Tension

• John’s point is that he has fellowship with God, and he wants us to have the same thing.
  • We proclaim what we’ve seen and heard so you fellowship with US
  • Our fellowship is with the Father and His Son.
  • We want you to FULLY SHARE OUR JOY! 
• SO YOU NEED TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH HERE... He is LIGHT! 

Passage

• 1 John 1:5–2:2 (NLT) — 5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. 1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

Body

1. God is Light
   1. Light is POWER - Paul says that He dwells in unapproachable light
   2. Light is Life - John says that this life brought light to everyone. There is a connection between light and life. There is no death in God
   3. Light is Truth - We’re dialing it in even a little closer to what John is talking about. There is no
      1. Hypocrisy, fakeness, deception, trickery, ignorance with God. 
   4. Light is Moral Perfection - He’s absolutely the definition of GOOD. You’re not going to out moral God
      1. The atheist in California
      2. If God is a good God, why does evil happen?
      3. Some of the things in the Old Testament seem immoral? 
      4. When you acknowledge that there is a moral code, you are saying that we are more than atoms and chemicals. You’re identifying that there is right and wrong. I’m saying God wrote the book. 
   5. Transition - John’s whole point is that we would have fellowship with this God who he is telling us about. That’s where the rub happens. How can we have fellowship with a being that is perfect? One thing we can NOT do --- is walk in darkness, and have fellowship with Him. 
2. In Him there is no darkness
   1. 1 John 1:6 - So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 
   2. Acknowledge the tension here - You can say you have fellowship with God, but but NOT! 
      1. Great example - The Pharisees
      2. Culture is full of examples - People who make a practice of sinning, yet claim fellowship with God. 
   3. What does it mean to live in spiritual darkness
      1. Ignorance - You don’t know that what you are doing is wrong.
      2. Hypocrisy - You are hiding what you are doing
      3. Downplay - You don’t call it what it is
         1. My lust is...
         2. My greed is just...
         3. My anger is just.. 
         4. My addiction is just...
      4. Deliberate sin - You don’t care what God thinks, you call light/dark and dark/light
         1. Isaiah 5:20 (NLT) — 20 What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.
   4. Two lies people believe about sin
      1. They don’t have any
      2. There’s nothing they can do about it 
   5. To close out the point - God wants fellowship with you, but He will never be a friend of darkness. He came to destroy the works of the devil. 
3. He is faithful and just to forgive us
   1. ‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭8-10‬ ‭NLT‬‬ - 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. 
   2. How do we step into the light? Confess! Or Say what He says. See it how He sees it. 
   3. Before we start feeling legalistic and like we’ll never be able to know God, let me tell you that He has done everything to destroy the works of the devil for us so that we can walk in victory. 
   4. Breakdown
   5. Faithful and just to forgive us
      1. Faithful - He definitely will
      2. Just - He paid for it
      3. Forgive us - Release us, pay the debt. 
   6. ... and cleanse us with His blood - Whatever defilement was there, he cleanses you of that sin! Meaning there is no longer a stain
      1. I am infamous for staining my clothes. Sometimes I can get it close to “as if I’d never done it”, but most of the time you can still tell. When God deals with your sin, it is completely washed away 
   7. He has become our advocate
      1. He is for you
      2. He is your lawyer
      3. Hebrews 4:15–16 (NLT) — 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
4. So that you will not sin
   1. Important clarity.. God doesn’t expect that you’ll never make mistakes, that’s not what he’s talking about. He uses the phrase “walking in darkness” to mean when you think that you and God will be good even if you continue in sin. 
   2. He gives us several powerful tools to be victorious over sin
   3. CALL IT WHAT IT IS
      1. Don’t try to say that your sin is anything other than just sin. 
      2. Don’t try to justify it by qualifying yourself for it, almost like you are entitled to it. 
   4. CONFESS 
      1. Many of us miss the power of confession. We don’t realize how powerful it can be. 
      2. Confess means to SAY THE SAME THING. 
      3. Acknowledge it first to yourself
      4. Then acknowledge it to God
      5. Then acknowledge it to others
   5. RUN
      1. If you stay in the place of your temptation, you remain on the battlefield. The way to win the battle is to leave the battlefield! RUN
   6. RESIST
      1. The Word of God
      2. Praying in the Spirit
      3. Your Community! 

Closing

• Jeannie Allen at Azuza St. Testimony. Revival is when you confess. 
• God wants fellowship with all of us, but light cannot have fellowship with darkness, we must get right!