Rescue

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Welcome to Thrive. It's good to have you here on this Labor Day weekend. I know there are a lot of people who travel or do all sorts of things. You had a lot of options rather than showing up at a worship service, but we are so thankful you're here. We are finishing today this series called The Big Relief. That's kind of a colloquial term for what the gospel really is. It does give us relief. We're able to rest. We're able to settle. We're able to quiet our souls a bit from all the anxieties and troubles of the world. I know personally, but I also know from hearing your stories, there's a lot of troubles in this world. A lot. The gospel is a place where you can find solace. We hope Thrive is a place that you can find it in community. Solace, support, encouragement, you name it. What we all need. Now, that sounds great, doesn't it? To be rescued. But there's an implication when you say the word like rescue. If God is our rescuer, then that means we have a need. That's, I think, the first yes. We're in trouble. That's why we need a rescue. Or for instance, the word redeemer in the Bible assumes that we are captured. And we need to be redeemed, bought back. Forgiver means I'm in debt. Healer assumes I'm broken. Shepherd, that I'm lost. Savior, that I'm in trouble and near death. Reconciler, that I'm alienated. And even truth, that Jesus is our truth means I've been deceived. Those things trouble people about Christianity. That kind of flip side of the gospel. They assume that Christianity is a crutch. Have you ever heard that? It's for weak people that need something like this. In fact, probably Friedrich Nietzsche historically has probably said it the strongest. For instance, he said Christianity has taken the part of all the weak, the low, the botched. It has made an ideal out of the antagonism to all the self-preservative instincts of sound life. It has corrupted even the faculties of those natures that are intellectually most vigorous by representing the highest intellectual values as sinful, as misleading, as full of temptation. Please, you know, you're going soft, Nietzsche, on us, right? He was very opposed to Christianity as he saw it. Someone less eloquently, but maybe more colloquially. Some of you might remember Jesse Ventura, the governor, but before that a wrestler. This is what he said. Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. Strength in numbers, Jesse, like, oh, I don't know, voting blocks? Interesting, isn't it, how we can find that as a problem somewhere else? The truth is, Christianity is claiming, yes, it is maybe a crutch for the weak, but maybe something nobody wants to recognize, that we're all in the condition of needing it. That's the issue, right? We all have a hard time admitting it. In fact, that's part of the problem. It's not so much that we have this mistake or that mistake in life. It's the fact that I want to act like I don't have any problems. I'm okay. You're okay. Well, maybe you're not so hot, but I'm okay. John is dealing with this in his first letter to the churches. He's dealing with a group of people within it, specifically, and then the warning to everyone else. They considered themselves, in a sense, super spiritual, a class above all the other Christians in this church, and they assumed they were enlightened, that they had arrived, that they had made it, that they no longer, they were full of the Spirit. They were full of something, but they were full of the Spirit enough so that they no longer sinned, in fact. Okay? And John counters that. So, this is 1 John, chapter 1, verse 5, through chapter 2, verse 2, that we're going to be reading. So this is what John writes to them. This is the message we have heard from Him, Jesus, and proclaimed to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you, so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. John uses very, very simple language, both in his gospel and in his letters, and repetitive language, in a sense. It's kind of a meditative, almost like a cone, like trying to figure out, what is he all getti...