The Village Church
I'm a Child of God, You Know Me - Part 2 - Audio
Well you thankful should be we all have things to be thankful for no matter how bad life gets God is still at work. Amen Well, if you have your Bibles this morning We're gonna continue looking at first John And continue to let John kick us in the stomach We're gonna be looking at chapter three First John chapter three Beginning with verse 11 11 Here's God's word For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another We should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother Why did he murder him because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous? Do not be surprised brothers that the world hates you We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers Whoever does not love a wise and death Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no matter has he turned a life abiding in him By this we know love that he laid down his life for us And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him How does the love of God abide in him? Little children Let us not love in word or talk but indeed and in truth By this we should know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him For whenever our hearts condemn us God is greater than our heart He knows everything Beloved if our hearts do not condemn us We have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive for him from him Because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him and this is his command that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another Just as he has commanded us Whoever keeps his commandments abiding God and God and him and by this we know that he abides in us By the spirit whom he has given us pray with me Father, this is your word and it is truth and it's perfect and it is holy And it contains your will for our life And so spirit through your power I pray that you take this preach word and apply it to our hearts apply it to my heart for I need it as well And I pray you take these words and glorify Christ through them May he alone be the glory not us and not me and Christ in my prayer. Amen Well last week we John began to show us What it means to live as the treatment of God what it how to live as the people of God and a broken and fallen world So he challenged us and he assured us that that To that end he challenged us to live as a true in the God He assured us that we were children of God He tells us that deliver the treatment of God means we reflect the righteousness of God in our life We were practice that righteousness that Christ has given to us And in 1 John 3 verse 10 he says 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 And what else did they say neither is the one who does not love his brother? So John now he's moving away from practicing righteousness Doing things that God wants us to do to now loving other people What that's is what it means to be to live as a treatment of God. We live for God We love God, but we also love and serve our neighbor as well The love of God should be reproducing in your life His love for you should be lived out toward your love for others And this is something that John has already talked about remember John is repetitive So don't forget that and he's repetitive for a reason Because we always forget the same the same truth that we should not forget we forget him every week and every day But he returns to love here. He says for this is the message that you have heard from him from the beginning that we should love one another How? How does that look? But before we get into the how John tells us how love does not look how we should not love Verse 12 he says we should not be like Cain who was of the evil one murdered his brother Why did he murder him because his own deeds were evil in his brother's righteous? You know the story of Cain in his younger brother Abel, right? I'm sure you read that story There were sons of Adam and Eve Cain was a farmer Abel was a herdsman There though that was their location a farmer a shepherd But as time went by the Bible says the brothers brought a sacrifice offering to the Lord Cain brought an offering from the fruit of the ground and Abel brought an offering from the first born of his flock and of that fat portions The word says the Lord had regard for Abel in his offering for Cain and his offering offering the Lord did not have regard And the Bible doesn't give us Reasons or why that is but it does shows us Cain's response to that. He was angry He's his face fell The Lord said to Cain why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well Will not you be accepted if you do not do well sin is crouching at the door. It's desires for you You must rule over it the Cain take heed to those words of the Lord that he Did he receive that invitation from the Lord? No, he did not What did he do? He led his brother to the field And he rose up against him took his life and then when the Lord began to question Cain about it What did he say? Am I my brother's keeper? Am I my brother's keeper? Are you? And now in first John chapter 3 John gives us his commentary on Genesis 4 He says Cain was of the evil Murdered his brother Why not because his brother was evil not because Abel was bad. It's the opposite Because Cain's these were evil in his brother's righteous. What were the deeds? Why were they evil? See the only recorded deed we have a Cain is the sacrifice and offering he brought to God The fruit of the ground that was that's the deed he brought to God and the God did not have regard for it Why I believe because Cain's heart was not right His motives were not right His deeds were evil because his heart was bad. He was filled with hate even when he brought the offering Psalm 51 says for you do not delight in sacrifices or are we give it? You will not be pleased with Brun offering The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contract heart. Oh Lord. You would not despise outward righteousness Must be tied with a heart that is right with God you understand Looking good on the outside He's nothing if he dirty on the inside So what does that mean? It means you can do all the right things and still not know Jesus You can practice all the right and if you want to and still not be right with God Cain proves that he brought a sacrifice to God offering to God And his heart was not right Let me ask you a question Do you think Cain was already resentful hateful and envious of his brother before that day? If I wasn't telling that, but do you think he was before that day? I believe so and his jealous and envious and hateful heart finally led him to murder and Murder there the word is used that means to cut the throat as slaughtering an animal Cain led his brother to the field and slaughtered cut his throat and cold blood Because he was evil and his brother was righteous and in committing this heinous crime Cain showed himself to be of the evil one and what does that mean? One Christian said that the statement that Cain was of the evil one is to be understood in the same sense of our Lord's words To those who try to take his life you are of your father the devil And seeking his life. They showed themselves to be the spirit of children of the evil one who was a murderer from the beginning and So what's Cain the first murderer in the Bible was a spirit to child or the evil one and we If children are God How should we take that? What does that mean for us? The evil one and his children are haters. They are always going to hate on the people of God And the treatment of God not to be like them or not to live like them or not to live in hate Nor should we be surprised when the world hates you You shouldn't ask surprise by that Do not be surprised brothers sisters that the world hates you We know that we have passed our death into life because we love the brothers What John is does it he shows that Cain's hatred of his brother is now seen in the world hatred of God's people God's Church and Remember when he talks about the world this way. He's talking about humanity. There is an opposition to God and rebellion against God There will always be hostility and conflict between the people of God In the world that rebels against him There will always be that Wickedness and righteousness would never be BFFs never never be best friends forever. We don't know text and language Wickedness and righteousness would be BFFs bitter enemies forever Forever and so when the world hates you do not be surprised by that You should expect it in some degree. This is what Jesus told the disciples in the upper room If the world hates you know that it hated me first Before it hated you if you were of the world the world will love you But because you know the world but I chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you We should expect it, but don't let it depress you. Don't even let it discourage you You see humanity that is an opposition opposition to God shows its true spiritual condition and that's death spiritual death Verse 14 B says whoever does not love God abysing death But the children of God if you know Jesus you are no longer spiritually dead Because Jesus has chosen you out of the world When you come to seven faith in him you there's a spiritual resurrection that takes place a Spiritual resurrection takes place for all of those who come to faith in Christ You pass out a spiritual death into spiritual life That's what happens And our love for the brothers our love for other people now love for even our enemies is a fruit of that new life in Jesus And so the truth of the God do not continue to live in hate Do you follow me The traditional God did not continue to live in hate and see hate is not a fruit of the new life Life Love or the fruit of our new nature in Christ Death and hate is a fruit of our old nature the old man the old woman And John's point point here is that we should be driven by a new nature in Christ not the old one I was listening to a Talk show. I love this in the sports heart radio. That's what I listen to now That's just because I love sports and this host was talking about some comments that an NFL quarterback made About his rivals team and within his arrival team within his division You see this team has a a show called hard knocks is on HBO and this quarterback was asked if he ever watched the show He said honestly, I haven't tuned in I hate the Jets So I refuse to support them. I have no interest in that show I'm sure people like it, but that's not something. I have no interest in watching I'll love to say a lot a lot of mean things, but I rather not do that either So he hates the Jets Now this Radio commentator I will listen to He said hate is a healthy thing As long as you don't hurt somebody So hate is a healthy thing as long as you don't hurt anybody So what do you think about that? Then realize that this guy he of me and some people listen to this guy every day And he's saying hate is a healthy thing as long as you don't hurt anybody. It's okay for me to hate you Is that true? Not according to John Verse 15 John says if anyone who hates his brother is a what? Is a murder and you know that no murder or has it turned a life about it in him? Wow Which one is Is it healthy or is it murder? According to God is murder And see John pulls a heart away from this external behavior and works to the attitudes of a heart See can't have a heart problem It's not just a behavior problem and when you hate your brother when you hate other people you have murdered them in your heart That's deep That's convicting and John is just reinforcing the words of Christ Words that Christ preaching the sermon on the mound Jesus said you heard that it was said of old you should not murder whoever murders would be liable a judgement But I say to you for everyone who anyone who is angry with his brother would be liable of Judgment whoever insults his brother would be liable to counsel counsel Whoever says to his brother you fool would be liable to the hip hell or fly From the overflow of our hearts people comes all kinds of stuff If you only knew the things that are in the hearts of people you like wow I never saw that coming This week how many people have you led to the back L of your heart and cut their throats how many? How many people in your heart have you led to the field? inside your heart and took their life In your anger in your bitterness in your resentment to worth them. How many have I? How many of us continue to walk around an unrepentant hate toward other people? You see when the world hates us that should not surprise us, but when other believers hate other believers now That's to be surprising When other believers hate other believers that should surprise you because it's not right And we in the church it's common within the church to have gossip slander resentment jealousy envy. It's common Who in this church do you resent? Who in this church are you jealous of? Who in this church do you can't stand? It gets on your nerves You say well, no one yet, but it will come And what are you gonna do when it comes? It is the nature of all sinners, so let's not pretend like we're gonna always love and get along well That's not always gonna be the case Conflict will come but when it comes how are you gonna respond to it? Are you gonna continue to walk in it? Are you gonna deal with it? If it's not in one of the church, is it a neighbor? coworker Someone from a different denomination different race I know what you're saying. Alex, we don't hate or resent people with good southern Christian folk here in Alabama That's what we are. We don't hate nobody Sure Sure What about in your heart See under no circumstances is hate a healthy thing One Christian says for we wish him to perish when we hate When you hate you wish them to perish you wish them to not even exist And we know that no murderer has a turn like about in him And so if you have eternal life in you if you know Jesus You are not continuing to live that way It would be uncomfortable for you to live and unbilled it to live in unrepented hate to live in bitterness and jealousy and envy if that if you're not uncomfortable about that Then you need to do some business with the Lord. Yeah, this is what John is talking about if you are in Christ And you will be uncomfortable Hating all the people it would drive you to repentance. You will not just be comfortable living now And if you do John said that's evidence of spiritual death or something you not understand something about the gospel You think that's okay You see hate is not clothing of the new nature. I've already said that it's clothing of the old nature It's a felted garment of our old nature and Christians have become too comfortable dressed in those nasty clothes Walking around as if they're not have you have not been changed and we justified Well, they made me angry. That's why I don't like them You are a new creation in Christ and Christ has given you new garments to wear Are you wearing those garments that new life in love is evidence of the new life? It is evidence of the new life Well, can you give me a practical example as an example is this you go you grow up in the South of races non-believer You become the Jesus. You shouldn't no longer be a racist. That's what I'm talking about. That's an example If you were a racist before Jesus when you kind of know Jesus you should no longer be a racist That's what I'm talking about. That's the kind of change I'm talking about if you continue to be one Then it's something about the gospel. You understand him. You see what I'm saying now. It's the point clear now Once was it racist no longer a racist than Jesus if I could tune to be a racist, they mean something about me and Jesus ain't right That's what I'm talking about Being in Christ leads to a changed life a repentant life How are we to love? Verse 16 and 17 by this we know love that he laid not his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers If anyone has to rules good and sees his brother in need of closing his heart against him How does God's love about in him? The children let us not love in word or talk, but indeed in truth Hate is negative love is positive Love is positive. It seeks the good of another person And even to the point of self-sacrifice That's love Cyclificial love is what Christ has for us And our sacrificial love has its foundation in Christ's sacrificial love By this all believers know what sacrificial love looks like Jesus laid down his life for you when you were his enemy And now we are to do the same for the brothers You see Cain's hatred led to murder But Jesus's love led him to self-sacrifice And now we who who are believers should be willing to follow Christ's example following his footsteps His love should compel us to love other people If you really understanding that love that love he has for you Then it's going to compel you to love other people Sacrificially your family your wife your kids your co-workers your neighbors Even those who get on your nerves. That's the power of Christ's love Is it compelling? Is it compelling mean And love Here does not necessarily means taking your life doesn't necessarily mean death But it as one Christian says it's it's willingness to surrender that which has value to you in order to reach another sacrificial love Love is willing in willingness to surrender that which has value for your own life To enrich your life of another that's sacrificial love. That's what one Christian said Have you surrendered things in your life in order to enrich another? Are you willing to lay down your right to be right in order to rich enrich another? Are you am I willing to lay aside certain pleasures and habits possessions status? Positions or or whatever it is in order to enrich another Am I willing to do that? And how many of you if I put you on the spot or answer yes to that question even knowing your heart is no For this, you know, we don't like being honest in the church If I put you on the spot would you be honest? Would you say no even when you say yes, even when in your heart, you know, it's no Come on, Alex. I know I know it's common to hear people say well, I love everybody I've heard that a thousand for many people. I love everybody. I get along with everybody I'm easy to get along with I'm understanding. I'm a good listener That may be true But I want you to take notice what John does and then see verses 16 and 17 I didn't see this at first, but a few commentaries pointed this out I'm gonna read them again. He says by this we know love that he laid down his life for us And we are relating our lives for the brothers But if anyone has to has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him How does the guys will ever bother him? See in verse 7 16. He talks about our brothers pearl our brothers In verse 17 he moves to brother Single why is that by accident? No, it's by design and As CS Lewis says it's easier to be enthusiastic about humanity with a capital H Then it is to love individual men and women Especially those who are interesting aspirating to pray and otherwise unattract this Loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving no one in particular I read that again loving everybody in general Maybe an excuse for loving nobody in particular Saying I love the loss in general Saying I love my enemies in general saying I even love the poor in general Can just be an excuse for you loving none of them in particular You see I live everybody has become a Empty cliche in no meaning but no meaning and John doesn't let us get away with that He says whoever claims to be a child of God and he has the world's goods And he sees his brother a sister in need and yet closes his heart against him or her. How does God love about him? Good question powerful question See the reality for most of us is that we really don't want to see poverty If we honest we really don't want to see the broken lives of other people that live in conditions of other people We don't want to see it because once you see it what happens what feelings start to come up inside I want you see that stuff Capital or you start to feel some kind of responsibility and we don't want to feel that responsibility. So like you know what? That's not my cup of tea. I really see it on TV I don't want to see it face to face and John says If you are in a position to help someone and then you actually see the need You see the brokenness you see the living conditions You see the poverty and yet you close your heart to that How does the sacrificial love of Jesus abide in you? How No compassion no pity no mercy no desire to help What do you do when you see others in need? What do I do? Do I criticize? Do I make judgments? Do I hate on them? Do I laugh at them? Do I call them lazy? Do I say well they made their own bed? Lion Do you want to say well they had the same opportunities in me? I grew up in the projects - just like they did I got out. Why can't they get out? It's not my responsibility to give back to them my hard-earned Resources that I worked hard for They just need us. They didn't need a spot to do better What do you say? When you see those types of needs Where is your heart this morning? The love of God Is it close to those whom you see in need? In his letter letter from the Birmingham jail Dr. Martin Luther King responded to an article written by some clergyman in Birmingham Who called his non-violent protest extreme? One of the points in his letter that he makes is that everyone is an extremist for something He says the question is not whether we'll be extremists or what kind of extremists will we be? Will we be as treatments for hate or for love? Will we be as treatments for the preservation of injustice or the extension of justice? Where are you this morning? Where are you extreme about this morning? You see, believers should be as treatments for love Not hate The extension of justice not the preservation of injustice See there's a song called there's a thin line between love and hate that song is a lie The line between love and hate should be a thick brick wall for the believer a thick brick wall not a thin line that you hop over and back over at will It should be that wall should be growing bigger and thicker as you grow in Christ growing more in love and growing less than hate If you're growing in Jesus Now one of the most common ways in the history of the church that we have seen the church close its hearts to people is through silence Oh, yeah silence What do you mean by that Alex? Silence on issues of injustice, poverty, social issues with silence because Well, we justify our silence because the church should only engage in spiritual stuff That's the mission of the church and so we play it safe. We play it comfortable. We want to be neutral and You got to realize Silence is not neutral You know that right Silence is not you been on the fence This call a spade of spade silence is you closing your heart to the knees of people is you turn a blind eye That's you when you're silent Your silence proves that you proves that That you are on the side over the injustice that's being inflicted passively John is saying if you are in a position to help if you have the world's goods And if you see with your own eyes the needs of a brother or sister Anyone in need and you are silent you close your heart against that person How can the love of God abide in you? How Another quote from Dr. King says we will remember not the words of our enemies But what the solids of our so-called friends If they are your friend and you won't be silent Be more practical Alex if my kids are bad The one thing that shouldn't do and if you are silent about it, then you don't love me You need to love me and don't say that pull me inside said brother. I saw your kids doing this Don't say I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to offend you You didn't tell me because you would have don't love me if you loved me you would have told me That's what I'm talking about Words or a friend may hurt, but it's a good hurt when he's done in love Don't be silent but speak That your words be backed up with deeds In verse 18 where it told not to love and we're indeed but in truth deed and truth See we just finished talking about these but he has in truth as well and why is that? We are called to a sacrificial love that is seen in our deeds But don't but that doesn't mean we aid in itself central behavior See to love in truth means your your deeds are are grounded in the word of God Because we are also to love and truth love at times means you hold people accountable You have boundaries God's truth six those boundaries of our deeds But what time you say no, I'm not going to participate in that Participating that would not be love it would be enabling which is not love Love is sacrificial but it's clothing God's truth always What I love about John is that? Even though he writes in black and white statements, you know, he does have a patch to heart and it seems throughout the letter and I know you can read first John and you can think John's is talking about perfectionism. He's talking about I can actually have a sinless life now If you read first John out of contents, you can probably get those things But that's not what he's talking about John fully knows quite well that a children of God would still struggle with him he knows that you're not going to love other people perfectly and What he does is what many pastors fail to do many times is that he has balance in this letter and Everything he said to this point is for those who need a kick in the pants Sometimes we need a kick in the pants because we were they're not loving people well And he reminds us of that And so he throws cold water on your heart to wake it up He does it to lead you to conviction that leads you to repentance not to beat you up Now on the other side of the aisle you have those who who who need to pull the kick me sign off their back Because they live in condemnation Self-doubt down in the salvation. They see clearly how often they fall short They need assurance and in the verse in beginning of verse 19. This is exactly what he does By this we should all by this, you know that we are the truth the real sure our hearts before him But whenever our hearts can them us God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything The reality is that sometimes our hearts does can them sometime justly sometimes unjustly And when it does we can reassure our heart and One of the ways we're sure our heart is that is love them Do you really love people if you love people that should reassure you that you're in the truth? That you're our believer Because you're growing in love growing less than hate and the second reason is Thing that should reassure your heart is that God is greater than your heart greater than your heart We could pacify our heart with what John talking about here pacify it with God's truth It means resting in the fact that God's verdict over you is not guilty. Do you know that? His verdict is not guilty over you And whenever your heart tries to condemn you then you got to rely on that truth I'm not guilty in Christ. I'm not guilty in Christ I'm not guilty in Christ. They're always trumped our heart And if you're living in self-doubt dialing your salvation beating yourself up right now, you don't have to God is greater than your heart What is Paul saying Romans 8 There is therefore no Combination for those who are in Christ Jesus For the law of the spirit of life has set me free in Jesus from the law and sin and death Amen You got to do that And The dangers of living in self-doubt is that that too impacts your relationship with Jesus Just like living and sin and hate will Because those who live in combination you have no confidence to approach God At all You don't believe he would hear your prayers so you hardly have a prey You beat yourself up. You know life is really about you when you do that And you don't have You don't really sin you really don't live in the spirit. You're not living my faith. You live in my sight You're not trusting in God. You're still trusting in yourself In verse 21 he joins shows that you don't have to live that way Beloved if our heart does not condemn us. We have confidence before God whatever we ask from him He gives us because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him With a pacified heart We can approach God with confidence and our prayers are answered Our prayers are answered because we keep his commandments and we do what pleases him what pleases God Verse 23 having faith in Jesus Having faith in Jesus and love in one another those things please God And when you are living a lot of that pleases God it is safe to assume That your will is beginning to be in line with his will Your heartbeat is in rhythm with his heartbeat and that would be reflected in things you pray for It is safe to assume if you are doing the things that please God Your will is beginning to be in line with his will Your heartbeat is in rhythm with his heartbeat and that would be reflected in what you pray for You see what i'm saying It will be reflected in your prayers and all this is possible because God's spirit lives in you That's how he ends the section God's spirit lives in each and every one of you By this we know that we're that he abysing us but a spirit whom he has given you All this stuff is possible It's possible for you to live as a child of God Reflecting Christ's righteousness in your life and actually loving people because God's spirit living you We're not talking about perfection. We're just talking about it's your desire to do so You strive to do so and the spirit makes that possible. The spirit gives you the power to do that And so if you if you if you look taking the sermon and you and you come up with this list of do's and don't you're not getting a point This should drive you to repentance not to a to-do list If you're coming up with a to-do list right now you miss my point This is meant to drive you to the repentance and asking the Holy Spirit to help you to live in love and not hate To help you to to can repent more to repent more of the bitterness and your jealousy That I would not continue to live in those things But I will continue to strive to live as a child of God Reflecting Christ's righteousness in my life and also reflecting the sacrificial love of Christ in my life as well toward anyone and everyone even my enemy And the spirit is the one who makes that possible Amen Before I close our time. I want us to have a just a moment of reflection I notice a lot of stuff hard stuff, but it's stuff that my heart needs to hear every day And so it's opportunity for us to pray through the spirit And ask the spirit to make these things a reality in our life. Let's take a couple moments to do that I One of us have it all together And we know even Paul never had together David a man at the own heart didn't have it together Isaac didn't have it together April him didn't have it all together none of us have it all together None of us live perfect lives father One Paul said one thing he does is he forget what lies behind him press forward to what lies ahead Those spirit we need you to be able to press on We pray that you will enable us to live more in you in less than ourselves That you will will the one who changed our hearts to make it be like the heart of Christ That we will live from you Have the same values as the same passions Our heart would beat with his heart And we would love Jesus more And the day that you become more beautiful to us as we're growing More sweet more awesome or great And as we see and love him and that same love To be reflected in other we have for other people that when we see those that are hurting our heart would break in compassion And even our enemies we will love We will not be the same Spirit make us uncomfortable when our sin make us uncomfortable and our hate and our jealousy And you the power of the gospel lead our hearts to the throne of grace entrance every day every hour Crashing my friend. Amen. Please stand for the benediction I've said a lot over the past two weeks and But it's what our hearts need to hear To live as a child of God Reflecting Christ in your life Reflecting in love with Christ as well And the Scott Spirit will enable you to do that His God's been addition to you The Lord we give strength unto His people The Lord will bless you all for peace Amen. Amen. Please greet one another