Sunday Night Worship 4/28/24 | Bro. Terry Faulkner (1 John 1:5-10) | By Longview Baptist Church | Good afternoon and welcome back. Glad to have everyone. So next Sunday, we will have a love offering for Krista Viv. I know in the bulletin it says, Mexico missions but it's going to be for Christopher Church in Pontotoc. Um we would not have brotherhood on May the 5th because the brotherhood's going to be cooking for the youth fundraiser. Right now, we've got 14 kids signed up going to camp and the Mother's Day breakfast. Proceeds will go to the camp funding of the fourteen kids that we got currently signed up. So, in lieu of Mother's Day and the breakfast, bring your mother and feed your mama. But it'll also be a joint Sunday school. There will be no open assembly and David Coomer will be teaching Sunday school that morning. End of the school bash for the kids will be at the skating rink, Wednesday, May 15th. Be there at six. It'll go from six to 730. And Sunday, May 19th, we will celebrate our graduates with a bachelor bachelorette service, baccalaureate service, during morning worship with the reception to follow. VB will be June 9th through 12th. The theme this year is god's truth never changes. If you like to help, there will be a sign up sheet at some point in the foyer. Um Gridiron's Gridiron Men's Conference is June 14th to 15th in Huntsville. Um speakers will be Willie Robertson, George Foreman, and a few others. If you like to go to that, see me. Operation Christmas Child, we're collecting the following items all year. Adult T shirts, jump ropes, four jump ropes, medicine bottles for fishing, sewing kits, toilet tissue rolls, stuff, and loose leaf paper, notebook paper. And also, last but not the least, the WMU is collecting medicines for the for Cuba. They will be used by Gene McGee and a team from Oxford who are going to Cuban, October. Medicines can be out of date. Teams collecting following items, reading glasses, rehydration packets, glucose packets, diabetic test strips, lenses, glucometers, Tylenol, multivitamins, treats as vitamins with iron, and folic catheters. And anybody got anything else you'd like to add? And miss Jill's going to put a box out front next week for starting. Is that for Cuba or for for the Cuba missions? And Mother's Day also, Robert said that he needs all the men in the choir. So, put the pride aside. We can all sing. Let's make a joyful noise. And I'm going to ask mister Carey to open us up in prayer and right after he prays, we're going to have the Bible buddies come up and they'll share what they've learned. Okay. Alright, these are our Bible buddies and we've had the privilege and honor. Miss Jill and I of working with them during Sunday night service for the past several months and just trying to deepen their knowledge of scripture. Um the first thing that they're going to do for us tonight is they are going to quote the books of the Bible for us. Are y'all ready? Joe John third John Good job. Um next, they each have been assigned a Bible verse for the last 2 weeks. They were given a Bible verse and so they've been practicing their verse that they want to share with you. So, they're going to share their verse and where it's found in the scripture. Words mail, Psalms fifty-four two yourself with all your strengths Six five. Even a young man is known by his actions. Proverbs 2011 into instruction and be wise. Don't ignore it. Proverbs eight thirty-three. Five. Keep a bananas. Good job. Alright. So, for this last little time that they'll have on stage, guys, I'm going to ask y'all some questions. I'm going to go sit back down here in just a second. I'm going to ask you some questions but I'm going to call your name and then you can answer it out loud for everyone, okay? Alright. Canon. Will you tell me the very first book of the Bible? Uh Jonah Genesis. Genesis. Very good. Waylon, will you tell me the very last book of the Bible? Daniel, will you tell me the book of the Bible that's in the middle? Psalms. Psalms. Very good. Carson, how many books are there in the Bible? Sixty-six. Alright. Um Emma, we, the book of the Bible is broken up into two sections. We have the testimony. In the New Testament. Very Jasmine, can you tell me what Jesus died on? What did he die on? The cross. The cross. Carson, can you tell me why Jesus died on the cross? To save us for our sins. Yeah. Lynn. Can you tell me if Jesus is still on the cross? Is Jesus still on the cross? Hero from the grave. Very good. Next, we have our certificates for their participation in Bible Buddies. First, we have Emma Pound. And Jasmine Pound, and Waylon Marshall, and Canon plaques Carson Kidd Daniel Plaxico, and Canon Plaxico. It's been an honor and a joy to serve these kids and to learn more about scripture with these kids. I promise you this has been as beneficial for me doing this as it has for them. Um and I pray that they keep learning more and are eager because I promise you they're eager. Um and so just keep diving into scripture and we look forward to doing this again next year. Thank you, kids. That was good but I tell you what we're going to do. We're going to despair with a couple of songs and we're going to let the parents of these come up here and we're going to see if they can answer these questions. Come on. All the grandparents, it don't matter let's begin our congregational sing the hymn turn into hymn number three hundred thirty-three and don't and don't don't think that Waylon can't take it on the chin. Y'all know how this carpet trips you sometime? He failed right there a while ago on that chin. Hit that seat. He didn't say a word. He just jumped up. Lasting a blessed day what a peace in my on the everlasting god lady fancied you from house when you walk in oh how safe and secure the everlasting have my children on the everlasting when safe and secure the everlasting and turn over to him number two hundred and90. 290, I'm thine oh lord. By the power of grace let my soul and my will coming year old Now, time for the off-door hymn, the hymn number 4 hundred eleven. Let's stand the ghost, sing god four eleven. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Amen. I'm so glad I learned be far great Travis, would you let her off to a prayer? If you have your Bible tonight, with you, look with me please to first John. First John chapter one And Dudley, you scared me. I thought you want after you told about Waylon falling down. You want us to come try that too, huh? That is the key Doesn't seem like a whole lot but it means a whole lot in the lives of those kids what just happened in the old dear ladies or you ladies that were helping with that and god bless you. Don't let that stop. Just keep going. In first John chapter one and book down in verse five. This then is a message which we have heard from him. And declared unto you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all. Verse six says, if we say then, we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Verse ten, if we say then, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we thank you tonight for lord being the light of the world and we pray that we might be a part of that in this world. Lord, that we would let you shine through us. We thank you father for lord loving us and caring for us. We thank you lord for these young people here tonight and we ask you lord that you would put your hand on their lives and their families. And Lord that the families would be the parents they should be and the children would learn to be obedient and do as they're told Father. To honor and glorify you. And we just pray now Father that you'd help us in the word. Worship in your name we pray. Amen. When you read these verses, you realize that part of the part of the burden of this is is who Jesus is but at the same time, it's it's having to do with light. In verse five, he says, this then is the message which we have heard of him, declare unto you that god is light and in him is no darkness. I wonder sometimes as we read the weekly news and hear the weekly news on the television, it's just amazing. Some of the some of the things that we're able to see. It's just unbe how darkness it, how dark it is today and it's unbelievable how people have just went all the way into the dark thinking they're concealing everything from god because we know they're not. A darkness, darkness can't drive out the light but the light can drive out the darkness and so what we need in our world today is a brighter light. The first thing, when god created the heavens and the earth, his first command was the light to shine. Let be light. That's what he said and there was light and it bears his image. It bears his he is he is light and so when we look at ourselves and when we look at our own lives and as we live our lives, we need to understand that light, you can't defile it. If light shines through, a bottle or glass of muddy water is not defiled in any way but it exposes what's in the water. It exposes the things that are supposed to be in the water. Uh this light is it shines and this light that god brought it to the earth and as he set everything in the motion, the thing of the light that it was revealing and it was so that it could go through all the process of the world. The Earth could go through all the processes that were going on at the time of the creation and the thing is today that if you've ever noticed plants crave the light, they turn their faces if they can towards the light. I saw some sunflowers one time and those sunflowers were facing the sun every morning and that as they droop over at night and then in the morning, they would raise up and it as if they would looking right at the light. A plant always turns towards the light if it can. And some of the characteristics I guess you could say is of created life is that it reflects the light of the one who created it and every time we see the sun shine, every time we see the things that happen in our create in his creation, and every time we see what's going on in the world and we can still see god even in the darkness, out of the darkness, his light, his light shines. He's always the same. God is always the same. He he's always the same in many different ways and he reveals himself in different ways and everything in creation reflects him and is a part of who he is and our desire towards him should be strong because he rules us he rules it all but John's writing here and he's writing to churches that were having difficulties and churches that were suffering under the persecution of the empire and and other folks and they were going through dark times and he was reminding them or he giving them instructions as to what they were supposed to be and how they were supposed to live. To consider that and to realize that just because Jesus has come and died on the cross and the sins, our sins were taken care of it. It's not something that we just move from that on to something else. But the thing is, the work of the cross is still being done today and the work of the cross is in, is a reflection of the light of god and we have a responsibility to let god shine through our lives. John ever was one to mix words. He he said, listen, there's truth and there's lies. There's truth and there's lies and either it's one way or it's the other. It's all absolute. There's truth and there's lies. There's darkness and there's light. There's no in between. John was in relationship to god. He was he was wanting people to understand that there is no middle ground. There's no where where we can we can kind of try to hide things and put things under the rug so to speak and live out our lives in a way that we want to be. You know, we don't want everybody to know what we're doing but the truth is, there maybe darkness in our lives and that darkness is dangerous and those times in the dark can be very destructive in those times in our life when we are away from god can be so difficult and we can be caught in those things. Darkness in verse seven there he says, but if we walk in a light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Listen, the only way to expel darkness is through Jesus Christ. The darkness of the soul, the darkness of the lost sinner, the darkness of the person who's seeking God, the only thing that can can bring in the light is the light of god and expose the darkness that's in the life and that person will have a desire to turn. That person will have a desire through the light. He's exposed. You know, I I don't know about I heard a man say one time. About security lights. He said, you shouldn't put up a security light in your yard and some fellas said, well, why not? He said, that only helps the thief see what he's stealing. Now, don't go home, knock em out or anything but that's light of god, it reveals what's in the dark and many folks don't want the light to shine too bright around them because it would reveal, it would reveal something in their life, some darkness in their life that they don't want to know want anybody to know about. That's if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another. Listen, our lives as a believer is supposed to be transparent. as a believer, we're supposed to, we're supposed to be to be seen. What's the truth about us? What's on the inside of us and the way we're living and people looking at us you see Jesus Christ. We should live a life that's beyond reproach and we're not supposed to harbor anything that shaded. We're not supposed to do anything that's below or under the table as some people would say but when we do, we know that that light will reveal it. That light will bring the truth. That light exposes the bad and shows the truth and we should nothing else in our life but truth and follow the truth of god and to follow what he says and to do the things that he tells us to do. Light, light is very much a part of our life but that light when it shines, it exposes all of the hidden and all that's hidden in the darkness. Now, I grew up. My mother was very scary and she a lot of nights she'd get out when on Sunday night, this was our big night and daddy would work on Sunday nights and and so we'd be there by herself Mother could hear a cricket 10 miles away making a racket. She never missed anything. She heard everything. Sometimes in the middle of that of the night, she'd come in. She said, I hear some. And so she scared me and that I ended up being scared of the dark too. And but I just member that was a better feeling when he was there. It was a better feeling when everybody was in the house and and the thing is that we don't want people to see. We're afraid of the dark because we we don't want people to see what's in the dark around us. We don't want people to know. It's amazing that the I remember one time I was working with a man or and he drank all the time but he never would drink in front of me. and so one day, he was thought he had it. From it and I didn't know that he was. I figured he was because he was breathing and I crawled in under a cotton picker and I was fixing to do something and there it was. He'd seen me coming. He crawled under there and hid it. He thought. I didn't say anything. I just went on about the business. He didn't want people because he didn't want me to see that because he knew that it wasn't right. He knew that it was something that he would be exposed to the truth about what was going on in his heart, in his life. When he believers come to that decision in our life to live and to live in such a way that when the light shines on us, it doesn't condemn us but it exposes the truth of god in our life. That light is so important. Many people today live in those situations in their life where they they just they just try to hide everything. They try to keep it all away from everybody. They don't want people to know. I went into a lady's house day, she's about 100 years old I sit in there and she was a character She said, preacher, I I just I've seen this pack of red man on the table and I said to, she said, the preacher, now that's my tobacco right there and I I chew tobacco. I said, well, I guess that's all your business and didn't even offer me. It's you and she went on and she she didn't try to hide anything. She was very honest in the way that she lived. She didn't try to keep those same secret from other people. She was always the the was always about her and I like that. I like people who are truthful. I like people that didn't try to keep away things that aren't so and to say things that that they really don't mean but because they're living with a darkness in their life. When god looks at us, when god sees us, he knows the truth of us. I think about the day of atonement in the Old Testament. On the day of atonement, the high priest would take two goats and he would take those goats and he would he would put all of the sins of one goat on the of the people, on those symbolically on that goat. On the other goat, he would slay that goat and that blood of that goat symbolically was a covering for the sins of Israel and then that other goat was taken far away from the camp and loosened in the wilderness somewhere with the idea those sins would never be seen again and that's exactly what Jesus did for us and the goat shall bear upon him all the iniquities unto a land inhabited not inhabited. So, all of those iniquities and transgressions and sins that those things are described in the in the scripture, those iniquities that it talks about and deals with pervertness, perverseness, and things that are bent out of out of in the wrong directions. Things that are bent the wrong way. That's iniquities, iniquities are and I'm having a little trouble tonight. I reckon my pacemaker's slowing down. Is to be bent or to be crooked. Transgressions is simply the idea of revolt and rebelling against god. It's the idea of always and when we rebel against god, when we sin, we rebel against him and it goes on and on. Those things about our sins and our transgressions and our our our things that we do in our life that we should. Sins is simply to miss the mark, to miss the mark of god, to miss, to stumble, and to come up sword. Now, those sins that we have in our lives is we need to deal with those sin. The atonement talked to was about dealing with sin. It was about dealing with with what what was going on in the lives of everybody that was there. It was it was to deal with the things that were going on on the on the things that were unseen and the things that were seen. And all of this day of atonement and all of these things that we read about in the Old Testament were just a foreshadowing of what would come one day the lamb of god would come and would be offered on the cross for the sins of the world. These sacrifices didn't cleanse us, didn't cleanse them from sin but it covered their sins and they had that privilege of believing that one day, those sins would be dealt with by the one that was to come. We need to be sure and be careful. In verse eight, he says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Sometimes you meet one of those pious people and they think because, well, I don't know why they're thinking but they think some of them think that they are above all of that. They they think that because of who they are, what they are, and what they do that they are above all of those sins. If there's nothing that they have to worry about. Well, he says here, if we have no sin, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The truth of the thing is when we deceive ourselves, it's still there. There's nothing's changed. We just make believe that it's not important or we we might believe that it's not a big deal and if it was a big deal, god would god would have done something by now. Well, he's got it on the books and one of these days, he will do something. We shouldn't deceive ourselves. We shouldn't try to make ourselves believe that that's not talking to me. He's not talking to me. The Bible is not talking me because where I am spiritually or where I am as an individual The thing is, it is an ongoing thing in the life of all believers. We must not try to deceive ourselves to feel better about ourselves. That's where gossip comes in a lot of times. People talk about other people and people talk about the failures and the shortcomings of other people because they want to feel better about themselves. That deception. That's deceiving ourselves. Truth is that we are all sinners. We are all sinners and some of us are sinners saved by the grace of god. When Paul was young, a rich man when he or when Paul was a young man before, he was called or saved. He he used to believe that he was kind of above all to those things. You know, he kept all of these commandments. If you talk to him, he'd say, well, you know, that one that said thou shall have no other gods before me. He he would say, well, I kept that one. One to make any fault or any graven images. I ain't never done that. I'm not that way. Thou shall not take the name of the lord in vain. He would have said, no. I am I'm good with that. Remember the Sabbath, the Sabbath and keep it holy. Honor thy father and thy mother, thou shalt not kill or commit adultery. I've kept all those. Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Of these things. He kept up with and then he come to this one. Thou shall have no evil desire. Thou shall have no evil desire or we would say in the in the in the King James, it says, we're not to be covetous. We're not to covet other things. We're not to be covetous. We're supposed to be living and grateful for what god says or what god's provided. He said, nay, I had not known sin by the law. For had I not known lust except the law said thou shalt not covet Sin revived, he said, and I died. He was too honest in his faith to try to hide those sayings. He knew that those things in his life had to be brought up and had to be dealt with and and had to be confessed before almighty god. Listen, folks. The hold up that many people have today is is that they've deceived themselves and trying to believe they're just as good as anybody else and Paul was saying, listen, I I would I thought I was in good shape until god showed me my showed me the the opening in my armor and he fired that dart into my heart and he exposed the truth about me. I thought I was as good. I was not as good as anybody else but better than anybody else. He would have been like those men that Jesus ran into when he was a fair or when these men he ran into the Pharisees and the sadducees who thought that they were above everything. There's no sin in us. We have reached the place in our lives where we we are not controlled by sin. That fellow's making all of this and saying all of this and wanting people to believe that we're like everybody else. And they were. And so it is today with us. And we can we can walk around and we can try to talk about other things. But the trouble that's in the world. The trouble that's in most of our lives is sin. And if it's not dealt with in our life if it's not dealt with we can't be in fellowship with him and there's a great difference. If we confess our sins, confess means to agree with, to agree with god about my sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us in our sin, forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He had to be honest. We have to be honest. Don't try to deceive yourself and don't try to believe that that this is this is not talking about anything like that. It is. Anything that's rebellious against god. Anything that goes against his principle. I say that all the time but that's the truth. You can't overlook things in our lives and live and expect to be what god wants us to be when we we allow things to go on in our hearts, in our life. There's not a person here tonight that has the right to hate or to have to keep grudges against people. There's not many here tonight that should think that because maybe they're living in adultery or some kind of sin that that's alright. God just give them special permission. There's nothing further from the truth. Because he loves us. Because he loves us. He wants us to know what's going on and what he sees when he looks at us. Listen, he, the sin offering had to do with sin the trespass offering. I wrote this down, related to sins. Sin offering deals with what we are, sinners. The trespass offering deals with what we do. We sin. The sin offering dealt with the root of sin. The trespass offering dealt with the fruit of sin. Offering were necessary. The sin offering and the trespass offering work together. When those priests come, they have to remember they were dealing with the a whole nation of pagans. Over 6 million people that were pagans. They've been raised in the pagan culture for 400 years and it it had it had made a difference in their life to the negative, not to the positive and so all these people had to have guidance when they when they were expelled from Egypt and when they were on their way to the promised land, they had to have the they had to have the instructions that Moses gave them and god gave them to Moses. That's why all of that is in in the book of Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. All of those five books that are written by Moses was for a nation that had nothing, had no direction, had no, didn't know anything about Yahweh. They only knew about the 2 000 gods that were in Egypt that had been brought before them and hell before them by the Egyptians in their time of and all that wish. indoctrinated into their lifestyle and so god gives instructions about what they're supposed to do. The reason that he did the ten plagues was not only to chastise the Egyptians and to show that he was god but also to show his own people who he was and what he was and when you read their history as a went out across the wilderness and they lived each day. They were always in trouble and god was continually bringing them to what he had said and bringing them back to what he had what he knew that was going on in their life and there had to be confession and there had to be cleansing. It has to be the same today. You wonder, you wonder why. Spiritually, you're not making any advances. You, the same as you were a long time ago when you have an advanced inning. When we think about why we're not more like Jesus. It's many times and most times, it's because of the shady things that are in our lives that nobody can see. That little white lie that we always tell or that dishonest thing that we not don't necessarily steal anything but we're not telling the whole truth about something and we're not honest with god and if we're not honest with him, we may not be honest with others. God knows that. Amen. And god desires to know more of us. God desires to be in stronger fellowship with us but listen, as long as we hide those things that we don't want nobody to see and to know the truth about us. We'll end up. Amen. We'll end up far away from god. And there's nothing that we can do that will bridge that divide the saree that's caused by sin. There's there's nothing that we can do. We can be more religious but the problem still there. God is looking for us to be honest. To Confess our sins and to turn to the light of god and let his light shine. Many of us don't want the light to shine because it'll reveal something in the deep, dark places of our heart where we've got things hid and we have justified them. We have justified them. But god hadn't turned his head from it. God knows that it's there. God sees all that's there and he knows all that's going on there. Why do we think we could fool him? What? Why would we call god a liar? We shouldn't do that but listen, when we deny, when we deny that there's sin and things in our life that shouldn't be, you say, but I don't know of anything in my life that shouldn't be. Well, the first one is pride because we need to understand that because we are in these bodies because there's two natures in us, the Bible. he, we don't come. We don't become sinless. We're we're always be going to have problems with sin. Some will have greater problems than others but all sin separates man from god. Anyone us. He wants us to see how dear relationship he wants to have with us. And if we'll make the right steps, he will. He will. If we'll come with the right heart and humble ourselves before and we'll experience a revival in our heart. But if he always trying to hide something in the dark, that'll never happen. That's why in a lot of places, we see these different things happening and all this emotionalism and entertainment in churches is because some people don't want to stop and think about what's going on in their heart. Not all. Not all. But some of that, some of that's just trying to not deal with what's the truth is. I don't want to have to face it. I don't want to have to face it That there's something in my life that shouldn't, that shouldn't be. I don't want anybody to know and I don't I don't want to deal with it. I I I've me and god's got a special arrangement. No, you ain't. Sin is sin. Sin is black. Hell is hot. In Jesus saves. That's just the basics of faith. That's just the basics of why Christ come. So, we could have eternal life. Let's bow our heads. Father, help us to be honest tonight Help us to right where we are, to confess our sins, and seek your forgiveness. Repent of those sins, and turn towards you. This is our prayer in Jesus name. Amen. Let's