A Spiritual Checklist

This is the day the Lord has made we rejoice and we're glad in it. Thank you for the testimonies. Thank you for working in our lives Lord we would continue to keep you ever before our face in Jesus name Amen Let's take a look in first John First John chapter 2 verse 28 And now little children abide in him That when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed At his coming Now little children abide in him that when he appears We may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming Abiding in the vine John 15 says I am the vine my father the vine dresser Abide in me and let my words abide in you As a branch can do anything of itself unless it abide in the vine Neither can we unless we abide in his Word This morning I was just putting away some things and before service and We have vines growing and the vines are getting very long and there's a tremendous amount of fruit coming on them But if we leave all of those branches and all of that fruit to themselves, none of it will ripen Won't bring any fruit to maturity So all those branches which are growing long and wild They have to be pruned and the time to prune them is now so that there's an opportunity for a fruit to come and to grow sweet And that's how the Lord deals with us You know, it's definitely we're abiding is definitely the hair is getting long But we need a good haircut we need to Allow the Lord to do his pruning in our life So that we start to bear some fruit And if we just let ourselves in our liberty to say well, we're abiding in Christ We do what we want and we let we let that long hair in a man is a sign of rebellion And if the Lord leave us To continue to do the things that we used to do in the way of rebellion we are not abiding in Christ because there's no rebellion in Christ and When we're abiding in him we are sons We're daughters in Christ and he deals with us as sons and daughters, which is discipline and this is the pruning And so he allows us to see the the rebellion and some of these things that are in our hearts that we might humble ourselves and Allow him to prune us So that we might bear sweeter Abiding in the vine Every branch that does not abide in his word He cuts off not doesn't just prune but the one that bears he prunes that it might bear more and sweeter Now there's some things that we know as believers there's some things that we know It says in 1st John verse 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things Or you all know things The brother Sean says these are good things.

These are things. These are not so good things we're gonna read this morning about some things that we know and We have to know these things if we don't know these things and we don't you don't know where you stand And so we need to have a checklist You know when you're gonna go camping You can just say well We're going camping you just jump in your car and you go as soon as you get there you find out you're missing all kinds of things oh Man, I thought you were bringing the tent. No, I thought you were.

Oh, well, that's one of the big things Where are we gonna sleep? Well, we've got to go to the best Western spend 300 bucks a night That's not gonna work for very long so before we go we prepare ourselves and We take a checklist and we make sure that we have all those things and surely we're gonna miss a few things But we got to have the made majority of the things so we know that when we get there we ask at hand or the the time at hand and The same thing when we're walking with Christ we need to be equipped And we need to know some things the first thing like like your tent you there's something you can't you can't miss you need the anointing If you say you have Christ and you don't have the anointing Then you're in big big trouble Because the Holy Spirit gives us an anointing You have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things You know things and so the Holy Spirit is the one who's gonna teach us these things Men aren't gonna teach you It's a word for time We have an anointing from the Holy One And we don't need men to teach us. We need the Holy Spirit to teach us There's enough of sermons out there of men teaching teaching knowledge But we need to know him Paul said he had so much knowledge When he was then Saul but Paul Decided he was gonna set aside all the things that he knew So that he could know Christ and he had to relearn all of those verses which were true But they're true in him and in you That's where the anointing comes from you have a new commandment, which I give you Which is true in him and in you Under the new covenant we have an anointing God is love and that love has to flow through us through the spirit It's like having a car with no oil in the engine having a vehicle with no gas in the tank We can brag all we want about all the things we know about the engine in the car with no power It's useless You have an anointing verse 20 from the Holy One and you know all things Verse 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth So those who have the anointing they know the truth in the inner man, you know Whether something's right or something's wrong because you have a compass the Holy Spirit gives you a compass You might not understand it with your head, but the Holy Spirit is showing you it something's not right here Something feels off in my in my spirit or I have peace. I don't understand it, but I have peace in my spirit This this feels right and this is how the Holy Spirit begins to teach us and to show us I've not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and there's no lie in the truth Verse 24 therefore let us abide in you Let that abide in you Which you heard from the beginning If what you heard from the beginning abides in you you also will abide in the Son and in the Father We have to allow the Spirit of Christ to indwell us richly through faith, that's how you receive the Spirit of Christ through faith To receive the anointing so that the Spirit of the Father and the Son can come to us He said I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you and so this indwelling presence of the Spirit is what we all need and and the Lord says that we should ask for it a Good father will give good things to his children and we have need of the Holy Spirit. We have need of this anointing This anointing not only to preach but there's a diversity of gifts and a diversity of fruit that manifests through the same spirit not only gifts but fruit and If we abide in him and that spirit and that anointing abide in us we're going to bear and in the process of time more and sweeter It won't be sour and crabby To be beautiful and The Lord will be pleased Because we bear his likeness You know if we read earlier, it says the one who abides in him might all must also walk just as he walked That is how we know that we're abiding in him. So this checklist is things that we know How do we know that we're abiding in him? the first one We can see in verse 29 If you know that he is righteous Jesus Then you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him So this is the first thing that we know that our life has had a change.

We've passed from death to life and We we love the brothers now. We love the people of God We have a burden for the lost and that we love the lost But we have to have a genuine love for the brothers And so part of the checklist is do I get more joy and more fulfillment in hanging out with the ungodly? Or do I get joy and fulfillment in hanging out with my brothers and my sisters in the Lord Where do I want to spend my time? Do I get joy in the presence of God and spending like my time? Do I look forward to spending my my quiet time with him? Or is it something that I just to-do list and so I can check it off and To be honest about these things because these are you know on our engine Dan does diagnostics There's probably a thousand codes in there Who knows and the thing is gonna come up a code and if you just ignore all the codes You're gonna have a catastrophic engine failure It might not happen all the time might just be an o2 sensor might be some other thing But but some of the stuff can get serious and all of a sudden you're going to be on the outside looking in You're gonna be on the side of the road like blind Bartimaeus And so these this checklist is for us to look if there are any check lights on So that we can address them to the Lord this takes humility You know I can drive down the road engine lights been on for a year, and I just tell myself all that's just nothing It doesn't mean anything And all of a sudden one day on the outside To be prudent is to search these things out and to humble yourself So you have to humble yourself, and you have to make a choice to look into these things This is what the Lord wants So if there's something that's not right, and we should get a conviction We don't just blow through the engine light check the engine light, and we just say oh, it's all good All of a sudden. Oh, yeah, see you There's no problem.

I don't have conviction anymore That doesn't mean that it's okay. It just means that your hearts become seared Your heart your consciousness has become hardened to the convictions of the Holy Spirit So we know that Jesus is righteous righteousness in simple man's terms is doing what is right and As we come to the Lord we start to know that hey, this isn't right and Then our heart condemns us First conviction and then condemnation and if our heart condemns us. It's God's greater than our heart But if our heart doesn't condemn us then we have peace with God And so this is one of those checks that we need to have am I doing what's right? Is this what Jesus would do you know sometimes people put a little bracelet on their wrist? What would Jesus do WWGD? That's an Old Testament thing They used to hang the Commandments on the right hands, and they would place them in these little boxes in the front Let's other eyes But you know what sometimes Old Testament people need to wear the bracelet to remind themselves What would Jesus do? It's an outward thing, but it has to become an inward thing We have to be conscious of the Word of God not just outwardly but inwardly Because the New Testament is about the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God in our lives Jesus in you Christ in you the hope of glory the hope of being changed the hope of Representing Christ well on the earth as Christians now it says also in chapter 3 in verse 5 You know that Jesus was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin So do you know that your sins are forgiven? Or do you still feel guilty? If you have the anointing And you know that the Spirit of Christ is in you You know one thing that you've passed from death to life the guilt of your sin has been dealt with Excuse me So this is one of the things on the checklist that we need to know That you know that Jesus was manifested not just 2,000 years ago on the cross But he was manifested in our hearts through faith Has he been manifested in you and do you know that he was manifested to take away our sins Not just 2,000 years ago, but we have now a clean conscience before God You can check that off the checklist.

I have a clean clear conscience before God whereas before I always felt guilty Always asking for forgiveness for the same thing over and over and over again never feeling forgiven When your sins are blotted out, you know It's not just covered. It's taken away and So we know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin. What does that mean? That means when we're abiding in him and he's abiding in us He's able to be in us and to abide in us because of the blood of Jesus Christ When the blood is applied it's just as if we've never sinned We're justified before God and that is why the Spirit of God can stay and so we're not to practice sin Mortal bodies to obey it in its last we need to repent and turn from sin and As we're heading in the right direction, the Holy Spirit is working.

It's just as if we've never sinned That's how I see it. If we look at verse 14, one of the other things we know We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers He who does not love his brother abides in death Do you have now a love for the brothers? When you're not with the brothers, we're not with the sisters Do you pray often for them? Do they come to mind? Do you do you have the brothers and sisters come to mind you you're thinking about them Lord bless them today help them today Lord convict them in this area. They don't see Lord that they don't make a big mistake Lord and and and we just have a Genuine care and our love for the brothers and sisters that we know and the brothers and sisters We don't know we pray for those who are being persecuted for their faith for other brothers and sisters That we've heard about or read about Do you have it in your heart? Do you know this is it on your checklist? Is it in your heart? for the brothers for the sisters If you don't have it in your heart for the brothers and sisters, then maybe you have you're at odds with one of them Maybe there's something not right with one of your brothers or one of your sisters because love is of God and everyone who loves is Born of God and knows God, but if you don't love if you have a problem loving then you don't know God So it's one of the things in the checklist that you can't ignore.

It's a check engine light. That's gonna lead to the seized engine You have to address this in your own heart, what is the answer It says if you have something against your brother or your sister Don't forget your devotions Forget your long prayers before God Leave your gift at the altar forgive forget giving something to someone or doing some kind of donation forget about it Go and get right and humble yourself Humility is needed To address the problem if we humble ourselves, he'll lift us up his brother Gerson shared So when we say, you know what? There's no sense reading anymore. None of it's speaking to me It's all just going into my head or just through both ears.

I Need to address this. I have a grudge. I have a bitterness.

I have a resentment And you know what? Yes, maybe those people did these things to me but I have to release these things from my heart and Maybe there's something that I've done and I need to humble myself and just simply say I've had a grudge I've been bitter. I've been angry. I've been unforgiving I've had hatred in my heart and the Word of God says if I if I have hatred in my heart The love of God is not abiding in me.

I cannot be a Christian and carry this. I Can't lie about the truth So these are one of the things that we need to know That we have love for all the brothers all the sisters if they have the Spirit of Christ If we look at verse 16 by this we know love you say well, what does love look like? By this we know love Because he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay our lives down for the brothers So your brother needs a ride to the airport and you can you can do it Who's saying I'll stay warm well-fed your brother has no food to eat and he has nothing to nothing to drink and He said, you know, could you spare something to eat? I'm going hungry actually and And you say stay warm well-fed and you you don't you have no conviction About helping or meeting that urgent need I'm not just saying well, you know Your brother wants to have a brand new car and you're gonna take out a loan for 50 grand so you can get a nice Ride, I'm not talking about that I'm talking about with food and clothing and meeting urgent needs and some some Emergency rises up, you know something happens in the family.

We're there with a meal. We're there to help It manifests in many different ways To lay our lives down for the brothers because he laid his life down for us. So this is one of the checklists This do we know that that because he laid his life down for us.

We are laying our lives down for the brothers Sometimes I'll lay my life down for somebody because of what they can do for me down the road So I'll man, please maybe perhaps in my old life to try to gain an advantage. So later on they'll return the favor Well, you're just making friends by unrighteous mammon So in case you get sacked over here, you have another opportunity to get a job over there This is a manipulation. This is not love And so we can be blind to these things Why why am I doing this am I looking for honor what Tyler shared about seeking honor from men It's in our it's in our nature to want people to recognize us Even in preaching to have someone to recognize to get some likes It's not about that It's about pleasing him who enlisted us You think a soldier who's just in survival mode is looking for some honor while the bullets are flying He's looking to to live he wants to live He's vigilant and he's on guard and and you know what they have this saying no soldier left behind If there's a brother that gets wounded they risk their lives They lay their lives down for their brother to pack them out to to seek to save life Rather than saying well, you shouldn't have stuck your head up.

It's on you No, this kind of attitude is not the right attitude to have Yeah, maybe they did a mistake and they did a bad thing, but you know what? We are there To humble ourselves and to help that is the love of God. This is one of the things we need to know Because he laid his life down for us. We ought to lay our lives down For the others look at verse 17 Whoever has this world's goods sees his brother in need shuts up his heart from him How does the love of God abide in him brother Gerson you were saying so if we start shutting up our heart from people who are Needy, especially our family or parents How does the love of God abide in us? it's a check light and the reason that we become miserable is because we're ignoring the check light for a day or two or three till finally we can't do it anymore and we humble ourselves and Then he liberates us Right, he takes away the conveniences of life he brings problems into our life To show us something Something he already knows, but we don't see it It's for us to see it Why do we go and get a test in school? Why do we go and take the test? I? Don't like tests the test is there to show us whether we're ready to pass Whether we really learn the material The word of God we can say oh, I'm doing great spiritually until you get tested and then the Lord shows us What's in our heart? It says little children verse 18.

Let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth It's not lip service. The Lord is looking for Its action the Lord is looking for so we can have all the right words But our actions like brother Johnny was sharing last night. We can deny the Lord by our actions Because our actions are absolutely contrary to what we confess with their mouth There's no believing in the heart because the two have to agree The word and the heart have to agree.

Otherwise, there's no fellowship with Christ We have to walk in the light as he is in the light. That's where the fellowship is not only in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth as We already shared about if our heart condemns us God is greater than our hearts That means the conviction is there because we are are pushing through a check engine light something is wrong on the inside the Holy Spirit is putting the brakes on and We need to take heed to the things that the Holy Spirit is saying. This is where the anointing is so important.

It is it is The the peace let the peace of God rule in your heart through faith And if the peace of God is not ruling then we need to look into what is it? That is upset my spirit, even though my head doesn't doesn't understand it the Spirit of God does Love it. If our heart does not condemn us. We have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from