Lord God, even as we know that abiding in You, You are the one to lead us into the light.
We know that light comes with love for one another, rather than the strife that we often
times struggle with.
Lord, we thank You that Your Spirit is what guides us even at the times when we struggle
and we ask that You continue to do so now and always.
In Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Howdy.
And I have to point this out.
I hope everybody does realize that saying howdy is really just more of a Texas thing,
not even really so much an Aggie thing.
Everybody's allowed to say howdy.
Okay, I'm just making sure everybody realizes this.
Longhorns are allowed to say howdy.
Okay?
Cougars are allowed to say howdy.
Red Raiders need to leave before we realize you've gotten into building.
I mean, they're allowed to say howdy as well.
And I wanted to point out a little bit about what's going to be going on over the course
of these few weeks.
This is part two of Six Sermons on 1 John.
We're going to then be on Pentecost having Reverend Karim Badawi coming here.
He does a lot of work with refugees, especially acknowledging that many of them never heard
the Gospel.
So he'll be here to preach on Pentecost.
And then after Holy Trinity Sunday, then we'll be having a different sermon format for the
summer.
But I also wanted to let you all know, I know that sometimes it's easy to struggle in the
middle of like a sermon.
So if there are any things that can be helpful, whether I've printed off some of the slides,
once we get the updates to our sanctuary, there will be screens that you can see the
slides in front of you.
But we do hold those printed out if that helps you to be able to just track where we're at,
or if you want to take notes.
And of course, always feel free to grab some water and feel free to look me in the eye.
So that always helps out as well.
I like y'all.
Most of you?
No, no, no, no.
Just recognizing that one of my confermans was giving me some good eye to eye contact
and I really appreciate it.
John in our context is speaking to the church and had lost the church had lost sight of
the true gospel.
So John has to reset them.
And he has to show them what church really is meant to be.
Last week, we talked about how we are not meant to hide in the darkness.
You see, anything that God sees in the light has already been forgiven.
And it's only by drawing to the light can you be with God.
And God changes us in the light, not by hiding everything.
So coming to God and being open and honest is truly the place where God can actually
change us.
Now I do have to in explaining the context for today, tell you a little bit about Friday.
I drove up to Cyprus because my sister's family and my parents wanted to do big family photos.
And so we got there and we were taking these photos, but the photographer was someone who
didn't really know us and didn't really know our names.
So she was kind of trying to like make up stuff in order to try to figure out what to
cause and how to refer to us.
Now my mom and my dad, they don't go by grandma and grandpa.
Okay, they go by Mr. Abel and Ms. Sybil with my niece.
And the thing is, is that every time the photographer kept saying grandma and grandpa, and we're
looking over like, who's grandma?
We have no idea.
Did somebody like grandma and grandpa already passed away?
Wait, these two?
Wait, them?
And then even at times, my dad's name is Abel and he likes to say, yes, I'm able to leap
tall buildings in a single bound and it was like, okay, 40 something years later, still
not funny, but it's okay.
But instead in his mind, like any good dad with good dad jokes is that he's already told
the joke in his mind.
So he tells her that he goes by Superman and the rest of us are like, you've never gone
by Superman ever in your life.
And what does she do?
She ends up calling him Superman the rest of the time there.
And she says, okay, everybody look to your grandfather and have admiration in your eyes
as you look to him.
I'm sorry.
That is not the way that we interact with each other.
When we want serious conversations, it's either on a long drive somewhere or by text.
It is not something where we're sitting there being serious with each other.
When we're with each other, it is terrible jokes and bad, bad ribbing with each other.
So I look at him and within two seconds, I'm just rolling laughing.
I can't help it.
And my dad's laughing too, because the thing is, is that that's family.
You got your quirks, you got your oddities, but also you have your struggles.
And to be honest is that those struggles, I don't know if they're more or less than
what your family has gone through, but you have to go through the struggles in order to
actually have the closeness.
Is that you cannot just have nice, easy family.
Family has to be something that you struggle with, but also the joy on the other side of
what that means in relationship.
That's what makes it all worth it.
In our passage, it says, nothing new in this commandment.
Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him, there is no cause for stumbling,
but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know
where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Now, let's be honest.
There are so many times where we get frustrated with those that are closest to us.
We disagree.
We see things differently.
We may struggle with that tension that's there.
And it's not just with our physical earthly family, but also with our brothers and sisters
in Christ.
We disagree.
But then also to be able to pause and remember something.
Once you think about when was the last time that somebody that you knew who is a believer
wants you to pause and say, when was the last time you thought about how you disagreed
with them so vehemently and you were trying to figure out how to even listen to anything
they had to say.
And now I want you to interject this in there.
What if you remember that this is already somebody that God's spirit is speaking to and through
because what if it's possible that as much as you may be frustrated with them, what if
even just some small percentage of what it is that they're communicating is something
that God wants you to hear.
And more than that is that when we say do not hate your brother is that this is not about
trying to avoid issues and not just well, it's Thanksgiving and everyone's trying to make
sure that they don't throw mashed potatoes at each other.
But rather is we cannot spend a vote spend forever trying to avoid things just to keep
peace.
But rather is to be able to do so in ways where we see the love and respect from one
another and for one another.
And to be fair and honest, that also oftentimes connects with what I do as a pastor.
See, if I'm saying things that are clearly unscriptural and against who God is and what
he has said, then you need to pull me out of the pulpit now.
Frankly.
Okay, nobody's coming up to pull me out of the pulpit.
Okay, so far I'm okay.
But if I am indeed the pastor and the words that I'm saying are correct, then maybe it's
time to listen to me and to do something about it.
Starting with the question, what does God need me to see about myself and my own life
right now?
And what does God want me to do about it?
Because let's be honest, it's been about four something years.
You've seen a lot of different interesting sermon directions and where they've gone.
And as somebody who recently started listening to the sermon said, yeah, Pastor Jason, you're
pretty quirky understatement of the century.
And yet so what?
And that's the thing with this is instead of getting so wrapped up and trying to figure
out what it is that we're trying to see the flaws in one another, instead as to pause and
ask, but is the word of God speaking at this moment?
And frankly, we oftentimes struggle myself included with the false sense of righteousness.
It is so easy to think that we're supposed to see ourselves as perfect and that whenever
God is calling to us, well, God is speaking to us and yet what is the first thing that
we oftentimes think that God is trying to say?
Oh, well, I need you to go point out this person's flaw.
Oh, God is speaking.
God needs you to hear how that person has it has it wrong.
And yet we see so often in the people in Scripture and in our own lives that when God speaks,
the first place is for us to stop and to adjust the focus on ourselves first.
But this is not because now we need to just sit here and dwell on that.
But rather is to say your sins are forgiven.
Notice how John goes through these particular parts of what he's saying to everybody that
he's addressing.
These three things that keep coming up is that first and foremost, your sins are forgiven.
So why are you spending so long worrying about everybody else?
Why not pause and be honest about yourself?
Because if you are, if you actually slow down enough to stop and say, you know what?
Maybe I am part of the problem.
It won't condemn you.
It won't destroy you.
It can't.
Jesus gave his life for you and everything you do and have done.
But the second thing is that you have overcome evil.
The thing is, is that the more that we end up ignoring the struggles that we are facing,
turns out the more power that they actually have over us.
The more times that we try to ignore it, the more easily it can control us.
But the third thing that he ends up saying in that series of verses as he's addressing
people directly is where are we actually going to learn and grow God's word?
The thing is, is that we are in the middle of redirecting our rudder at Christ's memorial.
Because there are so many things that we do because we think about, well, is this something
that I find to be fun or do I happen to have some time for it that I can set aside?
But rather is how much of who we are and what we do is that we bring each other back into
studying the word of God and learning and growing together.
Do we?
Or have we oftentimes lost sight of our grounding there?
And that's the thing with this is that the only way that we can end up staying on track
with this is by doing it together.
See that's the thing is that I know that there are many people here who are connected in
Scripture outside of Christ's memorial.
And there are some who do connect with the word in Christ's memorial.
But is that our culture?
Is it so, has it flowed so much in everything that we say and do that everything that who
we are pours forth out of God's word?
And that's the thing about hating your brother is that if we allow the things that drive
a wedge between us to stay there, then we have just lost the best allies that we have
to be strengthened in God by his spirit for his mission.
And it doesn't mean that there's not a reason for you to disagree or for you to bring up
something.
Hey, I think that this could be done differently.
I think this could be better.
Absolutely.
But rather is to say, is that drawing our focus away from what it is that God is trying
to do right here and right now?
See our relationship with one another is meant to bring us closer to Christ in John's epistle
as he speaks of the Antichrist and he's talking directly about how people had tried to detract
from what Christ had taught them about who he was.
But what you'll also see on there is that it's not just about the words, not just the
teachings, but the spirit of Antichrist is also about the spirit.
Because what you also see there is that instead of growing together in God's word, what did
the people end up letting happen?
They let those divisions pull them apart.
And that's the thing about this is that to avoid the spirit of Antichrist is not just
making sure that you had all the teachings right, but is to also pause and ask, is the
spirit that you're sharing with one another also from God?
So maybe let's take some time to pause and to see what we've been about.
When we think about discipleship, are we actually spending time drawing closer to God?
And hey, I'm one of the grown men here.
I know that we sometimes struggle with being more focused on the beer than we do on the
word.
Doesn't mean that that's a bad thing to have the beer.
But have we sometimes made that the goal?
If we say something is to care for one another, is it actually something that's drawing us
closer together?
Is it something where we could actually have difficult conversations about the things that
we know we're struggling with and actually find resolution?
When we say that something is outreach, is it something that's genuinely developing relationships
in our community through which the gospel can be shared?
Or do we sometimes just do something that's a good thing?
And we say, man, all right, got that task done.
We're really glad.
And then we were done.
And did we miss out on being open to gospel conversations afterward?
Are we living out being disciples who care for one another and reach out into the world?
And that's where it is that we need to focus as a community.
Is that we need to stop looking at all the reasons that we have to be upset with or bothered
by our fellow human beings, our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and instead is to pause
and say, how is it that this life, this mission is meant to be encouraged together?
But that's also for you, because maybe others have done that to you at times.
Maybe there have been times when they've spoken ill of you.
And instead to slow down and to know that wherever you may be, you are forgiven.
They are forgiven.
And now we need to draw together because the mission of God is too big.
There's too much.
We cannot do it by ourselves.
So my hope and prayer as we go forward is that as we abide in Christ, may we grow together
as that community, not ignoring the struggles, but dealing with them together as family.
And loving each other enough to see Christ and to show it to one another.
Thanks be to God.