Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Good morning

As you are getting settled, go ahead and open up to 1 John chapter two.

In case you weren’t able to be with us last week, we have begun a short series on the book of 1 John.

This is in preparation for the focus that God has for us this year.

We will talk more about that in a few weeks as we roll out the vision that God has given us for 2020.

I am really excited about this year for a number of reasons, but mostly because it is going to allow us to know God and ourselves better.

If you missed last week, please take some time this week and go listen to the podcast so you can catch up.

As always, these messages are going to build upon one another as we move forward through the text and I don’t want you to miss out on what God is speaking for you.

A good friend and I were talking this week and he very accurately said that this has been a heck of a year this week.

I don’t know about you, but my week was nuts.

I don’t anticipate that changing anytime soon.

lol

I say that because our habit is to assume that “next week will be easier”.

I’ve been living in that dream for a few years and I’m finally realizing that this is my normal.

Last week we watched the Bible Project’s introduction to 1, 2, and 3rd John.

God has us in this book to prepare us for walking through the book of Ecclesiastes.

The focus of that study will be to give us a better perspective on this life that we are living in.

We are growing in God’s likeness and as a result, we are beginning to experience His life.

We can all agree that living as Jesus did is not what we would consider normal.

John sends this letter to a church that is experiencing some trouble.

We learned last week that there are a few men in the church that have decided that they don’t believe that Jesus was the son of God, they begin sharing that belief and are trying to convince the rest of the church that they are correct.

John’s intent is to warn them of the troubles, remind them of what they know, and to encourage them to trust the Holy Spirit.

In chapter two today we are going to see John giving very specific warnings and instructions on how to deal with the opposition they are facing.

Last week we went through chapter one and talked about how important it is for us to share what God is doing with the people in your life.

We also looked at how important it is for us to examine our lives through the lens of scripture so that we can understand how we are to live and to be able to recognize when we and others are stepping outside of who we are to be in Jesus.

These men were purposefully causing division in the church and leading people astray and doing it all in God’s name.

We saw that just because someone call’s their actions God’s will doesn’t mean that it is and we can know what is true by examining their words and actions against scripture.

If they don’t align, we know and can proceed accordingly.

Let’s pick up where we left of last week at the beginning of chapter two.

In the previous chapter, John directly addresses the claims of these deceivers and now he is going to remind us of what we have been given to deal with the problems that we face in life.

John’s goal in this letter is to help the church to be in fellowship with Christ who is the Light.

In this first section, he is giving us a reminder of how we are to stay in fellowship with God.

Live in the Light by obeying His commandments.

We all sin.

All of us find ourselves struggling, daily, with sin.

We are all going to mess up.

Unfortunately, it is something we will always struggle with, but Jesus has made a provision for us through His death.

When we do sin, we must run to the father and He will be faithful to forgive us.

I have said many times recently that how we respond to God shows the world who God is.

The same is true about how we respond to sin in our lives.

If we run to the father He will forgive us.

The people that are close to us are going to know about what is going on with us and they are going to be encouraged by it.

Have you ever noticed that when someone else in your life shares something they are struggling with, it encourages you to be more open about what you are struggling with?

In our culture we have this idea that my sin and my life are mine.

By keeping all those things to ourselves, we create a fake culture of perfection.

It is neither sustainable or healty.

However, when we share our struggles, we create a culture of authenticity, love, and forgivness.

The body is built up becuase we are being real about what is going on in our lives.

When we hold all that stuff in we are walling ourselves off from the people that God has put in our lives to help us with our struggles.

John starts this chapter by telling the church why he is writing.

The goal is to not sin.

1 John 2:1

As we are growing in our relationship with Christ, being made in His likeness, we are ridding ourselves of our sin nature.

But, until we are made perfect, there is sin.

He tells them that Jesus is advocating and pleading with the Father on our behalf.

He also makes the distinction, that Jesus isn’t just pleading on our behalf alone, but on everyone’s behalf - all are included in this provision

We will circle back around to this later.

But with so much controversy going on within their church, how is the world supposed to know what it means to “live in the light” as we talked about last week?

Each of us must allow the Holy Spirit to evaluate our lives and make necessary changes.

We begin that process by asking if we are living in the light.

That question, as it turns out, is an easy one to answer.

Are you obeying the things that God has commanded?

We cannot go and cannot do the things that God is calling us to do if we don’t move beyond this point.

We cannot be the church that God wants us to be if we are just here to play the church game.

If we are here just to go through the motions, we are not living in the light.

It is imperative that I point out two things about this statement because we often get it backward.

Obedience is a RESULT, not a Function of God’s grace.

We often try to imitate obedience, thereby making it a function of our relationship with God, but it won’t last.

We put on spiritual fruit by acting or pretending to be something that isn’t authentic.

The best way I know how to explain this is by pointing to New Year’s resolutions.

We try to change who we are, by manipulating our behavior, and they don’t work.

Years ago we made a New Years resolution that we wouldn’t start any new projects at our house until we finished the ones we had already started.

We agreed on it together around 10am.

By Noon we were building a fire pit in the front yard.

*Face palm*

I referenced this same idea last week with the well-known phrase, “fake it till you make it.”

Compare that to change happening in our lives because of love.

Change that comes as a result of

My dad tells a story of when he and my mom first started dating, he dipped tobacco.

It wasn’t long into their relationship that my mom informed him that if he ever wanted to kiss her, he was going to stop dipping.

To this day, I have never seen my dad dip.

He was motivated by a desire to know my mother.

My dad stopped dipping.

But he didn’t stop because he had too, he stopped because he wanted too.

These aren’t perfect examples, but they point to the heart of what John is trying to say.

If we are obeying the commandments as a result of the love that we are experiencing, we can be sure that we know Him.

But, if we are obeying the commandments as a result of the love that we are experiencing, we can be sure that we know Him.

John then gives a warning concerning this idea.

We will see him repeat this warning one more time and then give another before the chapter is done.

1 John 2:

It can’t really be more cut and dry than that can it?

He creates a really great juxtaposition in his explanation of this idea.

John is giving us an incredible tool here.

Remember, the leaders of the church wrote to him asking how to handle the situation they found themselves in.

We don’t know the content of their letter, but it seems evident that they are not only asking how to handle it but are also having some doubts about what is true.

They are questioning their own beliefs as a result of these deceivers.

John shows them how to discern between those that know God and those that are pretending to know God.

How do we know who to trust?

Look at their life and see if their actions line up with their own words and the word of God.