1 John 1:5-2:2

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotion. This morning we are going to be at 1 John. I was going to What hope do we have? What hope do we have about Jesus? Let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into God's word. Is it hot? Nope. Just a little sip, not a bunch. Okay, that's enough. That's enough. All right, you ready to pray? Um Okay. God, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the blessing it is that we get to read your word. And we pray that you would please help us to not just read it, but to understand it and to practice it in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. Here we go. This is some of my favorite words of the Bible. We are in 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 1 verses 5 through chapter 2 verse 2. This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you. Can you read that part that's underlined? God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that that we have not sinned If we say we have no sin and we do deceive ourselves and the truth and the truth is not to us. Oh, not in us. Wait. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned we make him a a a liar and his word is not in us. My little children, these things are right to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself the is the propitiation for for all sin and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. All right, so a series of different kind of switches type sentences, right? If this then this, if this then this, if this then this, right? So, first he wants them to know that God is light. And in God there is light. Well, there's if there's all light, then there's no darkness. No darkness at all. Right? Now, here's the thing. If we say that we have fellowship, like friendship and communion with God and yet we walk in darkness we lie. Yep. Cuz can we have fellowship with the light and be in darkness? Nope. No. No, but instead we do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another. Yep. And the blood of his son cleanses us from all of our sin. sin. Right? So, do you think God cares about how we walk in this life? Yes. What do you think that means to walk in this life? Walk in the darkness or walk in the light? Walk in the light in the light. Jesus wants us to walk in his ways properly. Well, that's true, but We take detours. Yeah, but the point Well, you're right, we take detours. We kind of get stuck in the park of of uh enjoyment sometimes. Sometimes we get stuck in vanity fair and in vanity fair. Yeah, sometimes we get distracted and we end up in vanity fair. Yeah, but the point is, right? Uh can we the the walking is kind of like the pattern of your life, right? Yeah. So, um well, if we say that we have no sin Right? So, we're supposed to be walking in the light. But if we're walking in the light whoop, and we say we have no sin what's what's that tell about us? You really just sinned. Yeah, we deceive ourselves, right? You're lying to yourself and the truth's not in us. Right? So, can anybody say, "Oh, I walk perfectly in the light."? No. No. You really just lied. Yeah. But if we confess our sins and say that we have sinned Yeah, so if we confess our sins who who is faithful and just? God will forgive us. Yeah, God is faithful and just to forgive us of all of our sins and cleanse us of from all of our unrighteousness, right? So, he's righteous and and he'll cleanse us of our unrighteousness or not righteousness. Yeah, good. Um If we say that we have not sinned, ooh, here's a big one. If we say, "Ah, I've never sinned." what do we make God? That make him really small. You know what a We know what he says here? We make God a liar. Even [clears throat] though God What What it's not a matter of big or small, right? It's a matter of who's told us that we're sinners. God has, right? Yeah, so God's told us that we're sinners. And so if I say, "Oh, I I don't sin." Mhm. Yeah. We just then I'm saying God's a liar. And the truth isn't in us. Hm. Um and so he says, "My little children." He's This is old man John writing to the church and he says, "My little children I write to you so that you may not sin." He wants them to know that God is light and in God there's no darkness at all. And he does Does any pastor want the people to sin? No. No. So, he says, "I write to you that you may not sin." But if anyone does sin you have an advocate. What's an advocate? Um um So, [snorts] like if China wanted to go to war with India that's an advocate. Mm, no. That might be like aggression or something like that. But an advocate is like if you were to go to to uh court and you were on the on trial and somebody was saying that you did something horrible and wrong you could have a lawyer, a defender come and he could advocate for you. He'd say, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Here's the truth. Here's what happened." Well, do you want to know what the advocate is? Satan. No, that's the adversary. We have Jesus Christ. Right? Jesus who is righteous. And Jesus comes and he defends us. Because of our righteousness? Nope. No, because of his his righteousness. Right? So, do we want to sin? No. No. Our the pattern of our lives should not look like just sinning all the time. Like like not like we just enjoy and revel in our sins. You can try not to sin, Absolutely. but you're going to sin. Yeah, and so when you do sin, what do you do about that? Ask God for help. Yeah. Well, ask God for help and maybe even ask him for forgiveness. But do we have to be afraid before God? No. Why not? Because God he already paid for our sins. That's right. He gave us his own blood. Yeah, he gave us the blood of his own son, right? He redeemed us. Isn't that good news? Yeah. So, what do you think this calls you to do in your life? Try to not sin. Try your best. Just to be kind and try not to sin like we do. Try not to sin. Yeah, so right? So, we don't want to We want to walk in the by the spirit, right? Is there any law against the fruits of the spirit? Is there any law saying, "Do not love."? Nope. What about do not have joy? Nope. Is there any law that says, "Don't have peace with your siblings."? Nope. [clears throat] But it's hard to have peace with your siblings. Yeah, can you do it from yourself? Nope. So, who do you need to depend upon? God. That's right. Remember when we walk in the light as he is in the light, because in him there's no darkness at all. So, when I try to walk in the in his light Mhm. we need to walk by his spirit, not by the flesh. Right? But we say, "God, this isn't what I naturally want to do. So, please help me. Give me your spirit. Teach me to walk in your ways. Instruct me in your paths." Like not get mad at Nathan when he triple jumps me. Yeah. Yeah, not to get mad mad at Nathan when you're playing checkers and he triple jumps you. I didn't take my hand off the piece. Well, we're not going to rehash that whole argument here. Right. Well, you ready to pray? Yeah. Okay. God, we pray that we would not be so full of pride that we would say we don't have sin. Lord, we pray that we would have true faith in Jesus that when we do sin, we know that you have given us your son to teach us and to advocate for us. We thank you that you are faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all of our transgressions. Lord, please help us to walk in the light as you are in the light. Father, please do not let us get distracted by Vanity Fair or by the things we we might want to do in our lives by our own sinful flesh. But God, teach us your ways in Jesus' name. Amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the peace that comes from knowing that you have an advocate. The propitiation. The one who's laid down his life for you, Jesus himself in heaven. And I'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.