Sermon Cloud

Note:  these notes are not going to follow along too well for this sermon.  90% is there, but I moved a few things around and spoke to a few things that were addressed in the notes.  Either way, I think they will be helpful to you.

I John 5:13-21  “Assurance, Intercession, and Purity in Worship”

·        Do any of you know people that are amazingly self-assured?  Their confidence just overflows when you are around them.  Sometimes being around them can be encouraging, and quite honestly, some times it can be intimidating. 

o       Maybe they have the effect on you that you try your best to be at your sharpest, wittiest, and most intelligent when you are interacting with them.  Or, maybe you just shrink away when you are in the same room.  Either way, everyone in the room senses their confidence.

o       You see confidence that comes from humility and trust in God is attractive.  It speaks of thankfulness to what God has done and recommends humility as the past of life. 

o       Self-confidence without humility reeks of self-promotion and self-service and is repugnant and repellant.  The only people it attracts are other self-seeking, selfish, and arrogant people. 

·        A lot of athletes are like that. 

o       When the game is on the line, they want the ball in their hands.

o       When the Super Bowl is on the line, they want the ball thrown their way. 

o       They want to stand at the plate at the bottom of the 9^th with the bases loaded.

·        Moments like that are what many kids dream of and play out in the backyard every day. 

o       I had that moment my very first organized baseball game.  I may have told you guys this story before, but it bears telling again.  I was in 4^th grade in my very first little league game.  I had not stepped onto the field the entire time.  My uniform would not even need cleaning.  It was the bottom of the ninth, we were down, there were 2 men on base, and my coach decides to put me in as a pinch hitter.  I watched the last two pitches whiz by, I struck out, and we lost the game.  I handled that like many other 9 year olds do by crying my eyes out.

·        Fast forward 20 years later, and the exact same situation came up. 

o       I was playing church softball, it was the playoffs, and I step up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.  It was not lost on me at that last time that I was in the same situation, and the last time I was there I didn’t come through.  However, this time, I hit a bloop single that brought in two runners, and we won the game. 

o       Winning the game was enough to erase most of the pain of the 4^th grade, but I was pretty sure that I was never going to be any team’s go to guy on the baseball field.

·        No matter whether you are confident or not, built into self-assurance or self-confidence is this attitude that sounds like the expression, “If it is going to be, it is up to me.”  There is a sense in some folks, right or wrong, that they just know if something needs to get done, they know they can count on themselves.

·        Though this issue wavers back and forth between confidence and pride (which is repugnant and detestable to God) it got me thinking about confidence and assurance in God. 

o       If I asked many of you, “Is God powerful enough to do anything?” I think many if not most of you would say, “Yes.” 

o       “Is he powerful enough to create, heal, call things into existence by His very word??  I think most of you would say yes.

·        But if I asked you if He was powerful enough to keep your salvation secure and in the process assure you that your salvation is real, I don’t know if I would get as many affirmations. 

·        For some reason, we think God is powerful enough to do anything He wants in the material world, but when it comes to our heart, salvation, and assurance of that salvation, we think God either cannot or has chosen not to make us secure with Him.

·        This Sunday, at Sovereign King, I want to remove that doubt today.  Rather, John in this last sermon from 1 John wants to.  John is going to use language like “knowing we believe” and “knowing you have eternal life” and “having confidence” in God.  He is going to talk about what the life looks like that has confidence in God and what God has done. 

Question to Be Answered in the Service:

·        How does assurance and confidence in what God has done influence what we do?

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

In fact it leads to pride and pride is the bastard child of self-sufficiency

·        In brief summary, we have seen John build a case about the Christian life in the last few weeks that sounds like this.  If you have faith in Christ, then:

o       He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world. 

o       There is no fear in love because perfect love has overcome fear.

o       You have been born of God and everyone born of God overcomes the world.

o       God’s testimony to these things burns vibrantly within you.

·        With those things in mind, John is going to summarize and wrap up his litter that we call I John.  Those 4 points I just mentioned are his court case to argue his conclusion. 

·        He reminds us of his purpose for writing.  He want everyone who believes in Jesus the Son of God to know 100%, without a doubt, will full confidence in declaration that you have eternal life with God.  His purpose is to give assurance and confidence to all who proclaim Christ.

·        What is the opposite of confidence and assurance in Christ?  Well, confidence in the gifts God has given you without humility is as damnable as self-sufficiency.  It is pride, and pride is repugnant to the nostrils of God because pride speaks of self without and even in opposition to God.

·        The assurance that comes from knowing that God has 100% secured our salvation is intended to increase your dependence on God not your independence.

o       This assurance and confidence moves us from trusting ourselves to asking God for anything according to His will and He will hear us and grant that request.

·        Again, this is an area that is pretty well abused on late night Christian TV with preachers with pink hair and matching pink suits.  What does it mean that God we can ask for anything and God will request it.  The caveat there is that we can ask for anything according to the will of God.

·        So we must ask what does it mean to pray according to the will of God.  Well that would mean praying for anything that God has explicitly promised.  Praying for God’s known will.  What it is not a guarantee of is praying for God’s unknown will.

o       God does not promise to hear you if you ask for a new silk, 7 button suit.  Apparently, that’s why I don’t wear a suit to preach anymore.

o       Praying for forgiveness of sin however is a sure promise if asked in faith.

o       Letting your children play in the middle of the road and asking of their safety?  No.

o       Asking for God to grant a great harvest of people coming to know Him yes?

·        As I’ve mentioned before, folks ask me all the time how they can know the will of God, meaning how can they know those unknown things like what job to take, who to marry, what car to buy.

o       My answer typically is that there are thousands of commands in scripture that are God’s known will and He is more thank likely much more concerned that you know and obey those than worrying about the few things He hasn’t told you.

·        Deuteronomy 29:29 is a great verse to remember in times like this:  “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

·        An assurance and confidence offered to every believer is to pray for and obey God’s revealed will in His scriptures.  The fact that God’s unknown will causes us so much grief demonstrates that we don’t find enough comfort in His known will.  Pray for what God promises in the Word and watch your confidence and assurance increase.

o       Pray to believe that He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world. 

o       Pray that God would remove your fear because His perfect love has overcome your fear.

o       Pray that God would cause you overcome the world since you are born of God.

o       Pray that you would experience God’s testimony burning vibrantly within you.

·        Then watch your fears and struggles diminish and be replaced with confidence and assurance in God.  That confidence and assurance moves us along in loving others.  Look at verse 16.

16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

·        One of our foundational understandings about the need for salvation is the God promised death as a consequence of sin.

o       We hear that in the Garden of Eden where God say that if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then on that day you will surely die.

o       Romans 3:23 agrees with that declaration that the wages of sin is death.

·        So, sin equals death.  Here, we have John encouraging us to pray for brothers that are committing a sin that does not lead to death, so what gives?

·        Well, we need to put this in the context of the book.

o       Yes, sin equals death but in I John 3:14 we read, We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.  If a person has committed a sin by which forgiveness is possible, pray for them.

·        So for the believer in Christ, there sin is still sin as verse 17  makes clear, but their sin no longer leads them to death.  However, we still must pray to God that He would lead that brother away from their sin, and God will do it.

o       We must actively and in humility be praying for each other that God would lead us out of sin. 

·        That’s not our first reaction though is it? 

o       No, we see someone criticizing their husband or wife down in public and we either judge them in our hearts or become part of the sin by agreeing with or sitting silent.

o       We see someone in debt, struggling with faith, anger issues…

·        What we are called to, especially as a community that is committed to each other, is pray for each other when see each other sinning.  We don’t get to say it is none of our business.  We don’t get to say see I told you so when things go wrong.  It is our responsibility to care for each other.

·        Now, there is that odd verse at the end of 16 that says, “There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.”  Why in the world would John tell us not to pray for someone that is committing a sin that leads to death?

o       Well, this week I read some pretty funky explanations for this verse, but it is actually pretty simple.

o       John is not saying folks that commit a sin that leads to death are not worthy to be prayed for.  Of course we should pray for people who rejecting Jesus Christ which is the sin that leads to death.

o       What he is saying in the language is that that is not the topic of his discussion.  He is not talking praying for non-believers here.  Of course we do, but he is encouraging the body of Christ to pray for the body of Christ.

·        How do we love others who are sinning?   How does verse 17 give hope to those struggling with sin?

18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.  19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

·        This is our hope.  Praying the will of God for someone is praying that their hearts will move towards repentance, they will seek the Lord for help to obey, and walk in newness of life. 

o       The promise here is that if you are a believer, there is power to break your dependence on sin. 

o       God not only gives us the power to repent of our sin and walk in obedience, He also protects us from Satan, the evil one, who seeks to destroy you.

·        After hearing that language, do you realize how much is at stake?  Praying for one another’s needs and praying for each other’s obedience is your responsibility.

·        Theolgoians talk about two types of sins:

o       Sin of commission – these are things that God has told us not to do but we do them any way like “do not lie” or “do not covet” and when we do them we are committing a sin of commission.

o       Sin of omission – these are the things that God has told us TO DO and we don’t do them.  Here God is telling us to pray for one another so that we might become more and more like Christ.

·        If you do not pray for each other, you are committing a sin of omission.  You are not doing what God has told you to do, namely support each other in prayer.

o       Listen, I’m thankful if you guys are praying, even if it is just a “Lord, help me’ in the car on the way to work.

o       But those are the weak prayers of child.  We are called to offer big, strong, confidenct assured prayers to God asking Him to do His will in each other’s lives.

·        We should be given over in significant amounts of time of prayer for one another., so much so that it changes your schedule

·        How do you know if you are doing this? 

o       Is your prayer disciplined? 

o       Do you change your day to make sure it happens? 

o       Do you have a record of things asked for and things granted?

o       Can you clearly articulate answered prayers even in this last week?

o       Do you feel an ownership in the lives of each other?

o       Do you rejoice in others blessing because you have been blessed yourself in praying for them?

·        If our congregation is weak and non-effective, more than likely, it is because we are not praying for each other at home in private in our closets in humility.

20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

I think these verses in application are best explained for us in Hebrews 10:19 - 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

·        That includes trusting God and God alone. 

·        That includes seeking to kill self-promotion, self-sufficiency, and self-assurance

·        That includes the ministry of praying for one another.

·        That includes praying that the will of God be done in our lives.

·        That includes asking God to show me the idols of my heart and what I worship other than God.

·        Then as we do that, we will walk in full assurance of all that God has done holding fast to the confession of faith with our confidence in God and God alone.