1st John – Part 10 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise God, friends, you don’t want to miss this broadcast. We’ve been teaching for the last two weeks on 1 John on our relationship with God. And in this last broadcast, we’re hitting all the highlights. This is revolutionary revelation and it will revolutionize your life, just like it has mine. So stay tuned. I believe that the word you hear today will release you into all God has for you. Friends, it’s good to have you with us today. We are concluding our series that we’ve been teaching on 1 John, and what an awesome book. You know, I just love the book of 1 John. And John is like, you know, over, this is in 90 ad. He’s been walking with Jesus for over 50 years. I like to call this lessons we learn as we walk with God or our relationship with God. And I believe the one thing that really John had that really revolutionized his life and changed him was he had a revelation of the love of God.

 

  And that love of God, when your relationship is based upon God’s love for you, His love is always being shed abroad in our hearts. It’s an ongoing thing. So if your relationship with God is based, first of all, off of His love for us and that love that’s constantly being demonstrated to us, you’re gonna keep growing in your relationship with God. You’re not gonna grow cold.

 

  Amen.

 

  You’re not gonna, too many people are kind of in and out, you know, on fire and cold, like back and forth, up and down. Man, your relationship with God is gonna be consistent. I love looking at this letter that John writes because man, he just lived for God for such a long time. And man, I really value older people in the faith who’ve been living with God and just haven’t been in it, they’ve just been very consistent for a long period of time, for decades. Those are the people that I admire. People who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. You know, patience is a very consistent thing.

 

  Praise God.

 

  And a lot of people just expect instantaneous results with their faith. But faith is, it’s a lifelong journey. It’s based upon God’s love for us. And it’s a lifelong thing.

 

  Aaron, two of my friends, right? And really my mentors, number one, Andrew Wommack. I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and called to preach in Andrew Wommack’s ministry in 1978 when I was only 14 years old. And I began to get a revelation of who I was in Christ. And that completely changed my life. And so Andrew is a person that really represents that to me. And I’ve been in relationship with Andrew now for 46 years, and I have seen the gospel work in his life and how powerful it is. My other mentor for my life was Lester Sumrall and Lester Sumrall, again, he had a tremendous testimony of faith and he lived for God and loved God and just, he just didn’t go crazy. And then two of my really good friends are like that, Mark Hankins. Mark is in love with Jesus and has this amazing relationship with Jesus and Jesse Duplantis. And they’ve been walking with Jesus for years. And I know Jesse, I mean, Jesse just despises it when somebody says that they’re a believer and then they live some alternate lifestyle or whatever, he just, it just bothers him. And he’s like, “Man, if you’re born again, you shouldn’t be living like that or thinking that or doing that.” And that’s the gospel truth. But you know, those people are people that I love and I look up to, who for years have loved God, served God, and really never missed a beat in their walk with God.

 

  And we’re really, you know, the Bible says to imitate those people, who through faith and patience, so be imitators of people who’ve walked it out for a period of time, for a long period of time. And you know, I love something that Jesus said in John 7:37-39. He stood up on the day of this great feast, it was the Feast of Tabernacles, and just cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” And He said, “As the scripture says, out of His heart will flow rivers of living water.” And then John said, that he was speaking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and he said the Holy Spirit hadn’t yet been given because Jesus was not yet glorified, but because Jesus was glorified, because he was raised from the dead and went to the Father, Jesus is the one that actually baptizes us in the Holy Ghost.

 

  Amen.

 

  But we should always be hungry, always thirsty. And it’s right there. The living water is there. But you shouldn’t ever grow cold, grow just apathetic, not caring. Too much of the church in America today is just very apathetic, just very kind of spiritually dull. You have dull ears, eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t, and they just don’t care.

 

  Yeah.

 

  But we should care. We should be thirsty. And we have it right there. We have access. So it’s not like we’re thirsting ’cause we can’t drink it, but we should be thirsty. You know, if you’re married, you shouldn’t just say, “Well, I’m already married, so I’m not gonna care. I’m not gonna have any desire anymore.” That wouldn’t be a real marriage, that wouldn’t be a real relationship. There should always be desire. Always, always love, always passion. That’s how our walk with God needs to be. It shouldn’t be apathetic.

 

  Amen.

 

  If it’s apathetic and you don’t care, it’s not a real relationship. And you’re gonna be up and down and not really doing what God has called and purposed you to do.

 

  If you don’t know who are in Christ. You know, when I was 14, again, I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, called to preach, began to understand who I was in Christ. I began preaching over 40 years ago, when I was just like 16 years old. And you know what? I have lived this gospel and I have not grown less passionate. I believe that I am just as passionate as I was the day that I got born again when I was eight years old. I believe I’m just as passionate, if not more, as the day that God filled me with the Holy Spirit and called me to preach and listen. I was on fire for God. I loved God. But did you know what? I’m still on fire for God. I still love God.

 

  It’s like the parable of the sower. There was some seed that fell among the stony path and it sprung up really quickly. It was excited, it was, you know, but emotional, but there was no root there.

 

  Right.

 

  So it wilted. Too many people wilt.

 

  Yeah.

 

  But I love that John the beloved, he didn’t wilt because he had root, his root was in just that revelation of how much God loved him.

 

  Yeah, you know, in 1 John, we see a lot of different things. But he talks about his relationship with Jesus. And he begins in 1 John 1, saying that, or I like to say Him, “Who was from the beginning,” speaking of Jesus, “who we have heard, who we have seen with our eyes, who we’ve looked upon Him.” We didn’t only see Him, but we gazed upon Him. We fixed our focus on Him. “And our hands have handled.” We came into a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. “The Word of life.” He says, “For the life,” I love this in verse two, “was made known and we have seen it and bear witness and show to you.” When the life of Jesus is revealed to you, it will transform your life. He says, “That eternal life, which was with the Father and was made known to us, Him who we’ve seen inherited, we declare to you.” And he says this is our goal that you may have fellowship. Our fellowship is with the Father, our relationship, our communion, our partnership, our sharing is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. So he’s talking about a relationship with Jesus. And he says, listen, when you come into relationship with Him, you can’t walk in the darkness. Why? Because He’s the light. And if you’re walking in darkness, you’re lying and you’re not telling the truth. And not only do you not walk in darkness, you walk in the light, but you also desire to have fellowship with other believers.

 

  And I love in verse four, here in 1 John 1:4, he says, “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” And true joy comes from having a relationship with God.

 

  Amen.

 

  True joy doesn’t come from the world, it doesn’t come from fame, from riches, from entertainment. True joy comes from knowing God and having that relationship with him.

 

  Amen. You know, he goes on and says this in John 2:1, he says, “My little children, these things I write to you that you sin not. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.” He said I’m not writing to you so you can sin. I’m writing to you that you don’t sin, but if you do sin, it’s not, you know, what you know, it’s who you know.

 

  I love that Jesus is our advocate. He’s our lawyer.

 

  Yeah.

 

  In the courts of heaven. People spend a lot of money to get a good lawyer.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And we have the greatest lawyer in the universe.

 

  Praise God. Amen.

 

  We have Jesus to be our advocate.

 

  Amen!

 

  You don’t need a saint to be your advocate. You don’t need a priest to be your advocate. You don’t need a pastor or, man, Jesus Christ himself is your advocate. He’s your intercessor.

 

  Amen, it goes on and says, “He is the propitiation. He is the atoning sacrifice. He is the covering for our sins, and not for,” you know, Jesus covered it. If you’re so focused on your sin that when you come to God, all you can do is think about your sin, it’s because you haven’t been focusing on Jesus. You need to focus on Jesus. And when you focus on Jesus, focus on the light, you walk out of the darkness. But it says, “He is the propitiation.” He is the payment for our sins, but He’s not only paid for ours, He’s paid for the sins of the whole world. And you know, John goes on and he begins to talk about these things in 1 John 2 that we have, and he talks about, in verse 12, 1 John 2:12-14, five things that we have. He says, “Because you are forgiven, because you have known Him,” you know God, you have a relationship with God. “Because you have overcome,” not so that you might overcome, “the wicked one.” The goal of Christianity is not to overcome sin and overcome Satan. The goal of Christianity is to know God through Christ. And when you know God through Christ, you are already made an overcomer. The moment that you believe on Jesus. John says this in 1 John 5:4. He says, “Whosoever is born of God overcomes this world.” Praise God, and this is the victory that overcomes the world. Even our faith, we are world overcomers. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he who believes? Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Well, you’re a world overcomer. So you’ve already got these things and these things are an antidote against sin and Satan. You are forgiven, you know God, you have overcome the wicked one. He says, “You are strong and the word of God abides in you.”

 

  It’s also an antidote against deception. You know, he goes on and talks about the antichrist in 1 John 2:18, that, “There’s an antichrist that is coming, even now, many antichrists have come.” So, and he said, “This is how we know it’s the last hour.” You know, we’re living in the last hour right now. And there is a spirit of antichrist out there, and it is a deceiving spirit. It tries to twist the truth.

 

  Right.

 

  And the the devil always tries to twist the truth and he’s still doing it today, but the spirit of God in us and having a relationship with Jesus, being firm in the Word of God, loving the entirety of scripture. If you just take little fragments of scripture, Satan himself does that to deceive. He tried to do that with Jesus. He tried to take scripture, little fragments of scripture, pulling it out of context to deceive even Jesus. But He didn’t fall for it,

 

  Right.

 

  He knows the entirety of scripture, don’t fall for that garbage. Don’t be deceived. We have a spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit inside of us. So the way we’re not deceived is by believing the word of God, by being around other people of faith, and by having a real, personal relationship with Jesus.

 

  Yeah. You know, it goes on and says this in 1 John 3, and we’ll have to come back in the last half of the broadcast and talk about this. But he says in verse two, “Now we are the sons of God.” And when you get a revelation of how much God loves you and that you are today, right now, the very child of Almighty God, it changes how you relate to God. You’re not a beggar, you’re a child. Praise God. It changes how you pray. So stay tuned. We’re gonna be back right after this break and we’re gonna continue to share blessings. Friends, we’ve been sharing from my Bible school class, “1 John: Our Relationship with God.” And these truths have revolutionized my life. We are making the teachings of this available live from church, and you can receive them downloadable free in audio form, and my syllabus, free online. Blessings. I got a word from God. A lot of believers want Shazam. And a lot of times the things of the kingdom of God aren’t Shazam. Jesus said, “Everything operates according to the parable of the sower, the kingdom.” How many of you know the devil is the enemy of the Word? Because he knows if you get ahold of the Word of God, the Word of God is literally gonna change your life. You know, we’ve been talking about our relationship with God and the things that we’ve been given, that we are forgiven, that we have a relationship with God, that we are strong, that we have overcome the wicked one. And you know, when you understand this, that the Word of God abides in us, it changes how you relate to God. It also not only changes how you relate to God, it changes how you relate to the devil. It changes how you relate to other people when you understand who you are in Christ. Now, in 1 John 3, Aaron read verse one through verse three, and let’s talk about this.

 

  So it says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in himself purifies himself just as He is pure.”

 

  Man, when you understand how much God loves you and you begin to know who He is, it changes how you live your life. You know what? You don’t get closer to God by thinking God, this big angry mean God that’s gonna get you. If you think that, it’s gonna drive you from God. You know, your mom and I both heard terrible messages in traditional churches when we were raised as kids. You know that, if you sin, the earth is gonna open up and swallow you, mom talks about this, and mom thought, you know, your mom had a vision of Jesus when she was just four or five years old, playing on the grass. Jesus came and talked to her and her mom was having major emotional problems and stuff, and the Lord ministered to her, but she would go to church and these people be preaching about God. And she’d think, “That’s not the God that I know.” And she went to this traditional church that preached against the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. And she said, “You know, that’s in the Bible. That’s for me.” You know, she, it just made it, if that’s in the Bible, she got the opposite of what they were saying. You know, religion sometimes, they believe what they believe, no matter what the Bible says. And we need to get our beliefs from what the Bible says. But John goes on and says this, in 1 John 3:6 he says, “Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has not seen Him neither known Him.” If you have a major sin problem as a believer, if you’re truly born again, the fact, is you just don’t really know Jesus. You need to just get inundated, immersed in your relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and it’ll change. I guarantee you, it changed me. It’ll change you. God has no respect of persons only, I respect your faith. And he says, “For this purpose was the Son of God manifested,” in 1 John 3:8, “that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever is born of God does not commit,” and this is talking about you don’t have a practice of sinning. You know, he says, “For His seed remains in him and he cannot sin.” It’s literally talking about your spirit, that your spirit does not sin when you’re born of God.

 

  Yeah, and I love too, you know, something you say when you’re, when something changes inside of you, when you believe on Jesus, you’re given the spirit of Christ inside of you. So in true Christianity, you’re either saved or you’re not. You can’t be 98% righteous and 2% unrighteous.

 

  That’s right.

 

  You can’t be 99% a saint and 1% a sinner, you’re either-

 

  You can’t be 50/50.

 

  A child of God. You either have there, there’s two spiritual fathers, the Father in heaven or the father of the devil. And Jesus has told people, you have your father the devil. He just said it how it is.

 

  You’re either saved or you’re lost, but you’re not saved and lost. You know, Aaron, I went to the DR a number of years ago on a mission trip, leading a group of students from a Bible school. And I was with this missionary, and I preached in the largest evangelical church in the DR. And the main pastor was there and they had like seven other locations. It’s by far the most effective. They got a lot of good things. My missionary friends have done a lot of good work there. But when I drove home with this missionary, and I’d known this guy for 30 years, this guy said, “Man, who preaches that? You are 100% righteous.” And he just got it. And the fact is, if you’re born again, you’re 100% righteous and your spirit is righteous. And if you die, if you’re born again and your spirit is righteous, you’re going to heaven. And if you’re not born again and your spirit is unrighteous, you’re going to hell. And you’re not going to hell because of what, you know, Jesus did, you’re going to hell because of what you did. You didn’t believe on Jesus. And if you go to heaven, you’re not going to heaven because of what you did. You’re going to heaven because of what Jesus did. But when you’re born of God, you wanna do the right thing and you have confidence towards God. He goes on and says this in 1 John 3:19-22, he says, “Hereby we know that we’re of the truth and assure our hearts before him. If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. But if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence towards God. And whatever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” Man, you know, Andrew Wommack is my friend, and he is one of the strongest people of faith that I know. And one reason that Andrew Wommack is strong in faith is because he keeps a good conscious. He is not, I mean, he’s never cussed, never even drank coffee. And I’m gonna have him on the broadcast. And man, Andrew is awesome. I think the world of Andrew Wommack, and we’re gonna talk about grace and faith and our relationship with God. But you know what, Andrew has great faith because his conscience is not condemning him. And you know what? If you live in victory and your heart is not condemning you, if your heart does condemn you, God’s grace on your heart, you know, if we’re faithless, he’s faithful. He will not deny himself. But at the same point in time, you wanna have great faith. You wanna get things done in the kingdom of God by believing God. And that’s why it’s good to have a conscience that’s not condemning you. And he says, “Whatever we ask, it’ll be given to us.” And he goes on and then tells us in 1 John 4:4, “Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world.” Comment on that, Aaron.

 

  Man, yeah. That’s such a powerful statement. That, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” You know, there is an antichrist spirit in the world today. There are people who are gonna come against strong people of faith, and there are people who are gonna get caught up in deception as well. You know, I’ve seen some people who claim to be believers who are clearly deceived.

 

  Right.

 

  They don’t believe the entirety of scripture. They don’t really live it out. They’re just deceived. But there’s something inside, the Spirit of Christ is powerful. And when you realize what you have, you’re not gonna be scared of the world. You’re gonna shine your light bright-

 

  Amen.

 

  Before men. And it’s actually gonna cause them to come to Christ and even glorify God themselves.

 

  You know, when you get a revelation of the love of God, it causes you to change the way you live. But it’s not you. It’s Christ who’s living in you. And John says this in 1 John 4:10. He said, “Here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” It’s not what we’re doing for God. You get a revelation of God’s love. It’s what He’s done for you. And that’s what builds your faith. That’s what makes you strong. That’s what makes you overcome the wicked. You are a world overcomer. You are strong. Praise God.

 

  I love that. Yeah, 1 John 4:10, just speaking about God’s love for us. That’s the primary love. And our response to that is the secondary thing. A lot of people come to God trying to serve Him, do things for Him, love Him to get love back from Him. But that’s actually a twisted way of thinking. That’s not what the Bible teaches.

 

  Yeah.

 

  God first loves us, even while we were still sinners, even while we were trapped in darkness. He’s the one who gave.

 

  Yeah, and when you understand that, it changes how you, but it’s not something that we do.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  I had a guy tell me I can’t serve God unless I’m in the ministry. Listen, I served God fine when I was raking horse stalls, before I ever got into ministry. I served God just as good if not better than I served God today. You know, it’s not about what you do. It’s about who you are and everything about who you are changed when you got born of God. And when you understand that, it changes your life. Notice again about the love of God. He says this in verse 16, “We have known and believed.” You know, you need to get a revelation of the love of God, and you need to continue to believe in the love of God for you. The love that God has for us. “God is love and in Him is no,” he says, so God is love. And when we dwell in love, we dwell in God. He says, “Herein is our love made perfect,” or matured, in verse 17, “that we have boldness in the day of judgment.” Because as He is, Jesus is righteous in this world and so are we. Jesus is holy, Jesus is sanctified as He is. So are we. When you get a revelation of the love of God and understand, Christ is living in you, He put His nature in you, he put His love, His life, His light in you, it changes how you live your life.

 

  And that, I love what he goes on and says, “There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear.”

 

  Amen.

 

  You know, really fear and faith are polar opposites.

 

  Amen.

 

  And the world, the spirit of the world tries to put fear on people. Try to manipulate people through fear.

 

  I’m gonna say something also, Aaron, religion tries to put fear on people. And you know what? Fear is a terrible motivator.

 

  And God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and a sound mind. Fear that’s from the world will actually cause you to lose your mind.

 

  If the only reason that your mom responded to me was because she was afraid of me, we’d have a terrible relationship, terrible!

 

  That’s not a real-

 

  Listen, that kind of teaching is not really-

 

  Relationship.

 

  The true fear of God is it’s an awe of God, it’s a respect for our relationship with God, because we know how good that He is, and we know how much He has for us. He goes on and says this in 1 John 5:4, “Whoever is born of God overcomes this world and this is the victory that overcomes the world. Even our faith.” Verse five, “Who is he that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the son of God?” You know what, the goal of Christianity, again, is not to overcome sin and overcome Satan. The goal of Christianity is a relationship with God through Jesus, to know God through Jesus. And when you know God through Jesus, you are born of God and you are made a world overcomer. Praise the Lord, let’s comment on this last statement, verse 18 and 19. He says, “We know that whosoever is born of God does not sin, but he who’s born of God, God keeps him and the wicked one does not touch him. And we know that we’re of God and the whole world lies in wickedness.”

 

  And then you know that last statement too, in the final verse, verse 21, “Little children, keep yourself from idols.” The antichrist spirit, the enemy tries to get people to worship things that aren’t God.

 

  Yes.

 

  And really, if it’s not God, it’s gonna lead to death. Idols are dead. They can’t hear, they can’t see. They’re completely dead. If you know how much God loves you, how real He is, how profound His love is for you, you’re not gonna care about dead things, about fake things, about deceptive things.

 

  Amen.

 

  You’re gonna go to what’s real, what’s authentic, what’s full of life, and that’s God’s love for you through Jesus Christ.

 

  Amen, don’t let anything distract you from a life giving, loving relationship with God through Jesus. Friends, I hope you’ve enjoyed the broadcast. I want to invite you to Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs this Sunday. You know what, if you can’t come and attend physically, you can attend online. And I believe that the Spirit of God, with people watching all around the world, I believe it will minister to you and help you, and also invite you to go to our website. We literally have hundreds of hours and great free teaching that will be a blessing to you.

 

  When you know Jesus and experience His incredible love for you, you will know who you truly are. You’ll understand the anointing that’s in you, and you’ll realize that you’re part of God’s great family. You can come home to Him today through the person of Jesus. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of “1 John: A Relationship with God,” a $21 value free of charge. Download your copy today at CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Hey everybody, I wanna welcome you to our Charis Camp Meeting where we’re gonna have great teaching for adults. We’re gonna have special youth meetings, special children’s ministry, and special worship. It is gonna be a great time celebrating Jesus and the truth of God’s Word. If you can’t come personally, we would love to have you join us online. Thanks so much and blessings. Friends, if you’ve never received Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, I want to give you an opportunity to pray with me right now. Pray with me and surrender your life to the Lord. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son. I believe that He died for my sins, and you raised Him from the dead on the third day and made Him Lord, and I surrender my life to you in Jesus’ name.

 

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