Children Of God, Called To Love. #98

What if being called a child of God reshaped the way you treat your enemies, your neighbors, and your habits when no one’s watching? We journey through 1 John 3 to confront two uncomfortable truths: Christians are not sinless, and we cannot make peace with sin. That tension drives a richer holiness—one that refuses perfectionist myths, repents quickly, and grows in love that actually costs something.

We unpack the difference between stumbling and a pattern of willful, habitual sin, and why abiding in Jesus changes our posture toward confession. Then we take love out of theory and into streets and kitchens: sharing goods with those in need, choosing compassion over contempt, and seeing how jealousy, anger, and contempt become violence if left unchallenged. Our conversation also widens the lens to the unreached. With so much access to teaching and churches, it’s easy to forget that vast people groups still have limited exposure to the gospel. We highlight practical rhythms—prayer, giving, friendship with immigrant neighbors—that turn concern into action.

Amid all this, there’s grace for the heart that won’t stop accusing. When you’ve repented but still feel condemned, God is greater than your heart and knows the truth about you. Holiness isn’t a dress code; it’s perfected love for God and people. We close with a timely reminder: Christ belongs to the world. If our Father is building a global family, then our calling is to live as faithful children—repenting without delay, loving in deed and truth, and carrying hope to those who’ve never heard. If this speaks to you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find these conversations.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome, Prayer, And Setup
• 6:37 Children Of God In 1 John 3
• 11:00 Who Are God’s Children Really
• 15:55 The Unreached And Our Call To Love
• 22:45 Purity, Sin, And Habitual Patterns
• 33:07 Love Your Brother Or You Abide In Death
• 41:07 Lay Down Your Life In Deed And Truth

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:31

Very very quickly. I'm just gonna read a reading. If there ever was such a thing. God bless you, and I'm going to play the sermon.

SPEAKER_01: 3:27

And uh this guy is uh is very special to me. Um he is a rock to this church. Um he reminded me today that the first time uh that we met, he showed up on a Wednesday night Bible study. And that night we just happened to be doing like a deep theological study on circumcision. So Josh is is well equipped, and he said that after his sermon, if anybody has any questions about circumcision, just come and he'll answer them very clearly.

SPEAKER_00: 4:06

I don't know if you can hear me, but in the background I say I didn't say that. And I said toward the back. Maybe you could, maybe you can't. That's true. I was looking for a home church, and uh the first job I had on the colour. I was working on the work. Uh circumcision is probably the uh not the first thing you want to hear about. So it's just it's just funny. So keep on.

SPEAKER_01: 5:06

But uh no, it's awesome. Um sometimes, and this is just something I quickly want to share um about Josh. Sometimes when you see a pastor or an assistant pastor in my case, um, you know, you see us a little bit differently than you see regular people, but we need prayer too. And I just want to say there was one day that I was really, really reaching out to the Lord for something, and I was burdened, uh, and Josh noticed it. And Josh came up and laid hands and prayed for me. And it's just rare that the past somebody sees a pastor and says, I'm gonna lay hands on the pastor and pray for him. And uh, you know, I just I appreciate that so much. You you mean so much to me. I I can't tell you how much that meant to me that day. Um so guys, Josh is gonna come up. He is going to bring us some truth. Some truth. So get out your pens and paper if you're taking notes, because this is gonna be good. If everybody would give Josh some encouragement as he comes up.

SPEAKER_00: 6:16

Uh yeah. There you can. Am I good? Okay. So we're gonna keep going in 1 John chapter 3, if you want to turn your Bibles. We are gonna be flipping back and forth a little bit. Um, I know some people don't like that, but Armain, if you want to just stay in 1 John as we flip a little bit to reference some other scriptures, that'll be fine. Um, I want to say a prayer before we start. Dear God, thank you for this day. Please help me to help the people that this is a this is all about you. Nothing. This is not at all about me. Thank you for this opportunity, and please help everyone here to receive the word. Help me to tell the truth as and uh Holy Spirit, please God be community. Amen. All right, thank you all guys. This means a lot to me. I have not really been here super long. I've been here a little bit. Um we've been married two and a half years, almost three years. Been here about two years. You know, I first moved. I was working a job that not great hours. I was work I had to work Sunday morning, so I started coming here Wednesday evenings when I met Kevin. The first person I met was Gary. He was mowing the yard. I just stopped and talked to him. And so we we look pretty pretty close by. But um, so we're starting in first John chapter 3. Behold, what matter of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be that she we should be called children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. In this we see a reference also to uh if you want us flip over to the Gospel of John in the first chapter, it um we see a reference, I thought I had a bookmark, but I didn't. Um so if you flip over to first John, if you the Gospel of John, first chapter.

unknown: 8:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 8:34

So we have it. It is, and then um verse 12, but as many have received to him that give him the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. So we as Christians, we who are saved, have the right to be called children of God. This is not a right bestowed upon all humanity. It is a false theology that people will say we are all children of God. That's not true. The truth is only those who have been saved are children of God. We are all made in God's image. We are all image bearers. We should love the world, but we are not all children of God, only the saved or do we have um, and I have been thinking recently a lot about those in our area. I I really do think that saved people, Christians, true Christians, we are the minority, but we have an overabundance to the gospel, to God's word, to good preachers and teachers and evangelists. It are fingertips. That is not universal. Um throughout the world, there are still billions of people who have never heard the gospel. Growing up, I really did think that it was, you know, that many didn't accept it. Well, you know, there's just some uncontacted tribes in Amazon and North Sentinel Island in India that's never heard the gospel. That's not true. There are people that are in the world that are um contacted for that, but are unreached, meaning that they have uh less than one to five percent of people that are Christians that are preaching the gospel to them. Do we have the slide we can pull up? And um, I was looking around, there's a good organization called the Joshua Project. In here, we see, well that's fine, we'll stay here there. So seven over 17,000 people groups being a per being in a people group, a an ethnic group, a religious group, not just the nation you're in, um are considered uncontacted. That is, if you can't see it right down here, 43% of all people groups have never heard the gospel, are very limited. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of people. And we think that the gospel is everywhere and it's not yet. And we go to map. So all those in the red are extremely unreached people, the uh orange minimum reached, and uh shoot, the um yellow is getting there, then the greens are a little bit better. And I I was wondering, I was like, there's a few on there that's in the United States of Canada. I looked it up a little bit when we were um when we were uh right before worship, and I was like, how in the world can that be true in America? And I think, and these are largely what I've seen, unless I'm wrong, it seems that they are immigrant communities. They're not Native Americans, they're not um, they're not uh, they might be U.S. citizens now, but they're mostly Native. So I think we could probably turn those red dots red green soon. But if you see most of it is in the um on the equator, and a ton of it is in India, Pakistan, Middle East areas. Um, and you know, not that this is a missionary message, but I guess part of it can be, and we, you know, we support two missionaries in India, right? And then Iran. Um and uh that's um but my main point is those people are not children of God, but they are God, they are God image bearers. We have to have a love for them. I you know, I they have an app that the Joshua Project puts out. It's on Android and iPhone. If you looked up Joshua Project, it'll it's uncontacted tribe of the day, or uncontacted group of the day, and you just you read the app, you pray, you hit a little button, it says, I pray for them. Think about them a little bit. I um I don't know. I don't I just don't think we think about that too often. How lucky and blessed we are, because that is a lot, that is, that is billions of people still that don't have the gospel. Um we still have people here at home that are rejecting the gospel or have heard the gospel. They are not children of God, and God loved us so much that he gave us the right to be called his children. And we as God's children must love the world so much that we want to extend our family. Um so we're gonna move on from um move on from uh verse two. Um and before we do, though, I just want to say there is, I don't know, there is a a prejudice that all people have. All people have prejudice. Um then we we will see um, you know, I think I've been thinking about the Muslims here recently, and I understand there's been conflict. I understand, I remember, I was really, really little, I barely remember. I remember when the World Trade Center went down, I was in preschool, and I remember my dad putting down TV playing over and over again. I don't know why he let a four-year-old sit in front of the TV when this is happening, but he did, and it scared me. I understand the animosity, I get it. I I don't like the religion. I don't we are an exclusive faith. We believe that only Jesus can save you. The true Jesus who is God, God of God, light of light, begotten, not created, the second man of the Trinity, that is the only man that can save you through the gospel, is what we believe as Christian. But God loved the world so much that he died for the sins of the world. That includes Muslims, that includes people who don't talk like you, don't look like you, that do not have the same, uh, who is not of the same country as you are. And we can't just say we're only gonna care about our tribe when God loved the world. We'll move on to um verse three. Everyone who has everyone has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. The word pure uh comes from uh hang on, from the strong school, uh the strong school coordinates we'll tell you, from the same root word that means holy, the adjective described as pure, as clean, as modest, as pure, as unblemished, moral, thoughtless, and without blemish. This is what children of Christ are supposed to look like. We move down to verse four. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. Verse 5. And if you know that he was manifest to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. Verse 6. Therefore, abide in him, therefore, uh abides in him and does not sin. Whoever has sinned has neither seen him nor know him. But stop there. Um, I see a guy regularly, and I get I I comment on this stuff to really help his audience. He has a decent audience. Be very careful who you listen to on the internet. There's great preachers on the internet. But the problem with the internet, and the beautiful thing about the internet, anybody can say anything they want to. And um, he uses this verse to say that Christians cannot and do not ever sin. And if you are a Christian and you sinned, you are not truly saved. He is ignoring the first chapter of this very book. This does not claim Christian perfectionism. This is warning against uh habitual sin committed over and over again, spitting upon God's face. And we have all done that. We all need to stay away from that. I mean, it's hard. We we all sin daily, but there's a difference in uh committing sins and um in habitually committing sins, having mistakes versus doing the same thing repeatedly. I mean if you go to um if you go to 1 John um chapter 1, verse 8, just a couple chapters. It says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and clean us from all unrighteousness. So he there, and you gotta know that John is writing this book to Christians. So there is none here without sin, even after you are saved. That does not mean we cannot grow in holiness, because John is making, he is showing us that though we have sin, we can grow in holiness of children of God. Verse 7, little children, let no one deceive you. He who practice righteousness is righteous, just as he who is righteous, he who is sin is of the devil. He who sins is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Christ Jesus came down to destroy the works of the devil, and in that he grows us in our holiness. In our holiness he grows us. Um go down to verse 9. Whoever has born born of God does not sin. His seed remain remains in him, and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. So once again, we're talking about um in the in the context, have to read this in context, we're talking about avoiding repetitive habitual sins. And uh and listen, I I I believe everyone at some point has been in a season of sin that they needed to get out of. I don't think that that means you're not saved, but you're in a place that you don't want to be. Verse 10. In this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother. Um, before you can grow in holiness, we have to love our brothers. We have to love everyone. Those who are in the faith, those who are out of the faith. And I see here recently, if you're not, and this isn't not just completely recent, but it's it has been heightened, if you're not part of our tribe, if you're not part of my party, if you're not this, if you're not that, you we we don't care about you. We will laugh at you if you get shot in front of the world. And that that is nothing more than murder. Um, if you can, please go to John chapter five. I mean Matthew chapter five. If you can, if you don't want to flip back and forth, you can stay where you are. That's okay. But you have heard said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment, and whoever says to his brother shall be in danger of the counsel, but whoever says, You fool shall be in danger of hell fire. What is Jesus getting at here? He is getting at the physical action of murder begins first in your heart. Earlier he talks about adultery. But and he says, if you look upon a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery in your heart. Now, there is a difference between going through the actual act and having it in your heart, but he's saying, stop it here. Stop it here. How can we who have been gave the right to be called children of God and children of love have hate for someone else in this world? I'm not saying you have to like them. I'm not saying you have to be okay with what they have done. But even we should attempt to, even we should attempt to love this this world, the unlovable. Okay, we'll go down from verse 11 for this message that you have heard from the beginning that you should love one another. Not as Cain was wicked, one with murder, and his one who murdered his brother, and why did he murder his brother? Because the works were evil and his brother was righteousness. Jealousy can give birth to hatred in your heart. Don't let that happen. Don't let that happen. It doesn't have to be money, it could be talent, it could be positions. There are so many people that even when I'm talking about outreaching to people where you are, you don't have to be a missionary to try to help people to introduce them to Christ. It can be hard. It can be, it, you know, uh, sometimes I I've heard people say, Yeah, you're you're real brave standing on the road with a cross. I really have to get in in a mindset sometimes, because sometimes it is scary. Uh I mean, sometimes I think I'm gonna be on the atheist post. Someone's gonna take a picture of me, some fat guy in Southwest Virginia with a cross instead of going to the gym on an elliptical. Okay, uh that that enters my mind. I get that. But I get that. It can be scary. It can be scary to talk, it can be scarier to talk to loved ones and your co-workers, too. And um, I've been in a situation where it's like, how can I best help these people without being overbearing? And right now, I'm just being a friend. I think that's the best thing. It uh it's hard. It can be very hard, but it's not just become the Great Commission was not just incumbent on those who have an office in the church, those who are pastors, those who are those who are evangelists. It is an encompass upon the Christian faith, the family of God. 13. Do not marvel, my brothers, if the world hate you. For we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. So this goes further to say, you must love your brother. 15. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. And in this passage, we also have to be careful. This is not saying if you have murdered someone that you cannot go to heaven or have eternal life. Because this book that we read from, a lot of it is written from murderers from Paul to Moses that have murdered people, that have repented, and have that have eternal life. I don't know if anyone here has murdered anyone in your heart or in reality. Um, but there is forgiveness for all sins. One one sin that people brush under the road, and this is a hard thing, is you know, they say one in four women have had an abortion. That is murder. Okay? Paying for one. If you're a guy, you don't get off the hook for pushing a girl to do it and being too much of a being too cowardly to be a father. You're being too cowardly to be a father. That is murder. That is murder. But God is big enough to forgive murderers, and it's incumbent on us to love all people. By this we know, because he laid down his life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. So Pastor pointed this out that uh 1 John 3 lines very closely with John 3, 16. By this we know, because he laid down his life for us, and we should ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. You should have it within you to lay down your life for the brothers in faith. Sounds hard, but remember that's what God did for us, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that anyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. And the world, I truly believe, doesn't just mean all groups of different people, but anyone who hears the gospel, the Holy Spirit, can give the invitation to. Um I think it's John 5, I think it's John, it's either John 15, 17 or 17, 15, that no man have a greater love than this to lay one's life down for a friend. Verse 17, but whoever has the world's goods sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart for him. How does God, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. It's not enough to say you just love someone. We have to be willing to help those in need. I think this church is a great job with um, shoot, the uh the homeless shelter. Give. For the pregnancy resource center, giving to young mothers to choose life to help them with diapers. At my old church, we we had stuff, but we didn't have anything for a pregnancy resource center. I'm not bragging on myself at all, it's all God. But I called the Pregnancy Resource Center in Blacksburg, and um they're the closest one to us. And it's what can we do? So now they do a a yearly diaper drive there. That's great. Um they help out Rafford, they help Black Servic out. Now they have a clinic in Whitfield. These guys, we are not in competitions with the one in Black in Bristol. We are but they're both there. I I mean they switched their CEO recently, I don't know her, but they're both there to save lives. Um helping those in need, not trying, not passing just quick judgment in your heads. But giving, I understand it's hard when things and financial, uh financially it can be hard, but giving to those out in need, it's different to just say you love someone. The parable, um the uh parable of the good Samaritan comes to mind. Who truly loved, who truly loved the man, it was the Samaritan, someone that was seen as an outcast to the Jewish people. Um we'll move on to 19. And by this we know that we are that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart knows all things. God knows the condition of your heart. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God, and we and whatever we ask, we receive it from him, because he keeps his commandments and do these things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is the commandment that we should be believed on the name of his son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he has commanded us. So remember when they asked Jesus, what is the greatest commandment? He said, Love your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And the second one is like this love your neighbor as yourself. At the heart of the holiness movement, when John Wesley was going around, and I have some disagreements with John Wesley, um, but the heart of his holiness movement, what um what he would call holiness, sometimes he would call it perfect love, to love both God and man. Those t-shirts we came, it just reminded me of love people, love God, love people. That is what true holiness is. It is not the clothes we wear. I mean, I I think you get disrespectful for the clothes you wear. I understand. I don't think that you should come to church and bravilling clothing. But I've I've heard people say that grew up in a very, very traditional church. Well, I say traditional, for around here, traditional, right? In terms of church history, um, you know, their their hymns are a lot younger than the glorian chants, but I guarantee you that they won't be singing those on Sunday. But I've heard people say that they would walk up to women in the congregation that are wearing pants, nice pants, a nice shirt, and say, would you please go home and get on a skirt and come back? And they never saw him again. I was like, Yeah, why do you think you're never going to see him again? That is not holiness, that is legalism. And I think it's wrong to look down on someone for for dressing too up, and I think it's wrong for looking down for someone for dressing plain. Both are not love, that is not holiness. Um so for the dress you wear, for the things um for small, inconvenient things that we should look at. I remember I was with um, I was sitting down with somebody, I'm not gonna tell you who it was, very close to them still. And I was um as a holiness, Pentecostal Holiness church. That's my background for the most part, and I had tennis shoes on. I was in high school, and the tennis shoes were just new balance tennis shoes, uh, made to be athletic, had orange shoestrings. I was dressed uh kind of like this, polo, but dress shorts. And uh I remember this lady who's like, um I had I had orange shoes, she said, I can't believe, or something along the lines is I could never come to church with orange shoelaces. I was like, my gosh. But I will there, so but loving people and loving God. We are children of God, children of love, called to holiness, and it is our job to love all people and try to spread the gospel. That's all I have. God bless you. Thank you guys so much. Turn this off.

SPEAKER_02: 37:35

Great job, Josh. Come on, give him another hand. We appreciate you. I tell you, I I really appreciate Josh, and um Kevin already said some nice things about him, so I'll add a few more. Um one of the things that we want to do, what I I feel is so important as a church, is you know, I could, you know, the first ten years that I was pastor here, I preached 48 Sundays a year. And there was only four I didn't preach, and those were generally what I took one vacation and we had three guest ministers, and every other time I preached. And, you know, and that was okay, and I think that was I was learning and developing even in my ability at the time. But over the last four or five years, God's really challenged me about that. And you know, one of the greatest things we have, the funniest things that, you know, a lot of times a pastor will protect their pulpit. Um, and you know, and and it to give someone else an opportunity to preach on a Sunday morning is hard for a lot of pastors to do. And I think it was for me in the early years. But God has called us, there's a mission as a church, is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Amen. Not just to keep equipping the the one that preaches every Sunday, but to equip the saints, those that have a call and a desire to preach and to teach the word. And God has really put something on my heart just in the last year, that God wants to raise up ministers in this church that will be a blessing to this community. Amen. That God will send them out, and they may they may they may go out and stay. That God may send someone from here to pastor another church in this community. And if that's what God wants, we should get them ready for that. Amen? Amen. Or they may just go out and and and uh hold a service and pulpit fill and come back. But either way, we want to develop, we want to prepare them to be able to do that. So this morning, Andy is preaching at Saultville Baptist. Josh preached here, and until this moment, I haven't held the microphone. And I think that's a good thing. Amen. Amen. Because we want everyone, and I want to tell you, Josh, we know we appreciate you speaking this morning, and I appreciate you staying on track with this series throughout the book of 1 John. You know, he didn't just say this is what I want to preach, he said this is what I'm gonna preach because you've asked me. And Wednesday nights, Josh has been taking turns here at the Bible study and leading that once a month. He's done it now for the last five, six months, and just as we've been teaching through the book of 1 Samuel, and I appreciate your willingness to serve. I will appreciate your willingness to give and to bless us today. Amen. This morning, amen. I I there was one verse that jumped out at me, and I want to just go back to it for a second, if that's okay. Um, I was reading through this myself, and I'm gonna be preaching next Sunday, by the way, so please come on back. Um, and uh you'll hear from me next Sunday, but um I'll be going into chapter four. But um but verse 20 just really jumped out at me as I was reading through it today, and it's kind of a it's kind of a verse that it takes a little bit of understanding. So I just want to share that and then we'll we'll we'll close the service. It says 1 John 3, verse 20. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. You know, and we've said it so many times before, maybe you all know this to be true, but you can't follow your heart. Amen. Because if you go by what you feel, if you go by what, you know, the emotions that you have inside, they're gonna lead you astray a lot of times. Amen. And there are times, and this whole chapter, as you talk so well, Josh, is not talking about perfection, but there are times where we will fail. We will sin. And sometimes we are our worst enemy. Are we not? Amen. And even if God forgives us, even if our friends forgive us, even if mama forgives us, we still can't forgive ourselves. Amen? And so our heart is still condemning us even though we've repented. And so we live in a sense of defeat. We live in a sense of condemnation when we know the truth, but we can't feel it, and so we don't think we're forgiven. And what the Word of God is saying here is if our heart condemns us, if you are beat up over something you've already repented for, knowing in your mind that God has forgiven you, but not feeling it in your heart, God knows, God is greater, it says here, than our heart. I don't want to say that. To me, that's wonderful. I want it just felt like that, maybe for somebody today. I just wanted to just emphasize that one verse that God is greater than your heart. God is greater than what you feel, God is greater than what you think, and if you have given something to him, leave it with him. Amen? Because he knows. There's a couple of verses, I won't read them all, but Psalm 139, the David says, Lord, search my heart because you know my heart better than I know my own heart. If there's something that's not right, Lord, you tell me. But God, if you're not correcting me, if you're not convicting me, if I've already repented, then I can let that go. Amen. There's another place in John chapter 2 where it says, Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men. God knows what is really there. And he'll commit himself to you if your heart is surrendered to him. So don't just trust your heart. And when you fail, because we will, amen. Repent. That's how you know if your heart is following after God or not. When you fail, repent. And once you've repented, get up and keep going. Amen. Trust your heart to Him, because He knows more than you do. Amen. So I just wanted to give you that little extra.

SPEAKER_00: 43:43

And I actually want to end on a little clip from the late, great Reverend Billy Graham.

SPEAKER_03: 43:53

People ever forget one thing. The man that helped Jesus carry that cross was a black man. And don't ever forget another thing. Jesus belongs to Africa as much as he does to Europe and Asia. He was born in that part of the world that touches Africa and Asia and Europe, and Jesus was not a white man like me, nor was he as black as some of you. We don't know what the color of his skin, but it must have been a dark color like the people of his day, because he was a man like them. Don't ever say it's a white man's religion or a black man's religion. It's a world religion. He belongs to the world. And don't you blame me?

SPEAKER_00: 44:49

No true words have ever been said. Christ belongs to the world. If you have not repented of your sins today, you can do so. You can repent of your sins. Accept Jesus Christ.