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The Bible Breakdown
1 John 03: Our Heavenly Father
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, 1 John, chapter 3, and today's title is Our Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Father, and I'm looking forward to getting into all that and helping us get a proper definition of how God wants to relate to us. So, if you have your Bibles, I want to open up with me to 1 John, chapter 3. While you're doing that, if you're new around here, make sure you take a moment to like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast and, as always, make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion, because they're doing an amazing job over there, and I love the idea of digging into God's Word deeper and deeper and deeper, because I'm telling you, I've seen it in my life and I know you've probably seen it in yours, and that is that the more we dig, the more we find. Well, if you have your Bibles, want to open up with me to 1st John, chapter 3. Today's title was Our Heavenly Father and, if you remember, the overall goal that 1st John is going for here is he's talking about sharing in the fellowship of joy and he's talking about these different ways that we share in the fellowship of joy, and he's some of these different ways that we share in the fellowship of joy, and one of those ways is we were talking about in chapter one about living in the light. Well, in chapter two, he was talking about the key to lasting joy. Well, now, today he is going to talk about this idea of what it looks like to have this fellowship with our heavenly father, and if you think about it, god could relate himself to us in any possible way. He could just simply be God, he could be king and emperor, he could be all the different things, and he is king, lord and God. But when he talks about how he wants to relate to us, he uses an endearing term of a father, and I know for some of us, depending on our relationship with our father, that could either be a great thing or it could be a very challenging thing, and so I think what's important is that we make sure that we don't define our relationship with God, when he calls us his father, based on any earthly relationship, but based on the way he defines himself to us. Let's read this together and let's see what God's word will say about him being our heavenly father, you ready?
Speaker 1:Chapter three, verse one, says this see how very much our father loves us, for he calls us his children and that is what we are. But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know him. Dear friends, we are already God's children. Know him, dear friends. We are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.
Speaker 1:Now pause. Now what he's saying is is because we can't stand to be in the very glory of God and still live. You know, when Moses wanted to see the very essence of who God is, to see him face to face, like literally, he wasn't able to. And so God, it actually said that God let him see a portion of who he was. To use the anthropomorphic principle, he turned around so he could see his back. But we know that God is a spirit and so he's. It's a little different. So he was using a phrase to say he showed a portion of who God was, and still his face gloat. I mean just by seeing a portion of who God was. So he's saying is that one day we'll be like him, and that eternity doesn't start one day when we die, but eternity starts now, as we get to know God more every day.
Speaker 1:Verse three and all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins is breaking God's law, for all sin is contrary to God's law, and you know that. Jesus came to take away our sins and there is no sin in Him. 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. Dear children, don't let anyone deceive you about this. When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.
Speaker 1:Now pause, that seems too hard, right? It seems as though John is saying that if you sin at all, you're not a Christian. You actually are. You belong to the devil. Well, that's hard. This is actually what has been has led to some false doctrine that says that once you get saved, you're never going to sin again, and if you do, then you're not actually saved. Well, that's not what John is saying, because context is king. Let's see what he says.
Speaker 1:To sum it up in verse nine, he says those who have been born of God's family do not make a practice of sinning because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning because they are children of God. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously does not and does not love other believers does not belong to God. Now pause, notice what he said.
Speaker 1:He said that when you truly come to know God, you can't help it. You want to live for him. Therefore, that there would be a time when you would sin in any number of ways and it wouldn't bother you. You could just do the things, and as long as it was good for you, it was good. But now, all of a sudden, when you're living for God and you sin, the Holy Spirit begins to convict you. You can't, you cannot keep on sinning, because now the Holy Spirit has made you come alive in him and you are now walking in the light. And that's what John is saying. He's saying that if you sin and you have no problem with it, you are celebrating your sin, you love it. He said then there's something to worry about. But if you are not making a practice of sin, you are struggling with that sin. You don't want to do it. You wish you could, even maybe, but you can't. You cannot keep on sinning. There's something different about you. He said. That's how you know that you've passed from death to life and that God is working in your heart.
Speaker 1:Verse 11 says this this is the message you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another. 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 this brother had been doing what was righteous. So don't be surprised, dear brothers, when the world hates you.
Speaker 1:If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart, and you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also are to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother and sister in need but shows no compassion, how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, let us not merely say that we love each other, but let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth. So we will be confident when we stand before God. And even if we feel guilty, god is greater than our feelings and he knows everything. Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty, 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. Pause again.
Speaker 1:Notice how he says you know the way we get to receive whatever we ask. Did you realize that? It says God says we can receive whatever we ask, and so people will go sometimes and they will just try to. You know, you used to have the whole thing about name it and claim it, grab it and blab it. You know this kind of stuff. Or I think it's the other way around blab it and grab it. You know this kind of stuff, and God says you can have whatever you ask, and you know why.
Speaker 1:Let's read that again slowly. We will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him. And then can we say it like this and then we use it to do the things that please him. Is it possible what this verse is telling us? Because it just got through telling us a whole lot of stuff up here about love the way Christ loves, love people the way Christ loves, use what we have to help others and all these kinds of stuff. And then he says, if we do all that, we will receive whatever. We need to do that because we obey him, which is everything he said up here, and we do what pleases him, which is everything he set up here. And we do what pleases him. So God will give us whatever we need to do the work of ministry, of loving him and serving one another. So the next time someone tells you you can have whatever you want, whether it's a new car, new job or whatever, because God says that he'll give you whatever you need, tell them to read the rest of the verse. It depends on if you're going to use that new car to bless your neighbor.
Speaker 1:If so, maybe let's finish this up 23. This is his commandment. We must believe in the name of his son, jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God's commandments remain in fellowship with him and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Holy Spirit he gave us lives in us. In other words, he gives us that assurance of our salvation.
Speaker 1:So what can we do based on God's word? How can we apply this today? Well, just like we've been saying from the beginning, so many things in 1 John, you really need to be going to the Facebook group devotions, because there's so many more takeaways than what we have a chance to do here. But one of the things that we can do is to truly to realize God will give you everything you need to do, everything he's called you to do. We need to make sure that we realize that when we know him, that the way we know that we know him, one of the ways is that the things we used to do that was sinful bother us now, and the things that we used to not want to do we do want to do. And so there is this litmus test now that we can take to realize are we following God or not?
Speaker 1:Well, what is it that grieves your heart? What is it that excites you? Is it the things of God or not? It's a way to tell. But then also, god will give you everything you need to do, everything he has called us to do. So my question is who are you living for? What are you doing with what you're living for, and how are you allowing God to transform your life every day? Because God wants us to know him and I think that the more we know him, the more we are willing to give up whatever we got, to give up, embrace whatever we have to embrace, because, man, the more I see God, the more I want to see him in my life.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you that your word is true. It is holy, it is righteous. You're doing more than we can imagine. I pray today, god, that as we get to know you more, lord, you will have your way in our life. Help us to see you fresh and new every day, to walk in your goodness and to walk in your kindness in all things. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, Amen, forget. God's Word says in 1 John 1, 4,. We are writing these things to you so that you may fully share our joy. My prayer is that you will know God more every day, and it will bring you a joy that will last forever. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for 1 John 4.
