1 John: Confidence in Knowing

So uh this is uh I kind of got a phone call uh earlier this week about uh doing this passage of scripture.

We've been walking through first John for a while now, you know, and and Russ he he's been kind of working us through that thing, and we've had uh a couple different guys.

Uh Scotty Smith came and and did some of 1 John and we kind of got started in there, and then Russ comes back and he kind of fills in, and then I get stuck with like Antichrist passages and all this weird stuff, and then now you're back with me.

It's just been it's kind of been a jumbled mess a little bit, but but that's okay uh because we're still working through these passages, all right?

And then today, finally I get a break because Russ is like, look, all you gotta do is cover three verses.

I'm like, yes, you know, like that's in my wheelhouse right there.

I can handle that.

So all we have to do is cover three little verses today, and unfortunately, there's some of the toughest three verses I've ever read in my life because you're gonna read it and go, what?

Like, what are we supposed to do with this?

And and it's because that it brings up some stuff about um confidence and the way that we ask for things and going before the Lord in prayer and all these things.

And so, you know, have you ever like confidently known something?

I can I can just tell you right now, confidently asked for something from someone, you know, that you just knew it was just gonna be a sure thing.

We were um Manny and I were in Charleston one time for our anniversary, and I was kind of in uh Brad vacation mode.

Any of y'all got a vacation mode?

You know, it's not your regular you, it's the it's the other you, you know, where nothing matters.

Do whatever you want to, all this stuff, everything's cool, you know, you're on vacation.

Well, we were in Charleston for our anniversary one time, and we're walking down that street with all the expensive shops on it, whatever it's called.

Um, I can't remember.

Anyways, a bunch of places I don't belong in.

And so Mandy goes, Mandy for years has has hit me up for this one particular item.

Years for this one particular bag, okay?

Some of y'all know what I'm talking about.

This particular bag.

And so we're walking in Charleston and she goes, I want to go in this store right here.

I look up and Louis Buiten.

All right, let's go.

You know, here we go.

And she's like, it's pronounced Louis Vuitton.

Genius.

You know, it's like, all right, him too.

Let's go.

You know, here we go.

And and you know, I'm kind of walking the door, like, alright, let's let's see what this thing's all about, you know.

And so we walk in, and I mean, let me just tell you right off the bat, um, they ain't got nothing for this guy in there.

I can promise you that.

Ain't nobody wearing a 2X in that place, I can tell you.

Um and uh and so we show up and we go in there, and you can kind of tell, I don't, I don't know, maybe we've maybe I had the look of you don't necessarily belong in here, sir.

Because it was pretty evident from the beginning that they thought that.

And so uh so we're standing there, and Mandy, you know, she's like, she's used to this because when she gets me in places, she knows she's got me then, you know.

She just got to get you there first.

So if we go in and we're looking around, and of course she's like, that one.

I was all right, let's see that one right there.

And this lady puts on white gloves.

And she goes and gets this bag down with her gloves and she brings it to this counter.

And she sets it on the counter in front of us, and it's like, you know, like we're supposed to, you know, like bow down, worship.

I don't know what we're doing.

And so in situations like that, I'm not the most confident person, okay?

So sometimes I make awkward statements because I'm I'm in a situation that I don't feel very good about.

And so there's this moment of silence, this awkward moment of silence where we're, I guess we're supposed to be beholding this bag, you know, in front of us, and and this lady's in her white gloves and she's waiting for me, and you know, I got a little awkward, and the first thing I can think is I look at this lady and just go, wouldn't you like to see the cows rear end that came off of?

Um, let me tell you what the number one thing not to say in the Louis Vuitton story is.

That.

So I've thoroughly disgusted this young woman by this point.

And then I asked the second question that you don't ask, which is how much is it?

And that's because they just figure if you're coming in there to get one, you don't care how much it is, you're just gonna buy it.

Well, I ain't never met this guy.

Tell you that right now.

I mean, I didn't know if you were allowed to bargain, if this was kind of one of those deals or what, or price is set, you know, how's this work?

Um so I asked that question, and it was kind of like even more disgust and eye rolls and all that stuff.

And and so they tell you the price.

If you don't faint, um you you may be in an awkward situation where when you hear that number and and you know, I'm thinking, I gotta get out of here, you know, like fast.

You hear that number, and then here's the final thing that you do not say inside the Louis Vuitton store, which is, well, if that one costs that much, where do you keep the fake ones at?

They do not take lightly to fake Louis Vuitton bags inside the Louis Vuitton store.

Um, that'll get security caught on you if you're not careful, you know what I mean?

So we're standing there, but it's it's one of those things where Mandy's hit me up for this bag for years, and so she finally gets me to the store, and she thinks, you know, she's confident knowing this is happening.

And I'm confident in my answer that I give her all the time when she asks for, which is that's a great thing for you to ask for for Christmas from the man that you marry when I'm dead.

He'll be glad to buy that bag for you.

I'm positive of it.

But she was confident that if I could just get him there, if I could just get in there and behold this white glove bag that some lady pulls off of a rack and sets in front of us, we're gonna have it, but it's gonna be mine.

Well, I ain't never met this guy.

Tell you that right now.

But I think about that and I think about the confidence in which we walk into that place and you think, yeah, I'm getting it, and then all of a sudden the answer is, no.

We're not doing this today.

And when I read this, these few little verses in 1 John right here that we read just a minute ago, these couple verses in 1 John, you kind of get this sense that there's there should be this confidence welling up, but then you you get into some of the details of this thing and you start to think, man, maybe I'm not as confident as I thought I was.

And so look at look at verse 13.

I think there's three things that John is really just trying to remind believers in this passage.

What he's doing right here is he's ending this letter.

Okay?

The letter's coming to an end.

He's done everything he could do up front to remind these people of the faith that they have in Christ, to tell them about, you know, warn them about some false teachers, do some things, you know, kind of housekeeping things at the end of the letter, and this is this is his last statement right here.

Look at verse 13.

It says, These things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Now, this is this is not unusual because John ends the Gospel of John almost in the same way.

In chapter 20 of John, down in like verse 30 something, somewhere down in there, 31, he ends the gospel of John in the same way, and he reminds people the reason I'm writing this gospel to you is so you can realize that that eternal life only comes through Jesus Christ.

That's how he ends his gospel.

Now we're in this letter to believers, and he writes and he says, These things I've written to you.

And he's talking about this entire letter.

He says, These things I've written to you, and then look at his next phrase.

Who believe in the name of the Son of God, believers, right?

Not talking to anybody else, talking to believers.

Look at what he says.

So that you may know that you have eternal life.

And one of the key words right here in this little simple passage is the word no.

To know something.

Okay?

Because here in the next nine verses, he's gonna use that word no seven or eight times, I think, in the next nine verses.

What he's doing is he's hammering home to believers, knowing Christ, knowing the assurance that comes through eternal life in Christ Jesus.

That's what he's laying out before believers.

He wants them to understand that when you believe and when you have the assurance of all these things, and when we're in the will of God inside of what God's doing, you have this assurance of what?

Eternal life.

There's no way to get that assurance any other way.

There's absolutely no way.

So the first thing that John wants us to know is he wants us to know who we are and who God is.

Because apart from God, there's absolutely no way for us to obtain the eternal life that he's talking about in this verse.

There's no way for us to, use that word, know that we have eternal life.

That security and that assurance can only come from one place, and that's Jesus Christ.

And his death, burial, resurrection.

There's no other way to obtain that assurance of eternal life.

It's impossible.

And that's that's not just because I'm telling you it's impossible, it's not because I'm making this up.

I'm just going off of what God's word said.

That's it.

I'm just the messenger.

But that's how we know.

We know by our relationship with Jesus Christ, by belief and faith in his death, burial, and resurrection.

That's how we know and have assurance in eternal life.

John wants us to know who we are and who Christ is.

Second thing I want you to see this morning is John wants us to know the difference between our will and God's will.

Look at verse 14.

It says, This is the confidence which we have before him.

That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Now, the real kind of sticky part in all this is the words his will.

You see that?

His will.

Have you ever tried to enact your will on a situation?

I'm asking because um I may or may not have done that a couple times.

Well, you try to enact your will, and and so the other day I went to Home Depot and I was getting mulch uh for to make our house look better.

And you know, this was back when we had the heat wave, you know, where it's like almost 100 degrees every day.

And you know, Home Depot sticks these young kids out there at the mulch pile, and and they're like they just have to stand there and load your car up for you.

And you know, it doesn't look like that great of a job, but I mean they're 15, 16 years old, you can handle it.

You know, you'll be alright.

But now they give you like a tent.

Home Depot does, they supply you with a tent to have shade, and and they've even given them an air conditioner now, like a thing that like blows mist and cool air on them if they if they get too hot.

So, you know, at this point the old man in me kicks in and I'm like, that's ridiculous.

You know, what do I care?

You know, but it's like, now that's ridiculous.

So I pull up into the end of line, you know, and you can just see these kids are just pouring sweat, and they're you know, please don't, man.

Please don't tell that.

So he's like, how many, sir?

You know, I'm like, 25.

I said, I'll tell you what, I'll I'll help you load them, you know.

And I'm looking at these kids and I'm like, this is they're not gonna be any help, you know.

So I'm I go over there and it's time for me to shine at this point.

You know what I mean?

It's time for me to shine in front of these 15, 16-year-old kids at Home Depot.

So I go over there and I go to the mulch pile.

It just so happens that everything was laid out just fine where I just I'm I'm going two at a time, man.

You know, two at a time, on the shoulder in the truck.

And these kids are over there, you know, trying to get one bag and they're throwing it and it's going all over the place.

And two at a time, here I go, and I'm throwing in there.

One of them finally just gives up and goes and sits down.

He's back under the tent.

I'm like, that's fine, junior, just take a break.

I got it.

You know?

They're dropping like flies at this point.

So I'm determined to show this other kid, and you know, oh, I got it, buddy.

Oh, I got it.

And I'm loading two at a time, and we're getting there, and all of a sudden, I you know, do the count, and I'm like, all right, one more.

And he kind of looks at me and I look at him, and it's that stare down of, do I get it or do you get it?

You know, and I'm like, I got it.

So he goes back under the tent.

And at this point, I've won.

You know what I mean?

Go around the side of the truck, and I'm making sure I got everything and all this stuff, and I guess some kind of manager or something would come out at this point.

He's looking at these two guys in the tent, and he's like, How come you're not helping that guy load his mules?

And I'm like, you know, yeah, they got in trouble now.

And this one kid goes, that old man's loading them two at a time.

And he goes, What old man?

He goes, That old man, he points directly at me.

Man, I just put on a clinic for these guys, you know?

Like, I just two at a time mulch bag load, and you're gonna look at me and call me an old man?

Like, I mean, come on.

I guess to a 16-year-old, I am an old man.

But you want to talk about your confidence, you know.

You load them last two in there, you throw the last one in there, you beat these young kids, and it's like, hey, look at that buddy, and then the next thing you know, your confidence goes right out the window because they look at you and go, hey, that old man's pretty tough.

I'm like, I'm not that old, man.

But to them I am.

But your confidence all of a sudden gets dropped a little bit, doesn't it?

All of a sudden that confidence goes way down, and it's because you're trying to enact your will, you're not necessarily worried about how all this other stuff's going.

You've only got one thing on the brain.

So when John writes this verse in verse 14 and he says, This is the confidence which we have before him, that if we ask anything, now it would be awesome.

It would be awesome if that verse just stopped right there.

If we ask anything, and we cut out a couple phrases in there, and then we say, He hears us.

Just anything at all.

But the problem is that we slip these few little words in there that says, if we ask anything according to his will.

That's the rough part.

I'll tell you why.

Because there's so many times where I'm almost a hundred percent certain that my will is better.

Does that make sense?

I'm almost a hundred percent certain that if you would just let me have my way or give me what I asked for, it will be fine.

Everything's good.

But the problem that John's writing to believers right here, and he says, this is the confidence.

Your confidence doesn't come from your will being done, you as the individual, you as the believer, doesn't come from your will being done.

It's coming because if you ask according to his will, he hears us.

So then the question becomes, well, how do we know we're inside the will of God?

What do we know what the will of God is?

Well, that's a tough one.

That's hard.

Because I'm gonna be real honest with you, I can stand up here all day long and we can we can get way down deep into this thing and really start to dig into that, but at the end of the day, there's times where I don't know what God's will is.

I don't know what his will is, I don't know what he's trying to do.

I don't understand why things have to be a certain way.

I don't get it.

I just know it's not the way I do it.

And sure, I think my way's better, but then at the end of the day, guess what?

There's no confidence in my will.

You know, do you do you understand why?

It's because if we go back to that very first verse that we read, if you have confidence in Brad O'Kelly, that doesn't give you the gifts of God.

That doesn't give you the eternal life that John writes about.

The confidence comes from knowing that we have eternal life, not through our will, but through what Christ has done on the cross and his grace and mercy.

That confidence is not something we can build up in ourselves.

That confidence is not something that we could administer to others because we don't have the power to do that.

As great as your will, as great as you think it might be, the will of God is what brings confidence in us because of what he's done on the cross.

The Bible says he hears us.

When we ask according to his will, he hears us.

The third thing I want you to see today is this.

John wants people to know, he wants believers to know that God hears and he answers.

Look at verse 15.

It says, and if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we've asked of him.

Now again, this this would be great if we could just pull it out of context, right, and use it.

It actually happens a lot, believe it or not.

We just pull it right out of context and we use it, and we go, well, all we gotta do is ask, and he gives us whatever we want.

Well, that'd be an incredible God, wouldn't it?

That'd be one to serve right there.

Hey, all I gotta do is ask and you give it to me.

But I think you and I know that in our daily lives it doesn't exactly work that way, right?

Because here's the part that I do understand.

What I understand is that this room is full of people.

It's full of people right now who are, maybe some of you are praying for something specifically.

Maybe there's something in your life that's going on, and you're praying for something, and you're asking of God something.

Maybe on a daily basis, maybe on a weekly basis, maybe it's on a minute-by-minute basis.

You're constantly asking God for something.

And you're begging Him for His will to be done, hopefully.

You're asking these things and you're going, Where's my answer?

I've been there.

I understand that.

I get that.

You're sitting there going, where's my answer?

But in verse 15 he says, and if we know that he hears us, in whatever we ask.

And that's the beauty of it, in whatever we ask.

The problem is that we can't detach this from the verse before it because what we ask has to be asked in his will.

Why?

Because just like the verse before that, verse 13, that's where the confidence is.

And knowing that he hears us and answers us.

Your confidence can't come from any other source, and knowing that God hears you, knowing that God understands you, and knowing that he is listening, and knowing that he does have an answer.

That confidence only comes from knowing Christ.

I can't manufacture it from anywhere else.

The other day we were in the car, we had a bunch of stuff to do.

Three kids in the car, you know the drill.

I got I got one kid that hates the car, just screams all the time.

I got the other two that are like, oh, we want to watch movies, you know, and then the old man comes out and me, we didn't have movies in this car, you know, when we went places.

The other two are like, oh somebody's kicking, somebody's hitting, it's loud, everybody's screaming, all this stuff's going on, and you know, I'm pulling the steering wheel off of the thing, and you know, and Mandy's over there scrolling on the phone, you know.

Threw that jab in there, and y'all text me later, make sure I'm okay.

Um blood pressure's going up, you know.

You can feel it, you know?

You can just feel it, and you're just sitting there going, whoa, you know, you know, I'm just trying to get for five minutes down the road, man.

We're not even going on a road trip.

This is just to get in a Kroger, you know?

Like, what is happening here?

It's just chaos.

And I'm just sitting there in that moment, just gripping that steering wheel, and I'm like, why can't this just be easy?

And then it wasn't that long after that though that I really like started to think and I I started to remember.

I remember the time where Mandy and I didn't understand.

I remember the time where it wasn't even the papers for the house that we live in, two bedrooms and one bath.

And we bought it under the understanding we're just gonna be through this for the rest of our life.

And that was God's will.

Because we had prayed for so long.

So hard.

So many tears.

So little understanding of what was wrong and why it wouldn't happen for us.

We prayed and prayed and prayed, and then we don't felt the thing when it came back, and this is what it felt like.

It never would happen.

We would sat down one day.

And we moved on with our lives.

And four years later, there were three kids living in a two-bedroom, one bathhouse.

And I was gripping the steering wheel ready to rip it out of the car.

Because my blood pressure was so high.

And I just remember thinking in that moment.

I'll take that screaming and fighting and hitting and carrying on all day, every day.

Because it happened exactly the way that God's will allowed it to happen.

And he never let her or I get in the way of that.

The tears, the prayers, all of the things.

It wasn't the answer that we wanted.

It wasn't what we wanted God to say to us.

It wasn't what we wanted him to give right in that moment.

He didn't do what we wanted him to do.

And he didn't because he knew there would be no confidence on our part because that would be our will and not his.

And four years later, he finally said, I heard you.

All those years ago, I heard you.

And I understood you and I knew exactly what I was doing.

Now enjoy the screaming.

I could have never imagined.

So when I read verse 15 and it says, if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked of him.

Folks, verse 15 doesn't say a blessed word about you getting what you want when you want it.

It says that because of the confidence that we have in what Christ has done on the cross for us, he hears us.

Because of the faith that we have in the Savior of Jesus Christ, he hears us and he answers us.

But it still doesn't say a word about you getting what you want.

It just says that you can have confidence in asking.

And there's people sitting in this room today, you've been asking and asking and asking.

And can I tell you something?

This is the best part.

He's been hearing and hearing and hearing every single request.

Don't you dare leave here today and think that your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.

I promise you they're not.

And that's coming from a guy that thought that from a for a long, long time.

Brothers and sisters, we have confidence in what Christ has done on the cross.

And that confidence supplies us not only with eternal life, but confidence to go before him and ask.

And when we do that, we ask for his will to be done, not ours.

Let's pray together.

Lord, I uh I don't know.

I I thank you for letting us open your word and try to understand you today.

I thank you that we have confidence in what you've done on the cross for us.

I thank you that you hear us.

I thank you that you answer us, whether it be in your time or our time, whatever it may be, I thank you for that.

So, Lord, above all things today, let your will be done.

Let us ask for your will to be done in every single situation.

We love you and ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.