Love Defined | Week 2

something that I I I when it comes to movies and TV shows that that I like them, and I'm one of those people that everything doesn't have to be realistic. I am totally okay with suspension of disbelief and all that. But there's there's a thing that happens that does kinda just frustrate me sometimes

because as being a communicator and being people, I I a lot of the writing, a lot of shows, what they end up doing is entire seasons or at least 10 episode arcs are all based on the melodrama and stuff that's caused because two people didn't just talk. They one conversation

could have settled all of this, and then the whole series the problem I know why they do it. Because if they did it that way, then then an entire movie could be eighteen minutes long. You know? Like like, for example, the worst offender one of the worst offender is Hallmark movies.

Everything everyone reacts out of making an assumption about something happening, and no one just has a conversation. Like, you know, for the example, all they really needed in most of these movies is for someone to talk to the beautiful young woman that just moved to the country

and and and has been flirting and having this relationship budding with the hot cowboy. And if that if someone just told her when they're at the Christmas pageant that that cute girl he hugged was his sister,

pageant saved, movies over in seventeen and a half minutes, roll credits. And and and it's true. It's like they they predicate a lot of stuff. It's you end up with entire long dramatic arcs based on stuff that happens because of assumptions that are made and a lack of clarity that there just wasn't a conversation.

And it's it's it can be mildly frustrating in movies, but it also creates a lot of the entertainment. It's not entertaining when we do it in our own lives. And I think oftentimes, we can we we we are living out ten season arcs, ten seasons of our lives, staying in the same drama, the same frustration,

the same pain, the same struggle, the same all because we didn't just have a conversation. We weren't real with God and with others, and there's moments that one thing can change everything. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. We started the series Love Defined. We're in first, second, and third John.

We we did what you naturally do when you're going straight through books of the bible. We started right in the middle. And and we looked at first John four last week because that's where everything John's trying to con talk about in in in these letters

comes to a full fruition, right in the middle. In the middle of what he's saying, hey. These people were getting confused by these false teachers that were a part of the church that just didn't believe that Jesus was who he was. And so because of that, they didn't obey and they didn't love,

and they pulled out. But now they're confused. Like, what does it mean to really be a Christian? What does it really mean to have life? And it starts with love. And he started right in the middle. He gets there and he says, hey. We need to love one another

and and and be you can't love one another unless you understand how much God loves you. And he defines that same love God had for us, this agape, perfect, sacrificial love, is when it says for us to love one another, it's not warm feelings. It's not it's absolute the same type of love.

And it's impossible to live that way if we don't know who Jesus is. And so now we're back into chapter one because he started off, God is love, but now we go back to how we get there is he starts building this foundation against this false idea that they saw Jesus incorrectly.

They didn't believe he was a person, so he starts with saying, here's who Jesus is, and he is light. He is light. And so we're gonna say that love defined. If we're gonna live real love and experience real love and then live out real love, we have to understand that real love lives in the light.

That's what the big idea is today, and it's in chapter one. And what we're gonna see is three things. I'm gonna read where you already heard part of it. We're gonna go through all 10 verses. And there's three things you can see here that that John's laying out power of the Holy Spirit that really kinda point us to how does that work.

What do we need to know? What what what how does it work? And the first thing he starts in these first two verses is simply this. If we're gonna live in the light and have experience real love is we have got to understand that we have to live life

in Jesus. The in Jesus is important. It's not for Jesus. It's not get what we think life is from Jesus. It's life is found in Jesus, period. And and and look, he starts off because he's trying to attack this idea that these false teachers had the wrong idea of who God was. If you see God incorrectly,

it'll change how you see everything else. And first and foremost, you'll see yourself incorrectly. And so it messes up, and so then your relationships, you'll see him incorrectly. And so he starts off with this. He says this, we proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen.

We saw him with our own eyes, and love quote he says, and touched him with our own hands. They didn't believe the false teaching was that Jesus really was a person. And he goes, he is the word of life. This is the one who is life itself. Jesus is life, not football, like Ted Lasso says.

He who is the one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He didn't say he just brings it or shows you the way to it. He is eternal life.

He was with the father, and then he was revealed to us. So those first two verses, he wants to clear up right away who Jesus was. You need to see him correctly. We need to see God correctly, or we'll see everything else incorrectly. And what he is saying is Jesus is life,

and we have to live if we're gonna live in the light, who it's gonna go on to say he's light and explain what that means, he goes, if we're gonna live in the light of who Jesus is, we need to see him as life, as life itself.

And what does what do I mean by that? What does that mean for me? Are you like, okay. I believe in Jesus. It means, is he where I find life at? Is my relationship with him where life is? Or

am I playing this religious game? Because these false teachers, they said, oh, we believe in Jesus, but he wasn't a man. He wasn't this. And what you really need is this list of secret information. We have the list,

so we don't need to really obey. We just they were basically this is our spiritual way of connecting to God, and it's all because they didn't see Jesus for who he was. So do you see Jesus as life itself? Is he the source of life? Or do we use him as a resource for our life? That's what it's kinda saying.

See, a resource is something that it's not really valuable in and of itself. It gets us to what we really want. For example, money. If if we all have to believe that money works for something because what we really need money for is the stuff we actually need. And so we think, I need this.

So do you think of Jesus as a resource? He's just a way to get what you really want, or is the end game Jesus himself? That's what it's saying. So ask and and you know where we get disconnected from that idea? Is we don't see Jesus accurately. We don't see him as life itself.

We have to start. How do I start living that? You start with who Jesus is. Is there any lies, untruth, or incorrect things that you view that who God is and who Jesus is? For example, some of us think if he's the resource, what we think is,

I need to not sin. I need to listen to him, I need to do certain things and be spiritual because then he'll he'll bless me. And we define blessing as he'll give me what I really want for life. Another way you can know if you're not living life in Jesus

is if there is something that you have been praying for or struggling with or it's happened in the past that you said, hey, if Jesus if I why won't God give me this? I'm not saying we don't pray about the desires of our heart. We don't ask him for stuff. But if you're struggling with

there is something that if I don't get this from Jesus, then there's something wrong. You're turning that if there's something that you would put in front of you and Jesus, if there's something you're holding on to that says I can't trust God in this area because I really need this, There's your answer.

What you really think life has found is in that. In that. That's what it's saying. The first thing to live in the light is go, do I really in other words,

do I believe in Jesus versus do I believe Jesus? That's what it's saying. A lot of us would say I believe in Jesus. The question is, okay, do you believe him then? That's what it means to remain in him and trust him. And that's what it means to live life in him. That is what it means to walk in the light,

to be out in the light and believe him. And that's how you gotta ask yourself. Because here's the thing, what you gotta believe. What he's trying to say is love isn't something God just said to us. It's someone he sent to us. It's a relational thing. It's a relational it's not a religious thing. It's a relational thing. So

life is only in Jesus. The second thing is

you gotta live in real fellowship. That's the result. When I really live love defined and I embrace it, the way I get there is I I need to live in real fellowship. Because look what he says in verse three.

He says, we proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. Catch that. Fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

Did you catch what he said? He's like, hey, you need to know Jesus. Live life in him. Life is found only in him. It's not a secret list. It's not this. It's not even doing things for him. It's not trying to obey him just to get stuff. It's like, he is the life. He's already brought the life. He forgives us. He died for us. He's the life.

And if you're gonna do that, what we really need to do is in living out that and committing to that, we need to have fellowship.

And he says, we get into fellowship with God. We live and I'll explain what that word fellowship means in a sec. We have fellowship with God, but he started with, and we have fellowship with each other. Meaning this fellowship that we need to have is is both vertical and horizontal. There's with us and God,

and then we need to have real relationships like this with other believers. And look what you get when you do that, a cross. Because when we do this, we believe, and we went to the cross of Jesus and found forgiveness. When we do this, we've picked up our own cross. And now we're following, and we need others.

He's saying it's two ways. And here's the thing. If you have the wrong view of God, you're probably thinking, well, here goes Bill saying, need to be in community. I need to serve. I need to give. I go you're hearing it all wrong.

He's saying, if I really embrace that love in Jesus' life, I should be in the way I do that is I gotta live in the light. We're gonna see it in the next verse. I have to be in the presence of God in a real way. Reality is always my friend. And God said people's my plan a. We can't just sit in rows.

We need to sit in circles. We need to sit in circles. Need to, get to, not have to. It's the only way we're gonna get to what he said the result of that is. When you're in fellowship with others, and that's walking in fellowship with Christ, that's where joy comes. He just said, that's where joy is found.

And joy is what we really want. Everything else we run after, we're looking for happiness. We're looking for peace, but our definition of peace. Happiness and peace in our world is the absence of problems and getting all the things that we think blessings are. That's not. Jesus wants something better for you and I.

He wants to have joy because he says, you will have troubles in this world. We live in a broken, fallen world, and there are things out there that promise that say they'll give us happiness, and they'll give us take away our problems, but they don't really take away our problems. They they might take away one problem and add two more, and and they'll give us happiness. True. You can have moments of happiness, but the problem with happiness versus joy is simply this. Happiness is 100% controlled by your circumstances,

and circumstances are gonna go like this through your life. And if you base your love of Christ and your trust of him and what you think a blessing is is is happiness,

then what is what's your faith in Christ? What's your what's your outlook on the future? What are your your emotions gonna be like if this is what you're basing it on? It won't work. God wants to give us something better. Joy. Joy is is is happiness is a thermometer. Joy is a thermostat.

A thermometer just tells you what the temperature of the room is. And if it's too hot or too cold, you ain't happy. Joy can set the temperature, meaning you can have feelings of of of joy even when you're not happy. You can.

I've learned this. Every time I get away from it, it doesn't work. Every time I can live in this way and trust God and live in fellowship and be real, I've discovered that I could sit there one day and everything's going terrible. This meeting was bad. Everyone's mad. You know, all this stuff. The I'm still a Cardinals fan. You know, there's no happiness

found there. And and I could say, Bill isn't happy. But, man, I am filled with joy and a hope. And for some reason, despite all the things that should have me terrified, I have this peace that doesn't make any sense. That's what God wants for us. But we can't live it independent of true fellowship with him and each other.

What is this word for fellowship? It's a word in the Greek, koinonia. I don't know about you. If you ever grew up in an old fashioned church, there was always some class called koinonia.

And I became a Christian in high school. I didn't know what that was. I heard of this koinonia thing. And I go, what is that? Is that, like, a type of sushi? Does that class eat sushi? And we have koinonia sushi with tempura sauce. Come to our class. It means fellowship,

but not how we describe. You know, churches, if you grew up, like, almost every church at one point, especially baptist church, had a fellowship hall. That meant we go out fellowship, which means we do a potluck where 20% of the people come and eat 80% of the food, and everyone just talks, and and and that's it.

This word for fellowship actually matches more of, like, the Lord of the Rings idea of fellowship. If you ever watched the movie, you know Frodo, and it's like Frodo and Gandalf and the whole gang. They formed the fellowship of the ring.

And what did their fellowship look like? Did they all like each other first? No. Matter of fact, they really didn't like each other first. But what did they end up doing through the whole thing? They ended up loving each other. They end up supporting one another. They end up knowing one another. They ended up being there for one another. They end up sacrificing for one another. And more importantly,

they did all that in the context of they had a mission. That is what God has called us to, the fellowship of the king.

We get to be on this mission. We get to do this epic quest. And, yeah, there's dark days, there's good days, there's hard days, there's people we're gonna be on like, I don't know if I like you, but I will choose to love you. And it's gonna cost me. And it costs our time, our money, our emotions, our choices. He says,

on the other side of that type of fellowship with God, but especially with others, that is where joy is found.

Don't you want joy?

So God's not trying to take anything from us. I'm not trying to take something from you. God's trying to get us to the place we desperately really wanna be, But we gotta believe him, and we need each other in doing that. That love needs to flow because God's plan a, like I said, is people,

and it's that two direction. Because what Jesus is really inviting us to is healing, not hiding. And a lot of us avoid real fellowship, real openness. It's weird that we'll even avoid God on this because he already knows. But getting in a real community where we can really share and really be supported and known,

we fight that. Why? Because we're hiding. And we don't understand that that context of fellowship. Because if he goes on, look what he says he goes on to say. He goes, we're writing these things he may have fully our share of joy. And then verse five, This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you.

God is light, and there's no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God, but go on living in spiritual darkness. We're not practicing the truth. But if we're living in the light, as God is the light, then we have fellowship with each other. And the blood of Jesus,

his son, cleanses us from all sin. So what he's saying is this, hey, If I think I can be close to the Lord and I'm living in truth, but I'm not in fellowship with him and, and extension and in fellowship with others, I'm lying to myself. I'm I'm living I'm not living in reality.

And and and reality is my dad used to tell me, son, reality is always your friend. Even when it's not friendly, it's still your friend. In the word of God, he is life. That's reality. Jesus died for us and wants best for us, and he is eternal life. That's reality.

The word of God shows us God's path, and he wants our path, and and he relayed out a path for us that knows what's best for the best life we can have. That's reality. But if we live in the darkness, we're making up our new reality.

And so we have to get to this reality, and we need one another. We need fellowship with God. We gotta be real with God and real with other people and honest with ourselves. Reality is our friend because that's how we get there. That's what he's inviting us to because he is light.

And then a lot of times, we're afraid of light because we have the wrong idea. We don't live life in Jesus. We see Jesus incorrectly, so then we see this idea of fellowship with him incorrectly,

and so then we wanna hide. That's what Adam and Eve did. They walked with the Lord in the garden every day. They messed up, and they immediately hid from him. That was the last thing they should do. And they cover themselves. Who are they covering themselves over? They're hiding from each other already.

And so we need to stop hiding because walking in this fellowship isn't about sinless perfection. It's about new direction.

It's about having a known life. God already knows you. Be honest with him. But we need to be in community where where we can share with each other. As I say around here, we look in in Ephesians. The Bible's real clear. The type of community we really need, the fellowship we really need, is where you're known, accepted, supported, and developed.

We need to really be known where I can really share my struggles.

Now don't get me wrong. Guys, it's not captain TMI. You don't have to come in and share everything. I was talking to someone who says, you hit me there that I wanna share something, but it's just so emotional. I'm gonna cry too much. I'm not ready yet. I go, great. Don't share that. But you should tell your group you're struggling with something like that and go, can you guys pray about me because there's something I wanna share, but I need to get to the want to want to, and I need to get something where I can look at it first. Just start praying for me about it.

You don't have to dump out everything. Matter of fact, sometimes what we think is community and being shared, and I'm just sharing. I'm just letting you know, is really you're just being an energy vampire. You're sucking the life out of it, and you're looking for allies. You wanna dump on, like, my marriage is.

Like, that's not what it's talking about. It's about I've been real before God, and God's words revealed me to here's somewhere where I'm in the dark, and I'm confused. I'm this here's my struggle. I want you to know it, and we accept each other in that moment. And then I will support each other, but then ultimately, we're gonna help develop each other. Okay. How do we help you get back in the light? How do you get out of this?

But the reason we're afraid of sharing is we wanna hide because we have the wrong view of God, and we have the wrong view of what this means. We think it's a it's a thing I gotta go be a good boy. I gotta you know, I can't, you know,

drink, smoke, or chew or go with girls who do, you know, all that kind of stuff. And you're making it all this moralistic thing, which God wants us to have morals, but we think it's the moralism that makes us right with God. So then we're afraid to get into real community and really share because

we don't want anyone to see that we're not perfect because it's that's the goal. We have to we have to keep up our image, and what we turn into is image managers instead of image bearers. And we do this all the time, not even on a spiritual level. We do this on a practical level.

Every one of us, you have in your house right now a drawer, a closet, and a room. You know what I just said, don't you? Someone's coming over you didn't expect, and you don't have much time.

Depending on how big of a deal it is, you go to the whole room. You have that room that I can just throw stuff in there. I'll deal with it later, you close the door. But then sometimes it's a little quicker cleanup. It's just downstairs. There's no need to be I just throw stuff in the closet.

Sometimes if someone's just gonna come in and be in your kitchen, you have that drawer somewhere in your kitchen or your living room that you still have iPhone one sitting in there. You have a wad of cables that we pick up. The technology that these go to doesn't even exist anymore.

You you have the stuff that NASA needs to be able to go back to the moon because we've forgotten how to get there. The technology is sitting in that drawer.

And and and and and and other stuff. You just sweep it into the drawer. Why? Because you're like, hey, someone's coming over. I can't look like I don't want them to know how I actually live most of the day.

We do the same thing when it comes to real fellowship. We do it out in the parking lot. You drive in and we symbolically cram everything in the glove compartment, or if it's a big deal, the trunk,

or sometimes you just gotta lock it in the car. You go, alright, guys. That's it. We gotta be the Brady bunch once we walk out of this car.

I don't care what we're arguing about. Our whole lives are a mess. But you know what? We we're gonna walk in there and look. You know what? Because we're here to worship the Lord, and we can't let any Christians know that we're not doing it perfectly. That tells me we're believing a lie about ourselves

and about God and about what he's trying to do. He knows we're gonna struggle. It's not about perfection, but it is about direction. And we need the known life to do that. We need to find a circle and be honest with God, honest with others. And ultimately, what you're really doing is being honest with yourself,

is to be honest with ourselves. That's what it's talking about. Because and and and love how he calls them the light. See, we're afraid of the light. I can't get the light. He's gonna know. He already knows. And have you ever, ever gone into a room, turned on a light switch,

and watched a perfectly clean room get messy because the light went on? It doesn't work that way unless your kids are in there. They can instantly do that. But it the light doesn't cause the mess. The light reveals what needs to be cleaned. That's it. That's it. And God is the light. And we need to live in him,

in the light with each other. So the bottom line is is is how does this work then? How do what do we really do? Is the last thing, the last two verses.

Because the last two verses tell us that in order to do all this, if I'm gonna really live life in Jesus and then engage in real fellowship with God and others, then I am going to have to live honestly. I have to live honestly with myself,

with others, starting with the Lord. Because look what he says. If we claim we have no sin, we're only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.

But if we confess our sins to him and he he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness. Then he goes back to the the lie again. Again, if we claim we have not sinned, we're calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. So right in the middle is the answer, but he centers it between these two things. If we claim we have no sin, we're fooling ourselves and we're not walking in truth. And walking in truth, like you said, if you think of it as I have to do this for God, what you just heard is I'm in trouble.

God doesn't like me. He's gonna punish me. No. He already said what walking in truth does. You're not gonna get the joy. You're not gonna be there. You're missing out is what he's saying. And you're missing out because you're believing a lie and you're lying to yourself, first and foremost.

He says, but if and that part about if we claim we have no sin, that usually gets most of us caught up. Well, that doesn't account for me because I admit I have sinned. But what we don't realize is, do we admit to what sin actually is? And do we try to justify some sin? And and for a lot of us,

the thing that we probably don't admit and why we're lying to ourselves is, if you've been a Christian for a long time, we pretty much probably get pretty good at comparing ourselves to the rest of world and saying, well, that's a don't list. All the things that says, God, don't do this. Okay. We don't do those things.

But the book of James says there's some things God asked us to do. He says, if you love me, you'll do what I say. Because you'll trust me because what I say is actually the best plan for you. He's not saying do it just because I made up an arbitrary risk list. He knows how our lives are meant to work.

And he asked us to follow him his disciples. He says, you need to know and grow and go. And and a lot of times, where there's a weird thing that happens, we're relying to ourselves,

and we we're being a liar and making God out to be a liar is we we don't even realize that that list of things that God said to do, the book of James says, when you know the right thing that you're supposed to do and don't do it, that is sin. Just as much as doing the wrong thing.

Matter of fact, the longer you've been a Christian, you're probably gonna deal with it not doing the right thing more than doing the wrong thing.

And it's not right and wrong because he's punished. He's like, it's because this is the right way to live, because this is what he died to give us, and this is where joy is found. This is where purpose is found.

This is where, you know, it's a hard road. This fellowship of the ring, man. Fellowship of the king is there's a mission at the end that we could have victory in. But we have to choose to believe Jesus, and don't make God a liar by saying, I think I'm living like a Christian, when I'm not. I'm not trusting him.

And so the idea is like, hey. I'll go to a church, but I won't go there as the church. You can attend a worship service. You went to a church, but did you come in here and choose to be the church?

And if we're not, you're lying to yourself. That's what he's saying. How does that work? What do I mean by that? Because I do it. I struggle with it. Like I said, am I an image bearer or an image manager? In other words, am I spending most of my time as a Christian managing my darkness rather than walking in the light?

Managing your darkness is, I am trying not to do these bad sins. I'm trying or I'm hiding from them, or I'm just trying to manage them and make them work, or, you know, I'm trying to, like, god, I'm sorry. I'll I'll never do this again. And I'm trying to handle it on my own. I'm managing the darkness rather than just walking in the light.

So when people say, hey, what's the answer going? I struggle with this guy. Well, where should I go if I struggle with, you know, you grow, you go? Well, I know I'm supposed to do that, but how do I get you know, you grow, you go. Well, I know that, but I need to go be a disciple.

Walk in the light is how you walk away from the darkness is what he's saying. Because there's a power in that. Because what did he finish in? He goes, well, so when we do that, when we live in fellowship, when we do what he said, when we walk in the light in Jesus, it says,

the blood of Christ cleanses us. He's not talking about initial salvation. That word for cleansing the kind ongoing. It's healing is what it's saying. He's healing us when we do that. But if you're loving if you find life in something else,

you're not gonna trust God and take the time to be in real community. If you find life in something else, you're not gonna sit there, I'm gonna trust God with my money.

If you're finding life in something else, you're not gonna be open and honest and say, I'm gonna go share my faith, and I'm gonna be a part of serving in my church so we can point people to Jesus. The mission, you won't do it. And here's the sad thing is,

that's sin.

And you know what's sadder about that? You're not supposed to just feel guilty and grovel y about that. God doesn't say that's sin and I'm judging you and I hate you. He says, why are you living in that and missing out on the joy and the life I died to give you when I already took care of that sin?

Why do you keep living over there? It's useless. And that's why he says you're a liar and you're calling God a liar. It's saying you just don't believe him, which means, back to the first point, you're buying a lie, you're stuck in a fear,

and then when we get stuck like that and then I preach a message like this, that guy just wants to take something from me. That's not true. God's not trying to take something. I'm not trying I'm trying to show you what God wants to give you, what he's called us to, love defined, to be able live in it and live

it out with other people, to be able to be what he's called us to be. We gotta live honestly because he says that. He says, hey. If we claim, we're in trouble. And you know why he's saying this? He's not talking about never sinning because he obviously is. When we sin, if if we confess our sins, he knows that

we're gonna have these struggles. It's not about stop sinning completely and becoming perfect. It's about choosing never to hide.

It's about always come back to him. Always be open. You know why? Because God knows this. Sin always tries to rewrite reality.

It does for you and me. When we hear a message, it challenges us to like, hey, this is sin. I need to turn from this. I need to trust God. I need to go this way. We have these fears, and we get locked up, then we make these arguments. And the reason is because we're downplaying what sin is when sin is really trying to rewrite our reality.

And I know this because I have a superpower, and that superpower is I am exceedingly, extremely one of the greatest on the planet at being average. I used to hate that about myself.

And then I realized it's what allows me to relate when I'm talking because I know that the things that hit me, the things I'm wrestling, the things I do, the dumb all these things is, hey. I'm normal,

and that's what all of us do. So I wrote down when I say sins tries to write the reality, I wrote down all the little phrases I'll tell myself in my head when I start wanting to walk back into the darkness. And maybe, just maybe, if I believe my superpower is really there, you're gonna agree with this.

But just ask yourself if you've ever said something like, when it comes to stuff that God calls sin, that we're missing the mark, not that he's angry. We're just missing out. But here's what what what I I'll do. It's not that bad. I've written that down. Or everybody does it. Or they deserved it. Or I can handle it.

Or one of my personal favorites or unfavorites because I like to do this a lot is, well, that's just how I am. It's usually when I'm a jerk. I'm just a truth teller. Well, God also said to tell truth in love. He didn't say avoid truth. He said just don't be a jerk, and I'm making excuses for being a jerk. And do you do that?

The problem is that's rewriting reality. What you're doing is you're downplaying both ends of what sin is. When you do that, you're downplaying first and foremost

how dark the darkness really is, how far away from God we really are, how in our natural cells where we, you know, where we wanna go, and how far off the mark we are, and how badly we are missing real life. And the reason that's dangerous is because it takes us to the other end. We undervalue the grace and love of Christ.

Because when he said by his blood, we've been cleansed. By his blood, we love. Because you know what? If God only died for a couple mistakes I made that weren't that bad, and be honest, I might have been a jerk, but they deserved it.

And you know what? It's something I actually can handle, but I appreciate the effort, Jesus, that you're willing to forgive me. If it's you see, when I start making it into that,

I don't see the love of Christ. And you know what that does? It disconnects me from the real power, the real love, and I'm I'm just, I'm just managing darkness, and Jesus is my self help guru.

And it also makes me be very impatient, judgmental, not care about the mission because we like to look at the world out there because we like to underestimate our sin. We like to make it not a big deal, and then that makes us exaggerate what everyone else is doing. And then I'd I'm a judgmental jerk

that it's all about the world, and guess what that just did? It disconnected me from the mission God gave me. We are not supposed to love the ways of the world,

but the world that God said he loved. He didn't love the the world that we have, the fallen as, but John three sixteen said, for God so loved the world. He was talking about the people.

We should hate the world system. We should hate sin because where it takes us and what it makes us miss out on and how we lose out on life and we lose out on love. We're not supposed to hate people of the world. But when I realize what sin really is, it enables me to be more patient and loving towards others

instead of playing this religious game where I come here and like to preach about how messed up the world is. The truth is the world's messed up, and we is part of the world. But we have Jesus. We have to be honest with that, or we'll never truly understand just how unbelievable

God's grace is. The fact that he said he is faithful and just tells you something. He said he's just in forgiving us. Is that because we were faithful? No. He's just in forgiving us because he was faithful. He took on all of our sin.

And so he goes, why do you sit in it? Why do you embrace it? And then even when you know you're forgiven, why do you let it weigh on you and you walk around feeling guilty all the time? You can walk past it. It's called confession. It's called confession.

And I wanna show you a list. Take a picture of this. This is what confession is. This is what it means to confess. It's not, God, I'm so sorry. Look at all these things I've done. I've sacrificed. I'm beating myself. I'm doing all these things. Penance, that's not true. You don't need to do penance.

You just need to confess. And what is confession? It's not just say, okay. I'm sorry, God. I did it, and then keep going. Confession really involves all of this. You gotta name it. Name what it is. Where am I actually? Be honest. Hey, this is sin.

But you also have to name it and agree with God about it because that word for confession in Greek is interesting. You know what it literally means? To say the same thing. So confession isn't moping before groveling before God and feeling horrible about what you did. It's simply going, you know what, God? I agree with you.

I I'm I'm choosing to see it the way you see it. I'm not gonna downplay it. I'm not gonna minimize it. I'm not gonna over maximize it in other people's lives. I'm just gonna I'm gonna call it what it is. I'm gonna call it what you call it. I'm gonna say the same thing you say.

What does that mean? What does that look like? It looks like God calls it pride, so I stop calling it confidence. God calls it lust, so I stop calling it harmless. God calls it greed, so I stop calling it need. God calls it bitterness, so I stop defending it.

That's what that means. And like I said, the power in that is not to make you feel worse. That's not to make us feel bad. That's to make us see, wow, the love of Christ took care of that?

The love of Christ isn't a big deal. It's just a foible that he died for. But when the fact of the matter is, we all struggle with these things. A lot of us are not generous because we're greedy. We have a hard time in relationships because our view is we're caught and trapped in lust,

and lust destroys what sex is supposed to be, and we're missing out. A lot of us are arrogant, and we call it ambition.

That's what we gotta realize because Jesus died for that. And if we don't own that, we are never gonna sit and trust just how deep God's love is for us. That's what he wants for. He wants us to be free from it. And you can't be free from something that you don't think you have. That's the problem.

And so we never get to the joy.

And that's not real love. And you know what? It still goes back. All these points working at living life from Christ means what is the thing that you're holding on to that you think is gonna give you something that God says it's not gonna give you so you won't give God what he asks from you. Because what he's asking from you, if you give me this, you go this way, you're gonna get.

I'm really trying to give you stuff when I ask you to trust me with stuff. I am trying to give, not take. And everything out there that we are afraid of that we're running after, guess what that is? It promises so much and gives so little.

It doesn't really give it all. It promise. It might make you feel better for a short time. It might make you look good. It might make you do this. But in the end, it takes, and it'll take everything from you in the end. And that's the world's version of love, and that's what's out there. That is fake love. It's not real. You know what it's like? It's like this guy named Dejean Love. His name was actually Love,

and it wasn't real love. I don't know if you heard about this news. Really, he just got arrested, his friend, Taylor Chan, was his partner. And what he was doing I think I got a picture here of his Instagram account. Look at this. He was wealthy, man. He played for the San Francisco 49ers.

Look at his cars. Look at his multimillion dollar house. Look at all of his cars. The only problem with that is, none of that's real. None of that's real. He set it all up.

He had his friend set up his whole system of fake banking records, all this stuff, and he set him up like he's this guru of a financial wizard counselor guy that's an investor.

And he sets us up where he meets these women, he starts dating them, and he says, yeah, made some money playing ball. I mean, I had some money, but what where he really rich is this guy helped me. I invested the couple millions I had. I'm worth over a $100,000,000 now.

And I want you to have the same thing because I love you.

And then he gets them, and then he would set up these Zoom calls where this guy had his office set up, looks beautiful and everything, and he's showing them these real records and all of sudden, here's what happened, here's how much money he made, And then talked him into cashing out their retirements, their savings,

investing in it. And then the second they had no more money or they started asking too many questions, he ghosts them. He's in jail right now. They're probably about to lose their case. He took $1,400,000 from 26 women over a short period of time. Those women thought they were loved,

but that wasn't real love.

They got taken. How about you? How about you?

What's out there that you think is loving you,

but it's only gonna take? And how have you bought into that lie so much that when you hear a message like this, it says, be real, be honest, live in the light, confess. And confess involves repentance, and turn around and go where he's asked you to go.

What is it that's made you think this is what's trying to take something from you? It's backwards. It's a lie. And you know what this principle here of just confession, back to my original illustration? It can all change in a conversation. It can all change in a conversation with God. But we like to manage the darkness.

And that's why Jesus instituted this thing we call communion. There's nothing mystical. You don't take these elements and it's like some magic potion. It's a moment he tells us to have. And ironically, just like I said, fellowship with each other, he asked us to not do this alone.

He asked us to do this in the context of fellowship with each other as a reminder that we're all in this together, and we need each other in the same process. And what is he he he right before he died, he said, hey. Do this in remembrance of me. He wants us to remember what he did on the cross. Because you know why?

When he went and died on the cross, he showed us what love defined really is. And he said to do this because this is a moment that we come back to the real love. We come back and we get open and honest and real. Communion is a moment for confession. That's what it is.

God has set up a system that he says, unlike those TV shows, I'm gonna have the scenes where we sit down and actually have that conversation

together. And that's where the healing comes on the other side. It's not about forgiveness, we're forgiven. It's about let's get past the darkness. Let's get to the healing. Let's let it go. In other words, he says, hey, gotta name it. You gotta agree with it. And then at some point, he says you have to turn from it.

As I said in the list, you turn from it. And then you really accept that forgiveness. You realize you've been forgiven, and then you take the next obedient step. You can't just say, I'm sorry, and turn like I'm not gonna do it anymore and stay here. You know why? Because guess what's still on your back?

Yeah. I know you forgive me, but I'm staying here.

You're staying there. We're still sitting there on your back, and it's so easy to turn back around. You gotta say, hey. I know he's already forgiven me. So now I'm gonna not just believe in him. I'm gonna believe him, and I'm gonna start going in the obedient steps. That's what it's about.

And this is a reminder. This is a moment to have that conversation and make that commitment and do it. And this is not a new concept. John didn't write this for the first time. The Old Testament carries this. Psalms 32.

I wanna read Psalms 32 for us to reflect. And you start thinking about what is it you you need to name it and say the same thing as God about it and turn from it and take that forgiveness and love and walk in reality and then go, so where do I need to go? Because what was happening in this Psalm 32

was King David is reflecting on the time that he was confronted. He had to name some sin, and it was horrible. And he had to own it for what it was, and he had to turn it. And ironically, he got into it all because he wasn't on mission with God.

He wasn't where he was supposed to be. He refused to go this direction. At some point, he stopped walking in the direction of God,

and he eventually fell into sin. And what it was was he was supposed to be in battle with his men, but he stayed home. His men are all fighting, including his mighty men. They're like his elite force, so they were loyal to him when Saul was chasing him. And and and and one of them, named Uriah the Hittite, was one of his keys. He's mentioned as one of the 30.

And yet he's home. He sees his wife, Uriah's wife, taking a bath on a rooftop, calls her over, ends up sleeping with her, and she gets pregnant. And he tries to hide it. So he brings Uriah, his friend, back from battle where he should have been,

Kicks him to a feast, says, I just wanna know about how the battle's coming. And he goes, by the way, go spend some time with your wife. You're home. You've been such a good soldier.

Well, he doesn't go home. He sleeps on his doorstep. He was hoping he'd go home, sleep with his wife, then the kid would could be say, it's your kid.

And when he sees that this guy wouldn't go, he goes, why didn't you go to your wife? He goes, can't do that when my men are out fighting, which is actually a throat punch to David. He should've been with him too. And so instead of owning it right then and coming clean,

he writes a note to the general, seals it, hands it to Uriah, says you need to deliver this to the general when you get back. Okay. And what he wrote in there was Uriah is a traitor. Put him in the thickest part of battle and then fall back and just let the enemy kill him. He kills his mighty man to try to cover it up.

I'm not sure if anyone in this room has done anything worse than that, but that's about as bad as it gets. And yet God forgave him. And the reason he's called a man after God's own heart wasn't because he's perfect. He went down that road. But every time he got confronted, every time the light was turned on, he confessed

and he repented. He did that list. That's what made him pure. That's what brought healing. And so what I wanna read before we do this, because what that what what he's talking about is what this moment is. Because he reflected on this afterwards, and here's what he said. Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven,

whose sin is put out of sight. Yes. What joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt. Those lies are lived in complete honesty. When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away and I groaned all day long.

Day and night, your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you, and I stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord, and you forgave me. All my guilt is gone. All my guilt is gone. Therefore,

let all the godly pray to you while there's still time that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment. That's self judgment. That's a shame. That's the fear that's not getting past it. Why drown in that? He goes, for you are my hiding place. You protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. In

the midst of all this, he said, I'm surrounded by songs of victory. You know why? He said, you're my hiding place. What he realized is, I shouldn't hide from you. I'm supposed to hide in you. And

then he says this, the Lord says, I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. What did he say? I know the best way for your life. And he's we're seeing it again. He's like, I should trust him. I will advise you and watch over you.

Do not be like a senseless horse or a mule that needs a bit and a bridle to keep it under control. Many sorrows will come to the wicked, but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord. So rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all of you who obey him. Shout for joy, all whose hearts are pure.

He called himself a pure heart. And if you think pure means perfection, you've missed the whole point. Pure means I've confessed. Pure isn't have I been perfect. It's not about perfection, but it is about the direction. And that's what this moment is for because Jesus knew that we would still have moments.

We would still struggle. And he says, this is the way out. But I have to come back to real confession. Call my sin what it really is. And not just the things I did, but the things I refuse to believe him on. That's sin. That is sin. And it's keeping me from the joy. It's keeping me from that life.

And he goes, in this moment, give it to me. Let go of it, and then change direction. That, in this moment, is love defined. That's why we take this. So think about that moment of what you need to do and what's gonna come next because of his love. Because he said, this is my body broken for you. Take and eat.

And because he said, this is my blood spilled for your forgiveness, the freedom from sin. Take and drink.

God, I thank you for your word. Thank you for the words of your servant David that speak to us from thousands of years ago.

That, Lord, you love us so much that the worst darkness we can be in, you came to turn on the light and bring us to the love. And so trusting you is not about making ourselves right. It's about getting to live out the life you died to give us.

So what I pray for myself and everyone in this room that you would convict us in those right ways, that you would turn on the light into the things in our life that are holding us back, that you would help us to identify the lies and the untruths we believe about you and about ourselves

and the things that we are attaching life to that don't love us, they're only gonna take from us. And we can reject those. Be honest and real before you. And through your forgiveness and your love and the power of the spirit, we can walk away from that and walk into the joy. The joy of living in the light, of living

with real love. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Thanks for joining us online today. Be sure to follow us on social media to stay up to date with everything happening here at Rock Point.