Perfect Love - Week 9: “Perfect Love Overcomes the World” - Full Service

when it comes to overcoming the world, think of it this way. Faith is rebellion. Faith in Jesus is rebelling against the rebellion that's going on around you. The whole world around us go, I'm gonna go my own way. You're like, no. Not doing that. I'm going God's way. The world around us says, here's how you parent. You go, no. Not doing that. Going God's way. The world around us tells, here's how you handle money. Here's what you do with your sexuality. And you're like, no. Not going that way. Going God's way. Faith is rebelling against the rebellion. And that scratch is a great itch for me. I love rebelling as I know you do too. So the reality is, friends, faith really is trusting God's word and acting upon it regardless of how you feel. [00:46:01] (47 seconds)  #FaithIsRebellion

The first car says fact, this is the engine. The second car says faith, it's in the middle there. The third car says feelings, that's the caboose. So let's take a moment and let's let's think this through. Fact is the engine. That's what drives the train. The caboose doesn't drive the train. The engine drives the train. What's the engine of a relationship with God? It's the facts of who God is. What God's word says. Who is God? Who is Jesus? Who am I? How do I know God? What does it mean? You know, Facts. These are the facts. Faith is tethered to the facts that we find in the scripture. Faith is linked to fact. Wherever the facts go, faith follows. But notice now, feelings are on the end. [00:47:15] (52 seconds)  #FaithRootedInFacts

I have to be honest with you because I love you. For some of you here today, your faith is a feelings faith. If you get God bumps, it was God. Really? I can get bumps from a lot of things. A feelings oriented faith, if I were the devil, would be the easiest way to get you misplaced, to get you off track. The fact of who God is will get you through cancer. Feelings about what's going on around you are gonna overwhelm you. And for many of us, the train is out of order. And so the daily battle that we have, our daily an overcoming faith wakes up every day and says, know who God is. I know what God says. I'm trusting him with me, my past, my present, my future, everything and feelings come and go. But feelings do not drive my train, and feelings do not determine what is true or real. [00:48:15] (59 seconds)  #FeelingsDontDriveFaith

Somebody once said that, you know, circumstances are like a mattress. If you live under it, you could suffocate yourself. So we don't belong under the circumstances. But the fact remains though, life is hard and life is full of hardships. And I've come to the place in life where I have learned that there are two kinds of people. There are those who overcome hardship and there are those who are overcome by hardship. Which one do you wanna be? Because I don't think anybody sets out to be overcome by hardship, yet so many are overcome by hardship. What's the difference? And here's the difference. Those who overcome are drawing from resources that those who don't overcome are not drawing from. [00:34:01] (50 seconds)  #DrawFromGodsResources

I mean, how would you know? I mean, biblically speaking, you know, faith is not about believing the correct information in the bible. Here's how we know. James two nineteen says, the devil believes in that way. He's not in the family of God. He doesn't live under the blessing of God. So the question then becomes what in the world is faith? I mean, is more than asking God for help. We all ask God for help. So I'm just gonna give you a definition. Here's my definition of biblical faith and you'll see it as we work through our passage today. Biblical faith is surrendering all of you to all of Jesus. [00:28:27] (42 seconds)  #SurrenderAllToJesus

So what does overcoming the world mean? It means faithfully living God's way rather than submitting to the patterns and the priorities of the culture around you. That's just going their own way. Going your own way and God's way are not the same thing. So how do I overcome rather than be overcome? Our our passage points. We overcome the world. How? Through our faith. Who's the one who overcomes? Well, everyone who's been born of God overcomes. It's the one who believes overcomes. Now, again, we have to remember what believe means. Believe means not information. It's to entrust yourself to God. That's what believing means. So the good news is there's victory available. It's the victory that Jesus won, and that victory comes into your life through faith. That's cool. [00:44:27] (56 seconds)  #OvercomeByFaith

And so I wanna share with you the ones that really gripped me and spoke to me through my journey. Here's one right here. Cancer cannot invade the soul. Cancer can invade every part of your body. It cannot invade your soul. Here's the other one that got me. Cancer cannot reduce eternal life. It reduced physical life. I couldn't feel my face or my feet within the first infusion and it was that way for a long time. But it cannot reduce eternal life. Cancer cannot quench the spirit. The spirit of God working in my life. It quenched a lot of things, but it cannot quench the spirit of God. And cancer cannot lessen the power of the resurrection. [00:36:28] (48 seconds)  #CancerCannotTouchSoul

We know we've been born into God's family when our hearts open and we love God, and that love spills out into obey. Not not this kind of obey, but this kind of obey. That's how we know. Now if you follow the logic, verse one, if you've been born into God's family, you will love the father. And did you notice? You will also love whoever has been born of him. This is so important. Here's why. An overcoming faith is not a faith you do all on your own. One of the greatest resources for an overcoming faith is right here, God's family. So many people are overcome because they do it alone. [00:40:08] (41 seconds)  #LoveLeadsToObedience

They think it's me and Jesus. That's all we need. And the bible's like, no, it's not how it works. That's not this story. You were born into a family. If you draw from that family, you can overcome anything. It's a resource. So the point is that the crucial resource to help me be an overcomer is the support of a church family, the accountability of a church family. Knowing and being known, journeying with other people, that's how we overcome. Without that, easily overcome. Self destructive patterns aren't going away on your own or you already would have done that. Issues, identity issues, emotional roller coaster, broken damage related, none of that's going away on your own or you would have done that already. [00:40:50] (46 seconds)  #ChurchFamilyStrength

By faith, you open up a prescription bottle and you believe that the pharmacist got it right and didn't put the wrong thing in that bottle and you take those pills by faith. By faith, you drive down the road and you believe that that car on the other side is gonna honor that painted line and not just swerve right on over right into you. Or when the light turns green that it's okay to go ahead and drive through. We do these things by faith. So the question isn't, do you have faith? We all do. The question is, what are you placing your faith in? Repeat. The question isn't do you have faith? We all do. The question is what are you putting your faith in? [00:27:03] (46 seconds)  #WhatsYourFaithIn

When God wants to tell us what's important, he test he gives a testimony. Now when you hear testimony, you don't think like, oh, this is not my faith story, how I came to Jesus. No. That's a that's a different thing. Testimony is just simply a person stating the facts of what they know and have seen and experienced to be true. God uses testimony. In fact, here's a little news flash. Most of what people believe is based on someone's testimony. You could be a total atheist. It's like, guess what? What you believe is still based on someone's testimony. No. I'm scientist, and I'm believing the scientific method. Great. Were you there for that experiment? Well, no. But I read the protocol, but you weren't there. So you gotta take someone's word that they actually did what they've outlined that they said they did. And the actual finds are everybody has to take somebody at their word to know anything. That's testimony. [00:52:25] (47 seconds)  #TestimonyBuildsBelief

Verse five, it's faith in Jesus Christ, the son of God. That is how Now listen, faith in Jesus is not the same as faith in Christianity. There are many of us here today that you're not even sure what that difference really could be. Some of us who are actually trusting in a Christian background and rather than trusting Jesus as a person in your life. Some people have faith in God in general, just kinda generally. Some people have faith that things will always work out, and that's kinda how they operate. All of those things are fine. They're just not what the Bible says faith is. Again, biblical faith is entrusting all of me to all that I know of Jesus. [00:45:23] (37 seconds)  #FaithInJesusNotReligion

For there are three that testify, the spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree. Now notice the word spirit occurs there a few different times. Of course, we're talking about the holy spirit, third person of the trinity. And notice a couple times the word testify. The spirit of God has a job. His job is to testify, to take the truth of the reality of Jesus and impress it upon our hearts. Let me just say this. That's what's happening to you right now. Some of you here today that you're starting to see the difference between Jesus in the Bible and Jesus who you thought about in your relationship to him or not really, and all that is the spirit of God doing his job. He is testifying to you of the truth of Jesus. [00:57:42] (51 seconds)  #HolySpiritTestifies

I grew up in an unchurched home. At the age of 22, was a death metal drummer, just came off the road as a drug dealer, and a friend of mine tragically died suddenly. And all of sudden my world just started spinning around. Was confused. I was angry. I was empty. It was everything all at once. And at that time, a friend of mine had just become a Christ follower and his buddy that led him to faith asked him who we should go to and share with. And they thought of me and they came to my home and and they shared with me the simple good news about Jesus in a way that I could both understand and respond to, and I did. And I promise you, the moment I opened my life to Jesus and gave him my yes, he gave me his spirit who's been with me ever since. The spirit testifies. The spirit is testifying to you right now. [00:58:36] (49 seconds)  #MyConversionJourney

Anytime you see the word world in the bible, you got one or two options of what it means. Often, Christians think of one and kinda get it wrong the rest of the time. Oftentimes Christians think of world and they think of earth as opposed to heaven. Things of earth as opposed to things of heaven. And we wrongly conclude things of earth, bad. Heaven, good. Leave earth, go to heaven. Bad. Good. Earth, bad, heaven, good. That's kinda how we do it. That's Gnosticism. That's not bible at all. When the bible uses the word world negatively, it's referring to society in rebellion against God. It's a whole world, a society of people who are saying no to God and yes to themselves. That's the world. [00:43:47] (40 seconds)  #WorldMeansRebellion

Now, if faith is the channel through which God's unlimited resources flow into your life, if I'm the devil, no comments please. If I'm the devil, I wanna get you to place your faith anywhere other than where it truly should belong. Now, help me out everybody. I need to hear your voice. Help me out. True or false? Everybody lives by faith. True or false? Not sure, are you? Wait a minute. I know some unbelievers or atheists, they don't, you know, have faith. Well, here's the reality, my friends. The reality is all of us live by faith all day, every day, whether you consider yourself a believer or an unbeliever or whatever else. [00:26:04] (39 seconds)  #EveryoneLivesByFaith

Jesus was just like a spiritual leader. He didn't die on a cross for sin. That's not necessary. He didn't rise from the grave because that's stupid. He's just a really great philosopher who teaches us really cool stuff and that's what makes him important. That was Sorinthus and John's like, no. Absolutely not. He came in the flesh from his baptism to the cross. We saw what he did. We heard what he said. We know who he is. He's the savior of the world. He died for our sins. He rose from the grave. He defeated death and he's trying to keep a misplaced faith from happening. That's what's going on here. And here's why it's so important. Yeah. Jesus saves us. Right on. But he's also the one through whom we live an overcoming life in this world. And John is trying to prevent a misplaced faith. [00:55:40] (47 seconds)  #JesusIsTheOne

So this is an intervention. No, I'm just playing with you. Just just the act of opening up a bottle of over the counter medicine is like solving a Rubik's cube these days. First, got the cap and it's like getting into Fort Knox is trying to get the cap open. Then underneath, you've got like seal, it's not just one seal, but some combination of seals. And if you get that open, then you've got the cotton ball of doom. Good luck getting that out of there. So here's the question. Why is all of this necessary? Well, here's why. Growing up in Chicagoland as Rose and I did, we will never forget the Tylenol murders of nineteen eighty two. [00:22:29] (40 seconds)  #TylenolTragedy82

These are resources available to you in Christ that apart from Jesus, you do not have access to these resources. But as a person in Christ, these are the resources we can draw from. And as we think in first John chapter five, what does it mean to have overcoming faith? It means you draw from these resources. How do we get them? Two things. If you're a notetaker, I want you to write these down. The first, how do we draw from these? Well, first off, it's through birth into God's family. That's the first thing you need to know. The thing I love about John, he is always start everything at the beginning. Wherever the subject is, he starts at the beginning. [00:37:18] (36 seconds)  #ResourcesInChrist

So I ask you, what is your response to him? What is my response to him? Because again, biblical faith and overcoming faith, it's not faith in faith. It's not faith in fate. It's faith in a specific person. Jesus Christ, the son of God, who died for our sins and rose from the grave so that we could have new life in him. Turns out friends, faith is only as valuable as its object. And Jesus isn't one of many, he's the one and only. In him is victory. And so we have the work of the son. That's a testimony. How about this one? How about the witness of the spirit? [00:56:48] (46 seconds)  #FaithInJesusOnly