Sermons About 1-john
Living with Certainty (1 John 5:13-21)
First John 5:13-21 teaches that, as Christians, we can and ought to live with certainty in a world full of certainties.
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My Brother's Keeper?
Last week at Sovereign King, we talked about living with a sense that God might do great things among us. I even went so far as to describe that feeling as a holy despair that God might not. Those great things of God require of us a necessary Godliness so that we might best be used by God when those opportunities arise. We also talked about the fact that if we aren't preparing for Godliness, then we assume that God will do not great things among us, and He probably won't. And the hope was that we would be radically transformed in the image of Christ this year. I encourage you all to pray with a holy despair that God would do great things among us. Despair that God might pass us by. We should love each other and our community with a radical love that causes people to be uncontrollably attracted to this community but ultimately to Jesus Christ. This week, John continues describing what the life of Godliness does and does not look like, and John is going to use the story of Can and Abel to help frame that picture. Towards that end, I think it is helpful to remind ourselves about the story of Cain and Abel. Abel was a kind hearted but more than likely a pretty smelly shepherd, and his brother, Cain was more than likely an athletic, young farmer. Well, the time came for both of them to make an offering to God. Cain brought the fruit of the ground and Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. Now when you read Genesis 4, we see that God found favor in Abel's offerings and not in Cain's. Maybe Cain didn't bring the best of the fruit of the ground. Maybe he only brought brown bananas and moldy peaches. But we know that Abel found favor before God because giving the first born is always a step of faith. Giving the first born says, "I have no guarantee of another sheep giving birth, but I will give this one that I have to God in faith. Essentially, Abel's offering required faith. Cain's didn't. (Always another reminder that if what we give doesn't hurt it a bit, it ain't faith). God ultimately rejects Cain's offering, so Cain decides to go off and pout about it essentially becoming the world's first bratty child. God, ever gracious and patient, gives Cain this ominous warning. He says, "Cain, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is to overtake you. You however, must overtake and rule it." What startling words. Sin is like an intruder hiding in your house waiting to seize you and rob you. Sin is the dark character of every horror movie ever written sitting just out of sight but just within your reach. However, Cain could not get beyond the jealousy he had over his brother, so sin ruled Cain and Cain murdered his brother Abel. Cain wanted to be good and righteous on his terms and not God's. He wanted to offer God His second best and have that count as if it was his first. God confronted him and asked, "Where is your brother Abel?" Cain response was, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The obvious answer was, "Yes, you are your brother's keeper." So, with that story as our backdrop, this week we are going to ask two questions as they relate to what Godliness looks like: -- What does it look like for you to be your brother's keeper? -- What does that look like specifically at Sovereign King Church?
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A Reading of 1 - 3 John, Old Books with a Contemporary Message
Nourishing Our Souls with God's Eternal Word with Thanksgiving
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Looking Back and Looking Forward (1 John 5:1-5)
Pastor Kim's message from 1 John 5:1-5 urges Christians to examine their lives for evidence of salvation and spiritual growth, especially in light of the New Year.
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House Rules Part 4
As we prep to jump into our passage this week at Sovereign King, we need to keep in mind several themes that are running through the book of 1 John. Let's keep in mind that John is trying to describe what it looks like to be part of the family of God. A few weeks ago, we saw a list of attributes that define the family. o A believer will be characterized as being humble understanding that they are a sinner. o Recognizing that sin means that the child of God will live a consistent life of confessing that sin to God. o That confession and repentance will cause them to walk in the light or live a consistently growing life of obedience. o Walking in humility, confession, and obedience, will cause them to be honest about that sin never pretending to be perfect. o Each individual believer then will be part of the fellowship of other believers in a community designed by God before the foundations of the world. Building on those characteristics, John also has been developing a few themes. For example: o A child of God will be in Jesus and Jesus will be in them. o A child of God will be in the word of God and the word of God will be in them. o However, the child of God will be in the world, but the world will not and should be in the child of God. That was the theme last week where John talked about not loving the world and all that is in it, but instead, we are to have our hearts and lives centered on the cross of Christ and all that Jesus has done for us. This week, however, John takes a turn in his teaching. Instead of explaining what the child of God looks like, he is going to describe a person who is NOT a child of God. What characterizes their lives, and what attributes describe them? Though we could probably assume the opposite of everything said about the child of God, John wants to be very specific. Now before we get started, we are going to run across some controversial language in this passage. We are going to see John use the word "antichrist" this week. As we move forward, I will make the same comment that I made when we saw the word come up in the book of Luke. o Every single generation since the day Jesus ascended heaven has declared that this is the generation that Jesus is coming back. o Every single generation has picked one or more really bad people and labeled them the one and only anti-Christ o And guess what? Every single generation has been wrong. That does not mean that being mindful of the times and the people of those times is not important. It just means that we should tread lightly and carefully before we start throwing labels and titles around. To be honest, we have made a joke out of Christianity in most every generation. o We have been so quick to declare that Jesus is coming around the bend that we have neglected our responsibilities in the here and now. We have been content to let this world go to h-e-double hockey sticks in a handbasket. o And any one that we didn't vote for or any terrorist on the landscape has been declared the anti-Christ. And you know what? We look like idiots, folks. Let's not let give the impression to the world that we are ready to start stockpiling weapons and freeze dried meals in order to stock our militia camp in the woods with a bunch of hillbillies that look like the guy from the front porch of the movie Deliverance. Instead, let's be wise students of scripture and our time, all the while holding to the mandate to proclaim Jesus while demonstrating love, mercy, and justice to a hurting world. Having said all that, this week at Sovereign King, we will examine this section of 1 John looking to see what the life without Christ looks like.
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To Make Our Joy Complete
The eternal Jesus Christ, made flesh, is the source of fellowship and joy. This message, that Jesus is God and came as a man, is shocking in its reality and reliable in its witness. And it leads us as a community on a mission to offer fellowship and joy.
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To Make Our Joy Complete (Excerpt)
The eternal Jesus Christ, made flesh, is the source of fellowship and joy. This message, that Jesus is God and came as a man, is shocking in its reality and reliable in its witness. And it leads us as a community on a mission to offer fellowship and joy.
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Blessed Assurance (1 John 4:13-21)
Kelly offers two reasons to have assurance of salvation from 1 John 4:13-21.
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House Rules Part 2
Two weeks ago at Sovereign King, we started our new series on the letters of John entitled "House Rules" where we talked about how John is going to describe what it looks like to be a believer. Essentially he says that if a person is a believer in Christ, then there are going to be some family characteristics just like there are in any family. For example, my mom is five feet tall. My dad is five seven. My hopes of playing in the NBA were greatly diminished because I bear the family trait of being short. Now, I remember one time in college where I went on a retreat and there was a basketball tournament for anyone that was 5 feet 6 inches or shorter. Technically, I'm 5' 7" and 1/2 but I told a little white like so I could dominate the tournament. Sorry, didn't mean to make that confession time. The point of the story is that my height is directly related to my family, and the curly nappy hair comes from my mom's side of the family as well. In the same way, the family of God will share some similar qualities and resemble each other as well. We won't look alike physically, and I'm sure you guys are all thankful you don't have to look like me and to be honest, I'm pretty thankful I'm don't have to look like you. But we will live our lives in some similar fashion. In fact, in chapter one, John identified five of those characteristics. He said, If you are part of the family of God then you will have a consistent growing life of obedience and transformation. o The children of God will not be perfect, but their life will be described as the habitual process of walking in the light and not in the darkness. o John doesn't pull any punches. We are liars if we claim to have fellowship with God but consistently walk in darkness. If you are part of the family of God, then you must have fellowship with other believers. o Specifically, we have fellowship with each other because we all stand cleansed of unrighteousness before God. o This is not a loose, "Hey I have Christian friends," but this is a created community that comes out of the design of God before the foundation of the world. If you are part of the family of God, you walk in humility. o If you or anyone else who claims to be a Christian say they have no sin in their life, you and they are deceived and don't know the truth. Humility is described by John as admitting and walking in the realization that we are sinners. o A recent book entitled, "Unchristian" by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons surveyed folks who do not claim to believe in Jesus and asked them to describe their impressions of the followers of Christ here in America. Their top three responses were "hypocritical," "insensitive," and "judgmental" - humility was no where near the top, in fact statistically, the number of people calling Christians humble was non-existent. o We should see something wrong with that. We should hear that and repent. If you are part of the family of God, you will confess your sins regularly and you will be forgiven regularly. o A regular habit of the believer is to walk before your God, confessing sin, and asking for forgiveness of that sin. o We should walk around with in the ever present reality of both the ugliness of our sin and the beauty of the grace of Christ. If you are part of the family of God, you will be honest and admit to each other and to the world that you are a sinner. o Listen, if you aren't honest about your sin, and you present yourself as not constantly needing forgiveness, by default you are calling God your Father a liar. o Lack of honesty about your sin is evidence that the word is not in you. So we see some consistent characteristics there: obedience, fellowship, humility, confession, and honesty. So knowing what characteristics should shape the life of a believer, we get to ask a really practical question this week. People who have those defining qualities, what can and what should those kind of people...do? Let's find out.
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