05/29               1 John 2:18-23

Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.  19 These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.  20 But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth.  21 So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies. 22 And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.  23 Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

JESUS

The World cannot stand Jesus.  He calls each of us to account and the light of His presence reveals sin in a life.  The World will not acknowledge Jesus as Lord:  He’s a good man, He has a high moral ethic and many other platitudes that deny His deity.  Remember that Jesus is Lord.  We don’t make Him Lord.  

05/28               1 John 2:15-17 

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. 

OBEY

Remember as you sit before this Father this morning, that when you pray be sure to pray for forgiveness for each one of us is a great sinner.  We are not like God, we want what we want when we want it.  Like little babies we need to grow but we so often refuse to grow.  We harbor old sins, look for new sins and then criticize others for doing the same thing we do.  Obey the Lord-do what He says.  

05/27               1 John 2:14 

I have written to you who are God’s children because you know the Father. I have written to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I have written to you who are young in the faith because you are strong. God’s word lives in your hearts, and you have won your battle with the evil one. 

KEY

Whatever stage of the Christian life that we are in we are continually led by Jesus.  He is our Lord.  He is our friend and confident.  He is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is God’s everything and provides everything we need related to our spiritual walk and Holy living.   

05/26               1 John 2:13 

I am writing to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I am writing to you who are young in the faith because you have won your battle with the evil one. 

JESUS

We move and live and breathe, in Christ.  Jesus is God’s everything and He is everything to us.  We live in Christ.  We grow in Christ.  One day we will die in Christ and immediately stand before Him in eternity.  Jesus is Lord.  

05/25               1 John 2:12 

I am writing to you who are God’s children because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus. 

CLEANSED

Christ’s atoning work has cleansed us from sin and evil and brought us into the light by the power of God.  We are new creatures in Christ.  Gone is the old.  Today we are new.  

05/24               1 John 2:9-11 

If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness.  10Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness. 

WHO

Who are you?  Love one another.  Do good.  Obey the Lord.  That’s what a Christ-follower does.  We act out in day to day life who we are:  a child of God or a child of Satan.  

05/23               1 John 2:8 

Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining. 

CERTAINTY

We live with certainty.  Jesus has already won the victory and He is leading us in His victory lap prior to the second coming.  Jesus is coming back.  He will not leave us or forget us.  He is Lord.

05/22               1 John 2:7 

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. 

LISTEN

How often the Biblical writer under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit tells us to listen.  We are called to hear the message and to know that the message is to love one another.  We cannot love God, who we do not see, if we do not love our brethren (men and women) who we can see.  People count with Jesus.  

05/21               1 John 2:6 

Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. 

KNOW
I must know Jesus to live like Jesus.  I will study His life and let Him direct my life.  Day by day I will be becoming more like Him.  He is Lord and I am not.  

05/20               1 John 2:3-5 

And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 

LIFE

In Christ we are new creatures.  We have a new life now.  We think different.  We live different.  Everything about us is changed.  If we are not different than we were we are not changed and are not His children.