Don’t Shrink Back (1 John 2:28-3:8)

• First, I want to address the question that I think is already forming in your mind. It’s the most common question I get whether I am back in the US or I’m traveling around the world. In fact, just yesterday at the Gospel City Network conference, a woman came up and asked me this question that I always get asked. So I want to go ahead and remove this potential distraction for you. Here’s the question I think you’re thinking: how old are you?
• Usually when I tell people that I’m a pastor, I’ve been married for 12 years and have 3 sons, I can see the confusion on their face as they have to recalculate how old they thought I was so to spare you that, I’m 35. 
• So, do not worry, if you thought that you had accidentally wandered into the student ministry, you’re in the right place and we’re glad that you’re here.
• From the outside looking in, I perceive that this is a very exciting season of ministry. I mean, when I hear about what is happening in this city, I am so encouraged. The living God is moving in KL and specifically he’s moving through Garden City.
• Garden City is growing both in number and maturity. You are sending out new church plants. I met some people this weekend from Monarch and I think they just had their first public service like last week. I hope you can see it; the Spirit of God is moving right here in your midst. 
• But what I also know is that often what is perceived as very exciting from the outside is also very costly on the inside. 
• Healthy things grow, and growing things change, and change is costly. It’s often uncomfortable and sometimes it hurts.
• My family is moving back to South Africa next year to plant a church and though we’re excited and we know it’s what God has called us to, already we’re experiencing cost.
• But I believe that the living God has a word of encouragement for you this morning – Don’t shrink back, keep going, he wants to do more, and it will all be worth it.
• If you have a Bible, meet me in 1 John 2, starting in verse 28 and I want to give you 3 ways to increase your confidence in God and not shrink back from the work that he wants to continue to do through you and this church. 

Teaching

28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

The first encouragement that John gives is to:

1. Remain in Christ
   1. If you have believed in Christ for salvation then remain in him. Keep going, so that when he comes back, you will have confidence to stand before God and not shrink back in shame when he returns to judge the whole earth for everything that everyone has thought, said, and done.
   2. To remain in Christ means to hold fast to the Word of God that you first believed, the Word of life that is all about Christ, that revealed to you the great gap between who you are— sinful— and who he is holy— but didn’t just reveal the great gap between you and God but also revealed to you the great gift of God’s perfect Son offered as a sacrifice for our sins so that gap could be closed.
   3. Remain in him – it sounds so simple doesn’t it?
   4. Remain in him.
   5. So why is it so hard?
      1. You ever notice how many obstacles there seem to be as soon as you intend to open the Word of God?
      2. No one ever calls you but now all of a sudden, the whole world seems to have your number and everyone needs you.
      3. Or right then is when your kids can’t stop fighting.
      4. Or you were feeling fine but all of a sudden you’re really tired, can’t focus, huge headache…
      5. Do you ever feel like never are you more opposed than when you are trying to get into the Word of God – why is that?
   6. Bc every predator knows… 
   7. So Satan wages war on you remaining in Christ
   8. And he often does that in two very specific ways
   9. It’s not by coincidence that John says, little children, remain in Christ, so that when he appears we have confidence (1) and not shrink back from him in shame (2)
   10. Bc Satan loves to attack your confidence in God and lure you into sin and shame
   11. We see that in Gen 3…
       1. “Did God really say?”
          1. He’s not just questioning God’s Word, he’s also questioning the goodness of God
          2. Did God really say that you can’t eat from ANY of the trees of the garden?
          3. I mean what kind of God would not want you to enjoy fruit that looks this good
          4. He was attacking their confidence in God…
       2. “You will not surely die”
          1. Adam and Eve choose to believe the word of Satan over the word of God
          2. So they commit the first sin, immediately feel shame, attempt to cover themselves, and in the place where they used to walk with God and enjoy his presence, for the first time ever, they hide from God 
          3. Because Satan lured them into sin and shame, they would eventually experience physical death, but even more tragically, they experienced the spiritual death of their intimacy with God
   12. And that is Satan’s plan for your life – he wants nothing more than to separate you from Christ bc his desire is to steal, kill and destroy you; and he knows that he can only do that if you do not abide or remain in Jesus
   13. Listen, Satan is dangerous and you will not overcome him on your own
   14. But the good news is that although he’s dangerous, he’s also defeated; so you don’t have to be stronger than Satan (bc you’re not), you just have to remain in Christ (bc he is)
   15.  PAUSE
   16. The most dangerous thing about KL… is how good the food is; I feel like when I come here all I do is eat and fill my breaks from eating with some other things
   17. When you come to KL it is good and right to remain in the good food
   18. And what food is to the body; the Word of God is to our souls 
   19. The Word is living and active; it’s not just that you read it, but it reads you
   20. It exposes your sin, it reveals your motives, it changes your affections, it transforms your thinking
   21. That’s why Paul says let the word of Christ dwell richly IN you because it will then have the effect of producing spiritual fruit FROM you  
   22. Every day, the living God, maker of the heavens and the earth, the sovereign ruling king of kings, the one Savior of the whole world has made a reservation to meet with you in his Word 
   23. So hold fast to it, read it, memorize it, pray it back to him, and share it with others — remain. in. Christ. 
   24. Nothing is more important. 
   25. You were made to know him. 
   26. If you know him, Remain in him and then you will have confidence and not shrink back when Jesus returns

Pick back up with me in 1 John 3:1

1See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 

2. Remember the Gospel

1. This is John second encouragement – Remember the gospel!
2. Have you ever been eating something so good that you had to tell someone else to try it – that’s what John is doing here – I need you to taste and see this good news —
3. I mean what kind of love even is this love the Father has given to us?
4. May God never let our hearts grow cold or casual to this good news – that he same love that the Father has eternally had for his perfect Son, Jesus…
5. Jesus who never sinned. Jesus who always did what his Father asked of him. Jesus who lived a perfect life and died in place of sinners, this Jesus.
6. The same love that the Father has eternally had for his perfect Son, he has poured into us by his Spirit.
7. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
8. What would it take for me to give up my son?
9. See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God
10. He has adopted us into his family at the cost of his own Son
11. That we should be called children of God and SO WE ARE. It’s actually true!
12. But sometimes it’s hard to believe isn’t it?
    1. I mean it’s not hard to believe that God loves you when you haven’t missed an appointment to meet God in his Word in weeks.
    2. It’s not hard to believe that God loves you when you had a great week being kind to your kids.
    3. It’s not hard to believe God loves you when you just led someone to faith.
    4. But what about when you’ve fallen into the same sin again?
    5. What about when your week has been marked more by serving yourself than serving others?
    6. What about when you felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel with someone but you were too afraid?
    7. Listen brothers and sisters, God does not love you because of what you do; God loves you because of who he is.
    8. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!
    9. Look… taste… see what kind of love the Father has given to us.
13. And if you are here today and you haven’t put your faith in Jesus for salvation, today can be the day that you simply start receiving the love of the Father for you
14. Jesus has done everything necessary to save you; he’s not waiting for you to work your way to him, you can’t do it
15. So God sent his Son down to you; he lived the life you could not live, died the death you deserved to die in your place, and 3 days later God raised him from the dead
16. And If you will turn from your attempts to save yourself and believe him to save you instead, he will forgive you, he will wash away your sin, and he will gift to you everlasting life
17. It IS true that if you say yes to Jesus, you will be opposed by the world – John says, the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him
18. To belong to the living God is to be unknown to the world and that may mean that you suffer if you choose to follow Jesus
19. But it costs so much more to be known to the world and unknown to God; the world has not sacrificed what God has sacrificed for you and the world cannot love you like Jesus can
20. You can go from orphan to child of God right here today – those who put their trust in Jesus will not shrink back in shame when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead
21. Will you say yes to Jesus today?
22. PAUSE

Here’s the last encouragement: picking up in 1 John 3:2

2Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 

3And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 

8Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

3. Advance the Kingdom
   1. Remain in Christ, Remember the gospel, and advance the kingdom.
   2. God advances his kingdom through his beloved children in two primary ways: as we proclaim the gospel with our lips and demonstrate it’s power with our lives.
   3. John says what we will be has not yet appearted; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
   4. What that means is that we become more like Jesus as we behold him. As we behold Jesus… in his Word… we are being transformed.
   5. And God uses our tranforming lives to advance the kingdom.
   6. That’s why John says whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil – that is, people who make a practice of sinning belong to the kingdom of darkness which is opposed to the kingdom of God.
   7. But when you believed on Christ for salvation, you were forgiven, transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved Son
   8. In other words, you are now free from sin, which doesn’t mean that you will not sin, but it does mean that you have the power to say no to the flesh and say yes to the Spirit
   9. And as you confess your sin and repent of your sin and walk in the good works that the Lord Jesus has prepared before the foundation of the world for you to walk in, the Son of God is destroying the works of the devil.
   10. The word destroy really means to unravel – like taking a loose thread and pulling it until the whole thing comes undone 
   11. So as you obey Jesus and are purified as he is pure, Jesus is unraveling the works of the devil.
   12. So what practically does that look like?
   13. As you submit areas of sin in your life, the stuff that you have hidden from everyone because you feel so much shame – as you bring that sin into the light and experience God’s grace and his power to change you, Jesus is unravleing the works of the devil and the kingdom of God is advancing through you
       1. Listen, if people think you’re perfect then they will be tempted to worship you; but when people see you confess your sin and celebrate the forgiveness that Christ offers in the gospel then they will want to worship your Savior
   14. As you love one another across cultural lines in ways that the world just doesn’t understand because it thinks that people as different as you shouldn’t have anything to do with each other, but you do it because that the way you’ve been loved and welcomed in Christ – by your love for one another Jesus is unraveling the works of the devil and the kingdom is advancing through you.
   15. And as you follow the Spirit into sharing the same gospel that came to you so that it could flow through you with people who’ve yet to hear and yet to believe – get ready to hear heaven rejoicing as Jesus does what he does best – save sinner, unraveling the works of the devil and advancing the kingdom through you
   16. PAUSE

17. How can we, having been unworthy of the love of the Father, but having received it as a gift anyway, not do everything we can to tell others that the Father who adopted us wants to adopt them as well?
18. Is the gospel good enough to give to others even if it costs to do it?
19. PAUSE
20. I am aware that what the gospel costs me is different than what it costs you, but the gospel always costs something—always, but it never costs us more than it cost God, but see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are…