Love Defined | Week 4

did you ever, you know, in your house or grown up, tell been told like you have a family resemblance?

You know, there's like physical, that's sometimes true. I mean, sometimes your kids are like like, are they my kids? Like, you know but some families, everyone look like they're all like, yeah, you know they're they're they're brothers and sisters. But even beyond that, like, hey, you're you have that family resemblance. It's either you look alike or a lot of it is you act alike.

And, like for me, you know, growing up, my dad and I had the same first name, Bill Bush. And and by the way, that's who I am. If you're new here, I'm I'm I'm Bill Bush, the lead pastor here. Or as my mom used to call me growing up, Billy Joe Bushy Tales. So there you go. Don't don't don't try that with me. But

they that that family resemblance thing is like we had the same name, but and I liked it when I was a kid. I liked having the same name. But then when I got towards like middle school age and people call me junior, I like that because I go, we have a different middle name. I'm not a junior.

You know? But but then then you get told like sometimes you wrote you're just like your dad and and that's usually it's it's it's almost always a good thing. I liked hearing that because it was normally a good quality except for when my mom would be mad at me and go, you're acting just like your father. Then I knew that wasn't a good thing.

But as as as you get older, you look back and for the good qualities that your people say you remind me of, you're you're you feel good about it.

But then there's also those weird ones, one that you didn't like, that you didn't wanna be like your parents. You're like, oh my gosh, I'm becoming like my mother or I'm becoming like my father. Or husbands do the stupid thing. They say, you're becoming like your mother to their wife. Don't ever do that. That's that's terrible. You probably already learned that. But,

even if it's true, you can't say it. But but that that family resemblance. And I think in our own lives, have this family resemblance. There's good and there's bad in it. Like like with my kids, there's good. The good part I liked was my dad taught me growing up to do hard things.

He would say it, but he would show it even more than that. And what he meant by do hard things is there's there's some hard things that are the right thing, they're the good thing, and they lead to something good, even if they're hard.

And and then I used to, you know, get frustrated kinda like my with with that saying, yeah, but this is hard. And he goes, oh, you think there's an easy way? That's the lie in this world. There's no hard way and easy way.

There's the hard way that leads to hope and good on the other side, and then there's the hard that leads to more hard and hopelessness and stupidness. Stupidness. The Bible even calls it, there's a way that seems right to man, the end that leads to death. So when you're sitting on deciding where you go, son, don't think there's this is gonna be hard because God called you this way,

but I could go this easy route. The Bible calls it, there's a narrow road and there's a wide road that leads to destruction. The wide road, it looks like a wide it's like if you're driving along, you go, I wanna go on that dirt road or that highway.

That freeway looks like it's gonna get me there faster. The problem is that freeway is a dead end. It just dead ends in the middle of nowhere. And so he was talking to me about that and so but I learned to watch him to do hard things. And I've tried to teach it to my kids. And and now that they're all grown,

I'm watching them. They're actually living that out. They they choose hard things. Now Now it wasn't always easy because just like I did with my dad, he probably did with his dad and mom, and I I'm pretty my my kids have done it with me. Like, they don't always get the perfect because I try to teach my son that. And one time when I'm talking about something, I go, son, you gotta do hard things. He goes, I am doing hard things right now. I go, no. That's called consequences.

When you create the hard thing, that's not what I'm talking about. And and yet here we are. We're we're trying to so in any ways,

some of us actually came from families that you don't wanna be anything like your parents. Because in this world, most of us, if we had an okay a deep even if you had a good family, there's the good that you wanna have the family resemblance. There's some of the bad that you don't want to have as a family resemblance.

But what about when it comes to being a child of God?

And if we're supposed to have that family resemblance, that's always good because God's perfect. Jesus loves us. Jesus was perfect. So any time that we get told we have that family resemblance, it's always good. But why do we struggle with it? We struggle with that,

and it comes back to love. And that's why we've been in this series Love Defined.

It's through first, second, and third John. And it's this apostle John. He was the disciple of Jesus. He's the last one left alive. He had seen Jesus, knew him, and he's writing to a church, these churches that he had shepherded and pastored for years. Now he's like 90, like I said. And

they went through a tough split where they had these false teachers

that that kinda just said, here's what it really means to have faith. It's we have the right set of beliefs. You just have to believe it. They called it secret knowledge. We have deeper truth than you do. You just need to believe this. But when it comes to the family resemblance, how we live our everyday lives,

they believed that all material things were just innately evil and they could not. So what you did with your body and lived in your everyday life didn't matter. So they said, all I have to do is believe this, but I can do whatever I want. And they were unloving,

they were mean, and they had been a part of this church, and it split and they left. And so the church was struggling, and John wrote this to decide how do you know what a Christian is? How do you know if you're in the family of God? What does it look like? And it's really all about love. How do we know? We gotta know the love of God, and then as we get to know the love of God, we can now actively live that out, and we can show the love of God. We love God. We love others.

And we'll see the family resemblance. And last week, talked about Jonesy did a great job, didn't he, last week? Pretty good? Yeah, he did a great job. It talked about love is obedience. Well, chapter three continues that, so it's nice. But it's not just a repeat. It

unpacks a little different because the end of chapter two starts saying, what this means is you gotta understand that you're living as a child of God.

And chapter three goes into that a little bit deeper And it unpacks the why and how and why we struggle and where the line is. Because it says, Hey, if you really are a Christian, the big idea for today out of this chapter is love is seeing the family resemblance.

If you wanna know if you're in the family of God, you wanna know you you we should be in love with God from his love to the point that we wanna be like our dad. Just like I did. As I got older,

as my my dad was older, I looked back on my life and one of the best things I could hear from someone that knew my dad and knows me, it says, You're like your dad. I wanted to be that. And we should want to be that. Obedience isn't this constant struggle of, like, teenage rebellion. We need to understand why

it should come natural to us even though we wrestle with sin still. And what we're gonna see in this chapter, as I read through it, is four things on how do we do that? What is it? How do we do it? Why do we struggle with it? And the first thing we're gonna see here in these first three verses is this.

We see ourselves the way the Father already sees us. This is critical. Before He gets into behavior, before He says what should look like, before he talks and says some scary things because he John is a person, the way he writes is how I aspire to preach. He loves and hugs and shows the tenderness as he also

throat punches like there's no tomorrow. This passage has some powerful challenge to us. But he's bringing it out of the fact that the challenge comes from first and foremost knowing what it means to be loved by God.

He starts with the wonder of God's love before he ever talks about behavior or anything. And here's what he says, See how very much our father loves us? For he calls us his children, and that is what we are.

So he says, we're a child of God. And that's critical. He's he's emphasizing because God loves us so much, we're his kids. So if you know Jesus,

you are a son or a daughter of the king. And he loves us so much. He died for us, is what goes on to say. He loves you. And do you realize do you see yourself that way? As a child of of God and from a functional family.

Not like so so a lot of times we what he's trying to get us to realize is obedience is not like, better do this or I'm not a part of the family. No real family does that. Even moderately dysfunctional families still don't kick you out of the family. But yet we approach God thinking,

I gotta obey, otherwise I'm not in the family. I gotta go earn the family. This what he's talking about is what Jesus did is that's not earned, it was given. He adopted us. When we put our faith in, we're adopted.

And and in our culture, think adopted sounds like a second rate. We weren't natural born, you know? But he's talking to this Roman culture. And at that time in the what adoption

was in these cultures was simply this. In the Roman culture of their time and their laws of their time, you could disown a natural born child at any time you want. You could actually toss if they're a baby, you could just say, don't want them and go toss them out on the streets.

You could you could do that. They could be you could be old and about to die and you go, I'm writing you out of the it wasn't this out of the will. You no longer have my name. You are not my child. You could kick a natural born out of it anytime you want. If you adopted a child, you legally could never do that.

Adoption was the more secure one to have. If you got adopted, there you are. And so he's saying we have this, and we gotta understand what that means. It means we see ourselves the way the father already sees us. Because look what he goes on to say. He goes, but the people who belong to this world,

that's the other family. Everyone in this room, we belong to one of two families, and that's it. There's no third option. Family of God or the family of this world? They both have a father. This world, Satan. And he speaks in a different voice. We'll see that. That's your choices.

And he goes, the ones that are of the other family, he goes, they don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know him. They don't know God.

He goes, dear friends, we are already God's children. That's the part I just said. We're already God's. If you have faith, if you know Jesus and you put your faith in him, this isn't something you're working towards, it's something you already are.

And he goes, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do do know that we will be like him for we will see him as he really is.

And he says, so we're not quite there, but we're getting to be more like him. We're starting to show the family resemblance, but when he comes back or we die and go to him, we will absolutely be a 100% family resemblance. That's what he's saying.

We're already in the family, but we're not completely got the we're working on it. We're going. And he says, and when you realize this, when you have this eager expectation,

that's what the motivation is to keep yourself pure just as he is pure. You're like, I wanna be like my dad. I'm proud of my dad. He loved me so much. So you choose it. What does this really mean for you and me to think about? Why is this a big deal?

Because most of us subtly think of God as the one that I have to obedience, excuse me, angry. I've got to do this or he doesn't love me. But when you understand he calls you a son or a daughter in the adopted way that at that time what it meant, I will never, and we already are that,

it's saying, like, the people that we just saw get baptized, which is always awesome because that's a symbolic thing. Jesus died, was buried. He died. He lived a life we couldn't live, died and was buried, but then He resurrected. So He lived a life we couldn't live and came back from a death we could never return from.

For us to adopt us. And when we put our faith in Him and know Him, that's why we go do that step. I go, I want to be like, I want do the same symbolic thing. I've died, and now I'm resurrected into this new life, meaning the old self is gone. The Bible says we are new creations when we become a Christian.

And why this is important to remember this is we gotta get the order right. Otherwise, we get frustrated when you hear messages on obedience, especially when you hear some of the tough things. He says, this is what it means to have the family resemblance. One of them is right here in this passage,

and some of us are gonna have a hard time with it. And you're gonna have a hard time with it because you don't understand that it starts with love. He's not forcing us to do this in order to prove our love for him. He's asking us because, hey, I already died for you. I know the way we need to go. I know it's right.

And what you need to understand before you get in this fight is what we see in these these three verses already and played out in the rest of this passage is something that I learned in in cemetery. I mean, it was seminary. It felt like cemetery.

You learn a lot of big words. You learn these words. But, actually, what they're trying to do is categorize all the scriptural teaching. And when it comes to knowing since they don't know him, what happens and what does it mean to know Jesus?

It means you confess you're a sinner, you turn to him, you realize, I need him. And he forgives us. And at that moment, it says we are justified. That's why he says he writes just to forgive us when we do confess sins all the time. Justified. What does that big Bible cemetery word mean? It means justified, never sinned.

It means the way he looks when you're a new creation, we have this new nature. We are not trying to redeem the old nature. We are new. We just are trying to clothe ourselves in the new clothing, the family resemblance.

Because that's where the Bible talks about. He clothes us in righteousness, take off the old clothing, put on the new. And so we are gonna still have this battle with sin. So even though in our nature we are now not sinners, God sees us as saints. We are saints who now still battle sin. That's sanctification.

That's where he says, We don't know exactly what we'll be like. We know that we're gonna look like Jesus,

but we're not there yet. But we are starting that's what this whole passage is about. We're on a journey called sanctification, meaning we are becoming more. We start to show more and more of the family resemblance even though we struggle. Just like real kids, they start to look like it and they do knuckleheaded things. We did this to our parents. Kids do it to us. We're gonna have this thing. It's called sanctified.

We're actually looking with eager anticipation toward him coming. That means we are gonna follow him because we trust because I wanna be like him because I know how much he loves me. So he's saying we are not we are saints who still battle sin. We are not sinners

that are trying to force ourselves to act like saints so God will love and accept us.

Just realizing that should change your approach to obedience. Because nobody's trying to take something from you in obeying God. God is not trying to take anything from you. 's trying to give us something. Give us the result of the love he gave us to live out the life.

And so if we don't think of it that way, we become these saints trying to we become these sinners. Here's what I mean. When you're a new you Paul talks about this in Romans seven. Why do I struggle

with keep doing the things I shouldn't I know I shouldn't do and not doing the things I know I should? He says that's still a struggle. But then he goes into chapter eight and says, but thanks be to Jesus Christ and what he did, and how he adopted me and loved me. And now I have the power of the Holy Spirit.

What he's trying to say is when we wrestle with sin, sometimes the problem and then we get frustrated with being called out is we get frustrated because we think, I have to force that old self to do this.

And then you think, why has God given me this list? And we think of it as pressure that I gotta jump through these hoops or I'm not good enough or or I'm not this because that's what the the other father of this world, Satan, we'll see in a minute does. He's an a liar and an accuser. So he wants us to to be over accused and under alarmed. He wants us to actually look and say, you can't do this. God's unrealistic by asking you to do this, and he's not gonna love you. And then he says, And you know what? Did he really say you're gonna die like in the Garden of Heaven? He kinda questions God. It never says Satan tries to get us to not believe in God. He just wants us to not believe God.

And so we get stuck in this obedience plan because then we think the lie is, I have to force myself. I can't even do it and I don't address my feelings and I'm all stuck. What he's really saying is, we are new.

So if you really wanna know who you are, if you know Jesus and you've accepted his love and you really know him, you know who you are? You are the one that wants to obey.

The part of you that feels that, that but you for whatever reason, you just are stopped because you're stuck. It's because you're believing a lie or you're stuck in a fear or you got this issue. But who you are right now if you know Jesus is the one that wants to do what he's asked you to do. 100%.

So when he says when he comes, we'll be exactly like him. We always think I'm the sinner trying to force myself to be a saint. But when Jesus comes, he'll change me into a true saint and and make me right. No, he won't. You already are that.

What he'll do is he'll remove all the other crud. There won't be the battle anymore. There won't be the voice of the enemy. There won't be any of that. You won't have the fight. He'll take the old clothes and burn them for good and will only wear the new ones. Now think about that. If you really believed that,

what happens to your view of obedience?

Obedience is, I get to be like that dad. Just like I didn't wanna be called Bill Junior. But looking back at my dad's life and what he taught me and what he sacrificed,

it's not like Jesus. He's not perfect. There's some things I wake up, and I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm acting like my dad right now and not in the way I should. But there are so many things that I can get teary eyed that when someone that knew my dad says, that is just like your dad.

And God's perfect. So you got to ask yourself, do you see yourself as the child of God that God calls you and sees you as? Because if you don't get to that point, everything else is just forcing yourself to try to redeem, trying to rehabilitate a sinner. We're not moral self help therapy here. You don't rehabilitate.

You lean into who you actually are and let God help you. We have to see ourselves that way. And when doing that, the next thing is we then learn to recognize which Father's voice we're actually listening to.

And this is where it gets a little bit weird as he describes this. Which voice? Who are we listening to? Verse four, Everyone who sins is breaking God's law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.

Anyone here's where it gets a little bit weird. Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. Right there, he's he's saying like, hey, didn't that sounded like he said, if you're a Christian then, you don't sin anymore.

And if you keep sinning, you're not a Christian. That does not mean what you think it is. That that that that verse I just read there has been used by some theologians, some some false teachers, some brand of Christianity to say that means that as a Christian, you becomes you actually start to become sinless perfection

if you don't sin anymore. You don't believe me? Last Easter, I had someone I I I don't think she actually comes to our church regularly. If she does and has listened and was in here, she probably hates me right now

because she came up after her and says, that was a great sermon, but you talked about us as Christians that sin. I'm a saint, not a sinner. And I go, I agree with you, but I'd say it a little bit different. I'm a saint who still battles sin. And she said, I don't see that in scripture. I go, seriously?

I go, I'm gonna tell you, you don't think you sinned, man? I sinned like fifteen minutes ago. And if you keep going down this road with me, I think I'm gonna sin again.

And she goes, she quoted this verse. And I said, Did you read what comes before it and after it? The verse four says, As a Christian, we know we're in this battle. And in chapter one verse eight, and he says, When you sin, when you sin, here's what you do about it.

Struggling with sin is not the same as surrendering to sin. That's what he's talking about. Because you gotta understand the background. He's comparing them because they got confused by these false teachers. He's saying those who continue in. And then he says again, he has another word. He keeps saying this, continue.

Continue doesn't mean I just struggle with it. Continue means it's a directional thing. I've already decided in my heart that this is okay. I can say I believe in Jesus, but that ain't a sin. I have no problem coming to church and singing the songs and saying I love the Lord and absolutely ignoring his word.

That's what it's talking about. And here's the throw punch then. It doesn't say we have sinless perfection. It really says we will sin less as we move in sanctification.

But it also is saying this because he says, those that do that continue in that don't know the Lord. If you say you're a Christian and you know clearly some things God says is a sin and you're not even fighting it and you know what he's called us to do and and and live out as a Christian and you actually are okay with not doing it,

you and you continue down that, that's where you're at, what he is saying is you are not his child. We probably have some people in this room that you've been coming to church a lot, you'd say you're a Christian and you are not right now.

If you can actually listen to the word of God taught over and over again that says, Here is how you live. And it's not that I'm wrestling with it, I've got to get past it, I need to seek help, maybe you do it, then you pull back. That's different.

That's where you just need help. But if you are gonna sit here and say, Yep, heard that. I heard him, this guy preach it right out of the word of God. It's clear as day. This is what I should do. And I absolutely just disagree and not gonna do it. There's a good chance you're not a Christian is what he's saying.

Because he says a Christian would not do that. You know why? Because if we really know Christ, we know his love, and we also have the Holy Spirit. That's what he's saying.

Look because what he goes on. He says, Dear children, don't let anyone deceive you about this. When people do what is right, it shows they are righteous,

even as Christ is righteous. But when people keep on sinning, that's you pick something and you just say, I'm calling wrong right, and I'm okay with it. And I'm okay with ignoring the things I ought to do. It shows they belong to the devil who has been sinning since the beginning.

But the son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who've been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning. Meaning we don't just say that's okay. We won't. And he goes, Because God's life is in them. Holy Spirit. So they can't keep on sinning

because they are children of God. It doesn't say we will sin. It says we weren't and we're not gonna call wrong right. So now we can tell you who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously

and does not love other believers does not belong to God. So if you don't get to the point of loving others and you're okay with ignoring our commands to love others, what does that mean love others? Love isn't words. It's not a feeling. It's a choice and an action. That's what it is. And God saw us to love one another.

And then he says, here's what a disciple is. And if we're gonna love people, it means we're gonna go live intentionally. We're gonna love them with our time, our talent, our treasure, and our testimony.

And we're gonna point people to Jesus, and that's gonna be the number one key. That's gonna be fundamental to my life. I will center my life around this gospel and love of Christ, and I will go live intentionally that love.

It's not I come to church and sing a song and tell people I say I love Jesus, confess that one little sin that I keep doing, and then go on ignoring what God's called us to do. I'm not saying this. God's word is. And we have to ask ourselves, hey, whose voice is the one that you listen to all the time?

We as Christians can get fooled and start listening. But if your whole life is centered around you say one thing, but the voice you actually live out is the other one, you gotta ask yourself, do you even know the Lord? Or are you just trapped in a lie and paralyzed by a fear? You gotta deal with it.

That's what he's saying. Recognize whose voice is talking. But see, we have a problem with that because the the the liar, he the the the enemy is he lies. It doesn't matter. You can believe in God and do this. That's called cheap grace. But he's also an accuser.

So when we say it doesn't matter, and then we go and you hear a sermon and stuff, he's like, See, you can never measure up. And then you get defeatist. And then the only thing you can do in that is walk away or get angry.

Because then you're like, why is God telling me to do this? Does he not know that my struggle? Does he know where I'm at? Does he not understand this? If God loves me so much and wants me to do that, why did he do this? Why did and that you know where that that is the voice of the devil.

It says that in in Ephesians, we need to be clear. We need to understand his tactics. He is whispering in your ear, and you are believing it, and you're building up this narrative, and you're getting frustrated. And the world's philosophy

wants to take us to why we think that's wrong and why Christians, because he goes on to say, Don't be surprised if the world hates you,

is why the world looks at us different is because we have been this world has a philosophy from its father that says, Hey, you can believe in truth, but make it relative and make it your truth.

Don't really believe in God if you want. Just don't believe him, which is what Satan did to Adam and Eve in the garden. He didn't try to teach him God didn't exist. He they already knew. He already knew. But what he tried to teach him is God can't be trusted.

You can believe in him, just don't believe him. Did he really say you'll die if you do the one thing he said not to do? You know what you need to do? You need to go around him because you will be like God. You need to go after what you know you need. You can't trust him. He's holding back on you.

So don't trust him with that. Do what you want. That's the problem. And we live in a world that tries to teach that. My dad used to teach it me this way. He goes, Son, here's why people get stuck.

Because now we're in this world that believes in relative truth. It's my truth. And a my truth Christian would be like, Oh, believe in Jesus, but this part of the Bible, that part, I don't know.

Know, one of them is giving. He's gonna talk about giving here in a minute. He's gonna give an example, so I'm just warning you, not me, him. But there's a relative truth that says, well, giving was Old Testament. No, it wasn't. Jesus says in the New Testament, you should tithe and do the more important things.

You know what he meant by that is, why do you make such a big deal out of tithe? That should be easy. That should be basic number one, and we'll get to that.

But we say, I don't have to. We we we do that. We we have a relative truth. My dad used to do this. He goes, here's the problem. People would get out a piece of paper and he goes, watch this. Oh, my dad's gonna teach me so deep.

And he took a pen and put a dot right in the middle of the page. Because you know what that is? What? He goes,

that's a person. That's where they're at. It's the combination of here's their truth, here's what they believe. And even when it comes together, I took a little bit of that, a little bit of that. I don't accept this. Like I said, I'm I'm a thinker, man. I'm putting together my philosophy of life of what's okay. And there it is. I go, okay. And then here's what they do. And he drew a circle around it.

And he goes, what is that? I go, well, it looks like a bull's eye. And he goes, exactly. People draw a circle around their truth and call it a bull's eye. My perspective, that's my truth. You can't tell me I just didn't hit a bull's eye. But here's the problem. The Bible says,

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That word sin in the English is translating a Greek word that means to miss the mark. So the reason they called it sin back in the day when they translated it first is sin was an archery term. You know what an archery term for sin means?

You missed the bull's eye. You can't just circle where you're at and call it a bull's eye. And we live in a world that philosophically,

fundamentally tries to fight against this idea of there is absolute truth and we can know it and it's right here. And they try to dismantle it in what they think is a clever looking kind of a, this is so philosophical and it really falls apart if you look deep. I have the image. I have the illustration that's used. You've probably seen this before. Put that picture up for me.

Maybe they'll put the picture up for me. There it is. Have any of seen this before? So many people float this around like, hey, you know what? You as a Christian, you're you're I'm not saying you're wrong. You you could be right, but I'm right too.

It's bad for Christians to say there's only one way. Well, Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and life, and no one comes to the father but by me. Well, all religions, they basically say the same thing. It's just a matter of perspective.

And so they say it's like, look, these people both come across this six or a nine, and depending on the point of view, it's a six to you. It's a nine to you. You're both right. Doesn't that seem to that's a liar. That seems like that fundamentally sound. That's true. No. That perspective is your opinion

based on your perspective. But there's two problems with that if you go deeper, which the bible does. First of all, how do they even know what a six and a nine is? It's called math. And math, no matter how relative we wanna say truth is in this world, math is not relative.

Math means math. I mean, they knew math's tried to change what math is, but they didn't really. They're trying to change the way you get to the answer. But the answer is still the same because we know that two plus two will never equal potato.

It equals three if you don't know how to count, but it's four. But if you look at this, they're trying to make it sound like it's both right. The second thing is somebody put that six or the nine there. Somebody drew it or built it or whatever that is. And guess what? They were either standing on the left side

or the right side. And so they know what it is. Your perspective may look like something, but perspective doesn't delineate truth. It's your point of view.

And the truth is, it was a nine or a six. You gotta talk to the person who created it. And we have talked to the person that created it. And you know what he says? He goes, it's it's it's a nine because the our guy on the other side is like, no. No. No. No. That's that's that's the art the father of this world's point of view that he wants us to see it from. He wants us to see it as a six six six.

Uh-oh. And God's on the other side speaking German to him. Nine nine nine. You're wrong. You're wrong.

Have you been trying to be a Christian with thinking that both voices are okay? There are things that there is no, I see it from this point of view. God says, No. That's the world's way of seeing it. I can prove it to you. Romans 12 talks about this exact principle and warns us.

It says, Jesus died for us. So here's what he's asked us to do. Live for him. Be a living sacrifice. Live out the life he died to give us. And he goes, how do you do it? How do you do it? He says, by not being conformed to this world. The word for conformity is a mold. Don't be on that side.

Don't look at life from that point of view. He says, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And then us as Americans went in English, go, renewing your mind, we go right back to the same problem the false teachers had. Oh, that means get their list of right thoughts,

the list of right beliefs. Get your doctrinal list exactly right. Now it does involve you have to have a doctrinal list. You have to see what truth is, but you think it's all about believing the right thing. No. That renew there of your mind literally means in English, seeing from God's point of view.

So what he means is the way you really should live out your life is stop looking at this point and walk around to his side. And that means what he calls sin is sin. What he calls the mission is the mission. What he says, what is the family resemblance is like is what he says.

And if we try to to change that or manipulate that, he goes, You're speaking with your real father's voice, Satan. And what Satan's trying to do is not enlighten us. He's trying to burden us and make us defeat us and give up.

He's saying don't and ask what these false teachers were doing. It goes back to the false teaching they had. And so he says, don't do that. Don't do that. Because then look what he says next. This is the message, verse 11, you've heard from the beginning. He connects it to we should love one another.

And then look at the example he gives. We must not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil and his brother had been doing what was righteous. So don't be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. He hates you.

Why does he use that? It's an interesting example about how to love. And he says, Cain was of the eve he was of a different family even though they're brothers. And if you go back to that story,

the story of Cain and Abel, the two sons of Adam and Eve, Cain was a farmer, Abel was like a herdsman, like he had cattle and sheep and all that. So he he raised animals, he raised plants.

And and it says that they went to worship God because this is even before and when you say giving is old test this is even before the idea of tithing was put in the old testament. Pre that, they already knew to worship God was to bring a gift. Give. Sacrificial giving.

And there's a reason why. God asked us to do it in worship.

Not because it's an obligation or an oppression, it's an opportunity to let go of some stuff and get a gift back. He knows that our natural hearts, the world's way would be we will start to make idols out of stuff and money and the things we have will be the number one idol, which is so true, because that's the one thing we can replace God with. God takes care of us. God does this. Well, we get focused on the stuff. Our time and our treasure, our money are two of the biggest things we we we make idols into because that's where we live life. And he says, you're gonna be tempted to do that. But I want you to know my love and know how much I care for you so much that if you're gonna be a living sacrifice for me, I want you to bring your first fruits

of what you make. Now back then, they didn't have money. So a farmer brought crops. A herdsman brought the firstborn of his flock. First, not make sure you have enough.

And think about how scary that was for for for a farmer, but even more so for the the the one with the animal. Like, if you give your firstborn, you're not convinced you're gonna have a second one. And what if the original ones stop being able to have children and or they die? You're you die.

It is a huge thing to bring your firstborn. Big time. And it says Abel did that. Cain says he got around to bringing some of his crop. It means he waited, made sure he had enough, looked at that, and then he goes, okay, I got enough. Now I'll go give something, which is how most of us in this room give. And God called it evil,

and he did not accept it. Why? Because he says it won't accomplish what I wanted it to accomplish in your life, which was take away your fixation on things, to take away your fear over money, Take away the frustration and the constant longing and materialism.

To take away the fights you have if you're married and always fighting over money. Because if two people don't trust God with their money, you both think there's not enough because you can't both get what you really want, so you're constantly arguing over it. The fear of what's gonna happen next. The fear of even for those of us that have money.

Some of the biggest people that struggle with tithing have plenty of money. But what you struggle with is, But the economy looks scary. I don't know. I have to provide for my man. I got a cold day. I got a cane back. I can't do that. And the reason we do that is because you think having more will make it easier. No. Having more makes you more afraid of what happens if something goes bad and you lose it.

God wants to take that from us and give us freedom. But the only way he can do it is if I don't just believe in him, I actually believe him.

Do you realize that is sin?

Or have you justified it some way in your head? And you've probably listened to the lie of devil. Some of you get frustrated. He's like, but I don't have any money. I'm not working. I don't make any money. That's why it's a tithe. 10% of nothing is

But you get frustrated, and the enemy over accuses you. See, you can't do it. You just can't. You'll never measure up. And then after you start believing that and get frustrated, he lies and goes, because you know what? Why would God ask you to do that in the first place?

And sometimes you don't want to challenge God, so here's where you go with it. Why is that guy asking you to give? He just wants your money, so you get angry at me. You know that's exactly what Cain did? When God rejected it and told him why, he got really mad at his brother.

His brother didn't do anything to him. His brother just trusted God. And then he got mad that God says, you're not living. You're not of this family. You're living evil. You're sinning. You're not trusting me. He went to give him an offering. So he obviously believed in God.

He's saying the evil is you've refused to believe me. I can't help you if you don't believe me. And instead, he knew he probably wasn't gonna get mad at God, so he got mad at his brother and he killed him. You know what we call that in our society? Being triggered.

Now I'm not talking about being a jerk. I'm not talking about purposely doing something to somebody on purpose.

I'm talking about a lot of what we call as triggered is someone did something and they weren't doing anything bad, but some reason that made this person react because it was something within them that they're struggling with. And instead of dealing with themselves, they get mad at the other person. That's exactly what God said. He didn't look at his brother because it says he got angry.

King got angry and God says, Why are you angry? He didn't turn his brother and go, Why did you make your brother angry? Why did you trusting me purposely flaunt that in front of him? You didn't do anything wrong.

The anger, the frustration was not about what the other person's doing or the truth of the matter. It's something in you. And I am telling you, there are many of you in this room that I just triggered by saying, if you say you're a Christian, you come to church and you don't tithe, you're sinning,

you are angry or feeling defeated. And you shouldn't be either one of those. Those are both listening to the wrong voice. God is saying, Why don't you test me on this? Do you realize giving, tithing, is the only thing the Bible ever God says, Test me.

Test me in the book of Micah. Test me and see if I do not take care of you.

Psalm says, Taste of me and see that I am good. What he's trying to say is, I can't show you that love if you don't trust that I will. It's a gift. And so I have to ask you, those of you that are angry and bothered by this, why are you angry? I mean, some of you are probably like, man, Bill's been he mentions money too much.

I only mentioned it brought it up. And I happen to know that's the number one idol in our society, in churches, and with Christians. I know that. Because about 70% of the people that say this is our church actually give. They do give, But by the numbers, only 7% tithe,

which means 93% of the people that say this is our church are doing the evil. Why? And if you're listening to Lila, I can't. God never said you can't. He said trust me and see what I do.

And that is probably holding you back in so many things, and and and you can get triggered and be mad at me. And I know some people, I know what you're thinking right now. You know what? If he talks about giving one more time, I'm gonna you're gonna what? What are you gonna do?

Write me a mean email showing that you're contradicting the truth of God's word and say, it's a six.

Or even worse, you just go to another church, and you have a choice in that. You go to a church that tells you what you wanna hear, which Timothy talks about that.

There'll come a time when people that say they're Christians are gonna go find someone who says what they wanna hear. And you know what he ends up talking about in Timothy two? You should tell the people that have money that they should be generous and they should be giving.

So if you go find a church that doesn't talk about it, you're not going to a church that's telling you what you need to hear. Or you can just go to another church because you're sick of me saying it. But guess what? The Bible, the Holy Spirit, and you went as well. And you'll just be sitting somewhere else ignoring God.

Or you can understand the same thing that God says, this is love to do this. But the enemy's trying to twist it and keep it an idol in your life. And I am loving enough to challenge us on that. Because I don't want anything from you. I want what God wants for you. And those baptisms

and everything you see around here is what God does with our giving. He takes it and helps us point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. And he takes the little what we all give, he takes it and multiplies it in ways that we could never do anything with on our own.

And if we really did understand how much God loved us and cared about the mission and loved people like he said, we gotta get to the place that we're thankful to give. He lets us be a part of it.

That will help you determine which voice you're listening to. Plain and simple. Which voice? Because we see ourselves the way Father already sees us, should help us then learn to recognize which voice we're listening to. And ultimately,

verse sixteen and eighteen says, We show that resemblance with what I've been saying with our hands, not just our mouths.

Love is not just words. You know this because some of you are in marriages that are you're struggling because the only thing you know of love in your marriage is the words. And you know what? You know what? The person that probably says I love you the most verbally is probably the one that shows us the least physically.

Because you're half like, no, you know I love you, baby. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. You have to keep saying it because you're not showing it. And that's what he says next. Look, he says, we know that real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us.

So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. Sacrifice. If someone has enough money, see, he's the one, not me. If he has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion, how can that love be God's love be in that person? Dear children,

let's not merely say that we love each other. Let's show the truth by our actions. We show, why do we struggle with this so much? Like Paul said in Romans seven, why do I struggle with not keep doing the dumb thing I shouldn't do? But he has that follow-up. And not doing the thing I'm called to.

Doing the sin, the thing I know I shouldn't, that's called a sin of commission. I committed an act that is obviously wrong. But James talks about this other side when he says, The thing you should do, you know the right thing, following me, is sin too. That's the sin of submission. I won't submit

to God's will and God's way. Both sins. And yet we get stuck. I and and here's what I know in my own life, and you're probably like me.

It does get defeatist when I keep going back to a sin. Don't you hate it? You're like, I've tried so hard. I didn't do it, but then I went back to it, and I ran back to that coping mechanism, or I acted this way in my family, or I looked at that thing on the computer again. I did you know, and we we said, never gonna do it again. I'm so sorry. And we we confess, and then we end up back there again. Well, that's when the enemy wants to over accuse and say, see. You can't put up. You can't keep up again. And then you get defeated, and or you get frustrated.

I get there. But here's what I've learned in my own life that I think is probably true, and I think I see it scripturally, is I think there's a reason why we get stuck here. It's because we only focus on that first part that Paul said. We only stop focus on the stopping something, not the starting something.

For example, I don't know if you guys have read it. Have you guys heard of GLPs? They haven't been in the news at all, have they? You know, the Ozempic and all that? Well, I I just read they're they're starting to have a problem. They called it the Ozempidemic

in Southern colleges, especially Alabama and all there, because those schools are still, like, old school. Like, when you go to school there, sororities especially are a huge deal for the ladies. And and and there's like like Alabama alone, I think they had 2,500 women young college girls trying to get 200 spots.

And and they have they even they haven't everybody wants the the the top houses. They even call them tosses. And nobody wants the bottom houses called bouses. Super creative. And and what's happening is when they went and talked, they got people to start admitting this in this top house search.

These girls, these young college girls are trying to go in. They've started to use GLP-1s.

And an article talks about, see, this is why GLP-1s are bad. These girls are on these things. They're doing it. I go, guys, step back. You're you're not thinking about this, Claire. The problem isn't the GLP one. They're proven. They're very helpful. They're super good. If you're prediabetic, all this stuff, and you're willing to go after health, they're good. If you are using them just because you wanna lose something, I wanna lose my appetite to eat less so I can get skinnier, and that's all you're doing it for, it's not helpful. The problem isn't the GLP one. The problem is with our society and the people, our hearts.

Why are we doing it is the problem. And what's happening is they were telling these articles. These girls are taking these things just to lose weight. Because in Alabama, the the Tauss, the largest size that a girl is in most of these is a size two. That's the yeah. We have a few heavy girls. They're twos.

They go all the to the double zeros. I didn't even know why would you have double zeros? Isn't zero low enough? And I feel sad that that our society is still pushing. And and you young females still believe that I have to have this to get that.

And so what you're gonna do is take this. But here's the thing they don't do. They take them, but they don't change their eating habits and they don't change their exercise habits. And have you ever seen what freshmen in college girls eat?

It's not very nutritious to begin with. They eat bad nutrition, and if you're trying to be in a sorority, they said the problem is they party like it's 1999. So they're trying to drink and do all the same things and just eat half as much.

And they're not lifting weights or exercise. If you start losing weight this way and don't get enough protein, you don't eat right and you don't lift weights, 45% of the weight you lose is muscle. And the term that we used to use when I was a trainer and stuff is you become scat, skinny fat.

You're just a smaller version of the same unhealthy body. And you're weaker. You're unhealthy. But man, you're skinny. And you know what's gonna happen with this? I guarantee you, we're gonna start having scurvy come back because because that's the other thing. GOPs are causing malnutrition.

No. They're not. People that are just taking it this way are mal malnourished. And, you know, where's gonna be like 1492 all over again? We're gonna be with Columbus sailing and go, we didn't eat any fruit, so now our teeth fall out and our hair is getting thin. They don't cause hair to thin.

The lack of nutrition causes your hair to thin. See, the problem is if you take it just to lose something and don't worry about what you need to gain, health, it's bad. That's

what he's saying here. Because I think I know when I get stuck over here, why do I keep going by this sin? I realize I gotta stop and sit before the Lord and let him examine my heart. Says, Search me, O God, in Psalms 51, and show any things that's not right with you.

Because we don't have the same perspective of God. And sometimes we're blind to it, and we just don't see it. And most of the time when I keep running back to this, running back to this, it's usually because I'm wrestling with not submitting to this.

And then we're playing a game. That's what this is saying.

It's saying we show the resemblance with our hands, not just our mouths. So what's the answer? In the end, finally, what's the answer? We need to trust the father's voice is greater than our feelings because that's what these last few verses says.

In verse 19, he says this, our actions will show that we belong to the truth so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty I love verse 20. It's the summary. This is the part I hope we go away with. Even if we feel guilty, even if our hearts are saying, I feel sad. I feel overwhelmed. I know.

He goes, God is greater than our feelings,

and he knows everything. He's saying, if you understand this, even when you do feel guilty, you're not afraid of God. You don't have to listen to that voice, that fear, that feeling. Don't go with your heart.

Go with God's voice. Because he says, Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty Now he's saying, like, you come before the Lord and you're, like, you're currently living pure and you're and you're just going to him with your needs. He says, We can come to God with bold confidence,

and we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. He says, God says, Seek ye first the kingdom, and all these things will be added unto you. God says, If you pray in his will that he will give you the desires of your heart, But he's talking about that's a heart now that is listening to God's voice. That's the true. That's the new heart. Because he says, You are obeying. You're listening. You're there. So he says, What you're asking about, what you're asking for is what you need to do his will.

In other words, I'll tell you here, we're some young people here. Hey, you guys. You guys have been actually fairly good except for you. You need to sit still a little bit more. And I know your mom probably already told you that. You wanna know the secret to how to get whatever you want in life?

I know it. I'll teach it to you right now. You don't know what it is? Want what God wants. If you want what God wants, you'll always get what you want.

Now I'm really trying to talk to all the parents in the room and the adults because I think you guys get it, but they really need to get it. So thanks for letting me teach a lesson there. That's what it's saying. And if you understand what his love meant,

it would be ridiculous not to trust him for what we really want and need in life. It would be absolutely ridiculous. That's what he's saying. The more we see the love of God, the more we understand, the more we'll listen to that voice and not our feelings that have been manipulated by the liar and the accuser.

Where are you at on that? Where are you at on that?

Are you over accusing? Are you under alarmed?

I think they go hand in hand. I think most of the time when we over accuse and keep going back, it's because we're under alarmed about what he's asked us to do. And we won't call a sin a sin.

And I know in here he used money as the as the example. And I think that's a good one for our culture because I think that's probably the number one problem with Christians in this room. You sin in not trusting God with your money. And I know that because our culture has made money an idol, and we fall for it.

We fall for it. American Idol is not some TV show. It's money,

And we have to deal with that. But it goes way beyond just that goal. Some of you are great with that, but there's other things. What are those other things? Just talk to God about it. Get in community. Talk to someone else. Trust Him. Otherwise, we run back. We run back to our comfort sins.

See, the reason sins we go back to is because they're usually unhealthy coping mechanisms. I've learned to go to this to just cope in a moment, but they don't really help. And I know this, and let me close with this example. My wife and I have been having a conversation, an ongoing discussion. Let's call it that. It's

only lasted for thirty four years. And it's about a drawer in our closet. I've had this drawer in every closet we've had.

It's my drawer, and what I put in is like my workout clothes, the comfy t shirts and stuff that I wear. And my wife is always mad because it always ends up overly stuffed. I'll clean some of it out, but she's like, why do you keep these shirts?

Why do you not get rid of it? It's a pain in the it's it's full. It's like, I've bought you new stuff. I've helped you get have really nice, newer kind of workout clothes and casual kind of wear clothes, sportswear clothes. Why do you keep these things?

And there's one in particular that's been in the conversation for over fifteen years now. It's this one right here.

This one right here. Now this, see the gray in it? This used to be a thick shirt. And I don't know, see the sides? It's like, why do you keep just a plain gray shirt? The truth is the front actually said Cardinals at one point,

but you can't even see it anymore. Matter of fact, the front where I wear it has has become so thin. It is such a a a a it was and this was one of those thicker shirts when I got it. You can see my face through it still.

And that's why my wife gets mad. Why do you wear this? You wear it when company comes over and they can see your chest. And I go, yeah. And then they can act like they're not impressed if they want, but they are. And

I wore this to I used to wear this games. I mean, there was a few years ago I still wore this to a game We could barely it was a little bit better off then. She's like, why are you wearing that game? It's my favorite cardinal shirt.

I like to watch it when they win and watch it when they lose. You know? So it's it's good for all occasions.

But but I'll wear it. I was just wearing it the other day. I pulled it out. Whole family was coming over. I was tired. It was after his church. I put my sweat shorts on and I put this on and I sat down and she's like, you're gonna wear that? I go, it's just the family coming over. I like it. And you know why?

Because I'll give you the secret. This how many men have their favorite old shirts? You know why men have this? This is an adult male's blankie.

I need blankie. I just I just like the way it feels. I like the memories it gives. It's my blankie. But I have better, newer clothes. Why do I keep going back to this? Because the problem with the new stuff is when you get a new shirt, it doesn't feel comfortable right away. It feels kinda hard.

We get we grow up, we still go, I don't like it. It's itchy. You know, we're still like kids. We don't like something new. And God has given us this we have we're we're a new nature. The way we act is just the clothes. Am I gonna clothe myself with the new, the righteousness, and show the family resemblance?

So if I come to the family photo, I'm dressed the way we're supposed to be dressed? Or do I keep going back to what was comfortable in the moment? And I think the mistake we make, what I make, what I've made with this very literally is I could say I won't wear it as much,

but I just fold it up and put it back in the drawer, and I keep it in case I need it. And I think that's what we do when we get caught in this cycle over here. We just keep it in the drawer, and they're like, okay. I'm I'm gonna keep this in the drawer,

and I'm gonna go try the new clothes. I'm gonna trust God on this. I'm gonna give. I'm gonna serve. I'm gonna do whatever it is. I'm gonna actually not just stop doing something. I'm gonna start going where he called me to go, the direction.

And then you get over here, you put on that new shirt, and you're like, I did this for the first time. Oh, it wasn't that comfortable. I felt a little itchy. I don't know. Ugh, this is too hard. Pull it back out of the drawer.

That's why it's hard. But God promises you wear the new clothes. Once they feel a little bit worn in, you'll start to go, why?

And what we'll end up doing is what we need to do with this.

Four out of five. I missed once. I think that was secretly my body just rejecting the fact that I didn't want to throw it away.

And get this, God loves us so much, here's what he knows. We will maybe occasionally dumpster dive. We'll jump back into the trash can looking for it again. And he still loves you.

Dumpster diving does not make him reject you as family. But if I refuse to ever even do this and go to the new clothes, that's a sign that you're not in the family. Because if we really do know God's love, love is seeing the family resemblance. So what do you need to do?

Trust the love of God and put on the new clothes and see what happens. Taste of him and see that he is good. Test him on this and see if he does not take care of you. Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you that you love us like you do. And, Lord, I just pray for myself

just as much as everyone in this room and anyone listening online, a simple prayer. May we eagerly look and eagerly expect and eagerly pursue the family resemblance. May we want to even want to look like you because you are the perfect father, the perfect dad.

And we want to be like that, Not because we have to for your love, but because we can't be stopped because of your love. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Hey. I love you guys.

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