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Don Filcek, In the Light - 1 John; 1 John 2:18-27 Together

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Welcome to Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service.
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This is a message from the series called, In the Light, out of the book of 1 John by Pastor Don Filsack. If you'd like more information about our church, please visit us on the web at www .recastchurch
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.com. Here's Pastor Don. Now let's turn our thoughts towards the message for the morning.
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We're going to be carrying right forward with 1 John, and I want to start off with an unfair question. I like to do that to you sometimes.
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So I'm going to ask you an unfair question, but I'm going to tell you up front that it's unfair so that you don't just blurt out an answer because it's a trick question.
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When it comes to the church, which is more important, truth or unity?
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Truth or unity? Now, can you imagine a situation where those two might come in tension? Where the truth is in jeopardy?
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The truth is being compromised for the sake of unity. Can you imagine a context where that might happen?
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Or can you imagine a situation where unity is being compromised because the truth is in jeopardy? Are you getting what
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I'm saying? Well, that's what we're going to be dealing with in our text this morning when we dive into 1 John here.
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I want to point out to you that both, in a sense, truth and unity are connected to our core values.
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Now, truth, you can see our core values except for the word reproducing. We've got reproducing, community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth.
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I always put reproducing kind of floating out here in the air because it's not on our walls. So you don't want to confuse people when they first walk in the doors and see reproducing on the wall.
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But reproducing, community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth, core value. So you see that one right there.
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Unity, I have to kind of, I'm not finagling because I really think this is genuinely a major part of what we have here at Recast.
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But the word authenticity, can you imagine a context in which you could have authentic relationships with others in the church without unity?
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That's going to be tough, right? I mean, the very basis of our willingness to share our hearts with one another is that there's a sense of unity in Christ together, that there's trust being established.
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And so, in a sense, unity ties in with the core values here at Recast as well. It's not really a fair question, which is more important, truth or unity, because both of them are essential in the church.
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And yet the disciple John found himself in the middle of a church split. And in our text this morning, he's going to give encouragement to those who remain.
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Now, some people are going to leave the church, but those who remain and stay behind, he's going to give them encouragement to stay strong in the truth.
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The entire letter of 1 John is set in the context of a church that's holding on to the truth by a thread.
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The church has been ravaged by false doctrine, by dissension, by strife.
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So John has been seeking to reground those who remain in the centrality of the gospel, to bring them back to the things that matter most and make sure that they recognize their roots in that which is central to our faith.
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That which is central truth. I'm grateful that we're not going through a church split. Anybody agree with me on that?
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That's grateful. I am impressed by the unity that God has given us here at Recast. I don't ever hope to go through a church split.
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But by the end of this text, I think we're going to find that John is strongly telling us that there are doctrines worth going to the wall for.
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And that's going to be pretty clear when we get down to actually what those who left the church were actually saying about Jesus Christ.
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So open your Bibles, please, to 1 John chapter 2, verses 18 to 27.
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You can find that on page 878. If you take that paperback Bible out, 878, clear in the back, that 1
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John. And we're going to read 1 John 2, 18 to 27.
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Follow along as I read, please. Children, it is the last hour.
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And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore we know that this is the last hour.
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They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been, of us, they would have continued with us.
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But they went out that it might become plain that they are all, that they all are not of us.
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Did you guys get that? We'll get there in a minute. But you have been anointed by the Holy One and you all have knowledge.
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I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth.
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Who is the liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the
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Antichrist. He who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the
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Son has the Father. But whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.
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If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us, eternal life.
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I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you and you have no need that anyone should teach you.
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But as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as I have taught you, abide in him.
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Let's pray. Father, I ask that you would move in our hearts by the anointing of your
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Holy Spirit to understand knowledge this morning, to understand your word. Father, that you would help us to remain in you, to abide in Jesus Christ and to recognize that in abiding in Jesus Christ, we are connected to you and restored with you.
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Father, I pray that you would protect this body from disunity and equally that you would protect this body from forsaking the truth.
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But Father, that you would hold us firmly with both of those intention. Father, that even as we have an opportunity to sing truth to you and be united together in worship that our hearts would be would be rejoicing in you, would be rejoicing that you've brought us together with your people for the sake of honoring you.
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Father, I pray that you would be indeed honored as we lift up our voices and sing praises to you for you are worthy and you are awesome and it really is all about you.
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In Jesus name. Amen. I really appreciate the band for leading us in worship and just that notion of God speaking to us.
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That's our hope this morning. That's my hope as a pastor is that God would speak through me and through his word to us to actually give us something fresh and new for us to come alive this week and to be resting in him.
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I encourage you on that note to keep your Bibles open. Make sure you've got a Bible open in front of you so that you can see that this is this we're walking through the text of God's word here and the reality is
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I want you to have the Bible open in front of you because particularly with first John, is there any anybody who would be honest with me and say the first time
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I read the paragraph to you or the first time you read a paragraph from first John you have to kind of go what?
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Like uh -huh like huh and you have to go over it again and you have to go over it again and you have to go over it again to the point where you're kind of like I think i'm getting the notion of what he's saying here
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So I want you to see that what i'm getting is coming out of this text And i'm not just kind of inventing it on the fly. So having that open to first john 2 18 to 27 helps
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John's letter is very difficult to outline like like I said Sometimes it's hard to understand just you take a paragraph and you read it and you're like What did he just say?
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I got to go back and kind of take that apart and figure out how it's all connected and stuff and But it's hard to outline in the sense that if you were to take
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Um, if you were to go down to family christian stores and grab a handful of commentaries off the shelf You would find literally five different outlines for this book i'm talking about like where the main headings and the and what paragraph they put with what and all that kind of stuff because He basically writes like a flow of consciousness
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So he's basically writing what comes to mind as it comes to mind and then he's like, oh i'm over here And then i'm over here and it's almost kind of like maybe you're struggling a little bit with add um, but he's just kind of like Uh, he says something and it's like oh that reminds me to talk about this
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And oh that reminds me to talk about this. Oh, I need to get back to this point And so it's like he talks about like if you were to just follow the theme of love
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For example through the book of first john you're gonna have to turn over to three or four different paragraphs where he's gonna address
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Love, but it's all spread out. Are you getting what i'm saying? And so to outline the book of first john Uh can be kind of tricky but throughout the letter he sprinkles in this this phrase
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Little children dear children or children and so a lot of people have broken down and that's kind of the outline
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I'm following is where he starts to address them by title or by name That's kind of where the paragraph and the the headings go and so you'll see that That even in verse 28
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If you're looking at your bible there if you look at verse 28, he says and now little children again And so there's a break there
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I'm not going to cover the last two verses in chapter two Because i'm convinced that those go with the next chapter and so we're going to take those next week
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But we see him address them and I just want to say this again I'm, probably going to sound like a broken record, but when he talks to them as little children or children
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It's not a condescending thing, but it's demonstrating the compassion the care the love that he has for them and the sense of Responsibility that he feels for his church.
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This church is going through some hard times We're going to see that throughout this text that there's been some difficulty And it's kind of like I want to be like a father to you now
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Some of you when I say, um Like when you talk about god as father or when you hear the word father it evokes some pretty dicey memories of issues with your father or parents or something like that, but we we kind of know what a father ought to be
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And think of some of the functions of father the function of provision the function of protection the function of um of love and care and compassion and concern but also a a sense of Bringing down the hammer when the hammer needs to be brought down and some of those kinds of things and so there's a um
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There's a balance in all of this and he's saying i'm loving you as a church like a father cares for his children
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He's he's compassionate. He's concerned for them. He wants to protect them as a matter of fact, what we're going to see here in a moment is it's like he's a father who is um, just Protecting his children like they he feels that they are threatened and as we go through this text
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You're going to find that this man is he's going to be kind of aggressive as we go through it Um, and there's good reason because he sees them as his children
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John starts off by telling his children a startling thing children. It is the last hour How many years ago was this written?
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About 2 000 years ago Anybody find anything somewhat humorous by the statement, um to his church 2 000 years ago.
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You're in the last hour Anybody kind of like Anybody, okay. Is anybody wondering what that's about?
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Like how could he say to people 2 000 years ago? You're in the last hour does that does everybody kind of like you got you're curious five of you are curious
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So the rest of you can take a break. Well, I talked to those five who are curious about what what is going on here
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Um, he says you're in the last hour now that might seem laughable to us who are 2 000 years ago
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Um, or those of us who live 2 000 years after that's written But if we don't understand the jewish understanding of history if we don't adopt that and understand how they were thinking of this
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We would miss what john is saying. You need to remember that the early church was mostly comprised Of people who had come from the jewish faith into the christian faith and had acknowledged jesus christ as the messiah
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That was the bulk of the church. And so they were approaching things john himself being a former Jew, right?
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So, uh understanding the way the jews understood the flow of history helps us to understand what he means by this
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Final hour and by the way final hour last days final week all different kinds of terms are used for this
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Do you think that when john wrote this letter just to just to clarify? Do you think he handed it to a courier and said hurry run quick?
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You got 60 minutes to get there because jesus is coming back in an hour I think that's what he meant Or do you think he's using a figure of speech?
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He's using a figure of speech And so we know that already built into this that there's a sense of a figure of speech that's coming here
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But the way that jews understood because they they followed the old testament. They read it. They acknowledged it
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They saw history flowing in chunks Not just like a river flowing but like a river with ice chunks flowing in it and each chunk represents an epic or an era
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Which was designated as a way of god interacting with the human race Okay and the way of people interacting and who was god using at the time so that you could break down history in the jewish mind to pre basically prehistory or pre -patriarchal time with um, adam and eve and Noah and the tower of babel and all of that and then then you flow into the time of the patriarchs.
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Um, abraham Isaac jacob, there was the mosaic period where god was primarily working through moses
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And were there other things going on in the historical scene throughout around the world at the time of moses? Were there other things happening?
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Yeah, but what did god tell us about in his word? What did he reveal to us about history that was significant during that era in that time?
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The exodus and the things that were going on with his people And so those are the things that um that are kind of like signposts that designate these chunks of history flowing forward towards something in the end
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There was the the time of the kings where god was working through chosen kings like saul and david and solomon in his kingdom
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And for the early christians they adopted this understanding Um, would it make sense to see the life of jesus christ on this planet as one of those epics as one of those chunks?
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Would you say that those 33 years give or take? Um that jesus was alive on this earth where it was a significant epic in the the global history of this world
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That god came in flesh and lived among us Showed us what a righteous life looks like then died as a sacrifice for us and rose again three days later significant epic on the on the world scene
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But every jew understood That there was going to be a final era a final chunk of time a final way of god working with us as a human race and then came the end
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The bible leaves no room for the idea that the world is just going to continue on forward in its sinful ways forever and ever
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Just last week. John told us that this world system is passing away that desires of the flesh desire of the eyes
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And the pride of life is on the way out that that one day one great and glorious day those
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Fleshly earthly human desires the appetite for more and more and more and the dissatisfaction that comes with the human heart
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Embedded in sin is going to be done away with and obliterated on one fine day When jesus christ is going to return for his people a glorious glorious day
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And now he's saying he's following that notion up that those things are going to be done away with desires of the flesh Desire of the eyes pride of life that's going to be done away with By saying that we are currently in the final movement of god
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John, I want to point out doesn't tell us when this era is going to end Does he tell us how long no, we just said the hour is a figure of speech
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He uses various phrases for that He'll call it the end of days or the end of time or all different kinds of things or the last days
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Have you heard that phrase last days? All of those are synonymous terms in uh in the the the jewish mind even in the the
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Greek language for the end of days or this final epic that's rolling up right now
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He doesn't tell us when the era is going to end but he does suggest to us that it could be any time
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The symphony is in its final movements and all that needs to happen is the instruments to stop playing the last quarter of play
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Uh is the where we find ourselves He doesn't tell us how long the quarter is going to be but he tells us all that needs to happen next is the final whistle
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You're getting what i'm saying So does that provide a sense of urgency should that provide a sense of urgency for us?
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John is suggesting that jesus suggested that yes When it comes to our understanding of the end times
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I want to point something out now How many of you have read the left behind series? So those of you who have read how many of you know what i'm talking about when
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I say the left behind series? Okay, um some of you have read it and so that really flavors your view
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Of the way that the end times is going to go there's a variety of different opinions and thoughts and I want to suggest to You that a lot of this is on the very outskirts
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Like if you think of doctrine and correct thinking as a bullseye with the gospel in the center I would put end times doctrine kind of out here on this third tier, you know
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You're gonna get some points for shooting it, right? But in the end it's not worth fighting about and worth really Getting getting all up in a bunch about it because when it really comes down to it
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How many of you know that we live in west michigan? Did you know that? Um, we live in west michigan and there's a variety of thoughts out here
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Some of you were raised in reformed churches. Some of you were raised in catholic churches Some of you were raised in fundamental baptist churches
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Coming from a variety of different backgrounds There's a lot of different views about the way that it's all going to roll up in the end
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But there is one thing that I would suggest to you is important for you In your understanding of end times this one thing that shines over across the entirety of the new testament
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That you need to embrace and that is that jesus communicated john communicated it and it is urgency and imminence
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Urgency and imminence urgency that we ought to live in a way that it could be any time imminence
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It could be any time So the belief and the notion that jesus could return in the next five minutes ought to flavor our next five minutes
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The notion that he could return next year ought to flavor this year With urgency
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Jesus taught this about his own return. Jesus said I will return soon. John says we're in the last hour
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Jesus will return he said like a thief in the You guys prepare for that You're prepared every night.
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I'm sure you're ready for the thief to come through and you're just like ever it's going to be tonight it's going to be if you are you're paranoid and you have another issue, but um
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Unless or maybe you've been broken into before. I mean, I would think that that would provide a sense of urgency as well. But um
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A thief in the night he's going to surprise us How many would be surprised if it was in the next five minutes?
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I would be and i'm preaching about it. Okay. I'm preaching urgency and it'd be like whoa Whoa, it's really happening.
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You know what I mean? But I mean the the funny thing is ironic god knows us god understands our heart
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He says constantly be alert be ready be prepared but by the way
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You're going to be surprised when it happens Does he understand how our hearts work? How our hearts get caught up in the things of this world and how we're not going to be
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We're not going to be expecting it when it happens because in all honesty Uh, we are we are a people who get so bogged down and slogged down in the day in and day out the sunrise
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The sun rose yesterday and it set yesterday the sun rose again today and we expect it to set again today
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We get in these cycles and these routines and these patterns and we expect week to follow week and day to follow day
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Month year and on and on we expect things to be pretty normal, but the scripture says it's not going to be so There's going to be one glorious day where he returns for us
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The very next thing the whistle blowing on the end of the game is the return of jesus christ
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And we can get into all the details of rapture and all of that kind of stuff and what happens in the the tribulation all
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That i'm not i don't have room to preach on that John did write the book of revelation where we see a lot of that revealed and a lot of it in figure of speeches and different things but When it comes down to it knowing
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Imminency, john is saying that to his church and he's he's impressing on them imminency And urgency that it could happen anytime and that should have an impact on your daily life
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John here is saying look at the things around you and let them teach you about urgency. John was given significant insight
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He like I said, he wrote the book of revelation and he identifies for us that in the end a shady character
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Um, the shady slippery guy is going to show up and he is going to be called the antichrist It's going to appear on the world scene.
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He will lead many astray into thinking that he is indeed the christ He's going to perform miracles and do amazing things
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But in the end he's going to prove himself to be a tool of satan of the evil one So there's this character antichrist that john is talking about how many of you just went when john mentions antichrist you're like Oh, my my mind kind of melts a little bit
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And I don't really know what he's talking about all of a sudden. Um, it can be kind of a tricky thing but john reader john's readers had heard of the antichrist one who would come as a culmination of sin and One who would be probably very powerful on the world scene that would oppose
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Jesus and ultimately set himself up as a ruler in his place
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His readers had heard of him you see that in in verse 18 children It's the last hour as you have heard that antichrist is coming.
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So now many antichrists have come He says the reminder of the fact that you know that the antichrist is coming you need to be
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You need to live with urgency recognizing that many antichrists have come and they've come even within the church.
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They've even been there We should look around at the world and and let the events teach us that the end is indeed imminent
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It could be centuries off But it could indeed be today and let that motivate us to utilize the time that we have
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For the honor and glory of our lord and savior jesus christ not a nail -biting. Oh, no, it could be today, but a rejoicing celebratory
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Focus on the mission the glorious gospel that he's entrusted with us to share it with as many as we can
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This is not just uh, this is not like a oh no, he's going to return. This is a he's going to return for us
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And a sense of urgency for the mission that he's left us here right now You are existing for the purpose of the glory and honor of jesus christ
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That's why you're here so that urgency and that sense of Let's get after it
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Even seeing people in the church who began to oppose jesus reminded john of the era in which he lived
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An era in which the next big thing was the return of jesus christ So I want to point out that john slaps on on these people
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Some people have left his church and you'll see that in verse 19 They went out from us, but they were not from us He's talking about a group of people who have split the church and left
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Okay, and they've actually tried to win some people we're gonna see that later They're still trying to win people to their cause and to their side But they've left the church and he slaps the word antichrist on them
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I mean, is that a good practice? Somebody leaves your church and you're antichrist Obviously, you didn't stay with us.
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So you must be. Um, I don't believe I don't believe for a second that John is suggesting that we use that title.
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We're going to see what their offense was here Um, not until we get down to verse 22 Are we going to see what is he going to openly say what they've done wrong?
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And then you're going to see that the title antichrist fits for them This is not a division over the color of the carpet or whether or not to take out a loan on a new church building
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Or this is not that kind of an issue. This is a severely significant core doctrinal issue that this church is going to divide over It is capital t big central truth
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That is going to cause this Division, but he does indeed call them antichrist John was not afraid to identify these people as being in opposition to christ publicly publicly calls them antichrist
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I don't think john was a particularly mild mannered individual I don't think that's the way he rolled as a matter of fact
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I don't know Do you think in terms of the author of this being the disciple john? Like if you go through the gospels and go through the gospel of john go through the book of john go through the revelation
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Of john go through the letters. Um As you go through those and then go through matthew mark and luke to see where john appears in there
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You get a pretty good notion of who this guy is Did you know that the creator of the universe the one who holds it all together jesus christ himself had a nickname for john
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Did you know that? I mean, how many of you think that you ought to listen up if god if god gives you a nickname? Okay He called him and his brother sons of thunder
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Sons of thunder you think these guys were like chess beaters, you know, they're like And they came into every situation they totally owned the situation totally
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Commanding, you know and and and loud and boisterous and probably if john had an opinion you knew it
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Okay, that's the impression that I get of this guy. John who's our author here And now someone has threatened his church
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Now he's already proven himself in this letter by the way if you just take what we've read so far He doesn't mind calling people liars
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Did you notice that he's been pretty direct with that he says if if um If you if you say you have no sin liar
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He says, uh, if you say you walk in the light and you don't love your brothers and sisters liar liar pants on fire
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Like he likes to he likes to say this stuff to people So do you get do you get a feel for john in this?
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Are you getting to feel like who this guy is son of thunder to the son of god? Son of god calls him.
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I created thunder and I like that illustration for you john. I like to use that for you
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Something about this guy's personality that he's They left us antichrists
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Well, you're going to see why So the stage has been set john's first statement to those who remain at his church
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Is that those who left them are in opposition to jesus because they're opposed to us. They're antichrist
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And they and their presence is a sign of that ultimate antichrist who will eventually show up on the world scene
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That's his logic so far But now he moves on to provide those who remain not those who have left but those who remain with some encouragement
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He says those of you who remain you have been anointed by the holy one and you have knowledge
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Anointing throughout the old and new testament is often associated with the work of the holy spirit When a person in the old testament is anointed
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Regular and routine that the holy spirit comes upon them Not in the same way that the holy spirit seals you and me and comes to reside permanently in us
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As a down payment an earnest payment of our ultimate Redemption our ultimate, um presence with god in heaven, but an illustration of that would be samson, right?
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The holy spirit comes on him He's anointed with the holy spirit and what does he do? Rips down the city gates and carries him on his shoulders up a hill and leaves it and then the spirit leaves him and then the spirit comes on him again, and he picks up a jawbone and slays a thousand philistines and then um
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Then he's then he's done and the spirit leaves him and the spirit is kind of like this Come and go thing in the old testament with uh with the anointing
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But not so with us the holy spirit comes to reside in us at our new birth and we are anointed
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John's main point if you look at verse 20 and 21 But you have been anointed by the holy one and you have all you have all have knowledge
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I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth he's in essence saying
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You who are genuinely in the faith those of you recast who are sitting here Who are genuinely in the faith are genuinely in christ are saved you have everything
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That you need You have everything that you need you have been anointed by the holy spirit and you have been granted knowledge
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Where where's the knowledge come from? Here and what is the holy spirit's role in that to open our eyes to it illumination
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You have an anointing On your life if you are given by christ If you are if you've given your life to christ
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If you are all in with him, then you have this anointing of the holy spirit and you have been given the knowledge that you
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Need to grow I think john's role here
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Is one of confirming them and encouraging them to walk in that which they already know I think a pastor's role is
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Confirming to you what you do know to be true and letting the spirit of god as we study this together
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Letting the spirit of god bring it alive in your life But you know that I can't find an application in this for every one of you, but the holy spirit can
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But you can walk out of here with conviction that you have Heard from god because you've interacted with his word not because you've interacted with me
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Not because I told you to go do something But ultimately in the end I desire strongly that the spirit would reveal in your heart as i'm talking about the word
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What it is that he wants you to do. How does he want you to walk in this?
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What does he desire for you to do? And that might look a lot different from the from you to the person sitting next to you
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And by the way, one of the worst things that you can do sitting out There is is let the holy spirit, uh, or yourself be the holy spirit for the person sitting next to you
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And let them know what they need to do this week That can happen sometimes or you're thinking about that co -worker boy
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If they could have just been in the sermon this week and heard this, uh, or you know what i'm saying
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Um, we can apply it to other people's lives But but really i'm talking about the knowledge the anointing of the holy one the holy spirit who lives in you
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Revealing with knowledge that which you are to go and live out and to do All genuine growth and relationship with god is going to be the result of the holy spirit applying the truth of god in our lives
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These two in tandem the word and the spirit The spirit and the word the anointing and knowledge the knowledge and the anointing together the spirit and the word
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Working together in your life and mine He said you've got that people that's what he's saying to those who have been left behind Those who those who have stayed and remained in the church in the truth and and and many have departed in error in theological error about christ
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The phrase no lies of the truth seems pretty uh self -evident, right? Look at verse 21 at the end there no lies of the truth
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But I just want to point out that the truth there is i'm convinced the word of god and he's saying you can verify
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That is as much as you get to know this You are basically error proofing your life the more you get to know this
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The more you study it the more you research it the more you depend on the spirit to reveal and open eyes and things like That and and you really dig into it to know who christ is
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Then the lies will become more apparent to you Do you understand what i'm saying?
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I mean, it's the age -old illustration I mean pastors use it all the time, but the whole idea of counterfeits. You don't train people to identify counterfeits
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You train people to know the true thing So $20 bills you train people how to identify a true $20 bill and they'll be able to figure out which one's fake
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Are you getting what i'm saying? Rather than training people in the error training them to identify the lies
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How many of you know, there's a lot of lies and there's some brand new ones coming up today Okay, so it's impossible for me to train you to identify every lie.
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But boy, can we get to know the truth? And you get to know the truth and the lies will become apparent.
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Does that make sense? Finally in verse 2022 we get to what is happening that has caused john to have such an adverse reaction to those who have left his church
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So finally in 22 we he reveals it pretty directly Now he's called them antichrist.
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Is that pretty strong? Is it? Pretty strong title. He's by implication said that they are not anointed by the holy spirit
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You who remain are anointed by the holy spirit you who remain have knowledge. So by implication he's saying those who have left you don't
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Is that pretty is that pretty significant? Is that pretty? Could it be interpreted as fairly harsh? Yes, it's john speaking
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But this appears to be more than a church split. Like I said over the color of the carpet And sure enough the liar is the one he says
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Who denies that jesus is the christ? There were people in the church of the disciple of jesus named john
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Who were basically saying? Jesus is not the christ Now do you think they came right out and said that you know?
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John's up preaching to his little congregation and somebody raises their hand stands up and says jesus isn't the christ Do you think that is that the way that lies usually?
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Get it get exploded in the church No, I I would I would believe that it's probably something that's more subtle that is going on here
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Something something subtle like the teaching that jesus isn't the only way jesus isn't the christ
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There are other christs now, can you imagine in a pagan society like that one in the early church?
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Where um, there's all different kinds of worship and idolatry going on and stuff like that Can you imagine trying to stand firm on jesus christ being the only way the only one?
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Can you see how some people might get swept away into the notion that oh, yeah, we know all roads lead to god
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He really knows your heart and if you're worshiping poseidon really, you know, he really knows that um
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Your heart is just seeking after the worship of something and he'll accept that worship Can you see how somebody might might be led in that direction to that error that all roads lead to?
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God, I can't imagine a society that would accept that by the way, right? Can you can you imagine that?
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Are we that far removed from where they are at? The notion that there are many ways to god, what would it look like in your workplace?
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Or wherever you work you step into the workplace tomorrow morning and you say Everybody, I love you.
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I care for you I want everybody to come come gather around my cubicle come gather on my desk for just a second everybody gather around here
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Because I wanted to let you know that jesus is the only hope for your soul How many of you think you'd probably just lose your job?
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Some of you some of you might lose your job a few of you How many of you think you might get some funny looks from some co -workers or some broken relationships with some people?
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Because it's not popular in our culture to say there is only One way, is that right?
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Am I am I right about that? It's not popular So that's possibly
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One of the ways that this crept in that this lie into the church was creeping in that jesus isn't the christ
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It may have on the other hand looked like the outright denial of the pre -existence of christ. Well, he's just a good man
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He's not the christ. He's not sent by god. He's not the anointed holy one. He was a really good teacher though We hear that one in our society too.
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Jesus was a good teacher, man If you just live your life like jesus, you'll be okay, right? Just he's he's just a moral example to us
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But he wasn't really truly god come down among us Either way that this that either flavor that this really this this error in the church took
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The ultimate result it was the rejection of the father as well They set out to reject the christ jesus and in turn john says well you lost the father in there, too
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You cannot have the father without the son And john is here just passing along what he learned straight from the mouth of jesus christ himself who said
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I am the way the truth and the life No one comes to the father
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Unless they come through me Jesus said that His words
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Any notion that you can have a restored relationship with the father without the son any
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Notion that that can be mended and healed your relationship with god the father the creator of everything
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Any notion that that can be restored without some kind of connection with jesus christ
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Ready for john to call you it again Liar He says that is a lie
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The notion that you can be okay with the father without the son is a lie, but indeed if you have the son you have the father to a relationship with the almighty the creator of all but only through the son
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Now in our compassion towards others We might be guilty at times of softening that blow of the exclusive claims of jesus to our co -workers or those around us
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It's possible. But how loving is that? How loving is it to soften that a little bit and make people more comfortable with the message
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If we were to begin here at recast compromising the truth and basically saying, you know what we believe jesus is a way
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Do you think that do you think that we'd be able to get more people to our church? probably
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We could probably get get more in our culture Soften it just a little bit and get get more connection with our culture and a little bit more
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Cultural sensitivity out there and then boy people would just be like wow, that's a unique church. That's great you know, they they're they're willing to just adopt they're so tolerant
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Just taking all the different views and all the different thinking. That's great How loving would that be?
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Think of it in these terms If there's a disease that's running rampant in the human race
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As a matter of fact 100 of the human race has contracted this illness and the end result of that illness is
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On an unimaginable pain and suffering. Okay, so that's the end result of this illness.
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Can you imagine an illness like that? Anybody having an idea? I think some of you know where i'm going with this.
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Maybe it's something like sin Okay But 100 of the world have contracted it and there is a remedy
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There is a pill So to speak that if you take it It takes care of the disease
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Instantly and all of those horrendous symptoms and all of those horrendous uh that a horrendous end and demise is done with If you take this remedy
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Would it be loving to suggest that your neighbors consider the remedy?
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Would that be loving? Now how unloving would it be? How cruel would it be to suggest to them
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That other pills will work just as fine When they won't
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How unloving would you have to be to say yeah, just keep taking your placebo and hope that it works Just keep just keep that keep those sugar pills going
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So john has now appealed to his opponents as having denied christ Being against christ And his encouragement to those who remain is to stay alert because the time is drawing near He encourages them that they have everything they need through their through the anointing of the holy spirit and through the knowledge of the word
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And now lastly he encourages them to let the gospel abide in them He says what you heard from the beginning let that abide in you.
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I believe that's certainly the gospel He's saying that which you heard at the beginning of your faith. That's what that which
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Uh brought you in at the very beginning to this relationship with christ the gospel And he says let that Remain in you the word abide by the way, how many of you use the word abide regularly?
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You don't But the word remain is a great Word that's synonymous to that in the english language that I think really captures the greek word that's being used there
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To remain in christ to remain let the gospel remain in you
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John reminds them that if the gospel is in them And they remain in it then they will remain in the son and in the father
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They are on the right side of this argument and the gospel is indeed in them And here john encourages them to go back to the fundamentals and recast.
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I want to encourage you to to remain at the fundamentals He says hang out with the gospel
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Don't give up on it Remain with it and let it remain in you stay rooted in the gospel and let the gospel stay rooted in you
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And let me encourage you recast to never graduate from the gospel Do not graduate from the gospel
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Do not be lured into so -called deeper things because there are no deeper things
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There is nothing more glorious. Nothing more majestic. Nothing more filled with hope than the gospel of jesus christ that he paid the price for us on the cross of calvary
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And that by his stripes we are healed by his wounds and by his substitutionary atonement by his propitiation
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By his turning away the wrath of the father from us. We are healed Don't Don't graduate from that Don't think that boy, you know,
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I got there at the beginning and that's fundamental and that's basic But now boy, that's just that's kid stuff That's the early stuff of the faith and it's time for us to move down to the meat.
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The gospel is the meat Stay in that feast
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Keep feeding off of it. Let it let it build in your heart and build in your life
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Anyone who puts their trust in the sacrifice of jesus has been given an amazing promise
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Look at verse 25 and this is the promise that he made to us Eternal life
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That's the promise That's what we heard from the beginning eternal life and eternal life begins at the point of faith in jesus
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And extends forever into the future The physical death of a child of god is merely a blip on the radar of the eternal life granted to us through The promise of god those who have passed on before us are not dead, but still are alive in god
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In heaven awaiting his return that they might be reunited Soul to body and live for eternity on his new earth
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They are not dead Not in a true sense of the word dead But they have gone on to heaven where they await the return of christ
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John directly ties everything he's been saying to those who have departed the church verse 19 He mentioned that they were those who went out from us and they were proven to be not one of us not in the faith
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Truly because they left and then in verse 26 He says I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you
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And as I put myself in john's shoes, I begin to feel some of the frustration and the anger I'm sure he must have dealt with According to verse 26
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There was a group of people in this church who claimed to be following jesus and then eventually said no christ isn't the way
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They begin to believe that and teach that And not only that but then after they leave the church
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They are still in an attempt as of the writing of this in verse 26 I write these things about those who are present tense trying to deceive you
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They're still getting together with people in the church for coffee and trying to convince them to their way They're still trying to infiltrate the church even though they have now left they are still actively trying to deceive the church but john's hope for his people is that That they through the anointing of the holy spirit through allowing the gospel to remain in them and through the knowledge
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They've received in the word They have everything they need He goes so far as to even say that these believers don't need anyone to teach them look at verse 27
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But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you and you have no need that anyone should teach you
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They have everything they need to remain in jesus christ It's ironic to have a teacher say to you.
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You don't need a teacher Right. Some of you are teachers in the room. You can kind of go what wait a teacher who says you don't need a teacher
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But that's precisely what john says He was so confident in the work of the holy spirit in the life of his church and in those who genuinely trusted in christ
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And he believed that they would remain That they would remain in jesus Back in verse 19.
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He said you could tell who really wasn't in with jesus Because they left And I want to suggest
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I want to remind you john didn't go out There's nothing in this text nothing in the book of first john that indicates that he went back and tried to win them back
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That he went and said no. No, please don't leave. Please come back. We need your funding. We need your ministry
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We need you to work in the nursery. We need you. We've got to have you here In other words the proof of the christian life is in the remaining
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If you are really truly in your heart and soul and mind captured by the word of god expressed in jesus christ
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You will cling to him to your dying breath But where does your hope lie in that?
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Strength of your fingers to cling Or in the god who will keep you to the one who will present you holy and blameless before him on that day
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Where does your hope rest? Is it in your ability to please him your ability to keep him happy with you?
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God forbid that that would be the place of your hope your hope is in the cross or nothing
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It's the only place of our hope that he would keep me that he would sustain me And that I would walk with him in relationship to maintain that relationship.
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Yes To keep studying his word and to keep letting his spirit guide me and direct me into knowledge and truth.
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Yes But my hope is in him for my salvation. I have no hope in this flesh.
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This flesh will fail My desires and my passions are out of whack your desires your passions out of whack
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There's no hope in there Our only hope is outside of us and it is jesus christ That's where our hope lies
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The notion of a church splitting over doctrine may seem far removed to many of us We've been blessed here with great sense of unity a great sense of connection here
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I have rarely heard a complaint in four and a half years, which I just kind of thinking what is
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I'm, not i'm not eager for the hammer to fall And I don't know that it has to and at the same time
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I just kind of go I mean so many church planners have told me just be ready just be ready It's coming and i'm just four and a half years in and I just sense the unity in this place
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I sense that we are connected together and we are sitting here because we love the truth And because the holy spirit is alive in us and we want to know more of him
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And yet some of you here have experienced church splits and the ugliness of humanity and community that can become really nasty in a hurry
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I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands on that one But some of you have seen it and so you recognize how naive it would be and simplistic and unwise
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If we don't take john's message to heart and look at our own fellowship and our fellowship
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Will only be as strong as the individuals in it We are like a mosaic with all of us i'm reflecting back some piece of the glory of god with some role to play here and only as strong as we are and so my
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My my three points of application here are going to ultimately be guiding and directing and hopefully again
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Like the spirit will communicate Far beyond these three points, but they're individualistic because I can't change this church
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We can't change this church and we can't maintain this church Except that we have the responsibility to deal with our own hearts
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Does that make sense? So we're like threads being woven into a tapestry and only as strong as those threads is the strength of the tapestry the beauty of the tapestry
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So, how do we guard ourselves from going down the pathway of so many churches? Churches that are split and broken over things or or churches that have compromised the truth.
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You know, I mean, you can compromise unity And then um accept whatever comes, you know, we'll just believe whatever or you can
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Sacrifice unity for the truth and split and break up. How do we avoid those extremes? How do we avoid being a church?
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That's a social club for the betterment of society with no spiritual message and no life and no vibrancy no anointing in it
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Many denominations in america that started out on fire for jesus now deny the authority of the word
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They deny that jesus that faith in jesus is necessary and many even deny that jesus was anything more than a good teacher
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You can tune into radios. I mean tune in on the radio to churches like that You can go visit churches within 10 miles of us that started out strong and now do not even believe that son of god is necessary How do we avoid that kind of slide john gives us a pathway forward to help us stay on the right path
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The first thing is if you're taking notes, I'd love you to jot these down. The first one is live with urgency
49:15
Live with urgency he could come back at any time believe with urgency and I would say love with urgency
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That's all the first one first one is live with urgency, but believe with urgency love with urgency
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The times we live in should be a reminder that this is the last epic of history Wars in syria don't tell us when the day is coming anybody who tells you a date is just pulling your leg
49:38
Okay, but wars in syria ought to remind us It could be any time It doesn't tell us when it doesn't tell us it's going to be in my lifetime now
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I know it's going to be in my lifetime because there's a war in syria. Well, there's been wars in syria before Are you getting what i'm saying?
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But it ought to remind us we ought to live with an urgency and an expectation lord
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Could it be today It'd be glorious if it was today
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How many of you look forward to and are longing for the day of the return of your lord and savior where sin is?
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Eradicated and pain is gone and it is us and him together forever
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Look forward to that day living with urgency I think that a lot of error creeps into the church during lulls of urgency and passion where we have forgotten the mission that we've been called to But if we are on an urgent mission together to reach the lost in the time that we're given
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We will be helping each other to stay on focus with christ and we will be keeping his good news as the core of our church
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You get it We're working together with urgency to reach our community for christ We're not going to have the time to bicker amongst ourselves
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We got a I mean, you know, we got bigger fish to fry than that But it's when we get lulls when we get lazy when we get tired and we get inwardly focused
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Which satan would pounce on that in a heartbeat The second thing stick to the anointing of the spirit and the knowledge of the word error creeps in the church when either the spirit is missing
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Or the word is missing the spirit is not in us then we're in trouble
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But if the spirit is alive in us and we don't check with the word then the content of our faith is gone and the Mission is gone
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Our faith is one of spirit and truth And when the two go hand in hand we become effective in ministry to those who are hurting
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And lost and broken in the culture around us By the way, we know that the spirit is alive in us if we are in christ
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He promised to send the spirit and he is alive in us And so if we are in christ staying connected to his word is the priority for us
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We will be less prone to give in to the errors of this age when we acknowledge his anointing and spend time in the knowledge of his word
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Here and the last thing is remain connected with the gospel let it saturate your mind Let it become part of your morning.
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Let the gospel be in your afternoon. Let it be in your evening. Let it be in your night Let salvation and jesus remain in you through meditation on him and meditation on the the cross and the pain and the suffering that he
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Went through for you Let hope and joy and peace and purpose remain in you through that which you heard from the beginning in your faith
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And that is the gospel Staying rooted to the gospel has a significant role in keeping the church together in unity
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The gospel grounds us when we stand before the cross and we see him with the In our minds with the with the crown of thorns and the nails in his hands and the blood
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Flowing down and as gruesome as that is when we remember that price that is paid How can we stand there and beat our chest in pride?
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Do that for me It's time to take a knee there And humility does the cross inform humility
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Yes, but it also informs love. He loved us like that and it's at the cross Where I find myself it's the only place that I can come to and both simultaneously be emptied of pride and filled with love
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At the cross i'm emptied of pride Boy My sins cost that That's how gruesome of a sinner
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I am that's how filthy and unclean I am that it took that to cover me
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But he loved me so much. He did it Filled with love filled with love for him filled with love for the world
53:28
This message that is the hope I'd encourage you. I don't do this very often, but I recommend a book
53:33
It's called the cross -centered life by c .j. Mahaney. Any of you read this book? Any of you ever heard it a couple of you?
53:40
Um, this is a game changer for me Um, this has actually affected my preaching quite a bit. It's it's look at this if you're intimidated by books
53:48
This is not an intimidating book. I would love this to be on every person's shelf
53:54
Only if you read it, okay So don't buy it to put it on a shelf and then go okay now because it's not going to have any effect
54:01
By looking at it on the shelf by the spine or by you know, hugging it you have to read it
54:06
But if you're interested in this book, I I would I would love to make sure that you get a copy of it Now if you can't afford it
54:13
I'll take care of it for you. But this is an awesome awesome book short read cross -centered life about just bringing all of your day
54:21
All of your thoughts everything back to the cross and how that informs your behavior in your life Really powerful book that's had an impact on me
54:28
We're going to come to communion now this morning to demonstrate our unity with christ We demonstrate our unity our unity with christ
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I don't know if you ever thought about this, but the juice actually becomes us the cracker becomes us We take in our bodies a reminder of the sacrifice of jesus when we're taking communion
54:46
But equally jesus told his followers this He said as often as you gather together
54:52
Do this in remembrance of me But a word that doesn't get much emphasis there is together