Abide in Christ: Worship, Discernment, and Godly Confidence

You were born. News flash, your mom was a sinner and your dad was a sinner, and when they got together, guess what they made? A sinner. They made a sinner. You were born an enemy of God. But Jesus comes, and earlier in first John, we saw that he is the propitiation. He paid your debt, and now you are called a child of God. You are his son. You are his daughter. And I love that he says, because that's what God has called us, and so we are. [00:34:52] (34 seconds)  #ChildOfGodByGrace

Here's what that means. And this should if you are a follower of Jesus, this should be one of your favorite truths in the bible. Because salvation isn't yours to earn, it's not yours to lose. You received it from him. That means, brother, sister, you did not out sin him this week. You might be believing that deceit right now, but let the word of God, he anointed you, you received it from him, you abide not because of you, but because of him. I would ruin my abiding like that, but Jesus keeps me. I can't lose it. [00:17:07] (36 seconds)  #SecureInChrist

Again, church, this makes us look weird to the world around us. That when life gets hard, we wouldn't let our praise be stolen. That when we suffer, we make much of the Lord. We trust his plans. We stay rooted. We stay anchored. We stay confident. The world is gonna see that as weird. It's gonna make us different. But where the world sees weird, God sees worship. He sees you making much of him. He sees you drawing near, and it puts a smile on his face. [00:28:48] (32 seconds)  #WorshipInSuffering

He's writing a letter to teach the church. What he's saying is you have everything you need in you to discern the will of God. He has given you his spirit. He has given you his word. You don't need to go chasing new doctrine and new ways. God has given you the ability to learn. God has given you the ability to discern. He's given you the ability to go, this sounds right. I can be rooted in my worship. I don't have to chase new shiny objects. I get God. His spirit is all over me. I don't have to look for other things. [00:19:30] (39 seconds)  #SpiritAndWordLead

That if you could just pull yourself together, he would love you and accept you, and you could start to do better. And you believe that, and because of that, you feel separated from Jesus because you don't have it all together. But that's not the gospel. That's not what we've heard from the beginning. There is an assault on our belief. There is an attack that the only way to stay anchored, stay true, to not be deceived is to choose to worship Jesus, to press in to our relationship with him, to make much of him and not what our culture says, not what our world says, because there is a force trying to deceive you. [00:13:30] (44 seconds)  #GraceNotPerformance

Church, we we stay close to Jesus. And this makes us so weird to the world that our hope isn't in here and now, but it's in something yet to come. That we don't worry about the pains and the problems of today quite as much. It doesn't mean they don't hurt. It doesn't mean we don't grieve. It doesn't mean we don't mourn, but our hope is anchored in something yet to come, the return of Jesus. And it produces this confidence in us that this is as painful as it gets. [00:25:37] (31 seconds)  #HopeInHisReturn

I love that he gives us the word practice. Again, it's about direction, not perfection. We are in the process of sanctification. Here's what the bible would teach. You had a moment where you were saved. You were dead in your sins and trespasses. He brought you out into light. He saved you. You were saved. A day is coming where we can confidently say, God, you're gonna wipe away every tear. The fact that my knee hurts when it rains, that's gonna go away, and I will be glorified, and I will be saved. [00:31:29] (31 seconds)  #ProgressNotPerfection

Now we've had this word anointing a few times in our passage in in in the book so far. It's it's the idea of being set apart, being covered. One definition I read this week said smeared, completely covered. Let me just ask you, are you smeared by the spirit of God? Is he just all over you? He says, you have the anointing that you've received. God saved you not just to give you not just for you to come here for an hour a week. If that's all you're getting of God, you are being deceived. [00:15:53] (38 seconds)  #PressForwardInFaith