How do we live in the last days?

You know, we rarely think about it in our modern 21st century

context, but the reality is, is that we live most of our lives

as human beings. Most of us live most of our

lives indoors. I'm not saying that's a bad

thing or a good thing. I'm just saying it's a thing.

Most people, not everybody, but most people these days in our

context live most of their lives indoors, right?

I'm assuming most of y'all slept indoors last night, right?

I mean, obviously you can be in a situation where you don't have

a roof over your head. That's that is not good, right?

And obviously we want to be helpful towards anybody in that

situation. But you probably slept indoors

last night. If you ate some breakfast, I'm

assuming you probably ate your breakfast indoors this morning.

I'm assuming you probably got dressed indoors this morning.

I can tell most of y'all looked in the mirror.

Praise God. Amen.

Right. Did pretty good.

Yeah, we we we even commuted to church this morning indoors.

Anybody ride a motorcycle? All right, we got one that came

outdoors. Praise God.

Right. Most of us.

And then if you go really long distance, about 40,000 feet in

the air, you're still what? Indoors.

Hallelujah for that, right? We live most of our lives.

We go to school indoors, most of us work indoors even though some

work outdoors. But we live most of our lives

indoors. And when you live indoors, you

can do life in indoor ways. OK, but what if you happen to

like the outdoors? And maybe not just the

activities that have you outdoors for like an hour or

two, 3 or 4, but what about if you like outdoor activities that

cause you to be out of doors for like days at a time?

If you've ever experienced even just overnight outdoors, you

realize you can't live outdoors in indoor ways.

At least it ain't going to last very long.

You got to figure out a whole different way of living.

I brought a few items, just a little show and tell this

morning to demonstrate what I'm talking about when it comes to

living outdoors. If you're going to be outdoors

for any length of time, you got to embrace a totally different

way of living. And let's just talk about

sleeping, for instance, right? You're not hauling the king size

bed or queen size mattress on your back.

Now, if you haul a big camper, that's one thing.

That's glamping. That's not what I'm talking

about, all right. I'm talking about when you

outdoors and it's everything on you and your person, all right,

So sleeping is going to look like maybe on something that

quite like this and this is as uncomfortable as it looks, all

right, So that might be a sleeping mat.

There you go. So you'd sleep a little

different. By the way, I didn't even bring

the tent. It just took up too much room.

But sleeping is different. You know, hygiene outside is

different. Now this is going above and

beyond. Most people just embrace the non

hygiene, but I'm telling you something like this, this is a

shower and this is a game changer in the outdoors.

All right, So what you do is you fill this little thing with

water here, screw the cap on, turn the black side to the sun.

It's even got a thermostat on it so you know the degree of the

temperature of the water you're about to experience.

All right, by the way, it says summer shower right there in the

winter. This is pretty tough, but

anyway, it's worth. All right, you got your little

vanity right here. Here's your mirror.

All right, see what's between your teeth.

Know that nothing cares out there outside what you look

like. And you just turn the nozzle.

You hang this on a tree by this little strap and you take you a

shower outside and hope nobody's looking.

By the way, so hygiene is different out there, right?

If you want something to drink, you got to do it different, all

right? You're not going to turn on a

faucet. There's no spigot.

There's no refrigerator. There's no, you know, what's

that thing in the hallway out there?

Well, that. But then the thing you pay can.

Yeah, vending machine. That's what I'm going for.

There's no vending machine. All right, you can.

What you do is you stick this in a stream right here, and because

all the microorganisms out there in water you're not used to

drinking would just, it'll change your life.

You don't want to do that. You feel this little thing up,

right? This is a filter and you screw

that thing on. All the sudden you just pop the

top. All right, you can roll or

squeeze this and you got clean drinking water.

You got to you got to drink different in the outdoors.

I got a lot of things here, you know, you got to cook different

in the outdoors. Praise God, my wife loves to

cook and I'm a man. That's an incredible blessing

and she does an incredible job. But when you go outdoors, you

got to do something different. One of the ways you can do that.

This is kind of cheating at it a little bit, but you can take pre

prepared meals like this. All right, This is dehydrated

food. It says homestyle chicken and

rice. It doesn't taste near as good as

it sounds. It's not homestyle, I promise

you, all right, but all you do is heat up your water, add that

and close it up for about 10 minutes, and then you got a hot

meal ready to go. How would you heat it up?

Well, that's where you got to cook different.

All right, So what that looks like, this is your gas stove top

right here. All right, you got the gas in

the little container here. This screws onto the top.

You turn that knob, light the fire.

I'm not going to do that this morning.

Put your little pot on top boil your water make your coffee.

You got to do cooking different in the outdoors.

I I, I could go on all right, I mean you got to be able to do

things like communicate differently.

See what else I got your cell phone.

Oh, this is this is one of the neatest things I have right

here. This is fork, knife and spoon

all in one. All right, So I'm not sure what

you call this thing, but it's a do it all.

So if I can pop this off, there's the fork right here, all

right, there's the spoon. And then if you turn this,

there's the knife. All right, So you got to do

things different if you if you're going to live outdoors

because you're not living in a way that you normally live.

My whole point is that today's text is not how to live

outdoors, but it is how to live different because we're living

the Bible says in the last days. And John's writing to us in

first John about how to know. All right, we've already looked

at how do you know Christianity is true?

And we've looked at how do you know you're a true Christian?

And then we looked at how do you know what's dangerous to you as

a Christian in this world? But now John's going to answer

this question, How do you live in this world in the last days?

Because you're living at a different time, at a different

hour than anybody else has in the New covenant in the New

Testament as believers in the church.

So the question is, how do we live?

How do we live in the last days? I want you to listen to the Word

of God as I read beginning in chapter 2, picking up in verse

18. We'll go through verse 27 and

pick up our final 2 verses toward the end.

You ready, children? It is the last hour.

And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now

many Antichrist have come. Therefore we know that it is the

last hour. They went out from us, but they

were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have

continued with us. But they went out, that it might

become plain that they all are not of us.

But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have

knowledge. I write to you, not because you

do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because

no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who

denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist who

denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has

the Father. Don't miss that verse.

No one who denies the Son has the Father.

Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.

And if what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then

you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

And this is the promise that He made to us, eternal life.

I write these things to you about those who trying to

deceive you. But the anointing that you

received from him abides in you. And you have no need that anyone

should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you

about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught

you, abide in him. Now, if I could read your mind,

you're thinking, Kyle, that's a lot right there, all right.

And it is we're about to walk through this.

I want you to lean in a little extra close to me.

All right, because John says a lot in these verses.

But it really becomes very practical for us as those who

are living in the last days, as we're going to see.

Father, I pray that you would open our eyes and our ears to

hear your word, to hear it clearly and to show us how to

live it out. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

If you follow along in your notes there in the worship God,

the very first thing John says you need to know in order to

live in the last days is that the fact is you're living in the

last days, right? That's the first one thing he

says right here we are living verse 18 and 19 in the last

days. John literally calls it the last

hour. He means the last age, that is

the period of time before Christ returns.

And John's not the only one in the New Testament naming this

particular time. In fact, Acts chapter 2, verse

Acts 2:16

16 and 17 puts it like this. But this is what was uttered

through the prophet Joel. Now this was predicted.

God told us about this in the prophets, and it says in the

last days it shall be. God declares that I'll pour out

my spirit on all flesh. Hebrews chapter one verse 1 and

2 long ago. Think about this in many times

and in many ways as described in the Old Testament, God spoke to

our fathers by the prophets. But in these what last days, he

has spoken to us by his Son, That's Jesus, whom he has

appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also, by

the way, created the world. The last days, or the period of

time between Jesus's first coming and Jesus's second

coming, I want you to think about it like this.

The next great event and God's plan of salvation, the next big

thing, the next great event is the return of Jesus Christ.

Don't you think about that? These are the days we're living

in where the next big thing that God's going to do and his plan

of salvation is send his son for the second time to claim his own

and to rule and to reign. These are the last days, y'all?

We're not living in the first quarter.

We're not living in the second quarter.

We're not living in the third quarter.

We are in the and the guy out there in the lobby said Kyle, I

believe we're in the last two minutes.

And I don't think he's probably wrong.

I think he's closer to being right.

We don't know the day. God has not given us a countdown

clock. In fact neither the angels nor

even the Son knows the exact day the Father does.

But we know the next great thing is when the Father says Son it's

time and Jesus returns. John gives us y'all early here.

2 very simple realities we need to be aware of.

We're going to see more, but these are two about the last

days we need to know in order to live in them.

And the first one is this Antichrist is coming.

We need to know the Bible says Antichrist is coming.

John says you've heard that Antichrist is coming.

Who in the world is he talking about?

He's talking about the individual that the Bible

describes who will rise in the end times, that is, in the last

days as a world ruler according to the Book of Revelation.

You can read Revelation 13 more descriptively of the Antichrist.

The person will be energized. This person will be energized by

and in service to Satan himself. He will exalt himself against

Christ in his coming Kingdom. He'll have such power, charisma,

and deceptive ability. The world will follow after him

and be deceived by him. The world will worship him.

This is the Antichrist John says is coming in the last days.

But then he says this. But already many Antichrist,

plural, have already come. What does he mean?

He's not saying that the Antichrist has come yet, but he

is saying that forerunners of the Antichrist, who are they?

They for those that also deny Jesus is the Christ, many have

come and they're like Trail Blazers, if you will, for the

ultimate Antichrist to come, who will deny that Jesus is the

Christ. In the intensity of this

opposition against Christ, and it's increasing intensity.

It's a sure sign, John says, of the last days and the last hour

in which we live. You know, the essence of this

one, who will be the Antichrist and the forerunners of the

Antichrist. And the essence or the principle

of Antichrist is simply the lie. The essence of it all is the lie

that Jesus is not the Christ. What do I mean when I say that?

You may be in the room and really I don't know what Jesus

is. The Christ means.

That's the truth, that Jesus is the one and only Savior of the

world. What do I mean by Savior?

I mean, He's the one and only one and it stepped into this

world by the way he made it. He made you, and he loves you.

The problem is we've sinned against him, the Bible says, and

that sin separates us from him. But Jesus came and took on human

flesh to live a sinless life, to die for our sin on the cross.

And going to the cross, he was laid in the grave tasting death,

the result of our sin. And on the third day, Jesus

walked out of the grave alive. Why?

Because he had the power alone to defeat death and offer us

forgiveness of sin and eternal life.

The word Christ means Messiah or anointed one.

Jesus is the only anointed one who can save you from your sin.

Have you trusted him as your Lord and as your Savior?

If you haven't, you can today. The Antichrist is the one who

propagates the lie that Jesus is not the Christ.

Reality #2 besides the fact that Antichrist is coming reality #2

in the last days is that false converts are leaving.

False converts are leaving. John is recognizing in verse 19

that people have left the church, and he's not talking

about one or two. There's obviously a bunch of

them. There's obviously a group that's

upset the church. They denied the faith.

They've walked away from Christ. They denied the fact that He's

the Savior of the world, and they've left the church, right?

So here's the deal. Every church, every church deals

with this issue John speaks of. But John calls this what it is.

He immediately responds to this as an unveiling of false

converts. People that have left, John

says, never were true believers in the 1st place, for if they

had been genuine Christians, they would have continued

faithfully with the church following Christ.

The deal is every single church deals with false Christians.

That's a reality that every church will face until Jesus

returns, but they are almost always eventually revealed by

their failure to remain faithful.

A man that you probably never heard of by the name of BH

Carroll was a man who fought in the Civil War.

He was a lost man. In fact, he was an atheist.

He experienced a lot of hardship in life, in a failed marriage

and after the war. He almost was at a point of

wanting to take his own life. When God did what God does, he

rescues and he saves and he changes and transforms.

BH Carroll got saved. And BH Carroll didn't just get

saved. He got called to preach and

called to preach. He became a pastor, eventually

established the religion department at Baylor University,

now in Waco, TX, and eventually went on in 19 O 8 to start a

seminary for training ministers on the Texas Prairie.

At the time, 6 miles South of downtown Fort Worth, where I did

my ministry training. BH Carroll made this statement.

He says when you see a star fall, you can be sure it's not a

star because stars don't fall, they shine.

When you see a star fall, you can be sure it's not what is he

saying? What he's saying is right.

We, we know what he's talking about.

You watch the night sky and you say, oh, there's a shooting

star, a falling star, but that's not actually what that is.

That's astronomically incorrect. That's not how stars die.

Stars shine. What he means is when you see a

quote Christian turn his or her back on Jesus and sound doctrine

and follow false doctrine in the vast majority of cases he's

saying you can be sure that person never was a genuine

believer in the 1st place. A way that's been said that goes

like this is that faith that fizzles before the finish was

faulty from the first. Faith that fizzles before the

finish was faulty from the first.

Brothers and sisters, we're living in the last days.

Let me just tell you two things you're going to I'm going to

experience in the last days. People are going to attack the

truth of Jesus Christ. People are going to say there's

lots of other ways. He's not really who he said he

was. They will attack the truth of

Jesus Christ. You've got to be ready for that.

Number two, people are going to leave the church.

People are going to abandon them, especially when life gets

a little harder to walk by faith and trust Jesus Christ.

You're going to see people walk away from the church.

What John says about that is if those who walk away, you can

almost always be sure they never were genuine believers in the

1st place. Every church will deal with it

increasingly so in the last days.

You're going to see people abandoned the church.

You're going to see people attack Christ.

You need to know these things if you're going to live faithfully

in the last days. But then the second thing we

need to know is this. We have genuine believers have

the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

This is verses 20 and 21 and some others following.

We have the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

What's going on here? One of the situations John is

writing to address in the original situation, as there's

some false teachers teaching some false doctrine and one of

the things they were teaching was, hey, y'all, there's some

higher knowledge and a special anointing that can be had for

those that are willing and able to receive it.

John is saying there's some something beyond the Word of

God. There's something beyond the

Holy Spirit that can be had. There's more to be had beyond

what's written to you in the Word that you've heard from the

beginning. So they're teaching this false

doctrine. But watch what John says in

verse 20. But you have been anointed.

He reminds him, you've been anointed by the Holy One.

You've been anointed by God. What is he's been, you've been

anointed with the Holy Spirit, right?

That's you. He's not just talking to the

pastors or the staff or the elders or the deacons.

He's not talking just to the missionaries or church, but he's

talking to every genuine believer in Jesus Christ.

You've been anointed by the Holy Spirit.

All right, Ephesians 113 makes it so clear.

I want you to listen closely to this verse.

You ready in him, that's in Jesus.

You also when you heard, notice when you heard the word of

truth, the gospel of your salvation.

The gospel is what I told you earlier.

Jesus came, lived a sinless life for you, died on the cross for

you, was raised from the dead for you.

When you heard the gospel of what Jesus did for you and

believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

When were you sealed with the promised Holy Spirit?

If you're a genuine believer, when you, when you were saved,

when you heard and when you believed, the moment you

believed, you got all the Holy Spirit you're ever going to get

until you see Jesus face to face.

Mark it down. There's some out there that

teach, oh, that's just first. That's just first experience.

You got to have a second higher experience of the Holy Spirit.

There's more out there to be had.

That's baloney, according to the Bible.

The Bible says when you become a believer, when you receive the

gospel, God gives you the Holy Spirit living inside of you as a

down, a down payment, a deposit, a guarantee of what's to come.

The problem with many Christians is not if they're genuine

believers, is not that they don't have all the Holy Spirit,

that the Holy Spirit doesn't have all of them.

What do I mean? Let me be clear, I don't mean

they don't have all the Holy Spirit.

They do. What I mean is they're not

walking in daily surrender in obedience under the leadership

of the Holy Spirit in their life.

They're saying no to the Holy Spirit instead of saying yes to

the Holy Spirit, they're choosing to walk in sin rather

than walking in what's obedient to God's Word.

And therefore the Holy Spirit is not having all of them to use

for His purposes and His glory. Now he says we all have this

anointing. John says you all have

knowledge, we know the truth. And now drop down to verse 26

and 27. What does John mean when he

says, and you have no need listen to this because this is

interesting. You have no need that anyone

should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you

about everything, that verse right there obviously can be

ripe for some misunderstanding and misapplication if taken out

of context. And let me remind you of what

the context is. It is the fact that some false

teachers have infiltrated the church and are teaching that

there's a special anointing. There's something extra, hey,

there's something that they could grasp it.

There's a special knowledge to be had beyond what they've heard

from the beginning in the Word, all right, from Christ and his

apostles. And so here what John doesn't

mean, all right? He doesn't mean that Christians

have no need for any type of human teacher or preacher to say

or explain the word of God's truth, right?

If that's what John means, then by the way, he's breaking his

own rule and contradicting himself by writing to instructor

teach these Christians in this letter.

So that's obviously not what John means.

So John's not seeing, not saying there's no need for pastors or

teachers. He is saying this.

You don't have a need for any human teacher that claims to

have any new information about Christ and the Gospel and

eternal life other than what you have inspired by the Holy Spirit

in the Word of God. You already know the truth.

You know the truth. And guess what?

You have the teacher, the source.

You don't need a teacher to be the source of truth for you.

Like like this. If I was claiming up here to be

a source of truth for you, you need to get rid of me.

I need to say Amen to that. All right, All right.

I'm not claiming to be a source of truth for you.

I'm claiming to be a proclaimer of the source of truth that is

this inspired by the Holy Spirit that you have and I have.

You have no need for someone else to be the source of truth

for you because you've got it and the teacher, the one who

inspired it, lives within you. That doesn't mean we can't help

each other understand it and explain it and teach it, but I'm

not the source. God is the source.

The Word is the source. John is simply saying you have

no need for any other source other than what you've heard in

the gospel. Y'all, you have the anointing in

these last days of the Holy Spirit.

If you're a genuine believer #2 what you need to know #3

actually is that we have the authority of the Word of God.

We have the authority of the Word of God.

This is verses 22 through 25. If you look back up at verse 22,

it says who is the liar? But he who denies that Jesus is

the Christ, the ultimate lie, that is the source of every

other lie, is that Jesus is not the Christ.

This is exactly what the Antichrist will claim.

John inserts a little reminder here that one's relationship

status with God is totally dependent, has everything to do

with what you believe about Jesus.

Did you notice verse 23? No one who denies the Son has

the Father. But listen to this next verse.

Has this happened in your life? Whoever confesses the Son has

the Father also. Have you confessed Jesus is the

Christ? That he is the Lord, that he's

the Creator, that he's the Maker, the one and only Savior,

the one who lived for you, died for you, and rose again from the

dead for you. If you confessed him as your

Lord, you're not going to have God.

You don't have salvation. There's no forgiveness outside

of confessing that Jesus is in fact the Christ.

Can you see now why the Antichrist has one target for

his lies? That Jesus is not the the

Christ? Because if he can take that out,

then he takes everything else out because that's the lie that

leads to death, That Jesus is not the Christ he says here.

So for those of us who have confessed Jesus is Lord, what

should we do? Verse 24, Let what you heard

from the beginning abide in you. Then you too will abide in the

Son and in the Father who has promised us eternal life.

What they heard from the beginning was the Word of God.

Y'all we resist and we can overcome the lies of the enemy

and of the world by abiding in the Word of God.

I want to talk very simply, very clearly about what does it mean

to abide in the Word of God #1 abiding in God's word means

filling your mind with the Word of God.

By the way, 11 sermon one, one day a week is not filling your

mind with the word of God. That's not abiding.

That's drive by. OK, it's it's helpful, but

you've got to open your Bible for yourself to abide in the

Word of God. If you don't, this is not going

to happen. It's got to fill your mind.

You've got to expose your thoughts to the word of God.

You got to fill your mind and then abiding in the word means

letting the word of God direct your will.

That is guide what you want. That is lead in your decision

making. All right, so when you read the

word of God, you're not just filling your mind with Bible

trivia or facts. That's not doing you any good.

You read the word of God. So then you hear the truth of

God. You can say, OK, God, help me

believe that. Help me live that.

God help me apply that. God help me say no to what I

want and yes to what you want. God help me embrace that and

order my life around that truth. So it's not good.

I mean, it doesn't do you any good to just have biblical facts

up here if you're not while reading it, asking God to engage

your heart so that your desires are guided, right?

So you're going to fill your mind with God's Word.

You're going to let it direct your will, and then you're going

to let it watch this. This is the hard one.

Transform your affections, your loves, your likes, your values,

your dreams, your goals. You say, Kyle, I don't know that

I can change. No, you can't.

But the word of God can change you.

And let me just tell you, it's the only thing that can.

If you will let it fill your mind, if you will read it with a

heart saying God help me believe it and live it.

And if you'll say God change my desires to match yours, When you

explain this as exposed to my life and my mind, I guarantee

you God will change you. But you can't change yourself.

Your friend can't change you, no behavioral modification can

change you, but the word of God will change you.

I spoke Thursday morning to Woodland Middle's FCA group.

They got like 200 and something kids.

Some of your kids are in that group in the gym wide open on a

Thursday morning. Jason spoke the week before me,

Amazing. I walked into public school with

my Bible and walk in and those kids show up 200 strong to hear

the word of God. I preach that at first.

John three had a young girl. Amelia, you were there, right?

I had a word of I had a little girl walk up to me after and ask

me this question. I'd never seen her before.

She said, Pastor Kyle, will God still love me if I embrace and

live XYZ kind of lifestyle? I looked at this young woman and

I said, sweetie, God will always love you and his love will never

change. But the question is not will God

love you? The question is, will you love

God? Will you love him enough to say,

God, I believe what you want from me is better than what I

want for me? Will you love him enough to say,

God, what I want? I believe what you want is

better. And so God, I'm going to read

your word and I'm going to trust your word.

Even though I got a word for the way I want to live.

God, you've spoken a word for how I should live, Then I'm

going to believe it's better. And so therefore God, I'm going

to say no, what I want. God, I'm going to ask you to

transform my desires because I'm not God.

If there's a real God. And so if there's a real God,

I've got to submit to him. And if he loves me, I can trust

him. And I got to fill my mind with

the truth that transforms and let it guide my life.

The question is not does God love you?

The question is, do you love him and do you believe him?

Do you believe he has the power to change your life?

He will if you ask him. Y'all we resist and overcome the

spirit of the Antichrist in the last days by remaining in the

Word of God. All right, if you don't abide,

let me just tell you this. If you don't abide in the Word

of God, you might as well be a flag flying on the pole in the

wind of the ideas of the world, and they will take you down.

You'll flap this way and you'll flap that way, but you'll never

fly God's way if you're not abiding in the Word of God.

So 4th and finally, we must abide in Christ by the Spirit

and the Word. If you put it all together, you

can say we must abide in Christ by the Spirit and the Word.

This is verse 28 and 29. Listen to the Word of God.

I hadn't read this part yet. And now little children, abide

in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not

shrink from Him and shame It is coming.

If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that

everyone who practices righteousness has been born of

of him. We must abide in Christ by the

Spirit and the Word. To remain is to abide and to

abide is to obey. All right.

Now, John has already told us how to abide or remain in

Christ. That was verse 24.

By letting the word of God abide in us, all right, But now he's

telling us why that's so important.

Notice verse 28 again, the end of it so that when he appears,

what is the next big thing in God's plan of salvation?

What are we waiting on in the fourth quarter?

If I can make a four, there we go, Christ's return.

And guess what? You want to be found?

What? When Christ returns, ready.

Not everyone's going to be found ready so that when He appears,

we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His

coming. Let me just point out the

obvious there, what John is saying.

There are going to be genuine believers who are ashamed to

stand before Christ when Jesus returns.

I didn't make that up. That's what the Bible says right

there. John would not have brought it

up if it was not a possibility. So that we will not shrink back

in shame. You know what happens when

somebody knocks on your front door and you're less than decent

to answer it? I'm not going to say what less

than decent is, but you know what I'm talking about.

Half dressed or I told you I was going to say anyway.

You know what I'm talking about. And then some of you, some of

you hide. Some, you know, I'm not saying.

Some of you, I need to include myself.

Some of us hide like nobody's there.

I don't know if I've done that or not.

Anyway, moving on. Some of us hide like we're not

there. Some of us try to like do the

half inch open door peek so we can't see pajamas you're wearing

that, whatever, you know, lack thereof anyway, say I go out

visiting sometimes and knock on doors.

This is not a normal thing. You know, we got the Ring

doorbell so we don't even have to interact.

But anyway, praise God for those of you that have opened the

door, whether you're ready or not, Jesus is going to open the

door. He's going to split the eastern

sky. And what John is saying is even

as believers, we can be found ready, bold and confident to

celebrate Christ's return. Or there's a way to live as a

Christian, to not be ready and to be ashamed, shrinking back.

Are you ready? Are you ready?

If Jesus came back today, would you be confident celebrating His

return? Would you have things in your

life that would cause you to lack confidence to stand before

Christ and shrink back? John says we can live ready by

abiding in Christ and by walking by the Spirit so that we may not

shrink back. He says this verse 20.

If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that

everyone who practices righteousness has been born of

Him. Y'all, if you print out first

John, all 5 chapters front and back on some 8 1/2 by 11 paper,

and if you're reading it, if you're abiding in the Word on a

daily basis, Amen. You're going to notice John will

keep circling back to things he said, and this is one instance

where he just says, hey again, you can know who's genuinely

following Christ and who's not. It's the one who practices

righteousness. It's the one who doesn't just

claim to love Jesus, but the one who puts that love into practice

in obedience to Jesus. That's the one you can be sure

has been born of God. It is practicing righteousness

and ready for ready for Christ return.

Y'all, we are living in the last days.

God is calling us to live in light of the hour.

He's calling you to live like it's the fourth quarter.

He's calling you to live like Jesus could come back at any

moment and whether or not you'll be found ready or not and the

number one way to be found ready is to have confessed Jesus as

the Christ. If you've never confessed him as

Lord, I plead, I plead with you today, not let today go by and

wait another day UN ready for Christ's return.

I'm going to stand right here in a moment when John and praise

team come and I'd love whether you have questions or you're

really ready or not. We're not going to embarrass

you. I'm not going to, I'm not going

to put you in front of anybody, but I would love to sit down

with you, have someone, one of our encouragers, just walk you

through what does it mean to confess Christ?

Let me ask you this, are you abiding in the Word?

Are you abiding or let me just try to make this as simple as I

can. The two things is you as a

genuine believer have got to do in the last days.

The truth of Jesus is going to come under attack and people are

going to abandon the church. So what do you got to do?

You got to abide in the Word, filling your mind, surrendering

your heart, letting it transform your desires.

And then the second thing to do is you walk by the Spirit.

You've been given the Teacher. The Holy Spirit dwells in you.

Is it Kyle? What does that really mean to

walk by the Spirit, y'all? I don't mean to oversimplify it

because it's so much more than this, but listen, on a daily

basis, you know that still small voice on the inside that reminds

you and guides you and leads you, that puts on your mind and

your heart. Oh, you know what?

This is an opportunity to do good.

This is an opportunity to give glory for Jesus.

This is an opportunity to share my faith.

This is an opportunity to the to love and expect nothing in

return. This is a chance to go out of my

way to love my neighbor as myself.

Y'all, that's not you, that's the Holy Spirit.

The only one was to lead you to live your life in a way that

honors Jesus and he's not going to shout at you.

I've never heard his voice audibly praise God if you have,

but I know that's still small voice.

But you know what? The more you say no or ignore

that voice, the harder it gets to hear.

And so maybe it's a day you say Holy Spirit.

I don't know that I have. I don't know that I followed

your lead in a while. Dumb God, would you re sensitize

me to your voice? God, I want to abide in Your

word. Maybe you need to make an

adjustment for living in the last days, and I want to invite

you to make that adjustment. Whether it's here, treat these

steps as an altar. You come as the Lord leads.

We're going to sing about the goodness of God.

God's arms are open wide to you. God's love for you hasn't

changed. What He wants is your love in

return, your life in return, because he's got a plan that's

better than your plan if you'll let him give it to you.

Heavenly Father, I pray that as we respond to you today that you

would have your way in US in Jesus name, Amen.

Would you stand? I'm going to stand here You come

as we worship you. Respond as the Lord leads this

morning.