1 John 5:16-17 • Don't Pray for That Person

📖 1 John 5:16-17 — There is a sin unto death. But even then, God doesn't cast His child out. He calls him home. This expository preaching message walks through one of the hardest verses in 1 John — "there is a sin unto death" — and asks the question every honest believer eventually asks: does God still love a Christian who won't stop sinning? Using Numbers 25, 1 Corinthians 10, Hosea 4, and Jeremiah 7, 11, and 14, this verse-by-verse teaching through 1 John 5 shows how God has dealt with His people's persistent idolatry and immorality throughout Scripture — and what that means for a believer today who refuses correction. If you've ever watched someone you love get further and further into sin — a son, a daughter, a church member, a friend — and wondered if God has given up on them, this message was preached for you. This expository preaching study doesn't offer easy comfort, but it does offer the truth: even under the hardest discipline, a true child of God is never cast out of the family. The main text is 1 John 5:16-17, but the sermon reaches back into Old Testament history (Numbers 25, 1 Corinthians 10, Hosea 4, Jeremiah 7/11/14, Proverbs 1) and forward into the New Testament (2 Timothy 4, John 21) to build a full biblical picture of the three ways a believer can die — and why one of those ways is under God's own discipline. This verse-by-verse expository sermon through 1 John 5:16-17 covers: - What the "sin unto death" is — and what it is not - Why Israel's idolatry in Numbers 25 and 1 Corinthians 10 matters for the church today - Why God sometimes tells His prophets, "Stop praying for them"