There are three tests to prove we are in relationship with Jesus and not lying to ourselves.

  • The Obedience Test
  • The Social Test in how we interact with others
  • The Doctrinal Test of showing who Jesus is.

1. Jesus appearing is our motivation to live for Him

1 John 2: 28 – 3: 3

Matthew 24: 42 – 51

Losing focus causes us to…

  • stop caring for each other
  • Beat on each other
  • Partying (Anti Christ comes in those things that take the place of Christ)

Reward for meeting Jesus?

  • We will be like him 3: 2
  • We will see Him as He really is 3: 2
  • Keep yourselves pure 3: 3
  • Not shrink back 1 John 2: 28

2. We can stay focused in a world that is anti God.

Three battles according to 1 John 2: 15 – 17

  1. Lust of the flesh (cravings for physical pleasure)
  2. Lust of the eyes (cravings for everything we see)
  3. Pride of Life

We are God’s children and the world does not recognize us.

3: 4 We were sinners = lawless we knew the law and chose to break it.

3: 5 Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us. Jesus was sinless and this is important because He could not have died for us if there was sin in His life.

3: 9 God put His seed in us.

1 Peter 1: 22, 23 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God

Mark 4: 30 – 32 talks about the power of the seed of God taking over the whole garden. In the same way the seed God puts in our lives will take over the whole body. then the birds show up.

In Mark 4: 15 when God talks about birds, He is referring to satan and his hosts

1 John 3: 8 when we do not live different, we show that we belong to the devil and he is our father.

John 8: 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

There is no middle ground, you are a child of God or a child of the devil

3. Devil is defeated

1 John 3: 8 Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil

  • Destroy means to make inoperative, conqueror, overthrow
  • Jesus did not annihilate the devil
  • Devil still has power (world in control of the devil 1 John 5: 19)

Remember God’s seed is in us Strong internal pressure toward holiness.

Ephesians 3:17: that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. There are two Greek words to convey the idea of “to live in”; one has the idea of living in a place as a stranger, and the other has the idea of settling down in a place to make it your permanent home. Dwell in Ephesians 3:17 uses the Greek word for a permanent home; Jesus wants to settle down in your heart, not just visit as a strange

Key Point: Our actions determine our father