Live Like Jesus- I John 2:28-3:10

God's Children vs. Sin

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well today we're gonna look at the mystery of being God's children and how as God's children we clash with and we don't really fit in with sin. Okay? So it's it's kind of an interesting topic that we're going on today, but uh I think a good one for us discuss to discuss as we go along this journey of talking about what does it look like to live like Jesus? I don't know if you saw the sign here, but that's the theme for us as a church this year. We've said as a church, this is what we really want to focus in on. Now that's not to say that we shouldn't always be focused in on that, but in particular, we wanted to say, okay, what does it look like to live like Jesus? And and to jump into this journey, we said, let's look at the book of First John. And the reason the book of First John is really great for talking about this is because John was written by a guy called uh John. And uh that was a joke. Uh so the book of John was written by a guy called John, and he was a significant guy uh because he was an apostle, he was a disciple of Jesus. He lived and walked, he breathed, he ate with, I mean, he sat down next to, he rode in boats with Jesus. He spent a lot of time with Jesus. Actually, we're told that John was actually one of Jesus' closest disciples. And so, if we're to ask this question, what does it look like to live like Jesus? I don't think there's a better place for us to go than to go, okay, what does this guy who lived and breathed and walked next to Jesus have to say about living like Jesus? And so as we've journeyed through the book of 1 John, it's been a great journey for us because we see along the way um different things that he's holding up and saying, hey, this is truth, this is what we should believe. And so this this the book of 1 John is written to a church, a couple of churches that were struggling with some false teaching, right? And so John very clearly, very adamantly is saying, Hey, this is truth. This is what it looks like to live like Jesus. A couple of uh weeks ago, maybe a couple of months ago, I'm trying to think how long it was, I went on a little excursion with some friends of mine to go mountain biking at a place called Revelity Peak Ranch. I like mountain biking, and this place is out near Burnet, it's beautiful. Uh they've got like trails for walking and riding and all that sort of stuff. And so we were out there, me and two other friends, and and we were riding along and we were exploring some new trails. And as we went along these trails, we finally came to this intersection and we're completely lost. I don't know if you guys have ever had that feeling, but we were lost and we're like, okay, where do we go now? So we tried pulling out phones, trying to figure out where we were, could not figure it out. So we decided to be very democratic and vote about it. So we voted on the direction we should go and what looked best to us. We headed down this wide path, like a fire trail. And this path kind of went along and around up to a fence line and then down a steep hill, and it started to narrow, get a little bit more narrow, and then it kind of went up the other side and it got a little bit more narrow till actually we had to get off our bikes and start pulling them through all the stuff on the trail. There was like branches and rocks, and finally we came to a place where we couldn't actually even get any further, like we completely stopped. This trail was like blocked by a cliff of rocks, and we were stuck. And my hope is that as we look at this text this morning, is that wouldn't happen to us, okay? Because as we look at this text this morning, I think it's going to be the one where we'll start out and we're like, oh yeah, this is warm and fuzzy, this is good. We can we can read and understand it, but as we journey further, it has the capability for really bogging us down as we get into this conversation about sin. And so my hope and my prayer as I've been preparing these last few weeks and looking at this text is that God would really lead us through this conversation. We come out the other side better for it. And so that is my hope and prayer for us today. Uh so without messing around any further, I want for us to jump into the Bible. We're gonna look at 1 John, and so I'd encourage you to find a Bible somewhere near you. Uh there's some Bibles in the seats that the church owns. You can grab one of those, and we'll also have the words on the screen, but it would really encourage you to grab a Bible and read along. First John's right up the back of the Bible, and we're gonna start in chapter 2, verse 28. Chapter 2, verse 28. We're we're starting actually where Nick left right off last week, okay? All right, so here we go. So now, little children, remain in him. Now, when it says him, it's talking about Jesus. Remain in him, so that when he appears, we may have boldness and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know this as well as well. Everyone who does what is right has been born of him. Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God's children, and we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear child dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears we will be like him, because we will see him as he is, and every one who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. Okay, let's let's stop there for now. Want for us to look at this first segment of the scripture and to see a few things. The first thing that I want you to see is that there are two main themes in this text that you may have already uh kind of seen there in the text. The first theme is this is this this idea of Christ's return. Jesus is coming back. That's one of the main things that's kind of being pushed in this first part of the passage. The second theme that we see is that we are God's children, that we're a part of God's family. So I want for us to talk about these two things. Firstly, at Christ's return, the text very clearly states that people will react in one of two ways. There isn't really a third option, okay? So picture with me, Christ is going to return, and at that time the text very clearly says that people will either shrink away from him in shame, or people will stand before him in boldness and confidence, okay? So those are the two postures that people will have at Christ's return. Now, as I was thinking about this, I got to thinking about what that would look like, and I turned to kind of a thought about two boys. Imagine with me that there's two boys, we'll call them Bobby and Johnny, and their mom says to them, Hey boys, I'm gonna step outside for a minute. I've just baked some cookies, they're on the table, but I don't want you to touch them until I come back. Okay? So she leaves the room and uh a few minutes later comes back in, and there'd be two reactions on these boys. Bobby is standing there and he is excited. His mum's back and he's about to get a cookie. He's standing there with confidence that he has obeyed his mother, alright? The second example would be Johnny, who's hiding in the corner of the room, trying to hide the fact that he has chocolate chips all over his face, okay? So you've got Bobby and Johnny, and I think that's really what this text is getting at. How will you react? How will you respond when Jesus returns? And I think it's a really great question for us to ask, because I'll be honest here, I think as people who believe in Christ, or even people who don't, we don't think very often about this idea of Jesus coming back. We may call ourselves Christians, but I think because it's been a long time, we're just like a lot of times just sitting back, not thinking about this idea of how would I respond if Jesus were to return today? Would I stand before him with confidence? Or would I shrink back thinking, man, I wish I'd had a little bit more time, or I wish I'd had a few more conversations with my coworkers, or I don't know, fill in the blank. But I want you to think about that today and to be honest with yourself. How would you respond if Christ was to return today? The scripture goes on. Verse 29 talks about being born of Christ is evidenced by right living. And this statement that he makes in verse 29 is kind of an interesting one. He's basically saying if you're gonna be a Christ follower, you need to look like him. He's righteous, so you need to be righteous too. And this is actually foreshadowing the conversation we're about to go into, the more heavy conversation about sin, okay? So it's kind of looming there in the background, but in the meantime, he makes this comment. He says, We are born of God, okay? He says, uh let me read it for you in verse 29. Uh he says, if you know that he is righteous, you know this as well. Everyone who does what is right has been born of him. And it's like John gets this idea of being born of him in his head and just goes off on a tangent for a little bit. He just starts celebrating the fact, he kind of starts raving about this fact that we are God's children. How amazing that is, how uh incredible it is that God would allow us to be called his children. That when it's not like God just allows us to kind of tag along or be around. He actually adopts us into his family. He he lets us be his children. Listen to the language he uses in verse one again. How great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God's children. And we are. Exclamation mark. Verse 2, dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. Interesting that he makes that note, that we are God's children now. That kind of that word now kind of lets us know, reminds us that at some point we weren't God's children. Which I don't know about you, but I really, uh when I hear that, I'm really reminded of the gospel. And I just really want to explain that quickly for you guys again. I know that a lot of you guys hear this, but I don't think we can get old of hearing this. Basically, what this scripture is reminding us is that God, the the Bible tells us, the story of the Bible tells us that God created everything and everything was perfect. Man and God lived in harmony together. That was how he intended things, that's how he designed things. But he wanted to allow us to have choice, to have freedom to make decisions. And in that, we chose to try and make ourselves like God, and that introduced sin into our world. There was a divide between God and us. And the beauty of what Jesus did is that he came into the world to make us right with God, because the truth was we couldn't make ourselves perfect again. We couldn't make ourselves right, we couldn't earn our way to God. And so Jesus had to come and to make us right with God. That's the message of the Bible, right? And so as we read that, as we think about that, I think that's what John's reminding us of. He says, We are God's children now. And I think it's good to remember who we were because it reminds us of the amazingness of God's grace and his love towards us. So John kind of goes on this thing about being a part of God's family, and then he goes back to this conversation about the return of Christ. So he's basically saying not only is it awesome that we're in God's family, we have something to look forward to. We have this return of Jesus to look forward to. And as he talks about this, he talks about three events taking place at Christ's return. I just want to point these out really quickly before we move on. The first thing that will happen at Christ's return is that Christ will appear. I know that's not really like super profound, but he will come back when he appears. Uh, the second thing is that he um we will see him. We will see Christ. Now, I don't know about you, but this one actually gets me super excited because for me, I have been a Christ, I would call myself a Christian, a Christ follower for most of my life. For the majority of my life, I have sh God has shaped my life and directed my steps. So that means like uh the decisions I've made, where I live, what I do, who I married, how we're raising our kids, how we uh use the resources God's entrusted to us, how we spend our time, all of those decisions have been affected by this person of Jesus. And this may sound crazy, but I've never physically seen him. And in a moment, when he returns, I will see him. And that's exciting to me, okay? So this guy that I've shaped my entire life around, I'm gonna get to see him with my physical eyes. And that gets me very excited. I think that's something to look forward to. The third thing that will happen at his return is that we will become like him. This one's pretty exciting too, because the Christian journey is one where we when when we come to put our faith in Christ, we start in this journey of becoming more and more like more and more like Jesus. So as we journey along life, we are continually transformed and renewed into his image. That's what's meant to happen in the Christian life, in the Christian journey. It's not like you uh become a Christian and all of a sudden you're a perfect person, okay? There's a continual process. And for me, some days it feels like I take a step forward and then three backwards. But my hope and my prayer is that two years from now, if you were to run into me, I would be more like Christ than I was two years before. And that would happen throughout the rest of my life. But the cool thing is, it's like when Jesus comes back, we get to cheat. It's like this like slow process, and then all of a sudden we see him and we're like him. And I'm excited about that. I'm excited that we won't have to deal with sin, we won't have to deal with pain, we won't have to deal with the hurt and all of the dysfunction that sin brings into our world. And that's actually what we're about to jump into talking about right now. Because verse 3 kind of transitions us back into this more serious conversation. Look at it with me again. Verse 3 says this. And everyone who has this hope, the hope that we just talked about, Christ returning, in him purifies himself just as he is pure. So this conversation is about to get a little bit more like that path that I found myself in on. Okay? This conversation is about to get a little bit more serious and intense. And so, what I want for us to do is to continue to read and to see what God's word says to us in verse 4 through 10, and that's where we're going to spend the rest of our time here this morning. Verse 4 says this everyone who commits sin also breaks the law. Sin is the breaking of law. If you need a definition of sin, that's a really good one right there. Sin is the breaking of law. Verse 5. You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. Okay, so remember earlier we talked about sin separating us from God. We got God us. It's just basically reminding us Jesus came to take away that divide. Okay. Verse six, listen to the intensity of this. Everyone who remains in him does not sin. Every one who sins has not seen him or known him. Verse 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who commits sin is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the devil's works. Every one who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him. He is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. This is how God's children and the devil's children are made evident. I don't know about you guys, but as I read that, that that scripture, those six verses, are filled with tension. And I want to talk about that a little bit, but firstly, let's just break it down a little bit. Verse 4 through 6 is making a statement. It's like this first jab at this conversation. It's pretty strong language. And then it's like John takes the same idea and says it exactly the same way, but with more strong language in this second section of verse 7 through 10, okay? So as we look at that scripture and we see these two jabs that he has at it, there's a bunch of tensions that are raised for me. And as I've been reading this scripture the last couple of weeks, as I've been studying it and looking at it, praying over it, I've been wrestling with some tension. Let me explain that to you. The language in this scripture is strong and seemingly all-encompassing. John says, Everyone who commits sin. And then also he goes on to say, everyone who remains in him does not sin. And then he goes on to say, the one who commits a sin is of the devil. And in his conclusion to his thought, John says, Everyone who remains in him does not sin. And the tension is I would call myself a Christ follower. And I struggle with sin. I mean, I do. I'll be honest with you guys. I I struggle with sin. I mean, I have bad attitudes sometimes, I uh say things that aren't nice, I think things that aren't nice, I behave in a way that isn't nice. I mean, I struggle with sin. I continue to struggle sin, even though I'm a Christ follower. So so what does that mean? How do I resolve this text and the sin that I struggle with? And if I struggle with sin, what does that mean? Am I falling away from my faith? Is it like this this unity that comes through Christ is being torn and then brought back together again? And and the tension continues when I look back just a few verses from what we read. Listen to what what John said just a few paragraphs ago in chapter 1, verse 8. Two believers, he said in verse 9, uh verse 8, sorry, if we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. And then in verse 10, if we say we do not have sin, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Chapter 2, verse 1, my little children, I am writing these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. How do I resolve that? Isn't that a contradiction? And and the tension kind of continued as I read more, because as I was reading, I got into reading some thoughts by a theologian, and they were helpful, but as I was reading, he wanted went on to explain to me that there are seven different views, theological views, by men who love God, have spent their lifetime studying God's Word and translating God's word, they have seven different views on what these six verses mean. And so I'm not as smart as these guys, guys, I'll be honest. Like, I mean, and so as I look at this, I'm like, wow, this is really uh interesting verse that Nick has blessed me with to talk about today. So, uh, but as I looked at it and as I've wrestled with it, I really uh found some thoughts helpful, and that's what I really want to spend our last few things, few moments talking about today. There was error and deception being taught in the church that that John wrote this letter to, okay? There was people teaching false things, and we would call these these guys, these ideas, Gnostics, okay? So there was Gnosticism being taught. And the main thrust of what they were saying was things like this. Some of those who held these wrong beliefs thought that their possession of knowledge, of spiritual knowledge, had made them perfect, and so they didn't have to worry about sin. Others believe that sin did not matter because it could not harm them, because they've been enlightened by special knowledge. And John is using such clear and strong language because he's saying, hey, that is absolutely not true. Sin and a Christ follower have nothing to do with each other. They do not belong together, they do not resolve, they do not sit together. And that's why I believe John was trying to be so clear and concrete and categorical, really, in his writing. And he's saying, hey, sin is more than just messing things up. Some people have defined sin as missing the mark. So if you had a target and I shot an arrow at it and it missed the target altogether, that would be sin. But John takes it even further than that, and he's saying it's active rebellion. Sin is active rebellion against God's known will. And he says, hey, Jesus was revealed to destroy the works of sin, to destroy the works of the devil. And so the truth that we need to see here first and foremost in this text is that sin and Christ are irreconcilable. They do have no place together, they cannot fit and function together. It's like oil and water. I don't know if you guys can picture that with me, but oil and water just do not mix. You can put them in a jar together and shake them up, and they will stay separated. You can stir it up, you can do whatever you like, but they are totally incompatible. And that's the first thing that I believe that we need to know when we look at this text is that sin and Christ have no place together. The other thing that was really helpful in reading through this was to read through the passage again with footnotes. Now let me get on a just a little tangent here for a second about footnotes. Footnotes are interesting things, they're they're things that help translators translate scripture. So when somebody is when you read your Bible, when you've got your Bible there and you're reading it, you're reading something that was translated from Greek for the New Testament into English. And when you do that, when you translate from any language to another language, it's sometimes hard to To convey a full thought or idea from one language to another, because words and phrases even mean different things. Thankfully, as we read God's Word, men have spent centuries praying over it and translating God's word, and it's been really helpful. But sometimes still, even with the translation, the guys who are doing that struggle to get the full concept, the full idea of what's being conveyed. And so I don't know if you guys have noticed this, but there'll be like a little letter or a little note above a word to let you know hey, read down the bottom in the footnotes, and it'll expand on that idea a little bit more. It'll give you some more clarity on what was being conveyed in the original text. And this, maybe more than any passage that I've ever studied, the footnotes I found to be helpful because it really expanded on the idea of what was being said. But a really great reminder for us today that it's important for us when we sit down and look at God's Word to pray that God will give us understanding and to really look at different sources, different understandings. I'd encourage each of you to spend time in God's Word daily and to really pour over it. If you need a guide on what that looks like inside your listening guide, there's a little section on there that says these are some questions you can ask yourself when you look at God's Word. But as we look at God's Word today, I want for us to read this last section of this scripture again with the footnotes, because I think it's going to help us, okay? So I'm going to put up here on the screen, and we're actually going to have the footnotes that were inserted in to help us with the text in red, okay? So let's read it together and see what it says with the red text added in. Okay. Everyone who remains in him does not keep on sinning. Everyone who keeps on sinning has not seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who practices, okay, so the original word there uh in the in the first translation was commits. So it's it's basically a combination of both these words, commits and practices, okay? That's the thought that's been translated here. The one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the devil's works. Amen. Everyone who has been born of God does not practice sin, because God's seed remains in him. He is not able to keep on sinning because he has been born of God. This is how God's children and the devil's children are made evident. As I read that, I find it hugely helpful because it gives me this idea, it gives me this thought to know that what John is trying to convey here is he's basically saying, hey, if you're a Christ follower, you need to know that habitual sin, that these practice sins, these sins that you struggle with as addictions or whatever else, those things have no place in your life. And God, through the power of his Holy Spirit that lives inside of you, is going to be working on those things, drawing those things out of your life. He loves you enough to not let you just stay in that place with that sin. I don't know if you noticed, but in one of those verses, verse 9, it tells us that God's seed is in us. Basically, that's a way of saying that as we're his children now, if you're a believer in Christ, you're his child, you now contain his blood, his life. I guess a good analogy would be his spiritual DNA. And God's spiritual DNA and sin have no place together. They don't fit in the same body. And that's what he's trying to make very clear here. As I was talking to a friend about this text and this uh tension that it raised, he was a pastor that I was talking to. He said, Whenever I look at sin, one of the best ways for me to do that is to look at it in light of a parenting relationship, a father and a child. And we kind of talked that through, and as I was thinking about that later, I was reminded of who God the Father is. I was reminded that God as our father was talked about by Jesus in Luke 15. We're not going to turn there today, but there's a story of two lost sons. And the first son comes to his father and says, Jesus was telling this story. He says, comes to his father who represents God and says, Hey, I want my inheritance now. And then he takes his dad's money, runs away, and spends it on wild living. Now, some translations actually don't hold any bars back. They basically tell us that he partied and spent the money on prostitutes. And so that's what he did. And then he comes back to his father kind of sulkily, saying, you know, I need to eat, I don't have any food, I'm going to go back to my father. And his father, what does his father do? His father doesn't say, Well, you sinner, get out of here, what are you doing? Or, you know, he doesn't treat him harshly. What he does is he sees him from a long way off. And he runs to him and he embraces him. And so as we read this scripture that sounds harsh, that sounds strong this morning, I want you to read it thinking about that is who God the Father is. He is a father who loves us, who embraces us. He's a father who is compassionate, but he loves us enough to not let us stay in our mess, stay in our problems, stay in our issues. Especially these things that are practiced or addictions, these things that are embedded into our lives, they have no place being embedded in our lives as believers. As I was thinking further about this ill this thought of being a father and a child, I got to thinking about my own relationship with my son. I have a son uh who is three years old. I think we have a picture, I don't know if it'll work of him. There he is. Was that last night? I think that was last night. Two nights ago, yeah. That is my superhero dog guitar playing son, uh, who uh he's three years old, right? Um and he's an awesome blessing to our family. He is great. I I mean I thank God for him. I really do thank God for him every day. But we're at an interesting stage in our relationship where he is really testing some boundaries, and from time to time he'll throw a fit. Like, I mean, just a meltdown over the silliest thing. Okay? I can't even think of an example right now, but it's just silly, silly things that he throws fits over when he doesn't get his way. And in those moments we've got in this pattern now when he's throwing a fit that I will come over to him and I will say to him, Hey Trafford, you're throwing a fit, buddy. And we don't throw fits in our family. That's not what we do, that's not who we are. And it's not like I go over to him and I'm like, hey, Trafford, uh, you're throwing a fit. That's not what we do in our family, so you're actually out of the family and we're done with you, okay? That would be kind of mean, right? But I think some of us, when we read this text this morning, think about God in that way. No, think of God as the loving father who comes and says, Hey, buddy, I love you enough to say that this isn't who you're gonna grow up to be. This isn't us as a family. If you're a Rathel, that's our last name. Um I if you're gonna be part of our family, you need to know this isn't who we are. This isn't our identity, this isn't how we operate or live or behave. And God, in the much in the same way, if you're a believer in this room, he loves you enough to say, hey, I'm not gonna let you continue to live with that sin because that sin and my DNA are not compatible in your life. All it's gonna bring in in our relationship is friction, is tension, and it's gonna disrupt our relationship. I want to read for you one final translation on these last two verses because I found it helpful. And it's actually a paraphrase called the message, but I want to read for you the last two verses again because I think it really conveys this idea of what John was trying to get across. It's gonna be on the screen for you. People conceived and brought into life by God, that is God's children, don't make a practice of sin. How could they? God's seed or God's DNA is deep within them, making them who they are. It's not in the nature of the God begotten to practice and parade sin. And here's how you tell the difference between God's children and the devil's children. The one who won't practice righteous ways isn't from God, nor is the one who won't love his brother or sister. A simple test. So, how should we react to these things that we've talked about today? As we've been on this journey down this um down through this scripture today, how how do we best respond? Well, I think you're in one of two positions in this room today. The first position is you may not be a Christ follower. And if you're not a Christ follower today, I just want to say thank you for being here. Thanks for engaging with us and and being a part of this conversation. Like, I think it's awesome that you're here. And I just want to encourage you that today that you have an opportunity to be a part of God's family. Remember way back to where we started in the scripture, it told us that being a part of being God's children was an awesome thing. And I just want to elaborate on that for just one second. I just want to let you know that if you are God's child, there is a bunch of awesome things that come along with that. You have a sense of meaning, a sense of purpose, you have direction. You have all these things when you become a part of God's family. Life makes more sense through the lens of understanding that He created you and that He has a plan and a purpose for your life. And so I just want to say to you, if you're not a Christ follower, the invitation is there to be a part of His family. And not only that, you don't have just a hope for a better situation in the here and now, you actually get to look forward to Christ's return, like we talked about. That's something to be excited about when you're a part of God's family. There's more to life than just the here and now. Switchfoot wrote a song years ago uh called Meant to Live. It said, we were meant to live for so much more. I don't know about you, but when I think about life, life has got to be more than just these, if we're lucky, 70, 80, 90 years that we're given. Life, we were built for eternity. And so I just want to extend that invitation to you today to say, hey, if you want to be a part of God's family, I'd encourage you to either talk to the person that you came to church with today, or to come down and talk to myself, or one of the elders will be up here for prayer or just conversation afterwards. Or even after the service, if you want to come and talk to me, I'd love to have that conversation with you today. But know that the invitation is there to be a part of God's family. Secondly, if you would call yourself a Christ follower, or in the context of the conversation today, one of God's children, if you would call yourself that, I want to let you know that today that you need to be reminded that being God's child is something awesome. That is reason for you to celebrate. You can be full of joy today because being his child is an awesome thing. That's a privilege, right? I don't know if you remember that, but back in those early verses, verse 1 and 2 of chapter 3, John's saying, hey, let's celebrate this. We are God's children. The second thing that I'd like to point out to you as Christ's children is that we, as Christ's children, should be anticipating Christ's return. It's something that we should be looking forward to. It should be something that we think about, it should be in our conversations. It should be even in our thought process when we're interacting with people who don't know Christ. Whether that's your neighbors, your co-workers, your family members. It's just a great reminder that, hey, we don't know how long we've got here until Christ's return. But finally, maybe most importantly for you as God's child, I want you to hear today that God loves you enough to not let you sit with sin in your life. I could tell you story after story today of my own life and then other people that I've met over the years doing church being in church and ministry, where God has taken and dealt with sins and things in people's lives and just made beautiful things of these messes in people's lives. That's what who God is. That's the business that he's a part of. And for some of you, as God's children today, the Holy Spirit's been working. I'm I'm imagining that in your hearts, some of you, when we talked about sin or practice sin, you were like, oh, that thing. I don't know what it is for you, but like God brought some conviction. That's the Holy Spirit working. Don't ignore him. Let him work in your life today and deal with that stuff. Take care of it. It has no place in your life. All it's going to do in your relationship with God is bring tension and friction and dysfunction. Because it doesn't belong there. And so hear me today be very clear that I I my prayer is that you would deal with the things that God is asking you to deal with today. I don't know what that looks like for you. It may be coming forward for some prayer. It may be you just getting on your knees now as we get to sing here in a moment. It may be you uh coming and talking to somebody about what's going on. But whatever the case is, I just want you to know that God wants you to deal with this stuff in your life. So whether you're needing, you're you're someone needing to come to God today for the first time, or whether you're his child and and you're just hearing this message today, I want to end with this one beautiful scripture that I think summarizes our response for both groups of people today. I want to read for you a verse I skipped over earlier in chap in chapter 1, verse 9. We read verse 8 and 10 earlier, but I'm gonna read verse 9 for you, and it's a beautiful, beautiful promise. It's a beautiful statement of who Christ is and the work he does for us, and then we'll be done. Listen to this. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Whether you're a Christ follower follower or whether you're not, that's the God that we love and we serve, and he is ready and willing to accept us where we're at. Let me pray for us.