Everyday Church
Reflect God's Glory
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church, with Pastor Jason Kiefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. - Hey, my friend. It's great to be with you today on the Everyday Church podcast. And I hope you're having a great day in the Lord and the hope. If you're listening to this in real time, as it's published on a Monday, I hope that you're having a great day in the Lord and off to a great week. What a great way to be able to start the day is in God's Word. So great place at Everyday Church, just learning together, growing together, and serving together. And every once in a while, I do like to take the time. And just to mention that if you're looking for other ways to get connected in truth and just grow when you're walking with the Lord, man, a great place would be asktoababdist.com that's askedtoababdist.com. Visit that. There's a lot of connections there on our website and getting plugged in. I'm going to probably tomorrow share with you on the next podcast just some details about the next steps we're talking about in church and just ways to get connected with that. I think that's so important. And I think even if you're not part of our church, maybe you listen to this and you're not part of our church, I think the whole next step thing is just a question we should be asking ourselves in our everyday walk with the Lord. And so we'll be looking for that this week as well. And just asking people later this week we'll be doing some fasting and praying. So I encourage you in that to be a part of that. Praying that God will do some things. And he's already done so much for us, right? And yet he still invites us to come to the throne of grace and to bring our request to him. So let's get in God's word. We're in first John chapter three and picking up today, last time we were together we were talking about, you know, if our heart can dim us that God's love, God's grace is greater, God is greater. And just then what our heart can say of us and many times our heart will, our emotions, what we think to be true is not true, right? And so, but if our heart doesn't condemn us then we are growing in our confidence in the Lord. So we should, over time, you and I should be coming to the place where we're not always experiencing this, this guilt or condemnation from our heart. As we grow in the Lord, there's less and less of that, right? Because we have experienced his goodness, his faithfulness. And so we're gonna pick up today in verse 22 and the Bible says this, John says this. whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. So I think that this is a great verse that if we don't have good understanding of it, it could really lead us into some kind of out in the weeds a little bit into our thinking. So, you know, obviously obedience to God and his word, to his instructions are key in the walk of the believer in the life of the believer and in the prayer life of the believer. I believe that 100%. But I want you to read on a little bit because he says this, he says in verse 23, he says, and this is the commandment that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment. Remember back in John chapter six, they asked Jesus. They said, what should we do to do the work of righteousness? What should we do, right? I think that's probably a question we all ask. Okay, what should I be doing? What should Christians do as believers? What should I be doing? And I think that's important. I think what we do is important. But I think the basis in which we do things, the foundation, what promotes us, what pushes us to do things should, what compels us to do things for God? It must be based in faith and belief. 'Cause Jesus said this, they said, what should we do to do the works of righteousness? And Jesus said, the work of righteousness is that you believe on me. This is the work of righteousness that you believe on me. And he says, this is John having heard what Jesus said is now saying this is the commandment that you believe on the name of the son of Jesus Christ. Believe on him, this is what God has told you to do. This is what pleases God, right? Remember the previous verse? Hey, if you're gonna ask, you need to be doing what's required of you and pleasing God. So verse 23, what is it that pleases God? And he really narrows this down to faith in Christ, believing on the son of God, trusting in him. My life rooted in faith, you know? Remember the Bible says that which is not a faith, it's sin, it doesn't please God without faith, it's possible to please him. Because we know he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And so, faith is a substance of things, hope for the evidence of things not seen. And so what do we know is that when I believe on the name of the son of God, the power of Christ, the work of Christ in me, it compels me, not only compels me to good works, but it enables me to do good works. And it doesn't eliminate good works. It's just that you can't focus on good works without faith. And I think sometimes we separate the two and you can't. You cannot, salvation by grace and sanctification by grace. Salvation by faith in Christ, believing on him, produces sanctification in my life that is me understanding from truth what it is God wants from me, the commandment, what is that that he wants. And then enabling me because he follows it up with this. He says, this is the commandment that we should believe on the name of the son, his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. We are to love one another. It's amazing how he puts those together and all through the scriptures they're together. We see it, we see it in Deuteronomy. We see it in the Old Testament where the Bible says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord, and I shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, and thy mind." We see that there's a love their neighbors as themselves. We see that Jesus says this in his earthly ministry, the love of the Father and the love of one another, or just their intertwined. You can't separate them. Jesus says it here. John says it here, that we should obey faith in God coupled with, we should love one another. We see that work of sanctification working in our life. And as he gave us commandment, as he gave us commandment, that's how we should love one another. And he that keepeth his commandments, dwelleth in him and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us. So there's a commandment to obey. There's a commandment. The commandment is to love God. The commandment is to love God, to believe on him. Believing on him brings us into a relationship of loving him or to love others. We see the process of sanctification. We see the work of sanctification in our life, bringing us to a place to love others because of the love of God in us. And then in this last verse, hereby we know that he abideth in us. It's not by the works that we do. I think it's interesting. It's not by the works that we do. It's not because I've figured it out. It's not a figured out how to walk like a Christian or talk like a Christian. That's not how we know we're in him and he and us. I think sometimes when we, you know, you read John 15 and we got to abide in him and he's got to abide in us. And I've got to go bear fruit. I've got to go do something, you know. What's the fruit of a Christian? You know, when we start naming off all these things that we come up with and John's very clear. He makes it very simple for the believer so that we don't get confused in it. I'm convinced of that, right? He keeps it simple for us. Hereby we know that he abides in us. It's by the spirit which he's given us. So it's not the commandment. It's not my ability to be faithful. It's not my ability. It's not how consistent I am in my devotion time. You know, does all that stuff have an effect and have an impact and play a part? 100%, 100%. But I want to say this that most importantly, it is the spirit of Christ and us that bears witness with his work in us. And I think for me, when he goes into chapter four, he actually ties us in and we make the mistake of making a break here and we're going to do, we're going to intentionally make that mistake again today. We're going to make a break here. But he says here, verse four, "Beloved believe not every spirit." This is believe not every spirit, but try the spirits. No, know that spirit that would cause you to be led astray as opposed to the spirit of the Holy Spirit. But for today, we want to stop knowing this. We want to stop knowing this. That he's put a commandment in front of me. This is the commandment. When I trust him, when I abide by his commandment, when I do it God's way, man, it changes my prayer life. Remember, he said, whatsoever you ask, whatsoever you ask, we receive of him. Why? Because we trust in him, we believe him. Our faith is in him, when our faith isn't him, because it's a relationship, his will becomes my desire. His will becomes my desire. And it's not, my prayer life isn't desire driven. It's God's glory driven. My prayer life isn't my will, but it's his will. I still bring my needs to him. I still bring my desires and requests to him. We said this in Sunday's message, referring back to Sunday morning's message, that all my needs and all my desires should be in the end, should reflect and be motivated by the glory of God and his will. All my desires, all my needs should reflect God's glory. And it should reflect his will. And so it does change my prayer life. And it requires that I come in faith. I have to come in faith and it brings me into this love relationship that, remember the first part of this chapter, behold, what manner of love of God? Oh, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. And because I've been loved, I now can love other people. I can love my enemies. That's why Jesus said, he said, love your enemies. Pray for them that despitefully use you. Well, if you've never experienced the love of God, you can't do that. Well, you can't experience the love of God without believing on him, the first commandment that I gotta trust him. And through that, I experienced the love of God. And through that, I can love other people. And so there's a couple of things there. One of the ways I can know, I can know because I believed. I can know because of the work of God working in me, the love of God working in me. I can know that I'm saved and have a relationship with him because of the Holy Spirit that dwells within me. And I hope that helps you today. I hope that's a blessing to you. I want to encourage you to listen and just keep loving Jesus. Stay faithful in his word and love somebody today. Go love somebody today. Spend some time with the Lord today, if you haven't already. Note, take note of the times when the Holy Spirit is speaking through you or to you, or he's kind of prompting your heart about something. Take note of that and that's the Holy Spirit. You can have confidence in that. He loves you and we love you too. I hope you have a great day and God bless you. - 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)