Living with Confidence

Living in Love is our message series, as Yolanda and Nico just reminded us. Good morning!

My name is Mark, and it is so great to see all of you here in the auditorium, so great to be joined by all of you on the livestream, but I just have to say to those of you here in the auditorium, you look a year younger than the last time I saw you. That's my story, I'm sticking to it. Actually, last night I said to someone, I said, they said, "Oh, it's so great to see you in person." They said, "Yeah, I look so much older on the livestream." And they said, "No, you don't. You look older in person."

We have been going verse by verse through the first epistle of John, and today we land the plane on this series. But before we get to that, I can tell you a story I read just this last week; it's so interesting to me. I read this article about a man that the Coast Guard picked up off the coast of Juneau, Alaska. So here he is right here. This man and his dog, he's in this boat that he made out of duct tape. In fact, if you look, here's the dog's head kind of sticking up right here. Looks like he made the dog a little life jacket out of trash bags. The man has no life jacket himself, but look at all the other stuff on this boat, all this cargo. It's like he's expecting to be out on the ocean for a week or something like that, but he doesn't get into his journey very long when the Coast Guard spots him in trouble. They go pick him up; his little boat is taking on water.

I want you to think about this, because this man's life and the life of his precious little dog, it's all riding on his confidence in a duct tape boat. That's it. It's as crazy as that sounds. Let me just ask you something. What's your confidence riding on this morning? What's your confidence riding on? Your bank account, your health, your parents, your abilities, your job? A lot of those things are not very durable, are they? No more than a duct tape boat.

Can you recall that John wrote this letter to a church that was in crisis? I mean, a number of the people in the congregation had left the church; there were false teachers teaching all sorts of things that are leading people astray. There's sin issues, there's conflicts. So John is dealing with confused people, with hurting people, with stressed out people, and I think the same could be said for a lot of us. I mean, after the pandemic and everything else, let me just ask you, how is your outlook today? How's your outlook? And not just in terms of things that are out in the world, how about the things in our own lives? You know, issues in our marriage, our health, kid issues, job issues, and let's just be clear, we all have issues, don't we?

Well, today John's gonna bring us to some things that we can count on no matter what. In fact, seven times in this passage, John uses the phrase, we know. We know, not we wish or we think, we know. So if you want to have confidence today, you want to have confidence for the rest of your life, knowing what you can truly count on. I want you to grab your notes or open your Bibles. We're gonna be in chapter five of 1 John, where at verse five, John writes this: "Who is it that overcomes the world, only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

Now let me ask you to think about something. What would your life be like if you were absolutely convinced that sin doesn't get the last word, that not even death gets the last word, that only Jesus Christ gets the last word? I mean, how would that affect your confidence level in life? To know the day is coming when sin's gonna be defeated and death's gonna be defeated, but you know what? You won't be defeated. You will be celebrating the greatest victory ever. And we need to remember this no matter what's going on in our lives, because let's face it, it's just so easy to put our confidence in the duct tape boats of the world, in so many other things. When those things inevitably let us down, which they always will, we find ourselves thinking, "What was I doing? Why would I even do that?"

Anyone ever been to that place in life? Okay, well I have, I guess I'm on this, but I'm sure you can relate. Well, I want to show you four things today, four things again that John says you can have absolute confidence in every single day, no matter what. The first one is this: I can live in confidence because, first of all, I have eternal life. Oh yeah, there's that. Picking up at verse six, he says, "This is the one who came by water and blood." Jesus Christ, he did not come by water only, but by water and blood, and it is the Spirit who testifies because the Spirit is truth.

How many of you have heard of testimony in church before? Yeah, you've heard, so well guess what? Today you're gonna hear one; it comes from God, who's going to be testifying about his son. He says, "For there are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are in agreement." Now, let's hit pause here for a second because he talks about the water and the blood; it's like, what in the world is he talking about? Well, most Bible scholars agree that John, referring to the water, is talking about the baptism of Jesus, and all the four Gospels record this, that when he came out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and the Father said, "This is my son whom I love, and whom I'm well pleased." It marked the beginning of the Lord's public ministry. The blood is his crucifixion, and so what John's doing here is he's kind of giving us a shorthand reference to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

This is super important because some of these false teachers were teaching that Jesus was just an ordinary human being, nothing more. But at his baptism, what they called the divine Christ descended upon him, and then the same divine Christ left him right before the crucifixion, which doesn't sound very Christ-like, because it's like, you know, "Hey, things are not gonna end well here, I'm outta here." But this is where this matters, because if Jesus was ever and only human and nothing more, then his death was in vain. Then this is just a massive waste of time, but Scripture is so clear. Being fully human, he can represent us. Being fully God, he can reconcile and redeem us, and God himself testifies to the truth of this, picking up on verses nine and ten.

We accept human testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his son. Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this, what? Test. Whose testimony is it? It's God's testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his son, and this is the testimony. God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son. Now, this is the most important thing you could ever believe right here. It is the testimony that God gives about his son, and here's why, watch this. He says, whoever has the son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may, what? No, not, you know, just wish. Know that you have eternal life. Now, let's just pull up 30,000 feet here. God's testifying about his son so that we who believe can know we have eternal life. You can know it; you can take it to the bank. And you know what? I get it. Sometimes we doubt this. In fact, I was thinking this week when I was younger, I probably received Christ, you know, 100 times when I was younger, and I always did it for the same reason. It was right after I had blown it, after I'd sinned in some way, and not only did my sin cause me to feel guilty, my guilt caused me to doubt my faith, and I'm just gonna go out on a limb here when I'm seeing the nods of your head. I'm not alone in this, am I? We've been here.

But listen, while it is good to want to please the Lord, where do you think that desire comes from? It comes from the same Holy Spirit who entered our lives the moment we trusted Jesus in faith, and who inspired John to write these very words so that you may know that you have eternal life. You know, when we were singing these worship songs, and the first one talks about, just quotes this passage, whoever believes, will live forever. I was reminded of a story that goes back many years in this church, but right here on this platform, one day Pastor Kraft, René's predecessor, he was the senior pastor here for 47 years, as many of you well know. On an Easter Sunday, he was doing a little kid lesson. They didn't have Yolanda back then to do the little kid moment. And so Pastor Kraft took that upon himself on an Easter Sunday.

This auditorium was packed with folks in their Easter best, and he pulls, he has the kids come down, invites them to sit here in the front, and that particular morning, he had a little matchbox, and inside of the matchbox, there was a dead mouse. And then he pulls out a hundred dollar bill, and he says, "Boys and girls," and a hundred dollar bills, when at the time of the story, was like a lot of money. It's still a lot of money, but it was even more than. He says, "Boys and girls, I will give this fresh, crisp, hundred dollar bill to any one of you who can bring this mouse back to life." He's trying to teach them about the power of the resurrection, right? And they're all sitting there like, "Oh, man." And all of a sudden, this one little kid, Johnny, raises his hand, and Pastor Kraft didn't really expect anyone to do this, a volunteer. And he says, "Johnny, you think you can bring this mouse back to life?" And he goes, "No, Pastor Kraft, but if you give me a hundred dollars, I'll eat it."

Listen, if you're gonna be confident in anything, it is the confidence that you have eternal life because of Jesus Christ, not only what he did for us on the cross, but because he rose from the grave. And when you know this, it will make all the difference in how you live this life now, and all the difference about what you anticipate after this life, because not to put too fine a point on it, but someday we're all gonna be put in the box or the urn, but we can know that we're not gonna stay there. Amen?

There's more. John also says, "I can live in confidence because God hears my prayers." You know, Laura and our kids, and even some of the folks that work closely with me here at the church, they know that I have a particular ability. I like to call it like a superpower, and it goes like this. It's whenever I'm really focusing on something, I can turn off my ears. My kids call it my dad ears because suddenly, you know, you could fire off a cannon in front of me. I will not hear it. Any of you guys have that same power, and you, men especially? Yeah, some of you are using it right now, so come on.

But here's the good news. God never puts on his dad ears. Picking up at verse 14, this is the what? Confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, and we know that he hears us. Whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him. And again, we can have confidence. Praying isn't just like for you; it's not some sort of just, you know, self-talk. God hears us, and when we pray, John says, according to his will, he will answer favorably. He says yes; he's happy to do that.

But then John, I just gotta admit, he gives an example here that clearly, his audience understood better than we do today because it's a little bit weird here, verse 16. He says, if you see, kind of like for example, if you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. Okay, so much, that's good news. You know, I can pray for people, but he's stuck, what's this prayer that doesn't lead to death? Well, we're gonna get to that. But the clear part is this. When you see a brother or sister messing up, we're told to pray, not gossip, not judge, not avoid, pray. That's God's will.

The confusing part again has to do with what he says about this sin that leads to death, or in this case, it can. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I'm not saying that you should pray about that. No, he's not saying you shouldn't either, but he's just like, whatever, all wrongdoing is sin. And there is sin that does not lead to death. Okay, what in the world are you talking about? You're talking about here, John. We have no idea. There have been discussions about this going back many, many centuries. John Calvin thought that he was talking specifically in the first case about a believer whose sin doesn't lead to death because that death has been nailed to the cross.

In the second instance, it's a person who ultimately rejects God, rejects Christ, rejects the offer that we have, and so they die in their sin. And that's probably the best explanation that I've ever heard. But I was even wondering this week if John wasn't thinking back to the difference between Peter and Judas. Because remember, on the night of the Lord's arrest, they both denied Christ in their own way. They both rejected him. Judas or his actions, Peter through his mouth. I don't know the man. You know, that's pretty strong renunciation. And yet what was the difference? Peter came back and was fully reconciled. Judas never did. And he was ultimately doomed.

But if you think about it, neither Peter or Judas' outcome was obvious in the moment, even when other disciples fled and ran away and deserted Jesus, no one but Jesus knew how and when they would all come back. And I have no doubt that when we cover a subject like this, there are many of us. We know, you know somebody right now you're thinking of, someone you love. And that person either by word or deed has basically said, "I'm done with Jesus. I don't even know the man." Or if not that, they've just never even indicated any kind of interest. These are the moments where we can be totally confident that God hears our prayers, that it's his will to pray for them. And that person you're thinking of right now, that situation doesn't just burden you. How much more does it break the heart of God? He's not gonna force their choice, but he is gonna do everything to reach them so that they will say, "Yes, I want you Lord Jesus."

I mean, after all, before C.S. Lewis was a famous Christian, he was an atheist. Before the Apostle Paul was the Apostle Paul, the most influential Christian in history, he was Saul of Tarsus, persecutor of the church. And before that thief on the cross was asking Jesus to count him in, he was just a thief. And so we don't know the end of the story, but we pray with confidence that God hears us. So remember, I can live with confidence because I have eternal life, because God hears my prayers, and third, because God is transforming me.

I mentioned earlier how guilt can rob our confidence, and maybe with you it's a persistent struggle or temptation. Well, look what John says continuing here at verse 18; it may not strike you as completely comforting at first glance, but stick with me. He says, "We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin." And that's when we all wanna say, "Wait, wait, wait, time out. I still sinned, proved it again this morning or last night. And I guess maybe I'm just not born of God." I mean, that seems to be what he's saying there. But if you've been with us during this series, you know that when John talks about this, he uses what's called the present active tense in the original. It means continuous action.

It means that he's saying they are staying in sin perpetually to the point that it doesn't even bother you. You've just become completely, you've built up a tolerance, if you will, to that sin in your life that just feels natural, feels like breathing. By analogy, Sarah Bentley, one of the other pastors on staff, told me a fascinating story about this guy right here. True story, this guy's name is Michel Lottito. He grew up in France, and as a boy, he developed an ability to eat metal and even glass. Bear in mind, he grew up in France, like some of the best world, best food on the planet, and yet he's eating metal and glass, and so he actually turned this into a career and ended up, over the course of his career, eating the following things. Are you ready for this? He ate 18 bicycles, seven TV sets, two beds, 15 supermarket carts, a computer, a coffin. Ew. A pair of skis, six chandeliers, and his crowning achievement? Over the course of two years, he ate an entire Cessna airplane. I kid you not.

Yeah. Doctors discovered that he had an unusual digestive system. Oh, there's a shock, right? Wow. It's part of a condition called PICA, and this is a condition where people develop an actual appetite for inanimate objects. This is a real thing. In fact, when Sarah was telling me this, Kim Bruniger, our Women's Ministry Director, she overhears this, and she says, "I knew a person just like that. When I was younger, I worked in a care facility. There was a guy who had PICA. He ate his pillow. He ate everything he could get his hands on, and so one day they put a sign in his room that says, 'Do not leave any objects in this room.' Next morning they went to check on him, and yeah, you guessed it, he ate the sign."

Here's my point, and I do have one. This is what John is saying here in verse 18. He's saying, when you're born of God, no one born of God has the tolerance for sin like they do after they, once you come to Christ. In your old life, you could eat metal and glass or whatever didn't matter to you. You developed an appetite. But because God is transforming us in Christ, our appetites change, and those things that we used to indulge in so easily, we don't view them the same way as God transforms us and conforms us more to the image of Christ.

And not only that, as this continues, he says, "The one," that's Jesus, "who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them, in part because you are moving further and further away from those same types of temptations." And in those moments when even all hell is against you, the love of Christ and the power of His Spirit has this unbreakable hold on you. And even when you struggle and you fall, He lifts you up and gives you the power to keep following Him. And yeah, I know sometimes it feels like a battle, and there's a reason for that. It's because it's a battle. Verse 19, "We know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one, but not you." You know, we know why the world is so messed up and it's no joke. But greater is He who is what? In us, than He who is in the world. You can be confident in that.

That Jesus is the author and the finisher of your faith. Be confident because you are being transformed into His likeness. And then there's one more thing, I want you to flip your notes over because in the grand scheme, it really all boils down to this last thing. I can live with confidence because my confidence is in Jesus and nowhere else. And by the way, your faith isn't some kind of accident. It's not like you in all of your intelligence discovered Jesus. No, no, He had His eye on you before He even created the universe. Plans for your life and all the way into eternity. And because He has called you to faith, He's going to see you all the way to the finish line.

Look at these final verses. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. It's by God's grace that He has opened up our eyes and by His initiative that we're even able to understand and experience life with Him. And if you're not living in this kind of confidence, you can. I'm gonna give you an opportunity to put your confidence in Christ in just a moment. But if you're not, it's, the only other option is to put your confidence in something else. In your ability, your resources, you know, your will with all, but those will all eventually give out. And of course, there's a far better option. It's called the gospel. You can live knowing Jesus has everything you will ever need.

And as John says, "And we are in Him who is true by being in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Could your life be in any better hands than His, the God of the universe?" I don't think so. Reminds me of this is the closing story. You might've seen this in the news, but just a little while back, this mama bear jumps up onto a wall in the backyard with her cubs, happened here in California, climbs up on a wall and inside the house is a teenage girl, 17 years old. She's got on three or four dogs and they all bolt out the door, trying to chase off this bear. And I want you to see what was caught on the house's security camera. Watch this. There's the bear, big bear. And here comes the dogs. Of course, it's the little ones that always, you know, go there most ferocious. Watch this, almost picks up this one right here. And then here she comes, boom. Watch this. Get out of my yard. Yeah, that's what the bear said. It's like, that's not in the manual. That's not supposed to happen. What in the world happened?

By the way, that's some serious girl power, right? You better believe it. I'll tell you what happened here. She just got bulldozed, this mama bear got bulldozed by a 17-year-old human mama bear whose instinct was to just throw herself in front of this bear without even thinking about it, just because she loves her dogs. She didn't hesitate for a second. Well, now I want you to multiply that by infinity. Because the testimony of God to us today is that His son plunged into the evil of this world with no regard for himself so that he could save you and he could save me. Now you talk about ferocious love. It is the love of God that we have in Jesus Christ. Amen, church? Amen. I mean, nothing else even comes close.

And so may we all live in the confidence that we have when we live in Christ. We're gonna have an opportunity in just a moment to remember and celebrate and affirm this as we share in communion together. But as I mentioned, maybe for somebody in this room or somebody watching on our livestream, God is calling you to put your confidence in Him. Maybe for the very first time. Or maybe for many of us we realize, I've been putting my confidence in something else. And I wanna ask God to renew my confidence in Christ. Wherever you are this morning, let's let God speak to our hearts as we go to Him in prayer.

Oh, and by the way, before we do that, almost forgot, John signs off with one last verse, a little reminder about where not to put my confidence. And it's in anything that takes God's place in my heart. And so He just simply signs off by saying, "Dear children, keep yourself from idols." And of course, an idol doesn't have to be some sort of object. It's anything that captures my imagination, my heart, my devotion over and above God. So again, let's affirm that He is our highest priority, our greatest love, the source of our every confidence as we pray.

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would just renew our hearts today if we've known you for some time or maybe even many, many years. But Lord, it's easy to become captivated by the little duct tape boats in our life. And as foolish as it may seem in retrospect, we still do it. And so we wanna confess that whatever it might be in our lives today, Lord, we wanna turn from those things as we turn back to you. Would you renew our heart, our steadfast trust in you? And for any who are here today, Lord, they've never said, "Jesus, count me in." It can be as simple as that. You know you need Jesus. You know that you've made a failure of things, that you've sinned, that you've rebelled. But you're ready to come to Him and say, "Jesus, would you do for me what I can't do for myself? Will you forgive me? And will you transform me? Will you change my heart so that every day I want more and more and more to walk with you, to be with you, because that's where I will always be." We pray these things in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and all God's people said, amen.