Speaker 1: 0:36

Hi, my name is Samuel Beckwith. I go to Benicia Middle School and I'm in sixth grade. I'm reading from 1 John, 3, 19 through 24. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence. If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command to believe in the name of his son, jesus Christ, and to love one another, as he commanded us. The one who keeps God's commands lies in him and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us. We know it because the spirit he gave us this is the word of the Lord.

Speaker 2: 1:31

Thanks be to God. Thank you, samuel, appreciate that. My name is Lawrence, glad you guys are here. I'm the lead pastor. Before we hop in, just two announcements that I think are important and things that are coming up. One is next week we're going to be doing a walk for water. It's on Saturday. A lot of you guys have signed up. Yeah, clapping means you're giving to it. It's awesome. Good job, clap again. No, we're going to be doing that and we've got 28 people, I think, signed up right now on Team Northgate. You can go out there and still sign up, but we haven't had that much money that was raised yet. And again, I'm not asking for your money, I'm asking you to ask your friends for the money for these wells. We've already done 88 in our history of doing that stuff. It'd be really cool to see if we can get towards 100. And just as a reminder, we have some matching gifts, so there's free money to be had to do more. And that's what happens when we collectively come together. Even if you can't walk, you're just participating. Collectively coming together, we can really do some cool things. So that's on Saturday. Again, way more information out there on the table as you guys leave today, the so that's on Saturday. Again, way more information out there on the table as you guys leave today.

Speaker 2: 2:37

The second one is something coming up in October, on October 11th this is a Saturday as well, but we're having a huge event up here and we want everyone to participate. It's called the Fall Family Flannel Fest. It's a whole bunch of Fs sorry, it's just that's what it's called. It's what our children's director came up with and I'm all for it. We're following it. But I'll tell you, the most exciting thing about it is there's going to be a pumpkin catapult so we can have a competition, but it's got food trucks, bounce houses, music, pumpkin painting, the catapult thing, a petting zoo. I think there's a bunch of other stuff, so we'll give you more information about that, but here's actually the deal.

Speaker 2: 3:16

I want you to know why we're doing this. This is a free, safe family event and it's not right at Halloween, it's beforehand. Think of it sans like trunk or treat. If you've ever been a part of that years ago. This is an opportunity for people to come up here and you to show off a little bit of our space. So let's say in the future, you tell your friend, your family, you want them to come to a Christmas Eve service. You know, and I know this too, for those of you who invite friends and family or coworkers here, it can feel a little bit like meeting the parents, like it just feels like a lot to do a Sunday right off the bat. So it's easier to be like, hey, come to this fun event before you come inside the building, right? Instead of going on your first date and be like we're going to stop by my parents' house on the way home. Some people are like whoa, whoa, whoa, that's a lot, right. So this is like, think of it like that, this is like dating, so that they come here and check this out, you can participate, have a good time. They see where the bathroom's at, you invite them back and they're like do you want to come in the building? It'll be awesome, right, and they come to that, and then it just gives an opportunity. So really it is a great tool for you. Think of it like stepping stones and it's going to be a lot of fun. So October 11th fall, family flannel fest and wear flannel, if that's you. So you do you.

Speaker 2: 4:33

What about today? So today we are finishing up chapter three. We've been in the letters of John, not the big book of John. That's considered a gospel that you find at the very beginning of the New Testament If you're a Bible person. If you're not, this is at the end of the New Testament, in these three little letters that the gospel writer of John writes as he's an old guy saying hey. Letters that the gospel writer John writes as he's an old guy saying hey, we've established who Jesus is, what he came and what he did. Now let's remind him what that looks like and how we live. And so we've been going through that. I'm going to wrap up chapter three today. Next week Courtney Beer is going to be here. He's pushing into chapter four. So go ahead and open up your screens or your Bible. You can get into that.

Speaker 2: 5:13

But first I need to start with a confession. This is one of those interesting things. As a pastor, you know to stand up here and confess to you guys about something. But my phone has a talent for making me feel really judged. Every Sunday morning it pops up with this weekly screen time report like a tiny prophet calling me to repentance, and it's never encouraging. It's always like your screen time was up 18% and I'm like from what? And it's like from too much, and I'm like whoa, whoa. Then my phone offers a limit, right, and I'm like thank you, rectangle of shame, like geez louise. But here's the truth, right, we all have like thank you rectangle of shame, like geez louise. But here's the truth, right. We all have dashboards that measure us Grades, followers, bank accounts, unread emails, that one friend's highlight reel that looks like a Marvel trailer, like epic music, slow-mo stuff, zero content, like this messy behind the scenes stuff.

Speaker 2: 6:15

And then we have John here, the last of the living apostles, and he's writing to a full a church full of real people with real dashboards. They love Jesus. And then what happens is their hearts get really loud. And in 1 John, chapter 3, 19 through 24, he says that God gives us something better than a dashboard. He gives us this word assurance. He shows us what to do when our conscience actually starts dragging us into the group chat at 2 am with the like we need to talk energy. He tells us why our prayers can be bold instead of timid and he reduces the whole Christian life to this one command with two parts believe in Jesus and love one another. Here's the big idea. If you want to take a picture of it. We're going to go through for today.

Speaker 2: 7:03

On the screen it's that God is greater than your self-condemning heart. So live, then, in the freedom of believing in Jesus, loving one another in Jesus, loving one another, praying boldly and abiding by the Spirit Got it. So let's dive in. Keep your Bible open. So first, john actually talks about our hearts in verses 19 through 20. It says this "by this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts". Before him, for whenever our heart condemns us, god is greater than our heart and he knows everything.

Speaker 2: 7:41

So think about this phrase right here whenever our hearts condemn us, your heart in the Bible isn't just like your feelings, it's the control center of life, thoughts, desires, conscience, and sometimes that control center suddenly goes like red alert on us. The heart becomes like that friend who runs this true crime podcast that suddenly goes investigative on you, right? Have you ever had your heart like, hold a press conference about your worst moments when, like you're brushing your teeth right and like a normal human in your brain suddenly flashes to that one comment you made in 2019 and still haunts you to this day, and you're like why am I thinking about that, right. Or you finally sit down to pray and your inner voice goes like, wow, wow, you ignore God all week and now you're just asking for stuff. Right, our hearts can accuse us so hard that God's voice starts to sound like this inner critic that's on like bass boost. Right, it's exhausting. And John doesn't say ignore your heart, he says reassure it.

Speaker 2: 8:51

In the Greek, this word, right here, reassures has this idea of persuading. Persuading it or setting at rest that you don't win by out-arguing your conscience with these motivational quotes. You actually get to soothe it with the truth of the gospel, which is what God is greater than your heart and he knows everything. And that's not a threat, friends. That's actually comfort. God's omniscience I'm messing up this word right now omniscience is not a security camera that's trying to catch you in the midst of something. It's that the Father's knowledge. It includes more than that, like why you did it, the fear under that thing, and then the tears that nobody saw. He knows everything, and this is, I think, one of the best parts. He knows everything, including about the things that you don't know about yourself.

Speaker 2: 9:46

So because of that, I think it's actually really important for us to talk about the difference between these two words, condemnation and conviction, because a lot of us I think a lot of us think that those things, or get caught up that they sound really similar. They're similar in our heads. Let me give you some back and forth here. So condemnation tends to be this foghorn of shame that says you're a failure, permanently, period right. But conviction it tends to be this laser pointer that says, hey, this right here, turn from it and you actually get to live.

Speaker 2: 10:22

Condemnation is vague. Oftentimes it's really heavy and it's constant. Where conviction is specific, it's hopeful and what it does is it tends to lead to action. Condemnation like leaves your head spiraling. Conviction what it does is its purpose is to send you towards Jesus, and John says that God's virgin in Christ outranks your heart's verdict. Picture a courtroom, if you will, where your heart is the prosecutor. It's got files, it presents screenshots, it plays audio from that fight that you had with your person over dishes that you just doubled down to make sure you won. And then what happens is God, the judge, stands up. And he stands up before you and says paid for Not no big deal, not just like boys will be boys and not just do better. But he says no atonement, covered, covered for you by the blood of my son. And so if that's the ruling, then who is your heart to file an appeal? In fact, the apostle Paul writes in Romans, chapter eight, verse one. He says and you've maybe have heard this there therefore is now no condemnation for those in Christ, and John's saying you need to apply that to your Tuesday. Quick story, real quick.

Speaker 2: 11:44

A friend of mine once sent a risky text to the wrong group chat. It was meant for one person. You want to know what it was, don't you? It was asking for forgiveness about something, and it went to this whole group. Like you could feel the cringe over wifi. And it turns out that this group actually responded with grace, like a handful of people started raising their hand and being like it's okay, dude, like me too. They prayed and what he expected to be a courtroom became a confessional and then eventually became this celebration. And that's what it's like to bring your accusing heart before God. You think he's going to roast you with this perfect memory of everything you've done. That didn't add up, but he meets you with mercy.

Speaker 2: 12:32

Now, what happens when your heart is at rest? Well, john says in verse 21, beloved, if your heart doesn't condemn us. We have confidence before God. Now, this word confidence right here, as it's said in the Greek, is patasia. You want to try that one Patasia? Look to your friend and say patasia, right Confidence. You get to use that this week Like, hey, you got to have some patasia. That's your confidence, which literally means like freedom of speech, like courageous, candid speech, like I got some potosia right here, speaking truth without fear, right Concealment. And you know that feeling when you like text your best friend, that you don't have to like draft it 12 times. Why? Why do you get to do that? Because you just say. You say it because you feel safe. You feel safe in that moment and that's the vibe that God wants in prayer, when your heart gets settled in the gospel.

Speaker 2: 13:26

You stop then negotiating with God like a reluctant landlord and start talking to him like a father who actually finds delight in your voice and in that moment then you can ask for big things and you can just talk about honest things and request them, put them in front of him. John keeps going in verse 22. He says whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. Now just to pause real quick. This is not a vending machine verse, so don't take this out of context. Like, oh, this is pretty good. Like we ask, we receive it. What this is is an alignment verse.

Speaker 2: 14:04

If you've ever had to charge your phone with a cable that barely fits, you know the pain of this. Where you like, plug it in and it says it's charging, but the percentage isn't moving, and so you're always like right, have you ever experienced that Prayer is like the cable that snaps into place? And when your life is oriented towards God, when you keep his commandments and do what pleases him, he's not manipulated by our performance. He's forming our desires to want what he already loves. Think about what pleases him the way that you think about like hanging out with somebody that you actually love. If your friend is training for a half marathon, you don't surprise them with tickets to the all-you-can-eat hot wing festival the night before, right, what do you do? You show up with like electrolytes and you're there at like mile 12 and then you're driving in your own car to mile 18 to cheer them on, right.

Speaker 2: 14:58

In the same way, praying in alignment sounds different. It sounds like Father, make me quick to forgive Father, help me tell the truth at work, even when it costs me. Father, provide what we need and help me become a generous person. And those request friends aren't boring, but they're bold because what they do is they aim your life at God's will. And here's the surprise when you pray like that, you will also find the courage to ask for daily bread, for healing, for jobs and apartments and breakthroughs, because you trust the giver more than you trust the gifts.

Speaker 2: 15:35

And then this leads John to this breathtaking summary of the Christian life, verse 23,. He says and this is the commandment that we believe in the name of the son, jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us. So this is one command, two rails. So this is one command, two rails Believe and love, trust Jesus and then treat people the way that he did right. And if you try to just run on one rail, you derail.

Speaker 2: 16:07

It's like this all belief and no love turns into smug theology that smells like old bad coffee. All love and no belief turns into this vague niceness with no cross, no resurrection and no power to actually change. So real quick, let's just double click on believe in the name of his son, jesus Christ. So to believe in his name isn't like believing in his brand because the logo is cute. Name here is really powerful. It means nature, authority, identity, and so to believe in Jesus's name means that you got stake on this right, like you stake your life on who he actually is. The son of God, like that, he took on flesh, he lived a sinless life, he died sacrificially and rose bodily. It means that when the cultural winds actually push you and blow and say, hey, why don't you just adopt a Jesus who never disagrees with you, you gently say, I think I want the real one.

Speaker 2: 17:10

And faith isn't like playing dodgeball theologically, it's living loyalty, it's living this life. That's like loyal enough that begins to binge your mind, binge your schedule and even binge your wallet towards the kingdom of God and what he's doing. Then love one another. We've heard this one before John's writing to a real church. Friends with real conflict, awkwardness, diversity, preferences. That one guy who sings harmonies way too loud, sitting right over there right Loving one another, is not this motivational poster in this moment. It's a Tuesday night when you're tired and your friend needs a ride. It's a Saturday morning when you help someone move, even though their couch feels like it's from medieval times and it smells like a cat. Right. It's forgiving before being asked. It's confessing envy and celebrating someone else's win. It's refusing to subtweet another believer. It's ordinary faithfulness in a world addicted to novelty.

Speaker 2: 18:20

What keeps us from that kind of love? Often I think it's an accusing heart. And when you live under condemnation, what happens is you hoard energy and affection, and shame then turns inward like a turtle. But when your heart is settled, when you actually believe God is greater than your heart, you have emotional margin than to love others and what happens is assurance actually fuels that. Forgiven people then forgive people. Loved people, love people.

Speaker 2: 18:59

And then John finishes with verse 24. He says whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given, and we've talked a lot about this. He uses abide a lot. Abide means to make your home to remain.

Speaker 2: 19:17

Christianity isn't just, you know, trying to try hard for Jesus. What it is is. It's actually living a life that's supposed to be attached to Jesus. He's not like this weekend Airbnb. He's saying no, no, no, I'm your permanent address. He's not like this weekend Airbnb. He's saying no, no, no, I'm your permanent address and he doesn't just wanna invite you into his house. This is the beautiful part. He wants to move in to yours and the spirit then sets up residence and starts rearranging your furniture and the spirit's presence is both felt and then it becomes fruitful in your life. Sometimes you sense his comfort in worship or this nudge to apologize.

Speaker 2: 19:53

Sometimes you get to look back over the last six months and realize, man, I'm not who I used to be. I actually love people who I used to avoid. I'm able to tell the truth a little faster, like I'm more patient in traffic, unless someone's going 15 miles under the speed limit in the fast lane, which is okay, because I'm just a person in process. Right, it's good. And the Spirit's witness isn't just always fireworks for us. Just understand that Often it's this steady glow of change that only God can produce.

Speaker 2: 20:28

Have you ever noticed that your conscience is like the worst GPS? Like it's got one phrase recalculating. That's what it does all the time to us. Like you make a plan to read your bible, you miss two days and it's like recalculating. I'll try again. Right, the diet always starts on monday, you understand? Right? You promise not to like doom scroll after 10 pm and you end up learning about medieval beekeeping at 1 am and and you're just like, oh dang it recalculating. But beekeeping's awesome, right? The gospel doesn't break the GPS, friends. It updates the map, it says yeah, yeah, yeah, wrong turn, but here's the route home. And God's mercy isn't a loophole for us. We need to understand it's actually a road back, because he knows everything and he still invites you home.

Speaker 2: 21:16

Okay, here's an illustration that's gonna help you this week, when your phone's at like 8%, abiding is the difference between living near an outlet and carrying one of those portable chargers in your pocket, like your life with God. If it's just a once a week plugin, you will always be at 12% by Thursday, like just spiritually rationing kindness, like it's your last Capri Sun. Some of you been there, I get it. Abiding means that the spirit is this charger in your pocket and it's just constantly topping you off. So how do you know that you're abiding? Well, it's not by goosebumps, but by power available for love in ordinary moments. Let me show what this looks like with a case study.

Speaker 2: 22:07

So Taylor, she's 23, works a job where Slack never sleeps. She lives with three roommates who share one bathroom and they have six different opinions about soap. You know what I'm talking about. Taylor loves Jesus, but low key deals with a condemning heart. And every time Taylor scrolls she sees how everyone's just further along they're married, they're traveling, they're launching, they're glowing and prayer feels like this performance review with God, where it just feels like he's always like needs improvement.

Speaker 2: 22:39

Well, one week Taylor comes here and she hears this teach Hears that God is greater than your heart. And so Taylor decides to do an experiment for seven days, and each morning, before checking her phone, taylor puts her feet on the floor and says out loud Father, you know everything and you love me in Jesus. My heart is noisy, but you are greater. That's it. 10 seconds. Then Taylor opens up John's words and prays one request in alignment with his will Make me someone who believes and loves today. Well, that week Taylor ends up buying coffee for a coworker who's been struggling. She apologizes quickly after a sarcastic comment that she made. She texts encouragement instead of slightly competing, and by Saturday Taylor's heart still has opinions. It whispers you messed up, you didn't do that right, you skipped your reading. You're a mess. But now Taylor has a script Heart. Thank you for the concern. God is greater. He knows everything, including the fact that Jesus took my mess to the cross and actually left it in the tomb and I'm going to keep on believing and loving. And that, friends, is what assurance looks like, not arrogance, but it's anchored in freedom.

Speaker 2: 24:06

Next, I want to address a common question. If God already knows everything and loves me, then why does he care whether or not I keep his commandments right? Well, here's the real quick, short answer, because love is relational. If you told your best friend and maybe you guys have done this like, oh, you know, I love you, right, you've had that conversation Like no, no, you know I love you. And then constantly ghosted them, used them, ignored their boundaries, what would happen? You start to question their love. It doesn't matter how many times they said to you like but you know, I love you, right? Obedience isn't not paying rent to stay in God's house. It's actually how love expresses itself when you actually live in that space.

Speaker 2: 24:50

Remember verse 22, where John says do what pleases him. You guys remember this one right here. Whatever we ask, we receive this do what pleases him. This is relationship language. It's not insecurity on God's part, it's actually intimacy on ours to do what pleases him. Another question that poses itself in this verse is does whatever we ask, we receive? What does that mean? Like, some of you guys are like this is sweet, so if I ask for a Tesla in a lake house, like God's on the hook, this is gonna be legit, like I can just think of it. It's the secret, right? You guys have all read that book, right?

Speaker 2: 25:31

This, though, friends, is where belief and love actually begin to shape our prayers. Like when you believe Jesus is Lord and you love people, your requests are just sounds different. They begin to sound like Father, forgive them. Father, send workers to the harvest. Father, will you provide for daily bread? Father, heal to the harvest. Father, will you provide for daily bread? Father, heal, restore, save. Which poses the question does God actually care about your rent, your internship, your family's health, when you can retire, your desire to get into grad school? Absolutely, he's a father, and that's the best part. You can ask him for anything and trust him with everything.

Speaker 2: 26:15

So, landing this, let's talk about community for just a second. We have a lot of groups and classes that are kicking off right now that I really want to encourage you to be a part of why Assurance grows in circles, not in rows. It's really important. You and I need at least one friend that can say whoa, whoa, whoa. That going on right now, that's condemnation, not conviction. Let's help point you to Jesus. And the problem is, honestly, if I just want to, yeah, care for you right now, I just want to say some of you are trying to do faith like a solo project and it's no good. But community is where we practice the command to actually love one another. It's where we learn to receive love when we actually are the ones that feel unlovable. It's where we discover that that person that we've avoided is a gift, or that person who annoyed us becomes a teacher in patience, and that person that we're jealous of becomes someone that we celebrate.

Speaker 2: 27:15

I want to circle back to prayer, just real quick, in confidence, praying in confidence. Some of you, you pray like you're calling the customer service line, expecting hold music, a bot like a note that's saying your call is very important but everyone's busy, right? Remember? John says you have parousia confidence. You have confidence and freedom in your speech. Essentially, what that means is you have the relational green light to talk to your father anytime, anywhere, about anything, and you don't have to rehearse it and you don't have to pretend, you don't have to open like dear sir or like any of that. You just get to pray in your car, pray in the shower, pray a whisper in the hallway before that interview, pray like you belong, because, friends in Christ, you do.

Speaker 2: 28:06

And when you actually start to live this passage out, you'll notice three specific shifts. First, you're going to notice that your inner monologue becomes kinder and truer, not soft on sin, clear on grace. Second, your prayer life gets bolder and simpler, less theater, more honesty. And third, your relationships get warmer and braver. You'll both serve more and say the hard things sooner, because love does both. And these aren't personality upgrades, these are spirit upgrades.

Speaker 2: 28:43

Now maybe, just maybe, some of you are asking but what if my heart feels quiet because I just feel like I've gone numb and I just wanna say I feel you, I see you. That's a real question. Sometimes the heart can stop accusing because it's not at rest in grace, because it's asleep in apathy. And the antidote is the same Just bring your real self to the real Jesus and then let the spirit poke you and then start loving someone on purpose. And then what happens is you begin to watch the numbness begin to thaw. Obedience is like a spiritual smelling salt, like it wakes you up.

Speaker 2: 29:24

And I don't know your week or what you're coming in here with, but maybe you're carrying right now a breakup that keeps replaying like a bad TikTok. Maybe your lab went wrong this week. Maybe your job hunt is still just a string of politely worded no's. Maybe your family is in a messy chapter with a plot twist you didn't approve of, or you broke your leg and you didn't expect that right. Your heart will have lots to say about these things, will have lots to say about these things. Some of it will be true. You did mess up. You are limited and you don't control outcomes. But the truest thing over your life, if you belong to Jesus, is this God is greater than your heart and he knows everything. And get this, he still loves you. You will have weeks where your screen time report is up 40% and your patience is down 60. And God's mercy, friends will not budge. So keep returning, keep believing, keep loving.

Speaker 2: 30:29

Before we pray, just one final image. You know, at the airport they have those walkways where you can like feel like you're walking super fast, right, but you can stand there and you can stand still and still move forward because something's under your feet, literally carrying you. Think of it like this. Assurance is like that your progress in love isn't just you doing more cardio, it's the spirit actually carrying you as you take small, real steps. You step, he moves you further than your step should have taken you. You apologize. He restores more than your words could have fixed. You ask, he answers with more wisdom than you knew to request in the first place. That's what abiding is. When you fail which, by the way, you will remember, friends that the judge has already ruled in your favor because his son stood in your place and God is greater than your heart and he knows everything.

Speaker 2: 31:24

And that's not just theology, friends. Please receive that as oxygen. Let me pray this over you. Would you bow your heads, father? We bring you our noisy hearts. Thank you that your knowledge of us is not a weapon, it's a haven. Thank you, jesus, whose cross silences condemnation and whose resurrection fills us with living hope. Holy Spirit, would you make your home in us today. Teach us to abide, give us freedom of speech and prayer and power to love in the ordinary. In this week's, let our hearts rest. Our prayers rise and our love be practical. In the holy name of Jesus Christ, we pray this Amen. Would you stand as we respond in worship?