i've been church shopping, and had to go back to the journey for part II of the sermon on 1 John. they're doing this series on how you can be sure you know God. the first part was about how you can have "full, complete, and sustain joy." some of the main points that really hit home for me were:
1) God is light. and to understand joy, is to understand God for who He is.
**it doesn't matter what we think about Him, but rather what He says about Himself.
*"knowledge of God comes from revelation, not speculation"
2)Darin (the pastor) then went on to talk about some false teachings that can deceive us.
A. (from v 6) fellowship and walking in darkness
if anyone says that they have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, then they are a liar. you cannot do both. you do one or the other. Just as God is not dark nor can He be in teh presence of darkness...neither can we say that we have fellowship with Him there--in darkness...because He won't be there with us. i think of unbelievers or people who think they're ok because they go to church, or pray, or donate to charity, yet keep living any which way they please...unfortunately it don't work that way...
B. (from v 8) we have no sin
to say that we have no sin...that's just the dumbest thing i've ever heard...if we ever feel guilt, that means that there was some standard to which we should be living that we didn't attain to. and when we don't reach that standard there is a sense of failure...which means that we lose...which means that we've sinned against some Higher Power that has a standard set...sin is just disobedience toward that standard...or as dictionary.com says:
- noun
1. transgression of divine law. the sin of Adam
2. any act regarded as such a transgression, esp. a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle
3. any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense: It's a sin to waste time.
C. (from v 10) we have not sinned
he goes on to talk about how we believe that sin s relative...and we begin to redifine it. the example he gave was "Oh, I don't get angry, I justhave a short fuse..." we just begin to make excuses and try to justify our misbehavior. LAME
some other things he says about darkness
1) it's an illusion--> he says hypocrisy is not saying don't do something and then doing it, but rather using religious activity to cover up your sin or using your theology to justify your sin...check the Pharisees on this one
2) it's only corporate--> meaning that it's only in the system...meaning what we do is just a byproduct of the corrupt structures that run our lives... where's the responsibility in that? just takes us right back to the blame game...where everyone else is at fault. and we all know that's not true.
and one last point that he brought up that i thought was just fabulous:
**confession doesn't restore union, but communion**
our union with God can NEVER be broken...it's just that our sin cause a riff in the communication department. our relationship doesn't change if we don't confess, it just sends us on this trip to allow the enemy to condemn us. our sin has been paid for...PERIOD.
this week though, he touched on a few points that i'll hi-light and call it a day.
i'm just gonna put up his diagram of the civil war that goes on in us daily...
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