Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

How we know what love is.

Jesus laid down his life for us and we should lay down our lives for others.

Love should be shown by our actions more than our words.

This was shown clearly at Christmas where Immanuel, God with us, came as the greatest present offered to all, but only accepted by some.

Now we move on in 1 John to another passage the apostle John wanted to share with his broken and hurting church.

Remember, John’s purpose in writing this letter to his church and all believers is to give them assurance in their relationship with God through Jesus Christ and that is where we pick up.

1 John 3:11-

Know we belong to the TRUTH

This section shows us we can KNOW we belong to the truth.

Jesus is the truth.

We need to never forget this and we belong to him.

Remember 1 John was written to the faithful fragment of the church John shepherded.

A church split from within by a vocal group of heretics that taught Jesus never came in human form.

A group that denied the relationship with Christ that transforms you into a new creation and makes you right with God.

They claimed basically an inner insight that only they had but their lives were full of greed, hatred and worldliness, but John reminds us that when we belong to the Truth, our lives are characterized by the way we love others and lay our lives down for them.

This transformation from self centeredness and self to Christ and others first are some of the fruit produced from a vine abiding in Christ.

This might seem like your relationship in Christ comes from the good things we do, but that is not the case at all.

In fact, it is the opposite.

Because of our trust in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross, our lives will be transformed into something that shows true love.

It is God at work in us rather than our works that produce these good works.

This is in stark contrast to a good deeds

God’s acts of love that he does through us is one of the ways we can know we belong to the truth.

Because we belong to the truth, we can have confidence in our relationship with God.

Know we can have CONFIDENCE

Confidence is something many of us struggle with.

We either have no confidence in ourselves or we are OVERCONFIDENT in ourselves.

This confidence we have in Christ is not from ourselves it comes directly from him.

This confidence described in verses 19-21 is a confidence that we can have in coming to God in prayer because our lives have been transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

We live in him and he lives in us.

This is shown by the actions he does through us and has revealed to us.

We follow his commands and do the thing that please him.

We believe in the name of Jesus the Christ and we love one another.

Confidence before God

What a strange passage.

“We set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive anything we ask...”

1 John 3:20

Set our hearts at rest in his presence

John is telling us that we don’t have to be scared or worried when we approach God in prayer and in relationship.

It is a greek idiom which literally means to convince our heart.

So, the idea is we can know we are at peace with God because we belong to Christ even though sometimes we don’t really feel that.

I know for me way more often than I would like to admit, I feel unworthy to be in God’s presence.

Unworthy because my faith is weak.

Unworthy because of the things I have done.

Unworthy because I have not done the things I should have done.

Unworthy because of my past.

Unworthy you fill in the blank.

But John is reminding us that sometimes we just have to remember we can come to God because of what he did in Jesus not because of anything we did.

I think of it like this when I was a kid and did something wrong and as a result of my poor decision, I got hurt, I sometimes would be afraid to tell my parents even though I knew they were the only ones who could help me.

So, I would have to convince myself to overcome that fear of embarrassment or shame and go to them anyway.

This is the same thing only on a much grander scale.

God wants us to come to him.

He wants us to reach out to him.

He wants us to trust him.

That is why he has done so much for us.

He wants us to know we can have confidence in him.

God wants us to know we can have confidence in his presence.

God wants us to be able to pick ourselves up from the ground when we fall and convince our hearts that we can come wounded, bloodied, and broken to HIM.

That is why John wrote this book.

So, that we may know we belong to the truth and we can rest in his presence.

See he is showing us again that we may KNOW we belong to him.

Just look for the fruit of his spirit in you.

Specifically in this passage it is if we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

“Receive from him anything we ask”

I always struggle with passages like this one and .

Do you struggle like I do with these statements sometimes?

There are many things you and I have prayed for that we have not received.

Does that mean that God’s word is not true.

Does God need me to justify him or his word?

Both of these questions are absolutely NOT.

But I think we should at least explore it a little.

In this passage specifically, “we receive everything we ask because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.

Now I will get more into that in a second, but for right now that shows me we have some part to play in the asking and receiving.

Tells us we need to ask in God’s will.

Several places in the gospel of John say we need to ask in the name of Jesus.

, , .

reminds us we need to abide in him.

When we look at these passages and the one we are reading this morning, a theme seems to arise.

Our asking needs to be a result of our relationship with God.

When we ask in a right relationship with God, then we ask the right questions.

The right relationship is one based in abiding in Christ.

Living in him, growing in him, trusting in him, and Listening to him.

The answer might also be that the prayer has not been answered yet.Jesus had a prayer in the garden that has not been completely received yet.

John 17

I am pretty sure that one has not completely been received, but it does not mean it won’t be.

God’s timing is perfect.

He also understands what is best for all rather than what we think is best.

He sees so much more than we see.

Finally, because we are not confident in our relationship in God, we may not have convinced our hearts to do God’s will.

God’s will is for us to trust him.

Look at Jesus’ prayer in the Garden in .

Probably one of the most human moments of Jesus on earth.

Father if you are willing please take this cup from me.

But the prayer did not stop there.

It went to the prayer we should always make.

YET NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS be done.

Jesus showed us how prayer should work.

He knew the will of God for him to be crucified, He was confident enough with God to be honest about how he felt, but he TRUSTED God’s plan over his own.

Maybe we don’t receive all we ask for because we are not asking the right questions. or even more so we don’t trust who we are asking.

So what does it mean to receive from him anything we ask.