October 13, 2025 • 41 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
Hi, my name is Kalumahia.
I go to American Canyon HighSchool as a freshman, and today
I'll be reading 1 John chapter5, verses 1 through 5.
Everyone who believes that Jesusis the Christ has been born of
God.
And everyone who loves God, theFather loves whoever has been
born of him.
By this, we know that we lovethe children of God.
(00:25):
When we love God and obey hiscommandments.
For this, the love of God, thatwe keep his commandments, and
his commandments are notburdensome.
For everyone who has been bornof God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that hasovercome the world, our faith.
Who is it that overcomes theworld?
Except the one who believes thatJesus is the Son of God.
(00:49):
This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Thanks be to God.
Good job, brother.
Appreciate it.
Well, hey, it's good to be withyou.
My name's Lawrence.
Um we teach uh through scriptureverse by verse here, and we are
being in the back of uh theBible in the New Testament.
If you're new with us, um, we'restarting a new chapter today.
There's um if if you're notfamiliar with uh the books of
(01:10):
the Bible in the beginning ofthe New Testament, there's these
four Gospels, which is the goodnews.
And there's a big book calledJohn.
What we're doing is he wrotethese three little letters in
the back.
We're going through those.
We're um starting the lastchapter in 1 John um today,
chapter five.
And then he wrote another largerbook at the very end called
Revelation.
So that's kind of what we'regonna walk through.
(01:32):
I'm not saying we're gonna doRevelation, I'm just telling you
he also wrote that.
Um, so we're in 1 John chapterfive.
If you want to grab your deviceor your actual Bible, if you
brought one of those, you canfollow along.
We're gonna do five versestoday.
I'd say this (01:45):
if your phone buzzed you every time that God
tried to get your attention, youprobably, some of you would have
the most chaotic like lockscreen in history, right?
We live in an age of constantpings and push notifications
where it's like, you know, groupchats are stacking up.
Like, how many of you guys aregroup chat people?
(02:07):
Just want to see who you're outthere.
Yeah, you're not gonna talk meinto it.
Don't ever try to text me andput me in a group chat because
I'm gonna be like, I can'thandle all of your likes and
your weird stuff.
Anyways, DMs for some of youturning into like guilt and your
screen time report every week onSundays greets you like a
passive aggressive life coach.
It's already happened to me thismorning.
(02:29):
Here's the twist John, who's thelast eyewitness, the last living
apostle, writes us this shortput push notification that
literally cuts through thenoise.
Says this everyone who believesthat Jesus is the Christ has
been born of God.
Now, right here, this isn't justlike a religious label, that's a
(02:50):
whole new life.
That's new birth, that's newbelonging, that's new power.
And John's point in these fiveverses today is wild in its
simplicity.
It's basically this when you'rereborn into God's family, what
happens is love becomes normal,obedience becomes possible, and
(03:11):
the world becomes beatablethrough faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, you just heard this passageread aloud by one of our
students, a freshman of AmericanCanyon High School.
And the thing is, is that thisthing is short enough today to
memorize, but it's also loadedenough to live on for the rest
of your life.
(03:32):
And John, when he's writingthis, he's old.
Uh, he's maybe in like his 80sor his 90s, but he's not
rambling.
He is laser focused.
That belief in Jesus ultimatelyleads to new birth.
And then new birth leads tofamily love.
Family love then expressesitself in obedience.
(03:52):
And obedience is not thiscrushing burden because new
birth brings new power.
And this power can actually winagainst the world and the whole
anti-God system of desires,lies, and status addiction.
And the means of victory, it'snot hype, it's not hustle, it's
(04:12):
not your personal brand, it'ssimply just faith in the Son of
God.
So let's go ahead and hop in,verse one.
Everyone who believes that Jesusis the Christ has been born of
God.
Now, belief here isn't just likea checked box at youth camp one
year and like a holy moment.
Um, it's present tense.
(04:33):
It's this thing that is ongoingtrust, a daily yes to Jesus as
king on the board game of life.
And has been born right here isthe perfect tense that God
already did the deepest work foryou.
Imagine someone who asks you, sowhy is it you keep walking with
this Jesus guy?
I think the most honest answeris because God gave me new life
(04:57):
and it just keeps on giving.
You didn't talk yourself intoChristianity like you talk
yourself into leg day.
You were born.
Like, and when you're born intofamily, what happens is you get
siblings.
Says everyone who believes thatJesus is the Christ has been
born of God.
And then right here it says, andeveryone who loves the Father,
(05:17):
then loves whoever is in thefamily who's been born of them.
That's Christian family love.
And it's messy, like every groupchat, right?
But it's real.
I mean, let's be honest aboutfamily.
Family for some of you soundssuper comforting.
For others, just talking aboutit is already raising your blood
pressure, right?
(05:38):
How whatever your drive is liketoday.
So maybe your people areamazing.
Maybe your family group chat isbasically like therapy, therapy
plus like fun animal memes,right?
Or maybe for some of you, homewas a place where you actually
felt like you had to auditionfor love.
And let me just tell you, thechurch family is not a perfect
(06:00):
family, but it's a differentkind of family because it's
anchored in a different kind oflove.
I mean, John doesn't say to us,like, hey, when Christians into
your life, you know, pass yourvibe check, then you'll love
them.
Yeah, good luck.
What he says is, no, no, no.
If you love the father, thenyou're gonna love his kids.
Full stop.
(06:20):
That this is why withholdinglove from the church, which is
people of the church, then thefamily, while then claiming to
love God just doesn't computefor John.
Like he struggles with this.
It's like saying, like, I loveyour music, but I can't stand
your voice.
Like that sentence justcollapses on itself, right?
So, how is it that you know thatyou have um this love for
(06:44):
people, the kind of love forpeople that John's actually
talking about?
Well, I think he actuallyanticipates this question in
verse two.
He says, By this is how we knowthat we love the children of
God.
It's when we love God and obeyhis commandments.
The translation here isbasically real love for people
(07:06):
is shaped by real love for God,which is then revealed in
obedience.
And it's not cold, thisstatement, it's just clarifying.
You know, our generation livesand is fluent with vibes, you
know, like I felt seen, right?
Or like, uh, I didn't feel safe,or this gave me life, or that
drained me.
(07:27):
And it's really important.
I really do believe that vibesmatter.
Emotions are literally how Godwired us and created us.
But love is more than asentiment.
Love is a commitment, it's acommitment to God's good for one
another, and a commitment thatactually shows obedience to
God's wisdom.
Think of it like this uhfeelings are like a Wi-Fi
(07:49):
signal, and obedience is likethe fiber opic cable, right?
When Wi-Fi gets glitchy, thefiber still carries the
connection.
Now, verse three comes in anddrops a line that I think
offends a lot of like ourinternal software.
He says, This is the love of Godthat we keep his commandments,
and his commandments right hereare not burdensome.
(08:14):
Now, if you grew up thinkingChristianity is just like a
giant chore list and God'sstanding by with a sharpie, like
to circle your fair, fair yourlike failures, right?
It's not fun.
But John isn't gaslighting ushere.
He's not saying obedience isalways easy.
What he's saying is that God'scommands are not a crushing
(08:36):
weight for a reborn heart.
Why?
Because new birth installs,think of it like installing a
new engine in you.
You still have the same car, youstill have the same body, same
attention span, you have thesame phone distracting you.
But what it's saying is there'sactually a different power now
underneath the hood, and that'sthe spirit.
And then the spirit enables usto participate in God's
(09:00):
commands.
It's like switching from uhdragging a couch alone to then
having three friends like showup with those strap thing image
to help you carry it and somepizza afterwards.
The couch didn't get lighter.
What happened?
You got help, and help changeseverything.
Let's press in with a story.
You have a friend, let's callher Maya.
(09:22):
Um, she kind of reinventedherself online.
Her feed is immaculate, shespends all this time on it.
Every photo looks like candid,but it took 30 minutes, right?
Her bio says be kind, but herchat says be savage.
In real life, Maya's exhaustive.
She's constantly calculating dopeople like that?
Am I falling behind?
(09:43):
And the algorithm is herfunctional god.
It rewards and it punishes.
And she offers sacrifices oftime, anxiety, mental health,
selective honesty.
Then she starts coming aroundchurch, quietly sitting in the
back.
I see you.
The word lands, she hearseveryone who believes that Jesus
(10:08):
is the Christ has been born ofGod.
And eventually she says yes toJesus timidly, and then within
weeks, what she does is shetexts her small groups, hey, I
think I need to be honest aboutthe way that I'm curating this
fake me.
And what do they do?
They rally, she begins to obeyJesus in these small daily ways,
(10:30):
telling truth, confessing envy,praying before posting, choosing
contentment over comparisons.
And the commands that used tosound like don't be fake, now
sound like be free.
That's what John means by notburdensome.
It still costs her lessdopamine, fewer applause hits,
(10:53):
but they give her back her soul.
Now, verse 4 turns the volume upand says, Everyone that has been
born of God overcomes the world.
So now, world here, Johndoesn't, he's not just talking
about like trees and oceans andstuff, right?
What he's talking about is thesystem opposed to God's love.
(11:13):
And John talks about thisearlier on in this letter about
the lust of the flesh and thelust of eyes and the pride of
life.
Think the drive to have, to see,to be seen.
Or uh you can think of it likethe I am what I feel.
Heard that one, or I am what Iown.
(11:36):
Or I am who notices me, thatwhole machine that we're
constantly getting tumbledaround in.
And John, what he says is thatnew birth gives you power to
overcome that machine.
Not by moving, you know, to acabin and throwing your phone
into a lake, right?
And just moving on andforgetting about real life,
although that that literally ismy favorite part of camping,
(11:58):
like no phone.
But by recalculating yourdeepest love from the world to
Jesus, where the world literallyruns on scarcity.
There's not enough love, right?
Uh, there's not enough room,there's not enough followers.
(12:18):
So, what do you do?
You claw your way up where Jesusruns on fullness.
Fullness, the father's love isenough, the spirit's power is
enough, the son's victory isenough, so you can live
unanxiously and love freely.
Let me just for a moment namesome world pressures uh in real
(12:41):
life, because if right now, justas we're hanging out, if we keep
this abstract, honestly, nothingchanges Monday morning for you.
So um, here's just a couple ofpractices.
Practice first one is desire.
We all have desires.
We all have desires.
The world disciples us to obeyurges and then what?
Shames us for them, right?
(13:02):
Like follow your heart turnsinto how could you, right?
Jesus doesn't say like shut downyour desires.
What he does is literally hereshapes them, redirects them,
and then puts them in orderunder love for God.
Another pressure is lies.
Have you ever noticed that theworld tells like these
(13:23):
glittering half the truths,right?
That you're just kind of stuckin.
You're like, hmm.
Like you'll be you'll be free ifyou're autonomous.
No one can tell you what to do,or you do you, all the while
hiding the fine print about whatthat we experience?
Loneliness, uh, addiction, theshrinkage of your soul.
(13:47):
So remember that Jesus is thetruth, and what happens is that
faith attaches you to him, tothe truth.
There's another pressure that weexperience pride.
The world shouts, right?
Be the main character, you'rethe main character.
But Christ whispers come learnhow to be fully alive by loving
(14:11):
God and people.
New birth doesn't erase thesepressures, friends.
What it does is it breaks theirmonopoly on your life.
Then John asks in verse five,Who is it that overcomes the
world except the one whobelieves that Jesus is the Son
(14:31):
of God?
Look, like this line right here,honestly, it humbles me and it
liberates me.
Uh, it humbles me because itsays that victory is not by my
own willpower.
Thank God.
And it liberates me because itsays that my weakness is not
final.
Faith is how we hold on to himwhile we literally fight our
(14:52):
real day-to-day enemies.
And you don't overcome the worldby curating your own brand of
righteousness.
You overcome by clinging toliterally the righteous one.
So let me get really practical.
What does it look like for God'scommands in our lives, in our
day-to-day lives, to be not tooburdensome?
So to do that, just picturethree everyday zones that we all
(15:13):
experience.
We all experience relationships,we have to deal with people.
We all experience habits, we allhave them, and we all experience
calling.
We're on our journey tosomething somewhere.
So relationships first.
This is what obedience lookslike forgiveness, truth telling,
(15:34):
boundaries, loyalty, like wheresomeone in your circle ghosted
you or gossiped about you.
Your old self, what does it do?
It drafts a paragraph thathonestly your future self will
regret.
Been there?
Done that?
But the spirit, what it does isit prompts you to take a
different path, like inEphesians, speak truth in love,
(15:58):
or in Colossians, forgive as theLord forgave you.
And does that feel heavy to likelive a life like that?
Yeah, sometimes.
But new birth gives you adifferent internal weight
distribution.
You're not paying off a debt byobeying this thing.
You're living out into your newDNA as part of a family member.
(16:20):
And the best part is you're notdoing it alone.
That God's commands actuallycome with God's companionship.
And frankly, I think that's whyit makes it not burdensome.
So, what about habits?
We all got habits.
Well, when it comes to habits,obedience looks like choosing
inputs that actually shape youtowards love.
(16:40):
Uh, maybe it's time to move forsome of you your Bible app out
of that folder called utilitiesnext to the calculator and put
on your home screen.
Maybe you just choose like 10minutes of prayer, which by the
way is 10 minutes of literallypraying or listening before 10
minutes of scrolling.
Or maybe it's like, and this iscould be really difficult for
you too.
Maybe it's taking your phone andputting it in the other room at
(17:03):
night like it's a raccoon youdon't trust, right?
And none of this, I want you,none of this earns like you
God's smile.
But I'm telling you, I'm tellingyou, just these little
practices, what it does, theselittle habits, it'll begin to
clear some fog so you canactually notice the smile you
already have in Christ.
And when John says his commandsare not burdensome, it means
(17:26):
that this reborn person, thatthese choices begin to
increasingly feel like you, notjust some costume that you're
trying to keep on and a showthat you're putting on for those
around you.
So uh last calling.
Calling.
You know, calling is likedifferent for everyone.
You're you're trying to figureout the thing you do.
(17:46):
For some of you right now,you're figuring out school,
trade, some startup, how to keepyour business going, a
nonprofit, art, healthcare,software.
For some of you, some form ofministry.
But here's the deal (18:01):
God's command is to love Him and love
people wherever you land.
And that means integrity when noone's watching.
It means generosity when money'stight, it means courage when
truth is actually unpopular, andhumility when you're winning.
And those are commands.
(18:21):
They they aren't just thesecommands, they're also just a
way to live and to live fullyalive.
So, what for some of us when itcomes to this stuff and being
obedient is the fear behind it?
Because I think there isactually a bit of fear behind
like living this way.
Um, I think fear is, you know,for some of us, it's missing
(18:44):
out.
Like we feel like we're missingout on something, like FOMO, but
theological, right?
Like we're wanting to live ourbest life and we're afraid that
when suddenly we yield to God'swill, like life's suddenly gonna
be small, right?
It's gonna be really boring,like you're gonna be a lamer,
like what?
I like to cuss, right?
I don't know if that's you, butright?
It's gonna be joyless or boring,whatever it is.
(19:05):
We tell ourselves these liesover and over and over again.
But John, what he does is he'sgently dismantling that fear.
And if God went so far as togive you his son, and I his son,
do you think that his commandsare literally designed just to
crush you and to make you nothave a full life and a life in
abundance?
(19:26):
Friends, just as a reminder, andmay we continue to remind one
another about this, the cross isliterally a receipt that's been
stamped, paid in full, for yourdeepest good.
And that means that hisinstructions then actually aim
at the same end, your deepestgood.
Think of it this way (19:45):
that the way of Jesus is like a narrow
runway.
It's purposeful, it's not petty.
But what happens when you're ona runway?
You don't complain that therunway is too narrow when you're
trying to take off.
You're just grateful there is arunway.
There's this um uh commoninternal protest that I think a
lot of us have.
Like, okay, but sometimesobeying God, it absolutely feels
(20:07):
heavy.
Like to participate in this way,to fully participate.
And I say true.
John's not denying like the feltweight of obedience and of this
broken world.
What he's doing is he'scorrecting this verdict that we
pass on God's character becauseof it.
There is a difference betweenweight and burden, right?
Training feels heavy.
(20:28):
Slavery is a burden.
The spirit's weight, what itdoes in us is it builds
capacity.
Sin's burden actually steals thecapacity.
And when God's command feelsheavy, just ask yourself this
when it's feeling heavy.
Is this weight actually doingsome purpose to build in me, or
is it to break me?
(20:48):
And I'll tell you that the crossis proof.
Jesus carried a burden that wecouldn't, so we could carry the
weight that could actually growus into the person that we were
meant to be and who we reallywant to be.
So, just really quickly, I wantto circle back to the family
piece because it's not like thissentimental add-on that John's
throwing in there.
He literally is tying God's loveto God's kids directly that have
(21:11):
faith in God's Son, Jesus.
And he's done this constantlyover.
It's so cyclical all throughoutthis letter.
If you love the father, you lovethe family, right?
And if you're born again, yourvertical love then begins to
show up horizontally asobedience and obeying the
(21:31):
command to love one another.
And I think he keeps saying thisover and over again because he
knows how dang hard it is forus.
Because, like we know a lotabout each other, and we're
really hard to love sometimes.
This means that the people ofGod are not just this supportive
cast in your personal spiritualmovie that literally this room
(21:52):
is filled with people that arean integral part of you
overcoming the world.
Well, how and why?
Well, the world, what it does isit isolates, the church gathers.
Welcome to the church.
The world says, curate your lifeto and to avoid inconvenience.
(22:13):
The church says, you know what?
Open your life and shareburdens.
The world says, win byoutshining others, where the
church says, win by outlovingothers.
And if you try to follow Jesussolo, I'm telling you, you will
mistake private preference fordivine guidance.
(22:36):
You need these people.
You we need each other.
You need people who will sitwith you, who will literally
tell you the truth and hand youtacos when you're spiraling.
Joe, we're having Chinese foodtonight.
It's gonna be good.
You need people who will sitwith you.
And on that note, let me justreally quickly give you three
(22:57):
practices this week you canliterally put into your life
from 1 John chapter 5.
Just these five verses.
This is the first practice.
Declare your belonging.
This is so simple, but it's sopowerful.
Every morning when you get up,allow, just start your day like
this, before your phone gets thefirst words.
Say, I believe in Jesus Christand I have been born of God.
(23:18):
That's verse one in firstperson.
What does that do?
That's not manifesting, it'sliterally just remembering, it's
re-orienting.
It's your identity is not a DIYproject, it's literally a
received gift.
And saying that, just sayingthat literally reshapes your
day.
Another practice.
Pick one command to obey gladly,not grimly.
(23:41):
I said gladly, and for some ofthis, this is hard, especially
like this one.
Maybe it's forgiveness, andyou're like, there is nothing
glad about that, right?
Try to do this gladly.
Maybe it's forgiveness, maybeit's sexual integrity, maybe
it's generosity, maybe some sortof sort of rest, like a Sabbath,
something that feels restful andhelpful, rejuvenating.
(24:03):
Uh, maybe it's uh truth telling,maybe it's peacemaking.
Pray like just a simple prayer.
Holy Spirit, can you help makethis practice a joy and not feel
like a grind?
And then tell somebody else sothey can cheer you on, and then
watch how not burdensome thatstarts to actually feel true in
(24:26):
your body physically.
Practice three name and narrateyour world.
Ask yourself, even right now,what's the strongest worldly
pull on you right now?
The desire, lie, or pride, andthen name it, and then start to
narrate it through the lens ofthe gospel.
(24:46):
As an example, this desire isreal, but it's not my master.
The pride is tempting, but I amalready seen by God.
This lie feels real, but it isnot the truth.
(25:08):
And then finish with John'spunchline.
This is the victory that hasovercome the world.
It's our faith, not my feelings,not my flex, not my five-year
plan when I figured it all out.
It's faith in Jesus.
Now, some of you are hearingthis and you're thinking, cool
(25:30):
ideas.
This is great ideas, but mydoubt is loud.
And I just want to remind youthat John is not allergic to
honest questions and feelings.
He's literally writing to thisgroup of people that are
experiencing the same kind ofthings we experience to steady
them and not shame them.
So, therefore, as we're readingit, it's to steady us and not to
shame us.
(25:51):
And if you're unsure aboutJesus, here's an experiment that
you can just try this week.
Obey him in one clear area ofyour life and see with that if
life begins to open or itcloses.
And just so you know, you canstart before every problem is
answered.
Like a lot of us were like, no,I haven't figured the whole
thing out yet.
So I'm not gonna like walk intothat at all.
(26:13):
Think of it like stepping onto abridge because the engineer is
trustworthy that built thebridge, right?
Even though I know a lot of youguys is you haven't taken the
time to compute the load ratingsyourself, right?
And to look at the designs.
No, you step onto it.
Faith isn't fiction, it'sconfidence in a person who
actually walked out of a grave.
I mean, just think about it.
(26:33):
The earliest Christians didn'tgive their lives for a metaphor.
They literally followed therisen Son of God.
And if he overcame the grave, hecan help you help you overcome
your feed or whatever nonsenseis filling your brain.
So then some of you might ask,well, then what do you do when
you fail?
And I get that.
Hi, my name's Lawrence.
(26:54):
I'm in recovery too.
You're gonna fail this week.
Remember the grammar of verseone.
Ongoing believing flows from acompleted understanding of
belonging.
Your failure when it happens,friends, isn't a cue for you to
begin to destruct, deconstructyour birth certificate.
(27:15):
It's a cue for you to look atyour father and say, like, I
need help.
Think about it this way: children run toward their (27:21):
undefined
parents that they've offended.
Why?
Because they know their parents'heart.
I don't know if you guys everexperienced this when I was
growing up.
My mom was really, I mean, I hadthis talk a bunch.
My mom was always like trying tobuild trust in there, like, I'm
a safe place, I'm a safe place.
And the best example I can giveyou is she'd be like, you know
what?
If you're hanging with yourfriends and you're going out and
(27:41):
you guys already had some partyor something like that, and
you've done something that youthink is silly, or maybe you or
your friends have had somethingto drink and you've had too
much, you can call me.
Please call me for a ride.
I promise it's gonna be okay.
And then she said, I'm gonna saya lot of things to you, you're
not gonna remember, so it'll beokay, but I won't bring it up
again.
I'm a safe place.
And that's what happened everytime I had to no juggle.
(28:06):
But I it made it a safe place torun because I knew her heart,
right?
I was talking to some people inthe back as I talked about the
first service.
I was like, my kid in college,you know, we had gotten to have
some of those conversations.
What do you do here?
And I'm like, I feel like I'mwinning, right?
When it's safe to call me, evenabout like what's going on with
your friends or what are youdoing in the situation?
Because you build that up, youknow the parents' heart.
(28:26):
But what's the opposite to that,right?
Well, slaves hide from masters.
Why?
Because they fear them, becausewhat they know is only the
rules.
Think of it as like relationshipversus ownership.
The gospel of friends makes youa child.
And when you stumble, don't thenjump to like I gotta renegotiate
(28:47):
the contract, because iffriends, you get to arrest in
the covenant.
And so repent quickly and keepwalking.
And when it happens again,repent quickly and get up and
keep walking.
Let's um revisit only because Ithink it's so important, because
I feel the weight of space inthe room and even for myself,
(29:08):
uh, this not burdensome promise.
One more time with a metaphor.
Um, this is the metaphor theycan think of.
Imagine trying to play a guitar,um, or even if you never have,
but just imagine you're playingin the car and you're wearing
like a thick winter gloves, andyou can technically like hit
some chords, you can make somenoises clumsy and it can be
frustrating because you can'tlike do it all the way.
You know, your fingers aren'tpushing it down right.
(29:29):
Now take the gloves off.
Same guitar, same song,different experience, right?
Uh the gloves are the heart ofstone.
The bare hands now are the heartof flesh.
What happens is new birth isliterally God taking the gloves
off of you.
The commands didn't change.
What happened is you did.
(29:49):
And that's why it stops feelinglike you're constantly faking it
and starts feeling like you'refinally becoming yourself, who
you were uniquely created to be.
And just a quick nerd note, realquick.
John says overcomes.
He uses this word here,overcomes.
It's actually tied to the wordNike, which is the word to
(30:09):
conquer.
But it's in the present tense.
So what it's doing is when he'ssaying it overcomes, it's like
it keeps overcoming.
Like it keeps overcoming.
It isn't just one cinematicvictory.
It's literally a lifetime ofsmall wins that just continue to
add up.
And there will be days where youfeel like a conqueror.
And honestly, there's going tobe some days where you just feel
(30:31):
like leftovers.
And this is the nice part isfaith attaches you to Jesus on
both kinds of days.
When you feel like a conqueror,you celebrate with humility.
It was his strength.
And when you feel likeleftovers, you breathe.
And you say, He still loves me.
And then what do you do?
(30:52):
You get up and you keep walking.
And that getting up again iswhat victory for a lot of us
often looks like.
We should also, in this moment,just because John talks about
it, name the role of the HolySpirit explicitly.
Because when John's writingthis, he's already assuming that
his friends already knew that bynew birth, the spirit's now at
(31:14):
work.
And if the commands aren'tburdensome, why is that?
Well, it's because there's ahelper present.
That's the power of the spirit.
And the helper's main nativelanguage is actually prayer.
This is why prayer is actuallyso important.
Listening and participating.
It means then for us that prayerisn't like a side quest, like
(31:37):
something that we're just tryingto work on as a spiritual
discipline every once in a whiletrying to figure out.
No, no, no.
It's like the main power linethat we want to figure out and
just like lean into and how toparticipate and be involved in.
And if you try to obey withoutpraying, what's going to happen
is you're either going to bereally proud when you succeed,
or you're going to be crushedwhen you fail.
But if you pray while you obey,you'll then be grateful and
(32:00):
resilient.
The best thing that maybe Icould give you on this subject
is make short breath prayersyour reflex.
A breath prayer is maybe thebest gift that I've ever
received.
And you can do it all the time,anytime.
And a lot of you maybe alreadydo it and you don't realize it.
But in this situation, you canbe walking down the hallway, you
can be in your car, you can begetting ready to have a
(32:20):
conversation, you can be goingfrom class to class, wherever it
is.
Just father help, father help.
Just a breath prayer, fatherhelp, right?
Jesus, be near.
Jesus, I need you to be near,right?
Or help me not kill that person,right?
Yeah.
Great.
You're staring at you're staringat the face and the grace and
peace.
Grace and peace.
Spirit, empower me to love.
(32:42):
I need you to empower me tolove, right?
Whatever it is, right?
Yours.
This is your problem.
Whatever it is, I surrender all,all of them and their problems,
whatever it is.
Breath pairs, though, friends,they outpace doom scrolling.
So, okay, zooming out.
(33:02):
Here's uh here's today'smessage.
These five verses and threesentences that you can carry
into your Tuesday.
First one is this believe inJesus, be born of God, and then
what happens is you'll belong toa real family.
That's great.
The second is this love God.
The love for God actually showsup, it shows up as obedience,
something we're participating inthat increasingly fits into who
(33:25):
you are, and his commands won'tcrush you.
I love that.
And then faith and the sun givesyou power to overcome the
world's desires and lies andpride, not by hype or hustle,
but by abiding and stayingattached to him.
So here's how we'll close.
(33:46):
Let me first just name a firstsimple, joyful act of obedience
that I really think fits thiswhole passage.
It's something that we'reactually going to do in a month
from now, and that is baptism.
Quick teaching on baptism.
This this whole thing embodiesit.
John, first John 5 says, Newbirth creates new belonging and
obedience that isn't a grind.
(34:07):
So then baptism, what is it?
It's like the first familyportrait.
And the moment that literallyyou step into the waters of
baptism and publicly say, Ibelong to you, Jesus, and to his
people.
That's what's happening.
So some of you might say, like,well, what is baptism?
Well, here's just a quickexplanation.
(34:28):
It's an outward sign of aninward reality.
This union with Jesus' death,burial.
So I see people go down, andresurrection.
It's not like a hot tubmembership or a spiritual
graduation ceremony, like you'vearrived.
Good job.
Woo-hoo, right?
It's literally the beginning.
It's not the trophy, like youdid it and you're winning the
(34:49):
award.
The water doesn't save you.
Here's the key Jesus saves you.
The water just says to peopleand yourself, Jesus saved me.
So why get baptized?
Like, do I really need to dothat?
Yeah, Jesus commanded it.
And then the early churchpracticed it right away.
They didn't wait for anythingelse.
(35:10):
In John's language, love for Godshows up as obedience and his
commands aren't burdensome.
So baptism really is a light,joyful yes that fits a reborn
heart.
Well, then who does it?
Who's it for?
Anyone who's believed in Jesusas the Son of God and had been
born in God, even if it'ssomebody like today, brand new.
(35:33):
If today you're like, you knowwhat, I'm gonna be a child, I'm
gonna surrender my life up.
Jesus is gonna be the Lord andSavior of life.
Yeah, it's for that brand newone or that mustard seed small
faith person.
You don't need this perfect pastor this five-year plan to like
figure it all out.
You just need Jesus and awillingness to obey him.
(35:56):
Well, some of you say, Well, butwhat if I was baptized as a
baby?
That's awesome.
Honor that as your family's hopein prayer.
And now, as some of you as anadult or a teenager, baptism
becomes your public confession,your idea to Jesus.
Think like your parents showedlove then, and now you get to
(36:17):
respond on your own faith andown obedience.
Well, some of you would say,like, well, do I need like, do I
need to feel ready?
Like, do I need the gooseies orsomething?
Like, I know it's time, right?
I'll just say, like, I thinkfeelings are great.
But readiness in the NewTestament is often matched up
with faith plus willingness.
(36:37):
And if you believe Jesus is theChrist and you're ready to
follow him, then you're ready tobe baptized.
And obedience, what it does isit often creates the feelings
that we're waiting for.
Well, some of you might say,well, what if I've been baptized
and then, you know, like I didmy own thing and stuff, you
know, I had to call my mom a lotfor a ride.
(36:59):
Right?
Well, I'll just say this.
If if you were baptized aftertrusting Jesus, the normal path
is repentance and returning, notre-baptism.
Remember that?
Repent and get up, keep onwalking.
Let's go.
And if your conscience iscomplicated, we got some pastors
here, you can talk to them, andwe'll walk with you.
Or a small group leader walkwith you, your friend will walk
(37:20):
with you.
But here's the picture, friends.
Baptism is victory you can see.
It's literally watching andseeing the victory that's taking
place in someone else's life.
It's you saying that the world'slies, status, self-curation,
perform or perish.
That's literally saying, no, no,no, I died with Christ.
(37:44):
I'm raised with Christ.
And I belong to his family now.
And friends, that's first John 5on full display of faith that
overcomes the world.
And if you're ready, we'd loveto help you take that step.
Like I said, we're we're doingthis in a month from now.
You can go to the, there's likea hot tub out there.
(38:06):
You can go there, you can goover to the next steps area
after service.
We have people that help answeryour questions, they'll help get
you scheduled.
Baptism is not burdensome forthose of you who are just
sitting there still fightingaround.
It's beautiful.
It's how you show the family whowe belong to and how we preach
(38:26):
with our whole body that Jesushas literally made us new.
So don't wait for perfect.
Just come with faith.
Let me just tell you, for myoverthinkers out there, will
your hair get wet?
Yes.
Will there be pictures?
Yes.
Will your ex see them?
Probably.
Make it a testimony, right?
(38:47):
Will there be confetti?
Yes.
Will there be cowbells?
I know it's crazy.
Yes.
And yes, it's worth it.
Because the moment in the waterliterally is like a line in the
sand.
I am his with his people for hispurposes.
(39:08):
And that confession has a way ofechoing through your Monday.
So wrapping this all up.
Before you open your phoneagain, set one reminder: family,
not just following.
That's verse one.
Then put a sticky note on yourmental dashboard, not
burdensome.
(39:29):
That's verse three.
Then write a banner over yourweek.
Victory has overcome our faith.
That's verse four.
You are not alone.
You are not self-saving.
And you are not destined to be adisciple of the algorithm, the
(39:53):
crowd, or your cravings.
You have a loving father.
You belong to a family.
And you've got a savior whoovercame the world and invites
you to share in his way.
So let's do it.
(40:15):
You with me?
SPEAKER_00 (40:19):
Amen.
Well, worship is a way that wecan respond to our Heavenly
Father.
Hi, my name is Kalumahia.
I go to American Canyon HighSchool as a freshman, and today
I'll be reading 1 John chapter5, verses 1 through 5.
Everyone who believes that Jesusis the Christ has been born of
God.
And everyone who loves God, theFather loves whoever has been
born of him.
By this, we know that we lovethe children of God.
(00:25):
When we love God and obey hiscommandments.
For this, the love of God, thatwe keep his commandments, and
his commandments are notburdensome.
For everyone who has been bornof God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that hasovercome the world, our faith.
Who is it that overcomes theworld?
Except the one who believes thatJesus is the Son of God.
(00:49):
This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01 (00:50):
Thanks be to God.
Good job, brother.
Appreciate it.
Well, hey, it's good to be withyou.
My name's Lawrence.
Um we teach uh through scriptureverse by verse here, and we are
being in the back of uh theBible in the New Testament.
If you're new with us, um, we'restarting a new chapter today.
There's um if if you're notfamiliar with uh the books of
(01:10):
the Bible in the beginning ofthe New Testament, there's these
four Gospels, which is the goodnews.
And there's a big book calledJohn.
What we're doing is he wrotethese three little letters in
the back.
We're going through those.
We're um starting the lastchapter in 1 John um today,
chapter five.
And then he wrote another largerbook at the very end called
Revelation.
So that's kind of what we'regonna walk through.
(01:32):
I'm not saying we're gonna doRevelation, I'm just telling you
he also wrote that.
Um, so we're in 1 John chapterfive.
If you want to grab your deviceor your actual Bible, if you
brought one of those, you canfollow along.
We're gonna do five versestoday.
I'd say this (01:45):
if your phone buzzed you every time that God
tried to get your attention, youprobably, some of you would have
the most chaotic like lockscreen in history, right?
We live in an age of constantpings and push notifications
where it's like, you know, groupchats are stacking up.
Like, how many of you guys aregroup chat people?
(02:07):
Just want to see who you're outthere.
Yeah, you're not gonna talk meinto it.
Don't ever try to text me andput me in a group chat because
I'm gonna be like, I can'thandle all of your likes and
your weird stuff.
Anyways, DMs for some of youturning into like guilt and your
screen time report every week onSundays greets you like a
passive aggressive life coach.
It's already happened to me thismorning.
(02:29):
Here's the twist John, who's thelast eyewitness, the last living
apostle, writes us this shortput push notification that
literally cuts through thenoise.
Says this everyone who believesthat Jesus is the Christ has
been born of God.
Now, right here, this isn't justlike a religious label, that's a
(02:50):
whole new life.
That's new birth, that's newbelonging, that's new power.
And John's point in these fiveverses today is wild in its
simplicity.
It's basically this when you'rereborn into God's family, what
happens is love becomes normal,obedience becomes possible, and
(03:11):
the world becomes beatablethrough faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, you just heard this passageread aloud by one of our
students, a freshman of AmericanCanyon High School.
And the thing is, is that thisthing is short enough today to
memorize, but it's also loadedenough to live on for the rest
of your life.
(03:32):
And John, when he's writingthis, he's old.
Uh, he's maybe in like his 80sor his 90s, but he's not
rambling.
He is laser focused.
That belief in Jesus ultimatelyleads to new birth.
And then new birth leads tofamily love.
Family love then expressesitself in obedience.
(03:52):
And obedience is not thiscrushing burden because new
birth brings new power.
And this power can actually winagainst the world and the whole
anti-God system of desires,lies, and status addiction.
And the means of victory, it'snot hype, it's not hustle, it's
(04:12):
not your personal brand, it'ssimply just faith in the Son of
God.
So let's go ahead and hop in,verse one.
Everyone who believes that Jesusis the Christ has been born of
God.
Now, belief here isn't just likea checked box at youth camp one
year and like a holy moment.
Um, it's present tense.
(04:33):
It's this thing that is ongoingtrust, a daily yes to Jesus as
king on the board game of life.
And has been born right here isthe perfect tense that God
already did the deepest work foryou.
Imagine someone who asks you, sowhy is it you keep walking with
this Jesus guy?
I think the most honest answeris because God gave me new life
(04:57):
and it just keeps on giving.
You didn't talk yourself intoChristianity like you talk
yourself into leg day.
You were born.
Like, and when you're born intofamily, what happens is you get
siblings.
Says everyone who believes thatJesus is the Christ has been
born of God.
And then right here it says, andeveryone who loves the Father,
(05:17):
then loves whoever is in thefamily who's been born of them.
That's Christian family love.
And it's messy, like every groupchat, right?
But it's real.
I mean, let's be honest aboutfamily.
Family for some of you soundssuper comforting.
For others, just talking aboutit is already raising your blood
pressure, right?
(05:38):
How whatever your drive is liketoday.
So maybe your people areamazing.
Maybe your family group chat isbasically like therapy, therapy
plus like fun animal memes,right?
Or maybe for some of you, homewas a place where you actually
felt like you had to auditionfor love.
And let me just tell you, thechurch family is not a perfect
(06:00):
family, but it's a differentkind of family because it's
anchored in a different kind oflove.
I mean, John doesn't say to us,like, hey, when Christians into
your life, you know, pass yourvibe check, then you'll love
them.
Yeah, good luck.
What he says is, no, no, no.
If you love the father, thenyou're gonna love his kids.
Full stop.
(06:20):
That this is why withholdinglove from the church, which is
people of the church, then thefamily, while then claiming to
love God just doesn't computefor John.
Like he struggles with this.
It's like saying, like, I loveyour music, but I can't stand
your voice.
Like that sentence justcollapses on itself, right?
So, how is it that you know thatyou have um this love for
(06:44):
people, the kind of love forpeople that John's actually
talking about?
Well, I think he actuallyanticipates this question in
verse two.
He says, By this is how we knowthat we love the children of
God.
It's when we love God and obeyhis commandments.
The translation here isbasically real love for people
(07:06):
is shaped by real love for God,which is then revealed in
obedience.
And it's not cold, thisstatement, it's just clarifying.
You know, our generation livesand is fluent with vibes, you
know, like I felt seen, right?
Or like, uh, I didn't feel safe,or this gave me life, or that
drained me.
(07:27):
And it's really important.
I really do believe that vibesmatter.
Emotions are literally how Godwired us and created us.
But love is more than asentiment.
Love is a commitment, it's acommitment to God's good for one
another, and a commitment thatactually shows obedience to
God's wisdom.
Think of it like this uhfeelings are like a Wi-Fi
(07:49):
signal, and obedience is likethe fiber opic cable, right?
When Wi-Fi gets glitchy, thefiber still carries the
connection.
Now, verse three comes in anddrops a line that I think
offends a lot of like ourinternal software.
He says, This is the love of Godthat we keep his commandments,
and his commandments right hereare not burdensome.
(08:14):
Now, if you grew up thinkingChristianity is just like a
giant chore list and God'sstanding by with a sharpie, like
to circle your fair, fair yourlike failures, right?
It's not fun.
But John isn't gaslighting ushere.
He's not saying obedience isalways easy.
What he's saying is that God'scommands are not a crushing
(08:36):
weight for a reborn heart.
Why?
Because new birth installs,think of it like installing a
new engine in you.
You still have the same car, youstill have the same body, same
attention span, you have thesame phone distracting you.
But what it's saying is there'sactually a different power now
underneath the hood, and that'sthe spirit.
And then the spirit enables usto participate in God's
(09:00):
commands.
It's like switching from uhdragging a couch alone to then
having three friends like showup with those strap thing image
to help you carry it and somepizza afterwards.
The couch didn't get lighter.
What happened?
You got help, and help changeseverything.
Let's press in with a story.
You have a friend, let's callher Maya.
(09:22):
Um, she kind of reinventedherself online.
Her feed is immaculate, shespends all this time on it.
Every photo looks like candid,but it took 30 minutes, right?
Her bio says be kind, but herchat says be savage.
In real life, Maya's exhaustive.
She's constantly calculating dopeople like that?
Am I falling behind?
(09:43):
And the algorithm is herfunctional god.
It rewards and it punishes.
And she offers sacrifices oftime, anxiety, mental health,
selective honesty.
Then she starts coming aroundchurch, quietly sitting in the
back.
I see you.
The word lands, she hearseveryone who believes that Jesus
(10:08):
is the Christ has been born ofGod.
And eventually she says yes toJesus timidly, and then within
weeks, what she does is shetexts her small groups, hey, I
think I need to be honest aboutthe way that I'm curating this
fake me.
And what do they do?
They rally, she begins to obeyJesus in these small daily ways,
(10:30):
telling truth, confessing envy,praying before posting, choosing
contentment over comparisons.
And the commands that used tosound like don't be fake, now
sound like be free.
That's what John means by notburdensome.
It still costs her lessdopamine, fewer applause hits,
(10:53):
but they give her back her soul.
Now, verse 4 turns the volume upand says, Everyone that has been
born of God overcomes the world.
So now, world here, Johndoesn't, he's not just talking
about like trees and oceans andstuff, right?
What he's talking about is thesystem opposed to God's love.
(11:13):
And John talks about thisearlier on in this letter about
the lust of the flesh and thelust of eyes and the pride of
life.
Think the drive to have, to see,to be seen.
Or uh you can think of it likethe I am what I feel.
Heard that one, or I am what Iown.
(11:36):
Or I am who notices me, thatwhole machine that we're
constantly getting tumbledaround in.
And John, what he says is thatnew birth gives you power to
overcome that machine.
Not by moving, you know, to acabin and throwing your phone
into a lake, right?
And just moving on andforgetting about real life,
although that that literally ismy favorite part of camping,
(11:58):
like no phone.
But by recalculating yourdeepest love from the world to
Jesus, where the world literallyruns on scarcity.
There's not enough love, right?
Uh, there's not enough room,there's not enough followers.
(12:18):
So, what do you do?
You claw your way up where Jesusruns on fullness.
Fullness, the father's love isenough, the spirit's power is
enough, the son's victory isenough, so you can live
unanxiously and love freely.
Let me just for a moment namesome world pressures uh in real
(12:41):
life, because if right now, justas we're hanging out, if we keep
this abstract, honestly, nothingchanges Monday morning for you.
So um, here's just a couple ofpractices.
Practice first one is desire.
We all have desires.
We all have desires.
The world disciples us to obeyurges and then what?
Shames us for them, right?
(13:02):
Like follow your heart turnsinto how could you, right?
Jesus doesn't say like shut downyour desires.
What he does is literally hereshapes them, redirects them,
and then puts them in orderunder love for God.
Another pressure is lies.
Have you ever noticed that theworld tells like these
(13:23):
glittering half the truths,right?
That you're just kind of stuckin.
You're like, hmm.
Like you'll be you'll be free ifyou're autonomous.
No one can tell you what to do,or you do you, all the while
hiding the fine print about whatthat we experience?
Loneliness, uh, addiction, theshrinkage of your soul.
(13:47):
So remember that Jesus is thetruth, and what happens is that
faith attaches you to him, tothe truth.
There's another pressure that weexperience pride.
The world shouts, right?
Be the main character, you'rethe main character.
But Christ whispers come learnhow to be fully alive by loving
(14:11):
God and people.
New birth doesn't erase thesepressures, friends.
What it does is it breaks theirmonopoly on your life.
Then John asks in verse five,Who is it that overcomes the
world except the one whobelieves that Jesus is the Son
(14:31):
of God?
Look, like this line right here,honestly, it humbles me and it
liberates me.
Uh, it humbles me because itsays that victory is not by my
own willpower.
Thank God.
And it liberates me because itsays that my weakness is not
final.
Faith is how we hold on to himwhile we literally fight our
(14:52):
real day-to-day enemies.
And you don't overcome the worldby curating your own brand of
righteousness.
You overcome by clinging toliterally the righteous one.
So let me get really practical.
What does it look like for God'scommands in our lives, in our
day-to-day lives, to be not tooburdensome?
So to do that, just picturethree everyday zones that we all
(15:13):
experience.
We all experience relationships,we have to deal with people.
We all experience habits, we allhave them, and we all experience
calling.
We're on our journey tosomething somewhere.
So relationships first.
This is what obedience lookslike forgiveness, truth telling,
(15:34):
boundaries, loyalty, like wheresomeone in your circle ghosted
you or gossiped about you.
Your old self, what does it do?
It drafts a paragraph thathonestly your future self will
regret.
Been there?
Done that?
But the spirit, what it does isit prompts you to take a
different path, like inEphesians, speak truth in love,
(15:58):
or in Colossians, forgive as theLord forgave you.
And does that feel heavy to likelive a life like that?
Yeah, sometimes.
But new birth gives you adifferent internal weight
distribution.
You're not paying off a debt byobeying this thing.
You're living out into your newDNA as part of a family member.
(16:20):
And the best part is you're notdoing it alone.
That God's commands actuallycome with God's companionship.
And frankly, I think that's whyit makes it not burdensome.
So, what about habits?
We all got habits.
Well, when it comes to habits,obedience looks like choosing
inputs that actually shape youtowards love.
(16:40):
Uh, maybe it's time to move forsome of you your Bible app out
of that folder called utilitiesnext to the calculator and put
on your home screen.
Maybe you just choose like 10minutes of prayer, which by the
way is 10 minutes of literallypraying or listening before 10
minutes of scrolling.
Or maybe it's like, and this iscould be really difficult for
you too.
Maybe it's taking your phone andputting it in the other room at
(17:03):
night like it's a raccoon youdon't trust, right?
And none of this, I want you,none of this earns like you
God's smile.
But I'm telling you, I'm tellingyou, just these little
practices, what it does, theselittle habits, it'll begin to
clear some fog so you canactually notice the smile you
already have in Christ.
And when John says his commandsare not burdensome, it means
(17:26):
that this reborn person, thatthese choices begin to
increasingly feel like you, notjust some costume that you're
trying to keep on and a showthat you're putting on for those
around you.
So uh last calling.
Calling.
You know, calling is likedifferent for everyone.
You're you're trying to figureout the thing you do.
(17:46):
For some of you right now,you're figuring out school,
trade, some startup, how to keepyour business going, a
nonprofit, art, healthcare,software.
For some of you, some form ofministry.
But here's the deal (18:01):
God's command is to love Him and love
people wherever you land.
And that means integrity when noone's watching.
It means generosity when money'stight, it means courage when
truth is actually unpopular, andhumility when you're winning.
And those are commands.
(18:21):
They they aren't just thesecommands, they're also just a
way to live and to live fullyalive.
So, what for some of us when itcomes to this stuff and being
obedient is the fear behind it?
Because I think there isactually a bit of fear behind
like living this way.
Um, I think fear is, you know,for some of us, it's missing
(18:44):
out.
Like we feel like we're missingout on something, like FOMO, but
theological, right?
Like we're wanting to live ourbest life and we're afraid that
when suddenly we yield to God'swill, like life's suddenly gonna
be small, right?
It's gonna be really boring,like you're gonna be a lamer,
like what?
I like to cuss, right?
I don't know if that's you, butright?
It's gonna be joyless or boring,whatever it is.
(19:05):
We tell ourselves these liesover and over and over again.
But John, what he does is he'sgently dismantling that fear.
And if God went so far as togive you his son, and I his son,
do you think that his commandsare literally designed just to
crush you and to make you nothave a full life and a life in
abundance?
(19:26):
Friends, just as a reminder, andmay we continue to remind one
another about this, the cross isliterally a receipt that's been
stamped, paid in full, for yourdeepest good.
And that means that hisinstructions then actually aim
at the same end, your deepestgood.
Think of it this way (19:45):
that the way of Jesus is like a narrow
runway.
It's purposeful, it's not petty.
But what happens when you're ona runway?
You don't complain that therunway is too narrow when you're
trying to take off.
You're just grateful there is arunway.
There's this um uh commoninternal protest that I think a
lot of us have.
Like, okay, but sometimesobeying God, it absolutely feels
(20:07):
heavy.
Like to participate in this way,to fully participate.
And I say true.
John's not denying like the feltweight of obedience and of this
broken world.
What he's doing is he'scorrecting this verdict that we
pass on God's character becauseof it.
There is a difference betweenweight and burden, right?
Training feels heavy.
(20:28):
Slavery is a burden.
The spirit's weight, what itdoes in us is it builds
capacity.
Sin's burden actually steals thecapacity.
And when God's command feelsheavy, just ask yourself this
when it's feeling heavy.
Is this weight actually doingsome purpose to build in me, or
is it to break me?
(20:48):
And I'll tell you that the crossis proof.
Jesus carried a burden that wecouldn't, so we could carry the
weight that could actually growus into the person that we were
meant to be and who we reallywant to be.
So, just really quickly, I wantto circle back to the family
piece because it's not like thissentimental add-on that John's
throwing in there.
He literally is tying God's loveto God's kids directly that have
(21:11):
faith in God's Son, Jesus.
And he's done this constantlyover.
It's so cyclical all throughoutthis letter.
If you love the father, you lovethe family, right?
And if you're born again, yourvertical love then begins to
show up horizontally asobedience and obeying the
(21:31):
command to love one another.
And I think he keeps saying thisover and over again because he
knows how dang hard it is forus.
Because, like we know a lotabout each other, and we're
really hard to love sometimes.
This means that the people ofGod are not just this supportive
cast in your personal spiritualmovie that literally this room
(21:52):
is filled with people that arean integral part of you
overcoming the world.
Well, how and why?
Well, the world, what it does isit isolates, the church gathers.
Welcome to the church.
The world says, curate your lifeto and to avoid inconvenience.
(22:13):
The church says, you know what?
Open your life and shareburdens.
The world says, win byoutshining others, where the
church says, win by outlovingothers.
And if you try to follow Jesussolo, I'm telling you, you will
mistake private preference fordivine guidance.
(22:36):
You need these people.
You we need each other.
You need people who will sitwith you, who will literally
tell you the truth and hand youtacos when you're spiraling.
Joe, we're having Chinese foodtonight.
It's gonna be good.
You need people who will sitwith you.
And on that note, let me justreally quickly give you three
(22:57):
practices this week you canliterally put into your life
from 1 John chapter 5.
Just these five verses.
This is the first practice.
Declare your belonging.
This is so simple, but it's sopowerful.
Every morning when you get up,allow, just start your day like
this, before your phone gets thefirst words.
Say, I believe in Jesus Christand I have been born of God.
(23:18):
That's verse one in firstperson.
What does that do?
That's not manifesting, it'sliterally just remembering, it's
re-orienting.
It's your identity is not a DIYproject, it's literally a
received gift.
And saying that, just sayingthat literally reshapes your
day.
Another practice.
Pick one command to obey gladly,not grimly.
(23:41):
I said gladly, and for some ofthis, this is hard, especially
like this one.
Maybe it's forgiveness, andyou're like, there is nothing
glad about that, right?
Try to do this gladly.
Maybe it's forgiveness, maybeit's sexual integrity, maybe
it's generosity, maybe some sortof sort of rest, like a Sabbath,
something that feels restful andhelpful, rejuvenating.
(24:03):
Uh, maybe it's uh truth telling,maybe it's peacemaking.
Pray like just a simple prayer.
Holy Spirit, can you help makethis practice a joy and not feel
like a grind?
And then tell somebody else sothey can cheer you on, and then
watch how not burdensome thatstarts to actually feel true in
(24:26):
your body physically.
Practice three name and narrateyour world.
Ask yourself, even right now,what's the strongest worldly
pull on you right now?
The desire, lie, or pride, andthen name it, and then start to
narrate it through the lens ofthe gospel.
(24:46):
As an example, this desire isreal, but it's not my master.
The pride is tempting, but I amalready seen by God.
This lie feels real, but it isnot the truth.
(25:08):
And then finish with John'spunchline.
This is the victory that hasovercome the world.
It's our faith, not my feelings,not my flex, not my five-year
plan when I figured it all out.
It's faith in Jesus.
Now, some of you are hearingthis and you're thinking, cool
(25:30):
ideas.
This is great ideas, but mydoubt is loud.
And I just want to remind youthat John is not allergic to
honest questions and feelings.
He's literally writing to thisgroup of people that are
experiencing the same kind ofthings we experience to steady
them and not shame them.
So, therefore, as we're readingit, it's to steady us and not to
shame us.
(25:51):
And if you're unsure aboutJesus, here's an experiment that
you can just try this week.
Obey him in one clear area ofyour life and see with that if
life begins to open or itcloses.
And just so you know, you canstart before every problem is
answered.
Like a lot of us were like, no,I haven't figured the whole
thing out yet.
So I'm not gonna like walk intothat at all.
(26:13):
Think of it like stepping onto abridge because the engineer is
trustworthy that built thebridge, right?
Even though I know a lot of youguys is you haven't taken the
time to compute the load ratingsyourself, right?
And to look at the designs.
No, you step onto it.
Faith isn't fiction, it'sconfidence in a person who
actually walked out of a grave.
I mean, just think about it.
(26:33):
The earliest Christians didn'tgive their lives for a metaphor.
They literally followed therisen Son of God.
And if he overcame the grave, hecan help you help you overcome
your feed or whatever nonsenseis filling your brain.
So then some of you might ask,well, then what do you do when
you fail?
And I get that.
Hi, my name's Lawrence.
(26:54):
I'm in recovery too.
You're gonna fail this week.
Remember the grammar of verseone.
Ongoing believing flows from acompleted understanding of
belonging.
Your failure when it happens,friends, isn't a cue for you to
begin to destruct, deconstructyour birth certificate.
(27:15):
It's a cue for you to look atyour father and say, like, I
need help.
Think about it this way: children run toward their (27:21):
undefined
parents that they've offended.
Why?
Because they know their parents'heart.
I don't know if you guys everexperienced this when I was
growing up.
My mom was really, I mean, I hadthis talk a bunch.
My mom was always like trying tobuild trust in there, like, I'm
a safe place, I'm a safe place.
And the best example I can giveyou is she'd be like, you know
what?
If you're hanging with yourfriends and you're going out and
(27:41):
you guys already had some partyor something like that, and
you've done something that youthink is silly, or maybe you or
your friends have had somethingto drink and you've had too
much, you can call me.
Please call me for a ride.
I promise it's gonna be okay.
And then she said, I'm gonna saya lot of things to you, you're
not gonna remember, so it'll beokay, but I won't bring it up
again.
I'm a safe place.
And that's what happened everytime I had to no juggle.
(28:06):
But I it made it a safe place torun because I knew her heart,
right?
I was talking to some people inthe back as I talked about the
first service.
I was like, my kid in college,you know, we had gotten to have
some of those conversations.
What do you do here?
And I'm like, I feel like I'mwinning, right?
When it's safe to call me, evenabout like what's going on with
your friends or what are youdoing in the situation?
Because you build that up, youknow the parents' heart.
(28:26):
But what's the opposite to that,right?
Well, slaves hide from masters.
Why?
Because they fear them, becausewhat they know is only the
rules.
Think of it as like relationshipversus ownership.
The gospel of friends makes youa child.
And when you stumble, don't thenjump to like I gotta renegotiate
(28:47):
the contract, because iffriends, you get to arrest in
the covenant.
And so repent quickly and keepwalking.
And when it happens again,repent quickly and get up and
keep walking.
Let's um revisit only because Ithink it's so important, because
I feel the weight of space inthe room and even for myself,
(29:08):
uh, this not burdensome promise.
One more time with a metaphor.
Um, this is the metaphor theycan think of.
Imagine trying to play a guitar,um, or even if you never have,
but just imagine you're playingin the car and you're wearing
like a thick winter gloves, andyou can technically like hit
some chords, you can make somenoises clumsy and it can be
frustrating because you can'tlike do it all the way.
You know, your fingers aren'tpushing it down right.
(29:29):
Now take the gloves off.
Same guitar, same song,different experience, right?
Uh the gloves are the heart ofstone.
The bare hands now are the heartof flesh.
What happens is new birth isliterally God taking the gloves
off of you.
The commands didn't change.
What happened is you did.
(29:49):
And that's why it stops feelinglike you're constantly faking it
and starts feeling like you'refinally becoming yourself, who
you were uniquely created to be.
And just a quick nerd note, realquick.
John says overcomes.
He uses this word here,overcomes.
It's actually tied to the wordNike, which is the word to
(30:09):
conquer.
But it's in the present tense.
So what it's doing is when he'ssaying it overcomes, it's like
it keeps overcoming.
Like it keeps overcoming.
It isn't just one cinematicvictory.
It's literally a lifetime ofsmall wins that just continue to
add up.
And there will be days where youfeel like a conqueror.
And honestly, there's going tobe some days where you just feel
(30:31):
like leftovers.
And this is the nice part isfaith attaches you to Jesus on
both kinds of days.
When you feel like a conqueror,you celebrate with humility.
It was his strength.
And when you feel likeleftovers, you breathe.
And you say, He still loves me.
And then what do you do?
(30:52):
You get up and you keep walking.
And that getting up again iswhat victory for a lot of us
often looks like.
We should also, in this moment,just because John talks about
it, name the role of the HolySpirit explicitly.
Because when John's writingthis, he's already assuming that
his friends already knew that bynew birth, the spirit's now at
(31:14):
work.
And if the commands aren'tburdensome, why is that?
Well, it's because there's ahelper present.
That's the power of the spirit.
And the helper's main nativelanguage is actually prayer.
This is why prayer is actuallyso important.
Listening and participating.
It means then for us that prayerisn't like a side quest, like
(31:37):
something that we're just tryingto work on as a spiritual
discipline every once in a whiletrying to figure out.
No, no, no.
It's like the main power linethat we want to figure out and
just like lean into and how toparticipate and be involved in.
And if you try to obey withoutpraying, what's going to happen
is you're either going to bereally proud when you succeed,
or you're going to be crushedwhen you fail.
But if you pray while you obey,you'll then be grateful and
(32:00):
resilient.
The best thing that maybe Icould give you on this subject
is make short breath prayersyour reflex.
A breath prayer is maybe thebest gift that I've ever
received.
And you can do it all the time,anytime.
And a lot of you maybe alreadydo it and you don't realize it.
But in this situation, you canbe walking down the hallway, you
can be in your car, you can begetting ready to have a
(32:20):
conversation, you can be goingfrom class to class, wherever it
is.
Just father help, father help.
Just a breath prayer, fatherhelp, right?
Jesus, be near.
Jesus, I need you to be near,right?
Or help me not kill that person,right?
Yeah.
Great.
You're staring at you're staringat the face and the grace and
peace.
Grace and peace.
Spirit, empower me to love.
(32:42):
I need you to empower me tolove, right?
Whatever it is, right?
Yours.
This is your problem.
Whatever it is, I surrender all,all of them and their problems,
whatever it is.
Breath pairs, though, friends,they outpace doom scrolling.
So, okay, zooming out.
(33:02):
Here's uh here's today'smessage.
These five verses and threesentences that you can carry
into your Tuesday.
First one is this believe inJesus, be born of God, and then
what happens is you'll belong toa real family.
That's great.
The second is this love God.
The love for God actually showsup, it shows up as obedience,
something we're participating inthat increasingly fits into who
(33:25):
you are, and his commands won'tcrush you.
I love that.
And then faith and the sun givesyou power to overcome the
world's desires and lies andpride, not by hype or hustle,
but by abiding and stayingattached to him.
So here's how we'll close.
(33:46):
Let me first just name a firstsimple, joyful act of obedience
that I really think fits thiswhole passage.
It's something that we'reactually going to do in a month
from now, and that is baptism.
Quick teaching on baptism.
This this whole thing embodiesit.
John, first John 5 says, Newbirth creates new belonging and
obedience that isn't a grind.
(34:07):
So then baptism, what is it?
It's like the first familyportrait.
And the moment that literallyyou step into the waters of
baptism and publicly say, Ibelong to you, Jesus, and to his
people.
That's what's happening.
So some of you might say, like,well, what is baptism?
Well, here's just a quickexplanation.
(34:28):
It's an outward sign of aninward reality.
This union with Jesus' death,burial.
So I see people go down, andresurrection.
It's not like a hot tubmembership or a spiritual
graduation ceremony, like you'vearrived.
Good job.
Woo-hoo, right?
It's literally the beginning.
It's not the trophy, like youdid it and you're winning the
(34:49):
award.
The water doesn't save you.
Here's the key Jesus saves you.
The water just says to peopleand yourself, Jesus saved me.
So why get baptized?
Like, do I really need to dothat?
Yeah, Jesus commanded it.
And then the early churchpracticed it right away.
They didn't wait for anythingelse.
(35:10):
In John's language, love for Godshows up as obedience and his
commands aren't burdensome.
So baptism really is a light,joyful yes that fits a reborn
heart.
Well, then who does it?
Who's it for?
Anyone who's believed in Jesusas the Son of God and had been
born in God, even if it'ssomebody like today, brand new.
(35:33):
If today you're like, you knowwhat, I'm gonna be a child, I'm
gonna surrender my life up.
Jesus is gonna be the Lord andSavior of life.
Yeah, it's for that brand newone or that mustard seed small
faith person.
You don't need this perfect pastor this five-year plan to like
figure it all out.
You just need Jesus and awillingness to obey him.
(35:56):
Well, some of you say, Well, butwhat if I was baptized as a
baby?
That's awesome.
Honor that as your family's hopein prayer.
And now, as some of you as anadult or a teenager, baptism
becomes your public confession,your idea to Jesus.
Think like your parents showedlove then, and now you get to
(36:17):
respond on your own faith andown obedience.
Well, some of you would say,like, well, do I need like, do I
need to feel ready?
Like, do I need the gooseies orsomething?
Like, I know it's time, right?
I'll just say, like, I thinkfeelings are great.
But readiness in the NewTestament is often matched up
with faith plus willingness.
(36:37):
And if you believe Jesus is theChrist and you're ready to
follow him, then you're ready tobe baptized.
And obedience, what it does isit often creates the feelings
that we're waiting for.
Well, some of you might say,well, what if I've been baptized
and then, you know, like I didmy own thing and stuff, you
know, I had to call my mom a lotfor a ride.
(36:59):
Right?
Well, I'll just say this.
If if you were baptized aftertrusting Jesus, the normal path
is repentance and returning, notre-baptism.
Remember that?
Repent and get up, keep onwalking.
Let's go.
And if your conscience iscomplicated, we got some pastors
here, you can talk to them, andwe'll walk with you.
Or a small group leader walkwith you, your friend will walk
(37:20):
with you.
But here's the picture, friends.
Baptism is victory you can see.
It's literally watching andseeing the victory that's taking
place in someone else's life.
It's you saying that the world'slies, status, self-curation,
perform or perish.
That's literally saying, no, no,no, I died with Christ.
(37:44):
I'm raised with Christ.
And I belong to his family now.
And friends, that's first John 5on full display of faith that
overcomes the world.
And if you're ready, we'd loveto help you take that step.
Like I said, we're we're doingthis in a month from now.
You can go to the, there's likea hot tub out there.
(38:06):
You can go there, you can goover to the next steps area
after service.
We have people that help answeryour questions, they'll help get
you scheduled.
Baptism is not burdensome forthose of you who are just
sitting there still fightingaround.
It's beautiful.
It's how you show the family whowe belong to and how we preach
(38:26):
with our whole body that Jesushas literally made us new.
So don't wait for perfect.
Just come with faith.
Let me just tell you, for myoverthinkers out there, will
your hair get wet?
Yes.
Will there be pictures?
Yes.
Will your ex see them?
Probably.
Make it a testimony, right?
(38:47):
Will there be confetti?
Yes.
Will there be cowbells?
I know it's crazy.
Yes.
And yes, it's worth it.
Because the moment in the waterliterally is like a line in the
sand.
I am his with his people for hispurposes.
(39:08):
And that confession has a way ofechoing through your Monday.
So wrapping this all up.
Before you open your phoneagain, set one reminder: family,
not just following.
That's verse one.
Then put a sticky note on yourmental dashboard, not
burdensome.
(39:29):
That's verse three.
Then write a banner over yourweek.
Victory has overcome our faith.
That's verse four.
You are not alone.
You are not self-saving.
And you are not destined to be adisciple of the algorithm, the
(39:53):
crowd, or your cravings.
You have a loving father.
You belong to a family.
And you've got a savior whoovercame the world and invites
you to share in his way.
So let's do it.
(40:15):
You with me?
SPEAKER_00 (40:19):
Amen.
Well, worship is a way that wecan respond to our Heavenly
Father.
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