Good morning, harbor. Oh, man, that was awesome. Hey, my name is Jeremy Quadelbaum. I'm one of the pastors here slash missionary. Man, I am excited, and man, I have not been able to preach since like May. So I hope you guys are like ready, 'cause this is, I brought the, I know, thank you. See, I brought the phone and the iPad. That means we're in here for a long haul. No, just kidding. I'm gonna try and make it short and sweet. But man, I am so glad to be here. As we're continuing in this series, last man standing. And I was trying to feel like I think of a good illustration that kind of fit, but all I could think of is so we, we were missionaries in Japan, and one of the things that we did is we worked with the military, and for three years, my wife and I, we did youth group. Once again, I always have an appreciation for stone, probably the hardest three years of my life was doing youth group. But we had, we'd always start with games, and there was a game that all of our students loved. It was called Red Dot. When I say students, it was the game that I loved the most. Red Dot, because it is like dodgeball on steroids. And I loved it because the object of this game in dodgeball was to be the last man standing, but here's the thing, as you were throwing, if I hit you and you had to sit down, if somebody hit me, then you were allowed to get back up. So you had to be very strategic in this game. So a lot of the youth kids, they would come up, and it was an opportunity for me to teach life lessons. That's the only reason why we played it. I wanted to teach them. So the kids would come up to me, and their thought process is, let's form alliances. And I'm like, all right, that sounds like good. So all of the kids that would come up to me, they'd be like, Mr. Jeremy, do you wanna be in an alliance with me? And I would say, yes, give me the ball. As soon as they gave me the ball, I would, boom, I'd hit that kid out. He's like, wait a minute. I thought we were an alliance. And I'd always tell him, hey, at some point, when it's a game where the last man standing, alliances have to be broken. I just do it sooner than they later. And so where I tell you that, you're like, where are you going with this? My wife asked the same question. I'm like, I don't know, it was just sounded fun. But here's the thing is, is that there is a time when we're doing things in life that we need discernment. You know, the more and more we played it, they were like, hey, discernment says, don't go in an alliance with Mr. Jeremy, 'cause he will throw you out right away. And the thing is, is why? I was giving them conflicting messages like, hey, will you wanna be an alliance? Yes, I really didn't. So boom, I wanna win. And oftentimes, this is the problem that we're in today is that we need to have discernment because we are living in a world that is giving us conflicting messages. I mean, there is a, I think in every pastor's journey, there is a message where it's like, I know I need to preach this one. I just don't wanna preach this one. So here's what I wanna do today. I'm one of the first and foremost, I want you to hear the Holy Spirit in your heart. Because man, we are gonna, John writes this passage and it's a very challenging, because there is a challenging time going on in this time, this timeframe of John. See, false teachers, prosperity gospel, all of these things, it's nothing new. This was going on. Matter of fact, John writes it in verse 1 John 2, 26, he says, I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. See, John was telling a man, here's the thing, the gospel message, Jesus Christ is who he is. He's done what he says he's going to do, all of these things, the Son of God, God into flesh, and a lot of people were like, man, no, not necessarily. There was a conflicting message going on. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to hear the Holy Spirit, because the only way we can have discernment is through his power, is through his strength and through the Word of God. So we are gonna be in a lot of scripture today. Let's throw a lot at you. But I really want us to hear this because here's the thing, this is what's going to allow us to have a lasting faith. See, this is what it's all about. It's about having a lasting faith, and we live in an age where the buzzword deconstruction. Raise your hand if you've heard this word, deconstruction of the faith. Well, I love this because as John is writing this, deconstruction was nothing new. I don't have this on the screen, but I want to kind of talk about something where a lot of people are leaving the faith, and John in chapter two, he's talking about anti-Christ, and he's talking about these false prophets, and he's talking about people leaving the faith. And here's what John is basically saying. They left us, why? Because they were never part of us. And here's the thing is people are walking away from the faith, and I'm just going to say God's word is, they're not walking away from a faith, they're walking away from something that they never had in the first place. See, here's the thing, deconstruction of the faith, it's important, the reformers. I love the reformers. If you ever just want to sit down and geek out with me and talk about Martin Luther, the five solaces. John, I'll eat that stuff up all day. And here's the thing. I look at the reformers as deconstructionists, but here's the one thing that they used to deconstruct their faith. They used the word of God. They didn't use their feelings. They didn't use their thoughts. They were saying, okay, let's look at this from the word of God. And let me tell you, I love participation. The more participation I get, the more excited. Amens are okay, facts are okay. Whatever you want to yell at, just don't yell out, heresy, all right? We're okay there, all right? So he's basically talking about that these conflicting messages are going on. And so here's the thing. We're gonna talk about some of these conflicting messages because they are taking place. And so let me give you some examples of the conflicting messages that are coming out. I used to work out into this app. It was called Aptiv. And I liked the elliptical one. I know some of you were like, work out. But I would get on this elliptical. And there was, you would have this like coach. And they'd tell you like, go faster, go slower. But one of the things that this one coach would always say, eat your vegetables and live your truth. See, a conflicting message is that it's going on. First of all, it was conflicting because I don't want to eat my vegetables. And you don't want me living out my truth. But see, here's the conflicting message we have today. Live your truth. Man, if it's true to you, it's true. Live it up. Your truth matters. But see, here's the problem is, is that instead of being truth-living, you live off of your feelings. And I don't know about you. I felt probably 10 different ways just this morning. And so if I'm living off of that, I have no idea how I'm supposed to live. But this was not just a conflicting message of the day. It was this, at John's time too. It was this constant living out what you thought about Jesus. What do you think about Jesus? Whatever you think, follow that. And so this conflicting message was to live out, live your truth. The other one we hear today is God wants me to be happy. Man, if that's a truth, oftentimes God is highly disappointed because there are many times that I'm not happy. But here's the thing. God wants me to be happy. And here's what it is. If it doesn't make me happy, it's not what God is calling me to. See, we get this conflicting message where it's like, okay God, you want me to be happy. You care about that. So if it makes me happy, I can do it. If it doesn't make me happy, I don't want to do it. And this other message is that we get is live your best life now. This life is coming to you. You can't take it with you. Live your best life now. And then one of the things is Jesus gives suggestions. I know what? Like that's the conflicting messages. It's like oftentimes it's like, hey guys, you know, Jesus, he was this great teacher. He preached some things. You know what? If it feels okay, if it's something that you want to do, Jesus is like, you know what guys? The great commission, go and make disciples. If you have time, you know, if it's in your will house. If, oh wait, wait a minute. If it's your calling, go and do it. No, exactly. See, and the thing about it is, is that these conflicting messages create a problem in our life. And here's the problem that we are often led astray by lies masquerading as the truth. You know, the thing about it is, is like some of you are sitting here thinking like, man, those are like, that's crazy stuff. No, we may not say like everything that I just read, the conflicting messages. We may not say them with our words. Like I would never say that Jesus gives suggestions. But how often do I live? Like Jesus gives suggestions. I would never say that, you know, I want to live my best life now. But how many times does our actions show that that's how we're living? I told you, I didn't want to preach this one. But here's the thing, and it's you, me. We often do these, and then we find ways to masquer it. And so what happens is, this leaves us deceived. And John is really passionate about this is because, like he said, he says, I write these things to you, and we're gonna look at John chapter three and some of John chapter four, he's saying, I write these things to you so that you are not deceived, because there are people who are trying to deceive us. And deception is real. As I was thinking about this, as I was thinking about John, and as he's living in Ephesus at this time, I want you to think about probably New York. And New York, it's this metropolitan, everything that's going on. But one of the things that you think about, in New York is Broadway. And no, I'm not gonna sing show tunes, so. Partly 'cause I don't know any. I was thinking about this on the way here. I'm like, I'm using Broadway as an illustration, and I probably cannot tell you a Broadway player right now. Like, fan of the opera was, I don't know if it's still on Broadway. And maybe, there you go, woo, fan of the opera. But here's the thing is, it's bad on the opera, because it's this concept of, when you thought about plays during this time, it was more of a masquerade. And so, you wouldn't have a huge production of people. So it's not like you would have like hundreds of actors, like in these Broadway plays. You would probably only have like three or four. But here's what they did is they had these masks. And so as they were playing a different character, I would wear a different mask. And so it would be this masquerading of a reality. And I love this definition of masquerade. A false show, or pretense, to pretend. And, man, we have an enemy who would love to still kill and destroy. And the best way he does it, let me tell you a simple fact about Satan. Satan has one weapon. That's it. He's got one. And he knows how to use that weapon really good. And here's the one weapon that Satan has. And he's been using it since the beginning. Deception. That's his weapon. All he needs to do is deceive. We see it in the garden. He begins to masquerade and twist and pretend some of God's truth. And how does he do this? He says, "Did God really say?" And now, like Eve is kind of like wrestling with this, like, "Wait, wait a minute." And then we see Eve. And as he's deceiving her, not only does she forget about what God says, she begins to add to what God has said. And here's what he's doing. We have an enemy right now that he is using culture. And I hate to say this, even the church to give us deceptive messages. Messages that are masking array. And we are led to it because we begin to fall astray. And he, John, he's telling us like, "Be careful of this." Because here's the thing, as we listen to these conflicting messages, like when we say, "Live your truth." This causes me to disconnect from other people. See, and if Jesus is saying, you need to be in community, what happens when I live my own truth? I disconnect because not very many people agree with my truth. Like my truth is sometimes, not sometimes, it's always centered around what's best for Jeremy. And so if people aren't like doing that and living that out, like everybody should be living for what's best for Jeremy. Well, some of you don't even know me. So you're like, "I don't want to live what's best for Jeremy." And so then I don't want to hang out with you. And so I begin to isolate and we begin to live our Christian life as individuals. And Satan loves that. Because he loves to prowl seeking whom he can devour. If you were part of the Arvada campus when I was preaching there, one of my favorite things I love when animals attack, like, yeah, it's weird, I know. But if you notice it, it's the cheetah. I love watching the cheetahs because they get it. They're like, you know, lions are cool. But when you think about predators, cheetahs are just sweet. They're awesome. Because what they do is they like hinge in the grass, they like get really low, but then they pop their tails up and it's like a radar. And they just kind of do that. And this is like what Satan does. He gets like low and then he kind of props up and he's like looking at the crowd. And he's like, oh man, this group over here, man, they're really like living life together. They're doing everything. I can't attack that. Like, that's too tough. I'm a little cheetah. I'll get beat up. So what he does is he goes and then he hunkers down and he sees that person all by himself. The one living his truth. The one disconnecting from community. And he says, that's who I'm gonna attack. And that's what cheetahs do. They look for the gazelle that's all by themselves and then they go after him. See, this is the problem. When we live our best life now, we pursue the American dream rather than pursuing Jesus. And that's the hard part is because here's the thing. Not only do we pursue the American dream rather than pursuing Jesus, oftentimes we connect the American dream to following Jesus. And what I mean by that is is that if I have the white picket fence, if I have the 2.5 children, I don't know how they came up with that in statistics. If I have the dog, if I have the boat, if I have the car, then I am blessed. I can tell you right now, you can have all that stuff and not be blessed. You can have all that stuff and not have Jesus in your life. See, this is the problem, the conflicting messages. We begin to live the truth that the American dream is connected to that. And if I live for now rather than living for eternity, I gotta get what's mine and that means I'll climb over whoever I want, however I want to get what I want. It's not about Jesus, it's just about me. See, here's the thing about it is is all of this is centered around sin and the middle letter in sin has always been I, I. And so I'm gonna get what I want. And I'm not thinking about a living for eternity. So here's the thing, because I get what I want, I need to work the amount of hours. Well, what about a mission strip? I got time for a mission strip. What about supporting a mission strip? No, man, I gotta stack my bank account. See, living for now takes our eyes off of a kingdom of God and focuses on our kingdom here on earth. See, the conflicting message that Jesus gives suggestion, it causes me to make Jesus something that he's not. The genie in that bottle, the cosmic vending machine. Jesus, I heard this message the other day, just it cringed me. I listened to all sorts of spectrums of different messages, rather it's prosperity gospel, all those things. And just to get what, to tie it to the word of God. And I heard this pastor and she talked about keeping your receipts. What you do on earth, keep your receipts, because here's what's gonna happen. It's someday Jesus is gonna come up to you and you're gonna come up to Jesus and you're gonna say, Jesus, give me what I want. And Jesus is gonna be like, that's not what I want for you. And you're gonna say, I have receipts. Look at what I've done. See, we cause, we begin to make Jesus something, and I love what Caden talked about, and this is why we put our obedience on a spectrum. Or we obey versus convenience. See, when we put our obedience on a spectrum is because Jesus isn't gonna ask me to do something that I don't want. See, Jesus isn't gonna make me go somewhere where I don't wanna go. He ain't gonna make me do something that I don't wanna do. He's not gonna make me feel a way I don't want to feel. See, when we masquerade and we begin to live these truths, it really alters our faith. And here's what happens. When those lies become our reality, it is not meant to make our faith last. And matter of fact, when one of those things follows apart, God, I'm not happy. God, you didn't give me what I want. God, you gave me more than I can handle. And here's what happens is you don't have a lasting faith. You have a blasting faith. You blow it up. And here's what happens. See, when God doesn't give me what I want, when these false preachers and all these people are talking, the problem isn't me. The problem is God. Because we don't know who God really is. God of the Bible. Not a God we create and cultivate in our mind. And so John is saying, hey, this is what's going on. You're being led astray. And so how do we do this? This is a problem. And so John, he's gonna give us a solution. And so we're gonna start right into John chapter four. We're gonna be going back and forth. Hang on, put your seat belts on. Be able to have fast fingers. We're gonna be bouncing a lot. He says this, he's gonna give us a way to be able to understand and to have the discernment, to tell the difference between a lie and the truth. He says this, beloved, do not believe every spirit. Don't believe it. But test the spirits to whether they are from God for many false prophets have gone out into the world. And then Paul even, he kind of tags teams with John. He says this in Thessalonians. But test everything, hold fast, what is to good. Here's the problem with us. And I think sometimes Western culture, Western church has cultivated this, is we're cultivating congregations of being spoon fed. You know what I mean? Here's what I mean by that. I'll show up on church and advance. Pastor's great, I'm gonna hear all that. Good job. But you don't test. You don't, you see, here's the thing. You're not developing and understanding. We're just being spoon fed constantly. And so what he's saying is you need to test every spirit. And here's the problem. We also live in a day and age where everybody over spirit, we're just spiritual. It doesn't matter if I'm a Christian or not, I'm just spiritual. I hear this all the time. Do you follow Jesus? Are you a Christian? No, but I'm spiritual. I don't even know what that means. What does that mean that I'm spiritual? Well, man, I just feel God everywhere. In the trees, in the wind and all that. And yes, he's in all of that. But here's the problem is we need to test the spirits by being in God's word. See, I love Paul and Thessalonians, but test everything, hold fast to what is good. God is good, God's word is good. We need to hold fast to the word of God. This is how we are able to discern the spirit speaks to us through the word of God. Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. John 17, 17, Jesus, I am the way, the truth. And here's the thing. Everything we do when we test the spirits must be held up to Jesus, to God's word. Does it line up with that? Oftentimes, we're getting with young sailors. God bless them. But many times, this is where the spirituality is, is that if there's something that they want to do, they will say, man, I sought out God, all of those things. And we had this one guy in particular where it was like God was always telling him yes. I was like, brother, man, I want the same connection with God, God tells me no a lot. He's always telling you, yes. And so one of these days, I kind of challenged him. I'm like, how are you holding that up? Like, I'm not here to stifle the spirit, anything like that, quench the spirit, but what are you doing to like, no, because it's like, God is even letting you like break rules to get what you want. Oh man, I just go off a feeling. Like, I'll sing a song or I'll be walking and like, God just like, rush is over me. I'm like, ooh, maybe, but probably not. Like, what are you doing to be in the Word? How are you testing it? See, we have to test it to the Word of God. See, this is where it's important. Scripture gives us a great way to test the spirits. Oftentimes, when I want to do something that I want to do and hear me out, like, you're like, I'm not this guy where God's not gonna ever let you do what you wanna do. Like, God's a loving God. God gives gifts, God has let me do things. But oftentimes, when it's really driven and I have to make a decision and I'm like thinking to myself, like, I really either want to do this or don't want to do this, sometimes God's voice and my voice can sound the same. And so I really need to differentiate his voice. And I do that by being in his Word. Paul, as he can even continue to write, he's writing to Timothy, he says, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved. A worker who has no need to be ashamed rightly handling the word of truth. See, you have to make every effort to be diligent. You got to put the effort in to understand what God is telling you and it is through his Word. This is how we test the spirits. This is how we begin to decipher our feelings versus truth. That this is how we begin to walk in the right way. This is how we can know if somebody's holding a mask. It is that we can see, like, oh, no, man, that's not God's Word. And so we need to test the spirits. And so this is what John is saying and he's saying throughout those passages that there are gonna be ways that we can test the spirit through God's Word and there's a truth that we must live. See, as much as you want to think, there is an absolute truth, ladies and gentlemen. And right now we're living in a world where there is no absolute truth and we're wondering, I mean, how many of you's just sat in like thoughts to yourself? Where's this world going? Where is this world, what's happening? Well, I'll tell you what's happening right now. It is that when you have this truth, you have this truth, there is no absolute truth. Here's what happens. When your truth and my truth, they're colliding. There's because there's no absolute truth. All we get is conflict and we get warring. See, what happens when we understand that there's an absolute truth, there's a bar that's been set. Now we can have some conversation. Now we can engage. Now we're both moving in the same direction. This is the important part of it. And so what does it mean? What's the solution to all this? Well, it centers around Jesus. The truth, the way that we push back the lie is by living the truth. And here's what it means. Truth is living out the love, the life, and the teaching of Jesus. What does that mean? Well, first and foremost, living out the love of Jesus, you need to know the truth about the love of Jesus. We need to know the truth about the love of Jesus. First John 3, 16 says this, by this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. See, the love of Jesus reminds us of the sacrifice of Jesus. See, when I understand what Jesus has done, my truth becomes less and less and the reality of his love becomes more and more. And so what I begin to do is I begin to live out the sacrifice, I love what Paul says in Corinthians. It's the love of Christ that compels me. See, here's the thing about the love of Jesus. You don't have to do anything to get him to love you. See, the problem is, is we live out these truths because one of the conflicting messages, you gotta perform for Jesus. So here's what we do, is we do, we do, we do, and we're like, "Jesus, see me? "Do you see me? "Look at what I've done." And Jesus is like, "Thanks, but I saw you before that." My sacrifice wasn't dependent on what you do. The sacrifice is dependent on what I do. And that's what's important. And so we live out the love of Jesus because his sacrifice, we're reminded of it. First John 4, 6, he says, "This, little children, "you are from God and you have overcome them. "For he who is in you is greater than he is "who is in the world." See, when we understand the love of Jesus, the love of Jesus reminds us of our security in him. See, first John 3-1. So what kind of love the Father has given 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. Here's what I love about this. See, loing and understanding and living out the love of Jesus, this gives us our identity. And that's a big word nowadays, identity. I define myself. This is who I am. I get to be what I want to be, who I want to be, how I want to be. And let me tell you something. The only person who has the right to name something is the one who created it. See, here's the thing is and for those of us who are in Jesus Christ, that's our security. You don't have to wonder who you are, what you are. You get to know who you are. And see what helps us to walk in the truth is by doing what we need to do starts from understanding who we belong to. I belong to Jesus Christ. My identity is in him. And here's where we can stop having some of the conflicting messages is because oftentimes Christian becomes the secondary. I'm a black Christian. I'm a white Christian. I'm a Republican Christian. I'm a Democrat Christian. Here's the problem with that. Is when we identify ourselves as those first, we bring that to the table. But here's the thing. I'm a Christian man. I'm a Christian woman. I'm a Christian in this. I'm a Christian that here's the thing. Jesus now defines that. Jesus defines my blackness. Jesus defines my whiteness. Jesus defines my politics. Jesus defines. And that's the important part because he is my identity marker. So when people ask, what are you? Man, I'm a child of God. I'm a child of the most high. What do you do when the person you vote for doesn't get into office? What's gonna happen? Man, my king sits on the throne. I have nothing to worry about because here's the thing. The reality is my life isn't about this. I'm just a citizen. I'm just a visitor here. Here's the thing. I serve a God and that's the kingdom I follow. Those are the realities. See, living out the love of Jesus, it recognizes our identity. It reminds us of his sacrifice. It gives us our security in him. And then we need to live out the life of Jesus to be transformed. See the life of Jesus transforms us. I love this what John says in this. He says, "Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will have has not yet appeared, but what 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 pure." Here's what he's saying. You are like Jesus. See, John is saying like, "Hey, here's the thing that it's a transformed life." And so therefore we're like, "Jesus, we pursue righteousness." Here's what he says. He says in verse John three, seven through nine, "Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous and 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 has 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 sinning because he has not been born of God. Now here's what some of you are probably thinking. Well, I'm pretty sure I'm following Jesus, but I still sin. See, John isn't saying that you will stop sinning. Here's what he's saying is, is that if you are truly a son of God, sin no longer has an appeal to you. And now there is a reaction to when we sin. See, here's what, I'll put it this way. Here's what John is saying. Is if you go and you're like, "Man, today I'm gonna sin." Like, "Man, I'm just gonna look out for ways to sin. How can I sin?" Matter of fact, you know what? I already sinned and you're just like, sin is fun. I love it. John is saying, not a child of God, not a child of God. Jesus says in his sermon on the mountain, he says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Here's what John is saying. If this is you, this is how you know you're a child of God. Lord, man, I don't wanna sin today. Lord, I just, I know that if I step out, man, I'm just, oh, or like, please help me. Or if you do sin, oh, man. As Paul said, what a wretched man am I? Like sin bothers me, it disgusts me. Like, Lord, just to think of your sacrifice and to think of what I've done. If this is you, you're a child of God. Because we hate it, it's no longer in our nature. See, the one who can do it and have no problem doing it, that's their very nature. When we struggle with it, it's no longer our nature. So we pursue holiness. We live out the teachings of Jesus, and this is the commandment. Ooh, that keyword, I love that. It's like we don't live out the suggestions of Jesus. In verse John 3, 23, we live out the commandments that we believe in the name of Jesus Christ and love one another just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and in God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. See, living life, knowing Jesus gives us commands rather than suggestions. I'm telling you this right now. God has expectations. He's a holy just God. He gives us commands. Love one another, serve one another. Give to one another. These are the things and we live those out once again. Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. And throughout a lot today, how do we do this? Like, man, some of you are probably like, if you were like me when I was prepping for this, I'm like, oh man, I'm hosed. How do I live this? Let me give us practical ways. The first way we do this is we live counter to the culture. I know this is hard, but you've got a culture that is beating a drum and we are to live counter. Here's what John says. But if anyone who has the world's goods and sees his brothers in need yet closes his eye, let me back up, sorry, first John four, five, through 70 says, they are from the world. Therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We are from God, whoever knows God listens to us, whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know it with spirit of truth. See, we are called to be set apart. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a. It's a duck. If you look like the world, walk like the world, talk like the world. The simple question is, you must belong to the world. See, John wants us to know that in order for us to live this out, we have to be set apart. See, and then we have to love in a way that's not based off of feeling or even just words, but in action and truth, he says, but if anyone has the world's good and sees his brothers in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children let us not love in word or talk, but indeed and in truth. Live indeed and in truth what you do and what you say matters and how you love, let it be tied to the truth, not to a simple feeling. Let it be done in action and truth. And he goes on, he says, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin, fellowship in the light of Jesus. Here's what we mean by this. Everything you do, everybody you engage with, let it be done in the light of Jesus. But all I have is secular friends who don't believe in Jesus, fellowship with them in the light of Jesus. Do they know that Jesus lives in and through you? This is what it means. See, we gotta live counterculture. All of these things go against the grain of the world. Resist the world. Do not love the world, the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The world is like being appealing to us, like love. It's like the world is like that desperate person, like love me, see me. See, here's the thing. You're not dependent on the love of the world. The love of the world is dependent on you. See, you don't need the love of the world because you have the love of the Father. The world needs your love. And see, that gives you power. That gives you strength. That gives you the ability to discern. And then the other way we do this is we choose faith over fear. Man, I don't get it right. I mess it up oftentimes. And here's the thing is, is that I will fall into a process of guilt and shame when I mess it up. But I love what John says here. See, but this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, I love this, God is greater than our heart. See, I don't follow my heart, my heart will condemn me. I follow God because he is greater than our heart. And he knows everything. See, faith that God does not condemn us because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross. That I know that, that I'm sealed by the Spirit. See, little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. See, not only that having faith that I don't fight for a victory. You're like, what? Don't fight for a victory. No, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna tell you something. If you are in Jesus Christ, you are fighting from victory, not for a victory. Because the victory has already been won. See, greater is he than who is in us than he who is in the world. Ah, but the world is just like so, ah, it's so strong, the message, ah, ah. God is greater than that. This is why we must pursue him in the world. I'm gonna have the worship team come on up. Here's the thing. We are from God, 1 John 4, 6. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is now from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. See, here's who wants again. It starts with the Holy Spirit. See, Jesus gives every believer a gift, an access point to the Father, an access point to power. Because here's the thing, everything that I just said, if you do this on your own, in your own power and strength, you're gonna fail, miserably. And then that guilt and shame will overcome you. See, here's the thing. The spirit of truth doesn't take me to guilt and shame. It leads me to conviction and correction. See, conviction and correction causes me to move forward, to stand firm on a lasting faith. Guilt and shame causes me to disconnect and to run away. See, the spirit says, no, I've got you. Maybe today right now, in this place, you've not had that encounter with Jesus. Maybe today you're sitting in this spot today and you're thinking to yourself like, man, I want that power. Everything you just said, that's what I wanna do. I wanna test the spirits, but maybe one of the reasons why you can't test the spirits is because you don't have the spirit. See, Jesus said, I'm gonna give you a helper. My children, my people, you get a helper. And the love of Jesus says, man, you don't have to work for it. You don't have to perform for it. I've done the work, I've done the performance. All you have to do is believe, receive, and you'll get. So, how do we do this? And first of all, is living the love, the life, the teachings of Jesus. See, we push back the lies by standing on the truth. The truth will set you free. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. If you wanna get to the Father, come through me. I'll get you there for you. My favorite pastor, and I'll close with this, and I'll pray this out. For he who began a good work in us. This is the promise, I love this. This is the love of Jesus. For he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. Like sometimes I'll look in the mirror, and I'm like, whoa, we got a long way to go. But the amazing thing is, we're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. That's the truth. That's what we stand on. That's the lasting faith. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for who you are. We thank you for your word, your word is truth. Lord, I just pray now. Lord, that we will take the things that we heard today, Lord, and that we will not just be here as the word, but we will be doers of the word. Lord, and that we will live out your love, your life, and your teaching. Lord, we thank you for all that you do, all that you will continue to do, and through your people. In Jesus' name, amen.
