Latest / HBCWestminster / 1.12.25 1 John 1:1-4 Pastor Danny Gardner

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1.12.25 1 John 1:1-4 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

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Church, would you pray with me? And Lord, we ask that you would shine your light upon your word
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this morning as we seek to apply it to our lives. Lord, make us not only hearers of your word,
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but doers also. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated.
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We concluded last Sunday by saying, this is the year I hope our phones get lonely.
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I said, we want to spend time with the Lord and with his people.
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Temple. We should be living our lives according to his tempo.
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We want to melt down and destroy anything which marginalizes our walks with Christ.
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I encourage us with the Apostle Paul's words not to be mastered by anything. He said all things are
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okay. All things are permissible, but we must not be mastered by anything. We've got to destroy the
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idols in our lives. And I have received many, many responses to last Sunday's message. And it leads
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me to think that perhaps we should be living our lives according to his tempo. We should be living
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our lives. Perhaps the Spirit of God was at work in your hearts prior to Sunday, just like he was at
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work in mine. I think last Sunday's sermon must have just provided the spark which set all of our
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hearts ablaze at the same time. And I pray that the Spirit of God would answer our prayer to
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convict us, to search us, to purge from us anything which would marginalize our walks.
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My own family has had deep conversations about those convictions which the Lord brought to each
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of us this new year.
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My three sons were sitting down here last Sunday. One of them, my middle son, Zach, was encouraged
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all the more. He had actually prior to the new year already had some convictions and made some
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changes regarding his phone usage. And as I asked him about what the Lord was doing in his heart,
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he just said, you know what? All the more, Dad. All the more. I'm going to continue on the path
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that I'm on. I want to be with people, not on my phone. My oldest son, Pearson's response was funny.
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I don't know if you guys were here. The second service last week,
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Maybe you noticed my son, who was at the 1045 service last Sunday,
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as soon as I said amen, dismissed everybody,
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he took his phone and just chucked it up here on the stage.
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And he says, that's it with that.
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It was funny, as I was preaching, he was on his phone almost the entire time.
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And I was like, well, that's kind of an irony.
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It turns out what he was doing was deleting apps.
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By the end of the sermon, he had deleted 23 apps, 23 apps.
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And then he said, including the MLB app,
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which, if you know for him, is a big deal.
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And then he said, but I re-downloaded it.
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He said, I don't want to get rid of all my idols at the same time.
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My son, Chase, who is about to turn 15 years old, he's a freshman in high school,
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he does not yet own a phone.
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As soon as the sermon was done, he just leaned over to his mom and said,
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I'm never going to get a phone, am I?
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She said, no, probably not.
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You know, they say that variety is the spice of life.
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But I wonder if having options is always a positive.
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I recently heard the story of a Russian pastor.
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This is a true story.
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A Russian pastor just a few years ago visiting the U.S. for the first time.
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He went to the supermarket.
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He was amazed at the variety we have available to us.
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He found an aisle with powdered milk.
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He had never heard of such a thing.
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He said, powdered milk.
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Just add water.
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Just add water and you get milk?
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He saw powdered eggs.
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Just add water and you get eggs?
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Then he saw baby powder.
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Said, this country truly has everything.
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Imagine all of the options we have.
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Even when it comes to simple things like groceries.
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We have so many options, I think, that it's possible in our country to raise picky eaters.
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I don't know if you've raised any of those in your home.
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I certainly did.
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When my boys were young, and they have all grown out of this,
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but when my boys were really little,
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if their dinner didn't rhyme with erger or eatsa,
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or if dinner didn't end in and cheese,
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sometimes I'd get crinkled noses.
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Do you remember having dinner wars at your tables when your kids were little?
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Do you remember saying things like,
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you're not getting up from that chair,
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do you remember this,
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until you eat that broccoli?
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Until you eat those potatoes, until that chicken is gone?
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Do you remember this statement?
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If you don't want it for this evening's dinner,
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you can eat it for tomorrow's breakfast.
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Do you remember that one?
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Don't get me wrong.
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I'm really thankful to live where I do.
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I love our country.
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I love living in a place with nearly unlimited options,
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but I do wonder if variety is always a good thing.
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I love that we have 200 different types of breakfast cereal to choose from,
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but when it comes to different faiths,
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I think our desire for options,
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has unfortunately extended to religion.
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In 2003, the BBC News Network produced a documentary
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entitled Looking for the Historical Jesus.
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And in it, they said this, and I quote,
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the important thing is not what Jesus was or what he wasn't.
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The important thing is what people believe him to have been.
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I thought, wait, what?
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The historical Jesus, actually at the conclusion of their
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Looking for the Historical Jesus documentary,
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their conclusion was the historical Jesus doesn't even matter.
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All that matters is what you,
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you believe him to have been.
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It doesn't matter who he actually was or what he actually said,
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nor do his claims matter,
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nor do the miracles he performed.
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You can, in their conclusion,
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recreate Jesus however you want him to be.
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He can become your personal savior.
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And I mean that in the worst possible way.
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Embrace the portions you like,
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discard the portions you don't,
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and voila, your very own religion.
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And 21 years later,
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our world would say it doesn't matter
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which religious cereal you choose, right?
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As long as you're on the breakfast aisle,
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everything will work out.
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And honestly, heresies like these are nothing new.
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One of the religious breakfast cereals,
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if you want to think of it that way, of the first century,
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was called Gnosticism.
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Maybe you've heard of this one.
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This was the belief that Jesus wasn't really flesh and blood.
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He wasn't human.
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And in fact, what they were teaching was that God would never take on,
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an actual human body.
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He was just kind of a phantom, an apparition.
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Because flesh itself, in their mind, was sinful.
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So for God to attach himself to a human body would be sinful in itself.
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And so they denied the humanity of Christ outright.
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Another breakfast cereal heresy sprung up in the first century called Docetism.
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They believed Jesus was a human man.
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Kind of the opposite.
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Jesus was a human man upon whom the spirit of the Christ
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would be given.
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He would descend, and then depart, and then descend, and then depart.
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And so in their minds, sometimes he was Christ,
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and sometimes he was just plain old Jesus.
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Does that make sense?
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And so just prior to the crucifixion, in their belief,
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the spirit of the Christ departed because after all,
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God could never be crucified.
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These heresies held that Jesus was just a man.
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He was certainly not God.
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His physical body certainly did not rise from the dead,
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and he certainly could not.
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He certainly could not provide forgiveness for anyone's sin.
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If he existed as a historical man, that's all he was.
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And it's funny, I think those heresies sound familiar.
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I think we probably have neighbors who believe something along these lines.
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Maybe they believe in the historical Jesus,
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but they struggle beyond that.
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Who was he?
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Was he God?
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Is he the sacrifice for our sins?
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What was he beyond that?
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We can create our very own Jesus,
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and we can create our very own Jesus.
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History doesn't matter.
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Conviction doesn't matter.
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For some people, truth doesn't even matter.
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It doesn't matter who he was or who he wasn't.
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What matters more is your belief in him.
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And so as those breakfast cereals of religion were ravaging the first century church,
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what the church needed was a man who actually knew Jesus Christ.
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Can anybody here attest who he actually was?
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And so the Apostle John wrote his first letter to clarify exactly,
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who Jesus was and what he did.
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No options.
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No variety.
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The choice he leaves us with is,
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do you want the true Jesus,
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or do you want nothing?
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Jesus is the meat and potatoes of the gospel,
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and maybe you don't like meat and potatoes.
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Maybe you prefer burgers, pizza, and mac and cheese.
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But apart from him, there is no other food.
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And so, we can be picky.
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We can crinkle our noses,
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that the scriptures version of Jesus.
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But remember, church, this is the only dinner that moms make him.
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That's exactly what people need today.
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It's what the church needed 2,000 years ago.
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A man to stand up and say,
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I know Jesus.
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I'll tell you exactly who he is.
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But that's the same thing our world needs today.
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Men and women who will stand up
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and teach about the historical and biblical Jesus.
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Who he is.
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What he did.
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For us, our world does not need
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another version of Jesus,
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which is squishy and pliable.
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That peace sign flashing,
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granola eating gospel hippie.
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Who would never judge anyone or send them to hell.
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That's not what the world needs.
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The last thing our neighbors need,
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and our co-workers,
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and our unsaved family and friends need,
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is another breakfast cereal,
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which doesn't actually save.
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What they need is the truth.
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But honestly, friends,
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they're not the only ones who need it.
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Do you know who else needs the historical biblical Jesus?
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It's we who already know Christ.
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We need to be reminded of the true gospel as well.
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In fact, I would argue that the primary function
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of our church gatherings,
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the reason we all get together on Sundays and Wednesdays
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and connect homes
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and all of those different fellowship groups
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and all of the primary function of those church gatherings
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is to preach that same message.
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Who was Christ really?
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And what did he do for us?
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And in so doing, we actually build up believers.
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Remember, the gospel is not something
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that you just believe upon once.
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And after that, it's for everybody else who's unsaved.
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The gospel continues to believe,
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to be relevant and to be absolutely vital to you and I,
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to those who already know the gospel.
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In fact, the person that we should be preaching the gospel
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to the most is yourself.
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Reminding yourself of your need for his grace,
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reminding yourself, just like the Holy Spirit,
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the scripture say, Romans chapter eight says,
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the Holy Spirit does for you,
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reminding you that you are one of God's children.
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So also that we should be committing ourselves
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to the truth of the gospel,
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that being constantly reminded of our heavenly father
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and the sacrifice of the son.
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And in so doing, we will build each other up
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and we will establish our faiths.
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We must give each other as we gather
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as a body of believers,
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we must give each other the spiritual,
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the food necessary for us to grow more and more
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deeply in love with our creator and savior,
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to have our faiths become grounded, rooted and established.
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That's what Ephesians four says.
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Why?
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Why is it so vital to have our faiths established?
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Why can't we just believe once, be saved,
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cross over from death to life,
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and after that live however we want?
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Why does it matter?
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And the answer is because this is an evil world.
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Now, if it were true,
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that upon the moment of salvation,
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our souls were automatically
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and immediately translated to heaven,
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we did not have to live out the remainder of our days
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on this earth,
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then you wouldn't necessarily have to remind yourself
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of the gospel over and over
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because at that point you'd be face to face with Jesus
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and aren't we looking forward to that day?
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But until then,
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how is it that we keep ourselves in the body,
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in the gospel?
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How is it that we live in an evil world
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but we don't become a part of that evil world
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and the apostle John reminds us of that truth?
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Why is it so vital that we who already know Christ
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commit our way over and over and over and over to the gospel?
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First John is five chapters long.
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It's four pages.
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In those four pages,
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he warns us against the world 22 times.
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He's actually got some pretty strong comments
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about the world in his letter
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and look for just a minute,
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turn just a couple pages to the right
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to first John chapter five.
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Notice verse 19.
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First John 5, 19.
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Why is it so vital that we who already are saved,
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who already have committed our way to the gospel,
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why is it important to remind ourselves of the gospel
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over and over and over
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and look at this warning,
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first John 5, 19.
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We know that we are from God.
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You're already in the faith.
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If you are in Christ,
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guess what?
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You're in Christ.
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You're in Christ.
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You are no longer awaiting condemnation.
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You are no longer awaiting condemnation.
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That is true.
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You've already crossed over
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from the kingdom of darkness
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to the kingdom of light.
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We know that we're from God
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and the whole world lies in the power
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of the evil one.
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The world is the entire system of values and attitudes
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which is opposed to God
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and we must remember that the world
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will do everything it can
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to cool our affections for Christ.
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We've got to fight for our own souls, John says.
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We've got to realize that it's easier
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to go down than it is to go up.
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In the world's mindset,
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it's already lost your soul
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by grace through faith.
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And so now it's going to attempt to keep you
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from the blessings
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which God promises his people.
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In the world's mindset,
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your soul is already guaranteed salvation in Christ
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and so until you are translated to heaven,
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I just want you to be as miserable as possible.
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That's what the world wants.
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Remember in C.I.B.
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S. Lewis' great work,
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The Screwtape Letters,
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this correspondence between
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an older, wiser, more experienced demon
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with his young nephew
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who is just starting out in the field of work.
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And they're talking about this nephew.
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Remember, they're both demons.
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This is this conversation back and forth,
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screwtape and wormwood,
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these two demons going back and forth.
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You know, it's interesting.
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The book is something like 31 or 32 chapters long.
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This correspondence, these letters back and forth.
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And yet,
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yet the subject, the human subject
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in the book gets saved.
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And you'd think, well, that would end the book, right?
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They lose.
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But he gets saved in chapter 2.
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He's saved in chapter 2 of 32.
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And so now I've heard the terrible news,
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Uncle Screwtape says,
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that your subject has given his life to Christ,
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but don't worry,
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there's still a lot of things you can do
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until he goes home to heaven.
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Don't worry,
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he's just taken a short sojourn,
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he calls it, in the enemy's camp.
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But you can make him miserable.
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You can keep him from the blessings of God
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until he goes to heaven.
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Now, I said last Sunday that if there's one distinction,
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one line of demarcation between nominal Christians
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and Christ followers,
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it is that Christ followers keep themselves from idols.
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This morning, we're going to see
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that if there is one defining characteristic
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or character quality
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which distinguishes those two,
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it's that Christ followers are full of joy.
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Full of joy.
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And look back now at chapter 1 again at verse 4.
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Seve just read it for us.
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Look at the very last word of verse 4.
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ESV uses what word?
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Complete.
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Some other versions might say full,
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might be made full.
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Complete.
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Perfect, another version might say.
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If you don't mind writing in your Bibles,
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you can circle that word complete.
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It's the Greek word peplaromany.
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And I'm like, I always think that sounds like a pizza topping.
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All right.
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It's your favorite pizza.
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It's peplaromany.
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You can write there, circle the word complete
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and write the words filled, full.
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Filled, full.
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We're used to the word fulfilled.
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Right?
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We all know that word.
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It's the same exact word.
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It's just turned around.
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It is filled all the way.
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Full.
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It's the same word.
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So that your joy may be filled full or full filled.
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Maybe you remember when you were a kid
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and you were about countertop height.
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You'd fill up your glass with water
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to the point that it was actually slightly
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over the top of the glass.
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You remember looking at it across?
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You probably haven't done it in a while.
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But when you were like eight,
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man, that was fascinating.
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The water's over the top of the glass.
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I can see it.
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You learn in high school that's caused by surface tension,
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but that's not the point.
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That's the kind of full filled that it's describing.
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So full that it's actually bursting over the top of the cup.
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That's the kind of joy that Christ wants us to have.
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And so you say, well, how do we receive that kind of joy?
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Fulfilled, filled, full joy.
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How do we keep that type of joy?
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And I would say it's by basing our faiths
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on three convictions.
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Three convictions, which by the way,
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are unchanging convictions.
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Which means that our joy will also be unchanging.
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If we base our faith on these three convictions,
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which never change,
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not only will you have fullness of joy,
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but you will actually keep it.
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And notice first, the first unchanging conviction
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is that Jesus is exactly who he said he is.
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Jesus is exactly who he said he is.
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Look at verse one.
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That which was from the beginning.
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Again, if you like to write in your Bibles,
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if you don't mind doing that,
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you can just write Jesus's birth.
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That's the beginning here that it's talking about.
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It's not necessarily referring to the beginning of time.
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He's going to refer to that in verse two.
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This is rather the beginning of the incarnation
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when God became man.
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It refers to Christ's birth.
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We read every December how Jesus was conceived
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and how he was born.
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And we're reminded that his conception was unique.
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His conception was different in ours than ours, right?
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How was his unique?
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You're allowed to talk at church.
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It's okay.
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Virgin birth.
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Kind of a big deal, right?
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And I explained multiple times in the month of December
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why we've got to insist upon the virgin birth
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and why it's so important
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that he did not have an earthly father,
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but rather the Holy Spirit conceived
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what was in the Virgin Mary.
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And rather than taking the DNA of both a man and a woman
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to create the child,
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the Lord used only the DNA of Mary, not of Joseph.
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He had his mother's eyes,
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but he did not have his father's chin, right?
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Conceived of the Holy Spirit,
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which means he was both human and divine.
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You cannot separate his humanity from his deity.
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You cannot have Jesus, who is not also God.
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And beyond that, he continues in verse one,
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that which we have heard,
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which we have seen with our eyes,
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which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands.
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The author was an eyewitness of Jesus Christ.
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He wasn't just reporting on what others had said about him.
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I've heard that Jesus was this way.
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No, he says, I knew him.
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I walked with him.
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I talked with him.
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I held him.
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I heard him.
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I saw him with my own eyes.
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I catch the words of author John Stott.
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It says, John's message is supremely concerned
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with the historical, audible, visible, tangible manifestation
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of the eternal.
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God really did become a man
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and walk.
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Among us, he's vouching for his message
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from his own personal experience.
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And it can be verified by using his senses of sight,
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hearing and touch.
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He uses the same argument John does,
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which the apostle Peter uses in his letter,
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second Peter chapter one in verse 16.
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For we did not follow cleverly devised myths.
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We weren't just making this stuff up
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like a new version of mythology.
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When we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord,
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Jesus Christ.
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But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
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Perhaps you've heard the testimony of Charles Coulson.
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Coulson served as special counsel to President Nixon in the 1970s.
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Coulson was one of the conspirators
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who attempted to cover up the Watergate break-in.
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He was actually convicted of felony conspiracy.
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He served time in prison.
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Chuck Coulson says this,
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his own testimony of coming to Christ,
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which he eventually did.
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He says, and I quote, this is his own testimony.
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He says,
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before all the facts about Watergate were known to the public,
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in March 1973,
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it was becoming clear to Nixon's closest aides
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that someone had tried to cover up the Watergate break-in.
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It was him who was trying to cover it up.
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But there were no more than a dozen of us who knew.
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Could we maintain a cover-up to save the president?
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Consider that we were political zealots.
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In other words, he's saying we had bought all in.
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We enjoyed enormous political power and prestige.
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With all that at stake,
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you'd expect us to be capable of maintaining a lie
22:18
to protect the president, but we couldn't do it.
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The first to crack was John Dean.
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First, he told the president everything.
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And then just two weeks later,
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he went to the prosecutors
22:29
and offered to testify against the president.
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His reason, as he candidly admits in his memoirs,
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was to save his own skin.
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And then after that,
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everyone started scrambling to protect himself.
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What we know today as,
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the great Watergate cover-up lasted only three weeks.
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Some of the most powerful politicians in the world.
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And we couldn't keep a lie for more than three weeks?
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Can anyone believe that for 50 years,
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that Jesus' disciples were willing to be ostracized,
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beaten, persecuted,
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and all but one of them suffer a martyr's death?
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Again, this is still Coulson talking.
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Without ever renouncing their conviction
23:07
that they had seen Jesus bodily resurrected?
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Does anyone really think
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that the disciples could,
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could have maintained a lie all that time
23:15
under that kind of pressure?
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No.
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Someone would have cracked.
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Just as we did so easily in Watergate.
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Someone would have acted as John Dean did
23:26
and turned state's evidence.
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There would have been some kind of smoking gun,
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some kind of deathbed confession.
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So why didn't they crack?
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Look what he says.
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Because they had come face to face
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with the living God.
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They could not deny what they'd seen.
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He continues.
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The fact is that people will give their lives
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for what they believe is true,
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but they will never give their lives
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for what they know is a lie.
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The Watergate cover-up proves
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that 12 powerful men in modern America
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couldn't keep a lie.
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And it also proves that 12 powerless men
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2,000 years ago
24:07
couldn't have been telling anything but the truth.
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Can you hear?
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The voices of Peter and John saying,
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wait, you think you can just make up
24:17
whatever you want?
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Take and leave portions of Jesus
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based on your preference
24:23
as if he's like a salvation salad bar?
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No.
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John says in verse 1,
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we saw him, we heard him,
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we held him.
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We staked our very lives
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upon the truth of his claims
24:38
that he really is who he claimed to be.
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How can you have unshakable joy?
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Base your faith on the conviction
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that Jesus is who he said he is.
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But notice second.
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What second unchanging conviction?
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That Jesus can save exactly how he said he can save.
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Look at verse 2.
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Right at the end of verse 1,
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concerning the word of life,
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we'll come back to that.
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The life was made manifest
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and we have seen it and testified to it
25:03
and proclaimed to you the eternal life
25:05
which was with the Father
25:06
and was made manifest to us.
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Now this refers to Christ's eternal nature.
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Jesus did not say,
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I did not begin at his conception and birth
25:15
like you and I did.
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Remember,
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Christmas began with Christ,
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but Christ did not begin with Christmas.
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He's preexistent,
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which means he was never created.
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He has always existed to eternity past.
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He enjoyed continuous,
25:32
conscious,
25:33
intimate communion
25:34
with his Father.
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And look back with me
25:38
at that last phrase of verse 1
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concerning the word of life.
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Well, what is the word of life?
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We have been almost preconditioned
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when we see the word
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to assume that the word refers to Jesus,
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especially when it's at the very beginning
25:53
of the book of the Bible.
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We've all got Christmas on the brain.
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We've just come out of Christmas season.
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And so we may assume that the word of life
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refers to the word becoming flesh
26:03
and making his dwelling among us,
26:04
but I don't think that's what the author is referring to.
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Let me give you a quick grammar lesson.
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This is called the word of life.
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It's called a genitive phrase.
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That means it is possessive.
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The word, in verse 1,
26:21
has life within it.
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It's the exact same phrase
26:26
used in Philippians 2 and verse 16,
26:29
which says,
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I hold fast to the word of life
26:33
so that in the day of Christ,
26:35
when Christ comes and judges the earth,
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I hold fast to the word of life
26:39
so that when Christ comes,
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I may be proud that I did not run or labor in vain.
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That word,
26:43
word of life,
26:44
refers to a proclamation or an announcement.
26:47
This word of life, he says,
26:50
has, announces, and offers eternal life.
26:53
The word of life is the gospel.
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That's what it's referring to,
26:56
that you and I can be saved
26:58
from the punishment of our sin
26:59
by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
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In simplest terms,
27:05
and in case the gospel message is new to you,
27:09
or maybe perhaps a little confusing,
27:12
what is the word of life?
27:13
The word of life is that Jesus Christ was God and man.
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That he lived a sinless life
27:19
in perfect obedience to the laws of God
27:21
and to the commands of his heavenly father.
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That he was crucified and buried.
27:27
Three days after he was buried,
27:30
body laying in a tomb in the ground,
27:32
he was raised from the dead
27:33
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
27:35
That through belief in that word of life,
27:37
in the gospel,
27:38
he offers to take your punishment upon himself.
27:40
The blame, the guilt, the shame,
27:43
for every sin you've ever committed.
27:46
And to give you in its place
27:47
the reward which he deserved.
27:51
Through faith in Jesus Christ,
27:53
you can be made whole.
27:54
You can be reunited with your creator.
27:57
You can spend eternity in heaven.
27:59
That is the word of life
28:00
that Jesus really can save
28:03
exactly as he said he could.
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That's the second unchanging conviction.
28:08
And notice, finally, conviction number three.
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That belief in this message
28:12
makes you one with God.
28:15
And one with his church.
28:17
The third unchanging conviction
28:20
is that belief in the gospel,
28:22
in the word of life,
28:24
makes you one with God
28:25
and one with his church.
28:28
Notice verse three.
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That which we have seen and heard,
28:31
we proclaim also to you,
28:34
so that...
28:35
Oh, that's a good one.
28:36
That's a purpose clause, right?
28:37
Why is he doing this?
28:38
Why is he preaching?
28:40
Why is he proclaiming the word of life,
28:42
the gospel?
28:43
So that you too,
28:44
who may have fellowship with us,
28:46
and indeed our fellowship
28:47
was with the Father
28:48
and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
28:51
The word for fellowship means oneness.
28:55
It's the same word we translate communion.
28:57
It's the same exact word.
28:59
Koinonia.
28:59
It describes a sharing of one another,
29:02
a sharing the load,
29:03
a sharing of resources,
29:05
a sharing of life's experiences.
29:06
It's like becoming a part
29:08
of the same spiritual family.
29:11
And it's interesting.
29:12
That's exactly how the New Testament
29:13
describes each of us
29:14
when we come to Christ.
29:16
Upon faith,
29:18
in the word of life,
29:19
in the gospel,
29:20
you become a part of the church,
29:22
a part of Christ's body,
29:24
a part of a spiritual family.
29:26
That's exactly how it's described
29:27
in 1 Timothy 3.
29:30
He says,
29:31
I hope to come to you soon,
29:33
but I'm writing these things
29:34
so that if I delay,
29:36
you may know how one ought to believe
29:39
in the...
29:40
What is it called?
29:41
The church.
29:42
The household of God,
29:43
which is the church of the living God.
29:45
The pillar.
29:46
The buttress of the truth.
29:48
I'm writing these things to you
29:50
so that you will know how to behave
29:52
in the church,
29:53
which is the household of God.
29:55
And it's odd to me, honestly,
29:57
that we assume
29:58
that every gospel blessing
29:59
we will ever receive
30:00
doesn't come until after we die.
30:04
Like, do I really have to wait
30:05
until I'm dead
30:06
to receive gospel blessing?
30:08
No.
30:11
You actually get to be blessed
30:14
right now in Christ.
30:16
And certainly,
30:17
heaven forever
30:18
will be a great blessing.
30:20
New and glorified bodies,
30:22
sinless,
30:23
without the ability to sin.
30:25
That will be a great blessing.
30:27
Absolutely.
30:28
When the apostle Paul says
30:29
in 2 Timothy 4,
30:30
henceforth there is laid up for me
30:31
the crown of righteousness,
30:33
which is not only for me,
30:34
but everyone who has awaited his appearing.
30:36
I cannot wait to receive
30:38
that crown of righteousness.
30:39
I believe the crown of righteousness
30:41
is righteousness itself.
30:42
A perfected body.
30:44
Complete, mature, done.
30:47
Done.
30:47
No longer fighting against this flesh
30:49
and fighting against this world
30:51
and fighting against the enemy of our souls,
30:53
but rather living in perfect harmony
30:55
with one another and with our Lord.
30:56
I cannot wait for that day.
30:58
But until then, he says,
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I'm going to give you a gift.
31:04
And that gift is the church.
31:07
The church itself.
31:09
The family of God.
31:10
The household of God.
31:12
The pillar and buttress of the truth.
31:16
It's a gift.
31:18
It's like he's saying in 1 Timothy 3,
31:22
people who don't yet know the Lord
31:24
are spiritually homeless.
31:27
They're homeless.
31:28
They don't belong anywhere.
31:29
They don't believe anything.
31:31
And so they'll commit their way
31:32
to all of these various ventures
31:34
and whatever.
31:36
Seek after, pursue things
31:37
which will never satisfy,
31:39
just like Solomon did in Ecclesiastes,
31:41
right?
31:42
A chasing after the wind.
31:45
But don't forget,
31:46
when you think of people
31:46
who are without Christ,
31:47
what they're doing is
31:48
sitting out on the sidewalk
31:49
in the wind.
31:51
Just like a homeless person would.
31:54
When we invite them into Christ,
31:55
we're not only inviting them
31:56
into salvation for their soul,
31:58
but also into the household of God
32:00
so that they will belong.
32:03
And that's where he concludes.
32:04
Verse 4.
32:05
We are writing these things
32:06
so that our joy may be filled full.
32:12
Higher even than the top of the glass.
32:16
Next week,
32:17
we're going to study
32:17
how Jesus gives us fullness of joy
32:20
by taking the fullness of our sin.
32:25
Consider for just a moment
32:27
the worst thing you've ever done.
32:30
The promise next Sunday
32:35
will be that Jesus can forgive that one too.
32:38
Jesus really did pay it all.
32:40
And Lord, thank you
32:42
for the truth of your word.
32:43
Lord, we commit our way to it.
32:46
God, we want that fullness of joy
32:49
which is described,
32:50
that filled full,
32:51
over the top of the glass,
32:53
joy in our lives,
32:56
in the lives of our friends and family.
32:58
Lord, a joy that we can not only receive,
33:00
but retain for the remainder of our days.
33:02
And Lord, we look forward to heaven.
33:05
We look forward to perfection.
33:08
We look forward to glory.
33:10
We look forward to seeing you face to face.
33:12
But Lord, until then,
33:13
it is not as though we are without blessing
33:16
and without gifts
33:17
and without strength
33:18
and without tools.
33:18
Lord, you have left us the church.
33:20
Communion, fellowship,
33:21
and oneness with one another.
33:23
And so God, I pray
33:24
that we would lean into
33:26
the blessings of Jesus Christ.
33:29
Lord, thank you for the grace
33:31
which saves us by faith.
33:34
Thank you for the reward
33:36
that we receive
33:37
in place of our guilt
33:39
and our shame
33:40
and our punishment.
33:42
Lord, we love you.
33:43
We are grateful people this morning
33:44
in Jesus' name.
33:45
Amen.