1 John 3:1-10
1How great is the love the Father has lavished
on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it
did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But
we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
- there will come a day when we will be with Jesus face to face
- rapture or heaven
- We currently are striving to be more like Jesus but one day we will be like Him
3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just
as he is pure.
- Hope,
as in we know it is going to happen
- We know we are going to totally be like Jesus some day, but until then, we do our best
to purify ourselves
- Purify ourselves from what?? From sin.
o God wants us to be actively removing sin from our lives
§ The closer we come to Him the more He makes smaller sins visible to us
Why do we want to actively remove sin from our lives?
Jesus was without sin: he
is pure (3) and if we are going to be more like Him we need to have less sin
The more sin we have, the less we are like Jesus. The less sin we have, the more we are like Jesus
4Everyone
who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away
our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either
seen him or known him.
Did you get that?
- Jesus came to take away our sin
- He had no sin in Him
- If we live in Him/ find our identity in Him/
become more like Him then we will not sin
o Not that we will never sin again once we become Christians, but that we should
not sin
§ It does not make sense to understand the cross and stay in sin
§ When we sin, we add sins to the cross
§ When we sin, we are making light of the cross
§ We trample the blood
§ Jesus came to take away sin, not to give us permission to sin
7Dear
children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He
who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God
appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains
in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God
are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does
not love his brother.
Children of God should not sin.
Sin is never OK
When I say we are all sinners in need of a Saviour, I am not
giving permission to sin, I am just being open and honest about the fact that we all have sin and need His help to overcome
sin.
Ok, Ok, so I know sin is bad, but what do I do about it?
(wanting to do something
about it is actually the first step)
I. Know what sin is so you can stay away from it.
How do we know what
a sin is?
A. The Holy Spirit convicts us
John 16:7-9. 7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good
that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When
he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin,
because men do not believe in me;
B. The Word of God
shows what sin is
Romans 5 shows us
that the law (the Word of God) is in written for so we can be aware of our sin and also be aware of our need for a savior
to save us from our sin.
If the Bible says
don’t do it, don’t do it.
II. If you realize you have sin, repent of it
-
Admit you have sin and confess it to Jesus
1 John 1:8-10
8If
we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned,
we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
Confess your sins. Repent. Repentance is to be sick and
tired of your sin
So sick and tired
of it that you want to make a change. You want to move in the opposite direction. Sin is disgusting.
I hate sin. It is a poison in our lives.
Important note: admitting you have sin does not mean that you have permission to go around and point
out others’ sins.
John 8:7
But
Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up
and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first
to throw a stone at her."
III. If you struggle with sin, stay away from it
James 1:13-15.
13When
tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but
each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived,
it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
-
our own evil desire…the flesh…drags us away
-
the initial desire, the tempting is not the sin
o sin is a process like childbirth
o it takes time to develop
-
you need to remove yourself from situations that will lead you into, cause
you to develop sin
Matthew 6:13.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one
-
take advantage of those around you, of history, learn from others mistakes,
follow the word of God that tells you to stay away from certain things because if you don’t it promises you sin as a
result
IV. If you are having trouble overcoming sin, get some
help
Ecclesiastes
4:11-13
11
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves. A cord
of three strands is not quickly broken.
-
We as a Christian family are there top encourage one another, to build
each other up, to help each other become great men and woman of God
-
Get an accountability buddy or an accountability technique
o Example: naked picture of you to eat with, website e-mail,
weekly meeting
-
confess your sins to a Christian friend you can trust and ask them to pray
with you to overcome your sin
V. Run away from sin and run towards God
2 Peter 1:3-9.
3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our
knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and
precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world
caused by evil desires.
-
God has placed within us everything we need to become more like Christ
-
You can do it!
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness,
knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;
7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities
in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from
his past sins.
-
We need to put forth the effort
-
We need to make a choice to not just try and stop sinning, but to actively
try living a Godly life
-
Strive for the things of God.
-
As you become more like Jesus, you will be less like the old you.
-
Example: When you fill the cup with clean water and the dirty water gets flushed out
Closing: we need to confess some sins (remember we all have sins)