1 John 3:1 (NKJV) “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”
You are greatly beloved by your Father in heaven. Take a moment and think about this glorious truth. If you are born again, you are immediately a child of God. The Father didn’t simply save you from hell. He brought you into His family. He loves you with a perfect, unchanging love. When you begin to understand that love, your whole perspective changes. You stop serving God because you feel like you have to, and you begin following Him because you love Him.
2 Corinthians 5:14 (NKJV) “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;”
There is something about looking over and over again at the cross that softens our hearts. We remember where we’ve been, what Jesus rescued us from, and how faithful He has been every step of the way. His love becomes the greatest motivation to keep following Him.
Even though our hearts are captured by love, the Apostle John doesn’t ignore the seriousness of sin. He writes, “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4, NKJV).
Our culture has become very good at renaming sin, rather than facing the reality of our own behavior. If you erase sin, then you erase accountability to your Creator. But no matter how you mislabel or dismiss sin, you won’t be able to erase it.
Sin always separates. It affects our fellowship with God, and it hurts the people we love most. That’s why John immediately points us back to Jesus: “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5, NKJV). When you came to Christ, your sins were forgiven. The penalty was paid in full. Some consequences may remain, and rebuilding trust often takes time, but your standing before God was forever changed. You belong to Him now.
That is why abiding in Christ is so important. John writes, “Whoever abides in Him does not sin” (1 John 3:6, NKJV). The closer you stay to Jesus, the stronger you’ll become.
Spend time in His Word. Talk with Him throughout the day. Pray. Worship. Gather with God’s people. Those simple habits keep you in the place of abiding (John 15). When you stumble, don’t run from the Lord. Run to Him.
Jesus came to take away your sins and destroy the works of the devil. “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4, NKJV). If you’ve drifted away, come home today. Your Father is ready to forgive you, restore you, and remind you once again that you are His beloved child.
#16216 1 John 4:1-3 Full Unedited Transcript
Open your Bibles. 1 John chapter three is where we are. 1 John chapter three, and we’re gonna pick up in verse four, and I’ve entitled our Bible study, Jesus Took Away Our Sins. Jesus took away our sins.
Verse one, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. “‘Therefore the world does not know us “‘because it did not know him. “‘Beloved, now we are children of God, “‘and it has yet not been revealed what we shall be, “‘but we know that when he is revealed, “‘we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.'” And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
We spent some time last time soaking in how much God loves you and how important it is for you to know that, that as a child of God, you experience personally the love of God. And it’s God’s love that moves and motivates us to follow him. The love of God is the greatest motivator on the planet earth. Not a set of religious guidelines or rote repetitions or a list of rules and regulations. It’s his love that melts us and shapes us and molds us and moves us.
Paul said that. In 2 Corinthians 5, as he looks at his life, he says in verse 14, for the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.
If I had to summarize this in its basic simplicity, so much of our lives could be easily corrected if we would get our eyes back on the cross and see the love of God. It would move us to remember not so much to dwell where we came from, but just to remember where we came from. The work that God did to remove us from where we came from. The change that’s been ongoing in our lives after we were born again, that sanctification process, becoming more and more like Christ.
And you know, men and women, we can be motivated by a lot of different things as we seek to serve the Lord or live for God. Sometimes it’s our pride or our ego or to make a name for ourself or to create a platform or to somehow draw attention. Money is a motivator, you know, to impress people. There’s so much secondary motivations, but love is at the center of everything when it comes to following Christ. It is the true motivation for serving the Lord, his sacrificial death, what he has done for us. And that’s where John was in chapter three. What manner of love the Father’s bestowed upon us.
Now, in verse four, he says, “‘Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, “‘and sin is lawlessness.'” Now in the living Bible, the translation says this, but those who keep on sinning are against God for every sin is done against the will of God. You can mark that word sin. It means to miss the mark, to miss the mark. It means that you and I have not arrived at the bullseye. We missed it. Sin is that action that is imperfect, that breaks the heart of God.
The Gnostics, the false teachers that John was writing as an audience to correct, but also to instruct the church, believed that the body, the physical body, and all that’s material was evil, wrong, and not of God. And that took them to two primary false teachings. The first one that was popular is that they retreated from the world and lived as monks, kind of isolated themselves. But that wasn’t the most popular version. The most popular version of their false teaching was the belief that you could do whatever you want. You can live sinful lives, it didn’t matter. If the body didn’t matter, then anything you did in the body didn’t matter. And since the body wasn’t important, then eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. And it doesn’t affect the true you. They taught that the body wasn’t the true you, so you can do whatever you want in this world.
But John says in verse four, that whoever commits sin is lawless. And lawlessness is sin. Sin is breaking the law of God. It’s a way of living your life without restraint, contrary to God’s ideal for his creation, making excuses for sin, dismissing sin, pretending it doesn’t exist, minimizing it.
You go, well, pastor, how do you minimize sin? The world has a great way of minimizing sin by just replacing the sinful word with something that’s not so threatening. Or I think lying. Lying is bad. Can I get an amen on that? Lying is bad. Lying is a sin. But in the world now, it’s what kind of lie? Is it a white lie, a blue lie, a purple lie? Like all these lies have colors now, as if the colors make a difference. Listen, lies break trust, and trust breaks relationship, both with God and with others. Dishonesty is not from the Lord. I don’t care how the world describes it.
Well, you know, it’s just a little white lie. What? A what? What is it again? It’s a little white lie. You know, they emphasize the color and not the sin. And you can see that over and over. Adultery. Adultery is just now an affair. Oh, an affair. That sounds so sweet. An affair. No, it’s adultery. You’ve sinned against God.
I think of fornication, sexual sin outside of marriage. Now it’s just hooking up like you’re going fishing now, like stealing away. You know, Jesus said you’re going to be a fisher of men. And what does the world do? Take something that Jesus uses and twist it around to cover up for sin. Now we’re in the hookup culture. No, we’re in the lawless sexual sin culture. That’s what we’re in. And when you choose to commit adultery on your spouse, you’re not having an affair. That’s not an affair. It’s sexual sin that’s breaking the covenant you made before God and man with your spouse.
See, sin is lawlessness. And because sin brought lawlessness into the world, Jesus came to restore order through the law of love. And he gives us two reasons, verse five, why Jesus came into the world. Notice this. Reason number one. And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins. And in him, there is no sin. Jesus came. He was manifested or he was revealed or put on display. That’s what the word manifested means. Jesus was put on display to all the world to take away our sin.
The minute you surrendered your life to Jesus and asked for forgiveness, you were born again. You were saved. Your sins were judged past, present, and future. The penalty of sin, the consequences of sin were wiped away as it relates to God. Now, here’s what sometimes gets misunderstood. While the consequences of your sin eternally have been wiped away with God, the consequences with others don’t get wiped away so quickly. There are consequences attached to our sinful behavior, especially as it relates to others.
I think of one long-lasting consequence that some of you may have is a criminal record. Now, you may have committed crimes before you were born again. But when you go to the courthouse and say, I just want to let you know I’m born again, can you wipe away my record? They’re going to laugh you out of the courthouse. Oh, bailiff, please come and get so-and-so. Like there’s a consequence that’s attached to behavior.
Another example, when it comes to forgiveness. You know, when you come to God and you apply God’s spiritual soap in 1 John 1.9, immediately you’re going to receive the forgiveness of God. God is very fast and quick to forgive you. People… Not so much. Maybe not so quick. They are reeling from the offense. Wounded and hurt. I don’t want you to be surprised if forgiveness doesn’t come so quickly because you came to the revelation sooner than they did. But there’s still a wound. God forgives. But there’s a lot of work to be done sometimes with those in our lives. Trust to be earned again.
I always like to remind folks, when you lose trust, when someone loses trust in you, it’s very, very difficult. Not impossible, but very, very difficult to get it back. That’s why it’s so precious. Trust is the currency of leadership. Trust is the currency of ministry. Trust is the currency of any relationship. That’s why the more trust that’s broken, the more painful it becomes.
He says, Jesus came to take away our sins, and in him, it says in verse five, there is no sin. Jesus is sinless. Then in verse six we see, whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. Now we learn number two. When we abide in Christ, we don’t sin. This is a beautiful thing. Abiding in Christ keeps us from sin.
Now I’m not saying it’s impossible to sin when you’re reading your Bible, but it’s really hard. It’s really hard to sin when you’re reading your Bible. I mean, you’ve oriented your life toward God. You perhaps even started in prayer. It’s very hard to sin when you’re praying. Because even if you’re sinning, you know, maybe you’re like David in prayer and you’re really hurting. You’re like, oh Lord, break their teeth. And it might feel good, but then the Holy Spirit says, I don’t want to break their teeth. Why do you want to break their teeth? And all of a sudden, now you have a conversation with God. Oh, you’re so right, Lord. I’ve been praying for their teeth to be broken all this time. I really don’t want their teeth to be broken, but I do want. And now you’re drawing near to the Lord. And even if you did, you know, you sin, you step out, and you come back in when you’re abiding in Christ.
I think of our gathering here, you know, with the men. With the men recently. I had the opportunity in Oregon to teach two sessions at a men’s conference. And inevitably, when we gather men together, although it’s not exclusively a man problem, it really is primarily a man problem. And that is this whole issue of the sin of internet pornography. And so it came up in the Bible study. And I reminded the men that were listening to me that I can’t see every phone in the room and I’m not walking every aisle, but I can make a pretty strong educated guess that there weren’t any men in the room listening to me and watching internet pornography in the room at the same time. I can make a pretty strong and I think accurate assessment of the room.
Why? Because they’re orienting their life toward the Lord. They’re not doing both. You don’t abide in Christ and pull out your phone. Listen, if you pull out your phone and you succumb to a temptation that God is already giving you the power over, you have chosen not to abide in Christ in that moment and you have chosen sin over Jesus. And you can add any sin to that list. It doesn’t, that sin is irrelevant in this case.
The good news is that when we obey Jesus, abide in me and I abide in you, you are not sinning. That’s to me is the greatest news. Well, how do I get victory? How do I get victory over this sin? I’ve had it forever. Abide in Christ. Oh, pastor, that’s too early. That’s too easy. No, it’s actually not too easy. Abide in Christ. When you’re abiding in Christ and you’re just staying, well, how do I do that? What do you mean? How do you do that? Pray, read your Bible, think of God, walk with him, hang out with him.
I think of our relationships on a smaller scale. Let’s just say you have a good buddy, a good buddy, a good brother in the Lord, sister in the Lord, maybe in your relationship in marriage, you’re just hanging out together, you’re together. When you abide in your friendship, and you abide in your marriage, and you abide in those connections, I’m gonna tell you, you’re probably not going to sin in that relationship either. You’re not gonna pull out your phone with your spouse and say, let’s watch internet pornography together. You’re not going to do that. It’s a sin of deceit and lying, and it’s in the darkness. You’re probably not going to bring it out with your buddy either that just came from church and said, hey, you know, I just had this great Bible study. I want to talk to you about it. Bro, I got something to show you. And you pull out your phone. Why? Because you’re with someone that loves the Lord. And when you’re in that friendship, you’re in that relationship, they make you a better person. When you are hanging out with the brothers and the sisters in the Lord, they make us better people.
How much more when we hang out with Jesus does he make us better women and better men in him? You just hang out with Jesus, truly. You’re doing that right now. You guys that have just chosen to turn off the television and instead tune into a Bible study, you’re doing that right now. You’re not going off on the other weird rabbit holes on YouTube, you’re listening to the word of God. You’re abiding in Christ. You’re making wise choices. You’re sowing to the spirit. You’re going to reap everlasting life. You’ve decided that you want to be a slave to righteousness. So righteousness rules you and you follow. You’re not going to be a slave to unrighteousness. Wise choices lead to great benefits in our lives.
In Christ, there is no sin. And if you’re with a strong brother or a strong sister that’s abiding in Christ, then you’re closer and closer to being in that place where you’re not going to sin. And I’m not talking about getting into the flesh, but you don’t understand, if I hang out long enough, we’re gonna argue about something. Stop it. Stop talking yourself out of being with the brothers and being with the sisters and forsaking sin.
This is what the Bible says. The Bible says that in Christ, there is no sin. And he says in verse six, whoever abides in him does not sin. That’s not merely a choice not to sin, but rather a choice to follow love. You’re attracted to love. And when you’re in love, you’re not in sin. I can say that when we sin, we are not abiding in Jesus. When we sin, we are not abiding in Jesus. It’s important that we stay put.
And the danger of not abiding is seen in that last section of verse six. The danger of living in sin apart from abiding in Christ, is that whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. It’s almost as if you have forgotten what you’ve seen and what you’ve known. Now that could very literally apply to some that became a little religious and started hanging around church thinking that’s how I’m gonna approach God, I’m just gonna become religious and a church goer. I’d rather have you moving toward God as a church goer than away from God, living in the world. But being a church goer is not what Jesus is after. He doesn’t want you to add church to your life. He wants you to surrender your life to him. He died to take away your sins. He didn’t invite you into a church building or to a church group so that your conscience could be appeased for a little while. He invites you to himself. And the church, which is really just a group of people, the church is just something you get to enjoy. It’s just an added benefit of being a part of the family. It’s like, this is amazing what God’s doing. I get to grow with a group of people that also want to grow in Christ.
And you know, the church isn’t heaven. You guys know that, right? You’re here right now worshiping. We’re not in heaven. I mean, we’re not, this isn’t heaven. So we’re gonna rub elbows with each other. We’re gonna be in the flesh. You’re gonna see the worst of me. I’ll see the worst of you. But what do we get to do? In the church, we get to work things out. We get to apply Matthew 18. We get to humble ourselves. We get to practice on the Christian virtues of life, living out our life on other believers because it’ll be much harder in the world. Because they’re not interested in the Christianity or Jesus. But you’re going to be able to be so well, I mean, hopefully not so well practiced, behave yourselves. But you could be so well practiced in the church that you’ll be so in love in the world that that’s what will get their attention.
And you’ll walk into work perhaps even tomorrow and go, what manner of love? What manner of love the Father is? I can’t believe it, how much God loves me. And then your coworker says, you’re out of your mind. It’s like, no, no, no, I’m not out of my mind. I’m more in my mind than I’ve ever been my whole life. I’ve been sober for this amount of years. I’ve been walking with God. Like you, you, you, we should have some, I want to go to lunch with you. You want to go to lunch? Because I want to talk to you just how much that’s not true. I have never been more in my right mind in my entire life because of what God has done in my life. And you can see you’re just so in love with God and it’s very attractive.
Notice verse seven, little children, again, that phrase that he’s drawing together, it’s almost like, trust me, kids, trust me. Let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil is sin from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, notice, that he might destroy the works of the devil. So not only did he deal with the reality of taking away our sin, but now also he has destroyed the works of the devil. So don’t be deceived. Don’t be deceived.
Righteousness, think of the word, just doing what is right, reflecting of God. Doing what is right. You can use the word to help you define it. Doing what is right is defined by God’s holy word. And as a believer, you and I can practice righteousness. We can practice righteousness. That’s what he describes, the life of abiding. The life of abiding produces righteousness. And when you repetitively live a life of obedience, that’s what practice means. It’s the manner of your life. Not the episodes when you fail, not the stumblings, not the thoughts that pop through your mind or maybe an outburst of wrath, some work of the flesh, but the practicing of your life. The measure of the entirety of your life and how far you’ve come. The reality of where you are now, abiding in Christ. Not all the failures you have in the past, but what is God doing now in your life?
And I find it interesting, don’t you, in verse eight? We kind of take it for granted, but let’s draw it out just for the sake of understanding. He who sins is of the devil, because the devil sinned from the beginning. I find it interesting that John believed in a real personal devil. He believed in a real personal devil. So did Paul, so did Peter, and so did Jesus. Jesus knew of the devil because he created him before he fell as a righteous angel. All these men and women in the scriptures believed in a real literal devil to be real active in the destruction of lives. And I believe it too, as a brother, as a pastor.
You see, Satan is behind the whole issue of sin. Because of his rebellion, he tempted Adam and Eve into bringing sin into humanity. And because of Adam’s sin, all of you, you and I, we were all born in sin. Because two human beings that are sinners can only produce another little human being that is a sinner. It’s been replicated ever since. He is behind using the world and temptation, the world, the flesh. He is behind it all to try to draw us into destruction.
I do believe we give Satan far too much credit. I don’t believe he’s behind every single thing personally. I believe that once he starts the temptation, we take over in the flesh and it’s all us. We can’t blame the devil for everything. We have responsibility. We have personal responsibility in our lives. And as soon as we match that, the Lord meets us right there. So we can’t go around blaming the devil.
You look at it, you go, man, listen, when Jesus died on the cross, the war is over. Amen. He has defeated the enemy, Colossians 2, verse 14. He has wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. He’s taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. You have been delivered from the power of sin and death by the finished work of Christ.
And so the question is, and it’s a good question if you’ve ever asked it, if Satan has been defeated, then why? If Satan has been defeated, then why is he still allowed to destroy and disrupt lives? You might be surprised at this answer, but I don’t want you to be surprised. I want you to be grateful. And that is because God in his grace and mercy is patiently waiting upon many, many more to place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. That’s why. Until that final, that final person.
In 2 Peter 3, verse 9, it says, I’m reading from the NLT on this one. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish. So he’s giving more time for everyone to repent. Isn’t that great? Aren’t you praying for someone right now? That’s why the devil is active. I mean, doesn’t your heart just burn for your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister, your friend, your neighbor? Well, God is not slack concerning his promise. Some count slackness, the New King James says. But he’s not willing that any should perish. And he has given us the strength to overcome. We’ve already learned that. We are more than overcomers.
He who is in us, 1 John 4, 4, is what? Greater. Than he who is in the world. It’s a truth to just take it. Yeah, I have been delivered. I can walk in the newness of life. I have a new direction. I have a new life. I have new power. When the Bible says that I’m a new creation in Christ, you know what I am? A new creation in Christ. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. The only difference between that verse and you experiencing it is faith. You gotta believe it. When you believe it, it changes your life.
There are still battles because we deal with the flesh. We deal with our old sinful habit patterns. We deal with temptation. Notice what it says. He says in verse nine, whoever has been born again of God or born of God does not sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God.
Now, I want you to not take this verse out of context in its own place. You can’t do that with really any verse. Because if you just took it out by itself and sat there, all by itself, no other verse in the Bible, then you would think, well, I mean, I guess there’s sinless perfectionism. But John hasn’t even taught you that. So he can’t be saying that now. John hasn’t taught you that so far in our study in 1 John. And this is the benefit of going through the Bible verse by verse. We have already learned some truths from John related to sin.
For example, in chapter one, verse six, he says, it’s false to say that you can walk in the light and in darkness. In chapter one, verse eight, he said, it’s false to say you don’t have a sin nature. In chapter one, verse 10, John’s already taught us it’s false to say that you don’t commit sins as a Christian. And in chapter two, verse four, it’s false to say that you know him, but you don’t obey him.
And so what is John saying here with that in mind? The seed that he mentions is in reference to you being a new creation, you have a new nature. The moment we were born again, a radical change takes place, we receive a new nature. You may not experience it like experientially right away, you’re born again, you pray a prayer, and then you walk into the doors of a church with 15 things wrong with you. You’re born again, guess how you walk out? With 15 things wrong. And you’re like, what happened? I don’t even know. You may not feel anything. You may not sense anything. You may not anything.
All it was was an act of obedience. You heard the gospel, like some of you today. You heard that you have sinned against a holy and righteous God. And that God sent his son Jesus Christ to die for you. To rescue you from the penalty of sin. Do you know what the penalty of sin is? I mean it’s devastating. It’s eternal life of separation from God. Or the wages of sin is death. But you have to define death not just as the ceasing to exist. Because really death in the Bible spiritually speaks of separation. It speaks of separation.
We see that, very sadly, at a memorial service where we experience the separation of the spirit and the soul from the body. And we refer to that as death. It’s very sad. I know some of you are mourning the loss right now, and I’m sorry. It’s very difficult. It’s a result of sin. Sin brought death. And every time we’re at a memorial service, we’re reminded of the truth of God’s word.
But separation also means eternally to be separate from God, to live separate from God. Not just like floating through the universe, but there’s a place. There’s a place known as, sometimes it’s referred to as Gehenna, sometimes in the Bible it’s referred to as the lake of fire, but generally as pastors and people, we generally refer to it as hell. Hell may not be a popular topic for you, but if you believe there’s a heaven, then you have to believe there’s a hell. They’re both equally true. Just as if you believe in a real devil, well, there’s a real God.
And the Bible says that Jesus Christ came to take away your sins and to give you eternal life. You probably even know, you’ve probably already heard that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever will believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, you know that verse, or you’ve heard that. I wonder if you even know, you know who said that? Jesus did. The one that died for you was buried, and he rose again from the dead. They had eyewitnesses that saw Jesus Christ alive. At one point, the Bible says 500 people saw him at the same time. Do you know what the power of 500 witnesses of one thing is? I mean, that’s amazing. Not only that, but those 500 witnesses, they live with all the accusations, all the people making fun of them, all the people saying it didn’t happen. And they stood and they go, no, we saw it. We were there. We talked to him. We watched him. We heard him. We ate with him.
Listen, Jesus Christ is alive today. And he’s inviting you to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Jesus is real. And so when a person’s born again, as you’ll have a chance in just a moment, both in the room and also out online and on the radio, like when you’re born again, you get a new nature, even if you don’t realize it yet. Because, you know, when you’re born again, you listen to a pastor just share the gospel with you. That’s what I want. I want to be with God. I want my sins forgiven. I mean, he’s talking about things, but he doesn’t even know how bad it really is. You’re right, I don’t know how bad it really is. And you don’t quite know how bad it really is yet either as God begins to dig deep into your life to make you the woman and man He really wants you to be.
You think you have 15 problems? You have way more than 15 problems. And God loves you still. In Christ, He doesn’t hold them against you. He wants to move you and lead you and guide you away from that life, a new creation, old things passed away. So when you hear this seed, that’s what happens. It happens whether you feel it or not, whether you recognize it or not. That new nature will not allow you to habitually sin in your life ever again. And you go, wait a minute, Ed, that’s pretty powerful. I know. That’s how people get miserable when they’re backslidden.
That’s when they start looking at their life and they might have go off a little bit here, a little bit there, but then, you know, maybe a week into it, two weeks, five weeks, it’s like, this is wrong. Well, where do you think that came from? You didn’t read that in a book. The spirit of God is in you, telling you that’s wrong. And you go, it’s not wrong. It’s wrong. It’s not wrong. Then you harden your heart. And it takes a little bit longer next time and a little bit longer next time and a little bit longer next time. But God passionately pursues you. And as a born again believer, he won’t let you get away with sin. You’ll be back. You’ll be back in a year. You’ll be back in five years. You’ll be back in 10 years. You’ll be back in 40 years, but you’ll be back. Wounded and damaged, but nonetheless, God is ready to repair and restore and bring you back in a relationship.
Like the prodigal son, Luke chapter 15, he’s gonna throw a party for you. He’s so happy you’re back. We’re so glad you’re back. Like, I think we’d run out of resources if we threw a party for every backslider that comes back to this church. We don’t have enough. And we welcome you back. We’re glad you’re here. I wish we could throw a party for you, but your father in heaven is going to throw one for you. And the angels rejoice in heaven when you repent. But we as a church, we just welcome you back with a hug. Hugs are free. Hugs are free and a welcome. Like we’re here. We’re glad you’re back. Now get back on track and serve the Lord.
So coming back to the text here, look, when you’re born of God, when you’re born of God, there is a movement away from your flesh. You sin less. God leads you to a more, the more wise you get, the older you get, the more mature you get, the less sin you see in your life. His seed, that seed, like he planted himself in you. You know how we have that phrase in the world, like father, like son? Have you heard that phrase before? Well, I want you to think of it this way. Like father, like daughter, like father, like son, spiritually. You are like your father spiritually. And you are progressively maturing. But you won’t be sinless. John has already said that. We already know that. You won’t be sinless. But you will walk in the newness of life.
And when you feed your new nature with generous amounts of spiritual food, the word of God, then you grow. And I believe every believer should have quiet time devotions with the Lord. Using the Bible app, it makes it so easy. Using the resources we recommend. You parents, there’s resources that we have through our children’s ministry, all the smaller groups. We have so many resources that you just take and receive. We just started with a 100-day Devo at the beginning of the year. I finished it already. I’m going through a second time. It’s so good. 100 days, knocked it out. It took me a little bit more than 100 days, but let’s start over again.
And just some time alone before everything starts, before everything crowds, before the news, before social media, before any of that. Just get alone with the Lord. All that stuff’s gonna steal your time anyway. How much time have been stolen from us? From a bunch of nonsense, a lot of nonsense. You need time with the Lord. You need to feed the new nature. Feed that seed. It’s like the garden, right? You gotta take care and weed the garden. Kill the weeds, the flesh. Feed the spirit. So important. Otherwise, the weeds will overtake everything. And before you know it, the flowers will die. And it’ll be a very difficult season.
And so have those quiet times with the Lord. I commend you midweek. I know how hard it is midweek. I know we got halfway through the week and who knows what tomorrow’s gonna bring or maybe it’s the beginning. I know how hard it is. So much so that many churches have stopped midweeks. I am committed to being here for whoever wants to be here for that midweek opportunity. A pep talk, you know, from the Lord. Like this word for you. It’s going to pay dividends in your life. Like every time you get a little nugget, it’s like, oh yeah, busted. Or oh yeah, encouraged. Or man, I never saw that before. Or wow, really hard question answered. Or you know what? This is the best 90 minutes of my life because I could be doing something that has no spiritual value. And yeah, the kids might be harder to get up in the morning, but that’s okay. They’ll grow up. And then you can look back and go, man, you were the hardest kid to get up in the morning, but we went to church. We went to church, that’s why. You’re such a grouch, but we went to church, you know, whatever.
And you have that testimony, you know, that sense of now you have one more thing to talk to your kids about in the Lord. You have one more thing teaching them. You know, mom and dad can’t believe I’m so tired in the morning. Yeah, but this is your offering to the Lord. It’s not, oh, you know, so I’m kind of tired too. And, you know, again, we have all our reasons. But all I’m saying is this, pressing into the Lord, you’ll never regret it. Every single time, Bible study, listening on your app, watching something on YouTube, not to get distracted, but watching a Bible study, a teacher you like, like you putting on music just to saturate your soul, praying, quiet time. When you feed that part of your, that seed that God planted in you, it will grow. I assure you on the authority of God’s word, it’ll grow.
And it has, hasn’t it? Can’t you see it in your life? It’s already grown. So much growth in your life already. So many victories. So much has been overcome. So much has been left in your past. Ah, maybe you stumbled. Maybe you fell. Even maybe you made a big error. But you know what? You’re back. You’re back. Welcome home. The Lord is ready to work. He’s throwing a party for you. We’re glad you’re back. Amen? Amen.
Lord, thank you for your word and the beauty of the scriptures. Just thinking how much you took away our sin. You defeated the enemy. You have conquered sin and death. And we are grateful. We may not always fully appreciate it. Sometimes we don’t even think about it. But you take us back, God, to the love that we first received. And God, even just now, I just, I remember that was the hardest thing to believe in my life. I just could not believe that you would love someone like me. That even what I did know about myself, it was very hard and living by my own life. I could see, I didn’t even love myself as I destroyed my body and I destroyed relationships. So self-centered, but you delivered me, you delivered us, and you’re still delivering today, God. You’re still drawing people to yourself. You’re still revealing your love.
And I just say to you, as we pray as a church, I say to those of you listening to me, listen, I know that you may not fully believe that God could love you, but he does. And you will. And maybe you don’t believe that you can get victory over this part of your life because it’s a problem you’ve had forever. And it’s a problem your dad had and your grandfather had. I know maybe you’re doubting right now because of the behavior you’ve had. You’ve hurt so many people and done so much damage. And you think, there’s just no hope for me. There is hope for you. And it’s found by faith in Jesus Christ.
And today, if you’ll confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and you’ll believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you’ll turn away from your sin. God will receive you through the blood of Jesus. And so if that’s you today, I just want to ask you, if you say, that’s me pastor, would you just stand to your feet? I want to pray with you today. It’s my desire to help you come into a right relationship with God. And so today, right here in the room, we want to extend that invitation to follow Jesus. You’ve made it this far, but it’s time to go all the way. And today was that appointment. Today’s that special day. Wednesday night. Man, I love Wednesday nights. So important in my life, Wednesday night. Never thought I’d have a favorite day. But the day that God reached me was a Wednesday night. And he gave chance. After chance, after chance. This is not what God has done for you. Chance, after chance, after chance. And he’s calling you to himself right now.
Including you guys downstairs or on the radio right now, online. Listening wherever you are. God knows you. He sees you. He loves you. He cares for you. Even if you don’t love him right now. He loves you. Even if you’re not born again, he still loves you. And he wants you to experience his love.
Well, Father, I pray for those that would turn to you tonight. That even where they are, they can say, God, forgive me and save me. I want to follow you with my life. I pray for the backsliders that have come home. I pray for the backsliders that haven’t come home yet. Bring them home, Lord. Bring them to the end of themselves that we might have a strong, unified church to reach our city, to love our neighbor, to serve our family. We’re grateful tonight, Lord. Pour out your spirit upon us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
