Scripture: I John 2.1-6
Translation: 1 My little children, I’m writing these things to you, so that you don’t sin. And if someone does sin, we do have an Intercessor with the Father, Jesus Christ who’s righteous. 2 And He Himself is propitiation/expiation for our sins, yet not for ours only, but also for the whole world. 3 And in this we know/experience that we have known Him, if we are keeping His commandments. 4 The person who says that I have known Him and doesn’t keep His commandments is a liar and the truth doesn’t exist in this person. 5 But whoever would continually keep His Word, truly the love of God has been brought to completion in this person, in this way we know/experience that we are in Him. 6 The person who says that he is abiding in Him ought himself in this way to be walking just as That One walked around also
Exegetical Idea: How we can be sure we have a relationship with Jesus, so that we can be sure we have our sin dealt with when we blow the command to not sin!
Pedagogical Idea: A real relationship with Jesus resolves our sin problem
Hook:
1. How do you respond when you sin? Give me some options? Shout it out!
Truths (Book)
Don't sinàwhat to bank on when you sinàhow can you be sure you are/can be banking on Jesus
1. Don’t Sin
a. Say to your neighbor, “Neighbor, don’t sin”
2. If you do sin…We do have Jesus (Neighbor, you blew it)
a. Jesus is our Advocate (He is our Defense Attorney/Lawyer),
i. He is on our side
ii. He is righteous when we are not
b. Jesus is our Propitiation/Expiation
i. This means Jesus gets rid of God’s anger against us (sin ticks Him off)
ii. This means Jesus deals with our sin
c. Jesus is the world’s propitiation/expiation = Jesus makes common grace possible
i. Common Grace is a Doctrine that explains why even unbelievers get good things sometimes, why sometimes they even seem to get more and better that we get
ii. The reason everyone is not immediately destroyed upon sinning or upon conception is because of the Truth called Common Grace,
iii. The way it works is that Jesus got rid of God’s anger and dealt with sin for the whole world to the extent that God can be nice to them and still be just/Godly
iv. This is an encouragement, because Jesus does not just deal with our sin, but with sin of the entire world (although in a different way), because He gets rid of God’s rather great anger against us and against the world (although in a different way)
v. You have to let Jesus deal with it, only He can, don’t earn it, trust Him for it, by grace!
3. How do you know if you have Jesus? (so that your sin can get dealt with, so you have Jesus) (say to your neighbor, “Neighbor, how’d you know that you know that you know?”
a. Do you keep His commandments
i. That means you need to think about what did Jesus command?
ii. How are you going to know that? Read your Bible—How are you going to know that you know if you don’t go where the know is? (Neighbor, Did you read your Bible? If your neighbor says No, you need to get a new neighbor!)
iii. Note that a command is not a suggestion, these are things we are most definitely supposed to be doing.
1. Ex. When your mom says, “Go clean your room!” does she mean that you are allowed to not clean your room if you don’t want to? No! She means go do it now!!!
b. mNegative) Do you say you know Him, but live like you don’t, then you are lying and don’t know Him
i. Know = means you know personally, experientially, you and Jesus are tight, you have a relationship with Him, you know what He is like and what He likes, you have experienced all that Jesus says and is and does—He is your best friend, the person you can talk to all the time no matter what you want to talk about, you have felt Him, His love, His comfort, His joy, His sorrow, His pain, His anger, His holiness, His beauty, His wisdom, His understanding, His humor, His power, His death, His resurrection, His cross, His ways, HIM
ii. Can you say something like that? Do you? I mean do you know Him? If you think so, look in at your life, do you obey Him? If you know Him, You will know what He wants and has said and do it
iii. What happens if you come up with a life that is filled not with knowing Jesus, but fakin’ being with Jesus, they you are a liar—to yourself and to others—and you don’t have the truth in YOU, you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you don’t have God’s Word, you don’t have the Good News, the Gospel, you don’t have eternal life, you are not saved!
c. (Positive) Do you keep His Word? If so, then you God’s love is perfected in you and you can know that you are in Him (i.e. that you know Him) (Ask your Neighbor, “Neighbor, are you keeping His Word?” If yes, you say “so you know Him” if no, scooch away from your neighbor!)
i. This is the condition
ii. Keep means that you are actively seeking to obey it
iii. His Word is the Bible, bur especially the parts where Jesus says something
iv. Love for God has been made perfect in you—that means it is complete, it is not missing anything—you are doing what Jesus has said, then you are completely loving God, it has reached its goal, its end—you have all the love you can have
1. Ask your neighbor, “Neighbor, do you love Him?”
2. Love being finished with you is a really good thing, you are being maxed out with Love for God—you are loving Him left and right
3. This is the truth, the reality, this is how it really is
v. Our love for God is part of how we know that we are in Him—we are sure that we are with Jesus—
vi. in Him, that means in union with Him, that means so close to Him that we are all up in and totally inseparable from Him, in other words, super tight with Christ
d. Do you say that you hang tight with Him? If so, then you had better be walking just like Him (say, “Neighbor, where you walkin’?” if the answer isn’t “after Jesus, then say “I’m not going there!”
i. Do you say you are super tight with Christ, do you claim to know Him really well, do you claim to stick with Him no matter what, then you should be proving it
ii. How do you prove that you are really with Him, the way is you live like Jesus
iii. If you are all up in Jesus, then you are going and doing what He goes and does
iv. Say Neighbor, “Neighbor, How you livin’?”
Applications (Look)
1. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved and get to know HIM!!!
2. You might not know Jesus if you are always lying, cheating, stealing, disobeying, calling names, being mean, treating God’s name with contempt, pride (thinking your better than others), selfishness,
3. IF sex, porn, masturbation, making-out, touching, necking, liking, worrying, idolatries, or even discouragement dominate your life, so that it is less focused on Jesus, or if facebook is your best friend and not Jesus, if your mouth is filled with cussing, if you're not trusting God with your problems, or not praying, or if you indulge in anorexia, bulimia, occultic stuff, partying, unGodly movies, unGodly TV, unGodly youtube videos, or even if you put watching those things ahead of loving Christ and reading the Word, or if you fake looking at your heart when you come face to face with the Word, or the Spirit's conviction, or if you're not sharing the Gospel, or if you are lying, bad mouthing, gossiping, and even holding grudges and being filled with unforgiveness, THEN it is possible you don't know Jesus for real, and indeed depending on how much these things dominate your life, it may be more than possible, it may be likely.
Took:
1. Commit to reading the Bible and praying this week so you can get to know Jesus, and commit to confessing and rooting out one sin from your life and replacing it with Godly obedience.
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