1 John // Lived Out Faith

Welcome to the Refinery Church Sermon Podcast.

We're so glad you've joined us today.

Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your pursuit to love and follow Jesus for life.

If you'd like to learn more about the refinery, find ways to get connected, share a prayer request, or explore resources to help you grow deeper in your walk with Christ, visit us online at refineryohio.com.

Now let's dive into today's message.

Good morning.

Hey, so my name's Landon.

I'm the lead pastor here.

Um if you're visiting with us.

I've not been here in a month.

If you've not been here in a month and you've just been playing hooky, I didn't know.

So welcome back.

Glad to have you.

Uh I'll tell you about sabbatical in just a moment.

Um before we do, before I do, though, I wanted to make you aware of something.

Um prayer is a huge uh piece of what we do.

Uh man, we just we want to root everything we do in prayer.

Uh we believe that the church operates in the power of the Spirit, and so we want to seek after the face of God in all things.

And so, as a staff, uh, first thing we do every Monday morning is to gather up in here to pray.

And we spend the first 25% or so of our uh staff meeting in just prayer and scripture.

And so that's when we invite you.

If you have something that uh you've you're dealing with, we we want to pray with you.

Um if you're celebrating something, we want to praise God with you, and so we pray for the church and the ministries of the church and uh your family and all that.

Um then, as our advisory team, that's the group of folks that are members of the church that comprise the leadership team of the church and help make decisions on staffing and budgeting, uh, ministry directions, things of that nature, uh, provide oversight for the church as a whole.

Uh, the first 25% of that meeting every single month is spent in prayer and scripture because we believe that really matters.

And one of the vehicles that we've used to do that as a broader church has been Night of Prayer, and we're making a pivot.

Uh, last year we started up our prayer watch ministry, and the idea behind that is to invite people to specifically join the prayer watch team to say, hey, three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, I'm gonna pray twice a day for the work of the church.

And so I send out a weekly text message, just kind of an update of, hey, here's some areas to be praying for.

And then this year, what we're doing a little bit different is we're gonna meet every other month for an hour called Prayer Watch Meetup to talk about man, what's how is God like speaking to us in prayer?

What are some of the struggles we're dealing with in prayer, and then just to pray together.

And we just uh I'm excited for that direction.

And so if you've been a part of Night of Prayer in the past, that is going away.

But prayer watch is uh a way to stay involved.

And so what I'd like to do is and just invite you.

Uh, you can scan the QR code.

If you're like, hey, I'm curious about it, and do I have to commit right away?

You don't, you can come and check it out and see what you think.

Um, but it's just a work of prayer, and I've found it incredibly profitable uh to myself.

Um, and so I'd like to invite you to join us in that way.

And so that's coming up this Wednesday for those that would be interested.

Or if you just have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email or whatever, and we'll chat about that then.

So I I've been gone for a month for sabbatical.

Um, I think it was in 2020, maybe 21.

Uh, as a church, we put together a policy to support sabbaticals for full-time uh staff, lead staff, to be gone in the seventh year after six years of contiguous service, to be gone during that seventh year just for a time of rest, for a time of renewal.

Um, it's an idea of sharpening the saw if you're a covey fan or just the recognition of just an investment in the team.

And so we've had several staff be a part of that, and it's always been incredibly profitable to both the individual and their family as well as the church as a whole.

And so my family got to do that.

My wife asked, she said, Hey, are you gonna like thank the church or something like that?

I said, Yep.

And so thank you.

You're like, Well, we didn't do anything.

Well, thanks anyway.

Um, it really was so good.

The first week I went and spent some time with my parents, took my uh two youngest sons, my oldest son and my wife were on a trip with the youth.

And then the second week uh we went, we spent a week together in Hilton Head just as a family, which was outstanding.

Third week, did some things around the house and all that sort of stuff.

Um, read a half dozen books in the time.

I read one by an atheist humanist, and then I read Treasure Island because those just go together.

And then uh I read The Hiding Place by Corey Tinboom, which is one of my top five books of all time.

It jumped to that already.

If you've not read it, I highly commend it to you.

Uh, it will be convicting and challenging in the best ways.

Um, and then the last week of my sabbatical, I spent at a monastery in Kentucky.

So I went down for three nights and four days.

Um, I've had a number of friends go and be a part of this, and I've like, oh, that'd be fun to do, it'd be fun to do sometime.

And the when folks had asked me, like, so what's the point?

Like, what are you going to do?

It's an unguided retreat, and it's literally just for quiet.

Um, it's pretty much silent in every space, and so it's just a space for quiet, a space for prayer, a space to just linger in the presence of God and with the Spirit of God in those spaces.

And so it was just incredibly profitable to me.

Um, really enjoyed it.

And a few takeaways I've had from sabbatical, because I was kind of thinking about this my last night at the monastery, and then my last day.

What are just some of the takeaways?

Um, one thing, God challenged me in a way to, or invited me into a new way uh to spend time in scripture, and so I'm super excited for that.

I've done different devotionals and things through the years, but I'm really excited for what God's invited me to.

I think it's gonna be over these next probably 30, 40 years that He'll invite me to read in this way.

And so if you've struggled with reading Scripture, love to share the simple way that God's invited me, and maybe it'd be a profit to you as well.

We can get coffee and I can tell you about it.

Um, I'll tell you about it at some other point, regardless.

Uh, and then the second thing was God encouraged me to take better times of rest.

I don't always rest well, um, and that's not a humble brag, it's a weakness.

And so that's one of those areas where God has said, hey, here's something you can do.

And then has invited me away just for more regular time with him.

And so there's another method that I'm gonna employ that.

But it really was, it's just life-giving, it was profitable.

Um, a lot of people have asked, like, did it go fast?

I'm like, it didn't.

It didn't go fast, it didn't go slow.

Like, it was just great.

People say, you know, was it fun?

Like, did you enjoy yourself?

I'm like, I was off work for a month and not like dealing with like major injury or something.

Of course it was fun.

And I will tell you this: if you're off work for a month and not dealing with major injury or life circumstances and it's not good for you, there's deeper problems you need to work through.

Um, because it really is, it's just one of those things.

So I'm grateful that our church invests in our staff that way.

I'm also thankful for the staff.

Uh, I have a hundred percent confidence in them.

We have an incredible team.

Um, and so to just know that they're taking care of all the things and the church is going forward, is advancing forward, uh was just such an encouragement to me.

So glad Brad could come back and speak, and for those that covered other responsibilities of mine, but um yeah, ending with the monastery really was just kind of a highlight for me, besides just the time with my family.

Um, because there I'd heard about it, but there's something about experiencing it.

There's some things in life like you you just can't hear about, you need to experience them.

So, two of the most impactful experiences I've had in my life in terms of going somewhere was one, the Grand Canyon.

I got to go there about seven years ago.

I mean, it was it's incredible.

Like I could tell you like maybe dimensions, or you could look it up, you could look up pictures.

It doesn't do it justice.

Like it was just kind of this impactful moment where I got to meet with God in that space.

And um it's it's amazing.

Like objectively, it is amazing.

And I know I'm using that word in a way that's not the traditional sense of objective, but but it really is.

Like it's just incredible to be there.

And I remember trying to take pictures so that I could like take them home and show my wife, like, this is amazing, and I'd take a picture and I'd look at them like this picture is terrible, you know, because like you couldn't encompass the vastness of it.

Uh, about 13 years ago or so, I had a chance to go to Africa uh with my previous church that I served at, and we were on mission, and what we were doing was working on a district ministry training center, uh shoveling rock and stuff like that, just grunt labor, and we were digging a well by hand, um, which again was just very like difficult, hard work.

And then we'd visit a number of churches, and man, just bring greetings and pray for them and encourage them and speak life over them.

And then finally, uh, one of the things we did, and we always do this on our own mission trips, is we'll go see something beautiful about the space.

And so we went on safari.

We were in Africa, so we went on safari.

And so Emmanuel was the name of our guide and our translator, and we were on safari, and uh we're we're going in and getting ready to go through the gates and stuff.

And Emmanuel says, Hey, you can either ride on top of the van or you can ride in the van.

And so I said, Well, where are you riding?

He said, I'm on top of the van.

I said, Then I'm on top of the van, because like this is your place, bro.

Like, I'm gonna do what you do.

And so we rode around and it was incredible.

We had this elephant charge us at one point, which is really cool, because it was saying, You shouldn't be here, and we felt safe.

Now, if the van had died and it kept charging it, wouldn't it be a cool story?

Because I'd be trampled and you know, we wouldn't be telling this story.

We saw gazelles and hippos and all this kind of stuff, but one of the most amazing points at all was we walked up to a watering hole and there was this observation deck area, I don't know, maybe 25 feet wide or something like that.

And they had this small little handrail fence that kind of went around it, but that that was it.

There was no other fences in the park, and we're looking out, and um, like all these animals are coming like to and fro and they're singing to one another, kind of like Lion King.

It's almost just like that.

Um, and they sang about the circle of life, and it was in English, which was helpful for me.

Uh so I appreciated that.

I think they do it based on who's there.

Um, I'm just kidding about the the songs, just in case somebody's wondering.

But over this way, about a hundred yards from where I was standing, were three lions just laying in the sun, like in a shaded spot.

And there's no offense, the van is about 20 yards away.

I know I can outrun the entire team, maybe one that would beat me.

So I feel safe, right?

Because I mean, you just gotta, there's three lions, three, you get the idea, right?

You run the numbers.

But it was incredible to be like in that space.

Like, I mean, it's just it's something you have to experience.

There's some things in life that you just can't tell somebody about, you need to experience what it is.

I I think about getting married or having children.

Like, if if you're married, before you got married, people tried to tell you what it was like, and they're like, Yeah, you'll you'll get it.

Or before you have kids, like you know how to raise kids, and then you have kids and you don't know how to raise kids anymore.

If you've ever been through a trying medical situation, when the doctor or the nurse says, hey, listen, the news isn't good.

I'm gonna be honest, we're not quite sure what to do with this, we're trying to figure it out.

You can't know that unless you experience it.

If you've ever lost a job, or you've run out of money, but the bills are still there, and you're facing a situation where you might lose your situation, or if you've ever lost a job, or you've ever had an injustice committed against you.

There's just some things in life that unless we experience them, we we can't fully know them.

And sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's a bad thing.

This week we're gonna kick off a five-week dive into the book of 1 John.

1 John comes very near the end of the Bible.

If you get to 1, 2nd, 3 John, Jude, Revelation, that's where we're back in that space.

John was one of Jesus' 12 apostles, disciples that walked with him, traveled with him.

He was one of the closest Peter, James, and John are often referred to in closest proximity to Jesus.

He's credited with 1, 2nd, and 3 John, these short little letters at the end of the Bible, also the Gospel of John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the book of Revelation.

And we're going to consider this one overarching truth throughout the look at the book of 1 John, that we are all able to grow into a full relationship with God.

We are invited to experience the grace, the peace, the love, the patience, the kindness that is afforded from being in full relationship with God.

Not something we just hear about, not something we're told about, not something like, look, I got a picture for you, but to be immersed in relationship with God.

And John isn't just throwing this out there because he thinks it's an idea that may merit consideration.

John says, listen, he writes with such confidence.

There's such a passion and an earnestness behind it.

And as we walk through this passage this morning, I want to kind of look at four things that John says we're able to do through this relationship with God.

We're able to believe deeply, and we'll unpack each of these.

We're able to confess freely, we're able to walk faithfully, and we're able to love others well.

And so I want to begin with the text, 1 John chapter 1, verses 1 through 4.

1 John 1:1–4

It reads this way It says, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at, and our hands have touched.

This we proclaim concerning the word of life.

The life appeared, we have seen it and testified to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ.

We write this to make our joy complete.

We have heard, we have seen, we have looked at, or we've examined.

Our hands have touched or we've verified this truth of Jesus.

Faith is never something you can completely lay out, that there's no dispute or no argument, but faith also isn't just some kind of idea of wishful thinking.

Faith instead is this recognition that it's something we lean into fully so that we might live it out fully.

John would not be dissuaded from his faith in Jesus because he simply couldn't ignore or deny everything that had been a part of his life.

John's like, look, I've heard this stuff, I've seen it like literally unfold in front of me.

Like I've been there, I've touched the like I see Jesus walking on the water and saying, Well, it's never been reproduced.

Doesn't matter.

I saw it.

Like I just can't ignore that part of my life.

Or I'm telling you, like, when people would come and there was this burden, there was this heaviness, like I saw it lifted, or I saw blind people see, I saw deaf people here.

Like, I I don't have a category for it, but I can't remove it from my life.

I I think about that time at the Grand Canyon or at the watering hole, and it's like, man, it was profound, it was impactful.

Like objectively to me, like it was just, it was, it's amazing.

And you say, Well, I don't know, I I can't deny the experience that I had.

One of the primary images used throughout the Bible to talk about relationship with God is marriage.

Marriage is kind of this all-in sort of proposition.

It's not something you try out or dip your toes into.

Wouldn't that be romantic?

Hey, you want to try to get married?

Just see what happens?

If it doesn't work, right, no big deal.

It's a cheap ring, just in case.

I mean, you know, if we make it 10 years, I'll buy you something nicer.

That's what my wife told me.

Still the same band.

Still the same band.

No, I I I've performed a lot of marriage ceremonies through the years, and never once have I said, man, in sickness and in health, well, like you commit your life and all these beautiful things, and then to say, I hope it works.

They're experiencing this moment of being all in.

In much the same way, Christian faith is not wishful thinking.

It's something we're meant to thoughtfully consider, that we're to wrestle with, that we're to ask questions of, and once we've made our decision that we're all in.

That we dive fully into this.

It's not a blind faith, it's not a guess, it's just, I mean, I've I've asked the questions, I've thought this through, I've wrestled with it, and as I've seen and I've heard and I've experienced and I've examined, like, this is the best way to live.

Christian faith isn't something we can be casual about.

And then as we live out this faith, we're invited to continue to thoughtfully consider, to continue to wrestle through, to continue to ask questions, and then to continue again and again to dive fully into what it means to experience the love and the grace and the peace and the mercy and the guidance of God, the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

John had done this.

John reoriented his entire life around the person of Jesus, and he invites us to the same.

John doesn't say, hey, listen, just take my word for it, it's incredible.

Just kind of observe from the, you know, spectators, you know, go, no, no, you got to be in on this.

You got to get in on this fellowship, this fellowship with me, but this fellowship with God, this fellowship with Christ Himself.

John had seen too much.

He'd heard too much of the love of God and the truth of God to ever go back to living as if it wasn't true.

There were times, it's like, John, your life is on the line.

He's like, Yeah, take it.

Like John could have retired, I mean, he'd gotten older, handed off to the next generation, but John's like, no, this is my life.

He'd been encountered by Jesus and he could never deny that.

And John wants to invite those who would read his letter, those who would listen to his letter, to experience for themselves the joy found in believing God deeply.

Verse 3 again reads this way: it says, We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.

And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

That's what we're invited to when it comes to the Christian faith.

We're invited to experience the love of God, to believe deeply.

And then John turns his attention to the practicality of what it looks like.

So I want to look at this idea of confession freely.

Reads this way in 1 John chapter 5, we're gonna go down through chapter 2, verse 2.

1 John 5 · chapter mention

It says, This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you God is light, in him there is no darkness at all.

If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.

In other words, the choices we make in just our everyday coming and going, how we interact in our families, how we interact in relationships, how we go about our work, how we use our free time, whatever it is, those decisions matter.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin.

His work of purifying us.

So envy, sloth, greed, malice, lust, strife, like all those things, God is doing this purifying work to say there's no place for that in my people.

And it's not a matter of you or I saying, okay, I gotta sit down, I gotta get rid of this envy in my heart, I gotta get rid of this lust, I gotta get rid of this greed.

God says, no, no, I want you to come and seek me, I want you to experience relationship with me, and I will do the work of getting rid of it.

My dear children, oh, sorry, verse 8.

If we claim to be without sin, if we claim, well, I've got no brokenness, I've got, which I don't know that I've ever heard someone actually say.

We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify.

Again, he's the one doing it.

So, God, what do I have to do?

You have to confess.

Well, what are you gonna do?

I'll purify you.

I'll make you new, I'll make you whole.

If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.

So that you will not sin.

But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.

We need to be intentional to walk in the full light of who God is.

We we need to be transparent with our struggles, our challenges, our failings.

We're to walk in honesty and confession.

To confess freely.

That can be kind of a hard thing to do sometimes.

There's parts of our lives and our stories that truthfully, one, we either don't want to revisit or we don't want to invite anybody else to.

There's a lie that the enemy tells us that you can figure it out, you can take care of it, you can deal with it.

There's some times that we're willing to confess some things, right?

Yeah, I'm I'm wrestling with some anger, I'm wrestling with this.

But there's other things like we just want to keep bottled up.

But John's saying, listen, I know from experience.

We've all got our stuff.

And if you think your stuff isn't as bad as somebody else's stuff, it's probably worse.

Confess freely.

A couple of thoughts.

None of us are without fault or failure.

None of us are beyond being made new.

But if I tell somebody my stuff, then yes, they'll know you're broken just like them.

Now there's a place that's right for confession, there's a place that's not.

If you're visiting with us today, you're like, oh no, is he gonna have a stand and like tell us all the worst things we've done?

No.

We should confess everything to God.

God, here's where I'm at.

But God already knows it, yeah.

But sometimes we need to face it ourselves.

But there are times in our lives too where we say, God, do I need to own this with somebody else?

I've talked to so many people through the years, and they're like, I've dealt with this or that, and they just feel so defeated, and they're sure I'm gonna condemn them.

And I'm like, man, God's grace is afforded to you, God's rich grace is afforded to you.

There's been times in my life where I've confessed to other people and say, man, I'm dealing with this, I'm wrestling with this, or this is a broken area of my life.

And not once have I been condemned, but instead they've said, Yeah, God's grace is afforded to you.

Why?

Because we all sit under God's grace.

If you find anyone that would condemn you, they don't sit under God's grace.

Help us, Lord.

We forgive because He forgave us.

I mean, sit with that a moment.

We're all messed up, we've all had struggles and challenges, and Jesus wants us to recognize this.

John invites us to recognize what Jesus has told us.

We need to see ourselves in the right light.

It's hard to fix the problem if we can't see the problem.

We can't deal with a sickness we're unwilling to have diagnosed.

And if I believe deeply in the love of God, and if I believe deeply in the grace of God, and if I believe deeply in the truth of God and his justice, then I can confess freely those spots in my life where it doesn't match.

Because I know I'm loved.

Even in our brokenness and sin, God is for us.

That's a powerful truth.

God is for you.

God is good, and he's always good.

Always has been, always will be.

And we are loved by God even though we ourselves are not always good.

John says, I'm writing this from experience.

Listen, it's all true.

I know it sounds too good to be true, but the goodness of God, the truth of God, the grace of God, the love of God, the mercy of God, it is afforded.

You can confess freely.

Stop carrying the garbage that's weighing you down and give it to Him.

And when He invites you, and when appropriate, share it with somebody.

Share it with a mentor, share it with a friend, share it with a spouse, share it with somebody who can say, Hey, listen, I know what it is to struggle to.

The grace of God is there for you.

We believe deeply.

We confess freely.

We're called to walk faithfully.

1 John chapter 2, verses 3 through 6.

1 John 2:3–6

It says, We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.

How can I know I'm in right relationship with God if we keep his commands?

Do you know Jesus is telling the story about judgment day at the end, and he tells some people, man, come, like, I mean, those of you that you've been faithful to the little one of that you be faithful with a lot, and then there's others he says, get away from me, I don't know you.

And like, what are you talking about?

Like, we did all these incredible things.

We went to church, we gave money and all this stuff.

He goes, but I never knew you.

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.

Whoever says I know him but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.

But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete or whole or full in them.

Love for God is made complete.

It's the work of God again.

It's our submitting ourselves to him so that he can do the heavy lifting.

This is how we know we are in him.

This is how.

There doesn't have to be any ambiguity.

Anybody grow up in like kind of the scary church culture?

I talked to a guy when I was down at the monastery, man, and he grew up in a culture where they kind of just scared it out of you.

Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

By the way, if you have your windows up, your car is soaked.

Slowly, or yes, down.

Yeah.

If they're up, your car's still wet on the outside.

I was gonna get to that part, Kevin.

Yeah.

I just wanted you to know it's free car wash day at the church.

You're welcome.

We can choose to live wisely.

We can choose to walk in faith.

We we don't obey God, so God will love us.

We found that because of the deep love of God, we can walk in faithfulness to his commands.

And here's what it looks like to walk in obedience.

We keep Jesus' commands.

So, but do I have to have all the answers?

Because, see, I don't know all the things, I've only been in church a little while, I've not read the Bibles.

No, you don't have to have all the answers.

Well, do I have to have some kind of like special skill, some kind of special ability?

Some no, you don't have to have special skills.

Okay, well, do I have to just never mess up?

Like, what if I drop the ball?

What I yeah, you don't it's okay.

You don't have to live perfect.

So, what do I have to do?

Keep the commands of God.

All of them.

Uh, we're gonna do Ten Commandments in September, October.

I love what Erwin McManus says about the Ten Commandments.

He says they're the radical minimum standard for living, which we'll get more into that in September.

So, what commandments do I have to keep?

Because like it seems like a lot.

I mean, there's like 600 in the Old Testament, and if you follow the old Jewish understanding of the law, there's like another 600 on top of that, if not more.

And so Jesus answers that question really well for us in Matthew chapter 22, verses 36 to 40.

Matthew 22:36–40

Somebody comes and they asks him the question, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

You might be familiar.

Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

In other words, don't dip your toes in the water, but literally all in.

God, I believe in you deeply.

I'm confessing this free thing freely, and I'm I'm walking faithfully before you in all of who I am.

This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself.

Who's my neighbor?

Anybody I come in contact with.

And this is the point that's so helpful for us this morning.

All the law and the prophets, they hang on these two commandments.

So, how do I know God?

Obey his commandments.

There's so many.

Love God, love people.

Amen.

Everything else gets covered by that.

If we'll do that, then all the commands are taken care of.

We'll be on solid footing.

But what if I mess up?

What if I drop the ball?

Like, what if I mess up loving God or loving people?

Because truthfully, like I don't always get it right.

Sometimes I'm well-intentioned.

Ever done this?

I was well-intentioned, but man, I said the wrong thing, I did the wrong thing.

Like, what happens then?

Or what happens, honestly, like if I have a selfish moment or I'm just a jerk or I'm tired or I'm angry or I'm upset or I'm frustrated, and I'm so do I just mess the whole thing up?

No, John already dealt with that.

First John 1 9.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

And so as we're walking faithfully, if we mess up, because we believe so deeply in the grace and the love and the truth and the justice and the mercy of God, we're invited to confess freely once more so that we can walk faithfully.

So that he can purify us.

Not cleaning ourselves up.

John's been saying this since the beginning, this whole deal, like it's true.

He dove into it completely because he checked it out thoroughly.

Like I would tell you, like, don't be wishy-washy about faith.

It doesn't make sense if you're going to.

Like, if you're gonna do it, do it.

Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.

Like everything about you, and just love your neighbor as yourself.

Everything hinges on these two.

And John says it's a radically different way to live.

We're to be like Jesus, we're to do what Jesus did, and the truth is we can walk faithfully, because the text tells us we can.

So if we believe deeply these things about God, then it invites us to confess freely so that we're not carrying this extra junk in our life, so that we can walk faithfully, and ultimately so we can love others well.

And this is how the text closes out in 1 John 2, 7 through 11.

It reads this way.

Dear friends, I'm not writing you a new command, but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.

This is why, if you ever hear somebody say, Hey, I found this brand new thing in the Bible, nobody's ever taught it before.

Like, just slowly back away.

Slowly back away.

This old command is the message you have heard, yet I am writing you a new command.

Its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

It's uh theologians call this the in-breaking of the kingdom, the now but not yet.

You've experienced this in your life before, if you've ever been a follower of Jesus at all, because you recognize these changes that are taking place, but not everything seems fully yet rooted.

Verse 9 anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.

Another place he's going to say this is anyone who hates the person they can see and yet claims to love the God they cannot see is a liar.

Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light.

Well, the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

And there is nothing in them to make them stumble.

But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness, they do not know where they're going because the darkness has blinded them.

We're to walk in love.

We won't do it perfectly, at least not perfectly in the sense that we often think about of never dropping the ball or failing, but we will do it perfectly as God perfects us by the power of His Holy Spirit to where we're complete, to where we're whole, to where we're full.

We can be perfected in those ways, and as we're perfected by the work of God in that relationship with God, we find this ability to love one another more clearly.

And sometimes others will love us well, and sometimes they'll betray us.

And even in that we can choose to love.

If you're dealing with betrayal or anything like that and you're wrestling with that, I really would commend to you Tin Boom's book, The Hiding Place.

I was so convicted by her attitude and her sister's attitude, especially her sister's attitude in the book, and it's just it's incredible.

And she anchors it all in the text.

We continue to move forward, we we own our failings, we celebrate the growth points, we keep moving forward more and more in relationship with God and with others.

It's listen, it's really true.

It's been observed, it's been tested, it's been seen.

Like this isn't something, it's not wishful thinking, it's not just an idea, let's try it, it's not something that was just considered.

John says, Listen, I've seen it, I've heard it, I've experienced it.

But he's not just saying, hey, just take my word for it.

He's saying, look, check it out yourself.

See if there's a better way to live.

I stake literally, John says, my entire life on this, I've reorganized everything about my life to live in this way because I found it to be the fullest life there is.

And I want you to know the same.

But you can't live it through me, you can't just live it through the stories, you've got to experience it.

Everyone is invited into full relationship with God.

Imagine.

Living the Christian life with such a robust and grounded faith.

Not something you heard about in the life of another person, but that you're experiencing in your own life.

And so when challenges come your way, and the challenges are inevitable, you find that the grace of God literally is sufficient.

That when you feel overwhelmed by what's going on in the world, you find that there's this peace that holds you secure.

When opportunities are afforded to you, rather than it being something to pump up your ego, instead, all of a sudden it just becomes one more resource to steward to his glory.

Because you already have everything you need in him because you believe so deeply in the rich love of God.

This morning, as we close, I want us to think in one of two ways.

First, if you don't know Christ, like today's a great day to just begin this relationship.

John is inviting us into relationship with God.

And so if you're like, I don't know what that is, I'll pray here in a moment, and you're welcome to pray in your heart with me.

And then I would we'd love for you to tell us about it, and so we can help you take next steps, because then we're gonna confess freely and we're gonna walk faithfully and we're gonna love others well.

Because we'll do that in a moment.

But maybe you've been following after Jesus for a while, and so here's what I'd like you to consider.

Because God is able, we are able to believe deeply, confess freely, walk faithfully, and love others well.

So, which one stands out to you this morning?

Where might God be inviting you to take a next step?

Maybe for some it's that just that believing deeply.

Like you kind of took it for granted because your grandma or your grandpa or your mom or your dad or somebody that, man, they're deep faith, and that's kind of been an anchor point for you.

That's not what it's meant to anchor you.

It's meant to be a signpost to the deep, deeper reality.

You don't go to the Grand Canyon and wait for other people to come back and tell you how amazing it is.

You go and see for yourself what they've been talking about.

And maybe for some of you it's just that step.

For others, it might be this confession piece.

And you wrestle with confession.

To even just pray honestly before God, like, God, here's where I'm struggling, here's what I'm dealing with.

Listen, I know what I'm supposed to do, and I'm just not doing it.

And so just confess to God.

And then ask God, say, God, is there somebody else I need to confess to to help me out of this?

I had a situation uh pop up in my life this past month where I didn't know how to get out of it.

And so I called a friend of mine.

I said, Hey, listen, I don't know what to do.

You're an expert in this matter.

Can you help me?

We do the same thing with a doctor.

Hey, I've got an injury, I've got something, I don't know what to do.

I don't just grin and bear it.

Doctor, can you help me understand this?

I've got a financial matter I'm trying to understand.

Can you help me?

In the same way, confession is this recognition of, hey, I don't know what to do in this area.

Can you help me?

And there is no condemnation in confession because we all, apart from the grace of God, would stand condemned.

Maybe you just need to walk more faithfully.

Maybe you'd say, Yeah, I one of these days I keep saying, I'm gonna I'm gonna get into the Bible, or I'm gonna become a generous person, or man, I'm gonna become a person of prayer.

Yeah, I'm gonna start serving one of these days, and you're just not doing it.

Listen, just ask God.

Hey, God, if have you let me off the hook, I don't need to read the scriptures.

God, is are you calling everybody else to be generous, but not me?

God, are you calling everybody else to prayer?

But God, how do I take those steps of walking faithfully?

And nearly every time it's going to be in community, just so you know.

Or maybe lastly, for some, it's this idea of loving others well.

You got somebody that betrayed you.

You got somebody that let you down.

Somebody broke your heart.

How do I love others well in the midst of that?

And you ever disappointed God?

You ever broke his heart?

Ask him, God, how do you still love me?

And I need you to love them through me because I don't know that I can love them right now.

Maybe it's just a colleague and they're an inconvenience to you and you're hoping they get transferred or moved or whatever else, and instead say, God, will you love them through me?

But take a step.

Maybe it's believing deeply.

Maybe for the first time, maybe just in a new way.

Maybe it's confession and that's not been an area of your life that's been regular.

Maybe it's walking faithfully, maybe it's loving.

But we're all invited into to experience a full relationship with God.

Don't settle for less.

Would you stand with me?

We're gonna pray.

And again, at the start of that prayer, I'm just gonna pray a prayer.

If you don't know Christ, today's a good day.

You can scan the QR code, let us know.

I'd love to meet with you.

We've got a resource I'd love to kind of guide you through.

We'd love to set you up with a mentor.

Somebody just come alongside you, but let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this day, your love, your grace, your kindness.

Lord, I first pray for those that they don't know you, and that they just simply pray this prayer, Lord.

I know I'm a sinner.

I've got brokenness in my life.

Some it feels like I've inherited, others I know it's my own choice.

And I confess I'm broken, I confess I need you.

And I receive you into my life so that you might purify me, so that you might make me new.

I don't know fully even what that means right now, but I need you.

And I want to walk in faith.

Lord, for everyone else in the room.

Lord, I pray we would consider where you'd prick our hearts.

Maybe, maybe it is this deep belief.

Maybe it's been one of those things where it's like, I've dabbled in the faith and it roots most of my life, but honestly, when I'm doing my professional thing, like I do my own stuff, when I'll manage my finance, I do my own stuff.

When I'm managing my God, we want to deeply believe in who you are, that it takes root in everything.

Maybe it's confession, we we struggle with that, or there's some area that we're just not sure.

Maybe you're gonna invite some of us to confess something to someone or to meet up with myself or another member of the staff or a trusted mentor.

To let go of that baggage, to confess it so that can drop.

Maybe it's walking faithfully, and that we know there's some things we should do, and we've just not been willing to, or we know there's some things we should give up, but we've not been willing to.

But we want to walk faithfully with you.

Or finally, even just loving others well.

Maybe it's something small, like a colleague that annoys us.

Maybe it's something big like a betrayal we've suffered.

But your love is sufficient.

Help us to root ourselves in your love, to experience fully an abiding relationship with you.

God help us to leave in step with your spirit.

Help us to live in step with your spirit.

In the name of Jesus, we pray all these things.

Amen.

Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast.

If you're ready to take a next step in your faith, please reach out to us through our website, refineryohio.com, or you can email us at office at refineryohio.com.

We hope you have a blessed day.