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Welcome to the Hope Community Church! Hope is a multi-site church community with locations around the Triangle in Raleigh, Apex, Northwest Cary, Garner, and Fuquay-Varina. We are here to love you where you are and encourage you to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ! We strive to speak the truth of the Bible in a way that is easy to understand, helpful in your current life circumstances, and encouraging. No matter who you are or where you come from, you are welcome here!
God.
We love you.
We know and we believe that you are the Lord of all
Thank you. That
whatever we might face, God,
you are seated on the throne.
You are in control.
Father, we just worship you in this place today.
All of this is for you, Lord. We just wanna honor you.
We just wanna bless your name together
as a church family today.
Lord, We love you. And it's in your wonderful,
and it's in your mighty and your powerful name.
We pray together and the church did. Amen.
Church, you can go ahead and take your seat today.
Amen. Well, hello, hope Community Church.
It's great to see you. It's great to be here with you.
Uh, my name is Jean and I'm one of the pastors here.
And if you're here for the first time, I wanna say welcome
to you and thank you for being here.
It's an honor that you would join us if you're, uh,
new online and say welcome to you as well.
There's a little button that'll pop up
and you can click on that and let somebody know
that you're new and they'll reach out
to you if you're in the room.
Uh, we actually have an area
outside the doors called Next steps where you can stop by.
You can learn about, uh,
different ministries that we have here.
Uh, you can learn about small groups or community groups
and um, just ways
that you can get plugged in, serving or giving.
And so stop by there after service, meet somebody
and, uh, get some information that you need.
Uh, you know, this past weekend we had, uh,
an amazing, uh, thing happen.
We had our high school retreat
and there were 144 students and leaders at the retreat.
And they had an incredible time.
Uh, but nine students accepted Christ for the first time.
And so I wanna celebrate that.
Just take a moment, celebrate that with you all.
And you know, it truly was a retreat, you know,
because there's so much noise in this world
and our high schoolers are just bombarded with it.
And they have this opportunity to just get away,
get disconnected from all those things,
and encounter God, uh, learn
who he is, connect with each other.
It's a powerful time to get to worship.
They hear from Aaron Nelson's teaching.
Uh, it's an amazing, uh, weekend.
And you know, when you give to hope, Um,
you're actually investing in the future generation.
And that's powerful. There were 12 students
who couldn't go, who couldn't afford to go.
And because of your generosity,
there were scholarships available for them to be able to go.
It was like $2,200 worth of scholarships that were given.
So that's an incredible thing.
And so I wanna thank you for that.
And I wanna take a moment to read, uh, Psalm.
This is Psalm 1 45. I'm just gonna read a small part of it.
It says, I will extol you, my God and King,
and bless your name forever and ever, every day.
I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
And his greatness is unsearchable.
And then this is the verse, one generation shall commend
your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.
And that's what happened this past weekend.
Our high school students got to encounter the living God.
And so I just want to thank you for your faithful generosity
in believing in what God is doing here and now,
but also for future generations.
So thank you for that. Uh,
right now we're actually gonna have a moment where we see,
uh, a story video of
how God is moving here in Hope Community Church.
My name is Jessica de Los Santos.
I've been going to hope for about two and a half years.
Um, I lived with my mom and my dad
and my brother and my grandma.
I didn't grow up in a Christian household.
I really let the world, um, kind of define me.
It gave me a kind of distorted view of myself with all
of these different opinions coming at me.
I struggled with anorexia for about two years.
It was like living in insecurity and shame.
Um, and I was really lost
because I had no voice to be like, this is who I created you
to be and I define you this way.
And it just being like a fog of lies
that just distorted my view.
I got an ad for the Bible app one day,
and I, I felt really let to get it.
I really like, felt like I was living in
despair and I needed hope.
And I was like, maybe, maybe this can gimme hope.
Like let me, let me see what, what the Bible has to offer.
When I started to watch the videos that were on there
and like read the word, I was like,
how has nobody told me about this?
Did they know that we're made in the image of God?
And like, did everyone just know
that like God calls us his
masterpieces and that he's like proud of us?
Like he doesn't look at us with judgment,
but like proud, like those are my kids.
I was like, how have I never heard this before?
This is so beautiful. So
after I started learning about the Bible
and about Jesus, um, for the first time I told my mom
and I was like, this is really cool.
Like, have you seen this? Um, so she told my neighbors
and my neighbors already went to hope.
So they invited us to come for Easter 2023.
As I started to learn more, God started to redefine me
and to give me an identity.
Met some amazing other Christians in my life.
I just grew deeper and deeper, like in love with Jesus.
And there came a turning point where I was like,
I don't want the world.
I don't want this emptiness and this pain anymore.
And like, I don't know if Jesus can heal me,
but I feel more alive when I'm with him.
Like that's, that's the one that I want.
So in January, 2024, I decided to get baptized.
After I got baptized, Jesus just changed my life.
And so it gave me so much freedom to know both
how loved I am by Jesus,
but also how accepted I am by Jesus.
When I lived in anorexia,
I felt very trapped like I was a prisoner to it.
But Jesus was the one that set me free.
He opened my eyes and removed that fog of lies.
That distorted my view to see that the fact
that I am made in the image of God means
so much more matters, so much more than my physical image.
He looks for a beautiful heart
and not a beautiful appearance.
And in a world where it felt like nothing
and no one could be good enough,
Jesus is like your belief is more than enough.
And that was all I had when I met Jesus.
I was so weak and burdened and that was all I had.
All I could do was believe in him.
And that was more than enough.
Amen. Let's stand to our feet.
We're gonna read from God's word.
One John chapter one verse one says this,
that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon
and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life.
The life was made manifest.
And we have seen it and testified to it
and proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father.
And it was made manifest to us that which we have seen
and heard, we proclaim also to you so
that you too may have fellowship with us.
And indeed our fellowship is with the Father
and with his son Jesus Christ.
And we are writing these things so
that our joy may be complete.
This is the message we have heard from him.
And proclaim to you that God is light
and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship
with him while we walk in darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another.
And the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
And the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful
and just to forgive us of our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar.
And his word is not in us. My little children.
I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father
Jesus Christ, the righteous.
He is the propitiation for our sins and not ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world.
And by this, we know that we have come to know him.
If we keep his commandments, whoever says I know him,
but does not keep his commandments, is a liar.
And the truth is not in him,
but whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love
of God is perfected by this.
We may know that we are in him.
Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way
in which he walked.
This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.
Uh, back in the summer of 2010,
I asked my mom to bring me to the movies.
Uh, 'cause there was a movie coming
out I was really excited to see.
It was called Inception. Have you seen it before?
Okay, there's a handful of us, a little bit of a mixed bag.
Um, came out 15 years ago. I'm about to spoil it. I'm sorry.
Okay. But I feel like I gave you ample
time to check it out for yourself.
Um, let me tell you how how the end of the movie goes.
Okay, I'm actually gonna start there.
Um, we're sitting in the movie theater.
It's a packed house, like everybody is
leaned in, they're locked in.
It's open weekend. And uh,
the way the movie ends is Leonardo
DiCaprio, who's the main character.
He walks into his house, which he hadn't been to in years.
Uh, due to some other stuff in the story,
he hadn't been allowed to go home.
So he goes home and he does something weird.
He pulls this little silver spinning top out of his pocket
and he spins it on the table and he's staring at it.
And while he's staring at it,
he hears his kids laugh behind him.
Now, he hasn't seen his kids in years,
so he turns his attention away from the spinning top.
And he walks off now while he goes over
and embraces his kids.
Uh, the camera is still hooked on that spinning top
and it's slowly zooming in and the music starts to swell
and it's getting really intense.
And everybody in the movie theater is like
holding their breath at this point.
It gets like really, really serious.
The top starts to wobble a little bit
and then the screen cuts to black.
That's the end of the movie. And I remember there were
so many people, myself included,
who were like, that can't be it.
Like that can't be the end of it.
There has to be more to the story.
Is that, and my mom was probably the only person in the
movie theater who's like, why is everybody so angry?
She had no idea what was going on, why people were upset.
And so on the car ride home, I had to explain
to her this detail that she had missed.
That little spinning top was super
important, uh, to the story.
Um, of inception.
Basically what happened,
I'm gonna say it's like two and a half hours long.
I'm gonna try to trim it down for you real quick.
Basically, in this movie,
Leonardo DiCaprio's character is kind of like this thief.
But what he does is he goes into people's subconsciousness,
he goes into their dreams to extract information.
So like he'll talk to somebody in the dream
to try to learn some information, right?
Inception is this procedure
where he goes into someone's dream
and instead of taking an idea,
he's actually trying to plant one there.
And so the only way this works is if they go deep enough
into someone's sleep cycle.
So multiple layers down in a dream to be able to, some
of y'all looking at me like I have two heads right now.
Multiple layers down into the dream, uh, to be able
to leave an idea there now,
because they're going into a dream,
within a dream, within a dream.
And the idea is for these dreams to feel as realistic
as possible, they need these little items called totems.
And the totems are for the people going into the dream.
Here's a small item for you to hold onto
to help you recognize what's real and what's a dream.
So for Leonardo DiCaprio,
when he takes this little spinning top
and he spins it on a table, if it keeps spinning
and never falls over, it means he's in a dream.
But if it eventually tops over, it means
that he's in real life.
So jump back to the end of the movie.
This thing is spinning
and we're all waiting to see is he still dreaming?
Is he alive? Is this real life? What's going on?
And before you get an answer, the movie ends.
And for 15 years people have been uncertain.
Was he in a dream or was it reality?
We've been asking that question and debating it.
It's been a lot of fun to have that conversation.
I love to get people's takes on it, all that sort of stuff.
But I was watching this movie not too long ago
and I had the same thought.
I was like, man, these things are so important.
Because when they were, uh, in a time of uncertainty,
they needed something they can hold onto to bring them back
to the ground to keep them grounded.
And I asked myself, I said, what in this world
can I hold onto that keeps me grounded in reality?
Like when I'm uncertain, when I can't really make sense
of what's going on around me, what do I hold onto?
And that's the question that I wanna pose to each
and every one of you in life.
What can we hold onto
to give us certainty in uncertain times?
I, uh, I want you to imagine a society. Okay?
Put your, put your thinking caps on for a minute.
Let your mind's eye get rolling.
I want you to imagine a society that's filled
with competing voices.
Okay? So many voices in fact that, uh,
no one really knows who to trust.
I want you to imagine a society
where it becomes increasingly difficult
to discern truth from laws.
Imagine a society
where people seek personal enlightenment over truth.
Imagine a society where essential truths about the identity
of Jesus are denied.
And in turn, well sin isn't really that big of a deal.
Imagine a society where some people in this community claim
to know God, but they actually live however they want.
I want you to imagine a world defined
by spiritual consumerism,
moral compromise and disconnection.
Does that sound familiar? If not,
go look out the closest window or open your Bible.
Welcome to the world of First John
and welcome to the world that we live in today.
'cause church, we live in uncertain times.
Uh, two weeks ago I showed my wife Morgan a video.
And in this video there was a lady sitting on a bleacher at
a high school football game.
And this guy walks up with one
of those t-shirt cannons, you know what I'm talking about?
And he stands in front of her.
And at point Blake Rain,
she shoots the t-shirt cannon at her.
She goes flying back like ankles
over her head, the whole thing.
And me and my wife, we watched this video like 30 times
and we're like, I hate to say it, we were laughing.
We thought it was hilarious. That was two weeks ago.
I found out today that video was AI generated.
In a world where it's so tough to be able
to figure out what's real and what's not, man, I,
I can't help but think that a lot
of us feel this sense of angst.
We live in a day that is conditioning us not to trust.
Every day you see videos online
and you go, is this real or is it fake?
And then you hear a news story
and somebody says, oh, don't trust that.
That's fake news. Actually. Listen to this one.
And now somebody else tells me, oh no, actually
that one's the fake news.
In our current day and age, we are being conditioned not
to trust, uh, government, family structures, the church,
all these different things that we were supposed
to find certainty in.
Now feel uncertain.
And what about when it comes to our faith?
What about our walk with Jesus?
How can we be certain of anything even there, right?
How can we know that Jesus is worth following?
How can we even be sure that he lived?
How can we know if we're truly saved?
How can we know what truth is at all?
The beauty is is that first John
actually speaks to all of these things.
And so for the next nine weeks as we lead up to Christmas,
uh, we are going to be in this series called Uncertainty,
where we are trying to figure out
how do we find certainty in the midst of uncertain times.
And to do that, we're gonna be walking through, uh,
the book of First John.
So if you have your Bible, go ahead and flip over there.
Um, and maybe even move that little ribbon to that spot
'cause we're gonna be camped out there for,
for about the rest of the year.
Um, I wanna encourage you be here every week,
because first John,
the way it's written, it's kind of cyclical.
Like after a while, he kind
of sounds like he's repeating himself.
Um, and considering the fact
that we only have 30 minutes when we get together to talk,
uh, I'm not gonna be able to hit on everything
as we walk through it.
But if there's something that comes up that you're like, oh,
I I really wish we would've talked about that.
Like, come back next week or the next week.
'cause we'll probably end up revisiting it.
But for now, uh, let's start at the beginning
to begin our time, Sam came out
and he read a passage that we'll be walking through today.
And maybe you were listening to that
and you were like, what the heck is going on?
I, I got lost like eight verses ago, right?
Uh, let's, let's ground ourselves.
Let's talk about the context of First John.
Let's start here. Low hanging fruit. Not a trick question.
Who wrote first? John? John, there you go. Okay.
I said it wasn't a trick question
that might have not been completely honest.
Um, there is some debate
about which John are we talking about.
Now, the camp that I've landed in
and the camp that I've, I think like 95, 90 6%
of people land in, is that this book is written
by John the Apostle
or John the disciple, the same John
who wrote the Gospel of John.
Okay? And we have a couple of reasons to believe that, uh,
I think we'll kind of unpack some of that as we go along.
But regardless of which John, it was,
this is what's important to know, it is a John
who walked with Jesus.
I think there would be a lot less debate if the author had a
less common name like John.
That could be anybody, right? There's probably 30 Johns in
this room right now, but whoever this John was,
he walked with Jesus.
And this is so important for us to know.
Let me, let me let you know why in the beginning
of this letter, John refers to himself
and his audience by different terms.
He says, there is us or we. And then he says, there is you.
Okay? Who is he differentiating between?
Well, the letter of one John was written approximately 55
to 65 years after the ascension of Jesus.
So Jesus has come to earth, he's lived, he's died,
he's been buried, resurrected, he's ascended back to heaven.
And now 55
or 65 years later, there's a conversation going on
asking, well, who was Jesus?
I want you to think about it this way.
When John says us
or we, he's referring to the first generation church.
These are the people who actually
had interaction with Jesus.
They remember when he was on the scene,
like they were getting the breaking
news updates on their phone.
They, they were there in the day, right?
They remember where they were.
When John says you,
he's talking about the second generation church.
And these are the people who weren't around then.
But now the only thing they have to go off
of are these stories about this Jesus guy.
And the problem is, is that sometime between then
and now, there are other voices rising to the surface.
There are other people, these, these false teachers
who are coming in and they're spreading misinformation about
who Jesus was.
And so as us, we, those original disciples were starting
to die off and these new voices were rising.
Uh, John says, Hey, let me write some stuff down.
So there's no confusion about who Jesus was.
There was this idea back in the day called Doism that was,
uh, it was a heresy
that was spreading throughout the church.
And basically the idea of this belief was
that Jesus wasn't really human.
Uh, he was really spiritual. He didn't have a body.
He was all spirit. And so, uh,
maybe people had kinda like this shared projection of Jesus
or like maybe God just like imply like did an inception
and put this idea of Jesus in people's head.
But the goal in this was let's separate
physical from spiritual.
And maybe this doesn't sound that dangerous,
but the reason why this is so dangerous
and the reason why John writes this letter is
because if we believe that Jesus didn't really become human,
that he only appeared as a man,
well then Jesus didn't really die.
And if Jesus didn't really die well then Jesus didn't really
resurrect, he only appeared to this separation
of the spiritual from the physical, uh,
gave people this false belief that as long
as my spirit is pure, then my body can do whatever it wants.
This was the ancient equivalent of, Hey,
my behavior doesn't really matter
because God knows my heart, right?
So I can live however I want. Now I know that's a lot.
Are you still with me? Okay, cool.
'cause we're about to hop into this
and we're gonna actually start exploring some of this stuff.
But with all of those things in mind, with all
of this uncertainty around who Jesus was, John is about
to start with what I call three totems.
Just like from inception, right?
These are three foundational truths that we can hold onto
that anchor us in reality to let us know who Jesus is
and in turn how we're supposed to live.
And I'm gonna give them to you up top
so you know where we're going, okay?
One, Jesus is real. Two, God is light.
And three, Jesus is the way
by which we remain in that light.
Okay? So let's start with that first one. Jesus is real.
Uh, John opens his letter with an eyewitness testimony,
and this really is a beautiful moment.
Uh, what he's doing is, is he's like, Hey, listen, uh,
the older generations, the OG Saints, uh,
we know who Jesus is.
And so now younger generation,
we want to tell you about 'em.
And we don't wanna just tell you about 'em from like
what we've been taught or what we've,
what we've learned over time
or anything we want to tell you about the genuine
encounters that we've had.
John is saying, Hey, let me tell you because I was there.
And so John, starting in one,
one might make a little more sense
to you this time around as we go through it.
John writes, uh, that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
he's saying, I was there, which we looked upon
and have touched with our hands.
He was physical concerning the word of life.
The life was made manifest.
And we have seen it and we testified to it,
and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was
with the father and was made manifest to us.
That which we have seen
and heard, we proclaim to you also so
that you too may have fellowship with us.
So remember right now he's saying us, we, and there's you.
He's saying, Hey, I want you to become us.
And indeed our fellowship is with the Father
and with the son Jesus Christ.
And we are writing these things so
that our joy may be complete translation.
Jesus is real
and we know it without a shadow of a doubt
because we have had genuine encounters with him.
John is holding onto this, it's, it's, it's his totem.
It's how he finds, uh, reality
and certainty in the midst of uncertain times.
And so I just want to ask you, this is John's testimony.
What's yours? When was a time in your life
that you knew without a shadow of a doubt
that Jesus was real?
And I ask you that
because if you can find that moment, if you can hold onto
that truth, I want you to rest assured in this,
if Jesus was real, then he's real now.
Like he didn't just pop into the scene to deal
with your specific issue there.
Like no, he, he is eternal and he will be eternal.
He will last forever. If he was real, then he's real.
Now, what is the story that you hold onto to remind you
of the certainty of the goodness of God?
Maybe it's the story of how Jesus saved you
or how he healed you
or how he revealed himself to you through his word,
or how Jesus brought you peace in
the midst of difficult times.
Can I give you one that I know is true of all of us?
How about the time he died for us?
If we can hold onto that, if we hold onto the truth
that Jesus was real, then, then we know
that Jesus is real now.
And then the follow up to that is
what do you do with that story?
John used that story as the tool
by which he let future generations
know about the goodness of God.
He said, Hey, listen, I want you to know, uh,
I've experienced his realness
and that realness is available to you as well.
This past weekend I had the privilege of going
with the high schoolers to the high school fall retreat.
We, you know, go up to late Gaston.
And man, it was a a beautiful time.
And lemme just tell you, if you're walking around right now
and you need like a story to encourage you
or if you need to hear about God's faithfulness,
his realness, find a high schooler that went on that retreat
and just asked him, Hey, what did God do?
I think one of the highlights of this time together,
the highlight of this time together was Saturday night, uh,
before the session before I get up to go
and teach Justin Thompson,
who's our high school pastor over at the Apex Campus.
Uh, he just opened up a microphone and he said, Hey, uh,
before we get going, I just wanna pass around a microphone.
And if anybody has a story
of God's faithfulness in your life and you wanna share that
and be so bold, will you just raise your hand?
And so one student raise their hand
and then two students raise their hand
and then three students raise their hand.
And then eventually I said, Hey, let me get a second
microphone so we can keep up.
And y'all for 90 minutes, freshmen
and sophomores and juniors
and seniors in high school
shared stories about God's faithfulness in their lives.
And they shared stories of grief, of depression,
of attempted suicide, of drug abuse, of loneliness,
of confusion.
And they were shared not as their present realities,
but as a record of all that God has helped them overcome
for 90 minutes after one shared so did another.
And then when that one started crying,
someone else came from across the room
and wrapped their arms around them
and became this tangible, uh, uh, expression of God's love
and forgiveness and grace and encouragement.
And after that, nine students stood up
and said, Hey, I want a piece of that action.
I wanna put my faith in Jesus
because I've seen it, I've experienced it.
These witnesses who stood up
and testified to the goodness of God, I want
to experience that as well.
And so, you know what I did? I didn't say, Hey, if
that's you, go ahead and stand
up and I'm gonna pray for you.
I said, no students, y'all surround these nine people
and I want you to pray out loud.
I want you to think about your spiritual walk
and I want you to pray
for them the wish you the way you
wish somebody would've prayed for you.
And y'all this room swells with the voices
of students praying out loud
boldly 130 some odd students praying
for the other nine saying, God, reveal yourself to them.
Make them make yourself more real to them over time.
Pray for genuine experiences, genuine encounters with Jesus.
And lemme tell you something in this room, there are people
who are struggling
because they're walking through some level of uncertainty
and your story might be the one that reminds them
of the realness of Jesus.
This is the reason why the incarnation Jesus
actually putting on flesh was such a big deal to John
because uh, Jesus actively becoming human is proof
that God makes himself known to us through Jesus.
And as we put our faith in him,
we can have fellowship with Christ.
And now he wants, uh, John wants to share this so
that you may have fellowship with us.
Also, when we share this story
of Jesus's realness in our lives, we invite others to taste
of that realness as well.
And John says, this fellowship that we get
to take part in together, man, when you're joined with that,
then he says, our joy will be complete.
And this is one of the reasons why I believe this is the
same John who wrote, uh, the um, gospel of John
because gospel of John John chapters 15, 16, 17,
this is kind of called the farewell discord.
This is before Jesus is about to go to the garden
of Gethsemane before he goes to the cross.
Jesus is, is giving this farewell to his disciples.
And and guess what He says three times
between chapters 15, 16, and 17.
He says, I'm telling you this so that your joy may be full.
What was Jesus telling them in John 15?
He says, well, when you abide, you have fellowship with me.
And through that fellowship, your joy will be full.
In John 16, he says, you'll have fellowship with the father
and your joy will be full.
And then in John 17, he says, when you have fellowship
with one another, your joy will be full.
And we gather around the name of Jesus, we have unity
with him, with the church, and with the Father.
And this argument that John is making is the bedrock
of every other implication that he's gonna make.
Let's move on. Starting in verse
five, verses five through 10.
Uh, John says, this is the message we have heard from him
talking about Jesus and now we proclaim it to you.
This is God's message about himself.
He says, God is light
in him is no darkness at all.
And this is, uh, the part where John begins to teach that
who God is has implications on
who you are and how you're supposed to live.
Verse six, he says, if we say we have fellowship
with him while we walk in darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another
and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
And the truth is not in us,
but if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar.
And his word is not in us.
John is saying something incredibly profound.
He is saying that God is light.
And if you're a note taker, I know this is usually the part
where you look down and start
writing whatever's up on the screen.
So I want you to write that down
and I want you to lock in for just a second
'cause this is so important because God is light.
You cannot claim to be in him and hide something from him.
You can't claim to know God yet.
Try to hide parts of your life from him by its very nature.
Light does two things. It exposes
and it reveals you ever turn on your light when
you're walking around your room at night.
Why? Because you know, if you try to get around
and those lights are off
and you stub that pinky toe on the corner of the bed,
you're gonna lose all religion, right?
By turning the light on,
it helps you avoid dangers and pitfalls.
And God is light as you walk in union with him,
he identifies the dangers and the pitfalls
and he helps you avoid those things in him.
There are no secrets and there is nothing that is unknown.
So your options according to John is this.
You either bring your whole self into the light
or you recognize that you're in the darkness.
And this raises another concern.
John says that there are some who claim to have fellowship
with God and they really don't.
Now, I think that can open up a can of worms for us, right?
Because we can think, well, how do I know if I really have
union with God?
I think one of the indicators here out of this passage, one
of the questions that rise to the surface is this.
Are you walking in the light or are you trying to hide
because you can't do both?
Are you trying to hide? When someone asks you
how you're doing, do you just say, I'm fine?
When you think about that conflict that you were in,
do you just say, I've forgiven them when really you're not
fine and you haven't forgiven them?
Are you afraid to show weakness
because everyone, including yourself, uh, uh, has to believe
that you're superman or superwoman?
Are you sharing words of encouragement online
but then gossiping behind closed doors?
When you talk about your sin, do you try to minimize it?
Like do you try to make it seem like
it's really not that big of a deal?
Perhaps you compartmentalize your faith where you've, uh,
you've surrendered some parts of your life,
but then there's some other parts that you hold onto
with a closed fist and say, yeah, God,
but not that, let me ask you this.
Are, are you trying to play hide and seek with God?
Good luck?
Isn't it funny how we understand
that confessing our sin is necessary for salvation,
but then we stop doing it?
Like I don't wanna assume knowledge here,
maybe you haven't realized this,
but in order to put your faith in Jesus, there has
to be a moment where you say, Hey God,
I've been living in sin.
I'm done with that. I want expose that to you.
I want you to have your way and I'm gonna repent.
I'm gonna choose to live as you choose to live.
And we kind of have that moment, uh, of where we say, God,
I believe, but that's not just like an intellectual
understanding that there is a God no listen.
In order to believe and to keep walking and to receive
and walk in salvation.
It's not just a one-time confession, it is a lifetime
and a heart posture of confession,
waking up every day
and saying, God, search my heart,
point out what's wrong in me.
It's bringing your real self into the presence
of a real savior every single day.
And so John is warning here that there are some people
who have confessed their sin and repented once,
but they don't persist in that repentance.
In verse eight, he calls that deception,
but in verse nine he says, Hey, guess what?
There's a cure. Verse nine.
He says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us of our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Listen, this was another thing that students
got to experience at camp.
Uh, I told students, I said, Hey, scatter off
and I want you to go talk to God about
that thing you're afraid to talk to God about.
So they took about five minutes, they went off
and they did it and they came back
and some of 'em, their eyes are all red
and faces are puffy and that sort of thing.
And they come back and I say, here,
here's what I want you to do now.
So I want you to find one or two
or three people that you trust and I want you to commit to
before you leave camp.
You're gonna share that thing with them as well
because James five 16 tells us that if we confess our sins
to one another, that we will be healed.
And guess what, y'all, they did it. And you know what?
They're met with grace
and they realize that, man, if I let this stuff stay out
of the dark and I actually drag it into the light for God
to deal with it, there's healing there.
Listen, if you want to experience complete unity with God
and the church, it starts with confession.
For some of you, the reason why you don't feel the intimacy
that you desire in your marriage is
because there are secrets you're holding onto.
The reason why you don't feel intimacy
or connection with the church is
because there's secrets you're holding onto.
Maybe the reason why you don't feel the intimacy with God
that you want is because there are things
you're trying to hide from them.
The Bible tells us that confession
brings about this healing.
We got one more little chunk to get through
one John two, one through three.
It says, my little children, I'm writing these things to you
so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin.
So really quick contingency here, his goal is do not sin.
So he's not about to give you permission for you to sin.
What John is saying here is, Hey, listen, sin is normal.
It's not okay, so don't sin.
But in the case that you do,
we have an advocate with the Father.
His name is Jesus Christ.
He is the righteousness, he is the
propitiation for our sins.
That's a big theological way of saying, Hey, there's a debt
that's due, and Jesus himself pays it.
He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world.
Two terms that John uses to describe Christ's relationship
with us is that he is our advocate,
mean he stands on our behalf and he's our perpetuation.
He takes on the punishment that we deserve.
So if Jesus does all that, what else is there for you to do?
He's carried the weight of your sin. He deals with it.
John wants us to know that
so we can be certain in Christ's identity so
that we can be certain of our own salvation.
He closes with these words, one John two, three through six.
And by this we know we have come to know him.
Listen, if you are in here and you've ever asked a question,
man, how do I know if I'm really saved?
How do I know if the prayer worked, if it stuck?
'cause I'm not always that sure, I'm uncertain.
Here's how you find certainty.
By this, we know that we have come to know him.
If we keep his commands, whoever says, I know him,
but does not keep his commandments as a liar.
And the truth is not in him,
but whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love
of God is perfected by this.
We may know that we are in him.
Whoever says he abides in him ought
to walk in the same way in which he walked.
So here's the question that that raises for us,
and it's a two-parter.
One, do you look more like Jesus today than you used to?
And if not, do you know 'em?
This can give us certainty in both directions.
Listen, if your life is becoming progressively more
Christlike and more obedient to the word of God,
you can trust that you have salvation.
On the flip side, if you claim to follow Jesus,
but there is no progressive change in your life
and you are not becoming increasingly more obedient
to His word, then I think it's safe to say that according
to John, you can have a certainty that you don't know Jesus.
Because If you know the Lord, you will love the Lord.
And if you love the Lord, you will obey his commands.
Do you obey his commands?
If not, do you love him?
And if not, do you know him?
So we get ready to close here.
Um, I think that there's some of us who, if we were
to sit down and really think about it
and say, man, if I look at the, the, the last little chunk
of my life, man, it is evident
I have not been obedient to the word of God.
It is evident that it is not important to me
to follow God's commands.
I just want you to have a moment to deal with that.
I want you to have a moment to allow God to deal with that.
And so what I'm gonna do is we get ready to close, is,
is I'm gonna pray for all of us
that the commandments
of God become cr increasingly more and more important to us.
But then I wanna pray for those of you specifically who say,
man, I fall into that category where at at least according
to John, I'm not walking in the
light, I'm walking in darkness.
And, and this has been my check engine light to say, Hey,
maybe I don't know God,
but you have this, this little tap in your heart that says,
yeah, but I want to know him.
If that's you, I wanna pray for you.
So here's what we're gonna do. Everybody bow your
bow, your heads and close your eyes.
And I'm gonna start with that second group first.
Listen, if you're here, if you're watching online
and that's you, and you say, man,
the word of God has drawn some stuff into the light
that maybe I wasn't ready to, to expose yet,
if you're there and you say, Hey,
my life has not been obedient to God,
that hasn't been a priority for me,
but I want it to be, I wanna say no
to my sin and say yes to God.
I wanna, I wanna take those things out
of the darkness and drag them into the light.
Can you do me a favor? Can you just raise your hand for me?
Raise it up high over your head.
Praise God. And now I'm gonna,
I'm gonna ask you to do something a little bit bold.
Can you stand at your feet for me?
If you just raise your hands,
go ahead and stand at your feet for me.
Listen, I I'm just gonna say this, our high schoolers
this past weekend, they stepped into a vulnerable place
and they were met by the love of Jesus.
And so if you're here and you're hesitant,
I just wanna encourage you stand on your feet and,
and prepare to be met with the love of Jesus.
Here's the last thing that I'm gonna ask,
and we're all gonna raise our
voices together in just a moment here.
Everybody, if you'll just open your eyes
and look to those people who are standing up,
if you can do me a favor and just kind of move towards them,
uh, people standing, if you're comfortable with it,
somebody's just gonna place a hand on your shoulder.
If you can't get over to somebody,
go ahead and extend an arm.
But, but this is really important.
There are people in this room who are saying, Hey, listen,
I have been walking in darkness
and I want to commit to, to lighting God,
expose the darkness in my life so that I can live for him.
And I just can, can we just let them know you're not in this
alone by stepping into the light.
You have fellowship with God and with us. We're a family.
And here's what I'm gonna ask you to do.
I'm, I'm gonna give you like 10 seconds. I'm gonna be quiet.
I just want you who are surrounding that person to,
to just pray out loud, pray for them
the way you wish somebody would've prayed for you.
Pray for God to help them, uh, in their walk with Jesus.
I'm gonna give you about 10 seconds and then I'll
close us all out with a prayer.
Come on, let 'em hear you. Let 'em hear you.
They stood up asking for prayer.
Let's, let's not leave our friends hanging.
Let's not leave our family hanging.
Let's let 'em know that, that we're here to pray for them
and boldly proclaim truth over their lives.
Father God, thank you, thank you
that you call us into the light.
Lord, there are some of us who have been hiding in the
darkness for so long,
and you're just saying, come to me all who are weary.
Let me give you rest. Let's deal with the sin.
Let's, let's eliminate it so
that we can have perfect union together.
And God, I thank you for those who stepped into that.
Lord, I know there are some of us in here who, uh,
just like Peter, just like you told him in
that same upper room, you said, Hey, you've been cleansed,
but I need you to return to me.
Let me continue to cleanse you.
God, we pray for a lifelong repentance, for hearts
that continually turn back to you
and pursue your will for our lives.
Father, forgive us in the areas
where we have allowed the darkness to overtake us.
And thank you that
because of your son Jesus, the darkness will never win.
Father, thank you for your marvelous light
and thank you for your invitation into it. We love you.
We ask all these things in your son's name, we pray. Amen.
Yeah,
man, thank you Aaron.
That was a powerful message.
You know, this weekend is baptism weekend
and there's gonna be a number of people
who are baptized here and at our Apex campus.
And so, uh, if you want to join us in that and come
and be a part of that, we'd love to have you here with us.
But I also wanna say, if, if you have accepted Christ
and you haven't taken that step of baptism,
of being baptized, that step of obedience, um,
that we're called into after we accept him,
I wanna just encourage you to talk to someone about that.
You can come and talk to myself.
Um, you can talk to anyone here who's on stage.
You can go to next steps as well.
You can also text baptism
to 7 2 9 8 9 if you want more information.
Uh, but we would love to help you with that
and walk alongside you in that
and meet with you and talk through it.
And so, uh, please text baptism to 7 2 9 8 9
or talk to someone, uh,
coming up and we'll get you scheduled.
Um, this is our second to last Thursday night.
And so, um, next one will be our last one.
I encourage you to be here for that.
I'm looking forward to seeing you and, uh, we love you all.
We'll see you next week.