be fine one day, Nervesville the next! I had to be concerned about making it to every meeting, having all my “ducks in a row”, having all the right people on my side, and reporting regularly. One little mistake and it could be all over. God always wants us to know where we stand with him. He doesn't want us to live in doubt. He doesn't want us to live in constant fear of "blowing it." He wants us to be confident & secure in our salvation, but not lazy.
In our text today, the Apostle John writes to a group of Christians who, for reasons we will not go into, have been made to feel insecure and uncertain. This is what he has to say to them ...“I am writing this to you who believe in the name of God’s Son in order that you may know that you have eternal life.” Anytime that a Bible writer tells you why he wrote something you can bet that it is important! And what could possibly be more important than the question: How can we know we have eternal life? Is it a subjective, mushy feeling, or is there something more concrete to base it on? First John answers that question.
John does not say“You have Eternal life ...” …because after hearing, believing, repenting, and confessing you were baptized (immersed) by a faithful Christian in a faithful church knowing at the time that it was for the ritual of service and this was done in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and these words were specifically said over you by the one who baptized you. How do some folks answer this question?
John doesn't say that. Why? Because these things are not important?
No, but because we'd always be looking at what happened in the past and
never at what should be happening in the present.
John does not say “You have Eternal life ...”…because you faithfully attend every meeting of the Lord's church and you are actively involved in teaching and many other church programs, you attend all the fellowships & you give somewhere in the neighborhood of10% (give or take 7-8%) and do everything the Pastor, Stewards and Trustees or anyone else asks you to do. How do some folks answer this question? John doesn't say that. Why? Because these things are not important? No, but because we'd be more concerned with what was happening on the outside rather than what was happening on the inside.
What DOES John say? He offers us three tests listen in the privacy of your spirit, and decide for yourself if you can pass them…
Are you confessing sin? Are there really people who say, "I have no sin"?
Do they simply say it? I’ve never met anyone who did or does…they always seem to want to qualify it. Another way is to simply never confess sin! That’s where people always speak about sin in their life generally.They’ll engage in a twisted application of James 5:16, where "Confess your sins one to another" becomes "Confess one another's sins and not your own."If you find it easy to focus on the sins of others and are
hesitant, even stubborn about confessing your own, you may be headed for some problems!
Are you practicing righteousness? Righteous people do righteous things! This is not a complicated idea! The emphasis that we put on grace sometimes devalues "works."Grace & works go together! Doing righteousness doesn’t come naturally and nobody ever does it perfectly ... that's not the point! The point is that one who is born (or reborn) of God does not remain the same! A Pig and a Sheep were walking down a wet, muddy, slippery road. Both of them slipped and fell into a muddy ditch. The Pig stayed there and wallowed around. The Sheep got up, shook herself off, then went on her way. When Christians fall, they get back up--they don't just lay there! That's what it means to "walk in the light as he is in the light." Is your life characterized by growth & change or are you the pretty much same as you were when you came to Christ?
Do you love your brothers? This is the bottom line Love is the hallmark of the Christian faith. Could it all really be that simple?There's a story about the Apostle John.that says that as a very old man he was carried into a Christian assembly on stretcher. He was asked to speak. After a few moments of silence, he said "Little children, love one another." He said this three times. When they asked him why, he said "Because it is a command of the Lord and if it be done it is enough." He’s not the first to tell us this…Jesus told us “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it..You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Do you love the people you go to church with? Someone says: "Yeah, I love them but I don't like them."There’s a cartoon that has a picture of a happy, smiling preacher standing at a pulpit, and a sour, grumpy-faced man sitting on a chair on the podium. The preacher is saying: "Remember, until next week--God loves you, I love you, and Brother Al here is working on it!" I have to ask: where did we ever get the idea that you could love someone without liking them? If it’s not from God and not from the Bible, that leaves only one other possibility! Granted, we may have to "act our way into a better way of feeling" sometimes…as they say, “fake it ‘till you make it”, but it really shouldn’t take long!
If you do not like your brothers and sisters; if interpersonal relationship problems have become a way of life and you're not sorry about it; if you are in the habit of bad-mouthing others and you don't feel bad about it, Remember John’s and Jesus’ words…they may be difficult to do…but you’ll know where you stand.
Let us pray…
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