Love Letters Part 3 | Kingdom Confidence with Chris Schlotterbeck

He's glorious.

Behold the one who has come for us.

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

To get connected or to give online,

you can go to connect.hcv.church or give.hcv.church.

If at any time during this message

you feel called to make a change in your life,

text changeme to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

We always love Mike on the mic, right?

It's so good to see you.

We're glad you're joining us.

If you're watching from home,

thanks for welcoming us into your space.

I just want to reiterate what Mike said.

We're just thankful for all of you

that participated at the Reach Coal Weather Shelter

with us this past week.

Can you give yourselves a hand?

Thank you. Just hundreds of hours

serving those that are less fortunate than us.

I know that Jess and I had a great time

doing Taco Tuesday on Tuesday with all the residents

and of course everyone that volunteered.

We had the best tacos of our lives.

Weren't they pretty good, Charlie?

I believe you're there.

Yeah.

So next year if you missed out,

be sure to sign up and participate.

Now for many of you,

I'm sure you've seen this before.

Someone in the end zone at a major sporting event,

I learned that it's very prevalent on WWE and SmackDown,

right, people in the stands.

I haven't watched for years.

I used to be a Hulk Hogan fan,

but you know, that was when I was 12.

So if you're still watching as an adult,

I'm not really sure how to feel about that,

but that's okay.

But you know and have seen it before,

John 3 16.

And if you've experienced any part of the Bible,

you probably know that this verse, if you will,

is very prevalent and powerful

in terms of its gospel message.

I wanna share it with you.

For God so loved the world

that he gave his one and only son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish,

but have eternal life.

And just think about it.

For God so loved the world,

God didn't merely like the world,

he loved the world.

He loved it so much that he created you.

He made a way for you

and desired a forever relationship with you.

He gave his one and only son.

Because of this immense love for the world,

he gave generously, he gave sacrificially,

his only son because it's only through his death,

burial and resurrection

that we can experience this eternal life.

That whoever believes in him.

See, it's not enough to know that Jesus existed

as a real historical person.

I mean, did you know that James 2 19 reminds us

that even the demons believe,

in fact, not only do they believe,

but they tremble in terror.

See, believing in Jesus means we choose to trust him

as Lord of our lives.

Shall not perish, but have eternal life.

We cannot earn our salvation,

but we can trust the one who saves us.

God created us for eternity,

but he also gave us the ability to choose.

And eternity isn't something in the distant future,

it's not when we die, it's in motion right now.

See, we currently live in a culture

where certainty is seen as arrogance

and doubt or ignorance is seen as humility.

I mean, that's the culture we live in.

That if you are certain, you are sure,

you are confident of something that you believe in,

oh, well then you're arrogant.

But if you're ignorant or perpetually in doubt,

then you're in humble.

I mean, doubt has become a virtue,

when in reality, it doesn't mean that you're humble at all.

Now, I would say that it could be true to a certain extent

because there's some things that we should hold on to

very loosely and not be very confident about.

However, I believe we should be confident about,

according to the scripture, truth.

We should be confident about truth.

And to be confident about truth is not arrogance,

it's having confidence in truth that just makes sense.

So the question today is,

do you know the truth?

Can we be confident that we know the truth

about something more important than anything

any of us will deal with this coming week?

And that reality is eternal life.

Can we know the truth of what it means

to have a relationship with God

and to have one that extends beyond the grave?

See, for the last two weeks,

we've been discussing John's letter in 1 John

to the believers in the early church

in our series Love Letters.

Thus far in week one, we looked at Jesus' extravagant love.

Last week, we discussed what it means to be a child of God.

And today, we will be looking at kingdom confidence.

And listen, as I was praying for all of you this week,

those of you watching online,

God just kind of quickened my spirit to share with you

that these words I'm about to share

could change your whole outlook on life.

Could literally give you a relationship with God

you thought you could never have before.

See, we must realize that John is writing this letter

to a specific situation that was happening in a church

to a specific group of Jesus followers.

That's how we read the Bible.

Otherwise, we take it out of context.

And within this church that the letter is being written to,

there was a group of people

that had began to walk away from the church.

They were abandoning the faith.

They had changed their minds about Jesus, who he was,

and the historic teachings of the faith.

The followers that remained behind in the church

were shocked.

They were shaken by this, and they had become anxious,

and were beginning to doubt themselves

about whether or not they were believing truth.

And listen, I'm not saying there's anything wrong

with doubting.

All of us walk through doubt

when it comes to our faith journey.

It's just a part of being human.

But I want you to realize that John's goal

in writing this letter, and his goal for us this morning,

is to stir up a renewed confidence.

His goal is a renewed confidence, not condemnation.

He desires to reassure those wavering believers

that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

That he is, in fact, the real deal,

and the choice they made to follow him

leads to eternal life.

And he goes on to say, look,

you have the evidence in your very own lives

that truth is real.

And I want us all to hear that God loves us,

and he wants us to tear down any false confidence

that we build on our own.

He wants to replace it with a truth from the gospel,

that we develop a kingdom confidence

that we can all stand on.

A kingdom confidence that we can all stand on

as we walk through this thing called life,

which leads us to our first truth this morning.

God is love.

1 John 4, 8 and verse 16 says,

but anyone who does not love does not know God for,

notice what John says, God is love.

And then in verse 16, we know how much God loves us,

and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God,

and God lives in them.

I mean, from 1 John 4, 7 to 1 John 5, 5,

the word love, love, love is recorded 32 times.

It almost sounds like a broken record,

like John is just constantly repeating love.

And what he's trying to get us to see is

a relationship with Jesus is a life of love.

It's a love relationship with God.

And John just keeps hitting this over and over and over again

from different angles, from different perspectives.

And the primary truth that dominates everything

the Bible is teaching us is this, God is love.

He is love.

I just read verse 8 and 16, and John says it outright.

It's a pretty powerful statement to say someone is love.

For example, it's like saying Chris is love.

It's like saying Chris was synonymous with love.

Chris is perfectly loving, and we all know that's not true.

I'm not always loving in every way, I'm not love.

You could not make the statement that Chris is love.

But we can say God is love.

Supernatural love exists eternally in God,

and it finds its existence in him.

It's in his nature to love, and it always has been.

I mean, before time began, before the world was even created,

God was love.

I mean, we've seen it all over 1 John.

John is constantly writing about the trinitarian nature

of God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

I mean, before man or woman or anything else was even created,

God was loving in and of himself.

It's the nature of that community.

It's who he is.

Kind of like the sun, the sun gives us light.

Fire gives us heat.

God loves because he is love.

Supernatural love exists eternally in him,

which leads us to our next truth.

This supernatural love flows from God.

See, it even gets better.

1 John 4, 7 and 10, dear friends,

let us continue to love one another,

for love comes from God.

Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

This is real love, not that we loved God,

but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice

to take away our sins.

News flash, love doesn't start with us.

Love starts with God.

Verse 10 says this is real love.

Real love, real love.

It starts with him, not with us.

In love, he sent his Son for what?

A sacrifice for our sins.

Remember the word we learned over the last two weeks,

propitiation.

And that sacrifice had to happen because we are not loving.

We are naturally sinners in rebellion to God,

turning away from God.

None of us have been loving toward God.

If anything, we've been defiant.

The primary problem in every single one of our lives

is that we consistently turn away from God

instead of loving God.

So it's really good news that supernatural love

doesn't start with us.

Rebellion starts with us.

And this makes God's love totally different

from the way we, from the way humanity thinks about love.

I mean, this week I was reflecting on the different people

that I love the most,

specifically my wife Jessica and my kids.

And I was thinking about Jessica

because we started a marriage course this past Friday.

And on Wednesday, her and I did it together at home

to prepare ourselves for what was about to be shared.

And one of the questions that we had to reflect on is

think back to when you first met your spouse,

the first time that you saw her.

And as I thought back and reflected on it,

I looked at her and said,

I fell in love with you the first time that we met.

You know why?

Because I thought she was beautiful.

I was attracted first to her beauty on the outside

and then the inside.

I'll be honest, I fell totally in love with her.

She would be the one that would lead me

into a relationship with Jesus to experience this new life.

And then once I began this journey,

I then realized that God wanted her and I to be together.

She, however, did not see it that way.

It took some time for her to realize how special I was.

And she'll even today.

And she'll even today say,

yes, you're very special, Chris.

Therefore, I had to learn to love her

without her loving me in return

simply because I thought she was special.

See, my love for her has grown ever since.

We celebrated 26 years of marriage this past summer.

Thank you.

We've known one another for 28 years.

And the more we get to know each other, the better it gets.

My love for her was prompted by her beauty

and it had nothing to do with her love for me.

But after 26 years of marriage, the more she loves me,

the more I love her.

But listen, that's the way it works

in a marriage relationship.

It's not the way a relationship with God works.

I mean, Jess and I have a very healthy relationship,

but love in our relationship

has no comparison to a love relationship with God.

In our relationship with God,

love flows completely from where?

From Him.

In our sinful nature, there's nothing in us that loves God.

We are prone to defy God.

We don't want to desire Him.

We're not drawn to Him.

In our sin nature, we have a tendency to turn away.

In our lives, we desire so many other things

that we think are better in this world than God.

But yet, He keeps loving us.

Even when we're totally unlovable, God loved us.

I mean, I don't know about you,

but that's pretty awesome to think about.

I mean, I talk with people all the time who say,

look, Chris, all the things I've done in my life,

there's no way God could love me.

I mean, I've been through a lot of things,

but I've never been in love with anyone.

There's no way God could love me.

Truth is, that's a lie,

because love starts with Him.

There is no sin in you that's greater than God's love for you.

And this is good news for a bunch of people

who don't have it all together.

There's no sin in you greater than God's love for you.

It's a totally different way to think.

God's love for you is not in any way dependent on you.

God never says, I love you, Tom, if.

Hey, Susan, I love you because God never does that.

God doesn't love you because of what you do,

it's because of who He is.

We are totally free from any and every attempt

to earn more love from God.

God will never love you any less than He does right now,

and He will never love you any more than He does right now.

He loves you supernaturally, and it flows from Him.

I mean, just let that sink in.

In a world, in a culture,

where all kinds of people simply love those that are lovable,

in a world where all kinds of people will say,

well, I love you if you will do this, and if you will do that,

when things aren't going very well, where's that love go?

Out the door.

In many of our lives, people have loved God,

and they've loved Him, and they've loved Him,

in many of our lives, people have loved us for a little while,

and then they're gone.

Husbands who stopped loving their wives,

wives who can't stand their husbands,

parents who have left your home,

who have loved you but then aren't there anymore,

children who rebel against their parents.

In a world of unpredictable, especially unpredictable love,

the nature of God is 100% predictable and 100% dependable.

Let me tell you this morning, He is love.

Supernatural love exists eternally in the Trinity.

The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father,

the Father and Son love the Spirit,

and it's this beautiful circle of community and love.

Now you gotta see this.

Remember, listen to the prayer that Jesus prayed

as He was about to go to the cross, recorded by John,

in his gospel in chapter 17, verse 26.

I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so.

Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.

Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.

I'm gonna read it again,

because I think it's important for you to hear.

I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so.

Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.

Jesus just prayed that the love of the Father, right,

that He has for the Son would be in those

that are in relationship with Him.

Think about that.

How much does God the Father love God the Son Jesus?

He loves Him perfectly, fully, completely, unimaginably.

It's otherworldly.

Our minds can't even comprehend that type of love.

You can't get any greater than the Father loving the Son.

This is the same love God has for His sons and daughters.

That's something to celebrate.

God loves you like He loves Jesus' Son.

And this means that if God the Father's love for the Son is in all of us,

then we have that kind of love, right?

And can experience that kind of love on a daily basis.

The whole picture is this.

God has invited all of us, all those in a relationship with Him,

into this Trinitarian fellowship of love,

which is what John has been teaching to us throughout the whole letter.

I mean, he starts the letter, 1 John 1.3.

Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus.

It's a love relationship.

And now we are in the middle of this thing.

And they're loving on us and sharing with us.

So I just want you to imagine right now, right where you're sitting,

you have the ability to know the supernaturally loving God is your Father.

Right now, right where you're sitting in your seat,

you are a son or a daughter of God.

And all this happens through a loving relationship with Jesus.

See, Jesus is now our life.

He's not a part of our lives.

That's what being in a relationship with Jesus is.

He is our life.

He is not a part of our lives on Sundays.

Can I step on your toes a second?

See, there's too many people that put Jesus in a box.

Oh yeah, I love Jesus on Sunday.

Oh yeah, I love Jesus when I'm worshiping.

But then on Monday, oh, I'm back to work.

Oh, I got to get my kids to sports.

Oh, I got to take care of my family.

Oh, wait a minute, I got to exercise.

Oh, I got school, Chris.

Oh, but Sunday's coming and I'll get back to Jesus on Sunday.

No!

Like if that's your outlook, it's wrong.

Jesus is your life.

He's your everything.

That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Galatians 2.20, my old self.

This is one of my life verses has been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

So I live in this earthly body by trusting the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

He's my life.

So if you're in a relationship with Jesus,

you live by faith in Him, believing in Him, and trusting that Jesus is in control every single day.

He's in control of your joy, your happiness, your needs, your finances.

He's the one in control.

And so many people, they get frustrated and stressed out and overwhelmed,

and they don't feel right because they want to take control back.

1 John 4, 17-18, and as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.

So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face Him with confidence

because we live in Jesus here in this world.

Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear.

If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment,

and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love.

So John is saying we have nothing to fear before God our Father.

We are forgiven of our sins, and there's too many followers of Jesus

that live with feelings of shame, regret, doubt, anger, insecurities, even fear of God

because they don't know truth.

They're not confident in the truth, and they're hesitant to go before God

because they're convinced that God the Father is disappointed in them.

And if that's you, it's a lie.

If you're hesitant to go into His presence to pray,

then you're not confident in your faith.

Because remember what the Bible told us, as Jesus is, so also we are.

Did Jesus ever hesitate to go into the presence of God the Father?

No, He ran to it.

Was Jesus ever distant from God the Father?

No, Jesus loves the Father, and He knows the Father and His welcome in His presence.

There's no shame in Jesus, there's no regret, there's no doubt, there's no fear.

And if you're in a relationship with Jesus, Jesus is your life.

You're in Him, and you don't have to stand in shame before the Father.

You know why? Because your shame is covered by the blood of Jesus.

And because of His broken body, you are now the righteousness of God, as He is so you are.

And He calls us to obey and honor God.

But know and live in the reality that you are loved by God, and you have nothing to fear.

You can stand in confidence, which leads us to our next truth.

Gospel confidence grows from truth, friends. You've got to get to know the Bible.

1 John 5, for every child of God defeats the evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.

And who can win this battle against the world?

Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus Christ was revealed as God's Son by His baptism in water,

and by shedding His blood on the cross, not by water only, but by water and blood.

And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with this testimony.

So John is reminding the church that the Gospel is truth.

Eight times John uses the word testimony between verses 6 and 11.

This testimony, if you will, is from God, and He's announcing that Jesus is the Son of God,

and that eternal life is experienced through Him.

Thus, the reason so many people do this.

John 3, 16.

You are loved.

God loved the whole world, specifically you personally.

And He's supporting this truth by writing about historical events in Jesus' life when He references water, blood, and Spirit.

See, many followers read these sections of verses and they get confused.

What the heck is this guy talking about?

See, God has confirmed the truth of the Gospel through historical events.

Remember, who is John writing to?

There were false teachers denying the deity of Jesus.

They claimed that Jesus was only human.

He was not the Son of God and that God used Him during His ministry only and then left before He died.

John is dismantling those lies with truth.

His first reference, of course, is Jesus' baptism.

When he writes, Jesus Christ was revealed as God's Son by His baptism in water.

Many of us know in Matthew 3, 13, then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.

As Jesus is being baptized, what happens?

He comes up out of the water, the dove descends, and a voice is heard.

This is my beloved Son who brings me great joy.

God is testifying that Jesus' baptism, that Jesus is the Son of God.

The second historical event, number two, is Jesus' death.

That is what John is referring to when he says by shedding His blood on the cross.

Of course, many of us know that Jesus established communion before He died in Matthew 26, 28.

Notice what he says.

And He, Jesus, took a cup of wine, gave thanks to God for it.

He gave it to them and said, each of you drink from it.

And it is God which confirms the covenant between God and His people.

It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.

Jesus' death was not a simple Roman execution.

He was accomplishing the work that God sent Him to do.

Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice and the only acceptable payment for what?

Sins. He died on the cross.

These events are similar to how our bank accounts work.

You might think, what? Chris, where are you going there?

Now, I know many of you have never had any financial hiccups.

So just let this blow over your mind because I know you've never been in a position

to understand how your bank account works.

Of course, many of us know that there's pending transactions and cleared transactions.

And there's a very distinctive difference between the two, true or false.

Okay, thank you. Yes.

We have to be very careful to pay attention to the two different transactions

that some are pending, of course.

And those pending transactions mean you can't spend that money.

And if you do spend that money that's pending, what happens?

Either the check bounces or you're literally standing at the checkout aisle

and you break out your bank card and you tap and it says insufficient funds.

To which you go, oh, I used the wrong card and you pull out your other card.

So I know you're laughing. I know you've all done it.

Be honest.

When a transaction is cleared, it means it's true.

Right? It means it's true.

When Jesus died, all of his claims and promises were pending.

Imagine the heartache and the pain that the disciples were experiencing

for three days as the pending transaction was waiting to happen.

Was Jesus crazy? Was his teachings false? Were the miracles made up?

How could this be happening?

But three days later when Jesus rode from the grave, the check cleared.

And it was paid in full.

Publicly demonstrating that he was God.

Publicly demonstrating that his sacrificial death paid the price for our sins, friends.

That's good news.

And when Jesus appeared to his disciples after his death,

not only did they receive divine proof that he was God and forgiven,

but they also received the promise.

Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2, which leads us to our fourth truth.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This is good stuff, isn't it?

Man, this is good stuff.

Everyone just nod. I'm learning something today.

Gospel confidence is daily revealed by the Holy Spirit.

See, the good news about this truth is that we get to encounter this daily.

First John 5, 6 through 12 in the Spirit, who is truth confirms it with his testimony.

So we have these three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood.

And they all three agree.

Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God.

And God is testified about his son.

All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true.

Those who don't believe this are actually calling God a liar

because they don't believe what God has testified about his son.

And this is what God has testified.

He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son.

Whoever has the son has life, whoever does not have God's son does not have life.

God is confirming the truth of the Gospel.

Historically, it is baptism and it is death and resurrection,

but also the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit that God continues to confirm within us every single day.

Not just historically or in the past, but presently in us.

Because we read in Romans chapter 8, for his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And since we are his children, we are his heirs.

In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of his glory.

But if we are to share his glory, we also must share his suffering.

That's the ongoing work of the Spirit in us.

We are God's testimonies.

Think about that.

Your life has now become a reflection of God's love to the world.

We have faith that is rooted in actual historical events.

This isn't mythology here. This is history.

There was a man named Jesus who was born into our world and lived a real life.

He died. He was risen from the dead with real people giving testimony to meeting the risen Savior of the world.

God now continues that work in us through the Holy Spirit to reveal the love relationship he has for us.

This is truth that we can stand on with confidence.

And see every person gathered in this room, every person watching online is now being given the opportunity to receive the good news.

Or reject it.

Whether we will trust this testimony of God or reject it.

Notice, whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son, have God's Son does not have life.

I mean, this is amazing to think about, but eternal life hinges on faith in Jesus.

Developing an ongoing loving relationship with God's Son is the key to kingdom confidence.

You know why? It changes the way we live. It changes the way we think.

It changes our total outlook on life.

All of us can have this confidence in three simple ways.

John continues to say, stand on your confidence, which leads us to action step number one.

We can have confidence that God hears us.

John continues in verses 14 to 15 of chapter five, and we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.

And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

God hears us. God hears his children.

I have several children. I specifically have one that's four years old.

And my youngest son named Phoenix has this incredible ability to keep talking even when I'm ignoring him.

Phoenix loves to watch TV shows.

He loves it.

He's very familiar with TV because I believe that he may be an ADD child like his father.

OK, so TV calms us down.

Phoenix will continue to ask for permission to watch TV shows, even though Jess and I have said no 10 times.

And after a certain point, him continuing to ask, can I watch a show?

Can I watch a show now? Can I watch a show in five minutes?

If I clean my toys up, can I watch a show?

Can I please watch a show?

Even though he keeps asking, guess what? We're not listening.

Even though I audibly hear him, I'm not going to grant his request.

And see, unfortunately, there's too many followers of Jesus to believe that's how God is.

And this is not what John is saying.

God not only hears us, he also answers our prayers.

But see, the problem for many followers of Jesus is this.

God doesn't necessarily answer our prayers the way we want him to answer them.

So therefore we think, oh, we are not answering them.

Yet in Psalm 4.3 we read,

You can be sure of this, the Lord set apart the godly for himself.

The Lord will answer when I call to him.

We can be confident as sons and daughters of God that when we cry out to God, he hears us.

That's our inheritance.

As children of God, we are given the ability to go before the God of the universe and make requests.

Now we are not to go before God begrudgingly, but with confidence.

We learned that in Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.

There we will receive his mercy and his grace to help us when we need it most.

But we must focus on what John wrote.

Our requests must be those that please him.

See, God has revealed to us his plans, his purposes to us,

to every single one of us gathered and watching online throughout the Bible.

And our requests to God must be made on those truths.

This is when we walk in confidence.

Our prayers cannot be based on whether or not God answers how we think he should answer them.

We have to trust that his ways are much better than my way.

Think about this.

Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was about to go to the cross.

Not my will be done, but yours.

In order for us to confidently pray this way, we have to want what God wants more than what we want.

What pleases God has to be our heart's desires.

And don't get me wrong. Hear me out.

God cares about every detail of your life.

He cares about your desires, your needs, your worries.

He cares about your dreams.

He cares about your children. He cares about your marriage.

But if this dominates our prayer life,

then we'll be missing out on what God is inviting us into.

There's so much more.

John is pointing their attention, he's pointing the church's attention to the needs around them.

Look how he continues, 1 John 5, 6, and he's 17.

If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray.

And God will give that person life.

But there is a sin that leads to death, and I'm not saying you should pray for those who commit it.

All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.

Now hear me again, confusion.

John is not referencing a particular sin here.

Remember the context.

Jesus followers are watching other members of their church family abandon the truth.

They're rejecting the gospel.

And John is saying there are two kinds of sin, two categories of sin.

Everyone sins.

All wrongdoing is sin.

But there are those that repent and trust in Jesus, and that sin does not lead to death.

They will not face eternal judgment because they are what? Forgiven.

But there are those who sin but refuse to trust in Jesus, and that sin leads to death.

This is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Theologian John Stott calls it this way, a deliberate open-eyed rejection of known truth.

People who reject the only way to experience eternal life.

And John is saying there is a point of no return in a person's heart.

When a person's heart becomes so hardened that they simply will not receive the grace of God,

then they will stand in judgment.

And here's the reality, friends.

We have family members, friends, coworkers, classmates,

many people within our sphere of influence that are not walking an abundant life,

and our hearts should break for them.

We need to pray for God to intervene.

And so often, see, the problem, church, is when we read verses 14 to 15 to ask for anything,

the first thing we think about when we hear ask for anything is our needs.

Because we're selfish.

And John is challenging us to see all the needs around us.

Pray for the needs that are in our sphere of influence.

Pray for the church that is being persecuted around the world.

We just learned that two months ago.

Pray for women and children caught up in sex trafficking that they would experience freedom.

Don't judge Joe Biden.

Pray for him because the Bible tells us to.

Well, that's between you and God.

Last time I checked, I believe Jesus said that if there's any unforgiveness in your heart,

you might want to go to him because you're not forgiven until you forgive.

Simple statement.

If God answered all your prayers over the last seven days,

would anything in the world change or just your world?

See, God has invited us to pray bold, world-changing prayers,

which leads us to our next step.

We can have confidence that God transformed us.

1 John 5, 18-19.

We know that God's children do not make a practice of sinning,

for God's Son holds them securely and the evil one cannot touch them.

We know that we are children of God and the world around us is under control of the evil one.

Here's the reality.

If you're in a relationship with Jesus daily, you face opposition from three forces.

Satan, the world, and your flesh.

The Bible is clear.

There is a coordinated effort to pull us away from God.

The devil uses the world system, which we know is set against God,

in rebellion to God, and our flesh, so that we turn away from God.

He uses those three things to tempt us away from Jesus, to destroy our what?

Confidence.

But John gives us hope.

He says God's children do not make a practice of sinning.

He's reminding us that it's all about our direction.

You're never going to be perfect.

It's not about perfection.

You're going to make mistakes.

You're going to say the wrong thing every single day.

But are you moving towards Jesus or away?

And I believe if you're standing still, you're moving away.

When we believe in Jesus, we are transformed.

We are born again.

We are new creations.

We have a whole new mind, a whole new outlook, a whole new lifestyle.

And as the Holy Spirit changes us from the inside out, who are we to look more like?

Jesus.

But what about the temptation, Chris?

It's so overwhelming.

What about when I feel trapped in sin?

Have confidence that Satan cannot overpower you.

Because the Bible says, and what we just read, Jesus sustains us and empowers us to overcome.

We just read that Jesus holds us securely and Satan cannot touch them.

Now, so many of us, when we think about touch, we think about a little touch.

That word touch in the Hebrew means to tackle.

I want you to think about a Ray Lewis head on tackle that you wouldn't win.

Even if you are a Steelers fan, you're going to be hit the ground hard.

But if you're in a relationship with Jesus, notice what it says.

Jesus holds you securely.

You will not be overpowered.

You're not going to be tackled because you're brand new.

You're transformed.

Augustine was a fourth century bishop, pastoring in North Africa.

There's a story told about him that goes like this.

Before meeting Jesus, Augustine lived a very sexually immoral life, always visiting prostitutes in the area.

He was walking down the street one day after he was in a relationship with Jesus.

And one of his former mistresses was working the same street that he was walking down.

The prostitute quickly began to run towards him when Augustine saw her.

He stopped, turned around, and walked in the opposite direction.

She was surprised and called out, Augustine, it is I.

Augustine responded as he continued to walk the other way.

Yes, but it is not I.

The point, temptation comes knocking every single day.

Don't be surprised.

Augustine was simply responding to that temptation by saying, no.

I have a new identity and a power that overcomes temptation.

I'm not the same person I used to be when I was enjoying sin.

Jesus follower, you have victory over sin.

You don't have to be enslaved to jealousy or greed or materialism or anger or addiction or sexual immorality.

You can be born again.

And you have a supernatural power inside of you that overcomes the power of the enemy.

You don't have to be enslaved to sin anymore.

In Romans 6, we know that our old sinful lives have been crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives.

We are no longer slaves to sin.

For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin, which leads us to our final truth.

I'm sorry, our final step.

We can have a confidence that we have a relationship with God.

And we know that the Son of God has come and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God.

And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ.

He is the only true God and he is eternal life.

Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts.

See, if you're in a relationship with Jesus and you're here this morning or you're watching online,

or maybe you're here this morning and you're searching and you're not sure you believe at all,

John is saying, don't put your trust in anything that this world has to offer.

Don't allow anything to become a substitute for God.

Anything that replaces God in your life, you need to deal with it and get rid of it.

And you say, well, Chris, how do I know if I'm placing a higher value on something that's in my life?

Well, do you have a higher value about your possessions or your careers or your addictions?

I don't know. Do they take priority over your relationship with God?

And John is saying, don't replace God with fake gods. That's what he's saying.

Because the real God is pursuing us and loves us.

And Jesus has come into this world to what? Destroy the works of the enemy.

Jesus came so that we may know him and have a relationship with him.

But not just know about him, but know him personally.

And who is Jesus? Was he simply an exemplary human being like secular humanist belief?

Was he just a prophet from God like the Muslims believe?

Was he just an inferior created mini God like the Jehovah's Witnesses believe on another planet?

No. John, remember who's writing this? God, John, saw him, touched him, listened to him, walked with him,

put his head on his chest, says that Jesus was the true God and he is eternal life.

That's who he is. Remember the purpose for John writing this letter.

I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know you have eternal life.

What is that? Confidence.

And listen to how John defines eternal life in his gospel account.

John 17, 3, for you have given him authority over everyone.

He gives eternal life to each one you have given him.

And this is the way to have eternal life, to know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.

Eternal life is not about the number and quality of days here on this earth.

Eternal life is about abundance. It's about communion with God.

It's about a relationship with God that overwhelms you to the point that it doesn't become religious activity.

If you believe church is a bunch of religious activity, then you're not in a love relationship with God.

The essence of eternal life is a daily relationship with Jesus.

And I want to encourage you, God is not a distant being that cannot be reached.

You know how I know that? He came to us so that we can connect with him.

He came to us. And God desires to know you personally by experiencing his love.

I was leading a celebration of life this past Monday and we closed the service with the hymn, Amazing Grace.

As I listened to the words being sung, I literally began to weep.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see.

And see, listen, that was a celebration of life that was celebratory. You want to know why?

Because we celebrated the life of a 93 year old mother that loved Jesus.

And her desire was to leave behind a legacy for her children to walk in.

To leave behind a legacy of Jesus followers that will change this world.

What kind of legacy are you leaving behind?

Because see, if you're not leaving behind a legacy that is pointing others to Jesus,

then you're not standing in kingdom confidence. Will you stand with me?

Listen, I purposely did not plan how to close this gathering

because I felt like the truths that were going to be shared were more than enough to change lives today.

God loves you, and that should take on a completely different context in your life now.

He loves you because He is love.

And He comes to us in our brokenness, in our weakness, and desires just to connect with us personally

so that we can then go and connect with others. Amen?

So here's what I want to challenge you to do.

If there's a ceiling in your relationship with God, meaning is there a sin,

is there something that's preventing you from fully experiencing the love of the Father?

Lay it down today. Get rid of it.

The Bible uses the word repent. We've made it a negative term, and what does it mean?

Just turn away from it. Lay it down.

And allow God to restore that connection and overwhelm you with His love,

because I tell you, you'll never experience anything else in this world that's like it.

And He's inviting you to change.

So Holy Spirit, come. Reveal to us, God. Reveal to us.

Anything that's not allowing us to experience your love this morning.

And God, we just choose as an act of our will to lay it down before you.

We love you, and we're thankful for your love in this place.

Holy Spirit, just blow through this room.

I just pray you surround each and every heart with your love and your workings.

I just pray that every heart gathered here this morning recognizes that you are here.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

So listen, there was a word given this morning for this gathering specifically.

If you are having heart issues or some type of heart condition, we want to pray for you this morning.

Our prayer team will be here on my right.

All you have to do is make your way up and receive prayer, because we believe that God wants to heal you today.

We believe that He still works and moves in your life.

Before we go, I want to pray a simple prayer, because I can't have a gathering like this.

I can't share truths like this without the opportunity to begin that relationship. Amen.

So let's pray together. Jesus, I'm broken. I'm full of doubt, shame, regret, sin. Change me.

I believe you're God's Son. I believe you died for me. Make me new. Set me free.

Fill me with your Spirit. Help me to serve others. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Listen, text me, call me, hug me. Let me know that you're in that relationship.

I want to see you baptized on Good Friday. Okay, we continue and close our series next week.

Looking at 1 John 2 and 3. I'm going to that door. Please let me wait and get there so I can say goodbye.

Thank you for joining us online. God bless you guys.