03/01/26 - Know to Grow - 1 John 2:1-6

And let me just encourage you. If you are feeling the weight of your sin this morning and you are in Christ, he knew what he was buying when he purchased you. He is not surprised by your mess ups. He is not surprised by your shortcomings. He is not surprised by your failures. He said, I see that, and I'll take it with me to the cross. And then I'll stand before the father on your behalf. We go to Jesus with our brokenness because he's the only one worthy to take it. [00:19:33] (31 seconds)  #BringYourBrokennessToJesus

Church, you had a debt, and he paid it. Don't let that grow dull. Don't let that grow to be too familiar where it doesn't knock you down. He paid your debt. [00:19:03] (20 seconds)  #DebtPaidByChrist

What what what should you walk away thinking and dwelling on this morning? One, I want you to hear, you can come to Jesus with your sin. Nothing you have done this week surprises him and outsinned his cross. You can bring it to him. You can live like him and walk in truth. This is not a pipe dream. This is not something that you have to put off for the holier, better Christians. You can start living like him today, And you can follow him and live out love. You can follow Jesus. That's why we gather together. We wanna follow Jesus together. [00:36:58] (55 seconds)  #FollowJesusToday

And so let me just ask because the the the underlying anthem that John is going to continue to come back to is, do you have a walk with Jesus? Church, do you have a relationship with him? This isn't about religion. The big question John is going to want us to walk away asking is not, can you do better, but are you saved? Do you know him? Because if you do, you cooperate. You keep his commandments. You walk as he did. Talk is cheap. [00:22:31] (41 seconds)  #DoYouKnowJesus

He says in verse five, those who keep his whoever keeps his word, in him, truly the love of God is perfected. Who do we trust? Those who walk like Jesus, those who love like Jesus, and those who are marked by Jesus. Jesus should show up in their day to day. And church, hear me. Brothers, sisters, this is about direction, not perfection. This is not about you having it all together. He's already given us the grace to say, when you sin, where do you go? You go to Jesus. [00:28:18] (34 seconds)  #WalkLikeJesus

And so what John is saying here when he says the truth is not in him is that truth doesn't just inform, it transforms. It changes us. And so if all you have is a bunch of facts, but it's not changing how you live, the question again that I think John would want all of us to wrestle with is, are you a believer? [00:27:22] (28 seconds)  #TruthTransforms

He also, though, is pulling out the the the heresy of we can fix ourselves, and we don't need a savior in verse eight, that if we say we've got no sin, we've deceived ourselves. That if we've worked our way up to God and we don't need the cross, That is a lie. We have deceived ourselves. That if you think the path to God is to do it on your own, you're deceiving yourself. And he's saying, don't fall into that. I'm writing this so you won't fall into that sin. [00:13:35] (31 seconds)  #WeNeedTheCross

That with the same voices they would sing out in praise, they would curse and be obscene throughout the week at their workplace. And John is making it abundantly clear, there is no place for that kind of double living in the kingdom of God. That is heresy that you can claim Jesus and live however you want. You can't walk in light and in dark. Jeff talked about that last week. [00:13:08] (27 seconds)  #NoSundayOnlyFaith