Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you, if you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Amen. Good afternoon, Harvest. Good to see you all.
Why don't we remain standing for prayer? Father, we thank you so much for who you are. We thank you for your blessings in our life. Lord, we thank you that you have answered. Our prayers, Lord.
The greatest request and the greatest need we have is the forgiveness of our sin. And Lord, you've taken care of that. You accomplished it on the cross for us, and you proved it that you are who you said you are when you rose again from the dead. And so, Lord, why should we not trust you with everything else? If you took care of our salvation, if you took care of the greatest thing facing us, which is death.
And separation from you, Lord. Why should we not trust you with every other thing in our life? God, everything we have, every good and perfect gift comes from you.
So we say thank you. We love you. We thank you for our church. We thank you for our team that leads us and worship every Sunday and the sermons we get to hear. God, we are so fortunate to be a part of your family and a part of this church, Lord.
We love you. And we ask that you would bless this time of Bible study now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
You guys can have a seat. Good to see you all. Welcome to church, everyone. I'm Pastor Jonathan Laurie. It's my privilege to welcome you to our 12 p.m.
service, 11 in Maui. Yep, good to see you guys. Hey, can we thank our worship team one more time for leading us on all our campuses? Always so good. Today, though, we are wrapping up the book of 1 John.
This has been a lot of fun. Don't worry, there's two more: 2 John and 3 John, that we're going to finish up also in the coming weeks. But today, we are in 1 John chapter 5. If you want to turn to your Bibles there, we've been going through this series which we have called Unbreakable, Unbreakable. And this is just, man.
One of my favorite books of the Bible is 1 John, because I feel like John does not mince words. Not that he ever did, but he does not mince words. He means exactly what he is saying. And he is really telling us. How to know that we are going to heaven.
What an important thing to figure out, right? How to know that you are going to heaven. You know, ever since I was a kid, I always enjoyed stories of buried treasure, enjoyed watching movies like Indiana Jones, later the Pirates of the Caribbean, all 17 of them. You know, there's some pretty amazing stories about buried treasure. I don't know how many of them are true.
Of course, we hear about different boats that sank, that lost all the gold to blooms and whatever, and lost all the treasure and the jewels and everything. There's actually a television series that someone told me about. It was called Treasure Hunters, I think is what it was called. There was one. Particular treasure that these guys were trying to find, and it's called the Oak Island Treasure.
There they said it was Mary Antoinette's gold and jewels and her all of her everything, millions and millions of dollars, was lost in these muddy kind of gross banks and uh wetlands and so people have spent Millions of dollars trying to find this treasure. They have lost treasure trying to find the treasure, and then they ended up with both.
So that's really a bummer. But I feel like today, we're really not that different, are we, in our lives? We are all, in a sense, looking for treasure, looking for purpose, looking for fulfillment in this life. And a lot of times, we can spend our entire life looking for it and come up empty. When the reality was, it was right in front of us all along.
It was a relationship with Jesus Christ, it was the forgiveness of our sin, it was the hope of heaven, and it was investing our treasure on ahead into the kingdom of heaven. That is the purpose of life, that is what you're created for. And so, it's kind of like John, as he was writing this letter to us, it's as though you inherited a great safe with a huge fortune inside of it. And no matter what you do, you couldn't get inside the safe. How frustrating would that be?
Right? Knowing that the treasure is there, knowing that it's right beyond your reach and you can't get into it. And it's as though John, or rather, your relative writes you this letter: Dear Bill, I'm assuming your name is Bill. Dear Bill. I write you this letter so that you may have access to the contents of that safe.
Enclosed are the instructions for how to open it. You would hold that document very dearly, wouldn't you? You would make sure it's tucked away very safely, probably hold it in your hand or keep it in your pocket close to your heart until you got right in front of it so you could follow its instructions exactly.
Well, in 1 John 5, 13, John says this, These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. Why? He gives us the reason why, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name. of the Son of God. Do you know that you have eternal life today?
Do you know for sure? Are you sure? Are you? Absolutely positive because if you find yourself saying, No, I'm not sure, or I'm pretty sure I do, I would just say back to you: is there any question that's more important than answering than that one? Do you know that you have eternal life?
John gives us a couple of things in our text today that are markers of a true believer. We would call them fruit, right? Spiritual fruit. Jesus talks about that. He gave us that illustration when he was teaching the disciples.
Spiritual fruit, you know, good free, a good tree, I don't know what a good free is, a good tree bears good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit. What's the best way to figure out if you have an avocado tree growing in your backyard?
Well, you can identify it by its root structure. You can identify it by the bark, by the way the branches are, by the leaves, right? But most importantly, whether or not it has avocados growing on it, right? And if you have an apple tree, if it's growing apples or whatever it might be, that's the best way to know what kind of tree you have.
Well, in the same way, John is saying, believers will bear certain kinds of fruit. And there's nothing worse than a fruit tree that doesn't produce, right? And so here in 1 John, we see John. the go the author of the Gospel of John, which we all know and love, one of the greatest books ever written. The Gospel of John, the author of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and also the author of the book of Revelation.
We see him writing to us today, the personal friend of Jesus, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the author of more than 20% of the New Testament, so he's really qualified to speak, telling us what fruit a person who has eternal life will bear. I've titled this message, This is How You Know. This is How You Know. Let's read together in 1 John 5, starting in verse 1. Whoever believes that Jesus.
Is the Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten of him. By this, we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.
And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.
So, who is he who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Of God. Let's stop there. That brings us to point number one: marks of a true believer.
I think that John just pointed out for us some really clear marks of a true believer. The way John describes a true believer, a true child of God, in these verses is with a word he uses three times, and that word is overcomer. You will overcome, you will overcome, you will be an overcomer. It's a great word, and the Greek word that he used for it is the Greek word nikau. Isn't that interesting?
That was kind of a joke. But so, Nikao, hopefully, it'll be interesting. Nikau, it was a term that the Greeks used a lot. It was a word that they used that ultimately spoke of ultimate victory that could not be achieved by mortals, but only the gods. They even had a goddess named for victory, which was Nike.
Nike, which is where we get the brand from, right? Or maybe they named the goddess after the brand? No, I don't think so. Yeah. I feel like a high school teacher right now.
Okay, so. They had a goddess named Nike, the goddess of victory, who aided Zeus in his battle against the Titans. And so basically, John is saying, You will have Nikal. You will have victory. The type of victory only associated with the Greek gods that was like flawless victory, absolute victory.
It's not a phrase to be taken lightly. You will be a conqueror, is what he's saying. You will, if you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, if you are really saved, you will be someone who conquers sin. You will be someone who has superiority over the lures that Satan advertises. Conquering will not be proven by your arrogance, by your words, or by your feelings.
It will be proven instead by your actions, by your actions. You will conquer your sins. You will conquer your flesh. You will conquer the devil. As a child of God, you are not a victim.
You are not just a survivor. You are an overcomer. And Paul says in Romans chapter 8. 8:37. Yet, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through who?
through Him who loved us. Because Jesus overcame, and now His Spirit lives in you, you too can walk in victory because the war has already been won. Isn't that good news, Harvest? Amen. So you will have Nikao, you will have victory.
And so, what does it take, though, to become an overcomer, to tap into this authority and into this victory?
Well, John tells us in verses 1 and 2. He says, whoever believes, That Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten of him. And by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.
So I see three things here. There's three things. The first thing that is a marker of an overcomer. Is that you will have faith that Jesus is the Christ and that He is the Son of God. You will have faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the prophesied one, and that He is the Son of God.
My dad said in a Message in 1 John chapter 4, a couple of weeks back. He said this about the Christian: He said, To be a Christian. You must believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. And he was God among us. He was fully God and fully man, and he died on the cross for our sins.
He bodily rose again three days later, and he will come again. You must believe that Jesus is the Christ and that he is the Son of God. The second thing I see is that you will have love for him. His people. It says this in verse 1: Everyone who loves him who begot, that's talking of God, loves him who is begotten of him.
Who is the begotten of God? Us, the children of God. We will love the children of God. By this, we know that we love the children of God, he says.
So, the second thing I see is that you will have love for God and His people. Do you love God's people? When you're pulling into the parking lot at church and somebody is a little slow to make that light, they're on their cell phone and they should be moving forward and closing the gap, but instead they're on their phone and then you give them a little tap and then they break check you even further. Do you have love in your heart for that person? Probably not, and that's okay, I wouldn't either.
But that's not the question: do you love the way people drive? The question is. Do you love God's people? Or do you just tolerate them, right? Do you just tolerate them?
Do you like to be around Christians? Do you value Christian relationships and friendships, or do you avoid them because they feel boring or out of step with your lifestyle? Yeah, I go to church on Sunday morning, and you know, I rub elbows with some believers and say hey to them. There's a couple of familiar faces I like to spot out, but really, you know, I'm living in a totally different way the rest of the week with totally different people. If you only like to be around people that drink, Or you only like to be around people who are obsessed with themselves and status and looks and popularity and drama.
And if you find yourself that everyone you want to hang out with is disconnected from church. And disconnected from truth and from the things of God, well, I would say to you: it sounds like you say you love God, but you don't want to be with His people. And the reality is, you may love the idea of God more than you actually love God Himself. If you don't love the people of God, this is a key marker for the follower of Jesus Christ, for the person who has eternal life. Loving God's people isn't optional.
It's a reflection of a heart that has been changed by Him. You know, one of my favorite days of the week, no, my favorite day of the week, it is Sunday. It's Sunday. You know, I get to keep office hours here at our church here. And I love getting to walk around the building.
We have a great staff and a great team, but you know what? It feels empty because you're not here. Because you're not here. This place doesn't feel the same. And so, when you are filling these halls, when I'm around you, man, that builds me up.
I love hearing from people talking about how they're going through a struggle and God is with them right in the midst of it. I love hearing about when people tell me that God answered their prayer request that we talked about three months ago and God did something completely different than they were expecting and how it's so much better. I love hearing that. It builds me up. I love being around the people of God in my men's group with my friends here at church.
It is important that we have a love for God and his people. John says in chapter 3 of 1 John, we know that we have passed from death to life. because we love the brethren. Do you have love for God's people? The third thing I see is in verse 2 also, obedience to God's word.
He says this: By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. Ooh, obedience. Do people still talk about obedience in 2025? Is that culturally appropriate anymore, right? Talk about a non-negotiable.
Jesus said in John 14:15, if you love me, You will keep my commandments. Yeah, that is a key indicator right there. Love for God doesn't stop at warm, fuzzy feelings, it leads to obedience. If you say I love God, but then you reject His Word and His commandments, really, you're fooling yourself. Authentic faith produces a real desire to do what God says, not perfectly.
But persistently.
Okay, let me say that again. Authentic faith produces a real desire to do what God says. Not perfectly, thank God, none of us are perfect, right? But persistently.
You will continue to do it. You will continue to try and strive to be more like Jesus. My dad has reminded us many times that as Christians, we will not be sinless, but we will sin. Less, we will sin less. We will not be sinless, but we will sin less.
Again, 1 John 5:13, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments. are not burdensome. I like that he gives that clarification. His commandments are not burdensome. If you are truly saved, if you have eternal life, God's commandments will not be burdensome to you.
Now let me say this, are God's Commands, do they require effort on your end? Oh yeah, they can require effort. Do they require discipline? Oh my yes, they require discipline.
Now, do they give regret after you keep them? Never. Not even once. Do they cause destruction in your life when you follow God's commands? Never.
Never have they caused destruction in my life. They have given me freedom, they have given me purpose, they have given me joy and life and gratitude for this framework that God gives to me. And so. When we follow God's commandments, we will be blessed. They are not blessed.
burdensome. At all. This is how you know. Faith. love and obedience.
They are the evidence that something real has happened inside you. They are not prerequisites to be saved. They are products of being saved. Does that make sense? They're not prerequisites.
We're not working to achieve salvation, but we are living out our salvation as new creations. They are products of being born again. You don't do them because you want to become an overcomer. You do them because in Christ you already are an overcomer.
So, number one, Marks of a true believer, you will be an overcomer, and an overcomer has faith in Christ, an overcomer is a lover of God and his people, and an overcomer has obedience. to God And His Word. And so that brings us to number two: the evidence for our faith. Let's read in verse 6 now, as John points out some of these evidences. Verse 6, this is he.
Speaking of Jesus, this is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not only by water and by blood, excuse me, not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one.
There you go, that's a very perfect verse right there to show you the Trinity, right? Take that, Unitarians. And there are three, he goes on in verse 9, that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood. And these three things agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.
For this is the witness of God which he has testified of his Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his Son. And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
Now, listen to this. Verse 12: He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Let's stop there. So the three things.
that John points to are the water, The blood. And the Spirit. Not to be confused with a boy named Sue, Johnny Cash's song about the mud, the blood, and the beer, right? And that's different. No, it's pointing to three main areas that testify that Jesus is who He said He is: the water, the blood.
in the spirit. First We've got the water.
Now, as we read through this, it seems a little vague. Like, what is John talking about here, right? The water, the blood. Is he just pointing out random fluids associated with Jesus, right? I think that he was very intentional about choosing these things, of course, the water and the blood, and I believe that they sort of bracket Jesus' ministry here on earth, the life.
And spiritual role of Jesus that he accomplished while on this earth. First, you've got the water.
Now, what things are associated with Jesus that have to do with water?
Well, Uh He turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, right? That was his first miracle. He walked on water. He said, I am. Living water, right?
He offered living water to the woman at the well. There's other things associated with Jesus. Yeah, he walked on water. Of course, when Jesus died on the cross, the Roman soldier stuck a spear into his side and pierced his heart, the pericardium sac, and out of it came blood mixed with water. And so all of these things are associated, you know, Jesus with water.
But I think John had something very specific in mind. And I think what John was talking about was the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. It was commenced when he was baptized by his cousin John the Baptist, and the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove. You remember that part?
So that's the beginning of Jesus' ministry, is when he was baptized in water. And then you've got the blood, which, of course, if we're following that train of thought, it's pretty obvious. It would point to his crucifixion, right? What John was doing here is, again, not just randomly pointing out to liquids associated with Jesus, he was actually refuting a false doctrine being spread around the church called Gnosticism. The Gnostics believed that Jesus was not physical.
But only came in spirit.
So John is pointing to physical elements. that really define Jesus' ministry, the water and the blood. According to John MacArthur, who is a New Testament scholar, he said this about Gnosticism. According to this heresy, Jesus, under the control of the Christ Spirit, gave valuable ethical teachings during his ministry. But then the Christ Spirit left him before the crucifixion, and the false teachers further claimed he died as a mere man, not the God-man whose sacrificial death atoned for the sins of all who would ever be justified.
Okay, it's important to know. that even to this day the deity of Christ is being attacked. Every false religion, every false belief system always goes for the juggular here, and it's always an attack of the deity of Christ. You look at Mormonism, you look at Jehovah's Witnesses, you look at even Islam, and you look at New Age beliefs like Buddhism and whatever, Hinduism. They all say something about Jesus, and it's interesting, they all say he was a good man, he was a prophet, he was.
A god, but he was not. The God. They all attack his deity.
So, though John is dealing with something called Gnosticism, which has been widely refuted, and really we don't have anybody that would. Qualify or designate themselves as a Gnostic today. He is speaking about something that is still being brought up to this day. Because ultimately, if Jesus did not have his divine nature at the cross, he could not conquer sin and death for us. Jesus was God incarnate.
Fully God, fully man. Is it a mystery? Little bit. Is it confusing? Can be, but is it something we have to believe?
Absolutely. Jesus was God incarnate. And now John says the witness has moved from the external, the water and the blood, to the internal. Verse 10: he who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. In other words, you don't just need to know about the truth.
You don't just feel it, but you sense it and you have it. And so, again, the real question here is: do you have the Son? Do you have the Son? Because according to verse 12, he who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Jesus is not just a step in the process, he is the whole process. You've got the physical ministry of Jesus, the water and the blood, and you've got the Spirit inside of you bearing witness that these things are true.
So if you have Him, You have life. And that leads us to point number three.
So, again, number one, the marks of a true believer. Number two, the evidence for our faith: the water, the blood, and the spirit. And third and finally, standing in victory. Standing in victory. And John Noel brings a close to his letter here in verses 13 to 21.
Let's read together. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. That you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Now, this is the confidence that we have in Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. You might want to underline that one. You can take that to the bank, that's pretty good. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked. of him.
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask and he will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is not sin leading to death. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.
Verse 19: We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ. And this is the true God and eternal life. And then, verse 21, he closes out. The whole chapter, the whole book.
With this phrase here. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. Talk about a wide gamut from John in those last nine verses, right? I remember hearing in high school that if you read, you know, if you're trying to understand what a document is saying or a book is saying, read like the first pages of the first chapter, read like some of the pages in like the middle chapter, and then read like the last couple of pages on the very last chapter, right?
This, by the way, did not work well for me in high school, so I wouldn't recommend it. But I feel like if you did that here with the book of 1 John and you read those last nine verses, you would be like, I have more questions than what I started off with, right?
So imagine reading that. Yeah, you'd have more questions. And so, right away, John reminds us, the readers, the intended audience for this, the recipients of this letter. He says, I write these things to you to remind you that you have eternal life so that you may continue to believe, that you may continue in your faith in Jesus. And he goes right into verse 14 and 15.
If we ask anything according to God's will, he hears us. And if he hears us, we know he will give us what we ask. Confidence in your salvation will give you confidence in prayer. It'll also help you know the right things to pray for, right? I am a child of God, okay?
God took care of the most important thing. He forgave me of my sin. He gave me a new nature. Still working on getting rid of the old nature, and that's the reality of every follower of Christ. But he's given me a new nature.
He's restored what the locusts have eaten away. He's done the most important things in my life. Do you think I don't pray to him about stupid things like, God, help me find my car keys? God took care of the most important things. You think I'm not going to ask him about helping me find my stupid pet lizard I lost in the garage for the ninth time?
I can't tell you how many times we've lost a pet or something goes missing, and I literally, hey, let's pray about it. All that can happen is it doesn't, you know, it doesn't take place or God doesn't answer it. But putting it in God's very capable hands, I'm blown away how many times He answers my stupid little prayer request, right? And then guess what? At the end of it, I have an opportunity to thank God for answering my prayer.
That's always awesome. I love doing that. Seriously, talk to some of the guys that are in my men's group. They'll tell you how many times I've lost a stupid lizard in my garage. Usually, it's when a friend comes over and they want me to pull it out and show it to them.
I like reptiles, I like snakes, and lizards, and bugs, and all kinds of stuff. Started off with my son, but then he kind of grew out of it. And I'm like, I'll keep going. And so now we have like seven lizard cages in the garage, got one in my office. Yeah, so if you're interested in that stuff, you talk to me after service.
But it's fun, but every time I pull one out to show a friend or someone that's coming over, they want to see, oh, show me one of these lizards you have. I'll pull it out. And it always escape, they get away somewhere. They go and jump behind my surfboard rack, and I'm pulling out five, six, seven surfboards looking for it. It's gone.
It is gone, gone. Like you can't imagine how good these things are at hiding, how fast they are. And so one of our guys in our worship team, Daniel Joseph, was over, and I was showing him one. Sure enough, the thing completely disappeared. Couldn't find it.
Looked for it with him for about 15 minutes. He helped me take my entire garage apart, couldn't find it. And I said, Well, Daniel, This is about the part, you know, the time when I usually pray to God and ask Him to help me find this stupid lizard. And I said, So let's pray. And so we prayed.
Looked again, couldn't find it. And I said, Hey, you can take off. I'll probably come back in a little, you know, a little bit later. Come back in 10 minutes later, and the thing is sitting in the middle of the garage in broad sight, capable. Like, so quickly, I found it.
It was just like, Yeah, of course. Thanks, God. Like, perfect. Go ahead, grab it, put it right back in its cage. Just wild.
If God took care of the most important thing in my life, do you think I'm really not going to ask Him to help me with the small things, right? Let me put it another way.
Sometimes I'll be laying in bed. 1 o'clock in the morning, 2 o'clock in the morning. One of my kids calls out, Dad.
Now I don't call back to them. What? I don't care what age they are. If they call out to me, I get out of bed. I usually go right over to them: hey, what's going on?
What do you need? Do you need some water? Need something to drink? Did you hear a noise? Are you scared?
Bad dream? What's going on? I'm quick to go and do that because I want to comfort them. I want to help them. If I, who am imperfect and an imperfect father, am willing to do that, how much more is your father in heaven willing to come to you?
What is it you need, my child? I love you. I want to hear from you. Tell me. That is what God does for us.
Though I still prefer them coming to my bedside than me jumping out of bed for them, sometimes they're like, What time do I have to be at school in the morning? I'm like, dude, it's. One in the morning. Like, this is not good for you. Like, go to bed.
As you learn to trust God more. And see, his will for you is good, you begin to realize that prayer, it's not just about getting what you want. Oh, God, answer this prayer request, give me this thing, you know. Just do all these things for me. Oh, genie in the bottle, right?
It's not so much about that. It's more about you aligning yourself with God's will. This is what I'm going through. This is what my need is. Answer it according to your will.
Oh my goodness, you'll be amazed what God will do in your life. And then you have the perspective as well to know. That God is in control. And if He doesn't answer that request in the way or in the timing that you want Him to, He has something so much better for you. And His timing is so much more perfect than your timing.
And so, again, it's not about getting what you want, it's about aligning with what God wants for you. And so that brings us to verse 16. John talks about some interesting stuff here, talking about if you see a brother sinning, ask and he will give him life. And he talks about sins that lead to death. And then some sins that don't lead to death.
Okay, it's really important to know: John is actually not talking about spiritual death here because the Bible is very clear that all sin leads to spiritual death, right? No, he's talking about some sins are worse for you than others, right? Like, if you're a drug addict, it is more likely that you are going to face the repercussions of that: overdosing, addiction, decay on your body. If you're an alcoholic, it is going to lead you to a more untimely death. If you're drunk driving, you are going to face the consequences for those actions.
Some sins lead to death a little bit more than others do, right? There are some sins you can practice your entire life and not physically die from, though you will face spiritual decay and ultimately spiritual death if you continue to follow in them.
So, John points out to us here: if you see a brother sinning, ask. And he will give him life.
Now, I spoke earlier about evaluating fruit. Jesus said, of course, the non-believers' favorite verse: judge not lest ye be judged, right? It's important to know: Jesus wasn't talking about evaluating or, you know, kind of understanding, figuring out what kind of fruit a person may have in their life, he's talking about condemning. Don't condemn lest you be condemned. You know, if somebody comes to Christ and God's delivered them from whatever lifestyle, but maybe they're still rough around the edges, you know, they cuss a little bit, maybe they still smoke cigarettes and they listen to whatever kind of music.
And you, you know, this person comes into church, you go, oh, look at this guy. He's such a hypocrite. Oh my goodness, look at this person. Are they even saved? I don't think so.
They don't have the fruit of a believer. Hey, judge not lest you be judged. That person is a work in progress. And John tells us what to do when we see someone engaging in sin. He says, Ask and he will give him life.
Before you pull out the lopper and the pruning shears and you go to work on this person, maybe what you should do is pray to Jesus before you do anything. Pray to God for them. Lord, help them to see what they're doing. This is not going to help them in the long run. Lord, convict them of their sin.
Lord, use me in this process. Help me to find an opportunity so that I can help coach them and minister to them and bring them along. Pray that God would deliver them and protect them and to use you in the process. Because if you are standing in victory, you need to help pull others out of defeat. If you are standing in victory, you need to help pull others out of defeat.
Lastly, John gives this exhortation in verse 21. This is the ultimate too long didn't read. Synopsis of, like, okay, if you didn't read anything else, you didn't hear anything else that I said, just listen to this last little sentence right here. And he says, little children, Keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Keep yourselves from idols. You know, we might get an image of our head of what an idol is, a golden calf, right? A statue or something, somebody bowing down before it. And yeah, that can be an idol. What we don't realize is often those idols or those statues, that golden calf, was a representation of the idol that they were worshiping, right?
So really, that happens to this day. anything that makes you love the world more than Jesus is an idol. Anything that distracts you from hearing what God has for you. is an idol. Anything that replaces your dependence on God is an idol.
It probably isn't a golden calf, but it's probably your success, your comfort, your career, your dog, your popularity, right? Imagine you get some bad news. You know, you got laid off from your job. Right? Oh shoot, how am I going to make ends meet?
Or you get some bad news from the doctor, or you get into a fight with your boss or with your brother-in-law or with your wife, whatever. And you get into this place where you're just frustrated and you're peeved. What is your go-to thing? What is the thing you go to to blow off some steam? That'll probably tell you the alignment of your heart.
Is it a social media scroll? Is it a Netflix binge? Is it your prescription drugs? Oh, I'm gonna take a little extra today just to help take that edge off. Did you know that 65% of Americans are on prescription drugs for psychological issues?
Now, listen, I'm not a doctor and I don't pretend to play one on television, but I will say that sounds way too high to me. 65% of us need to be doped up. Guess what? You have emotions. It's okay to feel sad.
It's okay to feel anxiety. It's okay to feel fear. You know why? You should explore those to their full extent and make you realize I don't have the answers. And what should it do?
Lead you to God. God, I'm dependent on you. I need you to intervene in my life. The psalmist said. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, right?
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Before you go and do that thing, and again, of course, there are clinical cases, many people, there's different things, it balances the brain, whatever else, that's fine. 65%, I don't think so. I don't think so. So I would say: if that's you, maybe you should pray.
Maybe you should pray and seek the Lord. Lord, am I depending on this? More than I'm depending on you, I will tell you when I lost my brother, I wanted to use every drug under the sun. I wanted to numb myself. I wanted to forget my problems.
But I said, you know what? Those things cause destruction. God, you allowed this to happen. I don't understand it, but I know that you're good.
So I'm going to come to you in my time of need. And you know what? God met me there. God met me there. He gave me his church.
He gave me peace. He gave me purpose. And most of all, he gave me the hope that I'm going to see my brother again. And that's irreplaceable.
So, listen, it is normal to feel sad. It's normal to feel anxious. It's called life. You need to learn to let those feelings drive you to your Bible and not the bottle. And so Anything that makes you want God less, or anything that gets in your way of your relationship with God, is an idol, and you must keep yourself.
from it. John is basically saying, whatever you do, Don't let anything take Jesus' place in your heart because an idol, an idol can't save you. An idol can't forgive you, an idol can't answer your prayers, an idol can't deliver your friend out of their sin, an idol can't keep you from the devil, only Jesus can. And so the question now in closing is this: Is Jesus in his rightful place in your life? Do you have the sun?
Or if you traded him quietly and subtly and even unwittingly for an idol. You know, idols, they always promise, but they never deliver. Jesus, on the other hand, he can always deliver for you. And so. As we close, Jesus is offering you something again, something an idol never can, and that is real life, real forgiveness, eternal life, and a new life.
He who has the Son has life. But again, 1 John 5:12, he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. It is that simple.
Now, you may attend church. You may live morally. You may know about Jesus, but do you have to do it? have him. Have you surrendered your heart and placed your full trust in him?
Because if you haven't, today can be the day that you trade your idols for the only one who saves, and you can walk out of here a new creation with a new purpose and a new hope and a new nature and eternal life. Not maybe, not someday. But today. Let's pray now. Father, we thank you for the words of John as we look at these and how relevant they are, seeing that to this very day, though nobody would say they are a quote-unquote Gnostic, Lord, there are many today that are practicing false religions and are trying to just handpick the teachings of Jesus and go about their lives saying, I live according to what Jesus said, when the reality is, Lord, they're far from you.
Father, we know that we can too also go through the motions sometimes and we just put on a front, but in our hearts we're far from you. Lord, help us, all of us. to look and see what idols we may have in our hearts. That's why it's the first commandment: have no other gods before me. That's really what you're getting at, Lord.
Anything that takes your place does not belong there. Only you should be there.
So, Lord, help us. In every area of our lives, to seek your glory, because that's when the greatest blessings happen when we put you first in our marriages, in our families, in our jobs, in our social lives, even Lord, to bring you glory. Help us, God, to do those things. It's hard. We've got a sinful nature that leads us astray and it shouts real loud sometimes.
But Lord, we know that your way is always the right way, and we never regret following you, and we are never burdened by your commandments.
So help us, Lord.
Well, our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, and we're praying here today. There may be some who haven't yet put their faith in Jesus Christ, who haven't yet turned from that sin and turned to Him, who haven't yet given up those idols. And embraced him as Savior and Lord. If you would like to do that, I would just invite you to pray this prayer out loud after me. You'd like to know that you're going to heaven when you die, that you've been forgiven of your sin.
Whatever campus you are watching from today, you can pray this out loud after me here at Harvest Orange County. Harvest Riverside, harvest on the island of Maui. Those watching online, even, you can pray this prayer too. Pray this now, dear God. I know I'm a sinner.
But I know that Jesus is the Savior. Who died on the cross for my sin. And I turn from my sin now. From this moment forward. I turned from idolatry.
I turn from my addictions. And I turn to you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen. God bless you that pray that just now. Congratulations. God bless you. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast.
To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it, just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on know God. Yeah.
