It's Not Complicated | Pastor William McDowell

amen we are so grateful to be gathered together as a family digitally and uh of course we do miss our family tremendously but we are so grateful that we are still connected the way that we are and uh so we just want to say we love you so much i was just texting with pastor jason uh just a moment ago uh as we were talking about he just talked about how he woke up so grateful for the deeper family and what god is doing among us and i echo that so much i'm so grateful for what god is doing among our family and so grateful for all that he's doing in us and around us and through us together and all that we're gonna see and experience together i know that you are uh being very patient as we're being very prudent but we appreciate your patience with our prudence as we lean into the lord and continue to to hear what it is that he is saying uh to us and to the earth uh so we are not confused prophetically about what is happening and so as a result we have uh what i would call prophetic patience uh to allow the lord to do what he's doing so i know uh it would be great to be able to get together and all of those things but but we are so grateful that we're still connected this way and so i appreciate your patience as we lean into the lord i was thinking about uh today as i was driving in um for for uh the last uh year and a half or so i drive past the new property praying for god to release it and uh today in the last couple of weeks i drive past a new property on my way to this property and i thank god for having answered and having released it and so i'm so grateful uh and there's a lot of preparation going on and things of that nature but i'm so grateful for all the lord has done and our our time being able to gather together there um i'm sure we're ready for the word so we're going to pray together i might it's not my endeavor to be long today um and i know that that all of you who know me are probably like yeah right uh and all of that stuff i get it i get it i have not given you a bunch of confidence in that area but but actually that the message itself is intended to be simple today and so because of that i i hope that we're not too too long with that but um let's pray together father thank you so much for being so good thank you lord for all that you have spoken thank you for all that you have released even this day thank you for what you've released prophetically through pastor caleb with word of knowledge and word of wisdom as it relates to not only healing that we're taking place but also how you are instructing us to even care for our our children father thank you for the moments that we've had in your presence in the area of worship now i pray that our moments together in the word lord will be powerful that you would anoint this time together anoint us to hear and not only hear but to do your word father i pray for the anointing to proclaim your word i thank you as always lord that the words of my mouth and meditations in my heart will be acceptable in thy sight o lord my strength and my redeemer and because of your goodness and your mercy i pray that you would save people in jesus name amen amen well family um you know that we have a tradition or a custom i would say here that when we read the word of the lord we stand for the reading of the word and i want to encourage us to do that our our folks are going to be working extra hard today because i didn't send them anything ahead of time so they're going to be working extra hard but they're going to be good um we're going to read first john chapter 2 surprise surprise first john chapter 2 and i'm actually going to start with verse 1 and i'm going to read first john chapter 2 verse 1 and i'll i'll go through verse 6. maybe i'll continue reading through verse 9 we'll see let's read together 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 he himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins and not only our sins but the sins of all the world we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments if someone claims i know god but doesn't obey god's commandments that person is a liar and is not living in the truth but those who obey god's word truly show how completely they love him that is how we know we are living in him those who say they live in god should live their lives as jesus did let me just read verse seven through nine and then i'll stop there dear friends i'm not writing a new commandment for you rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning this old commandment to love one another is the same message you heard before yet it is also new jesus lived the truth of this commandment and you are also living it for the darkness is disappearing and the true light is already shining if anyone claims i am living in the light but hates a fellow believer that person is still living in darkness all right that's the reading of our word today you're standing at home you can be seated and uh we're going to jump right into it today we're going to jump right into it today i i told you that um i i did not plan on being long today and for those of you who are are used to me communicating um i don't typically tend to name my messages in fact we name them afterwards uh typically i don't typically name them i'll have some headings and things on my page some thoughts that i think that it might be uh but today i actually did name this because it was important for me to name it and it's also why i'm going to be pretty simple but very direct in our messaging today i i if i were going to name this i would name it this it's not complicated if i were going to name this i would name it it's not complicated and i just want to spend a little bit of time in this particular passage of scripture this is kind of what i would call a prequel uh to what pastor matt preached last week and the reason why i call it the prequel this is be kind of like george lucas who did star wars episode four five and six before he did one two and three uh it's that kind of thing and the reason i'm doing that is because if any of you uh were like me you probably spent a great deal of time in first john chapter two uh this week contemplating it uh and and corinthians 13. specifically as pastor matt massively dealt with the categories of entanglement and i want to take kind of a a prequel meaning um that we will deal with some of the verses before the verses that we dealt with last week and and i i think it's just kind of important because this is a rich passage of scripture for us and i want to give us kind of a little bit of a context on this as well first john is a powerful book because it is written from pastoral love and concern but also with an authority of the firsthand witness of the one who would be known as the best friend of jesus so he has a pastoral loving concern for those who is writing to but at the same time there's an authority behind what he's saying because he's a first-hand witness and he's the best friend of jesus and and in this particular case um he he's writing this uh to people because there there's a group of people who are trying to and i know we use this term quite a bit in in modern day vernacular but they're they're trying to to over spiritualize the gospel they're trying to over spiritualize the gospel and and by so doing absolve themselves of actually living out as dictates now this is important because what they're trying to do is make it more complicated so that you can hide the fact that you aren't living right one of the things that happens in in in life and it was happening here is that at times we can make this thing so difficult and so complicated by way of revelation and knowledge and all of these different things that that literally um you're really what you're doing and trying to sound all deep it's trying to hide the fact that you're not living this thing but it's not that complicated um um they they wanted to teach people um that you can know god without living like christ that was what was happening in that day they wanted to teach that you could know god through revelation and spiritualism and knowledge and rituals and mysticism and gnosis which is the knowledge of spiritual mysteries based on personal experience or perception um entering into all sorts of different realms and stuff like that through people would do stuff like that now through to altered consciousness um drugs and illicit drugs and all sorts of different things and and that that's be how you know god so i know god and so he's he's dealing with this and so what john wanted to do was he wanted to root people in the simple truth of what it really means to know god now i know that we've been talking about entanglements and some other things and we're we're still here but but but the spirit of god really wanted me to just kind of to to take a moment here through first john for us to get to the point where we are rooted in the fact that it is actually not that complicated to know god or to know who knows god this is very very important it's not that because because we are in a society i'm not gonna deal with this too hard today but we are in a society that that that seems to only know uh one verse of scripture which is don't judge doesn't seem to know much else everybody wants to say you can't judge me and things of that nature and we've kind of talked about this before but the scripture is very very plain the scripture is very very clear as it relates to what it means to know god and how you identify those who do and those who don't so john wants to root them in the simple truth of what it really means to know god and i'm going to i'm going to give you that simple truth and when you once you get it you're like wait we had to preach this yes and john had to write it we have to preach it i'm going to give it to you simply but i want to i want to do this i want to show you how john establishes his authority to directly refute false claims in his opening in john in first john chapter 1 verse 1 through 4 this is how john establishes his authority to directly refute false claims he he says we proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning whom we have heard and seen we saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands he is the word of life this one who is life itself was revealed to us and we have seen him and now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life he was with the father and then he was revealed to us we proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the father and with his son jesus christ we are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy john insists that the christian faith requires knowing that jesus the christ came in human flesh lived a human life and died in the flesh but the evidence of that faith is measured by the genuineness of one's christian lifestyle not so much by what they know now stay with me because the idea of that time was that you could know god without living like christ when he was essentially drawing a parallel was to say listen if you're going to say you know christ then your life must look like him the knowledge that god is light is tested by whether one walks in that light and obeys god's commands the knowledge that god is righteous is tested by whether one lives righteously as befits one born of god the knowledge that god is love is tested by whether one loves fellow believers as one loves god in other words for everything that you say there should be a manifestation for everything that you proclaim there should be a manifestation not living by this way means that you don't know him now this is the part where i i was recognizing that that that a lot of people um when we when we preach um and and this is across the board now understand this is across the board we try so hard to make people not feel so bad by not saying certain things with absolutes or to say you either know him or you don't if you live this way or you don't because we want everybody to live under this grand umbrella of safety the problem is we have a society right now that is very confused about what a christian is is it someone who lives like christ or is it a political ideology is it a right-leaning thing is it a left-leaning thing we don't we don't know how to define it everybody says they are one and and no one seems to look like one no one seems to talk like one no one seems to act like one and so the scripture is pretty clear about it when we talk about things like entanglement and we've been using this term for a number of weeks but when we talk about things like entanglement one of the things that we need to understand very clearly is what the nature of false teaching is now the reason why it's important for us to understand what the nature of false teaching is so that we are not passive concerning it you'll begin to understand then why uh we feel the way that we feel have to go the way that we go say the things that we say do the things that we do because we are not to be passive against false teaching now i want to be pretty clear here because a lot of times you just think it's somebody you don't agree with but i want to show you i want to show you that false teaching is actually much deeper than that now remember remember when we began talking about the idea of entanglement we we brought up matthew chapter 13 and we we brought up matthew chapter 13 in the esv matthew 13 verse 24 and through 26 says this and he put he put another parable before them saying the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field but while his men were sleeping his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away so that when the plants came up and bore grain the weeds appeared also we talked about the idea that entanglement actually happens uh because an enemy so something among the we right we're doing just a little bit of a review for just a moment now if you remember we talked about a number of things as we begin to talk about cosmic y right when we were talking about cosmic y we said things like there are two realms and three kingdoms anybody remember that two realms and three kingdoms the natural realm and the spiritual realm the kingdom of god which is also known as the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of darkness and the kingdoms of this world so that's just review you can go back and hear that stuff now now every kingdom has systems and hierarchy every kingdom has systems and hierarchy what i want you to know today is that false teachers are a part of the hierarchy of the kingdom of darkness they're not just it's it's a spirit it's not just somebody who got it wrong it's not just somebody who didn't study a false teacher is actually sent from the kingdom of darkness in order to deceive the children of light false teachers are actually a spirit that is a part of the kingdom of darkness this is why it must be opposed john's work in first john was not just a natural opposition it was a spiritual opposition to a spirit now you say how in the world can you say that false teachers is not i'm not talking about a person we are talking about a spirit go with me to second corinthians chapter 11. second corinthians chapter 11 verse 12 in the esv 2nd corinthians chapter 11 verse 12 in the esv corinthians chapter 11 verse 12 and the esv says this and what am i doing and what i am doing i will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do for such men are false apostles deceitful workmen disguising themselves as apostles of christ and no wonder for even satan disguises himself as an angel of light so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness therein will correspond to their deeds what is paul saying he is saying that false teachers have disguised themselves as preachers uh-oh false teachers have disguised themselves as servants of righteousness or angels of light so that they can deceive people and so it is important what we are talking about here as it relates to what it means to be a christian is we have some people who have crept in jude talks about that that false teachers have crept in among you in first john he's dealing with false doctrines false teachings these things are happening why because what they're trying to do is they're trying to convolute or sow weeds among the wheat or convolute or to complicate what it means to be a christian so that nobody knows who is what so that nobody knows how to identify who belongs to christ but the scripture is clearer than we like to act like it is what john is doing is not just natural it's spiritual he is refuting false teaching among them so among them there were a number of things that were taking place in this particular book they denied that jesus was the christ the son of god they denied that christ had come in the flesh they denied the authority to jesus's commands that denied their own sinfulness they denied salvation to the work of christ they denied the absolute demand for believers to love one another and they denied righteous conduct as a requirement for fellowship with god and they denied the responsibility to live as jesus lived now when we hear this kind of thing family when we hear this kind of thing today we say that must have been obvious but i submit to you that while it should be obvious obviously it's not as obvious as we think because it's still happening today people are convoluting the gospel complicating the gospel adding to the gospel to the point where now nobody knows where to look as it relates to who knows god and who doesn't everybody's saying i know god but there is an attribute for those who say they do there are some things that are markers i um was thinking about a statement that my mother made when all this social unrest kind of began to explode it's not gone it's percolating underneath the surface but you know when it was really at its height just a few weeks back and all the social unrest and people were talking about you know diversity and and and inclusion and understanding and i'm listening and we need to hear and we need all this kind of stuff and and and my mother um made a statement that caused me to ponder and i pondered it ever since she said it i've never actually forgotten it um because she she basically said um you know it's not that hard and and and i know that that may seem really simple but but she was actually talking about um some of the work that she used to do um when she was first entered into corporate america and and for those of you who know my mother she's very successful in the corporate world and she's retired now and and serving here at deeper fellowship church and has done a wonderful job and and all of that stuff but but um really um significant career in in corporate america for a fortune uh i i know it's 500 i want to say fortune 50 or above company um but but somebody maybe she'll text me i don't i don't have it with me right now but my phone so don't text me um but but but a a very large corporation and when she entered into corporate america um actually um she was the the leader of the affirmative action program uh in in information systems for this corporation a major major multinational corporation and and what they would now call that uh in 2020 is a diversity program but back then you didn't really call it affirmative action but but a diversity program and that was her uh that was her i think okay i thought i got the text and it was actually a pastor saying i'm praying for you thank you um so and so she she's doing she's doing that and and and she's she for two and a half years she's authoring and leading diversity statements in the diversity program and all of this stuff trying to get people to understand how to interact with one another trying to get black folk and white folk to understand how to interact with one another and men and women and all that stuff how to interact with one another and diversity and inclusion and all of this work and then she said that she came to a realization that she was uh she didn't say it this way but but essentially i'm wasting my career doing this because actually it's not that hard now you would say well that was such an important work well for two and a half years she's spearheading this diversity idea and then she comes to a realization that actually it's not that hard the truth is people just don't want to do it the the the reality of it is why why am i spending my life trying to teach people how to treat other people like you want to be treated the truth of the matter is the only reason why you're not is because you don't want to so you say now pastor what does that have to do with what you're talking about everything it has everything to do with it because i told you uh that that the title of my message is it's not complicated the reality is that the scripture is very very clear about how we are to live we keep adding all this stuff because we don't want to do it our issue family is that we have tolerated and accepted and dare i say even embraced a definition of christianity that the scripture explicitly rejects what needs to be clear here and i think this is one of those moments where it just needs to be very clear because sometimes we read the scripture as if it's just something that's nebulous that's sitting there but i think it needs to be clear here so we understand what we're doing even in this moment now is what needs to be clear here is that the rejection of this this this false version of christianity is not a nebulous writ or and by an innocuous means inspired by the holy spirit the false definitions of christianity were boldly rejected by people who wrote publicly their objections for all to read confronting false teaching and false teachers sometimes by name and boldly proclaiming the truth of jesus christ when you are reading first john you are not just reading a nebulous piece of paper or a letter that was written what you're actually reading is an individual who's the best friend of jesus who is saying you guys are false because i have seen him with my own eyes i've touched him with my own hands i've heard him with my own ears and everything you're telling people is not right if you actually know him this is how you know him and this is the sign of how you know him john was not passive he was bold and it is time for the believers of god to become bold again and say we reject this false definition of christianity which said that you can know him but not live like him not serve him not act like him not talk like him not think like him there is a response to those who actually know him it's not complicated i'm i'm i was thinking about john's position if if it's no secret me and pastor caleb are close it's no secret me and pastor jason are close i'm very very close um if if something were to happen to them and then somebody else were to come along and say well this is what caleb actually meant this is what pastor jason actually meant you couldn't get that past me you couldn't because there be and knowing that i would have particularly if you don't know them particularly if you never had relationship with them particularly if you were saying that your way to relationship with them was by some foreign knowledge that you accessed through some transcendent means it would be totally different for you to say that to some transcendent altered consciousness you now know pastor caleb better than the people who actually walk with him this is what john is doing in this moment he's saying you guys listen let me tell you something you don't know him now i know that we're afraid to say that in today's society but it's going to be very important can i just tell you uh uh the prophetic sense that i have it's going to be very important for those who actually know him to be able to stand and say i know him this is how i know i know him and this is how i know they don't i know most of us don't want to be that bold but i'm telling you there's going to have to come a boldness in us in the days ahead because there's going to have to be a line of demarcation that that for those who stand for him and actually know him to say i know that i know him and this is how and this is how i know that they don't you say it's it's so i don't i don't want to be that bold you're going to have to be all right the scripture is clearer than we make it i want to say it again the scripture is clearer than we make it we have a whole bunch of people who walk around saying i don't understand the bible impossible the only way that that is is because a bunch of people have added a bunch of stuff to it the scripture is clearer than we make it it's not complicated which means that there's another reality that we don't want to face and that is simply this we just don't want to do it if it's not complicated and it's clearer than we make it then there is another reality that most of us are just going to have to face and that is this we just don't want to do it we know what it says we just don't want to do it we know we know what he's requiring of us we we just don't want to do it we we want to read it but we don't want to do it we want to come to church and have other people tell us about it and feel something in our feeler but we don't actually want to walk out the doors and actually live it uh oh that that that's we we we wanna we wanna have church and we and we want to we want to we want to put the organ on and we want to feel some kind of way and we want to huck and buck and and hickamasha and all that kind of stuff but we don't actually want to live it and we want to live i'm going to introduce a psychological term to you some of you know what it is some of you don't i'll define it but we want to live as if there is an allowance in christianity for cognitive dissonance there is not an allowance in christianity for cognitive dissonance the reality is harsher than our culture wants to accept we say we are christian while living something different as if the two can coexist but the scripture is clear that we are not christian if certain things exist together chapter 1 verse 22 this is where we're used to this we quote this a lot but it's in james chapter 1 verse 22 but don't just listen to god's word you must do what it says otherwise you're only fooling yourselves can i read that again don't just listen to god's word you must do what it says otherwise you are only fooling yourselves or or as the the the passing translation would say you don't have to go there it says that's the essence of self-deception what first john chapter 2 says to us is as clear as it gets i want to read it again starting with verse three first john chapter two starting with verse three it's as clear as it gets are you ready and we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments i could stop right here david could play and we could go home and we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments if someone claims i know god but doesn't obey god's commandments that person is a liar and it's not living in the truth but those who obey god's word truly show how completely they love him that is how we know we are living in him those who say we live in god should live their lives as jesus did now pretty clear i just want to walk through this for just a moment i just want to walk through this for just a moment there was an idea i've already established this there was an idea at that time when john was writing that you could know god through revelation or vision the problem was that the life didn't match up because it did not obey god or his commandments he goes on to say that knowing god affects your conduct or knowing god affects how you live to say that you know god and be disobedient to his word is to be a liar and devoid of the truth it's not that complicated can i give you two things i'm gonna give it to you right here are you ready you might want to write this down it's really really simple you'll probably remember it but i want to encourage you to write it down anyway because this is it right here like everything falls on this right here how do you know that you know god you obey his commandments how do you know that you know god i'ma take it deeper in a second you obey his commandments what commandments are we talking about right here let's establish something first john chapter 3 verse 23 first john chapter 3 verse 23 then i'm gonna give you two things that let you know that you know god all right first john chapter 3 verse 23 and this is his commandment we must believe in the name of his son jesus christ and love one another just as he commanded us and this is his commandment we must believe in the name of his son jesus christ and love one another just as he commanded us look at me i need you to get this are you ready how do you know that you know god number one believe in jesus number two love one another it's not complicated it's not complicated how do we know that we know god number one believe in jesus number two love one another it's not that complicated i want to say it again because we have gotten this thing a little out of whack let me just say it again for the people in the back [Laughter] how do we know that we know god what scripture tells us obey his commandments right what is the commandment believe in jesus love one another it's not complicated it's not complicated first john chapter 2 again verse 3 passing translation says this here's how we can be sure that we truly come to know god if we keep his commands if someone claims i have come to know god by experience yet doesn't keep god's commands he is a phony and the truth finds no place in him but the love of god will be perfected within the one who obeys god's word what can be sure we can be sure we truly come to live in intimacy with god not just by saying i am intimate with god but by walking in the footsteps of jesus i love how the message also says this imma read it again i just want you to get it multiple times because it's not that complicated if someone claims i know him well but doesn't keep his commandments he's obviously a liar listen to this his life doesn't match his words but the one who keeps god's word is the person in whom we see god's mature love this is the only way to be sure we're in god anyone who claims to be intimate with god ought to live as jesus lived or the same kind of life jesus lived here's my question does your life match your words does your life match your words this is both internal introspection and then also how you are able to see others how do we know someone is telling the truth or lying when they say they know god does their life match their words it's not complicated oh you're judging nope bible does their life match their words specifically in two areas there are actually two areas that you can actually look and see okay does this person actually know god does their life match their words in these two areas are you ready submission to christ which is believing in christ and loving fellow believers that's it do they know god we don't have to complicate this we don't have to no no no it's not do they talk in tongues it's not do they prophesy it's not do they lay hands on people and they fall out it's not that they have an atmosphere everywhere they go it's not only working in word of knowledge it's not the gifts of the spirit it's not any of those things because you can have all of that stuff i'ma show you in matthew 7 you can have all of that stuff and still not know him you can do all of those things and still not know him and this is one of the reasons why so many people in the body of christ are disillusioned because they see people who are operating with gifts and operating with what they perceive to be power but they don't love anybody and they're operating with the kind of gifts that cause them to believe that they walk with god but at the same time they have no levels of submission in their life and as a result we have a bunch of people who are disillusioned because somehow or another you think it's complicated it's not complicated the question is do you know god this is how you know are you submitted to him and do you love fellow believers how do i identify whether or not this person or that person knows god are they submitted to god do they believe in the lord jesus are they submitted to his lordship and do they love other people i want to give you a news class you can't know god and be mean you can't know god and be a gossiper you can't know god and be a backbiter you are telling on the fact that you don't actually know him you can be used by him but you don't know him we've complicated it when it's not complicated creating room i told you i was going to define this for this cognitive dissonance i've been thinking about this particular time for a number of months because it's it's it's rampant politically and it's rampant in the church as it relates to the church's political affiliations the excuses that we make for supporting what we do and don't so we we justify certain things while also saying that we believe in christ and it's so i began to look at this idea this psychological term and and i want to give you a couple of definitions for it here cognitive dissonance is when what you think is inconsistent with your behavior when what you say you believe contradicts what you do when a person holds two beliefs that contradict one another i'll give you a non-spiritual example of cognitive dissonance when you say that you care about the environment but you litter that's cognitive dissonance what you say and what you do do not line up with each other that is cognitive dissonance that the issue is that we have made allowance in christianity for this and there is no allowance in christianity for it you do not have cognitive dissonance in christianity what you say has to match what you do otherwise you do not know him and that's why everyone else is confused at your witness cognitive dissonance can be felt whenever there is cognitive dissonance internally you feel it the holy spirit helps us but but we we actually feel it and so as a result it's a sense of unease and and tension and people try to relieve the discomfort in different ways can i tell you one of the main ways that christians try to relieve the pressure of internal cognitive dissonance is explaining away justifying why it is that you do what you do i'm christian but i'm i'm christian but i i i understand that that you know it it's pretty popular right now we send it around as memes and and you know i don't know if the song was serious or not and you know i get the fact that i'm on video and all that kind of stuff and could cause a little bit of trouble but whatever try jesus but don't try me because i throw hands cognitive dissonance we need to understand that that this idea that i i'm saved but i you know i i got needs no i i'm saved but i do this i'm i'm a christian but i do that i'm telling you right now what you are revealing is that you don't know him let me tell you what spiritual cognitive dissonance is are you ready it is holding your own opinion equal to god's word it is holding your own opinion equal to god's word so it's i know he said this but i think i know the word says this but sometimes i gotta it's it's it's literally you are not submitting to the lordship of jesus christ by holding up your opinion as equal to god's word as if you have a right to do so either he is lord or he is not there is no room for cognitive dissonance in christianity it's not that complicated it's it's pretty cut and dry um um how do we know that we know god by believing in jesus which is what surrendering completely to him and his lordship and loving one another now i want to deal with this part because we're struggling with this and we don't need to be in the body of christ you have people who are looking at each other both of you say that you belong to jesus and you are having trouble loving each other if that is the case the scripture says you don't know him okay pastor do we have to do more than that like those two things like everything it's in that umbrella that you know yes yes everything is in this umbrella i want to read three passes of scripture to you and i want to point something out about these three paths of scripture are you ready romans chapter 13 verse 8 through 10 in the esv romans chapter 13 verse 8 through 10 in the esv and i'm almost finished believe it or not oh no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has to fill the law for the commandments you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal you shall not covet and any other commandment are summed up in this word you shall love your neighbor as yourself love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law you got it matthew 22 verse 34 nlt matthew chapter 22 verse 34 says this but when the pharisees heard that he had silenced the sadducees with his reply they met together to question him again one of them an expert in religious law tried to trap him with this question teacher which is the most important commandment in the law of moses jesus replied you must love the lord your god with all your heart all your soul and all your mind this is the first and greatest commandment a second is equally important love your neighbor as yourself the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments galatians chapter 5 verse 14 also in the nlt galatians chapter 5 verse 14. it says this for the whole law can be summed up in this one command love your neighbor as yourself the whole law can be summed up in this one command love your neighbor as yourself now can i point out something that may have been obvious to some of you some of you may have missed it as i was reading this the romans passage the matthew passage and the galatians passage that i just read are referenced as love your neighbor passages but first john says fellow believers which is to say this the reality is you can never love your neighbor if you don't know how to love your brother the idea of loving others outside will never be manifest if you don't learn how to love your brother inside the the the thing about knowing god was this submit to jesus and love your brother if you can't even do that if you can't love another believer then the reality of it is on the outside everyone will know you don't know god because you don't have the capacity to love a neighbor if you don't have the capacity to love your brother this is so important for us to get because this is the foundation by which john is laying to say if you don't do these things you don't know him i don't care what else it is that they tell you i'm gonna tell you that the hallmark of everything that is false about them is this reality they're not submitted to the lord jesus and they don't even love you false teachers literally a spirit that has infiltrated the church that has tried to cause people to come away by adding a whole bunch of convoluted complicated stuff on top of the gospel so that nobody knows how to live and nobody knows what a christian is and nobody knows what a christian does and nobody knows what a christian believes the devil is a liar it is time for some people to stand flat-footed bold and clear and say listen this is what it means to know god it's not actually complicated what it means to know god is that you are submitted to the lordship of jesus christ and in you you have the capacity at all times and in everything to love your brother don't talk to me about a neighbor until you can love your brother we have a problem we got people on the left and on the right don't love each other we got people on different scales of melanin that don't love each other we have all of these things going on white folks and black folks don't love each other liberals and conservatives don't love each other pentecostals and baptists don't love each other and somehow or another we want the world to come in knowing all the worlds and the lord is looking at us like oh no y'all can't even get yourselves together i want to know who knows god i know god in this way because it does not matter if you're white it does not matter if you're asian it does not matter if you're hispanic it does not matter if you reform it does not matter if you're armenian it does not matter if you're a baptist it does not matter i love you that's how you know we know god that's how you know that's how you know it's not complicated we've complicated it we've added all this stuff we put all this stuff on top of it so now nobody knows what to do nobody knows where to go nobody knows who to call you're in trouble and you're wondering can i even call you do you even have anything in you because i don't even know you say you know him but somehow or another the way that you say you know him doesn't seem to there's a cognitive dissonance i can feel i'm gonna wrap up here because i can't preach a message that it's not complicated and preach it long you can play somebody first john chapter 2 verse 7 goes on to say something powerful he read through verse nine he says dear friends i'm not writing a new commandment for you rather it is an old one you have heard from the very beginning this old commandment to love one another is the same message you've heard before yet it's also new jesus lived the truth of this commandment and you also are living it for darkness is disappearing and the true light is already shining look at this if anyone claims i am living in the light but hates a fellow believer that person is still living in darkness just looking at this because we are in a society that loves to throw out the word hate what is hate because verse 9 says if anyone claims i am living in the light but hates a fellow believer that person is still living in darkness what is hate then hate is the absence of the deeds of love biblically it's not actually active this is i want you i want you to get this biblically hate isn't actually active just like darkness isn't light dispels darkness darkness you can't turn on darkness in a room the only way to turn on darkness where you can't turn it on is to turn off light you can't just say light is here and now i want darkness to overcome it neither can hate overcome love just like darkness can't overcome light hate can't overcome love because hate itself is not active spiritually biblically what hate is when john says if anyone claims i'm living in a light but hates a fellow believer he's not actually saying that you're actively doing something against them what he's actually saying is what you're not doing hate is the absence of the deeds of love love unexpressed is not love at all because love has no neutral capabilities i need you to hear that again love unexpressed is not love at all because love has no neutral capabilities love is active for god's soul loved the world that he gave love itself is active there's nothing neutral about love there's nothing indifferent about love there's nothing passive about love love itself has no neutral capabilities so when it is absent hate is present hate fills the vacuum where love doesn't exist which is why i said if a believer doesn't love his brother he can't love his neighbor check this out if you don't love your brother you hate them that statement for a lot of you you're like wait no i don't i don't hate anybody if you're not expressing love you're revealing hate if you're not expressing love you're revealing hate there's no middle in scripture then the bible says to us back in verse 9 if anyone claims i am living in the light but hates a fellow believer that person is still living in darkness what does that mean that person does not know god you say is it that black and white yes if we are not submitted to the lordship of jesus christ and we are not actively loving our brother we do not know god can i say it again because it's not complicated if we are not submitted to the lordship of jesus christ and we are not actively loving our brother we do not know god so that brings me to my final passage of scripture right here because it happens to be for some one of the most what we would call scary passages of scripture but we need to hear it in the context of what i just said in matthew chapter 7 verse 21 matthew chapter 7 verse 21 of the esv hear this matthew chapter 7 verse 21 esv not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day many will say to me lord lord did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name and then i will declare to them i never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness when i was growing up i used to wonder how is this possible that these people could prophesy and cast out devils and do mighty works and he say i did not know you it is simply because they didn't understand that it wasn't complicated they were trying to obtain righteousness through works and deeds and not submission to the lord how do you know these people didn't know him let me make it very plain to you for those of you who have maybe never thought about the scripture in this way they themselves make it clear they didn't know him because on the day of judgment their way of trying to enter in was by telling him what they've done for him instead of receiving what he's done for them it was so clear then that they didn't know him because they're saying but but god we you used like we prophesied and we cast out devils and we did mighty works in your name like shouldn't that give us credit with you but somehow or another you did all of that but you weren't submitted to me somehow or another you did all of that and you didn't even love your brother you never actually knew me and i don't know you you are a worker of iniquity what the bible calls lawlessness which means that you refuse to keep his command it was never that complicated but you through other means wanted to so bad to be used that you forgot to actually spend time with him you want it so bad for him to give you a platform that you didn't care who you stepped on in order to get there you didn't care what relational bridges you burned on the way there you didn't care who you talked about or who you hurt on the way there you didn't love anybody and so now you got a platform but no relationship with god and now those who see you can see what you do but they don't identify you as actually being someone who knows god because if you and i were to be very honest some of the people in your life who you would say that person really knows god they don't have a platform some of the godliest people you know some of the most integral people you know don't hold a microphone they don't sing they don't preach they don't go to conferences but they know god and yet there's some other people we flip past them on our television let's be real and there's nothing about them that says they know god they prophesy but they don't know god they cast out devils but they don't know god because as soon as you meet them they don't even love anybody they're not submitted to the lordship of jesus and so what the bible calls them is workers of iniquity are lawless people they substitute the will of self in the place of god's will but i believe that there's a people who are going to say you know what i get it it's not that complicated i want to know god and this is how i'm going to know god i'm going to submit to him i'm going to believe in the lord jesus and i'm going to love my brother and if you do that the testimony of your life will be that you know god it's not that complicated i'm gonna give it to pastor caleb now for those of you who have yet to come to know god you can in this moment but i need you to know we don't need to add a bunch of stuff to this there are people who are gonna boldly proclaim that we know god and the world is going to know who knows god and who doesn't because we're going to live this thing in jesus name let me pray father thank you for your word thank you for the clarity of your word thank you lord that you are letting us know it is not that complicated that we can walk this thing out but i pray that this would be a week in which we would come to know you even more that we would submit to you in such a way that not only will we know you because of our level of submission but also the expression of our love would be such that everyone who's around us would know that we know god because of the way that we love one another in jesus name amen family it's not complicated it's not complicated if you're watching right now just put that in the chat poor say it's not complicated it's not complicated believe in the lord jesus and love one another believe in the lord jesus and love one another i don't know about you i'm i'm uh i am so stirred by this message i felt like i was i was watching the president give the state of a union speech to the people as our pastor declared so so brilliantly so clearly the word of the lord declaring to the lord's church that we need to return to the simplicity of the gospel simplicity of the scriptures it's not complicated to know who belongs to the lord those who believe and are surrendered to the lord jesus and are those who love one another who love their brother listen if you're watching right now and you've not given your life to jesus you also need to know it's not complicated there are those who have tried to complicate the gospel and tried to complicate coming to christ some who will give you a list of steps and a list of deeds that you need to do in order to belong to jesus i want you to know that it's not complicated the book of romans tells us that we are made right with christ or we are made right with god by placing our faith in jesus christ and this is true for all who believe we are made right with god by placing our faith in jesus christ this is how we are made right with god you're watching it does not require you to do a number of religious exercises or you don't have to stop doing certain things and start doing other things know what all you need to do right now is to repent and believe in the lord jesus christ when you believe in the lord jesus christ what you are confessing is that his way is better his ways are higher and you are submitting yourself to him you are saying i am now no longer going to do what i desire to do but i am doing all that you desire me to do with the help of your spirit because i am placing my faith in you who are you placing your faith in you're placing your faith in jesus to say why jesus well jesus was god's son sent to the earth to take the punishment of sin what we for our sin was death for the scripture says the wages of sin is death and when jesus died he took the punishment the pain the shame the guilt everything that you and i deserve death and he took it upon himself the scripture says that he who knew no sin became sin so that we could become the righteousness of god and so he didn't just take our punishment and take our place only he died it was buried but then he rose again wish to us to show us and give us the opportunity for all of us who are willing to die to ourselves we will rise again in christ and we will have the power to live a new life you're probably listening to the message if you haven't given your life to jesus and you're maybe even looking at what we were talking about when it came to loving our brother can i say that it is actually impossible to love your brother or to love your neighbor to love anyone else the way god commands us to love one another without believing in jesus you can do a bunch of good things but you can't truly love your brother or love your neighbor or love one another without believing in jesus when you believe in jesus you are given the capacity to love your brother to love those around you so it's not a matter about harnessing your human effort it's not about getting good before you get god you get god and he makes you good so in this moment we want to present the opportunity to you to place your faith in jesus christ say jesus i believe that you died for my sin i believe that you rose again that i could have a new life i repent of my sins and i am surrendering to you this is what you are doing in this moment and he has the ability to change everything all of those who come to god must first believe they must believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him this moment the first thing that you need to do as you come to god is to believe in jesus how do you know god well first thing is you believe in jesus and after you believe in jesus you will receive the capacity to love others so right where you are if you want to place your faith in jesus on the count of three i'm going to count to three and all i want you to say is just these simple words i believe in jesus you're making a bold declaration something that is happening on the inside of your heart and those of you watching me right now your heart is beating fast and you're you're nervous maybe even tears coming down your face because you realize this is the moment that heaven has brought you to where you could believe in the sacrifice of jesus who has taken your place upon the cross who died in your place who took the punishment in your place and now gives you the opportunity of a new life all you have to do is believe it's not complicated it's not complicated just believe in him just believing you don't need to know all the scriptures and you need to know just just believe in him just believe in him so on the count of three i want you to say that i believe in jesus one two three i believe in jesus say it say it right there yeah don't hesitate you say right now maybe you didn't say when we initially said it but you can say right here right now i believe in jesus say it boldly say confidently i believe in jesus if you said those words it's not the phrase that saves you it's your faith which is something that happens inwardly but if you shed those words and you meant it you know something took place on the inside of you we want to congratulate you and welcome you into the family of god that's how we're made right with god by placing our faith in jesus christ it's true for everyone who believes and if you place your faith in jesus welcome to the family of god we're so grateful that you made a commitment to follow jesus can we lead you in a moment of prayer it's not the prayer that saves you again it's your faith we want to give you language for this moment can i can i lead you in this moment of prayer just repeat this after me say father in the name of jesus i come to you just as i am thank you for loving me thank you for saving me i believe that you died for my sin and i believe that you rose again so that i could have new life in you i confess you as my lord and as my savior i repent of my sins and i turn to you with your help i will live for you for the rest of my life in jesus name amen amen and amen it's not complicated from this moment forward it's not complicated we have some people in that the chat our chat moderation team is gonna connect with you this is what we want to want you to do so that we can identify you just put that in the comments if you place your faith in jesus put hashtag i meant jesus hashtag i met jesus you want my our moderators to communicate with you connect with you but from this moment forward it's not complicated believe in jesus continue to believe in him in his word and love others he's not complicated family family we love you so much we're praying for you we love you can't wait to gather again together soon but until then don't over complicate things don't complicate the gospel don't complicate the word of god believe in jesus love others can't wait to see you next sunday

Channel: Deeper Fellowship Church

Views: 10,046

Rating: 4.9503107 out of 5

Keywords: william mcdowell, caleb grant, trinity anderson, deeper fellowship church, orlando, florida

Id: g_McA0uOGgI

Length: 70min 1sec (4201 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2020