Guest Pastor -Brian Briggs

Well, good morning. It is great to be here with you

as pastor, John Michael said. I probably preached you, what,

5-6 Times Now? And maybe this is the fifth or

sixth time. Yeah, this is the first time

we've ever been in this room at the same time.

So I'm excited about that. I'm honored to be here.

I hope you know how blessed you are to have John Michael as your

pastor. I love this man, I admire this

man, I respect this man and just the influence he's had on my

life and in a lot of ways he'll never even know just caused me

to be higher and better as a man, as a husband, as a father.

So thank you for that and thank you for having me here today.

So as a, as a service was progressing this morning, I kind

of felt like man, somebody's been reading my notes because

through the singing and through the prayers and through

everything, it's just the Holy Spirit is just speaking. 1 clear

message this morning. So if you want to turn in your

Bibles with me to 1st John chapter 3, we're going to be

John 3 · chapter mention

looking at verses one through 3 to begin.

And then a little bit later we'll take a look at verses 4

through 10. I'm reading from the English

standard version this morning. First John three, first John

three, one through 10. As I was preparing, I thought,

oh man, verses one through three are so good.

I'm not going to have time to hear the four through 10, but I

think we can do it. So again, thank you for having

me. It is a blessing and an honor to

be here and to bring God's word to you today.

So thank you. This church has always been so

kind and so welcoming to me, and that really means a lot to me.

So, so first, John, this is an epistle or a letter.

It's written by the apostle John, the same author of the

Gospel of John. He's writing to a church that

was having a problem with false teachers.

And so these false teachers, they were denying that Jesus

actually came in the flesh. So they had a belief that

basically spiritual things are good and physical things are

bad. And so because of this false

belief that they had, they couldn't accept the fact that

Jesus came in the flesh, right? Because God could never

condescend to be in the flesh because they thought the flesh

was inherently bad. And so on top of that, they're

denying the reality of sin. They're denying the fact that

human beings have a sin nature. And so basically they're,

they're taking no regard for personal morality or personal

righteousness that they, they were teaching that once you've

been spiritually enlightened, it doesn't matter what sins you

commit in the body. And I can already see the light

bulbs going off like this is red flags everywhere, right?

And so Johnny's writing specifically to people who

believe in and follow Jesus so that God's children will not be

deceived by these false teachers and his stated purpose in

writing this book. He says he wants their joy to be

made complete and for them to know that they have eternal

life. And so this morning, my goal was

no different. I want your joy to be so full

and complete this morning, and I want you to have assurance of

the hope that you have in Jesus. So let's begin in verses one

through 3. He says, See what kind of love

the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of

God. And so we are.

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not

know Him. Beloved, we are God's children

now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.

But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him

because we shall see Him as He is, and everyone who thus hopes

in him purifies himself as he is pure.

So today in our passage, we're going to see three simple

things. First, what we are.

Second, what we will be, and 3rd, who we should be.

So John's essentially saying this.

He's saying this is what you are, this is what you will be.

Now live like it. That's that's the thrust of what

he's saying this morning. So we're going to walk through

this text together and, and see what it means for our lives

today. And we we can't do that without

his help. So before we go any further,

let's say a quick word of prayer.

Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for these precious people.

God, I ask you right now to prepare our hearts to hear from

you. Holy Spirit, guide us into your

truth. Pray that you guard us from

error, both in what is taught and what is hurt.

God that you would help us to see you more clearly today, to

see you as you've revealed yourself in your word.

God help us to not just be hearers, but doers of your word

in Jesus name, Amen. All right, so the first thing we

see is what we are. He says, see what kind of love

the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of

God. And so we are.

So John is calling us to stop and look at the love of the

Father, right? He's saying, don't gloss over

it. Stop, behold it, look at it,

take it in, consider all that it means.

What kind of love is this? You know, in the original

language, the connotation here is it's as if this kind of love

is like a foreign kind, like it's from from a faraway place.

He's saying this, this is an out of this world love.

This is a a love that we can't even begin to comprehend, right?

Those of you who are parents in the room, let me see your hands,

OK? Probably the closest thing we

can think of is the the love a parent has for a child.

But I would suggest to you that John is saying this love goes

even beyond that. It's so far beyond, so much

bigger and so much better and greater.

We can't even begin to understand that the love that

the father has for his children. And he's freely given us this

love. And John says the evidence of

that is that we are called children of God.

And so it's this amazing love that John is telling us to stop

and look at. How many of you ever tried to

look at the sun before, right? I don't recommend that it's bad

for you. It's like you just, it's

overwhelming. You can't even take it in.

And what John is calling us to do here is a lot like that, to

try and behold the love of the Father.

It's like trying to stare at the sun.

It's just, it's overwhelming. And to try to understand his

love for us is impossible. Ephesians 319, the apostle Paul

calls it a love that surpasses knowledge, right?

We can't, we can't comprehend it on an intellectual level, but we

can comprehend it on a spiritual level.

He also says in Romans 816, the Spirit himself bears witness to

our spirit that we are the children of God, right?

So it's not something we can even begin to comprehend

intellectually. We we comprehend it by the power

of the Spirit as he bears witness to us that we are his

children. John's goal in writing this and

and my goal for you today is just to be overwhelmed by how

much God loves you. Think about it.

God could have saved us without making us his children, right?

Think about it. He could have looked at us in

our broken and sinful state and in his compassion and in his

mercy. He could have saved us from our

sin. And thank God he did.

But church, he did so much more than that.

He's called us his children. He's adopted us as sons and

daughters. He's brought us into his family.

He's done so much for us because of his great love for us.

And this changes the way we relate to him on a fundamental

level, right? He's not just a, a good

benevolent king that far off somewhere.

No, he's our father. This is a familial love.

This is a covenantal love. We are as children, we have an

access to him, an access that's unbelievable right now.

You are the children of God. This isn't just a title.

This isn't something we're looking forward to in the

future. Now, he says right now we should

be called the children of God. And so we are.

This is who you are right now. You are no less a child of God

right now than you will be an eternity.

Amen. Right.

You are loved by God no less now than you will be in eternity.

Amen. So how can this be?

If you're anything like me, you're like, how could God

possibly love me that much? It's only possible because we

are in Christ, as Galatians 326 says, For in Christ Jesus you

are all sons of God through faith.

Colossians 33 says For you have died and your life is hidden

with Christ in God. So to be in Christ means your

old life is gone. You are now hidden in Christ.

When God looks at you, he sees Jesus, right?

His perfect righteousness has been credited to you.

His perfect sacrifice for sin has been credited to you.

This is what it means to be justified, right?

Because of what Jesus has done for us in the Gospel, we now

stand justified before God. The gospel is simply this, that

Jesus is God. He came to the earth as a man.

He lived the perfect life that you and I should have lived.

He fulfilled the law of God perfectly.

And then he went to the cross and died a substitutionary death

in our place, the death that we deserved.

He was buried, and three days later he rose again.

He defeated death hell in the grave, proving that he alone has

the power over them, and he has ascended to the Father at his

right hand, where he's now ruling and reigning over all

things. Amen.

And it's because of that reality that you and I, when we are in

Christ, we are justified before God.

He promised us that all who believe in Him, all who repent

and believe will be justified and will have eternal life.

Amen. So all who believe in and follow

Him have been justified by faith through grace, Sorry, by grace

through faith in Christ. Those of us who are in Christ,

we've not only been justified, but we've been made as children.

And I think this is one of the most simultaneously encouraging

and humbling things at the same time.

Why do I say it's humbling? It's because I didn't earn it,

and I know I don't deserve it. And yet I belong to Him, right?

This is deeply offensive to my pride.

My pride wants me to be loved because I'm lovable.

My pride wants me to be accepted because I've earned it.

But the reality is that you and I have not earned anything

except the wrath of God, right? We are accepted based on the

merit of Christ, not our own merit.

Romans 58 says for God showed his love for us in this that

while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, right?

So you and I were not only we weren't in neutral territory, we

were actively rebelling against our Creator.

We were citizens of the Kingdom of darkness and God pulled us

out of darkness into His marvellous light.

It's amazing. So this identity that we have,

it not only changes the way we relate to our Father, it changes

the way we we see ourselves. It changes the way we understand

who we are. It is the foundation of

everything we are and everything that we do every every thought,

every action. It should stem from this truth

that I am a child of God. We live it our lives in such a

way as to please our Father. And so because this we live this

way. John goes on to explain not only

is our relationship to God and to ourselves different, but it

also has a profound effect on our relationship with the world

around us. He goes on to say in verse one

says the reason why the world does not know us is that it did

not know him. So what does this mean?

It's important to note here John uses this word world differently

depending on the context, right? So we all know John 316, right?

For God, so love the world, right?

But what does he say in first John 215?

He says do not love the world or the things in the world.

So clearly there's a difference in how he's using the term and

in this context here, he's referring to a worldwide system

of hostility and rebellion against God, right?

This is the world that does not know him.

This is the world that has rejected him.

This is the world that as a result, does not know us either.

So let me illustrate it to you this way.

My daughter, my oldest, is working at Campionca Tank this

summer as a counselor right up the road here.

And one of the things they do with their staff training, they

call it wacky Walmart and Tacky TJ Maxx.

And So what they do is they dress in the silliest, most

ridiculous outfits that they can possibly come up with because

it's the sillier the better. And they just go walk around in

Walmart and they walk around in TJ Maxx.

The goal is they want to kind of it's a team building thing.

They want to get them out of their comfort zone, get them

just stop taking themselves so seriously and just kind of build

that camaraderie with one another.

And so I wanted to see her. They were coming from Walmart

going about to go into TJ Maxx. And so I'm standing there

dressed normally and I'm in this group of people that just look

absolutely ridiculous. And I, I look at the camp

director who's dressed as a pink Bunny.

And I said, you know what's ironic?

I'm the one that looks out of place right now.

I'm standing in this group of people that look absolutely

ridiculous and I'm the one that looks out of place.

I'm the one that feels out of place.

And in the same way, church, this might come as a surprise to

you, but the culture we live in doesn't always honor God, right?

I know that's shocking, but that is the reality.

And so it can be easy at times living in this culture that we

live in, to feel like somehow, although we are the ones trying

to live out God's design for our lives, that somehow our beliefs

and ways of living are somehow outdated or wrong, right?

It's easy to take that pressure from the world around us.

But the reality is the world around us is rebelling against

God. They're rebelling against God's

design for them. And church, we should not feel

that pressure. We should not feel a lack of

confidence because of the world around us.

No, because we are children of God, we should feel a confidence

to live out his design for us to live it out.

When John, John echoes the the words of Jesus in verse 13 of

the same chapter when he says do not be surprised brothers, that

the world hates you. Now that doesn't mean every

single person in the world is going to hate you and treat you

badly. Not of course not.

That doesn't mean you can't have an unbelieving friend.

No, of course not. But what it does mean is that at

some point in your life, this unbelieving world is going to be

in opposition against you because you belong to him.

And they have rejected him. And that's what John wants us to

see here. So there's a tension for us to

manage here, right? First Timothy 3 says that

overseas overseers in the church should be well thought of by

outsiders, right? Romans 12 says that as much as

it depends on us, we ought to live at peace with everyone,

right? So we're not just out looking

for a fight all the time. Being quarrelsome, like the idea

is not to be hated because you're a jerk, but if, if we're

hated for Christ's sake, then so be it.

So be it. It should not surprise us.

It should not cause us to lose confidence in who we are as

children of God. So the fact that we are children

of God gives us a confidence that the world cannot give us

and cannot take away from us. I want you to think about that

for a second. I'm going to say it again.

The fact that we are children of God gives us a confidence that

the world cannot give us and cannot take away from us, Amen.

That's a good word. Another way to put it is our

daddy can beat up their daddy. That's right.

So we can be confident in who we are because of who's we are,

Amen. So because of the Father's great

love for us, He has made us into His children.

That is the foundation of how we relate to Him.

It's the foundation of how we see ourselves and it is the

foundation of how we relate to the world around us.

And this is who we are. And we can live confidently

because of that. And as if that's not enough,

there's more. Second thing we see this morning

is what we will be. Verse 2 says, beloved, we are

God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared.

But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him

because we shall see him as he is.

So we're God's children now. And bonus, what we will be has

not yet appeared. John's describing here this

tension that theologians call the now and then.

Not yet. It's the reality that we live in

as Christians. There are things that are true

of us right now, and there are things that have yet to come.

So yes, we're God's children now, but we also aren't what we

will be. Let me illustrate it to you this

way. We're like an orphan who's been

adopted from the orphan home we're on.

We're in the car, we're on the way to our new home, right?

We still have our faded and I'll fitting orphan clothes.

We still smell like the orphanage.

We're still learning what it means to be a son and a daughter

because we haven't made it home yet.

That's a lot like our life in this world.

We are sons and daughters. We are adopted.

It's a fact, but we haven't made it home.

Philippians 320 says our citizenship is in heaven and

from it we await A Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will

transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the

power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

And So what I want you to see here is that here in verse 2

when John says, but we know that when he appears, we shall be

like him because we shall see him as he is.

This is second coming language, right?

He's referring to when Jesus returns in glory, disappearing.

He says we'll be like him because we shall see him as he

is. And I want you to see something

here that is so cool. This has never really stood out

to me before until I was preparing for this sermon.

But think about the fact that even John says he has not seen

him as he is. Think about it.

This man was Jesus closest friend, Jesus closest, most

trusted disciple. He lived with him for three

years. He was there on the day of

Pentecost. He saw all the things he did all

the things. Yeah, he saw him in his

resurrected state. And even he says we have not

seen him as he is. So just imagine the glory that

is yet to be revealed when Jesus comes again in glory.

It's amazing. It's I'm almost, almost don't

want to talk about it because I because it's so far beyond what

I can comprehend that I know I'm not doing it justice right now.

It's amazing. This First Corinthians 1312 says

for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part then I shall know fully even as I have been

fully known. So this is the blessed hope of

everyone who is a child of God. One day we shall see Him face to

face. We shall see him in his glory

and be made like Him. And what does it mean that we

will be be made like Him? This is referring to when we

also will be resurrected from the dead as He was, when we will

be given glorified bodies like He has right.

And our new bodies will be immortal.

They'll be imperishable. They'll be freed from sin, freed

from sickness, freed from death forever.

Amen. We will be made like Jesus in

every way in church. There is a million things to

look forward to about eternity, but I think very near the top of

the list is that we will be freed from sin fully and finally

freed from sin in our glorified state.

Pastor Jeff Durbin tells a story about sitting across from a man

named John Barrows and John Barrows was dying of an

aggressive form of pancreatic cancer and Jeff asked him.

He said, brother, if the Lord should choose to call you home,

what are you most excited about? And John Barris looked at him

and he said, I'm most excited about not sinning against him

anymore. I'm so tired of sinning against

him. I just want to be with him and

not sin against him. This man, he's not concerned

about the pain he's in. He's not concerned about the

life he's about to lose. He's concerned about being with

Jesus and not sinning against him.

What a powerful perspective. I know I felt convicted just

reading that. The apostle John, he says when

we see Jesus as he is, we will be made like him.

So the implication there is that seeing the glory of Jesus is

what is going to make us like him, right?

And I want to suggest to you that's also true in this life to

an extent, right? The degree to which we see Jesus

as He is now is the degree to which we will be made like Him

now. This is why it's so important

that we know His Word, that we know Jesus as he's revealed

Himself in the Scriptures. This is why it's so important

that we seek His face in worship, that we communion with

Him in prayer, that we get to know the real hymn.

Amen. Because as we see Him as He is,

we will be made like Him. So we want to see Him in all of

His glory to the maximum extent possible in this life so that we

can be made like Him to the maximum extent possible in this

life. And it's this process of being

made like Him that John goes on to talk about in verse 3, talks

about who we should be, verse 3. And everyone who thus hopes in

him purifies himself as he is pure.

So here's where this becomes practical, right?

We have been justified. We have been made children of

God. We will be glorified.

We will be made like Him. And now in the present tense and

the now and not yet, we are being sanctified.

We are being made more like Him. That's what this process of

purification is. Sanctification is simply the

ongoing process by which you and I are made more like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit works in US progressively over time to make

us more and more like Jesus in this life.

So because of the hope that we have in Him, we purify ourselves

as He is pure. Now, what does it mean in verse

3 when it says purifies himself? What does that mean?

Well, first, what it does not mean, it does not mean that we

do this in our own strength. It does not mean we purify

ourselves in our own strength. One commentator put it this way.

He said the idea of purifying oneself does not mean that

believers can generate their own sanctification.

Rather, it emphasizes that the sanctifying work of the Holy

Spirit does not take place apart from the believers obedience and

the use of means of sanctifying grace, right?

So it's not that though we're out here just white knuckling in

Christian life and making this happen.

No, it's the Holy Spirit is doing it in us.

A phrase that helps me understand this is that God

works in and we work out, right? And I get that from Philippians

Philippians 2:12

chapter 2, verse 12, which says work out your own salvation with

fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you

both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So it's God that does the work in you.

He began the good work. He's faithful to see it to

completion. He works in you and then you

work out that work that He has begun in you.

So it's this hope that we have that motivates us to live

righteously. Now John's communicating the

reality of who we are and what we will be so that we will know

who we should be. He's essentially saying this is

who you are, this is who you will be.

Now live like it. Live like it today.

And what great confidence we have going into the

sanctification. Why?

Because we know it's going to be successful.

We know that this process of sanctification is going to

result in us being made like Jesus we are.

We are working toward a goal that we know we will achieve.

Amen. We can persevere in this

Christian life because of the hope that we know one day we

will finally see Him and be like Him.

So how much more confident would you be going into a fight when

you know for a fact you're going to win?

How much more confident would you be taking a test that you

know you're going to get 100 on, right?

That's what that's what the Christian life is like because

of Jesus. You know you're going to get

100%. You know you're going to win the

fight. So start now.

Start now and let that hope motivate you now.

This confidence should motivate us to start being like Jesus.

Now. The problem is that some people,

rather than being motivated, turn to apathetic disobedience,

have an apathetic attitude towards sanctification, right?

There's a real danger in saying, well, if I'm already a child of

God and one day I'm guaranteed to be made like him, that it

really doesn't matter how I live, now does it?

Think about it this way. I like music, so I'm going to

use music as an example. If you don't like music, then

just pretend I said something else.

But imagine you enrolled in a music class and on the first day

of the class the teacher said, hey, we're not going to worry

about grades in this class. Everyone's going to get an A.

You have two, two groups of students.

One group says, see me? We get to come in and we get to

learn about music and enjoy playing music together without

the burden of worrying about a grade.

We can just come in and do this because we love it.

Man, this is wonderful. And you have a second group of

students who say I'm getting an A anyway.

Then I guess I'm just going to goof off, maybe take a nap on

the way out the door. I'm probably just going to toss

my textbook in the trash. All right, These are drastically

different responses. Yeah, that's good.

In the same way, the hope that we have in Jesus, it should

motivate us to joyfully obey and follow him, right?

Not be seen as an excuse for apathetic disobedience.

Remember, this is the exact kind of thinking that John is

teaching against in his day. This is the exact kind of

thinking that these false teachers were putting out there,

right? They they emphasized spiritual

enlightenment over sins committed in the body.

They were. They were teaching that it

didn't matter what sins you committed.

And John had strong words against these ideas.

In fact, he argues in the coming verses that anyone who responds

that way is proving they were not a child of God.

In the 1st place, verse 4 does everyone who makes a practice of

sinning also practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in

order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.

No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning.

No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

Little children, let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous.

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the

devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the

works of the devil. No one born of God makes a

practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he

cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

So by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are

the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice

righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his

brother. They're sobering words, John

makes it clear. If you want to know who's a

child of God and who is not, look at their behavior, right?

Look at their fruit, John. It sounds an awful lot like

you're judging people. Yep, it's exactly what he's

doing. That's exactly what he's telling

you and I to do. To look at not with a

hypocritical judgement, but with a righteous judgement.

To look at the fruit, look at the actions.

Those who practice righteousness are righteous.

Those who practice sin are not. So you might be saying, wait a

minute, I still sin. I still struggle with sin.

I sinned yesterday, probably send this morning.

I'll probably send this evening at some point.

So where does that leave me? What does this mean for me?

Well, if that's you, you're in good company.

Because if we're being honest, we, we would all say that we

still on some level struggle with sin.

In fact, John says the beginning of this letter in John 1/8.

He says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and

the truth is not in US. So how do you and I understand

verses 4 through 10 in light of the fact that we still struggle

with sin? Where do we draw the line?

How much sin is too much sin? Friends, these questions missed

the point. Completely missed the point.

Notice the language here. John's using phrases like keeps

on sinning makes a practice of sinning.

He's not referring to a momentary stumbling here.

He's referring to an ongoing pattern and practice of sin in

our lives. So imagine it this way.

Imagine there's two paths before you.

There's a path of righteousness and the path of sin.

They go in opposite directions. So the question for John is not

how fast you're walking down the path or how successfully you're

walking down the path without tripping or stumbling.

The question is, which path are you on?

Because there's a world of difference between imperfectly

walking down the path of righteousness and not being on

the path at all, right? There's a world of difference.

It's not about perfection, it's about direction, right?

Which direction is your life headed for those of you that are

into financial investing, right? Every wise investor knows your

investments go up, they go down, they go up, they go down.

A wise investor doesn't freak out and sell the moment things

go down, right? If you look at it on my graph,

it's not a straight line going up.

It'd be great, but it's usually not.

But a wise investor also knows there should be, over time, a

trajectory of growth, right? What direction are things

moving? Yes, there's some up and down,

but what is the direction? What is the direction of your

life? Since we're in a gym today, I

use this illustration too. You're not going to add weight

to the bar everywhere. Some weeks you're going to go in

and you're not going to be able to bench press as much as John

Michael. But again, it's, it's not about

perfection, it's about direction.

Which direction is your life trending?

You know, as as an elder in a local church, unfortunately

there are times where the other elders and I will have to sit up

a member of our church down and say, hey, we're seeing a pattern

of sin in your life and we're calling you to repentance and we

want to help you get back on the path of righteousness.

Unfortunately, sometimes that doesn't result in that person

being restored. Sometimes it does, praise God,

but sometimes we're left with it.

The only choice is to put that person under church discipline

and treat them as an unbeliever. And that's what John is telling

us how to do right now, how to look at a person's life, how to

look at our own lives and determine what is the direction

here? What direction is your life

trending? So I want to challenge you this

morning. Take a look at your life at 2nd

Corinthians 13, five says examine yourselves to see

whether or not you're in the faith, right?

We need to examine ourselves before the Lord.

What is it? What is the trajectory of our

lives? Are we imperfectly but sincerely

pursuing Jesus or are we clinging to our sin?

Is our is our life marked by practicing sin or is it marked

by practicing righteousness? So if you're a child of God and

you are finding yourself falling into sin, I want to remind you

of what John said earlier in this letter in chapter 2, verse

1. He said, my little children, I

am writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if

anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus

Christ the righteous. Thank God we have an advocate.

He also said in chapter 1, verse 9, if we confess our sins, He is

faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all

unrighteousness. Amen.

So church, when you sin, how do you respond?

Do you deny it? You try to hide it?

You try to justify it or does it grieve you?

Does it cause you to repent as it caused you to turn to your

advocate? When we sin church, run to your

advocate. He is faithful and just to

forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Run to your advocate. Chapter 3.

Verse 5 says he came to take away sins and in him there's no

sin. Verse 8 says he came to destroy

the works of the devil. So what does that mean for you

and me? It means sin has no dominion in

our lives, right? Whatever sin you're struggling

with, it has no power over you. There's a way out.

It has no power over you. You can say no.

You can not give in to temptation.

Jesus came to take it away and to destroy it.

It has no power over your life. Doesn't matter what it is,

whether it's one of the really big sins or or maybe one of the

more socially acceptable sins like gossip, things that things

that we don't take very seriously, but we should.

Doesn't matter what it is that you're dealing with.

You came to take it away. You came to destroy it so you

can fight this fight against him with confidence because you know

it's a fight you're going to win, right?

You know you're going to win. You, your hope and your future

are secure in Christ. You know what you are.

You know what you will be, so you can be who you should be.

And this isn't just about avoiding sin, but it's about

practicing righteousness, right? He goes on in this chapter to

talk about what it looks like to love our brothers and sisters.

So we're not only just avoiding sin, but we're actively pursuing

righteousness and pursuing walking in love.

And you're not being graded on your performance, church,

because Jesus has already earned a perfect score.

He's already earned that for you.

The question is not how are you performing?

The question is, are you abiding in Him?

Are you abiding in Him? Are you being sanctified by the

power of His Holy Spirit? So this morning as we close, I

want to leave you with just some simple and practical steps you

can take to respond to God's Word today.

If you're not yet a child of God, or if there's any doubt

about that in your mind, you can simply repent and believe.

Repent of your sin. Trust in Jesus for salvation.

You can be justified before God today.

All this hope that we're talking about, it could be yours in

Christ Jesus today. If you are a child of God, which

I would venture to say is probably all of us in this room,

praise God. Meditate on this reality of who

you are and what you will be every single day.

Make this a part of your daily prayer life.

Thank God for making you His child right when you're praying,

thank Him. Ask Him to help you walk in the

confidence of a child of God as you relate to the world around

you. Look forward to the day.

Actually set aside time to look forward to the day when you will

see Him, when you will see Him as He is, and you will be made

like Him. So when the world around you is

spinning out of control, you don't have to be anxious or or

grieved about what's going on in the Middle East or what's going

on down the street because you are a child of God and you, your

hope is secure and your future is sure in Christ.

He will come again and glory will make us like Him.

And this is a hope that the world cannot give us and it

cannot take away from us. Ask God to motivate you because

of this hope that you have. Motivate you to purify yourself,

resist temptation, walk and holiness, actively obey God,

practice righteousness, love others, live as children that

want to please their Father. May we all be motivated by his

love for us and our love for Him.

Let us be motivated by the hope that we have in Jesus.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you

have because of your great love, You have called us your

children. You have made a way for us to

know you, to be made like you. They have a deep and intimate

relationship with you. God, we thank you right now that

our lives are hidden with Christ because we are in Christ.

When you look at us, you see Jesus, his perfect

righteousness, his perfect sacrifice.

God, I pray that each and every day we would remind ourselves of

that reality, Lord, and we would walk in the confidence that

gives us as your children, God, we thank you for the hope that

we have in you. God, I pray that it would

motivate us not to wait for eternity to be like you, but to

be like you now. Help us to walk in righteousness

now through the power of your Holy Spirit that guides us and

empowers us each and every day. Thank you for these people.

Thank you for this church. God, I pray your blessing over

them. Thank you for the opportunity to

be with them today. God, I pray that your love will

continue to grow and flourish here in this community.

Thank you for it. In Jesus name, Amen.