1 John 5:13-21 - June 26, 2022

thank you br good morning White Plains Family it is good to see you it is good to worship with you what a morning of worship and baptism these are fun mornings aren't they we are excited to share in the joy with Tai and his family his public Declaration of his faith and I hope his baptism has encouraged you his baptism is meant to encourage the church in their in their um in their faith if you haven't been baptized after you've come to Faith that's the thing you should do you should be baptized that is our

First Act of obedience as we follow after Jesus kids it's good to see you you guys are dismissed to going up to kids church and if you see Tai up there make sure you give him a high five or a fist bump to celebrate his big day this morning okay it's good to see you all as they're leaving I do want to say thank you uh White Plains is a generous church I've been told that time and time again and and I'm experiencing that it's it is good uh to be here with you guys to

share with you that a couple of weeks ago I was up here talking about our high schoolers how they came back from camp and um how White Plains has a history of of just covering the cost for camp for our kids and we had about a $3,000 uh short to to make up before uh the next couple of weeks of camp and we have 13 teenagers headed out in the morning at 5:00 in the morning which is awfully early for a teenager in the summer but they're going to do it because they're going to Florida

and uh but and then in July we've got a leadership camp that is also in Florida CJ has something about Florida that he wants to take our teenagers to um and they're going so it's fun but um but I was I was uh informed last week that um that $33,000 Gap was met and um thank you thank you for your generosity um well thank yeah yeah and it was it was more than just that last 3,000 I mean many of you all you know grabbed envelopes off the wall and and contributed and so I just

want to thank you as a parents of some of those teenagers and kids that have went to camp and are going to Camp um to see baptisms that happen because of Camp God is at work and he's using he's using us as a church to do that so thank you so much for that and and we are a loving Church uh we love each other well and and many of you all know the story that Donnie Anderson has had over the past little bit and and there was a time that we might not have thought

that he would have came back into this building because of the accident that he had but he he uh he wanted me to share with you guys that he loves you and he's thankful for you and the way that you cared for him and his wife as he was in the hospital for a month or long I don't a long time long enough and uh so he's he's back today with us and we're excited to to have him it's good to see you I'm excited about this afternoon I don't know about you do you know

what's happening at 5:00 today that's right the the watermelon carving thing uh we're having our church picnic we're going to have so I I've not done a very good job of clarifying what actually tonight is outside the watermelon carving thing we should have probably called it a a a cookout now that hindsight 2020 um we're going to cook hot dogs we're going to have chips we're going to have cookies and y'all call it Coke right all soda is Coke down here I'm trying to remember we're going to have all that provided for you we just

need you to show up we just want you to be here and if you so desire to be competitive and I'm learning some things about some of y'all y'all are competitive a bunch so we got this watermelon carving thing now bring it pre-carved like carve it today or if it's not carved already bring it carved and we're going to have uh some kids to make it fair they're going to judge these watermelons to see who wins now the winner they get bragging rights and I've been told a pretty cool trophy um that might become a

thing around here to to get that trophy each year but but that's happening today so make sure even if you're not going to carve a watermelon come for the hot dogs the chips the cookies will have plenty of seeding inside and and weather per permitting outside we'll have activities to do sometimes it's fun just to do stuff together as a church and that's the goal of tonight is just to have fun together uh we we're celebrating baptisms we're finishing our first book together in first John um so there's lots of things to do together as

a family and we're going to have some fun tonight so 5:00 come hungry bring a watermelon if you desire but but we hope to see you uh tonight go ahead and open up your Bible we're going to finish 1 John chapter 5 and if you're like me if you just open your bible does it go to First John now mine almost does but my my digital Bible it just it automatically just goes there um we're going to finish the series uh this morning and if you've been counting this is our 15th message in first John

there's five chapters in first John we've had about three messages in each chapter I guess and so 15 messages you guys have done really well most of y'all have been here for each one and uh and I I trust it's been a series that has strengthened your faith I know for me I have grown from studying it and I've especially as I've started to learn how to preach it's been a good book for that but let's look at 1 John 5: 13- 21 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 and this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears us and whatever we ask we know that we have the request that we have asked of him 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 all wrongdoing is sin but there is sin that does not lead to death 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 we know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one 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 and his son Jesus Christ he is the true God and eternal life little children keep yourselves from Idols let's pray God we praise you today for your word and for Jesus we praise you for your faithfulness to us that you keep your promises especially as it concerns the eternal life that we receive as we believe in Jesus thank you for hearing our prayers and answering them thank you for these 15 weeks of spending time with you in in first John you have blessed it and you have strengthened us and we

trust that you will continue to grow us in our knowledge and love for you help us to continue to grow in our faith as we rest assured in Jesus's redeeming work on our behalf it's in his name we pray amen so the main point that I think we can draw from this passage is the main point that we can draw from the entire letter of First John and that is we can rest assured in our Salvation because God is faithful God is faithful that's just who he is as we finish this letter of First John

we've come to understand that God is faithful God is the one who saves us God is the one who keeps us saved we can rest assured in our Salvation because God is faithful last week I gave you six testimonies or six witnesses that prove that Jesus is the Christ that he's the Messiah that he is our rescuer it's upon these six witnesses that John says that we can know that Jesus is God's son those six things from last week in case you forgot is the baptism of Jesus the death of Jesus the Holy Spirit the

father our conversion testifies to that and the eternal life that God promises testifies to Jesus being the Christ and since we're finishing our study in first John I wanted to give you now that we're finishing a cheat sheet and so if you ever find yourself worried about your salvation or concerned that you're not doing enough or you don't know enough or or you're just worried that you're not saved this cheat sheet in your bulletin helps you to know you can know you're Sav because we can know that we know God that we are in God

that this is the last hour we can know the truth we can know that Jesus is righteous that we will one day be like Jesus that Jesus came to take away our sins that Jesus is sinless we can know that we've passed out of death into life we can know that no murderer has eternal life we can know love that God abides in us we can know the spirit of God we can know the spirit of Truth we can know the spirit of deception we can know that that we love God's children that love each

other we can know that we have eternal life we can know that God answers prayers we can know that we will not practice sin we can know that we belong to God we can know that the Son of God has come that the Son of God has given us understanding and we can know him who is true that is Jesus this is from a commentary that I've used throughout this series from Dr Danny aen who is a southern baptist Professor um the commentary is called exalting Jesus and 1 second third John uh it's been a

good commentary to help uh shape these messages but these 22 things we can know help us rest assured in our Salvation because we can know these things we are reminded that God is faithful as we finish our time in first John we're going to focus on those last few things on that cheat sheet in verse 13 John writes the thesis for his letter this is the main idea of his letter why he wrote it John writes with purpose he wrote the Gospel with purpose and he wrote he writes this letter with purpose it's nothing new

as we've had this idea in front of us throughout our time in 1 John but chapter 5:13 says 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 John is focused on reassuring us of our eternal life in Jesus this verse picks up from last week in verse 12 where it says Whoever has the son has life whoever does not have the son does not have life this reality of everlasting eternal life is an important one for John he writes about

it a lot in his letter and it's he's reassuring his his readers he's reassuring me and you that we can know that we have eternal life because sometimes we doubt sometimes we wonder is it really true it's almost sounds too good to to believe but thanks for God's word we can know the second thing we'll look at is is that God answers prayers John points to the fact that God hears our prayers and he answers our prayers it helps to boost our confidence in God to know that he is faithful in verses 14 and 15

we read and this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears Us in whatever we ask we know that we have the request that we ask for God is faithful we can trust him because he hears us to him not only that as we pray to God and make requests that are in his will he answers those according to his will so how do we know we ask things according to God's will that's the question is it

when it comes to praying before I answer that I want to say that scripture tells us over and over that God wants to hear all of your requests even the ones that are on your heart that may not be in God's will God still wants to hear what's on your heart in 1 Peter chapter 5 the NIV of verse 7 says cast all your an anxiety on him because he cares for you when you're in need go to God In Prayer when you're in need go to God In Prayer don't try to pre-qualify your request

to see if they're worthy of God's time or if they're within his will just go to God In Prayer especially as you have need if you are anxious about something go to God In Prayer he longs to hear you and hear about your anxious thought he cares for you if you're concerned about something go to God In Prayer God knows your concerns before you voice them but he cherishes you reaching out to him in your concern God doesn't always answer every prayer the way we would like for him to do that but especially the ones

that we don't know if they're in the realm of his will but God promises to answer the prayers that align to his will he promises to answer those so what does that mean that he answers the prayers that respond that are aligned to his will in verses 14 to 15 let's jump back there and this is the confidence that we have toward him that we ask anything according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears Us in whatever we ask we know that we have the request we ask of him

what is God's will for us what is God's will for us we can know and we can discern that God Wills for you to trust Jesus God Wills for you to live a life of obedience to God's word god Wills for you to be marked by love love for God the community and each other God Wills for you to exhibit the fruits of the spirit God Wills for you to be baptized after coming to Faith there's probably more things that we can add things that we can find from scripture but these things we can know

and we can discern that God Wills these for us because they are found in scripture it's somewhat unclear for me to say God Wills for you to go to a certain school it's somewhat unknown to me or to each other who we should marry God has a will for all of that but we don't know that because it's not in God's Will and so it's hard to say that those things are certain it is certain that God Wills for you to trust Jesus to be obedient to his word to be marked by love to exhibit

the fruits of the spirit and to be baptized those things are certain the next thing in first John is another confusing piece is that I I want to spend a little bit of time and and that's the sin that leads to death we have victory over sin but John writes about sin that leads to death and ones that don't let's look at this in verses 16 through 18 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 all wrongdoing is sin but there is sin that does not lead to death death we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning but he who is born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him we love each other here at White Plains and one of the ways that we can show that is that we pray for each other especially as we see each other entertain sin

some sin leads to instant death what does that mean John acknowledges that some sin is punishable by instant death we have record of this in Acts chapter 5 ananas and saf are our examples of sin leading death they lied about selling property and giving it to the early church Peter confronted them and gave them opportunity to confess they held to their story and they were each independently and separately instantly killed because of that sin now this isn't the normal way like life happens but it does and can happen that way there is sin that leads

to instant death John says don't pray for that it's too late when they're already dead but John is encouraging us as we live life together in the church and we see one another struggle with sin that we should pray for one another what should we pray for for that person who is sinning sure we could pray that they would stop sinning that would be easy that would be appropriate probably we would we could pray that they would see the error of their way but is that it is that what John is leading us to pray

for here John is saying that we should pray and that God would give them life we should pray that God reminds them of their first love that God would remind them of the Gospel what they're saved from we should pray that God would extend their life keep them safe so that they could have more chance to love and cherish Christ all wrongdoing is sin and all sin ultimately leads to death but God is Sovereign and he keeps us safe sometimes even in our sin and I'm certain we all have people in our life who love

God and follow after Jesus but still struggle with sin so what do we do with Verse 18 let's look at Verse 18 18 again we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning but he who has been born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him the one who's following after Jesus is counted sinless even while living in this sinful World Satan cannot do anything to tear you away from Jesus you will eventually have victory over your sin because Jesus had victory over death one day

it'll happen but here and now we struggle don't we in our struggle we should trust God and attempt to follow God and be obedient to his commands because we belong to God we are his and in verse 19 we find we know that we are from God and the whole world lies is in the power of the evil one as those who are following after Jesus we know that we are from God but we haven't yet escaped this sinful world we experience the tension of sin that lives in us even as it's not counted against

us but on this side of Eternity that sin is still there in Christ God does not count it against you thankfully he doesn't see it but you live with it don't you you know it's there you experience it the world around us draws that sin out often doesn't it but we are from God the whole world lies in the power of the evil one sin is around us sin is in US sin happens to us and sin happens because of us we are not counted Guilty by God in Christ we know that we shouldn't sin

but sometimes we still do it we will ultimately have victory over sin but what about now what can we do now the Apostle Paul describes this tension pretty well I think that we all feel it's in Romans chap 7 in verses 14- 20 Paul says this for we know that the law is spiritual but I am of the flesh so under sin for I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate now if I do what I do not want I agree

with the law that is good so now it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out for I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing now if I do what I do not want it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me Paul

helps us to understand the war of sin inside of us even as those who follow after Jesus if Paul's going through this struggle don't you think you and I will go through this same type of struggle the world triggers that sinful nature it cultivates it this is why we need each other as the church this is why we should pray for each other especially as we see each other entertain sin this is why John says earlier that if you see your fellow Christian Living in a sinful way pray for him we need to pray for

each other we love each other the final paragraph of First John helps us rest assured in Christ because we know the truth of who Jesus is these last two verses in chapter 5 the final two verses of First John say 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 little children keep yourselves from Idols remember the main point from this morning

is we can rest assured in our Salvation because God is faithful God keeps his promises he promised those who would repent and follow after him that he would give them eternal life he makes good on that promise through Jesus his life his ministry his death his resurrection Jesus is at the center of our faith because Jesus is the true God and eternal life that God has promised this is true we believe it we put our faith in this truth because of it we can rest assured that our Salvation is true and holds because God is

faithful now if I was John this is where I would end this seems like a good Strong place to end a letter doesn't it he makes it a good point he finishes strong and brings everything back to G to Jesus but he adds one more sentence and it seems a bit out of place doesn't it the last last sentence of First John says little children keep yourselves from Idols now this is good this is true don't get me wrong this is helpful information especially as we follow after God we should not have Idols in our

possession our practice or our minds but what is John doing with this here if you were grading this letter as a teacher you would have to take points away because this sentence is in the wrong place probably it has to be it takes away from his Strong finish the verse before you might give John a B minus instead of an A but it's here this is scripture this is true it's important we need to deal with it we need to understand what John is doing here why is this last sentence here little children keep yourselves

from idols John is writing to a church that lives in the midst of a pagan culture whether we want to believe it or not even in the Bible Belt we live in a pagan culture idolatry was rampant in John's day it looks different here today but even here in the Bible Belt we too have idolatry in our midst it runs rampant John says keep yourself from Idols be careful not to follow Idols or allow them to a place in your mind in your practice or in your heart we don't have much context to go on

here but understanding what John has been doing throughout this whole letter we can assume some things that John is writing to a group of people who are struggling on what to believe they are dealing with false teaching and they've probably raised up some of these false teachers because they're good talented teachers they've probably raised them up and cherish them higher than they should perhaps some in the church have created Idols from these teachers who seem to know a lot but they're leading them away from the truth having an idol often blinds us this church lived

in a world where it was common to have idols we don't call them Idols So Much Anymore around here but we live in a world where it is common to have Idols we often spiritualize some of these Idols though sometimes we idolize teachers and preachers maybe we have memories of church and they move from cherished memories to an idol when it blinds us to what God is doing today a cherished memory can become an idol when our memory of the past is greater than our vision of the future perhaps we've set up certain spaces or

rooms in the church to be Idols they're not to be touched because we value them too highly for their past we can't see what God can do with them in the future we idolize them John says keep yourselves from Idols Moses when the people of Israel created an ID ID out of a golden calf Moses destroyed that Idol to protect the people keep yourselves from Idol from idol worship White Plains family that's John's final word to the church in this letter when we have an idol we replace Jesus as the object of our faith the

object of our faith must always and only be Jesus Christ as we conclude our first book of the Bible together I want to share with you that it's been a pretty rough week for me many of you have asked me how my week has been and I said it was good and it was good but it was rough this is probably the roughest week that I've had back in Kentucky since we moved here and I want to share with you because you guys are quickly becoming my friends friend and my family my love for you

continues to grow and I know you guys love me and my family probably my family more than me but I love them more than me sometimes too but it's been a rough week so let me share with you what has happened Wednesday I've got notes here because this is such a good story I don't want to miss anything I'm going to try to tell you the real story step by step because it's been rough but Wednesday we got home from church we were getting ready for bed and I'd walked from my side of the bed

around our bed into the bathroom to brush my teeth and get ready and I walked back got into bed Emily was doing the same thing she was brushing her teeth she came out hopped into bed something caught her eye and it she was looking at a place that I was not just two minutes ago and she said something to me that I will never unhear never in a calm but confusing voice she said to me there's a bat on our floor she was looking just where I was at where I walked she said there was

a bat on their floor now I have gone 44 years and have not heard that sentence until Wednesday night I would assume to spend the rest of my life to have never hear that sentence again I slowly set up I wasn't sure what was happening I looked in the direction of where she was looking there was a black blob of something in my floor it looked like a frog in a dress but sure enough there was a bat on our floor what do you do with a bat on your bedroom floor I didn't know I

wasn't prepared I grabbed trash can luckily trash was tomorrow or Thursday and so I had a bunch of empty clean trash can laying around so I in a moment of watching the office relived Dwight saving the office from this bat I threw the B I placed the trash can over the bat Emily in her act of Bravery gave me an Amazon box and shut the door and left me alone with this bat I took the Amazon box slid it underneath the trash can in hopes that I wouldn't disturb this creature I was in the bedroom

alone on the floor evaluating all my life decisions to bring me to this point after several minutes of processing what was unfolding in my life before me I summon the bravery and the courage to flip it over the trash can with the Box lid on top not secure but covering all the Open Spaces then I sat there again it seemed like 30 minutes to an hour was it maybe a minute or two it seemed like it was forever just process like what do I do what's the next step because I didn't want this thing flying

around now how side is 2020 we have a door that leads to the deck in our bedroom it would have been wise just to open that door and just throw it out but I didn't want this thing coming back I didn't know how I got there in the first place so I sat there processing what was I going to do I had this rat with wings in my possession there's this cardboard box between me and this living thing I had to get rid of it I summoned the courage to trans trans this thing out of

my house and Beverly I'd ask you that you know I don't know if I broke any laws with what I'm about to do but I plead ignorance and maybe we should cut the live feed just in case do we have like a slide that says there's technical difficulties in case there's any law enforcement watching this we don't need recorded evidence of confessions this morning um but here's what I did I took that cardboard covered trash can and I went out side but I took the long way instead of just going the front door which is

the way I wanted to go I knew that my shoes were at the side door and so I I basically took that bat throughout my house gave it a tour I got my shoes I went outside by the road where the trash can was waiting for our Thursday pickup and again I don't know if there's any laws about throwing away live bats if there are there shouldn't be but that's what I did I summoned the courage to cinch up that trash bag and secure that bat in the bag and then my in my final Act

of heroism because at this point I'm Superman not Batman it's too soon but Superman at this point I'm protecting my family from whatever Horrors happen with bats but slow motion was happening at this point I took that bag and flung it from my bedroom trash can into on top of my non-living trash in my trash can that was waiting for the pickup crew the next morning I don't know if that constitutes a rough night for you but that was a rough night for me because we didn't know where the bat came from we had no

idea I got rid of the problem but how did I not know not know that the problem would come back I don't know how we had the problem at that point need to say Emily and I didn't sleep much that night in fact I went downstairs I said I'm not sleeping in this room this is not where I want to be right now I went downstairs but the problem is downstairs wasn't any better because we have a fireplace and we thought that might be one of the places that came in we have a cat she's

useless the cat was downstairs I thought the cat should have done something but the cat was dealing with her own issue as I got downstairs and I was like this is not going to be a good night this useless cat that we have she was doing her own thing downstairs she was preoccupied with the fireplace now luckily I had empty trash can like I grabbed another one just in case I've done one already I thought that Amazon box was still close at hand I had peaked where she was looking she was preoccupied you could tell

she was looking at something it was dark and I saw what she was looking at in a moment of relief it was a bug I'd never been so happy to see a bug I mean it was a gross bug but it was still not a bat well I went downstairs to the basement and grabbed our remaining gallon of bug spray and I doused our fireplace I don't know if bug spray is flammable but we don't need to light the fire anytime soon because I it is dripping still with bug spray as far as I'm concerned

the only thing that need to live live in our house is me my family maybe our cat and any of y'all who come by and visit nothing else should be living near my house I had a rough week I had a problem it was it was a bad problem but I moved to action because I realized that I had a problem if you haven't surrendered your life to Christ you've got a much bigger problem than I had this week and I wonder if it keeps you up at night and for your sake I'm going to

pray that it does because there's something about staying up late at night talking with God figuring out the problems that you have giving them to him and resting assured in what he can do for you not only did I get rid of the bat but the next two days for me were consumed with Gathering facts and understanding how did I get a bat in my bedroom the next day Emily and I began to troubleshoot and to fix everything in our house so that would prevent another bat from entertaining entering our house we had an old

telephone junction box that had been open ever since we moved in it was just there open and wires hanging out and it wasn't a problem because our bed covered it kind of and we didn't see it so it was no big deal but we think at that moment we think that's how the bat came in in my mind the bats were in the Attic they somehow got into the wall and pop out of the telephone junction box well I I put a a thing over that it's no longer open and so Thursday by Thursday afternoon

we were 90% sure that there was no longer going to be any bats entering our house I also spent money like I didn't care I spent hundreds of dollars like they were pennies trying to find ways to keep bats from entering my house ever again I was happy to do it espe Thursday night as Emily and I lay down dark rolls over and the noises of bats in my wall come back it was kind of like a horror movie my wife has never seen me get the heebie jeebies like I did Wednesday and Thursday although

it was creepy and those noises were not friendly I was reassured that my repair would keep them out because that was where I thought they might be and to hear them I was hopeful I wasn't too confident I did get some painters tape and tape over the box that I had covered up just for added support because no one can get through painters tape Friday morning I was mowing the yard and I looked up at our bedroom and I saw siding had a hole in it everything's coming together now in my mind the bats are

coming through a hole in my siding and it just happens to be where that junction box was so I now have siding repair kits coming to me soon from Amazon I'm taking care of my bat problem as far as we can tell we have always had a problem of that broken siding and the open telephone junction box I didn't think it was much of a problem until it was and then it was a big problem that I didn't care on how much money it took to fix I acted once I was made aware of that

problem if you haven't acted on Jesus you continue to have a problem maybe your life hasn't informed you of your problem yet but without Jesus you have a problem what are you going to do about your sin problem I'm going to invite the worship team to come back to fly back up here we have just finished our first book of the Bible together it has been a journey for me and I'm thankful for it we have celebrated baptism this morning and I'm thankful for that we have worshiped God we have lifted up the name of

Jesus this morning it has been a good day to be at church but maybe you're still wrestling with some of the truth that we found here in first John maybe you're becoming aware of your sin problem do something about it come to to Jesus believe in him put your faith in his works and not your own on his ability to fix your sin problem perhaps you acknowledge that you haven't been baptized after your faith in Jesus maybe you don't feel the assurance that John speaks of in his letter process this with God this morning in

these next few minutes we're going to sing you pray ask God to help you believe ask him to strengthen you spiritually you can pray right where you are if you'd like to come forward and pray up here you're more than welcome to do that if you want to talk about anything not bat related I'll be up here waiting for you but let's pray God we praise you for this morning in your word you've been good to us through this series in first John thank you for Jesus may he alone be the object of our faith

strengthen us spiritually keep us from Idol help us to rest assured in the redeeming work of Jesus it's in his name we pray amen