No Bad Apples: #1 - Admit the Need for Change
1st John 1:5-10 Victory Fellowship
June 26, 2022 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
Healing Service
I. Introduction:
a. You’ve heard the saying, “One bad apple spoils the whole bunch.” It usually refers to a person unwilling to work well with others and consequently undermine the task at hand. The same can be true of certain attitudes that keep us from experiencing living in the unspoiled fullness of the Spirit of Christ.
b. For five Sundays in the summer of 2022, Pastor Rod’s sermons will focus on an attitude (bad apple) that needs to be eliminated from the life of a Spirit-filled Christian in order to preserve our faithful witness.
c. Entitled, No Bad Apples, this series will deal with improving our walk of faith, similar to picking out the bad fruit in order to make the bunch more appealing.
d. The topics each week will include:
i. Being too Stubborn to Change
ii. Negativity
iii. Self-Centeredness
iv. Wounded-ness (playing the victim)
v. Fault-finding (blaming others)
II. This 1st week I want to focus on Stubborn-ness.
a. Enjoying good food like fruit, potatoes, onions, etc. for a long time means being diligent about removing the bad ones from the bunch. Putting into action the time, effort, and money to keep it the freshest, the longest.
b. Similarly, in order to keep our spiritual life fresh, we need to recognize that there are things we may need to change. If we are too stubborn to admit the need to change, God can’t do very much with us.
c. 1st John promises us fellowship with God, Who is Light and Truth, but to do so we cannot walk in darkness.
d. There may be bad fruit (sin) in our lives. We have to confess our sin. And if we say we have no sin (too stubborn to admit the need to change) John says we are fooling ourselves and calling God a liar.
e. The good news is when we confess our sin to God, He cleans up our spiritual basket! He forgives our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness!
III. Application:
a. When’s the best time to pick bad fruit (potatoes, onions) out of the bunch? Fix what you see is bad right away!
b. If you wait until it moldy or smelly it’s too late. Much of the rest of the bunch is spoiled.
c. Likewise, we don’t want do the same thing with sinful behaviors in our lives. We can become comfortable with the behavior - and as a result may be too stubborn to allow the Holy Spirit to work change in us. We are too stubborn to admit the need to change until we become smelly or moldy in our witness.
IV. Conclusion:
a. Over the course of these next few Sunday’s, let’s agree to ask God to help us examine our lives - and if we see any of these behaviors present. I say it’s time we pick out the bad fruit so that only good apples remain in our spiritual life!
b. This week let’s examine in what areas we may be too stubborn to admit the need to change. Come Holy Spirit and let the picking begin!
PRAYER & ANOINTING
SONG: Forgiveness by TobyMac
1st John 1:5-10 NLT This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
