The Holy Spirit Isn't the Only Spirit | Pastor Levi Lusko | 1 John 4:1–12 | Fresh Life Church

A man's Christianity is not real if it doesn't make him kind. And if you believe all the right things and check all the right boxes and you're rigid with this is this must be this must be this must be this, you know, but it doesn't lead to love.

It doesn't it doesn't show itself through a broken heart that there's not uh a sense of of longing for for everyone to come to know the truth. That there's not love in your heart. that Christianity that's not real. 
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 First John chapter 4. And listen, if you disagree with me on every point that I come with, I love you.

If you disagree with me on everything I'm going to tell you today, I love you and we're so glad to have you here. Thank you for being here. You're welcome here. Welcome in this church. Um, and we want to tell you about Jesus because he's amazing. When the Boston Marathon bombing took place in 2013, a study was done and the study compared the effects of the terrorist attack on those who were there in person in Boston who watched it happen versus those who were at home wherever else they lived around the country watching non-stop TV coverage.

And they found if you watched more than six hours of coverage, now of course this is 2013, so we're talking just TV coverage. If you were glued to your TV in the next week for 6 hours, they found you were likely six times more likely to exhibit post-traumatic stress from the event than had you been there in person when the bomb went off.

Wow. >> It turns out there is something called vicarious PTSD. >> And our souls were not built to be glued to a screen about destructive horrible things and to just be dominated by it. It can have a physical effect on you even more so than had you been there in Utah watching the events play out to have it coming absorbing into you all the time.

So, if there was ever a moment in time when we needed to touch grass, ladies and gentlemen, to sort of take the shoes off, stand on the lawn, and ground ourselves once again, uh, off off of devices, off of social media, off of all of the this and the that and the fighting and all the all the things it is right now to to open up scripture, to let God connect us and ground us with truth.

And Jesus is the way. Jesus is the truth. He is the life. And the theme in 1 John 4 is genuine. Someone say genuiness. >> Is it real? Is it not real? How can you know if you're being scammed? We're going to talk today about how to avoid spiritual deception.

And that's what John says in verse one of chapter 4. Having introduced the topic of the Holy Spirit in the last verse. That's what we started with last week or or ended with last week that we begin with today, the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit was given to us and abides in us.

Then he says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God." Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is already now in the world. You are of God, little children, dear loved children, and have overcome them.

Because are you ready for some great news? He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Anybody thankful for that promise? He who is in you is greater than he who's in the world. They are of the world. Therefore, they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God. I hear I'm going to channel the spirit of Salty the singing song book in a second.

Beloved, let us love one another. Right. Okay. So, beloved, oh God. Okay. Okay. Okay. Stop. Stop. You're scaring the kids who weren't homeschooled. All right. He who does not love does not know God. For God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.

In this is love. Not that we loved God. That's not the big deal. What's the big deal? That he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation. There's a big church word. It means it means payment. It means sacrifice that was given and accepted. The propitiation for our sins.

It atoned for us. It paid the bill. We were drowning in debt that was going to take us out and sink us. And he paid the bill in one fell swoop and said, "Put it on my bill." Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought, don't you figure? >> Don't you reckon? >> We also ought to love one another.

And we'll end here. No one has seen God at any time. But if we love one another, God abides in us and his love has been perfected in us. Could we thank God for his word, church? >> Thank you, Lord. The big idea today and the title of this message is the Holy Spirit, not the only spirit.

John ended with this thought. Hey guys, how great is it the Holy Spirit's been given. We can we can know we're his cuz the Holy Spirit. And we're like, "Oh, amazing." And he's like, "But just so you know, there's other spirits, too. There's other spirits." And the Holy One isn't the only one.

There's also unholy spirits. I have this um my favorite souvenir from a trip to China I took about a decade ago. It's uh it's a it's a pretty fancy watch. I only wear it on a special occasions. It's called a Rolex Submariner. It's pretty pricey. $10,000 watch. And uh and and here's the photo of it I took this morning.

This is compared to a real one because uh this is not a real one. I I got it. Um I I was invited by Billy Graham's Evangelistic Association to go and be a part of a delegation of American pastors to China. And they put this whole trip together.

It's awesome. We got to do a bunch of stuff. And literally one of the nights they were like, "Hey, if this night if anybody wants to, we can take you to where the real bootlegs are made." And um I was like this this doesn't feel on brand at all.

Uh I couldn't go uh because I had a dinner. Some of us had a dinner we we went to and it was at like their version of Camp David, whatever whatever like the equivalent is. It was it was it was weird. Um we it was it was like all these courses and all these it was very fancy and the the whole we had just been to Tianaan Square that day and walked on the the Great Wall.

I mean it was it was it was I was like why why am I here? I don't even understand all this, right? All these all the other pastors like 50s and 60s and had built these big televised, you know, ministries and and I'm just like, "Hey, I've got a YouTube channel."

You know, it's like, uh, it's awesome. Um, and and that night I couldn't go, so cuz I got invited to that dinner, but I brought a a traveling assistant from our staff and and and he was all excited because he had this like, you know, Tony Stark watch he wanted to buy.

You know, I had never even heard of it. not a watch guy, not really a car guy, but he was all excited about buying this like watch that was like4 million dollars and he was going to get a version and they had told us well you can't you can go buy you know fake any any time you travel abroad you'll notice like we were in Ismir Turkey this last year and literally there's signs in the street that say genuine counterfeits and I'm like you do realize what an oxymoron is those two things cancel each other out it's like Christian science it's not Christian there's no science right it's it's uh it's a whole thing and So, um, we we were in in Shanghai and they said, "Well, if you want to go to the real ones, they the locals know.

They'll take you." And so, so Kevin told me the story later. I wasn't there for it all. Uh, but he told me they they they took him to the the shady part of town, you know, and then you go into the store and you have they had to like say a password and the guy was like, "Mhm."

And push a button and the whole wall went away and then they were in the subterranean chamber. And I thought, "Were you afraid for your life?" He's like, "For most of it, actually." I was uh uh but for $80 I got my $10,000 uh Submariner and I have friends who have the real watch and and it it takes us time.

We can finally eventually figure it out. But but it's pretty dang good. And apparently it's not even like the best forgery you can actually get. But I mean look at if you put the photo back up again. I mean it is pretty dang close. And even the movements of the second hand and they they've they've got it.

Like my kids today were like blown away. I when I told them the story, I had to pull it out for this sermon because John basically is saying, "Beware of counterfeit spirits." >> What a chilling thought. Beloved, do not believe every spirit. Test the spirits to know what is the spirit of error.

That's the category number one. And what is the spirit of truth? What is the actual holy spirit? Now the Greek word for test is docamazo and it basically is a a term from metalology where you would look to figure out what's actual gold, what's actually fool's gold. You're looking for genuiness for you're looking for purity.

And that's what John is saying. John is telling the church in and around Ephesus that he knows in his absence people have popped up who are telling all sorts of things. And again, it was a a danger of that day that there were just traveling preachers and they would just show up and they would they would show up at church and they would start talking and you go, "Oh man, this guy's charismatic and he's exciting and he's he seems like he has a good word."

And so, you know, we want to accept you. We want to love you. We want to hear what you have to say. And he's saying, "That's fine. Just don't be gullible. Don't believe everything you hear." Now, how crazy it is in our day that now we don't have to sit and wait for traveling preachers to come through because every time we open up our phone, if we're a Jesus person and have listened to one sermon, the algorithm is going to continue to serve up content to us.

And we have to be discerning. It's more important than ever that we're discerning when it comes to what we hear to know what's true and what's not. That we have what the Bible calls discernment. and that we know how to tell the difference between the spirits because starting in Genesis 3, the devil has never stopped all the way to the book of Revelation, he never stops trying to counterfeit, trying to duplicate what God has done, if possible to deceive even the elect, even the church.

That's his motus operandi. He slithers up to to Eve and says, "Hey girl, what you doing? You want to eat that fruit? It's delicious. Oh, it's so good." And she said, "No, God says we we we will die." He goes, "You you will not surely die. God knows."

So, he's purporting to be an expert on spirituality. He's purporting to tell her how it really is. And he has never stopped slithering and speaking through his forked tongue to get us to give up what is ours and to trade it for what he wants to be in his place.

We've been given life. He wants us to experience death, murder, destruction. And so what is the devil's plan for us? Here it is. Deception, division, denial, distortion, and distraction. He's trying to keep us back. This is the characteristics or the calling cards of the spirit of error alive and well in the world today.

Moses called it. He said in Deuteronomy 13, "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you, saying, "Let us go after other gods which you have not known, let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.

For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God. You shall fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice. You shall serve him and hold fast to him.

Jesus said the same thing. Jesus said in Matthew 7, "Beware of false prophets who come to you," what do they wear? In sheep's clothing. Right? Satan has two tricks. He'll try and bash down the door through direct outright persecution and opposition. We saw that this week. But then his other trick is he slithers around to the back, comes into the back door, puts on his sheep's costume, and says, "What's up, guys?

Isn't Jesus awesome? I love him, too." And then pedals false teaching. Did you like that? You're welcome. I worked all week on that for you. Jesus is saying, "The reality though is these wolves who wear sheep's clothing inwardly are ravenous wolves." Ravenous. They want to steal, kill, and destroy.

Peter said the same thing. Second, I'm just showing you this is a theme in scripture. Second Peter 2:1, there were also false prophets in Israel in the olden days. Just as there, here it is, will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach. Do you like that?

He's saying they're going to be good at it. It's not going to be just like immediately visible. They're going to put enough truth on it to make the the hook palatable. But they'll bring destructive heresies and even deny the master who bought them. In this way, he says, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.

And of course, Paul had a lot to say on the subject, including one of the most important realities knowing uh what what there is out the in the world today about false teaching, and that is that Satan likes to transform himself, 2 Corinthians 11:14, into an angel of light.

Beware any angel of light that shows up. So, he's not going to have the pitchfork. He's not going to have pointy ears. He's going to come uh as a bright light, as a beautiful light. It's scary to think about. Now, the moment we hear all that, we're like, "All right, never listening to anybody.

No new friends, you know, just like just just completely on lockdown." And the Bible does not want us to give into that overreaction. What we were just singing and and teaching about is uh we were just singing about is the where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom and we want to be open to the holy spirit and an assurance of salvation is the the holy spirit in our lives and Paul does not want us to be closed off to the spirit's reality. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 do not quench the spirit.

Do not despise prophecies. We do not want to act like there's only two members of the Trinity and that the Holy Spirit's just a cousin who comes over for Thanksgiving, right? The Holy Spirit is God. We want him to move in our midst to have his way to give us gifts to to to raise up dreams and and visions and like we long to see the Holy Spirit move in our heart to not we will not quench the Holy Spirit in this church, right?

And treat it as though it's just father, son, and holy scripture, right? and it just ends up being this dry place where there's no room for the Holy Spirit to operate in the gifts that he's given to the body. We don't want to despise words of knowledge or or prophecies or gifts or tongues or any of these gifts.

We believe that God is still doing all the things that he has ever done and wants to use those gifts in the church today. So, how well hold on Levi, come on, man. Take a decision or something, right? Hold on. What he's saying is don't quench the spirit.

Put it back up. Verse 20. Do not despise prophecies. Instead, what verse 21, test all things, hold fast to what is good. >> That's what he's saying. He's saying, abstain from every form of evil. He's saying, don't swear off fish. Chew the meat and spit the bones. That's what he's saying.

So, we want to be open to the reality of God moving in unexpected ways through his Holy Spirit in the church today and be poised and ready for that to happen. We do not want to become jaded. We do not want to become cynical. We do not want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

We do not want to be at a place where we become old wine skins that God cannot pour the new wine of his Holy Spirit. So, Holy Spirit, we we welcome you here. We honor you here. We accept you here. Move in our lives. Come and operate in our midst.

We long for that to happen. And yet at the same time, we need a filter. >> We need a filter to pass through what is purporting to be from God and have a way to know whether it's from him or not. Unfortunately, we have just such a filter in the lens of the Holy Spirit of of the Holy Scriptures that God will uh allow us if we're paying attention to pass what is purporting to be from God to know whether it's real metal or whether it's an alllet, whether it's fake, whether it's harmful.

That's what they did in Berea. Acts 17:11, they were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness. And then look at this part. And searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. So when we hear something, we're processing it through the lens of scripture.

Is this what God said? Because he will never contradict himself. That is what John as well gives us. Everything that we've just read in the first 12 verses of 1 John chapter 4 essentially amounts to the tests of faithfulness. the tests of genuiness. We can take what we're hearing and we can process it through this grid.

I'm going to give you five things. The first is fidelity. Fidelity is the first test. Is this faithful? Right? If you were faithful to your spouse through your whole marriage by God's grace at the end, right, it'll have only been unto them you lived till death do his part.

At the end, that would there would have been fidelity. The opposite of course would be infidelity where you were unfaithful. The question when any teaching comes to us that is being presented as something we should listen to or trust our souls to build our lives upon. That's what Jesus said.

Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them is someone who builds his life on a rock. So when someone brings a teaching to us on our Tik Tok feed or on our YouTube feed, we're asking the question, should I build my life on this? Should I build my soul on this?

Is this going to prove to be bedrock slab on grade or is it going to be sand? So the question has to begin with, is there fidelity to what Jesus actually taught and who Jesus actually is? Now again in the context of first John there was a man named Serinthus and Serinthus had showed up in Ephesus and was a slick speaker and had a lot to say and he was bringing what is known as the the Serenian uh heresy and it involved acetism it involved dualism but it also separated out Jesus from Christ. said that Jesus was the man.

Christ was this spirit and he wasn't always the Christ. Sometimes he was the Christ. On the cross he wasn't the Christ, right? It's like Princess Bride. He wasn't totally Christ. He was mostly Christ, you know? And and so you never That's why you'll notice in this section he he he never separates them.

It's Jesus Christ, right? At at the same time. So he's directly responding to the heresy that had popped up in the church at that time. And a big aspect to this heresy was a denial of the incarnation. And you have to understand this is so important. Uh Tim Keller put it this way.

Before Christmas was a spirit, it was a doctrine. >> Before Christmas, love the spirit of Christmas. We love the spirit of No, no, there's a doctrine of Christmas before there's the spirit of Christmas. And the doctrine of Christmas is that God became man. That he put skin on. that there was there was he was not 50% man, 50% God or occasionally man and occasionally he was 100% man.

He was 100% God at the same time. This was the wonder that deity put on humanity laid aside glory. So the divine use of his privilege was set aside and he chose not to use it but he was fully God and fully man at the same time. It's what's known known as by theologians as a hypostatic union. and Serinthus and these other false teachers were denying that and they were saying God didn't become fully man but it doesn't really matter because only spirit matters only your heart matters your body doesn't matter so God never would have actually become fully a body so that's why he pinpoints the incarnation as being essential to what is going to not pass the test of what's true what's false right in Willy Wonka it's what's going down the chute and what's actually worthy what's actually gold.

In verse two, he says, "By this you know the spirit of God." Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And the alternative is it denies that Jesus came in the flesh. Therefore, not of God. This is a counterfeit. This is a knockoff.

This is a dupe. And so, what is he saying is he's saying that Jesus is the key to the test. Jesus is the central focus because Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes, he will glorify me. The Holy Spirit does not glorify the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's goal is like a flood light to shine light on someone, on something.

And that someone of course is Jesus. And so them denying this single aspect is to deny everything about Jesus because it's to deny who Jesus is. And so when we hear stuff that sounds right like, well, is Jesus adjacent? They talk about Jesus. So when we look at Mormonism or we look at Jehovah's Witnesses or we look at you at Scientology or we look at any other way of thinking, the key question isn't does it sound good?

Is it going to push us to this? Right? It's no, it's what do they say about Jesus? Who is Jesus? And when we when we look at the Apostles Creed, which is the most succinct declaration of what New Testament Christianity is, when it comes to Jesus, we're saying, "I believe that Jesus Christ is God's only son, our Lord, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontious Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, descended into the hell into hell. on the third day rose again from the dead and he is seated at the right hand of God the father almighty and from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

It comes down to who Jesus is. So if Jesus is just a good prophet, good teacher or in some of these cults he's purported to be the brother of Lucifer or he's another created being or he's actually Michael the archangel. Eh, not it. Not true. Not going to build my life on that. only upon Jesus Christ who came in the flesh, who died on the cross, who rose from the dead, who ascended to the father and is coming again.

This is Jesus. This is what we're building our life. He who does not confess these facts of the gospel is not of God. John is saying it's not Christ, it's Antichrist. It's the spirit of Antichrist, which is opposed to Christ or instead of Christ. That's what John is saying to us.

Okay. So, fidelity to historic Christianity. Spurgeon said, "Any doctrine that dishonors Christ, whether in his person or his offices or his atonement or in any other way, you may at once conclude this is not from God. For that which comes from the spirit of God, glorifies Christ." Or to put it simply, get Jesus wrong.

It doesn't matter what you get right. >> My heart's in the right place. It makes me feel good. It makes me happy. But it doesn't matter what you believe. You can be sincere and be sincerely wrong. Only Christ came. Only Christ paid for our sins. Only Christ is going to come again to judge the world.

And if you don't have the son, you don't have life. So fidelity. Secondly, humility. Humility is massively important. And John says, and it sounds like the opposite of humility when you read it at face value, but it's so important you understand this in verse six, we are of God.

John's saying, we the the apostles, we the the original followers who were eyewitnesses to these events. Verse six, we are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Now, now hear me. John at this point is the last living apostle. He's the final man standing who was there at the last supper. He he had his head on Jesus's breast. He was there at the cross when the spear went into his heart. Blood spattered onto him.

He had a front row seat to the crucifixion. He was there on Easter Sunday at the empty tomb. He ate with him. Jesus passed through walls to come through. scared him. Jesus offered his scars, his verification, his proof. In that day, scars could be actually shown in court, by the way, as a legal.

They didn't have Apple wallet ID, right? They you you could show scars as a distinguishing characteristic. He said, "Look at my scars. It's really me." And then he was there when Jesus ascended into heaven. And he is the last person who is able to say. So when he says, "If they don't say what we're saying, they're not of us."

He is saying we who are the representatives of Jesus who saw these things and then almost all of us went out to our deaths rather than renouncing the gospel. If they don't hear us, they're not of God. And these slimy teachers coming in uh Serinthus among them, they would say, "Oh, you know, John, what do these guys know?

Oh, John's old now, right? It's a new age. It's a new era. We need new truth. Let me tell you a new thing." and and the idea of of of of following someone so slick and charismatic would have its appeal. And John had no taste for it. It's actually an amazing uh story.

It's church history. It's not in the Bible. It's extra biblical, but it's funny that John at 90 was back in Ephesus and had heard what Serencus was was saying and doing and and badmouthing him. And one day him him and a friend John were going to go into the bath house and and he saw as he went in that Serenus was in the back room.

He said, "Oh no." Turned on his heel and walked out. He goes, "I'm not going in that place." He goes, "Because if the roof fell in on Sarinthus, I don't want it to take us out in here." He wouldn't even be in the same bath house. He had no taste for it because he knew he was disturbing the sheep.

He was turning them away. He was he was pointing people away from Jesus. And so John is saying as a part of the original apostles, he's saying, "If they don't listen to what we had to say, don't listen to them at all." Paul took it a step further.

Paul said, doubling down on this, Galatians 1, even if we, Paul is saying, me myself, even if we, or an angel from heaven, which is of course how the Church of Latter-day Saints began, this angel shows up from heaven with a new gospel. Red flag. Even if an angel from heaven, even if I myself preach any other gospel to you than what we have already preached to you, let him be considered a curse.

That's why John wouldn't go in the bath house with Corinthus who's purporting to be a believer but living this doctrinal lie. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. Can I boil it down for if it's new, it's not true.

If it's true, it's not new. We don't need a new way. We don't need a new age. We don't need a new We are already in what was ushered in the kingdom of God. This new understanding, new power that Jesus gave us to live out what the old thing is from the beginning.

And the same is true with Ouija boards and tarot cards and palm reading and seances and any any of these witchcraft uh to to think about the signs of the zodiac or osilocybin or any of these drugs to expand our minds. I mean it was I was reading Will Smith's biography and he talked about taking hallucinogenic drugs and seeing a bright light that told him everything's okay.

This is literally what we are warned about. These are demons who are trying to drag people into hell. But they made me feel warm and happy and safe. Of course they would. And that's because they want to destroy you. It's demonic. So we need fidelity faithful to the original teaching.

But also humility to accept we don't get to be in a position of just coming up with whatever we want to. We don't get to be in a position of us being the arbiters of truth that we get to now have this that because that's what Serinthus got.

He got to lord himself over everybody and say I have this great new you know way of seeing things. It takes humility to recognize there was only one way for me to be saved and it was the propitiation for our s there's only one way for me to be I'm on my knees going thank you for dying for me.

Thank you for what you did for Thank you. That's that takes humility to be the damsel in distress. which is what you and I are. And Jesus is the superhero who comes in and saves us. And we don't like that humility. We want to have the the arrogance of of getting to come up with our own way of doing things.

We have never stopped building the Tower of Babel. God said, "You want to get to heaven?" He slays kills the lamb to cover them up until he sends Jesus. That's Adam and Eve. And of course, the opposite strain of religion is to build a tower that gets to heaven.

I can do it on my own. Which is why all the book of Revelation centers on the judgment of Babylon, which is the competing way to try to get to heaven outside of the cross. Then thirdly, victory. This is the third test of the teaching is victory. And the question on victory is are we looking for it or are we fighting from it? >> For it or from it. when it comes to victory.

Verse four, you are of God, little children. And you've overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. >> Religion tells you you have to do something to be something. The gospel tells us we are something because he did something.

Okay? So victory for us is not what we're striving for, what we're hoping for. Victory is not what we we we hope we can muster up one day if we can all do enough good things. No, victory begins at the empty tomb where Christ already rose. We stand on victory.

We we we we have a place of victory continuous way. Ephesians says, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might to believe his victory is already ours." And so any way of thinking that's that's opposite of that, greater is he that is in you.

You you've already overcome the world because of what he has done through you for you on the cross. We we can believe that we are more than conquerors, always led in triumph. Yeah, we we abound in death and yet his life is living in us somehow. If you can figure that out, I don't I don't I don't know how it works.

Cut us down and we become more powerful than we were even in life. Right? This is the the the upside down kingdom. There is God confidence in that. You want to talk about swag? There is swag that comes from knowing greater is he who lives in you than he who lives in the world.

And and so we have this position of strength, this position of victory. And I I I just love also that spirit within us is there to help us with that spiritual enabling that's called discernment. Where there's a smell test to certain things and where things don't feel right, he's saying just trust trust the Holy Spirit inside of you.

He's going to lead you into all truth. And then number four, charity. Charity. What is charity? Charity is love and action. Charity is love that that can be seen. Why didn't you just call it love? Because it wouldn't rhyme with my other points. So, I called it charity.

Shocking. Um, but true. John brings it back around to love. He brings it back around to love because this book uses the word love so many times. In fact, the word love shows up so many times in chapter 4 of 1 John that it's three times as much love as 1 Corinthians 13, which we call the love chapter.

This is the real love chapter. Okay? 1 John chapter 4. Love's everywhere. And and really you can summarize this whole way of thinking in verse 8. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. So now we've transitioned from the tests being what they say, what they believe to now how they live.

Okay? Because a man's Christianity is not real if it doesn't make him kind. And if you believe all the right things and check all the right boxes and you're rigid with this is this must be this must be this must be this, you know, but it doesn't lead to love.

It doesn't it doesn't show itself through a broken heart. That there's not uh a sense of of longing for for everyone to come to know the truth. That there's not love in your heart. That Christianity that's not real. Here's an example. Um I don't know Jason Mamoa, Aquaman.

Don't know him, but I sat next to him once for two and a half hours. I was seated right across the the aisle from him on an airplane and had to tell myself for two and a half hours, don't stare. Don't stare. Don't stare. Don't stare. We had a conversation that lasted maybe two minutes and uh we went our separate ways and guess what?

I bet you anything he's not telling that story right now somewhere. I feel like I know him. You know Jason Momo kind of a little bit. We had that we had that flight on Delta that one point. That one that remember that remember that flight Jason? He's like I don't I don't remember that flight.

I don't remember you. I don't know you. Please stop chasing me around. Right. A couple months later, this is crazy. We were in California getting coffee and we saw Jason Mo. My kids and I saw Jason Mo on the other side of the street and I thought, I know him now.

Imagine how I called out to him. Jason, I know you. We know. Remember each other. Remember remember that? Remember the peanuts? How small they were? Wasn't that crazy? I don't know Jason Mamoa. I don't have a relationship with Jason. And it shows. Look at my text messages. Look like look, he's never calling me.

You know, he had to get that restraining order. It is what it is, right? My life shows I don't know him. Wow. >> If you know God, who is love, but then your life's hateful and the way these doctrinal truths are are are are shaping you is in a in a hateful way.

Does that add up? So so so love in your life proves Jesus is in your heart. How did Jesus die? praying for God to forgive those who were killing him. How did Steven the first martyr die? Praying for God to forgive those who were stoning him to death.

So if we have love in our lives, it's evidence. It's assurance of of of of God's presence there. So if there's not love, repent of that. Repent of that. It's a sin. It will hold you back. It shouldn't lead downstream to hate. What I'm saying is it's not just what we say, it's how we say it.

There needs to be kindness. There needs to be grace. There needs to be love. No, listen to me. Meanness, no smuggness, no contempt, no hatred. Otherwise, all of our supposed love is a clanging symbol. It's obnoxious. So, there needs to be love. God so loved the world that he gave his life.

So we should as well. And then lastly, he turns inward to the church now because that's more about the world right there. But but but to the church community, he says there needs to be community. There needs to be fellowship. That's the last point. Community. 1 John 4 and verse 12.

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us and his love is brought to full expression in our midst, right there in us. I came across an article in the Atlantic called the antisocial century. The antisocial century. Now, we're living, of course, in the 21st century now, and we're 25 years into this century.

And they say that one of the most baffling things about the last 25 years in America has been the amount of people who get together with other people and do anything has gone down every year for the last 20 years. The antisocial century. One person said the death of partying in the USA is what we're seeing. the death and not partying like keg stand drunken just like any kind of social get together with with anybody that that is just going down every year for the last 21 years to the point that now on a typical weekend in America only 4.1% of people will attend or host a get together 4.1% will attend or host a get together on a typical weekend in any given time.

Um, that's one in 25 US households having the plans to have or host some kind of people coming into the house. Um, and it's worse for young people. For young people, it is 70% less time in gettogethers than at at the same point 20 years ago. Young men uh now watch seven hours of TV for every 1 hour they spend hanging out with friends.

And the typical female pet owner will spend more time engaged with her pet than she will spend in face-to-face contact with friends of her own species. I came at both. I came at both. Right? I had to come at the young man for the TV and the girl for the dog.

You know what's the point? The point is, the article says, "It's a time of surging anxiety and mental distress, and Americans are spending more time alone today than at any other point in recorded history. Face-to-face socializing has plummeted." And listen to me, the church is the answer. >> The church is the answer.

Right here in the midst, we have people. We have each other. We can get together. This is one of the only remaining entities in the world where you can be guaranteed to walk in and talk to someone. You can't even get that at Taco Bell anymore. It's a robot taking your order.

And yet in the church, we can talk to each other. And there is right there on the table. Do you want community? Do you want fellowship? Do you want friends? Do you want to not just spend time with your dog and your TV? Would you like to come to someone's house and sit around and have coffee and have conversations?

Would you like to not be lonely? Would you like to to be on a team together? Would you like to serve together to to to put your shoulder to the plow of a vision that's bigger than any one of us that we all could play? Would you want to give your life to some?

Do you want to live longer? Do you want to feel better? Jesus says, "No one has ever seen God, but when you guys come together in my in my name, then you can see him. >> Two or more together, I'm there in the midst. Present to help, present to heal."

So, we're talking about fidelity, humility, victory, charity, and community. I like how you guys were struggling to keep up there, weren't you? That's all of them. We got them all. This is what we process teaching through. Is it going to point us to these things? Cuz those listening to the heresy had left the church.

Those listening to the heresy had we're now off on on we don't need the gathering. We don't need that. We can just kind of have our own truth, our own way of thinking. Eugene Peterson translated the first verse this way. My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear.

Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lion preachers loose in the world. When we open up our phones these days, the amount of people pretending to be Bank of America. The real Bank of America though doesn't want anything from you.

They want to give a verification code to you, right? The ver the Bank of America never says, "What's your password? I'm from Bank of America. I need to help you. Just give me your password real quick. Just tell me your mother's main name. I forgot it. Could you just tell it to me real quick?

Hey, what's the last four of your social asking for a friend?" Right? That's Bank of America isn't asking for you to give them something. Bank of America says, "Here's a verification code that we're going to send you. what we send you is is is is is how you know we're gonna that's what he's saying here.

We know God because he sent Jesus. Every other system's asking for something from you. God says, "I did something for you. I sent a code. I I sent something to your inbox." And so, Father, we thank you for the cross, the ultimate verification code where the handwriting of requirements was canceled out.

And thank you for the life that we can step into, the love that we can live. Thank you for the one another that we can do life with. And we thank you now in this moment just that we're given space to reup our love for you, our need for you.

All across the church, every every heart, every every life, if you would just say, I just want to rego in go all in on Jesus once again for the first time. Just raise up your hand. Raise up your hearts. Raise up your life. Thank you, Jesus. See our hands.

See, our lives, God, they're brief. They're fleeting. We want them to be lived for you, for your kingdom, for your glory. There's some part of this message we we need to work on, something that we need to take an action step on. I pray you'd give us the grace to do so.

One step at a time until we're face to face with you in Jesus name. Put your hands down. If you are here and you've never trusted Christ for salvation, we long most of all for you to know him. He saved us. He set us free. He bought us.

It's not anything we can do that can save us. We're not going to stand before God and and be asked, "How many good things did you do?" It's going to be, "Did you believe in Jesus? Did you trust in him? Did you allow him to come in and save you?"

And that can happen to you today. So, all across the church, if you don't have the confidence and the assurance that when you die, you're going to go to heaven, that your sins are paid for, you can because of the cross. I'm going to pray a prayer. I'm going to pray it out loud.

I'm going to give space for you to pray it out loud after me. And I'm going to ask the church family to pray it with you. No one praying alone. All of us praying together. And if you're ready to give your life to Jesus, coming home to your father, pray this prayer.

Mean it in your heart. The Bible says God will hear you and God will heal you. And that if you call on his name, you will be saved. Dear God, I know I'm a sinner. I can't fix myself, but I believe you can. Please come into my heart.

Make it your home. Thank you for the cross, for raising Jesus from the dead. Thank you for new life. I give you mine in Jesus name. 
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