Everyday Church
Get Cleaned Up
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church, with Pastor Jason Keefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. (upbeat music) - Hey, my friends. It's great to be with you today on the Everyday Church podcast. And I hope you're having a great day today. And whatever it is that you're up to today, I just hope the Lord will guide you and direct you and manage to hope you have a blessed day and heal. And so it's great to be able to get together in God's Word as usual. And I'm so thankful for the opportunity. I just want to say it's always an encouragement when I hear people throughout the week. Just they'll mention what a help this podcast is to them, just us being together. And that's always an encouragement to me. One of the things that can just help get it into more people's hands and let them listen to it is if you share it or like it, leave comments, stuff like that. Just gets more traction. And so do that. Take some time to do that. Be sure to share it. Pass that along. You can text the link to somebody and whatever. You can share it on Facebook any way you want to. And it just really, it really just gets the gospel message out there. And that's really what it's all about is getting people engaged in God's Word, engaged in truth, and helping us one another to grow in truth. And I always like to say too that I hear from people. If you have questions, be sure to email or text those questions to me and we'll be a help too. So today we're gonna begin in chapter three. In the last two verses of chapter two, really the last verse, John as he writes to these believers says if you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. And he's talking about how the evidence of someone who's born in Christ is seen through the righteousness that they live in their life. And so now in verse one of chapter three, he's going to begin to talk about how we came about this relationship with him. And so in first John three, verse one, he says, "Behold what manner of love "the Father hath bestowed upon us "that we should be called the sons of God. "Therefore the world knoweth us not "because it knew him not. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, "and it does not yet appear what we shall be, "but we know that when he shall appear, "we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. "And every man that hath this hope, "in him purifyth himself even as he is pure." I love these three verses together. I just, I've always really, really, these verses have always really spoke to my heart and challenged me. You see a couple of things here. I think there's three things you can see here. In verse one, he says, "Behold what manner of love "the Father hath bestowed upon us "that we should be called the sons of God." I think the first thing that we see there is what we are in Christ, right? We are sons of God, sons of daughters of God, children of God. And how do we come about that position or that relationship? Well, he says there in the first part of the verse, he tells us how we came about that. He says, "What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us "that we should be called the sons of God." So it was the love, the generous love of God that was bestowed upon us. One of the way that can be defined is, I heard someone say this way, that God has lavished his love upon us. Just way beyond what we could ever begin to comprehend above, certainly above what we deserve. Certainly we don't deserve his love in any capacity, but he's loved us in a way that he not only saved us, but he makes us a child of God, a son of God. You know, he could have saved us without bringing us into the family of God. He could have saved us without making us a child of God. But yet the Bible says this type of love that God's given us, it not only saved us, it justified us and cleansed us from sin and is sanctifying us, not only that, but it makes us part of the family of God. So what am I? I'm a child of God. I'm a child of God according to his word. And I think that John is trying to get them to understand that their relationship that they have with God is something that is extremely, extremely special. And you know, that should help us, that should challenge us in our walk, even today to think back about our relationship with the Lord and how special that that relationship is. And I think when we read that, we should stop for a moment and think that look, I'm not just saved, I'm not just, you know, going to heaven, I don't just have eternal life, but the Lord loved me in a way that He made me a son of God, a child of God. And you know, if you've ever, if you have a child in any way, in any capacity, you understand the love that you have for a child. And my kids, our kids, Tonya and I are three kids are adopted. And so we brought our kids in at different stages of their life, Leah came into our home and she was about 14 months old, and they came from the hospital. And then rhythm came when she was about 18 months old. And so they came at different stages in their life. But you know, when they came in our home, we just, we loved them. We loved them as a mom and dad and still do. You know, there's only one way that we knew how to love them. And that was with all of our heart. And I think about what God has done for us, you know, not only did He just bring us as orphans into its family, but we were orphans that had sinned against Him and offended Him and wronged Him. And, you know, in every way gone against Him, the Bible says that we were enemies of God. And yet because He loved us and gives us grace, He brings us into His family. He is our Father, we are His child. And so because of this, the world, the Bible says therefore the world know with us not. The world doesn't, the world doesn't understand us. It can't comprehend the life of a believer. It doesn't understand why that a believer would, you know, be so dedicated to truth. Doesn't understand why, how do you put your faith in a God that you can't see? Doesn't know that. It doesn't understand how that you could live your life after He saved you in a life of sacrifice for someone that, you know, physically you've never met, you know, or you can't see your, his existence is based upon your faith, right? You have to believe it by faith. And so, but that's all right. Because the Bible says not only did they not know you, but the reason why they don't know you is because they never, they didn't know Jesus. Like Jesus walked among them and they didn't know. It was as many as believed Him. To them gave He power, the Bible says, to become the sons of God. Even to them that believed on His name. And so many saw Jesus and heard His teachings and were there when He performed miracles and was there when He set people free. But yet they didn't believe Him because they didn't believe they don't know Him. And neither are they gonna know you, He says. And so, I think that helps us understanding who we are and we're different, we're different. The Bible says we're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy people, peculiar people called out of darkness into His light. So the first thing we see there is what we are in Christ. And then verse two, we see what we shall be. He said, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." So we're already talked about that, but now that's important. That's an important statement there to understand before we get to what we shall be. Now we are the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what we shall be. So I'm a son of God now, but yet He's saying, even though you're a son of God, doesn't yet appear. You can't really see it in its full capacity, right? There are some days where, I'll just be honest with you, I don't feel like a son of God. There may be some days where you could probably ask them people close to me and they may even say, "I don't act like a son of God." That's just because we carry on this sinful nature, this flesh. And so John says, "Don't get discouraged by what you see. Don't get discouraged because you have struggles in your life. Be encouraged because He's still working on you. Philippians 1, 6, being confident of this very thing that He would have begun a good work and you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. There's a work that's going on inside of you and inside of me." And so he says, "It does not appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, when He shall appear." So that's what we're looking for. We're looking for His appearing. It's not until His appearing. We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. So we're never going to be like Jesus in full capacity until we see Him, until we're in His presence and we see who He is. And I think that was part of Paul's longing to leave this life and go on to the next life. It wasn't just so yuck. I get to be in heaven. I think it was more of, you know what? When I see Jesus in that moment, man, I'm going to be like Him, because the image of who He is is going to transform who I am. It's going to completely change me. And we call that glorification. That's when we'll get our new body. When we'll be raptured, the church will be raptured. So we see that we shall be perfected. So we see who we are, we're children of God, but then we see that one day we shall be perfected children of God, or perfect children of God, or complete children of God. And then in verse three, and I probably should back up there when I say that, it's not that you're like a half child of God and half not child of God or a step child of God. I just mean that when I say a complete child of God, like again, you and I can't see that in each other. The testimony that we see isn't complete. We are a child of God. We just have an experience that in its complete capacity yet. And so one day that'll happen. And then in verse three, he says, and every man that hath this hope purifies himself. So what do we see here is we see that what we should be. So who are we, we're children of God. What we shall be, what we shall be, is we shall be perfected in Christ. And then what we should be, this is how we should act. So he says here, he says, and every man that hath this hope purifyeth in himself, even as he is pure, even as he is pure. So even though complete glorification is coming when I meet Jesus, there's a process of sanctification that's taking place even now that is making me like him, that's making me more like Christ. And so because I have this hope, because I have this hope of knowing that one day, I'm going to be in the presence of Christ and changed in the moment of a twinkling of an eye, knowing that I'm going to see Jesus and knowing that his will is being perfected in me. Because I have that hope, he says, every man purifies himself. There's this process in sanctification that puts a responsibility on me. A responsibility to learn. A responsibility for him to teach me. A responsibility for me to yield to the teaching that he gives me. I always think when I think about sanctification, sanctification is like being cleaned up, constantly cleaned up, I guess you could say. When I was a kid, we lived on a clay road. And I remember we'd rain, we'd go out there and play on the road, and there'd be big puddles on the road. We'd go out there and just, I mean, we'd have clay from our head to our toes, and we were just nasty dirty. And mom would, you know, I'd just, it was supper time, and so we'd come running in and she just, she said, there's no way you're coming in my house that way. No way, no how. Well, a couple things could have happened. We were pretty young, so she just left us out there to fend for ourself. You had no clean clothes out there like, what do you do? So she made provision, she made provision for us to be clean, so that we could come in and eat supper, right? Well, we had to yield to that, right? We had to, okay, mom, we're gonna allow you to clean us up. We're going to change all this stuff that we need to do, so that we can come in and eat supper. Well, the really funny part about that is, is we did just play on that road one day. There were multiple days where we would get out there and just, you know, need cleaned up. And mom was always there to make sure we had what we needed to be cleaned up and provided everything, provided the clean clothes, provided the soap and the water and the baths and all that stuff, so that we could be clean and come in and be part of family supper time. And I always think of sanctification. That's what he's talking about there in verse three. We have that hope, we purify ourself. And so friend, who are you? Well, if you trust in Christ as your savior today, you're a child of God. And what does that mean? Well, one day you're gonna be perfected. Well, what should you be doing right now? You should be walking closer, walking in sanctification, walking in holiness as he is holy. So I hope that's a help to you today and encouragement to you and be sure to pass it, and share it on. If you have any questions, be sure to let me know. You can email me at everydaychurchabc@gmail.com. Check out our website. Askatulababdas.com. You can go there and check that out. And there's a lot of different ways to get connected there. Just thanking the Lord for what he's doing and the lives that he's touching. So let's go to the Lord and prayer and just ask that he would lead and guide and direct us today. Father, thank you for your mercies, for your love for us. Father, we just thank you for your work and Father for your word. And I just pray, Lord, today, for anyone that would listen to this, God, that you would bless their heart and encourage their heart. I pray and Father, help us, Lord, to walk in a way that pleases you. Thank you for the hope that we have in you that one day we shall see you as you are in your precious name we pray, amen. (upbeat music) - Thank you for listening to Every Day Church, a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. If this episode was an encouragement to you, be sure to hit like, share it, and subscribe for future content. (upbeat music)