This morning, we are continuing this study in I John titled “Living in the Light.” If you were here last week, you will remember that I John is chronologically the last book written in the Bible. This was a letter that was passed around to the churches, to include the church at Ephesus.
John’s writings are simplistic and direct. John doesn’t mince words. He doesn’t make the message complex – but keeps it so simple so that we might actually be able to do something with it. In church today, we consider a good sermon when the pastor wraps it up on time, or when he shares a good joke or two. But John is very surgical in his message. He is trying to effect transformation in the lives of people.
Last week we shared two points from John’s letter, and both of them begin with these key words: THIS IS THE MESSAGE. And that message was this:
GOD IS LIGHT AND IN HIM IS NO DARKNESS AT ALL (I John 1:5)
That means that God has no dark side, he has no scandals, he has no skeletons in His closest. You will never be able to say, “Can you believe what God did?” There is nothing God has done that He would be ashamed to have flashed across the screen in our church.
That’s what you and I have: I have a downside, I have a dark side, I’ve had scandal, I’ve had something’s happen in my life I would want flashed on the screen of the church for everyone to know about. I have things in my life that don’t align with the character and conduct of a Christian.
And the message of John is that you and I are to Live Life in the Light Since “God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all.” That means that you and I no longer live in the darkness, but we live in the Light – the good parts and the bad parts. We don’t go back in forth, which is terrifying, because we all have some dark stuff in our lives don’t we? Because you and I are now living in the Light, guess what? Our sins are going to be illuminated. Remember the Bible says, “Be sure your sins will find you out?” Does that mean you are not saved? NO. But it does mean you can’t live in the darkness.
So how do you live life in the Light if you continue to have things in your life that don’t line up?
We need to understand two things: First GOD IS LOVE, and second, God provided us a way to repent. 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
You and I balance our lives between two lives: There is our public life, that is the life we want everyone to think of us, then there is the private life, that’s where we hide our darkness.
Because of that, you and I need to understand that we serve a Loving God, because if he wasn’t, JOE MOORE would be in trouble.
So, through repentance, either God has enough GRACE to keep me in the Light, or His grace is going to run out – So I am going to make repentance a part of my life so that His grace doesn’t run out!
THE SECOND MESSAGE WAS, THAT YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER (I John 3:11)
How is the world going to know that you and I are in the Light? By our Fruit of Love!
Chapter 2:10 says, “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light.” If God has forgiven me for all the darkness in my life, who am I to hold your darkness against you, or anybody else for that matter?
And according to verse 3:11, we know that we are Living in the light and that His love is perfected in us when we do what? LOVE ONE ANOTHER. That has been and will always be the message of this church.
Now, that brings us to the message today titled “LIVING IN THE FAMILY NAME.” To preface the message, I was born into the Moore family. Now, I didn’t choose the Moore Family, and to be honest, the Moore family didn’t choose me. When I was in kindergarten, my Mom explained to me that a BIRD dropped me off at the hospital.
But my grandmother used to say something to me, I didn’t really understand then, and not that I do now – but she used to say, “YOU’RE A MOORE, ACT LIKE IT.”
I think what my grandmother was trying to articulate was, “There is a value attached to your name.” And my grandmother truly lived up to the value in her name.
There is also a downside to being a Moore. Back in God’s country of Hartsville, SC, I attended the same elementary school that both my grandparents attended, and both my parents attended, and all my aunts and uncles attended, and all my cousins attended. The Junior High I attended, all of my family attended. And so, when teachers that had been there since probably my grandmother attended would read the roll out, they would say something like this: “Joey – Oh my God there’s another – Moore.”
Why do I bring that up? Well, the second YOU that chose to follow Jesus Christ by faith through grace, guess what? YOU HAD A NAME CHANGE. There are a lot of things to describe you, but there is only one thing that defines you.
Listen, before you meet Christ, you could be described by talents, or by failures, or by disappointments, but once you became a part of the family of God – none of those things have the ability, OR RIGHT, to define you anymore. Jesus Christ shed His blood on Calvary’s Cross so that you could now be defined by the blood that you have been born into. YOU ARE BLOOD BOUGHT: YOU HAVE A NAME CHANGE.
What John is going to address in Chapter two is what it means to LIVE in the NEW NAME THAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN IN CHRIST JESUS – YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN.
And as my grandma would say, “YOU NEED TO ACT LIKE IT.” You carry the name of the Risen Savior. So, the way that you live, the way that you respond, the way that you engage others, it all matters now because of the NAME that you represent!
So let me give you a few points this morning on what it means to: LIVE IN THE FAMILY NAME.
Let’s look at 1 John 2:1 & 2, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
John begins by saying “My little children . . .” Now when he says that, he is using a term of endearment; he is not saying they are being childish – though maybe they were.
Remember now, the Book of I john is the last Book that was actually written chronologically. We know that John is living in Ephesus at the time, and so they no doubt have already read the book of Revelation. In fact, in Revelation 3, John addresses directly the problem in the church at Ephesus, and he does because they had forgotten what? THEIR FIRST LOVE.
Here is the problem with us humans: identifying our problems is only half the problem. I know a lot of things need to change about the way I eat, but I still drink a Dr. Pepper and have a donut every now and again. I have thoughts of a Beach Body by summer, but I have habits of Buddha Body by summer.
Identifying a problem is one thing, implementing change is another. But in the Christian life, we are not just after change – we are after transformation. You see, we have the power to change, GOD has the power to Transform. Transformation is God working in us and through us.
So, John is addressing these “Little Children” in Ephesus who are still not growing up in the Lord. They are still in the family of God, even if they are like children. He still loves you; He’s still chosen you.
THAT YOU SIN NOT
John says, “I’m writing these things unto you, (as family members – as my brothers and sisters in Christ) WHY? That ye sin not” Because it is contrary to living a Christian life, it is contrary to Living in the Family Name.
When we sin folks, it doesn’t mean that you are not a part of the family, but it does mean you are dishonoring the Family name. As my grandmother would say, “You’re not acting like it!” So, when we sin, we become a contradiction to the Name that we profess.
I John 1:9, we learned that God forgives us of our sin when we confess, but in verse 10 John reminds us that we are not sinners in our identity, though at times we are still sinful in our actions. But God’s willingness to forgive us of our sins is not a License to sin, and that is what John is addressing in Chapter 2 and verse 1. So, this is not a license to become complacent in sin.
Now there are two types of sin going on in all of our lives right now: Sins of Commission and Sins of Omission.
Sins of Omission means that you didn’t realize that the path you were walking in was sin. Now, that doesn’t make it any less sinful, it just means you didn’t know.
Then there are the premeditated sins – the Sins of Commission. These are the sins that we know are sin – yet we leave the tunnel open in our souls to go back to it every now and again.
Most of the sins that God is convicting us of are not the sins of Omission, but the sins of Commission. The things we clearly know we should do – yet we do them anyway.
Here is the question I want all us to answer inside ourselves, “Are my actions Living up to the Family Name?”
Our problem is, we like to mess around in sin. Paul tells us in I Corinthians that we are to “flee from sin” – “run from sin,” WHY? Because sin will take you further than you wanted to go, make you stay longer than you wanted to stay.
So, John is writing the church in Ephesus and telling them, “DON’T MESS WITH SIN.” “My little children, these things write I unto you that you SIN NOT.” Light has no business playing with the dark! John is not writing to give us an excuse to sin, but urging us to avoid sin, to not sin.
Now, let’s look at the second part of that verse, “These things write I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.” I writing you so that you want sin, and here’s point two:
BUT WHEN YOU DO (AND YOU WILL) YOU HAVE AND ADVOCATE
When we go to God and say:
“LORD, I’ve sinned” He says, “I know.”
“LORD, will you forgive me for my sin” He says “I do.”
There is a story I’ve shared before in the Book of Philemon about Onesimus. Onesimus was a slave of Philemon. Onesimus ran away from his master, and sometime later, while he was on his journey, Onesimus crossed paths with the Apostle Paul. Onesimus got Saved. Later, Paul was sending him to Philemon, and he wrote and said something along these lines:
“Philemon, I am sending some people to you. But Philemon, when you receive them, I want you to receive them as if you were receiving me. If you’re my co-laborer, receive them like you would me. Give them the respect you’ve given me. Don’t be mad at him, and if he owes you anything – put that on my account!”
Now, let’s bring that over into the spiritual realm. And I can see Jesus saying something like this:
“Father – DAD – I know he ain’t much. I know he’s done you wrong. But when he comes to You, I ask you to receive him as if you were receiving Me. Dad, I paid for his sins, I am the propitiation for his sin. If he owes you anything – put that on my account!”
I want you to know that Jesus, your advocate, your lawyer, is sitting at the right hand of the Father and He is fighting for you.
Let me ask you this morning, “Are you living up to the Family Name?”
Fighting for My Pea Patch 