We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church.
This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church.
Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org.
Good morning, Christ Church.
My name is Stevie.
I'm part of the North Berkeley Community Group.
And this morning's scripture reading is from John's first epistle, chapter 3, verse 19 through chapter 4, verse 6.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.
For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything.
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him.
And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.
For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
By this you know the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
This is the Spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them.
For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.
We are from God.
Whoever knows God listens to us.
Whoever is not from God does not listen to us.
By this we know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to be God.
Thank you, Stevie, for that scripture reading.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Andrew.
I'm one of the pastors here.
It's good to be with you and to deliver God's word to you this morning.
Will you join me in prayer?
Lord, your word says to us here, whoever knows God listens.
Whoever is not from God does not listen.
But your Spirit has been given to us, the Spirit of truth, that we might discern the Spirit of error.
So would we listen closely to the Spirit this morning?
And would the Spirit speak so loudly to us, more loudly than any other spirit in this world, more loudly than any other voice?
And would we believe what the Spirit has to say to us?
Because this is the Spirit of Christ.
So would you be honored in the preaching of your word this morning, God?
And would you change us by your Spirit for your glory?
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
All right.
So if you are new, this is the 11th week of our lead pastor's long overdue and well-deserved sabbatical.
And so that means that this is my 11th Sunday solo pastoring as the assistant pastor.
And thanks to so many of you, especially our wonderful staff here.
Oh, okay.
I wasn't expecting that.
I don't think that was exactly deserved, but I'll take it.
But thanks especially to our amazing staff.
I'm happy to report that it hasn't been a disastrous 11 weeks.
It hasn't even been an unmanageable 11 weeks as I expected.
As far as I know, no one has deconverted, you know, from Christianity to Satanism.
So not bad, right?
Praise God for that.
But, you know, in the spirit of full disclosure, I still have to admit that even with plenty of support
and no major shipwrecks in this season, this sabbatical season, to no one's fault really,
this season has still managed to trigger within me my own personal and lifelong struggle with imposter syndrome.
You know, every Sunday I get up here, even before the sabbatical, but especially recently,
and every Sunday I get up here at night, I wonder if this is going to be the Sunday when I'm found out.
When I'm found out that I'm not supposed to be up here, that I have no business preaching
and being a pastor here and being a counselor and being a leader,
and it was all a huge mistake to ordain me a year ago and let me lead in this season because I'm not enough.
Because I'm not good enough morally, spiritually.
I'm not wise enough as a leader.
I'm not skilled enough as a preacher.
Because maybe I'm not responsible or disciplined or diligent enough to get better or to get better faster enough.
And so every, you know, B- sermon or worse, and I feel like there have been a lot of those,
every pastoral interaction that could have gone better,
after every visitor that doesn't return, every regrettable leadership decision,
every failure in my own life, in my own home, and in my neighborhood to practice what I preach,
to love my wife and my children, and to serve my community in the name of Jesus.
Every failure and less than perfect outcome often becomes for me an occasion in which my heart condemns me.
An occasion for that inner critic within me to say things like,
Andrew, you are not enough, and you're not doing enough,
and what you're doing, you're doing wrong, and everything that's gone wrong is all your fault.
And Andrew, if anyone knew who you truly were, they would know that you are a fraud,
and they too would condemn you.
And my heart condemns me, not just as a bad pastor, but also often as a bad husband,
and a bad dad, and a bad brother, and son, and friend, and colleague, and neighbor, and citizen.
Just this past week, we spent some time with my wife's side of the family,
and she has a brother, he's one of my best friends,
and they have a four-year-old girl, she's nine months older than my oldest, Cammie.
And we were hanging out with them, and this four-year-old girl,
she could read in Chinese and English.
She read the word butterflies to me.
She can ride a bike.
She was subtracting seven minus two equals five, man.
And so I went to bed that night,
and my heart condemned me.
I'm not just a bad pastor, I'm a bad parent.
I'm an awful parent.
And I wonder if you struggle with this too.
Maybe your own version of imposter syndrome,
or just plain old-fashioned guilt, shame, and regret.
Maybe your heart condemns you concerning all the things that you've done
that you ought not to have done.
Those words or those actions that you so wish that you could just take back.
Those wounding words that did not honor someone's vulnerability with you,
but exploited it.
That particular moment of weakness when you just gave in
to what you knew was a wicked desire that would be destructive
and have destructive consequences for you and for all those around you.
Maybe your heart condemns you over your shameful habits of self-medicating
with drugs, alcohol, porn, sex,
or maybe some other more culturally acceptable mode of consumerism.
Maybe for you it's just binge eating, or binge Netflix, or binge shopping.
Or maybe your heart condemns you for the things that you haven't done,
that you ought to have done,
for not loving your neighbor as yourself.
Maybe your heart condemns you for not actually caring that much
about what's going on in Ukraine,
or at our border with our Latin American refugees.
Maybe you don't care that much about our unhoused neighbors
under your freeways.
Maybe we don't care that much about these women
who have unwanted pregnancies,
or about these unborn children.
Or maybe your heart condemns you just for not loving God
with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,
for not committing to Him the time and the attention that He deserves.
As we open up God's Word,
and as we listen for His voice this morning,
I want to ask us all to consider this question,
what does your heart condemn you about?
What does your heart condemn you about?
And as we ask this question,
I hope we'll see how God would have us
to respond to the self-condemning hearts
that reside within each and every one of us.
Now I want to ask,
why do we even have self-condemning hearts in the first place?
Where did this burdensome affliction even come from?
Maybe you're here today and you're skeptical about God and Christianity
for this very reason.
You read, look with me at chapter 3, verse 19.
You read this first verse, verse 19.
By this we shall know that we are of the truth
and reassure our heart before Him.
And you're like, well that's why
so many of us struggle with self-condemnation.
It's because of this oppressive notion of God and truth
that have been externally imposed upon our society
by, you know, legalistic religious types of people.
These primitive religious boundaries
making insiders and outsiders
these arbitrary standards
employed as power plays to control people's lives.
And thus, maybe you are persuaded
that the remedy for self-condemnation
is actually freedom from God.
And really from every external source of alleged authority
outside of your internal self.
This is the conclusion that New York Times best-selling author
Glendon Doyle promoted in her book, Untamed.
In her memoir, she retells the various ways
that men and institutions and cultural norms
and even Sunday school teachers in her life
tried to tame her and to fit her into simplistic boxes.
But she says, I will not stay, not ever again,
in a room or conversation or relationship or institution
that requires me to abandon myself.
This life is mine alone,
so I have stopped asking people for directions
to places they've never been.
And that sounds pretty compelling, right?
It sounds pretty compelling.
Why allow myself to be tamed like a zoo animal
by other people and other institutions'
culturally constructed standards
when I was meant to be a free-roaming cheetah?
Cheetah.
Oh, that's the language she used.
She likes to call herself a cheetah.
And this is why so much of our, you know,
a modern secular psychology emphasizes the self-talk, right,
of positive psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy.
If we just practice positive self-talk,
rewire our brains and the stories that we tell ourselves,
if we just practice self-kindness
and speak positivity against the self-condemnation
that we've wrongly internalized from outside of us,
then we will discover and express our truest,
most authentic selves
and become invulnerable to all condemnation.
But may I ask,
is it really that simple?
Is it really that simple?
Can all our self-condemnation
really be extinguished
by even the largest dose of self-compassion?
And is all our self-condemnation
really just because we've all just foolishly,
you know, mindlessly accepted
arbitrary external standards imposed upon us
like passive, gullible, naive children?
Or might there be a grander,
more nuanced explanation
for the problem of self-condemnation
in all of our hearts?
So I want to suggest
that the grand narrative of Scripture
has a far more nuanced,
far more compelling story
of where self-condemnation comes from
and how to deal with it.
See, humanity was created in God's image
to flourish,
to confidently, before God,
be sons and daughters
in all the world,
making true and right evaluations
and judgments,
using our mind
to evaluate all that we've experienced,
thinking God's thoughts
about the world
and about ourselves.
But what happened,
what led to our self-condemning hearts,
is what the Bible calls sin.
That is people,
you and me,
and all the rest of humanity,
going our own way
apart from God,
walking in darkness
instead of light,
walking in death
instead of life,
walking in falsehood
instead of truth,
and this broke
our evaluative capacities
and our verdicts
became faulty
and we stopped thinking
like God
about Him
and about the world
and about ourselves.
Do you remember
what happened
when Adam and Eve
went their own way,
when they went
the serpent's way
rather than God's?
What happened?
They lost a sense
of who they were.
They lost a sense
of who they were.
They became entangled
in the lie of the serpent.
The serpent's lie
about who God was
and who they were
and who they could be.
They were no longer
of the truth
but complicit
with the serpent's lies
and so the assurance
of heart
that they once enjoyed
in the garden
when they went for walks
with God Himself
was gone
because of sin.
Because of their sin,
the presence of God
all of a sudden
became a threat, right?
An unsettling reality
in which they were
no longer sure
who they were
for they no longer
had the confidence
that children
ought to have
in the presence
of their father.
And it wasn't that
anything had changed
in God, right?
Nothing had changed
in God.
Even His love for them
did not wane
for one single second.
But because God
is light
and because in Him
there is no darkness
at all
and because they brought
darkness into the world,
this was the beginning
of all of our
self-condemning hearts.
Our hearts condemn us
because of sin.
See, because of sin,
three things happened.
First, our hearts
now condemn us
because there is
within each of us now
something truly worthy
of condemnation.
Our ultimate accuser
actually has a real case
against us now
because of our sin.
Think about it.
Would our self-condemning hearts
be so convincing,
so heavy,
so burdensome
if they were not
at least partially true?
Right?
And then secondly,
our hearts now condemn us
because we no longer see
like we used to
when we took our eyes
off of the light
of the world.
We lost our 2020 vision
and we no longer see
God,
the world,
or ourselves
rightly.
And thirdly,
to add to the confusion,
the introduction
of darkness
into the world
has resulted
in many evil spirits
and false prophets,
all these false voices
adding to the distortion.
That's why it says here,
that's why it talks here
in chapter four,
verse one about,
beloved,
do not believe every spirit,
but test the spirits
to see whether
they are from God.
For many false prophets
have gone out
into the world.
Verse three,
every spirit
that does not confess
Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit
of the Antichrist,
which you heard
was coming
and now is in the world
already.
See,
this is where
our self-condemning hearts
come from.
Our hearts condemn us
because of sin.
Sin in us
worth condemning
and sin clouding
our view of God
and ourselves
and sinful voices
outside of us
trying to persuade us
of falsehood.
Now let's talk about
how to deal
with this affliction,
this affliction
of self-condemnation.
How does God
want us to process
and engage
with these hearts
of ours
that condemn us?
Well look with me again
at verse 19.
By this we shall know
that we are of the truth
and reassure our heart
before him.
So first John
is saying that
the way to have assurance
and to be in God's truth
is this,
verse 20,
for whenever our hearts
condemn us,
God is greater
than our heart
and he knows everything.
I want you to notice
what first John
doesn't say.
Whereas modern
secular psychology
might tell us
to engage
in more positive
and affirming
self-talk
and self-compassion.
I'm not saying
that that's all bad
and that's all wrong
but I do want us
to notice that
first John
doesn't point us
there first.
It doesn't point us
to our own voice first.
First John
points us to who?
To God.
I mean think about it.
If your heart
condemns you
and your therapist
just tells you
to more mindfully
speak to yourself
alternative truths
about who you think
you are
in opposition
to what your heart
is saying about you,
it's still going to be
a battle.
It's still going to be
you against you,
your head against your heart
and in the worst case scenario,
this only perpetuates
the pitfalls
of self-expressive individualism
where you have to be
your own hero
because you belong
only to yourself
and you must bear
the crushing weight
of determining
your own identity
and your own destiny
and it's still on you
to talk back
to your already powerful
self-condemning heart
with words that you
have to come up with
yourself
and I don't know about you
but to me
this is not
a desirable scenario.
In this book
that I'm still
highly recommending
our elder Bill Barnes
read it,
he loved it,
he even contacted
the author,
I feel sorry for the author
because Bill Barnes
could talk a lot
but this is a great book
and I hope everyone
will get their hands on it,
it's called
You Are Not Your Own.
I'm going to advocate,
promote it all the time,
it's by Alan Noble
and this is what he says,
to be your own
and belong to yourself
means that the most
fundamental truth
about existence
is that you
are responsible
for your existence
and everything it entails.
No one else
has the right
to define me,
to choose my journey
in life
or to assure me
that I am okay,
I belong to myself
but the freedom
of sovereign individualism
comes at a great price.
Once I am liberated
from all social,
moral,
natural
and religious values,
I become responsible
for the meaning
of my own life
with no God
to judge
or justify me.
I have to be
my own judge
and redeemer.
This burden
manifests
as a desperate need
to justify our lives
through identity crafting
and expression
and Alan Noble,
he goes on
to talk about
how this has
contributed
to our crazy
competitive culture
where our very identities
and our senses
of worth
and meaning
and purpose
are on the line
based on our performances
in comparison
with one another
and so you wonder
why we all have
self-condemning hearts
because I look at
Instagram too much.
That's why.
I follow these
celebrity preachers
and I say,
I can never preach
like that guy.
I can never be a dad
like that guy.
That's why we have
self-condemning hearts.
We're comparing
with one another.
And so what I want
to ask us is,
is this the kind of life
we want to live?
Is this the kind of world
that we want to live in,
a world where we are
just our own?
And if so,
how will we ever escape
then the threat
of self-condemnation?
See, there is
no more fertile ground
for self-condemnation
to grow in
than in the soil
of which we are
just our own.
But see,
that's why verse 20 says,
for whenever our hearts
condemn us,
God.
Whenever our hearts
condemn us,
God is greater
than our hearts
and he knows
everything.
Now, what does this mean
and how is it good news
for us
with our self-condemning hearts?
Because at first,
it kind of seems
like bad news, right?
Like, oh shoot,
God knows everything?
Everything I ever did?
Everything I ever
failed to do?
Man, I feel even
more condemned
in the presence
of God.
But see,
that's not the point
that 1 John
is trying to make.
When verse 20 says,
for whenever our hearts
condemn us,
God is greater
than our hearts
and he knows everything,
the point is actually
that it is not
about you.
God is greater
than your heart.
What this is saying
is that there is
a voice
that speaks
with infinitely
higher authority
than the voice
of your own heart.
And even when
your heart
is speaking things
that might very well
be true
about what you've done
or what you've not done,
God is greater
than your heart
and he knows everything.
And when it says
he knows everything,
it's not just saying
he knows everything
about you,
but it's saying,
yeah, sure,
he might know
everything about you,
but more importantly,
he also knows
everything about himself
and about his will
and about his ways.
And his will
is not to condemn us,
it's to redeem
his children.
And this is the gospel.
This is the gospel
that God's voice
speaks with more clarity
and more authority
than our self-condemning hearts.
So to all of us
who struggle
with a self-condemning heart,
God's word to us today
is,
child,
am I not greater
than your heart?
Beloved child,
am I not greater
than your heart?
Like, think about it.
A self-condemning heart,
it is not a sign
of humility before God.
It's just the opposite
side of the coin
to self-righteousness.
I recently read
a magazine article
by a professor
of biblical counseling,
and he told a story
from his childhood
about how he was,
you know,
a doughy,
bookish little boy
who was so embarrassed
and so ashamed
because he could never
measure up
to the lean,
athletic soccer gods
who graced the halls
of his junior high school.
And he told of
how one day
his self-dissatisfaction
just boiled over
one night
and he said something
out loud
that he'd only said
many times
just in his head.
He said,
I hate myself.
Anyone here
mutter that to themselves?
Maybe not in those words,
but just in grunts
or maybe curses
under your breath
out of regret.
He said,
I hate myself.
And his mother,
always known
for her gentleness
and her care,
she responded
in a way
that he had not expected.
He expected pity
from her,
but what she gave him
was far better.
And with an unexpectedly
steely glance,
she looked at her son
who had just declared
his own self-hatred
and a deep offense
was clearly awoken
within her
as she sternly responded
to her self-loathing son,
you have no right.
You have no right.
See,
a self-condemning heart
that views itself
as bigger
and greater
and more authoritative
than God
who made us
and loves us
and plans to redeem
his beloved children,
a self-condemning heart
that is lowered
over my own identity
is an arrogant
and prideful heart
that is anti-Christ.
And it's also
the kind of heart
that not only judges
ourselves according
to our blurred vision
of reality,
but it ends up
leading us to compare
ourselves and judge
others and hold them
up to our faulty
standards too.
See, there is no good
news for anyone.
There is no hope
if God is not greater
than our hearts.
Or think about it
this way.
If God is not greater
than your heart,
then of course your heart
will condemn you forever.
If God cannot overcome
your heart's self-condemnation,
then what hope
is there for you?
Maybe you can't
forgive yourself
for whatever heinous,
hurtful,
unpardonable thing
that you've done.
Well, God says
that's the point.
You can't forgive yourself.
But I can.
Because I am greater
than your heart.
You have no right
to condemn yourself
or to forgive yourself.
But I have the right
to condemn you
and to forgive you.
And I choose forgiveness.
In fact,
I purchased it
on the cross.
And this is the amazing
news of the gospel.
That the one who is
greater than our hearts,
the one who is
greater than any voice,
the one with ultimate
authority to tell us
who we are
and whose we are
and whether or not
we have worth and value,
the one who knows
everything,
the one who knows
us to the bottom,
he loves us
to the heavens.
He who is greater
than our hearts
and knows everything
still does not
condemn us.
And this is the gospel.
The gospel says to us,
if God is willing
to forgive your sins
and to justify you
by the atoning blood
of his son,
you have no right
to self-condemnation.
You are a child of God.
And this is what
verses 21 to 22
are getting at.
Beloved,
if our heart
does not condemn us,
we have confidence
before God
and whatever we ask,
we receive from him
because we keep
his commandments
and do what pleases him.
This is the kind
of confident
father-to-child relationship
he desires
to have with us.
Who is the only one
in the world
who could ask
the prime minister
to tie their shoelaces?
Their child.
See, the only way
our hearts
won't condemn us
is if we understand
that he is greater
than our hearts
and he knows everything
and that he knows us
not as enemies
to condemn
but as children
to commend.
The only cure
for a self-condemning heart
is to come
before God
with the confidence
and the faith
that we are known
by him
as his children
and we can ask him
anything
just happily
and trustingly
following the pleasing
way of our father
in heaven.
And this will not happen
apart from the presence
of God's spirit
in our lives
and that's why
verse 23 says
and this is his commandment
that we believe
in the name of his son
Jesus Christ
and love one another
just as he has commanded us
whoever keeps his commandments
abides in God
and God in him
and by this we know
that he abides in us
by the spirit
whom he has given us.
And I wish I had more time
to unpack
and to talk about
the spirits
in chapter 4
verses 1 through 4
but let me just wrap up
by saying that there are
far more spirits
at work in this world
than we realize
influencing this world
in ways that we take
for granted
and are likely
oblivious to
influencing what we think
about God
and the world
and ourselves
but what's important
to know
is that the spirit
of God
is unlike any other spirit
for every other spirit
will only lead
to self-condemnation
but because the spirit
of God
is the spirit
of Jesus Christ
who came in the flesh
to put our condemnation
to death
on a cross
and rise from the grave
and ascend into heaven
in power and victory
both the condemnation
of our hearts
and the condemnation
of the devilish accuser himself
have been ultimately
overcome
by the God
who is greater
than our hearts
and also greater
than he
who is in the world.
And the application
question for us
is which spirit
will we listen to?
Which spirit
will we allow
to speak into
and inform
our heads
and our hearts?
Verse 5
They are from the world
therefore they speak
from the world
and the world
listens to them
we are from God.
Whoever knows God
listens to us
these apostles of Jesus
whoever is not from God
does not listen
to us.
By this we know
the spirit of truth
and the spirit
of error.
You see there is not
a single second
of our lives
that is lived
in neutral territory.
For those who have
eyes to see
there is a spiritual war
that is going on
a spirit of fear
and condemnation
that seeks
to envelop us
and swallow us up
and we must not
naively think
that we are unaffected.
The devil delights
in our self-condemnation
so we need
to be spiritually sober
and discerning
and guided
by God's words.
Just the other week
I went to
a spiritual director
for the very first time
I had no idea
what it was about
but I wanted to try it
because Jonathan
was really into it
and I just went in there
and I said
I just want to be
closer to God
and it was actually
a really good experience
helping me discern
what God was trying
to reveal to me
particularly
in my unique situation
and there was one question
that he kept asking me
returning to
I'd maybe say something like
you know
I think God wants me
to be a more intentional
more sacrificial father
but then he'd say
well that may be
objectively true
in general
but right now
in this moment
in this season
is that from you
or is that from God
or is that possibly
from another spirit
God's word today
invites us to consider
the words spoken
into our minds
and our hearts
by the spirits among us
and to listen
for the clear
pure
gracious voice
of God's spirit
who does not want
to condemn his children
but wants to reassure us
in his love
Christ Church
what are the words
we're allowing
to be spoken
into us
I'll end with this quote
from the great
20th century British
preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones
who suggests
that we don't just
listen to ourselves
but that we draw
upon the scriptures
the very words
that God has given us
these words that maybe
we've read
and memorized
and meditated upon
and then we use
those words
the very words of God
to talk to ourselves
right
to speak back
against our self
condemning hearts
and the condemnations
of all the spirits
who are at war
against us
this is what Lloyd-Jones
says
the main trouble
in this whole matter
of spiritual depression
in a sense is this
that we allow ourself
to talk to us
instead of talking
to ourself
am I just trying
to be deliberately
paradoxical
far from it
this is the very essence
of wisdom
in this matter
have you realized
that most of your
unhappiness in life
is due to the fact
that you are listening
to yourself
instead of talking
to yourself
take those thoughts
that come to you
the moment you wake up
in the morning
you have not originated them
but they start talking
to you
they bring back
the problems
of yesterday
somebody is talking
who is talking to you
yourself is talking
to you
the main art
in the matter
of spiritual living
is to know
how to handle yourself
you have to address yourself
preach to yourself
question yourself
you must say to your soul
why art thou
cast down
and say to yourself
hope thou in God
instead of muttering
in this depressed
unhappy way
and then you must go on
to remind yourself
of God
who God is
and what God is
and what God has done
and what God has pledged
himself to do
then having done that
end on this great note
defy yourself
and defy other people
and defy the devil
and the whole world
and say with the psalmist
I shall yet praise him
who is my God
when God is greater
than our heart
when our hearts
condemn us
Christ church
God is greater
than our hearts
God is greater
than our hearts
that's his word to us
would we let him
speak that into our lives
we meditate on that
and live
like he's greater
than our hearts
will you pray with me
and then God
and what's Your love
is sir
stuen
thank you
for His God
and His love
will you be
as if I can
let him
say
I can't
say
James
that's her
thing
will you
nak
or
you
I can
tell
the
song
is
and
email
free
to
your
YouTube
and
acağız
and