Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

Big Idea: Don’t love the world because you can't have it both ways.

1. You can’t love the world and love God (vv.15-16)

A few things to understand about the world:

a. It’s where we’re born 

b. It’s overcome only by God

c. It’s unavoidable to deal with the world

d. It’s either one or the other: 

i. Desires of the flesh

ii. Desires of the eyes 

iii. Pride of life

2. You can’t love the world and keep your life

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

1. To the children in the faith…

2. To the fathers in the faith…

- Hebrews 5:12-13 

3. To the young men in the faith…

- Psalm 119:9 

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

Big Idea: Love is the relational evidence of life change in the true Christian.

1. The love test explained (vv.7-8)

1 Thessalonians 4:9 -- "Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another"

2. The love test applied (vv.9-11)

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

The moral diagnostic:

1. Do you obey Jesus? (vv.3-5a)

- Assurance coming from 3 places:

a. God’s word

b. God’s Spirit

c. Godliness

- What you love you’ll obey. To know God is to love God and to love God is to obey God.

- Do you see a hunger for His word? A desire deep in your heart to obey?

2. Do you imitate Jesus? (vv.5b-6)

-  Are you in a Small Group?

Preacher: Jeff Donaldson

- Power must be used to help bless people

- The purpose of power is to empower those without power

1. Love Sacrificially

2. Lead Kindly

3. Live Fairly

5 Ways we abuse our power:

- We use people to get what we want

- We demean when people don't measure up

- We neglect because we're self absorbed

- We withhold good when it's due

- We threaten when upset

Preacher: Chris Ritter

Big Idea: How can I know my sins are forgiven?

3 Evidences:

#1. The Outward Evidence: You walk in the light (v.5-7)

2 results of walking in the light:

a. We have fellowship with one another

b. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin

- What is sin? Sin is anything and everything that keeps someone from right relationship with God.

2 "camps" of how people perceive sin today:

a. The "No shame" camp

b. The "Full of shame" camp

#2. The Internal Evidence: You agree with God about your sin (v.8-10)

2 results of confessing your sins:

a. Forgiveness -- The debt of sin is erased from your account

b. God cleanses us from all unrighteousness

#3. The Jesus Evidence: Jesus is your Advocate (v.1-2)

Advocate: Legal counsel, defense attorney, your representation

Propitiation: The removal of God's wrath against sinners by the death of Jesus

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

Know YOU have eternal life (1 John 5:13)...

1. Believe the eyewitness testimony (vv.1-3a)

-An unchanging testimony

-An experiential testimony

-A declarative testimony

2. Receive the joy of relationship with God (vv.3b-4)

Romans 10:9 -- "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

Eugene Peterson -- “All true prayer becomes praise. Any prayer, no matter how desperate its origin, no matter how angry and fearful the experiences it traverses, ends up in praise. It does not always get there quickly or easily- the trip can take a lifetime- but the end is always praise.”

1. Trust in your trembling (v.16)

2. Resolve to rejoice regardless (vv.17-18)

George Muller -- “I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord.”

Jonathan Edwards -- “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, children or the company of earthly friends are but shadows, but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the ocean.”

3. Rely on God’s strength (v.19)

Preacher: Scott Hollingshead

From a horizontal perspective to a vertical one through prayer.

1. Pray for future grace in light of God’s past grace (vv.1-2)

2. Meditate on who God is and what He’s done (vv.3-16)

Tim Keller -- “Meditation is taking God’s truth down into our hearts until it catches fire and begins to melt and shape our reactions to God…It’s thinking a truth out and then thinking a truth in until it overwhelms, until the reality of God is sensed upon the heart.”

4 aspects of God Habakkuk mediates on:

- God's glory (vv.3-4)

- God's grandness (vv.5-8)

- God’s holy nature (vv.9-12)

- God’s rescuing (vv.13-15)

Framework for meditation:

a. Instruction (what does this passage want us to believe or do)

b. Thanksgiving (how does this lead us to praise/thank God)

c. Confession (how does this passage lead us to repent and confess sin)

d. Prayer (how does this passage prompt us to appeal to God). Do you meditate on God?

Preacher: Chris Ritter

Today’s goal: Every Christian who has not been baptized as a Christian, sign up to be baptized.

3 views on baptism:

#1. The Roman Catholic view: Baptism is necessary for salvation, and the act of baptism causes regeneration (salvation). This is not a Christian view.

#2. The Paedo Baptist View: In the Old Covenant, circumcision was the external sign of entrance into God’s covenant community. In the New Covenant, baptism is the external sign of entrance into the “covenant community”.

- Baptism is the NT counterpart to OT circumcision

- Therefore, children of believing parents should be baptized as a sign they belong to the “covenant community” of the Church.

- This is not seen as a saving act; the child will need to personally, consciously place faith in Jesus as Savior like anyone else to be saved

- We disagree with this view, but so long as baptism is not seen as a saving act, it is a secondary issue.

#3. Believer’s Baptism: The ceremony of baptism takes place after a profession of faith has been made, in obedience to Jesus. Faith precedes baptism.

- Colossians 2:11-12 

What is Baptism?

- Baptism is an external representation of a believer having been buried with Christ and raised with Christ through faith.

3 Reasons YOU need to be baptized:

1. Jesus commands it -- Matthew 28:19-20 

2. Jesus’ friends obey Jesus -- John 15:14 

- 4 excuses people give for not getting baptized:

a. I was baptized as a baby

b. I’m scared to be in front of people

c. I don’t want to mess up my hair

d. It’s just a ceremony and I don’t see the point

3. Baptism proclaims your identification with Jesus

When should someone get baptized? As soon as they have opportunity.

- Acts 2:41 

- Acts 8:36 and Acts 8:38 

- Acts 10:47