Tag Archives: Truth

Sunday – November 9, 2014 1st John 4 verses 7 to 11 “Why Love is Required”

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Sunday – November 9, 2014 – Read the Word on Worship

1st John 4 verses 7 to 11 from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

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1 John 4:7-9
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

You may identify with the early believers. John has already emphasized the importance of love in 2:7-11 and hit it again in 3:11-18. We may be prone to say, “Okay, brother, we’ve got that one down now. Let’s move on to something else.” But John not only repeats the imperative to love one another but also he hits it longer and harder than at any other point in the book. He wants to make sure that we understand that love is not an optional virtue for the believer. It is to be the distinguishing mark of the church in the world. John goes so far as to say that if you do not love others, you do not know God! So we all need to examine our own lives by this supreme standard.

While love is the inevitable result of being born of God, it is not the automatic result. John tells us, “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” The implication is the life of God imparted to us in the new birth manifests itself in love for others. If we are children of the One whose very nature is love, then we will be like our Father. But at the same time, John writes, “Beloved, if God so loves us, we also ought to love one another.” Love is not automatic nor effortless! We always have room for growth in love.

Love is not opposed to truth. John has just spent six verses warning us (4:1), “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” He did not say: “Let’s just set aside those points of doctrine where we disagree and come together where we do agree, loving those who differ on these matters.” Because these men denied essential truth about Jesus Christ, John calls them false prophets, whose teaching is the spirit of antichrist. Love does not mean that we set aside the truth for the sake of unity.

We must exercise wise discernment here. Some doctrinal differences are not essential to the gospel, and we need to love brothers who differ with us on these matters. Some of these doctrines are important for how we live the Christian life, and so we may vigorously debate them among ourselves. But we must always remember that we are debating as brothers in Christ. If we divide from one another over every minor point of doctrine, we fall into the errors of “fighting fundamentalism.” At the heart of that sort of cantankerous behavior is a spirit of pride, where I assert that everyone must agree with me on every minor issue. At the same time, some issues fall into a gray zone, where salvation may not be at stake, but to embrace a particular view will have momentous consequences. We should not accuse those who differ with us of not being saved, unless they also deny the essentials of the gospel.

Sunday – September 21, 2014 1John 3:1 “The Father’s Great Love”

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Sunday – September 21, 2014 – Read the Word on Worship

1st John 3 verse 1 from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Word On Worship – Sunday – September 21, 2014 Download / Print

1 John 3:1
“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”

The heart of every pastor desires to strengthen the spiritual stamina of his flock. This is particularly the case when, as in John’s church, opponents are seen standing outside the door. But the question that roams my heart and mind is what strategy is best for our church to reinforce Christian discipleship? John can often raise more questions than answers, which allows for us to wrestle with the Holy Spirit to find application in our lives. John tells us we are the children of God. And all of this is the result of God’s love that He initiated on our behalf. If that does not cause you to stand up and praise God, look to John and his example of rejoicing in this truth.

When John tells us our status is as “God’s children” it is proclaimed as an absolute, unyielding decision initiated by God. That is why John exclaims, “How great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God.” It is a part of a divine choice, an unmerited adoption, where we are brought into the family of God. It is only in this framework that we see our security with God is completely out of our hands and firmly in His. Only then does assurance of salvation move from an intellectual construct to a concrete reality. Our confidence comes from finding out God is the One who holds us secure.

I am continually amazed at the number of church-going people who intellectually understand they are God’s children and cannot be un-adopted, and yet their hearts are filled with insecurity. Caught up in their feelings of the moment, they wonder how they can be children of God if they don’t “feel” like they are children of God. Or others who look upon their personal struggle with sin and question if they ever were in the family of God. This may be a common experience of many today. But if my confidence is based on what I feel in my Christian walk, then confidence is frail indeed.

Experience is an important part of our Christian walk. Christ told us we must be born again, walk in obedience to His commands and live holy and righteous lives. While these experiences are important, the measure of our assurance is not the magnitude of the experience of the past, which often fade as we become older. Rather, through the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ and with it the payment of our sin by our faith, God makes known to us His immeasurable love and makes our assurance steadfast.

Sunday – August 25, 2013 “Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of Truth”

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August 25, 2013 – Read the Word on Worship

Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of Truth from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.

Jesus Christ is the truth. When we turn away from the truth we are turning away from Him. As important as the other garments are, the foundation of all of them is truth because that is who Jesus Christ is. He is the way, the truth and the life. Being rooted in Him is what prevents us from being taken captive by philosophy or empty deception. He is also what we are to grow into, with Christ being head over all. The world is constantly changing, declaring new fads and fictions to be the truth because someone wrote a book or spoke at a conference. We do not live in such a shifting landscape as so many do in this generation. We live completely secure in the bedrock foundation of Christ’s truth. Join us this week as we continue our series on Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God as we look at “Girding Our Loins with Truth”.

Word On Worship – August 25, 2013 Download / Print

Ephesians 6:14
“Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH…”

We all dress in a certain order. We begin with our ‘foundation garments” because other garment will be layered over them. Usually we finish with putting on our shoes, because putting our pants on after our shoes proves to be very difficult. The armor of God is to be put on in a certain order as well, and the first step is to gird our loins as we prepare for spiritual battle. In the Bible, the girding of the loins is the first step but it also prepares us for further action. As Peter wrote, we are to “gird our minds for action” as we act like the One who called us (1 Peter1:13-16).

Truth is the grid through which all information can be filtered. It gathers up the loose ends of information and processes and conforms it all to legitimacy and goodness. James reinforces the importance of truth in our salvation when he wrote in James 1:18 “He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.” It is by the truth that we are sanctified and brought to maturity in Christ. The question we must be able to answer then is how do we arrive at truth? Is it based upon our experience, the rules of society or even the laws of government? Or does truth come from a different source altogether? The line we use to measure truth is the question that must be answered before we can rightly chart a course for our decision-making.

Christ prayed for His disciples in the upper room in John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” Any decision we make on what is good or right for a situation or response must be seen through the grid of Scripture. The human response is to measure good or bad by how it benefits us. But the Word of God calls for us to die to ourselves and our interests, to subject ourselves to the government and to love others as we have been loved by God. The truth is the basis for Christian unity that builds up and edifies the church. This is completely opposite to the world’s way of thinking and is only learned through the truth of Scripture.

Jesus Christ is the truth. When we turn away from the truth we are turning away from Him. As important as the other garments are, the foundation of all of them is truth because that is who Jesus Christ is. He is the way, the truth and the life. Being rooted in Him is what prevents us from being taken captive by philosophy or empty deception.  He is also what we are to grow into, with Christ being head over all. The world is constantly changing, declaring new fads and fictions to be the truth because someone wrote a book or spoke at a conference. We do not live in such a shifting landscape as so many do in this generation. We live completely secure in the bedrock foundation of Christ’s truth.