WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:27.280 So Monday night Christy and I we climbed into bed and each of us were reading our books and finally she finishes she turns the light aisle and I mean two minutes later she's asleep it was kind of annoying because for me it was one of those nights I mean this has been a busy week for us as church staff I mean Sam and Annie I mean they've been working tirelessly to get this room and get all the children slipped around so there's just a million things going on and so 10 minutes pass and laying there in the dark 20, 30, 40. 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:29.120 I don't know what your cutoff point is. 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:32.320 Do you have a cutoff point where you're like, and I'm done, I'm getting up, doing something else. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:34.240 So yeah, 40, I'm like, I'm I'm up. 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:39.759 I went back to the den, I watch a parks and wreck episode, and then finally, I finally I fall back asleep, and it's late. 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:41.119 I fall back asleep. 00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:46.719 And so the morning comes and my alarm goes off just like any other time, and it's it's before sunrise. 00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:48.560 So I hit snooze, still dark out. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:52.799 I hit snooze, then hit snooze again, and hit snooze again, and hit snooze again. 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:55.200 And some of you know what I'm talking about because you're a snooze. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:56.719 Maybe you're not a snoozer, right? 00:00:56.880 --> 00:00:57.759 Great, we're proud of you. 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:00.399 We are impressed by your self-discipline. 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:01.600 Snoozers? 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:03.280 Just go ahead and all right. 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:04.400 So we're in the same club. 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:11.599 So you know what I'm talking about here, where you're hitting snooze, but then something, something happens that changes everything. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:13.439 And that's when the sun rises. 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:14.879 It does change things. 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:22.400 That sun sneaks in between your blinds or between your curtains, or maybe your mom flips the switch by the door, right? 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:26.239 And light enters, light bursts in, and this changes. 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:27.920 Now you can return to the darkness, right? 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:28.879 The cover over the head. 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:31.920 You can return to the darkness, but it doesn't change the fact. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.319 Light has changed things. 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:36.799 That's what light does. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:42.000 Light holds that power to infiltrate the darkness, and the darkness does not win in that scenario. 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:45.599 The light always enters the darkness of that room and it changes things. 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:50.400 Light wakes us up, helps us grow, keeps us warm. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:56.159 Too much of it and it blinds us, and then too little of it and we can't see. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:04.799 And John says in 1 John, where we're gonna spend the next few months going through 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, three letters he wrote. 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:07.519 He says, God is light. 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:10.159 You want to think about God, start thinking about light. 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:11.759 You'll start to get some ideas. 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:22.240 So that either means that he is blinding and overwhelming, light, blinding and overwhelming, or he is guiding and he's welcoming. 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:27.520 Or maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe he's both. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:29.840 Alright, so here's the text. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:30.560 I'll reread it. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:31.840 We'll look through it on these screens. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:33.520 1 John 1, 1 and 2. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:41.919 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and have touched with our own hands, concerning the word of life. 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:51.680 The life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was the Father and was made manifest to us. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.960 So John does something here that he also does in his Gospel, John. 00:02:55.039 --> 00:02:56.800 So that's like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 00:02:56.879 --> 00:02:59.599 He wrote that, John, and then he wrote these letters, John. 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:09.680 So in the Gospel of John, in the first chapter, he uses this word logos, but he also uses that same word here at the first chapter, the first three sentences of 1 John, logos. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:12.400 Maybe your version in your Bible says word of life. 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:14.879 This text says eternal life. 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:17.919 Now this term carries a mystery with it. 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:21.039 Logos was a Greek term. 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:25.199 It sort of meant the soul's universe. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:27.280 That sounds like today's language, doesn't it? 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:30.719 We're just recycling philosophies, is all we're doing, by the way. 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:34.159 The soul's universe was this Greek thought. 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:39.360 See, you see, at the time that the Greeks were wondering, how did we all get here? 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:41.840 How did I get here? 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:45.280 How does all this sustain itself? 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:50.000 And if there's a God, does he make himself known? 00:03:50.800 --> 00:04:04.319 And the answer coming from Plato, remember the Greek philosopher, Plato taught that an impersonal and unchanging logos, the world soul, kept the planets moving and on course. 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:09.680 And it was a creative, rational, divine energy, but it was impersonal. 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:15.759 So John uses that same term logos that's floating around in the culture, and he uses the same word. 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:19.759 He says, Oh, oh, logos, you've been you've been talking about logos. 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:21.439 Oh, oh yeah. 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:31.839 That divine that you're kind of circling around, that divine made himself manifest into reality for you to know. 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:34.240 That's what verse two is all about. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:40.160 The objectivity of Christ in Jesus the Christ. 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:42.160 We've heard him. 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:45.519 We saw him, we touched him. 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:48.879 Not just one person, a group of people, plural, we. 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:50.879 And we documented it. 00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:57.839 So Christy and the girls and I, we were went to the mountains a couple of weeks ago during July. 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:02.319 Last morning, I walk outside the condo to put, to start packing up. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:12.399 And so I take a suitcase out, I put it in the back of the car, I turn back around to come back toward the condo, and I see a huge bear digging in the trash. 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:15.040 I have a picture, I took a picture so I could use it in a sermon. 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:17.040 You can see him kind of poking out. 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:19.120 I took this for you, by the way. 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:20.079 This was for you. 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:21.680 This is me risking life. 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:22.879 I didn't run or anything. 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:24.319 And so he was huge. 00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:25.680 I mean, he's kind of tucked in. 00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:27.120 You can imagine the whole rear. 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:29.519 I mean, he's he's he's like a minivan, is what he was. 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:32.079 And he was there, he's not concerned about me. 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:35.120 He was very, very happy where he was at, going through the trash. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:36.560 So I've seen it. 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:39.680 I heard him. 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:41.439 He's over there munching away. 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:43.040 I did not touch him, thank you very much. 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:45.120 So you know, I know better than that. 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:49.920 I calmly walk back inside. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:50.959 I close the door. 00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:54.480 There is a bear outside. 00:05:56.480 --> 00:05:58.079 Anybody's eating yogurt? 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:00.879 There's a bear outside. 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:05.199 Y'all should come see it. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:11.600 You gotta stay calm, you gotta stay quiet, and we're gonna stay by the door. 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:15.120 And so we all file out, stay tight to the door. 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:23.279 I don't know what I thought that door was gonna do if this bear decides that we were his enemy, but the door gave a lot of security in my mind, and we calmly walk outside. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:25.040 We're out there for about a second and a half. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:29.120 That's my level of comfort in the situation, and then we go back in. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:34.160 So they have now seen it and heard it. 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:37.920 They didn't touch it, but they've seen it and they heard it, and we documented it. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:40.399 That's what John's saying. 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:41.839 This happened. 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:44.240 This is point number one. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:45.199 Jesus the Christ. 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:46.639 We see this in verses one and two. 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:49.680 Jesus the Christ is the Christ from the beginning. 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:50.720 That's what John's saying. 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:56.639 Jesus the Christ is the Christ from the beginning who manifested so we might know God. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:04.079 Jesus is the manifestation of God's love into objective reality. 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:09.199 So we have this gift from God that is both objective and subjective. 00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:12.480 So the subjective is our experience and our feelings. 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:16.480 That's just us and our experiencing in 2019. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:21.839 And we as believers, we don't have we don't have to rely on one without the other. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:26.079 We get the gift of the objective and the subjective together. 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:29.360 Verses three and four. 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:43.439 That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:48.079 So point number two is this Christian faith is triangular. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:50.240 So here's what John is saying. 00:07:50.399 --> 00:08:07.360 We've seen and heard, and we told you so that you might know with us, and somehow, like your knowing of God helps my joy become more complete, and somehow my knowing of God helps your joy become more complete in some way, and then we know each other and we have a church. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:09.279 So we get a church. 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:14.399 I had to draw this to figure this out, so I drew this slide for us this week. 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:18.000 This is very simple, but this is what John is saying. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.800 There's you and God, there's me and God, and there's you and me. 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:27.839 And all of this works together. 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:34.159 Here's what I read this week in the commentary that I was studying. 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:45.360 This is the mystical union I enjoy with Christ that becomes the substance that binds the church together. 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:52.399 The thing that binds the church together is not great new buildings. 00:08:55.039 --> 00:08:57.519 It's not great new books that you love. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:01.759 It's not new a new worship album. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:18.320 The thing that binds the church together is your mystical union with Christ, and my mystical union with Christ, and then we come together with our mystical union with Christ together. 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:22.240 And we're going like, oh, you know about him, and I know about him, you know about this, and I know about this. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:24.960 All of a sudden we have church. 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:26.320 Verse 5. 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:33.200 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:38.799 So point number three is this God is light, and we need light. 00:09:40.639 --> 00:09:43.279 For some of you, it's all you need to hear this morning. 00:09:45.279 --> 00:09:47.200 Because darkness is near. 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:50.080 You woke up in the darkness. 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:52.159 You went to sleep in darkness. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:55.519 You've been in depression a long time. 00:09:56.320 --> 00:09:58.240 You live in shame all the time. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:01.279 You know more about guilt than you do relief. 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:06.399 I don't have to beat you down with your sins because you know your sins. 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:08.080 Because they're on replay. 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:13.679 The fear's overwhelming, anxiety's overwhelming, and that's all the darkness. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:19.519 And here's what we're wondering: all of us dabble unfortunately in all of that. 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:26.480 We're wondering, is this light blinding and overwhelming? 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:30.000 Or is it guiding and welcoming? 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:33.679 And the answer, of course, is yes. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:35.360 Yeah. 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:51.039 God is both pure holiness and perfection and glory, and yet he chooses not to shame you, not to shame you in any of your darkness or your sin or your depression or any of it. 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:54.879 He doesn't choose to shame you, he chooses to grace you. 00:10:56.320 --> 00:10:58.639 Verses 6 and 7, John keeps going. 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:05.039 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:13.440 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. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:18.639 So my oldest daughter and I, we went on a hike a couple of weeks ago. 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:23.919 It was two hours one way up, and then two hours one way back down. 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:30.960 Now, there were simply times on this hike of two hours, and by the way, no screens, no music, nothing. 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:37.440 I mean, the only noise you could hear, no cars, the only thing you could hear was like a creak every once in a while. 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:45.440 It was beautiful, and we're just walking and talking and being quiet at times, and we're just walking two hours, one direction. 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:55.600 Now, that doesn't mean every once in a while we didn't sort of take a wrong path by 10, 15 feet, I don't know, something, and then go like, ah, this doesn't quite look right. 00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:59.919 We come back to the main path and off we go in the same direction. 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:02.000 This is the word walk. 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:05.039 It's not perfect. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:11.039 But it is a habitual movement in the same direction. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:23.600 Now, darkness is a life of walking, a habitual movement in the wrong direction of lies of who you are, lies about who God is, and lies about who God deems you or desires for you. 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:24.960 That's darkness. 00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:32.320 But those who walk in the light habitually move toward holiness and wholeness. 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:36.480 Habitually move toward wholeness and holiness. 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:41.279 This is not a faith toward perfection of holiness or wholeness. 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:49.519 But it is a faith, a walk, a habitual movement of the comprehensive self to move. 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:56.559 Not perfectly, but habitually toward holiness and wholeness. 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:04.240 Even while we do it imperfectly, we're deemed whole and holy by God. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:06.240 That's what the cross gives us. 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:07.759 That's why we move the cross over here. 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:09.279 We can't not have it. 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:18.320 We have to have it because that's the place that gives to us, grants to us by the work of God in Christ and reveals to us what is true. 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:22.159 That He took our sin upon Him. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:27.679 And He gives to us His righteousness. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:30.080 So we are forever secure as the beloved. 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:33.039 It's not up for discussion or addition. 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:34.879 It just is. 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:44.559 Now, this is where the sermon could go incredibly moralistic, because at this point I could turn it, I could say, so therefore, walk in the light. 00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:52.080 You know, get your act together, pull your bootstraps on, let me give you five steps of things you need to do every day in order to stay in the light. 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:53.519 But listen what John does. 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:56.000 John does something we would not expect. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:14:02.399 Because what he says is this is not you muscling your way into any of this habitual movement. 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:04.720 This is done by confession. 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:06.639 Verses 8 through 10. 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:10.799 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:17.919 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:22.879 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:28.480 So verse 9 is teaching, not that if you neglect to confess a particular sin, you're doomed. 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:29.679 That's not what it's teaching. 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:35.840 What it's saying is, as a general truth, truth, confession is the road to healing. 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:51.120 And maturity in faith is not moving past repentance, but it's moving into quicker and quicker awareness and quicker and quicker repentance with no fear. 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:54.480 Because you're already accepted in Christ. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:56.960 You're already righteous, you're already holy. 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:00.559 And for the proud, I pray you will be broken. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:04.799 And for the comforted, for the broken, I pray you will be comforted. 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:07.919 My brothers and sisters, not shame on you. 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:09.120 It's not shame on you. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:12.080 It is grace on you. 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:14.639 May He be the light into your darkness. 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:16.639 Let's pray together. 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:25.840 God, thank you for your grace and mercy and the good message that you are light. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:34.399 While you are blinding and overwhelming, you choose to be for us, guiding and welcoming. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:40.879 And in Christ we are forever welcomed, forever yes upon our hearts and souls. 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:46.799 Give us eyes to see what is true about you and your regard for us. 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:55.039 May we not be in deception. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:57.919 That we are better than we are. 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:08.159 Give us eyes to see that we are in need of your great, good supply of grace that is sufficient for us. 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:12.960 And may confession be the road to healing. 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:14.559 In Jesus' name. 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:15.440 We pray. 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:16.320 Amen.