Knowing Him by Walking in Love

Please note: This transcript is provided as close to verbatim record of the sermon.

Knowing Him by Walking in Love

1 John 4–5 (selected)

Opening and Appreciation

All right, good morning everybody. Let’s take our seats, get going here.

All right, good morning. How is everyone doing? It’s the last day of the camp. Looks like we made it so far. We have one more day to go.

All right. So, since this is the last day, I want to extend my appreciation and thanks to all the organizers and the elders of Bethesda for inviting Daniel and I for the conference. We’ve certainly enjoyed a lot, and it looks like as days went by, we started getting more and more people, and all of a sudden the camp is coming to an end.

So I enjoyed your singing, enjoyed your fellowship and friendship, and all the conversations that I have had the last few days. And I want to really appreciate you for all the hard work that you guys have done. There’s a lot of planning that has gone in. There’s a lot of details behind the scenes work that I have learned of and seen, and I really appreciate you guys for doing it all.

You know, you are really a hardworking group, and I think the Lord is blessing you for that. And many of the kids that I’ve talked to here, their parents don’t go to Bethesda, which means the young people’s work—the focus that you give to young people—is bearing fruit. So really keep up the good work. The Lord is really working among you.

And I heard that some of the songs that we were singing this week were written by your own group, which was such a surprise and also an amazing thing—to know that there are people who can write songs and have those talents among you. So keep up the good work.

And Dan and I have a lot of lessons learned that we are taking home. If you can turn the light on please. Yeah.

And we will take some of these lessons learned back home, especially from the area of planning and organizing and so on. You seem to be pretty well organized.

 

Review of the Week

All right. So today is the last day. By the grace of God we’ve been able to go through the Gospel of John. The major theme of the Gospel of John—obviously love is part of that—the major theme is that John wants us to know the same Jesus that he knew.

That’s why he starts off the epistle with a clear bang saying: what we have heard with our ears, what we have seen with our eyes, what our hands have touched, concerning the Word of Life—this we proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship… so that your joy may be full… so that you can know His love… so that you can walk in the light as we ourselves have walked in the light.

So the first day we talked about knowing Him by walking in fellowship with God. Knowing Him starts when you have fellowship with God. If you don’t have fellowship with God, you’re not going to be walking with Him. You’re not going to know Him at all. If you don’t have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ—if you don’t have a relationship with the God of the universe—you are never going to know Him at all.

And for those of us who have known the Lord Jesus, known God—it’s a growing experience. It’s an intimate knowing. I hope you have a desire to know Him more. I hope you have known Him a little bit more than when you came in on Monday morning.

And then the second day we talked about walking in the light—the importance of walking in the light. Why? Because God is in the light. Not only is God in the light and God is light—we have also been transformed from the domain of darkness into the marvelous light. So you were here in the darkness, now you are here in the light. You might as well walk in the light.

Why would you want to expose yourself to the darkness that you were in at one point in time? Why do you want to play games there in the darkness? Why do you want to be on the fringes of light? Just get in. Live the life. Because God is light.

All right. So the third day we talked about knowing Him by abiding in Him. Abiding means remain—stay close. And we talked about a few things: abiding in terms of keeping His commandments, obeying His words, abiding in Him, and also doing the will of God.

And then yesterday we talked about the importance of practicing righteousness. Why do you practice righteousness? Because God Himself is righteous. And we talked about the importance of how our position has been changed, and also how God Himself has given His righteousness to us.

Now the Bible says all our righteousness—if there’s anything good that you have in you, if there’s anything that you can point to and say, “Well, I have this good in me”—the Bible says those are all like filthy rags. Like you put it in the trash. That’s where you put it. But God—because we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ—He has given His righteousness to us so we can be saved. We can be righteous in Him.

We talked about 2 Corinthians 5:21: For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God… finish the sentence—in Him. Very good. Yes. Because it is in Jesus Christ that we have our righteousness. Take Jesus Christ out—there is nothing righteous in us.

 

Today’s Focus: Knowing Him by Walking in Love

So today, Lord willing, we’re going to talk about knowing Him by walking in love. And Lord willing, we will cover chapters four and five today.

I was just checking with ChatGPT the other day and I asked ChatGPT this question: What is the most misused word in the world today?

Well, ChatGPT said arguably the word love is the most misused word in the world today. But it also said the word literally is one of the most misused words in the world today. It said how it is meant is to describe something that is actually true in a literal sense. But how it is used is—it is used as an intensifier for things that aren’t literal at all.

For example, if you say, “I literally died laughing.” It’s like, “No, you didn’t. You’re breathing now.” It blurs the line between fact and exaggeration.

So the other word is the word love. It is one of the most misused words in the world today. Why is it? It is because the word love originates from God. And you leave God out of the equation in defining love—you’re automatically misusing the word love.

The word love in English is one word that is used for several different types of love. We’re going to look at that in a little bit. But then the word has today become a very cheap word because of this—because of a group of people, which is a small percentage of the group of people, who claim this slogan or motto and then say love is love. It doesn’t matter who you love. It doesn’t matter how you love. It doesn’t matter how many you love.

And when they talk about that particular love, they talk about physical intimacy. As long as you love—your love is monogamous and polyamorous—then it is okay. The meaning behind this statement “love is love” is that falling in love is not about gender of the person, nor important if it is monogamous or polyamorous. The sentiment is that you can be gay or bisexual or straight and pursue a monogamous relationship as long as you’re getting the love and affection and companionship that you need to be happy, and fully emotionally as well as satisfied sexually.

That’s why it’s one of the most misused words. Why is it? Because this particular phrase has removed God out of the equation. And John is going to say later—we’re going to look into it—that God is love.

 

God Is Love

One of the major themes of John is love. John is the apostle of love. And we looked at it—he was leaning at the bosom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He mentioned this in John 1:18: No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. John wrote this.

What does it mean by explaining Him? It means to make God known—to declare Him. If you knew Jesus, you know God. You look at Jesus, then you have looked at God.

Now it is true that John realized and understood—based on what he saw in Jesus—that He is the Son of God. He was very satisfied with that. He was very confident about that. But then John also realized that one of the greatest attributes of God is love.

He not only is loving and that He manifested His love—John also came to realize that God is love.

What does it mean “God is love”? It is not merely describing one of the attributes of God. It is declaring something that is so essential about His very nature. Love is His nature. Love is the essence of love. He is the embodiment of love. He defines love. You cannot separate God and love at all. He defines the boundaries of it.

There was a man by the name Gus Barrett who said like this about this particular verse. He says: “The greatest words ever spoken in human speech, the greatest words in the whole Bible. It is impossible to suggest even in briefest outline all that these words can explain… But we may reverently say that this one sentence concerning God contains all the key to all God’s works and ways… What is the statement? God is love.”

You know, there’s no faith system in this entire world that would say God is love.

Now, I grew up in India with a lot of Hindu friends. And one of the things that they would all say is this—because they were taught this way, because the religion teaches them this way—that love is God.

You see the difference? Now why is that? Why would they say “love is God” and not “God is love”? Because first of all they don’t have a clear understanding of who their gods are. And secondly, every place that they see love, they attribute that to God. It’s very easy.

That’s why in Hindu culture—when you see your parent, you bow down. And in the culture I grew up in, you touch their feet because of reverence, because you really worship them.

And the sequence of priority in terms of reverence and worship goes like this: mother, father, teacher, and then god. It’s called ma pa guru—mother, father, teacher, and then god. Why? Because you are seeing their love from them. The greatest form of love you see from an earthly relationship is probably the mother, and closely comes the father, and then because of reverence it is the teacher, and then finally God comes in.

Why? Because that’s the view of who God is, based on the level of love they have experienced with what they have seen with their eyes.

That’s why John is saying: what we have seen with our eyes—it’s not just the love of the mother or the father. What we have seen with our eyes, touched with our hands, and heard with our ears is the love of God the Father, which was manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why he came to this conclusion and said God is love.

 

Reading: 1 John 4:7–10

Let’s read verses 7–10 in 1 John chapter 4.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Now John wants to nail this truth in his readers’ minds. He wants the readers to understand this word agape—God is love—which is the highest form of love.

There are different forms of love, different words for love that the Bible uses. You have probably heard this multiple times. Just as a reminder:

• phileo is a love that is used for friendship—friendly love. Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.
• storgē is the word that is used for familial love—special kind of love you have for parents and brothers.
• eros is more of a romantic kind of love—physical intimacy in a marriage relationship.
• And then this is agape love—the highest form of love.

Agape is the love that the Father has on His Son. It is the love that the Son has on the world. It was with that love that the Son went to the cross to die for the sins of mankind—the agape love.

And I also mentioned that John, whenever he uses the word love in his epistle here in 1 John, it is always the agape love. It is always the selfless love. You can take it for granted—you can do a word search if you want to. The word occurs about 32 times between 4:7 and 5:3 over and over again. So this section of 1 John is really a huge focus on this truth of love.

 

What John Emphasizes About God’s Love

There are two things that John emphasizes here when he talks about God being love. This is very important.

1) God Is the Source of Love

Look at verse 7: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.

So love is from God. God is the source of love. There is no other place in the world. There is no other place in heaven. There is no other place anywhere where love can come from.

You and I love each other. Why? Because love is from God. Because God loved us first.

2) God Is the Essence of Love

Not only is He the source of love, He is also the essence of love. He is love. He’s the One who defines love. He is the standard. All that God does is based on love. And love is the bedrock of all the activities of God.

3) God Manifested That Love

And not only that—because He’s the source of love and He’s the essence of love—He has also manifested that love.

Imagine if God was the source of love and the essence of love, but He did not manifest that love at all. How would we even have known that God is love?

Look at verse 9: By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. The love was manifested.

Now because He is the source of love, because He is the essence of love, and because of the fact that He has manifested His love to us—here is the application:

Application: We Must Manifest Love to One Another

Verse 7 again: Beloved, let us love one another. Verse 11: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

A born-again believer is someone who must love.

People often ask me: how do you know that somebody is saved? Well first of all, I’m not God, so I can’t know for sure. I can’t look at somebody’s heart and say, “He’s saved,” or “She’s saved,” or “She’s not saved.” I can’t do that.

But I can certainly look for certain things—certain aspects of changes in their lives—by which with a decent amount of certainty you can say whether the person is saved or not.

One is: Do they love God’s Word? If there’s no love for God’s Word, then I can say it’s a little questionable.
The other one is: Do they love God? If they don’t love God, if they don’t love God’s Word, then I can question a little bit.
And the third thing is: their love for God’s people.

If a person who claims to be saved does not love God’s people, then there might be some problem with his or her salvation. I’m not saying they won’t be growing in it or anything.

But before salvation: “Well, I don’t want to come to church because I don’t want to be with a bunch of people there. They rub me on the wrong side. I can’t be close friends with them.” That might be their pattern.

But after salvation—if the same pattern continues—there’s something really wrong. Why? Because you have been brought into the family of God. If you are in the family of God, you ought to be loving one another in the family of God.

A born-again believer has to manifest God’s love.

 

Four Ways God’s Love Must Be Manifested

1) By Standing for the Truth (1 John 4:1–2)

So what we’re going to do this morning is dive into chapters 4 and 5 and look at four ways in which the love of God can be manifested—or must be manifested.

Number one is by standing for the truth. We’ll read the first two verses in chapter 4:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because 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.

Now if you say you love God and you love God’s Word, you must also be loving the truth and stand for the truth. That’s what John is trying to say here.

When John says test the spirits, he’s talking about false teachers and false doctrines. He’s not saying when you hear false teaching in the world, you play games with it. Don’t say, “Let’s just talk about it a little bit.” No—test the spirits. Judge them to see whether they are from God or not.

Why? Because you are in the truth. Because you love the truth. When God is love then you also want to love the truth. You cannot compromise with what is not true.

John writes in 1 John 3:18: Little children, let us not love with word and with tongue, but in deed and in truth. When we love in deed and in truth, we stand for the truth—and we talk about things that are not true, so that we can be aware of what is not true.

John talked about false prophets. We talked about Gnosticism and the different forms in which it brought wrong teaching into the church. We saw in 1 John 2:22: Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist—the one who denies the Father and the Son.

John is pretty straightforward. John is the only guy who says if you’re a false teacher, you are really an antichrist. That’s pretty strong. But it’s the spirit of antichrist—because antichrist denies Christ, and false teachers deny Christ as well.

The Lord Jesus talked about it: Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Paul talked about it: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine… wanting to have their ears tickled… they will accumulate for themselves teachers according to their own desires.

You know, there are a lot of churches in this world today where if you want to go have your ears tickled, you can. They’ll speak according to how you want it. More seeker friendly. They play the music you’d like. Messages are simple and small—not deep.

But far beyond that there are some extreme groups that play on the fringes of the divinity of Christ, the Trinity of the Godhead, and so on. So don’t play games with it. John is saying: test the spirits.

In the US you still hear knocks on the door—Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses. There was one guy who was joking—a Christian artist—he said the favorite music of Jehovah’s Witness… and that was a joke.

If there were false teachings in Jesus’ time, imagine all the false teachings that are happening in the world today.

Prosperity gospel. Legalism. Hyper-grace—“Oh you can sin, it’s okay.” Universalism—many paths to God. Denial of the core Christology and Trinity—this is gaining popularity. I’ve talked to people who have said, “I love Jesus. Jesus is good. But God of the Old Testament—He’s a monster.” And then they start rejecting parts of Scripture.

There was this one guy coming to our Friday night Bible study for a long time. He would say, “Oh, I love Jesus—He’s cool. He’s a nice guy.” But “Paul—I don’t like Paul.” Why? Because Paul is straightforward. But if you don’t believe in the entirety of Scripture, then you are not really believing in the fundamentals of the truth.

There’s something called replacement theology—you’ve got to be careful. It’s not necessarily about salvation in this particular thing, but it can get into other areas of Scripture. Denial of Christ’s return. So John says: don’t just believe—test it out.

And here’s the key: there has to be a reference point. If I tell you, “Here is a pen—test it out,” you would ask: test it for what? Whether it writes? Whether it breaks? Whether there’s ink? There has to be a basis.

So what is John asking us to test? Test the spirits based on what? Based on what the Scriptures are saying. The Scripture is our reference point.

That’s why Paul said about the Bereans: They were more noble-minded… examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

So don’t just go to the youth camp, write down what the brother taught, and say, “That’s it.” Now you can revisit your notes—sure—but go back to the Scriptures to see whether the Scriptures say those things are true.

Now if you want to test it based on God’s Word, first you’ve got to be familiar with God’s Word. Be in the Scriptures. Be diligent.

Paul said: retain the standard of sound words. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

That’s a strong verse. Be diligent. Why? If you are not diligent, sooner or later you’re going to be ashamed—maybe when someone asks you, “What do you believe about the Holy Spirit? Eternal security?” If you don’t know, you’ll be ashamed.

So do your homework.

 

2) By Loving Other People (1 John 4:10–11; 1 John 2:7–10)

Secondly, you manifest God’s love by loving other people. You must love others.

Verse 10: In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

When John thinks about God’s love, what incident comes to his mind? Someone said: eating with sinners. True. But then I’m thinking of one particular thing—someone said: the cross. Another said: washing the disciples’ feet—bonus point, John chapter 13.

We see God’s love in how He washed the disciples’ feet. Maybe that created such an impression in John’s mind.

Imagine one of the highest officers of your company, or your college, or your prime minister or president coming and washing your feet.

Some of you know I worked at Apple for several years before I became full-time. I remember two and a half years ago on my last day of work, I was walking with my friend, and there walked the CEO of the company. You know who Apple CEO is? Tim Cook.

We kind of chased him. I told him, “Hi Tim, this is the last day of my work here. Would you mind if we took a picture?” He said, “Yeah sure. Why not?” And we took a picture.

Now imagine if Tim came to me and said, “David, you’ve served Apple for a while. Why don’t you sit down right there and remove your shoes? Can you remove your shoes?” I’d say, “What, Tim? What are you talking about?” And then he brings a bowl of water, takes a towel, and starts washing my feet: “This is my way of saying thanks for all your service at Apple.”

What if he did that? Never in the history of mankind where someone who is so high would stoop down to someone who is so low and wash their feet. But Jesus did.

Jesus commands that we need to be loving everybody. You must love because God has commanded love to be shown.

Turn to chapter 2 and verse 7:

Beloved, I’m not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning… and then verse 8: On the other hand, I’m writing a new commandment to you…

So John—make up your mind. Old or new? What John is trying to say: loving each other is not new—you see it in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 6, the Shema: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength; love your neighbor as yourself.

So if someone comes and says, “This is so new—believe this new revelation,” don’t believe it. There are people who came saying something new: Muhammad, Joseph Smith—new revelations—and people believed.

But then John says it is also a new commandment. Why? Look at the phrase: which is true in Him and in you. That’s why we read the Bible with diligence.

It’s new because Jesus radically showed what love is like. Who would eat with sinners? Who would eat with tax collectors? The Jews considered Gentiles as pigs. But Jesus came, sat with them, washed their feet—He showed a love that was beyond the boundaries people had drawn.

So we must love because God loved us first, because God commands us—

And Thirdly: Because Love Overcomes Hate

Verse 9 and 10: The one who loves his brother abides in the light… but the one who hates his brother is in darkness.

John talks in contrasts: love and hate. If you don’t love your brother, you’re really hating your brother. 1 John 3:15: Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. That’s strong. Where does it come from? The Lord Jesus’ radical teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

Now if I were to ask you: do you hate somebody? You’d say: “Of course not.” That’s a strong word. But think through the list:

Trolling, mocking, bullying on social media. Canceling someone instead of correcting them. Spreading rumors or screenshots to shame someone. Sarcasm—cutting humor to humiliate. Name calling. Cursing and roasting. Venting.

Ignoring someone on purpose. Silent treatment—weaponizing silence to punish. Social cliques that define worth by popularity or looks. Secretly rejoicing when others fail. Refusing to forgive. Subtle gossip disguised as concern. “I just don’t care about them anymore.” Turning away from someone’s pain or need. Withholding kindness because they don’t deserve it.

These are forms of hatred. These can happen, brothers. This can happen in the assembly today.

 

3) By Living Fearlessly (1 John 4:17–18; 1 John 5:4–5)

Thirdly, you manifest God’s love by living fearlessly. Look at verses 17 and 18 of chapter 4:

By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment… There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment. And the one who fears is not perfected in love.

When you love God, there’s no fear. Why is there no fear? Because you have passed out of judgment into life.

When the New Testament talks about judgment, there are two places where judgment is going to happen.

One is the Bema judgment seat of Christ. Bema means an elevated platform. That judgment is for believers—not to decide heaven or hell, because our condemnation is taken away. It is to judge our works and motives: why did you do what you did? With what intention? With what attitude?

The second place is the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20. That judgment is for unbelievers.

So live fearlessly. Living fearlessly is important for two reasons.

Reason 1: You Are an Overcomer

Look at verses 4 and 5 of chapter 5:

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

If you have put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are an overcomer. That’s the power of faith. You are justified, sanctified, glorified in Christ Jesus. You become a child of God. Even when you sin, because God has procured your victory, you can go back to Him. You confess your sins and so on.

Reason 2: Your Salvation Is Assured

This is a very important verse in 1 John. John says:

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. That you may know that you have eternal life.

We do a lot of campus work and evangelism, personal evangelism, and we use Gospel Outline. One of the first things we do is ask two questions—called the Kennedy questions.

1. Have you come to a place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die tonight you would go to heaven?
   A lot of people say 90%, 99%, even 99.9%—but there’s still a little question, isn’t it? It’s got to be 100%.
2. Suppose you were to die tonight and stand before God and He were to ask you, “Why should I let you into My heaven?” What would you say?
   Some people say: “I’ve been trying to be good… I’ve been going to church… I’ve been nice to poor people…” Bam—wrong answer. The right answer is: because of the Lord Jesus. He paid for my sins.

The point is: you can be sure. Anybody can be sure.

One of the things Satan wants to rob us of is our assurance. People get saved, they fall into sin, they question their salvation. They struggle. They get depressed.

My son was like that. For a couple years he struggled: “Did I really get saved? I’m not totally sure.” I took him out for breakfast and we talked through these verses.

What is your salvation based on? Not based on your emotions. Not based on whether you did ten right things and one wrong thing that week. The assurance of salvation is based on the fact: God has said it, and I know it. That’s eternal security.

 

4) By Slaying the Idols (1 John 5:20–21; Colossians 3:5)

Finally, you manifest God’s love by slaying the idols.

Go to the very last verse—the last few minutes here. The very last verse of John’s first epistle:

Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

John is unique. No introduction. No greetings. No salutation. No formal ending. He just says: “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”

But notice the connection with verse 20:

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true… This is the true God and eternal life. And then: Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

So anything that takes the place of God in your life is an idol.

Brad Bigney says: “An idol is anything or anyone that captures our hearts, minds, and affections more than God. An idol is a false god.”

David Powlison says idolatry is by far the most frequently discussed problem in Scripture, and the relevance of massive chunks of Scripture hangs on understanding idolatry.

Throughout history you see God fighting Israel on this one thing: idolatry. Ten commandments: you shall have no other gods before Me… you shall not make for yourself an idol.

Remember in Moses’ time when Moses was up there, and Aaron made the golden calf? Moses came down and saw the dancing, the calf, and he broke the tablets. And God said in Exodus 32:10: “Now then let Me alone that My anger may burn against them, that I may destroy them…”

Just let Me alone, Moses. Visualize the anger of God. Why? Because they made a mockery of it. Anything that takes the place of God is an idol.

Brad Bigney says: “Idolatry is who or what you worship, what you long for, what your heart is set on. Idolatry is a big deal because it flies in the face of God.”

Turn to Colossians 3:5—probably our last reference:

Therefore put to death your members which are on earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

If I asked you define idolatry, you might say Hindu shrines, idols, statues, and so on. But Paul says fornication—sex before marriage. Uncleanness. Passion. Evil desire. Covetousness—deep desire for somebody’s car, gadget, another person’s wife, and so on. And he says all these amount to idolatry.

Anything that takes the place of God in your life is idolatry.

Let me challenge you: would any of these be idolatry in your life? Laziness. Social media. Games. The mighty American dollar—or Singaporean dollar. Brand names. People can get so addicted, so drawn, that it becomes an idol and takes the place of God.

One author said: sometimes our idols can be a conglomeration of metal and plastic circuits and rubber upholstery and glass—otherwise known as a car. Sometimes idols are flesh and blood—a spouse, child, grandchild, parent. Sometimes less tangible: fame, position, popularity.

Ezekiel got it right: “These men have taken their idols into their hearts.” Don’t have idols in your heart.

Brad Bigney, in Gospel Treason, says to identify personal idols, ask:

• Am I willing to sin to get this?
• Am I willing to sin if I think I’m going to lose this?
• Do I turn to this as refuge and comfort instead of going to God?
• What does my spare time look like—do I go to God, or to these gadgets?

So the question is: what is the idol of your heart today?

C.T. Studd said: One life, which will soon be passed—what is done for the Lord will last.

Know Him. Love Him. Take away the idols of your life. Give God the central main part of your life. Give God the young days of your life. The Lord is going to bless you more and more because you have a full life ahead of you.

We’ll wrap up with some final thoughts later this evening, but may the Lord bless you all. And as I said earlier in the message, we certainly enjoyed the entire week with you all. May the Lord flourish your boundaries. May the Lord bless you more and more to see a lot more young people go on for the Lord in Singapore.

 

Prayer

Let’s pray.

Our Father, I’m so grateful and so thankful to You for the opportunity that You gave to Daniel and I to come here and be with this special group. Thank You for their love for You. They have done a lot of hard work, down to some of the minutest details, and a great deal of planning. Lord, You love these things.

So Father, we want to pray that You will bless them. Many of them work really hard—not only in planning and preparing but also in discipling, working with these individuals, working to see their quiet times, preparing for the Bible studies, preparing for the workshops. We pray that You’ll continue to bless Bethesda Hall, that it’ll be a light to not only Singapore but also to many other Southeast Asian and South Asian countries.

So we want to give You glory and honor. Thank You so much for this week and for all that You have taught us. We love You, Lord Jesus. In Your own precious and lovely Name we pray. Amen.