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Intro:
Aren’t these intro vides great?
This week we are going to start a mini-series on the book of first John.
I’m calling it a mini-series only because it won’t take us a year to complete.
I’m really excited about the message that God has for us this coming year and this study is going to prepare us for ministry and for the next series to come.
The things we will talk about in this study are, as the video says, “not new information.”
“This is not new information.”
These principles are ones that we have talked about before, but just like the church that John is writing too, we all need to be reminded sometimes of who we are and what we are called to be.
I was sent a headline by a friend of mine on Friday night about a proposed split in a denomination.
The friend isn’t a believer and he is one that God has called me to invest in.
I have spent years cultivating the relationship that we have.
He didn’t say this, but because I know him, I know what he was thinking.
If the church is following Jesus, why is it necessary for it split?
This is a great question.
We see in our text today that there is a group of “deceivers” that have left the church and were trying to convince the rest of that body that what was being taught in their church was incorrect.
Just to be clear, this specific thing is happening at TGP.
This message isn’t a response to anything.
However, we are all bombarded with false ideas and teachings through the culture that we live in.
If our goal is to know Christ and to make Him known, we must know him and be transformed into His likeness.
The goal of this series is to see and experience that Jesus is the Light and Love.
As we experience that truth, we are going to be made into his likeness and will become the conduit that Jesus can use to show the world who He is.
I want to say this too as we step off into this series.
We are all in different places and have come to the church at different times during our growth.
During this study, if I seem to breeze past a topic or idea that you think needs more explanation or clarification, please let me or your life group leader know.
Don’t just assume you should know and be embarrassed to ask.
If you don’t know or can’t remember, you probably aren’t the only one.
Last week we did, what I would call a review, of the ABCs.
I covered some material that we taught during our core group training when we first planted the church.
Out of all the people that were here last week, only four of us were in that core group.
So, don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Yesterday I was scrolling Facebook and ran across a live video from a guy that I used to go to church with.
I haven’t cried, I mean ugly cry, in along time, but I did yesterday.
He was telling his friends that he has been diagnosed with stage four cancer and only has a few years left.
Now, this guy is not old.
He’s maybe ten years older than me and has kids living at home still.
Yet here he is, staring down death, beginning a battle that, unless God intervenes, he won’t win, and he uses that opportunity to share the truth about God.
He uses that time to tell his friends and family that he is not afraid because he knows that God is going to use this and is asking them to pray for the doctors, nurses, and others that will be involved in his treatment.
What brings a person to that place?
What has happened in their life, that when they are at the end of their rope and they have the opportunity to make it all about themselves, they point to God?
This guy knows God.
He is so intimately acquainted with Jesus that he knows that his life and his death are not his own.
They belong to the father.
I was telling Bethany Friday night that in the last three weeks I have had to make several trips to Shreveport and had to pass Willis Knighton Hospital.
That is where she had the initial surgery that found cancer and other follow up procedures.
Every time I drive past it feels like a gut punch.
I’m reminded of the pain that Bethany went trough, the emotions, the uncertainty, and the fear that we both felt.
I’m not just playing the cancer card to get your attention or play with your emotions.
I’m sharing with you the truth about where my heart is.
Because of the things that my family has been through, my perspective is different today.
I realized while we were talking Friday night, that a big part of the attitude change I have had toward Christmas is because of this change in perspective.
That’s just one example, but there are many things in my life that have changed as a result of who I have discovered God to be.
Because God walked with us through that time, I know Him in a way that I didn’t know Him before.
But something else happened as well.
I have been given a better perspective on the life that I have left.
I am sharing these stories with you today because they have changed me.
They didn’t turn me in to a “yes man.”
Quite the opposite in fact.
The things I have experienced cause me to weigh every decision against the weight of knowing Jesus and making Him known.
I have walked with God, heard his voice, felt his hand, and know him.
In verse 4 John says this...
I was talking with someone this week and I was again relating my sentiment on why I have felt frustration.
It has absolutely nothing to do with personal or church growth.
I get frustrated when I see people struggling with life and the answers are right in front of them.
They have heard the truth.
They have seen God working in the lives of others.
Yet, they try to fix things themselves and then are even more broken when it doesn’t work.
Just to be clear, I ask God daily, that He would give me the words that He wants to say to you all.
But just so you know, I am emotionally invested in those words.
I’m invested because you are my people.
When you suffer, I suffer.
When you laugh, I laugh.
When you enjoy success, I enjoy it with you.
When you experience failure, I’m there too.
God wants our joy to be complete and the only way that happens is if we know Him.
We will not have complete joy until we know him, nor can we share that joy until we know Him.
I have shared these stories today as a way of showing you what this looks like.
Share your God experiences with the people in your life.
John is writing to his friend that is part of a church that is experiencing troubles.
He wants to encourage them that they are correct in their belief in Jesus.
Those that were causing trouble were trying to convince them that Jesus was not the Messiah.
John confronts that head-on by sharing his experiences.
John is starting off this letter by sharing with them that Jesus is the Christ and John knows it because he has experienced it for himself.
Look at the language that He uses.
we have heard.
we have seen with our eyes.
we have looked upon - he is stating that he is an eyewitness as it happened.
we have touched with our hands.
John isn’t teaching something that he has heard from someone else.
He is teaching based on his personal experiences with Jesus.
He, therefore, has authority that these naysayers could not have.
Put yourself in the story for a moment.
Imagine you are there when these men are trying to convince the church that Jesus wasn’t the messiah and John sends this letter that completely contradicts them.
John’s argument isn’t based on theory or interpretation.
It is based on facts and personal experiences.
This wasn’t based on man made theology.
John is clear from the outset of his reason for writing.
He is writing so that they may know and be part of the fellowship.
Having personal experiences with God is such a simple concept, but we forget so easily.
We get caught up in life and somehow forget that the point of all this isn’t to just transfer knowledge from one person to another, but to actually know, to be in a relationship with God.
I remember a time in my life when I was on staff as a youth pastor at a church.
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