The Greatest

James Watson

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Good morning. It’s an exciting day as we get ready for VBS to start tonight. It’s Game On! 6 days of kids hearing that they can have a relationship with Jesus. And we’re going to use sports as a way to teach kids the gospel.

At North Hills that’s not a big jump for us because many of eat, sleep and live sports.

On Friday night, we saw something pretty amazing. Lebron James who is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time got swept by arguably the best team of all time.

My guess if you have noticed that the colors of our VBS shirts match the colors of the Warriors I’m going to go out on a limb and say that isn’t an accident.

It’s actually pretty amazing to watch Lebron put up 51 and still lose. But being the best player doesn’t translate to success if you’re alone.

So what makes the warriors special? there is something in an among the warriors that is greater than that which is in and among the Cavaliers.

The greatest player can’t just look his team in the eye and say, I’ve got this.

Especially not when the other team has something greater. And no I’m not going to say they have Jesus.

The warriors had a greater spirit of unity, and teamwork where they put the needs of the team over individual needs.

And you don’t want to just invite anyone into that. That chemistry could easily get messed up by one more big ego who is all about himself.

The warriors are going to be selective about who they let in.

Ok so they say if you can’t preach a sermon everywhere…don’t preach it anywhere.

I’m pretty sure I couldn’t preach this sermon effectively in Chicago. At least not this introduction.

So here’s what I’m saying. The warriors are greater than the sum of each individual player.

Many of you work jobs where this makes sense. Add one bad apple and the work place takes a downturn.

One bad musician in a band messes everything up.

We can’t do anything alone. We need others. That is what makes Christianity so special. We are better together. We have a spirit of Unity that binds us together. And while all are invited, the church is called to be selective on who gets to teach and lead. we are even selective on who gets to be a member. That’s not to say you can’t come. All are welcome, but not all get a voice.

How do we know who speaks for God?

We’re continuing our study of 1 John. Turn in your Bibles to . Or scroll on your phone.

John is encouraging the young church to walk faithfully with God. And today John is going to warn this church that there are those who are trying to deceive them.

is the main text that we are going to key in on because it is a great reminder in times of struggle.

1 john

1 John 4:4 ESV

4 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.

Big Idea: Lean in to the Holy Spirit.

Spirit is not strictly a Christian concept. WE talk about spirit all the time. You can have school spirit. A spirited person is usually excited. You can have a spirit of negatively. you can drink spirits.

The Holy Spirit is a different kind of spirit in that He is the Greatest spirit. But we often lose him in the lesser spirits of the world.

Let’s continu

1 john 4:1-3

1 John 4:1–3 ESV

1. Consider the Source.

Ironically the Bible, the Church, Jesus, your pastor actually encourages you to be a skeptic. There is too much riding on this for us to get this wrong. And a lot of damage is done when we just believe whatever sounds good.

Don’t believe everything you hear. Don’t trust everyone you meet. It seems like there are a lot of people who want to lead us astray.

Many of us have actually been burned enough that this comes easy. We naturally question everything. But the question then comes up, “Who can you trust?”

Trust is something that can take years to earn but can be lost in a split second.

When deciding whether or not to believe something, we need to consider the source.

Has this person earned our trust? Have they burned us before? Do they have a reputation of being reliable? Or are they constantly posting clickbait lies on Facebook?

Even for pastors we can be accused of embellishing stories in our sermons. People will ask, was that story true or were you just preaching? That’s why I only tell true stories.

When it comes to faith, it is vitally important that we know who we can trust.

In John warns us again that false teachers and antichrists are going to try and deceive us. Back then, they didn’t have a book store to go buy a Bible or even a smartphone to download and app to check to make sure that what someone saying is true.

John gave them a way to for the early church to test anyone who would come and try to teach them....“anyone who says that Jesus came in the flesh is from God…if not don’t trust them.”

Back then one of the quickest ways to tell if someone was lying was to check to see what they taught about Jesus. Back then the biggest false teachers were the gnostics who taught that the physical world was evil. They taught that Jesus or the Logos was not human but a Spirit that indwelled Jesus’s earthly body. It was also offensive to them that Jesus would die.

Pretty much John is saying, don’t believe anyone who holds to gnosticism. Don’t associate with them. Don’t entertain them. They will try to lead you astray and what they say will actually sound good.

A good comparison today would be health wealth and prosperity preachers. Because they always point to themselves instead of Jesus. If a pastor’s preaching is more about himself than jesus....don’t listen to him (or her).

Now John isn’t writing to a single person, but a group of people that he’s hoping will be united in themselves. So no one should ever have to discern whether something is true or not by themselves. We should be able to go to eachother. Now really quick. a lot of people have been burned by the church. How can you trust when you’ve been burned before.

The truth is that the it’s not the church per se that we’re trusting, but we’re trusting in what makes the church great.

Just because you’ve been burned by a doctor doesn’t mean you should swear off modern medicine.

The truth is that the it’s not the church per se that we’re trusting, but we’re trusting in what makes the church great.

No matter what the basis for our decision to trust someone, we need to trust someone greater.

1 John 4:4–6 ESV

4 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. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 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.

1 John 4:1–6 ESV

1 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. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 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. 4 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. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 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.

2. Trust Someone greater.

In verse 4 John encourages these people that he loves that they have everything they need in them to accurately determine what is true and what is not. They can accurately determine who to believe by leaning into the Holy Spirit.

Having repented of your sins and based on Jesus’ work on the cross embraced Him as your Lord and savior, we have been given the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus told his disciples before he died on the cross. In john 14, Jesus actually said that it would be better that He go to heaven, rather than continue to lead them around Israel for the next 40 years, because He would send the Holy Spirit.

Now you might remember that jesus did a lot of stuff. Turned water into wine; healed the sick; made the lame walk; sight to the blind; oh and he raised a guy named lazarus from the dead. So how crazy must it have been when he says in that they would do greater things than these. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was coming.

So if we want to know the truth, we need to lean into someone greater than those who are trying to deceive us. We need to lean into the Holy Spirit. WE need to trust that which is inside of us.

When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the way for us to have a restored relationship with God. And with that came the promise of the Holy Spirit who would empower us to do amazing things.

But it also created a community of people. Here’s what I believe based on my reading of the Bible. The Holy Spirit isn’t only about each one of us. The Holy Spirit does live inside of each of us individually, HIs power is made more abundant in community.

This is also why it has never in church history been granted that a single person could declare something heresy. Even in the Bible we see groups of people gathering at councils to discuss what is true and what is false.

So, when we doubt whether or not to believe someone, we don’t have to struggle on our own. We can bring those doubts and questions to others in the church. The church then determines what it believes. Based on what?

The truth is that a lot of times lies sound good while truth is hard to believe. Is that really true?

In our day, we’re not so much worried about a traveling preacher coming to town and preaching lies. You can just get it on the internet or the local booksstore. These things are filled with things that sound good, but are they actually helpful? Could they be lies?

This is one of the reasons that I put a recommended reading section in the sermon notes. It might be more helpful if put a list of potentially dangerous preachers or books that you should never read. But I won’t.

So how do we discern what’s true and beneficial?

This is going to sound cliche, but bare with me. Read and study your bible.

1 John 4:6 ESV

6 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 an interesting verse and many people just to the conclusion that it’s about you. If you agree with me you’re from God. If you don’t agree with me, you’re probably not even saved.

But who is “us?” Who is John talking about?

Let me answer that by asking another question…I’m training to be a politician. How did the New Testament come to be?

Many people think it was a group of old white guys sitting in a room choosing which books fit their agenda while excluding those that didn’t. Again…this is a lie.

Criteria for being included in the NT was strict. Writers had to be an eye witness or closely tied to someone who was.

That meant that Jesus’ disciples had priority.

Matthew, John, Peter were disciples.

Mark was an eye witness to the resurrection and probably wrote his Gospel with the help of Peter.

Paul was had a dramatic experience with the risen Lord. An eyewitness to Jesus’ glory.

Luke was closely tied to Paul and interviewed eyewitnesses to Jesus.

James and Jude were Jesus’ brothers.

We don’t know who wrote Hebrews, but whoever it was was closely tied to Paul.

In 325 new gospels were circulating. Thomas, Judas, Mary Magdalene. These are called the Gnostic gospels becuase the same gnosticism which hated the physical world decided to make a comeback. and in these drastic times, the church under the power of the Holy Spirit rose up at the Council of Nicea to smash it down.

In the last 25 years, Gnosticism has made a comeback. Books that claim to speak God’s word outside the Bible are nothing new.

More than ever we need to Lean into the Holy Spirit as we lean into each other. We are better together because of the Holy Spirit. And together we can figure out what is true.

Reflection: How will you know what the truth is?

Are you ready to pour yourself into community? To join a life group? To commit to others in the family of God?

Are you ready to embarce the truth of Jesus for the first time.

VBS has always been really good and putting the good news of Jesus in a way that is so simple even an adult can understand.

Admit you are a sinner and repent.

Believe that Jesus came as a human and died on the cross that you might be reconciled to God.

Confess with your mouth through public baptism that Jesus is Lord of your life.

It really is that simple. But the question is are you ready?

Throughout this week we will teach this to little children and on friday we’ll teach it to their parents.

My hope and prayer is that we will put aside the lies of the world and embrace the truth of God as we lean in to the Holy Spirit.

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