Kingdom People - Jeff Ryan - 3TC Podcast - 11/03/2024 Three Timbers Church's Podcast

Jeff Ryan discusses the importance of confessing sins to experience God's forgiveness and love. The significance of fellowship with God and other believers should exemplify these traits. 

Transcript

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Welcome to the three timbers podcast. We hope this will encourage and uplift you today. One of the things that we all tend to struggle with is coming to the realization that we are not perfect. We make mistakes. We can point out mistakes to other people, but we don't like to kind of come to grasps with our own mistakes, our own sin, which separates us from God, and what we believe is that sin is what separates us from God. And so it's not just an apology, it's a confession of sin. And so we take a moment during the service to silently come before God and confess our sin. He already knows it. He loves us, He forgives us, but we need to confess our sins, get our hearts right with God, and then we will read responsibly the confession of sin and the good news of the love of God for us. Let us come before God, confessing our sins silently to him. You father, you know each of us. You know where each of us have fallen short of the Lord. We're thankful for grace. We're thankful for your mercy. We're thankful Lord for how much you love us and how much you forgive us, Lord, I pray that we would never shy away from confessing our sin to you, because, Lord, when we do that, we miss out on the good news. We miss out, Lord, on the grace that you have for us. So Father, I pray that whatever sin we have brought in here, Lord, we leave it at the cross where it's supposed to be, we don't carry it around, Lord, whether that be from our past or even our current struggles, I pray Lord, that we would give it to you. You tell us to come unto you when we are weary and burdened, and you will give us rest, Lord, I pray that we would come to you and find that rest. We ask this in the name of Jesus, amen, will you join me in reading the confession of sin. Whoever conceals their sin does not prosper, but he who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. That is the good news of the gospel. I was struck this morning when I came down, obviously, since this is not our facility with our background and it's the mid top right, and it kind of feels like we've been living in a circus for a while now, and we don't know if that circus is going to end or just begin come Tuesday, and we all know what Tuesday is. Tuesday is election day. And like you, I have been bombarded with commercials on TV and the radio. It has to be a whole forest of trees that has been wiped out with all of the mailings that we've got, and a lot of those messages try to tell you what it means to be an American, or what it means to be a Nebraska, and they remind you of that. Well, we are in the state of Nebraska, so I want to share a few things. And maybe you know these, maybe you know, but the origin of the name Nebraska comes from OTO, which means flat water. We have two time zones. Here in Nebraska, we have a unicorn, the only state that has that we were the 37 state that was founded in 1867 Omaha used to be the capital. Then it was moved to Lancaster, which then became Lincoln. And over the last 10 years, per 100,000 people, Omaha and Nebraska have taken more refugees than any other place in the country. You know, some very important things have been invented in Nebraska, for example, pink hair curlers have been invented. I don't have any use for them anymore, but I do remember my grandmother going everywhere with them in her hair, without exception, the Reuben sandwich, if you like, the Reuben sandwich that came from Nebraska ranch dressing came from Nebraska Kool Aid, frozen dinners, the nation's first ski lift. I'm not sure how that is, but that's true. And the largest collection of roller skates at a museum. Now, you may have known some, or you may have known all of these characteristics, but we are often told, here's what it means to be a Nebraskan, here's what it needs. Needs to be an American. But before we are an American, and before we are a Nebraskan, we really need to know who we are. We are the people of God. Being the people of God becomes becomes before statehood, comes before nationality. So we need to understand what it means to be the people of God on this side of Tuesday and on the other side of Tuesday, we need to be the people of God. And with that, that means we need to exude certain characteristics, and we find that in Scripture, and when we do, we will experience God. We have been going through this journey over the last couple of months of what does it mean to experience God, not just know of God or know about God, but to experience God. And so we're going to do that today. So before we. Hear God's Word. Read, we pray with you, please, Father, God, we thank You that Your word is a lamp into our feet. I pray, Lord that You would speak through me and despite me. I pray, Lord that you would be glorified by what is said. I pray, Lord that your truth would just penetrate our hearts. Lord, as we came in today, the fog was there, Lord, I pray, if there is any fog in our hearts and minds right now, that you would lift it, that you would take it away, so that we could truly hear your truth. We ask this in the name of Jesus, amen. So we are going to be in First John, that's near the back of the New Testament. If you are a guest with us, we want to encourage you if you didn't bring your Bible. We hope you have a Bible app on your phone, we want to read the Word of God instead of having it up on the screen, because we think, as we read the Word, the Word brings us the author of First John, is the author of John's gospel, is the author of the book of Revelation, is the author of first, second and third John. So we are in first John. We are going to be in chapter one. I'm going to be reading from the NIV version First John, chapter one, starting at verse five. This is the message we have heard from him. And declare to you, God is light in him. There is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkest we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, you make enough to be a liar and His word is not in us. I love HD TV shows, probably a little bit too much. I love to watch all of them. I love when, you know, they bring in designers and they bring in construction people, and they usually bring them to a house that is either falling apart or a house that is so outdated. And what happens is they bring the homeowners in, and they've got, kind of the people on the show, they say, we're going to do this, and we're going to do that, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. And the homeowners are kind of like, okay, I guess, I don't know. And so then we get to watch over the next half hour or hour, then transform this space that used to be this, and now turns into that. And one of my favorite parts is when they bring the homeowners back, who get to see the house for the first time. Sometimes it's been a week, a month, even longer. And I love the things that the homeowners say. They say things like, it doesn't even look the same. It's not the same house. It's been completely transformed. I don't even recognize it. And the reason I like that is because it reminds me of what the gospel does. The Gospel transforms us. We don't look like we used to be. We are a brand new person when it comes to the gospel, and that's what we want to talk about here today, is that the gospel changes us, and the way that it changes us is being talked about here by John in the motif of light and darkness. There's a big difference between light and darkness, and we see this motif of lightnings throughout the Bible by God and what light and darkness is about. It is about the knowledge of the truth of God, and it is about the purity of God. Now understand that John is writing this letter, and he's saying, This is not a message from me. John said, This is a message from Christ Himself. And so what we need to understand is that this message, though, through human authors, is from God, just as the message that we're going to talk about this morning is not my message, it is his message. And so the walk in the light is about the knowledge and purity God is about the perfection of God, and it is about the darkness that all of us live in and work in, and a lot of times think in. And we have to understand this motif of light and darkness. Think about how God has used light and darkness in the Exodus, when the people were being led out of slavery, there was a light that went before them, and there was a light that was behind them. Think about when Moses came down from Mount Sinai. He reflected the light of the glory of God because he was in the presence of God. And think of the Transfiguration, when Jesus face was brighter than the sun. So we see what light does. In fact, listen to what Jesus says in John 812 he says these words, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. There is power in walking in the light. There's power in understanding the light. It is in the light that we. Experience God. And so if we are going to walk in the light as the people of God, as the church, then we need to exude, probably the primary characteristic that comes from walking and living in the light, and that is fellowship with God and fellowship with other people. If we are walking in the light, if we are walking as Christ followers, that will be seen in the fellowship we have with the Father and the fellowship that we have with one another, we need to exude that, and that's the first characteristic, because if we don't have fellowship with God, and we don't have fellowship with other believers, that we are not the church, because that's the characteristic that when people look at the church, they should say those people have a fellowship with God, a relationship with God. I see it in everything they do. And they have a fellowship with one another. They are brothers and sisters in Christ. They are of one body. They are the family of God. I can see it even for those people who are not a part of the church. Should see our fellowship with God and fellowship with one another, and the way in which we know that our fellowship is real. It's seen how we treat other people, the way that we treat other people will show that we are the people of God. I want to read to you again a little further in with John's letter is first John two nine through 11 says this, anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness, and walks around in the darkness, they do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. So when we say things, I love people, but I can't love them because they think different. They live different. They view this different. I hate them. We are walking in darkness, if we are the people of God be? Cannot claim you say, I'm walking in a life, but I hate people like this. We can't because we're not being the people of God. And people should look at us and say, those people who follow Christ, those Christians, they have a fellowship with God. They have a fellowship with other people. And I see it in the way they treat other people, even people that are radically different from them, because if not, then we are being hypocrites. And people love to say, the church is full of hypocrites, and they're right, but that's where we need to say, I'm going to treat people and love people, no matter who they are, no matter how they live, and no matter what they think. With the love of Jesus, the difference between walking in the light and living in darkness and living in darkness is living opposed to God's will, living apart from God. God tells us two things, love God, love others, right? But if we just love God, but we don't love others and we're in darkness, we need to walk in the light. Look. A lot of people make a lot of claims about how much they love God, how much they believe in God. A lot of people make claims, and yet they are walking in darkness. And I know this because I did this. I made a lot of claims about how much I loved God, but I was living in darkness. I was walking in darkness. And the first way that you can tell that you are living or walking in darkness is when you don't have fellowship with God and fellowship with other believers. When you are not engaged in that fellowship on a consistent basis, then you have slid into the darkness and you don't even know it. Think about this. We make a lot of claims that I love God, I love God, but then we spend little to no time in his word. How can we claim to walk in the light when we never read God's word? We claim to love God and follow God, but we don't really pray very often or take prayer very seriously. We claim to love God, but we don't come to worship consistently. We claim to love God but we don't serve anybody but ourselves. We make a lot of claims. Oh, I love God. I love God. I love God, but I don't read scripture, and I don't pray, and I don't really go to worship and I don't use my gift. Then we are walking in darkness, and we just don't know it. We can say, I love people. I'm a people person. I love people. But yet we're not consistently with our brothers and sisters in faith, in worship, in Bible study and in service. So how can we say we're walking in the light when we're not having that fellowship with God and fellowship with other people. That's one of the characteristics that we need to have. And so I say this, and remember I told you earlier, this is not a message from me. This is a message from John. He said, This is a message from Jesus, that if we aren't having fellowship with God and fellowship with others, then we are living a lie. You. We're living in the darkness, and so many of us don't want to admit that, but we are, so that's why we need to hear what God is telling us this morning, is having that that fellowship, and that's gotta be ongoing. It can't just be weekly or monthly. We need to be saying, Every day I have fellowship with God, every day I have fellowship with other believers, because that's what will keep us walking with the Lord, and that doesn't mean that we're perfect. That's why we have a confession of sin, because we're not perfect. I am not perfect, you are not perfect. The church is not perfect. We are all here to point to the one who is perfect, the one who died for our sins. And we can't point others to that others can't see that in us if we aren't having that fellowship with God and that fellowship with our brothers and sisters, look, we can all bemoan the darkness that is in our world and the darkness we fear can be in our world. But there is one thing that dispels the darkness Jesus. Jesus dispelled the darkness in my heart. I remember when the fog lifted, when my eyes actually saw I am never going to be good enough. I am never going to be perfect. I am going to fail. But then I understand when the fog lifted, but Jesus was all of that for me. He is the reason that I will able to stand before God, not because of me, but because of him. We need to live Cora Gao, always in God's presence. We need to always be having fellowship with God and seeking out those opportunities to have fellowship with our other brothers and sisters who will encourage us. I really like the way that John wrote this in the tenses, because we have a tendency to take anybody who wrote in the Bible and just put them up like, oh, they are perfect. They never made a mistake because, you know, they're in the Bible, they were really messed up. I mean, they were people who were just huge mistake makers, and we try to gloss over that. But listen to how John uses the tenses here he says when coming, talking about sin, if we includes himself, confess our sins, ask God to forgive us. We proclaim we have not sinned, and we make him out to be a liar. His word is not in us. See, we have to confess that we're a sinner. And John knew that he was. John was writing and saying, Guys, I'm a sinner just like you. I know better than you. You're no better than me. We all are sinners before God. But it's when we confess that sin that we experience the second characteristic as the people of God that we want the world to see is that we experience the faithfulness of God. First characteristic is fellowship with God and other believers. The second characteristic is we experience the faithfulness of God. And what is that faithfulness bring us? It says it here in this text, two things to forgive our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness, that when we are in fellowship with God and other believers, we will experience the faithfulness of God, and He will forgive us, and He will purify us from all unrighteousness. Confession leads to fellowship. Fellowship leads to faithfulness. Confession leads to fellowship. Fellowship leads to faithfulness. And I love the the language here that not only does he forgive our sins, right? Whoo, okay, that's great, but he purifies us from all unrighteousness. And we read this earlier in our confession, but I want to read Proverbs, 2813, again, whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Remember, years ago, I was leading in a Bible study. When I was a pastor in Florida, we had all types of men in this Bible study, and some were old and some were young. And when we talked about, hey, it's time to, you know, what can we pray about for one another? And, you know, somebody said, Pray for my grandkids. Somebody said, Pray for, you know, family. And this one young man confessed his struggle with sin, and it was an eye opener. I mean, it was like, Wow, I can't believe you just said those words out loud. And I remember a couple of the older men came up to me and said, like, we can't have people say that. I'm like, No, that's exactly what we want people to say. He confessed his sin to God and to his brothers and asked for for prayer, and that's what we need to be able to do. We need to confess that sin and we will find mercy instead of hiding our sin, and the great thing is that God is faithful. When you confess your sin. We read it here this morning, when you confess your sins, He is faithful. He is faithful. God doesn't change his mind. That when God says He forgives you, that's it. It's over. It's done, it's gone. There's no recovery. God doesn't say, I forgive you, but I'll bring it back when God forgives you, He forgives you because he is faithful to His word. He does not change. Listen to what it says in Jeremiah 31 No longer will they teach their neighbor to say to one another, know the Lord, because they will all know me. From the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins. No more. God will not remember your sins. We remember our sins. Other people remind us of our sins, but God will not remember our sins. He will not remember the sins we had in the past. He will not remember the sins that we struggle with now, and he will not remember the sins in the future, because God is faithful, and when God says He forgives us, He forgives us every day in the Old Testament of men, when there was the tabernacle, priests would go in and they would offer sacrifice for sins. We don't need that anymore, because there has been a once and for all sacrifice for your sins and for my sins. And I want to read what it says here in Hebrews 10. It says, day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties. Keyword, they're religious. Again and again, he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins, but with this priest talking about Jesus and offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool For by one sacrifice he made perfect forever those who are being made holy forever, you are made perfect forever. I am made perfect forever because of the sacrifice of Jesus, Christ on the cross, that our sins are forgiven. Why? Because we experience the faithfulness of God. We can't even fathom how much God loves us. Our minds cannot handle that, but God loves you and I so much that He sent His only Son to die on the cross for our sins, for what we consider little sins or big sins, and it's just all sin to God, and God forgives us, and then we experience God's faithfulness. That's why it's so powerful when we share our story about, oh, this is how I used to think, how I used to live, and then God came into my heart through a relationship with Jesus and forgave me. And what people see is the faithfulness of God in us, and that's what the people of God should be known for, fellowship with God and one another, and the faithfulness of God that they experienced the forgiveness of sins. I had a lot of jobs in high school. I feel like I talk about a lot of the jobs I had high school, way too much. But I worked at Perkins Pancake House when I was in high school, and my job was, I was a bus boy, and so they gave me a nice, great tub, and I would go around to all the tables, and what people were done. I would take their plates and I would put them in, and then I would wipe down the table, and then I would wipe down all of the syrup jars. And then I would take all of the plates back, and I would put them through in the dishwasher and run them, and I have to set the table. And so I would do this for six or eight hours, depending on my shift. And so I remember when I would come home, and I would get to the door, and I would open the door, my mother would be there, and she would say, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, you are not coming in this house covered in syrup from head to toe. No. Like, what do you mean? I live here. She says, You are not coming in my house smelling like that, sticky from head to toe. I'm like, What do you want me to do? She says, technical software here. Like, what are you talking about? Texas? You are not coming in my house. So I had to take off my work shirt, take off my work pants and and then I was able to come in, and I had to quickly go to the shower and then throw my clothes in the washer, because my mom said I can't come in because I'm covered head to toe in syrup. Now you and I are not covered head to toe in syrup, but we are covered head to toe in sin, and we cannot come into the presence of God covered in sin because God is holy, God is perfect. God cannot be in the presence of sin, but because of Jesus, not only are we forgiven, but it says we are purified from all say that word for me. Say ALL, ALL unrighteousness. So often we say, Yeah, but God won't forgive me for this. Yes, he will. Yes he has we are purified from all other righteousness. See the characteristics that the world needs to see from God's people are faithfulness and fellowship. Now we've been talking a lot about the characteristics that we should. It, but I don't want to miss out and tell you a characteristics of God. Listen to how scripture described God's characteristics in numbers 1415, the Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. We have a God who is slow to anger, so slowly, because He loves us. We have a God who is abounding in love. He loves you, and He loves me so much we can't even comprehend it, and he is forgiving sin and rebellion. I don't know about you, but I have rebelled in my life. I have chosen my way ahead of God's word. I have rebelled against the goodness of God, and God says I still love you anyway. And maybe, maybe that's your story. But to bring this back, we talked about it's gotta start with confessing our sin, and we can deny sin, we can deflect sin, we can debate sin, but what we need to do is confess our sin, because if we don't, we can't have fellowship with God and other believers, and we can't experience the faithfulness of God to forgive us. And I'm reminded of the words of Paul to the church in Rome in chapter three. He says, There is no one righteous, not even one. There is noone who understands. There's no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together, become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. That's us, that's the person on your right, that's the person on your we are sinful, flawed people, but we are also God's people, and that means that we can have fellowship with God. That means that we can have fellowship with our brothers and sisters. That means that we can experience the faithfulness of God to forgive us and purify us. I'm reminded of the the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee was somebody who was very religious, somebody who was thought well of because they were stewarding God's word. So they knew all the things that you should do, and they were looked up to. And they they would walk around and flowing robes, and they had hats, and everybody knew a Pharisee was a religious leader. And then there were tax collectors. And there was a little down on because they would cheat people, and they would steal and and they were the worst of the worst, the people that you would say, I love everybody, but I can't love tax collectors. Oh, they're the worst. And maybe you got somebody in your life that's like that tax cut you say, I can't love them. And then these two men come before God. Then the parable The the Pharisee Town Hall, how wonderful he is, how amazing he is, how faithful he is, how he is just God's God, and kind of points to this tax collector, says, I'm not like this guy. And then the tax collector comes up, and he doesn't even raise his head, and he said, says, I'm a sinner, I think. And the parable says, Then this man went away as righteous. Why has he confessed his sin? He said, in that moment of confession, Lord, I want to fellowship with you. I want the thing that's between you and I sin. I want that remove this God. I want to know you, God. I want to know your glory. I want to know your mercy, Lord, I want to know you. And that comes through confession. And then once you know God, all of a sudden it opens up and you can say, I've got brothers and sisters who aren't perfect like me. The first time I ever went to a young men's Bible study, I was scared to death. I had never been to a Bible study in my life. I was in my early 20s. I thought, these are the these are God's guys. They actually study the Bible. They're perfect. And I got there, and as we began to talk, I said, these guys are not perfect. They're a train wreck, just like me. But because we all said, God, I want to know you. We had this fellowship together as brothers in Christ, and we were able to walk with each other and help each other, and we experience the faithfulness of God. Being a child of God, being a church, it's more than just being forgiven. It's a change in how we live. It's a change that we become light in the world of darkness. And look, we live in a dark, dark world, right? We're all have our versions of what the darkness could look like in the future, but we know that the light is Jesus. Tuesday is going to come and Tuesday is going to go. And it's so important for us to never forget who we are before we are Americans and before we are Nebraskans, we are the people of God, and that is seen through our fellowship with God, our fellowship with one another, and all of us experience the faithfulness of God to forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness. Amen, let's pray Father God, we thank You, Lord that we are your people, that we belong to you, Lord, before we are anything else, we are your children, I pray, Father, that Lord, we would seek out that fellowship with you, Lord that we would confess that Lord, sin has put a barrier between us. I pray Lord, that when we confess that sin, Lord, we know that we're not alone, that we will walk with you and our brothers and sisters in faith. Lord, I pray that anybody here who needs to experience that faithfulness of your forgiveness, Lord of your purification, Lord that they would just. They would confess that Lord. Because we are the body of Christ. We are the people of God and Lord. We trust in you where we know that you have a plan for each of us. We know you have a plan, a kingdom plan. So Father, I pray that we would stay faithful. We would stay in fellowship, and we would experience your faithfulness. Thank you for joining us. For more information about three timbers, church, ministries and services, visit three timbers.org. We would love for you to join us in person. Do.