INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Relationships can be difficult to maintain.
• It can be easy to lose confidence in a relationship with people we know and can see, imagine how difficult it can be to have confidence in a relationship with someone you do not see and does not text you back.
• I have to wonder as I deal with my brothers and sisters in Christ, how many of us possess a confident faith because our faith us built on the level of confidence we have in Jesus.
• What is it that causes one to get that way? It could be that they are in the midst of a fierce battle with some sin you want to overcome but do not seem to be making any headway. Your conscience is telling you that you are not trying hard enough.
• It could be that you never feel like you are good enough for God. You serve and serve and serve, but you still do not think it is good enough. Your conscience tells you that you are not good enough for God.
• Maybe there is something going on in your life that you know you need to address and you have failed to address it? Your conscience is telling you to take care of it.
• It does not feel good to doubt where you stand with God. Guilt can be something that will keep you from wanting to serve Jesus because of your feelings of unworthiness. If you do not feel accepted by God, then your desire to serve Him will diminish.
• Admittedly, some guilt is good for us to the point it motivates us to work on weaknesses in our faith. Guilt can also be bad when it comes from the enemy.
• The conscience is something that can be a blessing, but if you let Satan get a hold of it, it can cause a great deal.
• There is nothing that Satan would like better than getting you to feel so guilty about yourself that you give up on your relationship with Jesus.
• When you are starting to feel like your relationship with Jesus is not going well, it takes a lot to keep from thinking He no longer loves you.
• You need to know that when you are in Christ, YOU CAN HAVE A CONFIDENT FAITH!
• Today we will examine three reasons you can possess A Confident Faith!
• SLIDE #2
• 1 John 3:19–20 (HCSB) — 19 This is how we will know we belong to the truth and will convince our conscience in His presence, 20 even if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience, and He knows all things.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
One can possess a confident faith when one realizes…
I. God is greater than your sin.
• Our love is evidence of our relationship with God. (19)
• Verse 19 ties us back to the thought of brotherly love. John tells us that one of ways we can tell that we have a relationship with Jesus is by the love we have for one another. I am not going to spend a lot of time on this one since we been spending a lot of time on the subject in past weeks.
• SLIDE #4
• The word KNOW means to know by EXPERIENCE. So when we look back to verse 18 from last week it explains 1 John 3:18 (HCSB) —Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.
• When you fulfill the requirements of loving our brothers, you can know that we are of the truth.
• So if that is your experience, then you can know that you belong the to the truth.
• One of the many blessings of brotherly love is the fact it shows our relationship with Jesus!
• The brotherly love you exhibit assures you that you are of the truth and therefore you can approach God with confidence because you are one of His children!
• This assurance can only come to one who is in the truth.
• If believers are demonstrating love by their actions, they will not constantly be wondering whether God will accept them—they “know” it and they can “rest” in that fact. (Life Application Bible)
• If you start to think you are not in good standing with God, you can look at the way you love others as evidence of your relationship with Jesus.
• Verse 20 joyful proclaims that you will receive encouragement from God when youy heart condemns you.
• 20 even if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience, and He knows all things.
• As Christians proceed in their lives with Christ, it will happen that their hearts will accuse them. Whatever the source—an overactive conscience, the realization that they don’t love others enough, or even Satan’s false accusations—they will feel the accusation. (Life Application Bible)
• We need encouragement to stay the course, to stay strong.
• John assumes we have a heart that lacks confidence since we know our weaknesses and our mistakes we make we know when we get out of step with God.
• The phrase (“before Him”) gives us a picture of a courtroom drama. It gives the picture of one appearing before God wondering what the verdict will be. Before the trial our own conscience has already condemned us a guilty.
• The only thing we can do is to plead guilty before the judge, yet the judge will declare us innocent knowing we are guilty. This is called justification and it comes from God, you cannot earn it, but you receive it through accepting Jesus!
• SLIDE #5
• Romans 3:26 (HCSB) — 26 God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.
• When you feel beaten down, know that God has declared you innocent. He is the only one that counts!
• God’s grace is greater than your sin. Verse 20
• We can be hard on ourselves. Your heart can tell you that you do not belong with God that you should not be in the church. Your heart can tell you to just give up.
• SLIDE #6
• Romans 8:1 (HCSB) Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus,
• The job of our conscience is to continually judge our actions and thoughts against what we know to be right and wrong.
• There are times when our heart will make us feel like we are in worse condition than we are. We must remember God’s grace is upon us.
• Do not let your heart condemn you, let it lead you to repentance and faith. Trust God will do what He promises for those who are His.
• SLIDE #7
• 1 John 3:21–22 (HCSB) — 21 Dear friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and can receive whatever we ask from Him because we keep His commands and do what is pleasing in His sight.
• SLIDE #8
One can possess a confident faith when one realizes…
II. With confidence, you can make requests of God.
• Look at verse 21 again! When you do not allow your conscience to condemn you, you can have confidence before God!
• When your heart condemns you, you will lack the confidence you need to approach God.
• Verse 21 does not speak of the person who has seared their conscience from habitually ignoring it nor does it speak of the person who is blissfully ignorant of God or the one who is satisfied that they are going to get to heaven on their own merit.
• When you feel good about where you are with God you will not be afraid to approach Him.
• WHEN I WAS A CHILD WATING FOR DAD TO COME HOME!
• We have the approval of God and the approval of our heart. The word “confidence” deals with freedom of speech. We feel like we can speak our mind without repercussions.
• We have this confidence because of Jesus.
• SLIDE #9
• Hebrews 10:19–20 (HCSB) Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way He has opened for us through the curtain (that is, His flesh ),
• God will answer your call! VERSE 22
• This is not without limits. We must ask for things that are in God’s will. We must pray for things that are within the character of God. When we pray in the name of Jesus, we are praying for something Jesus would ask for.
• Ask and receive are in the present tense telling us that we are to continue to receive as we continue to ask.
• LOOK AT VERSE 22 AGAIN.
• 22 and can receive whatever we ask from Him because we keep His commands and do what is pleasing in His sight
• God hears those who do what He calls them to do. (22)
• The rest of verse 22 tells us that God hears those who keep His commandment. “Because” refers to the condition upon which prayers are heard.
• We continue asking and we continue receiving because we continue keeping His commands and continue doing what is pleasing in His sight.
• You have the assurance of being heard by God.
• Our tender consciences always feel inadequate, yet we have the assurance of salvation and peace.
• The way we close the eyes of God toward us is by not keeping God’s commands.
• This does not imply that every time we sin that God does not hear us, but it means that when we habitually sin, when we turn our backs toward God habitually, He will not hear us.
• In a moment we will look at the specifics of what John is speaking of concerning the commands.
• Let’s turn to verses 23-24
• SLIDE #10
• 1 John 3:23–24 (HCSB) — 23 Now this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us. 24 The one who keeps His commands remains in Him, and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us is from the Spirit He has given us.
• SLIDE #11
One can possess a confident faith when one realizes…
III. God abides in you.
• In verse 22 we are told we receive from God because we keep His commandments.
• In verse 23 we are told what the commandment is. It is two-fold commandment.
• WE are to believe in the name of Jesus and love one another.
• We have spoken a lot about the issue of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.
• We MUST realize that belief in Jesus is not enough.
• SLIDE #12
• James 2:19 (HCSB) You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder.
• Belief means what we believe changes us!
• We learn about Jesus from the Bible!
• SLIDE #13
• John 20:31 (HCSB) But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.
• To believe in the name of Jesus is to accept all aspects of His life. You are not a true believer if you just think He is a good teacher or that you do not think He came to live as a man (incarnation). You are not a true believer if you will not acknowledge that He died and rose again.
• You must believe that eternal life only comes through Him.
• These things are what a BELIEVER, believes about Jesus.
• Now those beliefs will lead you to the next issue that is the issue of loving one another.
• We MUST be real in life and doctrine. Proper relationship to God requires proper beliefs, proper beliefs leads us to proper actions.
• If we doubt any of the things just said about Jesus, it will affect the way we deal with one another, it will affect the way we live.
• Look at the Apostles for a moment. Remember how they were before Jesus returned to them after the resurrection? Their life was not very consistent with what they claimed to believe. They did not truly believe EVERYTHING about Jesus until after the resurrection.
• After the resurrection, they were changed people because they were 100% sure about who Jesus was and the consequences of not following Him.
• I am not saying we cannot question things, but as I said, just because you do not understand it does not make it invalid.
• When you start to say you do not believe what is written in Genesis, then you better question if John is true also. There are things in Genesis I do not understand, but that does not make them not true.
• Without apology, I believe The Bible is 100% the Word of God, 100% true. My lack of understanding of some of the finer points does not make them untrue!
• We do have to determine if something is a figure of speech or literal, but the Word of God is true.
• What you truly believe will manifest itself in your actions.
• If you have a love problem, a forgiveness problem or an obedience problem, you have a belief problem.
• As you gain more faith, you will find it easier to do what God wants you to do, it will become easier to love those whom it was hard to once love.
• John tells us to continue to love and continue to believe!
• So times when we look for a church, we look at the wrong things. We want to see what programs they have, what they can give to my family.
• Those things are not bad to consider, but does the church believe in truth about Jesus and do they love one another.
• You should feel loved in God’s church. No church is perfect, FCC is not, but show me a church that believes and loves, that is a great start, we can work on the rest!
• Verse 24 reminds us the Spirit abides in us. We receive the INDWELLING of the Spirit when we are immersed into Christ. Acts 3:38!
• Romans 8:9 reminds us.
• SLIDE #14
• Romans 8:9 (HCSB) You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
• 2 Corinthians 5:5 tells us we have the Spirit as a GUARANTEE that we are His!
• God’s Spirit within us can assure us that He abides in us.
CONCLUSION
• Doubting your relationship with Jesus can be something that will keep you from fully serving Him.
• Do not let Satan have the foothold of doubt in your life.
• When you struggle do not turn away from God in shame, run to Him, seek out other Christians to help you work through it.
• You can have a CONFIDENT FAITH!
