The Call to Fellowship

We're going to be in 1 John chapter 1 When Ryan asked me to do this I was thinking, this is This is the Sunday before Thanksgiving I'll just do a Thanksgiving message And the Lord said, I don't want you to do a message about a holiday I want you to do a message about me And so he changed my direction around So we're going to be in 1 John And I think it's neat that in 1 John I titled the message, The Call to Fellowship Because that's where we're dealing with our fellowship with God And with each other And I think it's neat that John is the one who God picked to write this message for us Because John was of the disciples He was the closest to Jesus He was referred to as the disciple who Jesus loved

And the one who leaned upon Jesus at the Last Supper in John chapter 20 He was one of the first three listed in Mark chapter 3 To be appointed by Jesus to be one of his disciples And one of the same three men Peter, James, and John in Matthew chapter 17 Who went up to the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus It was John who Jesus entrusted his life to His mother to take care of as he hung on the cross And it was John who was one of the first disciples To reach the tomb on the resurrection day And the first of the disciples recorded his scripture To believe that Jesus rose from the dead So I think it was fitting that of all these disciples John was the one that was picked To talk about fellowship and closeness with Jesus We're going to start out

I'm going to read the first four verses Then we'll kind of go back through that section of it It says While it was from the beginning While we have heard While we have seen with our eyes And while we beheld And our hands handled Concerning the word of life And the life was manifested And we have seen and bear witness And proclaimed to you the eternal life Which was with the Father And was manifested to us While we have seen and heard We proclaim to you also That you also may have fellowship with us And indeed our fellowship is with the Father And with the Son Jesus Christ And these things we write So that our joy and our joy May be made complete Now I'm going to spend a little time On these first four verses

These first four verses I believe in the Greek Are actually just one long sentence I'm not a Greek expert I've had one year of Greek And I've just enough to be dangerous That's about all that I know of Greek But we're going to start out And there's actually a couple of meanings To this reference where it says That which was in the beginning And we're going to look at the one That most people kind of look at But there's a deeper meaning behind it That I want us to take a look at So I'm going to start out And I'm going to start out And I'm going to start out And I'm going to start out And I'm going to start out And I'm going to start out Most of the time when we think of this It's talking about Christ's earthly ministry He says

What was from the beginning What we have heard What we have seen with our eyes What we beheld And our hands handled Concerning the word of life He says we've heard him We've seen him And then he turns around and says And not only have we seen him But we beheld him In other words This reference to him behelding him And our hands handling him Is talking about after he rose from the dead In Luke chapter 2 In Luke chapter 24 Okay let me stop for just a second And remind some of you That maybe aren't familiar with the way I teach I'm going to be in 1 John chapter 1 That's my base where I'm at But I go all over the place And I've probably got three pages Of scripture references That I'm going to hop around So I don't expect you to hop around with me

Because I wrote out the scripture So I don't have to hop around myself So I've got it all right here So you're not going to be able to keep up with me Because I've already got it here So just They're going to put the scripture references up You can write them down You can look them up later if you want What I'd really like for you to do Is for the most part Just soak in the message as much as possible And draw as much of it out of it as you can But in Luke chapter 24 verse 38 He says Jesus is talking to the disciples And he says Why are you troubled And why do doubts arise in your hearts See my hands and my feet That it is I myself Touch me and see For a spirit does not have flesh and bones As you see that I have And when he said this

He showed them his hands And his feet While he still could not believe it Because of their joy and amazement He said to them Have you anything here to eat They gave him a piece of broiled fish And he took it and ate it before them They were amazed They couldn't believe That this Jesus has risen from the dead And he was right there in front of them But it says It goes on and it says And we handle concerning the word of life Now how do we know that this word of life Is referring to Jesus Well this is where I like to Compare scripture with scripture Because the scripture Interprets itself if you will let it And John had written the gospel of John Before he wrote this letter This epistle And in John chapter 1 He says In the beginning was the word

And the word was with God And the word was God Now again How do you know that this word Is a reference to Jesus Well you go to Revelations chapter 19 In verse 11 through 16 it says And I saw heaven open And behold a white horse And he who sat on it Is called Faithful and true And in righteousness He judges and wages war His eyes are a flame of fire And on his head are many diadems And he has a name written on him Which no one knows except himself He is clothed with a robe Dipped in blood And his name is called The word of God Now if you're still not sure This is talking about Jesus We'll read on a few more verses It says And the armies which are in heaven Clothed in fine linen White and clean Were following him on white horses

From his mouth comes a sharp sword So with it He may strike down the nations And he will rule them With a rod of iron And he treads the winepress Of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty And on his robe and on his thigh He has a name written King of kings and Lord of lords And we know that that's Christ Now so Jesus is the word That's word of life The word of God And so back in John chapter 1 Verse 1 through 4 I'm going to replace the word word With Jesus So you can see the context there It says In the beginning Was Jesus And Jesus was with God And Jesus was God He was in the beginning with God All things came into being Through him And apart from him Nothing came into being That has come into being In him was life And the life was the light of men

Jesus is the word of life He is the source of all life Not only physical life But eternal life as well And when I say eternal life I'm not only talking about Length of time As living forever But I'm also talking about The quality of life That makes up eternal life Because it's wrapped up In a relationship with Christ In 1 John chapter 5 It says in verse 11 and 13 of 20 And the testimony is this That God has given us eternal life And his life is in his son He who has the son has the life He who does not have the son of God Does not have the life These things I have written to you Who believe in the name of the son of God So that you may know That you have eternal life And we know that the son of God Has come and has given us understanding

So that we may know him who is true And we are in him who is true In his son Jesus Christ This is the true God And eternal life So the eternal life is wrapped up In Jesus Christ Now those people who don't Accept Jesus Christ They don't have eternal life But their spirit still lives forever But they're not going to That becomes eternal life But they're not going to That becomes eternal life But they're not going to Because they live forever Does not mean eternal life They are going to experience What is called eternal torment In Matthew chapter 25 Verse 41 and 46 it says Then he will also say to those on his left hand Depart from me accursed ones Into the eternal fire Which has been prepared for the devil and his angels

These will go away into eternal punishment For the righteous into eternal life Hell was created For Satan and the fallen angels Hell wasn't created for man But if you don't accept Jesus Christ As your savior You will suffer the same punishment That the fallen angels will experience For eternity That's the recourse That wants to take place In verse 2 he says Now I want to go back and re-read Verse 1 now With the understanding of what he has said About Jesus That Jesus was with God from the beginning And I want you to read it now this time Not from the beginning of his ministry But from the beginning of Christ being with God He says What was from the beginning What we have heard What we have seen with our eyes What we beheld our hands handled

Concerning the word of life What he's saying is That was from the beginning The God who created the heavens and the earth We heard him in person We got to see him in person We got to examine him in person We got to touch him The God who created all this stuff Who was with God in the beginning We got to see him I can sense The excitement in John Of just the thrill Of saying Who he's just been in contact with In verse 2 he says And the life was manifested And we have seen and bear witness And proclaimed to you the eternal life Which was with the Father And was manifested to us Where it talks about the eternal life Being with the Father That reference to being with the Father Is meant to indicate a closeness And intimacy with the Father Yet distinct

In John chapter 1 Verse 14 through 18 It says And the word became flesh And dwelt among us And we saw his glory The glory is the only begotten From the Father Full of grace and truth John testified about him And cried out saying This was he whom I said He who comes after me Has a higher rank than I For he existed before me For of his fullness We have all received And grace upon grace For the law was given through Moses And grace and truth Were realized through Jesus Christ No one has seen God at any time The only begotten God Who is in the bosom of the Father He has explained him John is trying to make it clear That Jesus is God Not only is Jesus God But the Holy Spirit is also God In Acts chapter 5 In verses 1 through 4

It's dealing with Ananias and Sapphira And it says But a man named Ananias With his wife Sapphira Sold a piece of property And kept back Some of his wealth Some of the price for himself With his wife's full knowledge And bringing a portion of it He laid it at the apostles feet But Peter said Ananias Why has Satan filled your heart To lie to the Holy Spirit And to keep back Some of the price of the land While it remained unsold Did it not remain in your own And after it was sold Was it not under your control Why is it that you have conceived This deed in your heart You have not lied to men But to God In other words He's referring He said he lied to the Holy Spirit And he lied to God He's making it understood That the Holy Spirit is God

In John chapter 14 Verse 16 and 17 He says I will ask the Father And he will give you another helper That he may be with you forever That is the Spirit of truth Whom the world cannot receive Because it does not see him Or know him But you know him Because he abides with you And will be in you When he says that he refers to him As another helper That word another means Another of the exact same kind So you have the Holy Spirit You have Jesus And you have the Father And you have the Holy Spirit Who coexist Who are co-eternal Who are co-equal It's the Trinity You have three personages But you only have one God It's hard for us to understand But if you had a God That you could understand Everything about him He wouldn't be much of a God Would he?

If he could understand all that But God said in Genesis chapter 1 That he was going to create man In his image It says In verse 26 and 27 Then God said to him Let us Referring to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Make man in our image According to our likeness And let them rule over the fish of the sea And over the birds of the sky And over the cattle And over the earth And over every creeping thing That creeps on the earth And God created man In his own image In the image of God He created him Male and female He created them God has created us As a triune being Just as himself We have a body We have a soul And we have a spirit We have three parts to us But we're just one person Our body allows us to function in this world

Our soul allows us to comprehend The world around us But our spirit allows us to commune with God In Genesis chapter 2 God laid out one rule for Adam He said in verse 15 through 17 Then the Lord God took the man And put him into the garden of Eden To cultivate and keep it The Lord God commanded the man saying From any tree of the garden you may eat freely But from the tree of the knowledge of good And evil you will not eat For in the day that you eat from it You will surely die In Genesis chapter 3 We know that Adam and Eve sinned And all of a sudden Their knowledge of good and evil Eyes were opened They knew that they were naked They made fig leaves for themselves They hid themselves from God Something changed in their relationship with God

They didn't die physically right away They were still alive Their soul didn't die They still comprehended the world around them But their soul didn't die Their spirit died It didn't die in the sense that it ceased to exist But it died in the sense that it ceased to function Like it was supposed to To be able to commune with God Because now sin has severed that communion with God They weren't able to commune with God like they had That's why in John chapter 3 When Jesus is talking to Nicodemus He says Truly, truly I say to you Unless one is born again He cannot see the kingdom of God Nicodemus said to him How can a man be born when he is old He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb And be born, can he Jesus answered

Truly, truly I say to you Unless one is born of water and a spirit He cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh And that which is born of the spirit is spirit When he's talking about being born of water and the spirit He's not talking about water baptism And being born of the spirit But being born of the water is a reference to When a woman gives birth Her water breaks And there is water that comes out And then the baby comes out And he makes this clear in verse 6 When he says That which is born of the flesh is flesh And that which is born of the spirit is spirit So when you accept Christ as your savior The Holy Spirit comes in And takes up residence in your spirit And your spirit becomes born again

Your spirit becomes alive again And that ability for you to commune with God Takes place again You have that ability once you accept Christ To commune with God In Hebrews chapter 2 It talks about how God did not make salvation available To the fallen angels He's only going to make salvation available to the fallen angels He's only made it available to humans And in Isaiah chapter 14 And in Ezekiel chapter 28 It talks about Satan's fall And it talks about how he lifted himself up And they wanted to be like God They wanted to have what God had And they rebelled against God Their focus was wrong But I want you to see what God is offering us As believers in Christ He says in John chapter 17 Verse 22-26 The glory which you have given me

I have given to them That they may be one Just as we are one I in them and you in me That they may be perfected in unity So that the world may know that you sent me And love them even as you have loved me Father I desire That they Father I desire that they also Whom you have given me be with me where I am So that they may see my glory Which you have given me For you loved me before the foundation of the world O righteous Father Although the world has not known you Yet I have known you And these have known that you sent me And I have made your name known to them And will make it known So that the love which you loved me with May be in them And I in them And that may sound like kind of a tongue twister Like what all is he talking about

I'm in him and all this But what he's saying is He's wanting the believers to experience A kind of relationship with each other and with God That exists between the Father, the Son And the Holy Spirit There is a love that exists Between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit And God wants to reveal that love to us There is a joy that exists Between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit And God wants us to know that joy He wants us to know All the fruit of the Spirit that exists Without limit That he has He wants us to experience Those things in a relationship with him And with each other In verse 3 It says What we have seen and heard We proclaim to you also That you also may have fellowship with us And indeed our fellowship is with the Father

And with the Son, Jesus Christ It's not enough just to be saved Salvation is more than just fire insurance God has called us into fellowship with himself And with each other Now some Christians believe In once saved, always saved Some Christians believe That you can lose your salvation But the real question that needs to be asked Is what are you doing with Christ In your life right now Are you fellowshipping with him If you believe in once saved, always saved What good is that doctrine If you're not spending time with him If you believe that you can lose your salvation You better be spending time with him So God has called us into fellowship with him And our salvation Is not to be reduced Down to just a doctrine The goal of the Great Commission

Is not to see how many people we can get saved But about how many followers of Christ we can make I believe it's important that whatever you do As far as our ministry is concerned It should be done as a result of our time In fellowship with him Our ministry should grow Out of our fellowship with him God is more concerned about us spending time with him Than anything that we do for him He doesn't need you in his ministry He wants you to be in his ministry But he needs you And wants you to spend time with him There was a guy Who is a wealthy businessman And he got saved at a Baptist church One of those big Baptist churches down in Dallas And I can't remember the name of the church Or the name of the pastor It's been several years ago

But this guy was very well off Very wealthy, very successful He came forward to get saved And the pastor was excited to see this guy come forward And he told his elder He goes, I want you to make sure this guy is saved I want you to make sure this guy gets involved in the ministry He's going to have a great impact on this ministry And I looked at the pastor and said Pastor, I don't need a job I have a job What I need is a savior And his focus was right He knew what he needed He needed to have that one-on-one relationship with God That's what God is calling to And anything you do ministry-wise Has to grow out of that relationship It has to be something that flows from that

In verse 4 it says And these things were written So that our joy may be made complete Not just the joy of the apostles But our joy also Instead of looking at the church as a gas station Where we come to get filled up To fill up our gas tank What if we had church In a different way What if What if we spent time daily At home In the word of God And we spent time daily Worshiping him And we spent time in prayer Can you imagine what kind of a service we would have If before we came together on Sunday morning We already started at home worshiping And we all started at home Spending some time in his word Spending some time in prayer And we all came to church Already with our spiritual gas tanks Already filled up

Can you imagine what kind of a worship service We would have If we all came already filled When we got to church When we got here And then began to worship It would just be an extension of what we were already doing at home Only multiplied by the number of people who were here And the joy of the Lord In the fellowship that would take place If we all came Filled before we got here Instead of waiting until we get here What an awesome time in the Lord that would be In verse 5 and 6 he says And this is the message we have heard from him And announced to you That God is light And in him there is no darkness There is no darkness at all The reference to God in his light Is a reference to his holiness It says in verse 6

If we say that we have fellowship with him And yet walk in darkness We lie and do not practice the truth John is dealing with the issue of fellowship here Not salvation And if you claim to be in fellowship with the Lord But your walk doesn't give evidence that Something is wrong In John chapter 3 verse 19 through 21 It says This is the message That the light has come Into the world And men love the darkness Rather than the light For their deeds were evil For everyone who does evil Hates the light And does not come to the light For fear that his deeds will be exposed But he who practices the truth Comes to the light So that his deeds may be manifest As having been wrought in God As believers We want to be in the light We want God to expose our faults

We want him to deal with them And change them So that we can be more in his image We're not to be afraid Of the light We want to be in the light And we want him to show us What needs to be changed I've shared this example Through most of my Christian walk But there was a Christian couple Out in California They were living together in sin They were doing drugs And they were robbing liquor stores To support their habits And they got saved And the first thing that God convicted them of Was using his name in vain They were still living together in sin They were still doing drugs They were still robbing liquor stores But the first thing God convicted them of Was using his name in vain None of us have it all together And the growing in Christ Is a process

In my own life I started smoking pot And drinking beer when I was 14 And I got saved when I was 16 And I was a little bit older And I was a little bit older And I was a little bit older I was still smoking pot For two and a half years After I accepted Christ But God began to kind of He was dealing with me with it I went from doing it From the time I got out of bed To the time I went to bed To just doing it once a day And then I went to just doing it once a week And then it got to where every three months or so I would just get kind of wired And I'd feel like I had to have it But I didn't want to blow my witness With everybody that I had been witnessing to That didn't know Christ So I would mix up my own concoctions At home

And I'm not going to tell you what I smoked Because some of you will go home And want to mix it yourself And try it yourself But anyway, I would mix up this concoction And I would go out into the woods And I'd take my Bible with me And I'd sit and read my Bible And smoke my stuff And then back then when I first got saved I would just flip over my Bible And wherever I landed That's where I would read And I flipped over my Bible one time And I hit Luke chapter 13 And it said Verse 3 just popped out at me It said Repent, lest you all likewise perish I thought, whoa, that's heavy And then I looked down again And two verses down The same thing was said again Repent, lest you all likewise perish I said, alright, God, I got it

I don't need this stuff anymore I just need you So I didn't smoke no pot anymore Or my stuff But God still dealt with me in other areas I've been a Christian now for over 45 years But it's only been in the last 20 years That I haven't had a drop of alcohol For the first 25 years of my Christian walk I still drank And it's only been in the last few years That the Lord's taken pornography out of my life That was something else that held me for a long time And He finally freed me of that stuff But there's some sins that are in your life That maybe nobody else knows about That you're dealing with in your life That God wants you to have to deal with And nobody else may know about it He kind of talks about it in John chapter 2 a little bit In verse 9

He says The one who says he is in the light And yet hates his brother Is in darkness until now The one who loves his brother Abides in the light And there's no cause of stumbling in him But the one who hates his brother Is in the darkness And walks in the darkness And does not know where he's going Because of the darkness has blinded his eyes Bitterness is kind of like a cancer It can just ruin your life And if there's somebody That you have hostility feelings towards You need to get That dealt with And get it right with God Before it destroys you Because it cuts It severs your relationship with God You can't commune with God And hate somebody at the same time And it ends up affecting your fellowship And it ends up affecting the body

One thing that I have learned in my life When God places people in my life That I can't stand They're there for a reason And if I seek the best I can To find out what it is That God's wanting me to learn From that relationship The sooner I learn it The sooner I can get out of that situation But if you try to just get away from that person God's going to bring just somebody else into your life That's just like that person Until you learn whatever it is you're supposed to learn But it doesn't do any good to hold on to that bitterness And hate somebody Because you're just doing damage to yourself In verse 7 it says But if we walk in the light As he himself is in the light And we have fellowship with one another And the blood of Jesus his son

Cleanses us from all sin By walking in the light And allowing our sins to be exposed Next to the holiness of God And allowing the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to work We can be real with one another And enjoy genuine fellowship with each other As we allow the Lord to do a work in each of our lives It's interesting that the longer We as believers go on The more aware of our sinfulness we are Paul's life is a perfect example of this He said in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 9 He said that I am not meant to be called an apostle Several years later Paul writes the letter to the Ephesians And in verse 8 of chapter 3 he says That he was the least of the saints He went from being not worthy to be called an apostle To being the least of the saints

And then in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 15 One of the last letters that Paul wrote He says I am the chiefest of sinners So he went from being the least of the apostles Not worthy to be called an apostle To being the least of the saints To being the chief of sinners The longer he was a Christian The more time he spent in the church The more time he spent with the Lord The more he was aware of how sinful his sinfulness was How sinful his sin was And the price that Christ paid to deal with all that And what we have we don't deserve We get it just because of the grace of God And we realize that Now Israel doesn't know that yet Israel hasn't accepted Christ yet But God has already accepted Christ But God has already told what's going to happen to Israel

And they're going to experience the same kind of thing That we're experiencing in our walk The longer we walk with the Lord The more we're aware that we're just depending on him And I want to go to Ezekiel chapter 36 And I want you to see what God's God's going to do with Israel Exactly the same thing that he's doing with us And we're not too far off from seeing this stuff happen either Starting in verse 22 it says Let's see where I'm at here It'll help if I get in Ezekiel instead of Jeremiah In verse 22 it says Therefore I will be a man of God Therefore say to the house of Israel Thus saith the Lord God It is not for your sake, O house of Israel That I am about to act But by my holy name Which you have profaned among the nations where you went

And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name Which has been profaned among the nations Which you have profaned in their midst Then the nations will know that I am the Lord Declares the Lord God When I prove myself holy among you in their sight For I will take you from the nations And gather you from all the lands And bring you into your own land This is talking about Israel becoming a nation Israel became a nation in 1948 The Jews were scattered throughout the world For over 1800 years And God said he's going to bring them back into their land again And that happened in 1948 He then says I will sprinkle clean water on you And you will be clean I will cleanse you from your filthiness And from all your idols

The tribulation period that's coming up That we're not too far from Is a time in which God is dealing with Israel And he's going to For one he's going to pour out his wrath on the earth But one of the things the tribulation period does Breaks the will of the Jewish people Two thirds of the Jews are going to die During the tribulation period And there's going to be a national repentance Take place at the end of the tribulation period For the Jews And in Zechariah chapter 12 It says that they will look on him And they will pierce and they will mourn And it goes on to say What's going to happen when they accept him As a Messiah Moreover I will give you a new heart And put a new spirit within you And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh

And give you a heart of flesh And I will put my spirit within you And cause you to walk in my statutes And you will be careful to observe my ordinances And you will live in the land That I gave to your forefathers So you will be my people And I will be your God Moreover I will save you from all your uncleanness And I will call for the grain And multiply it And I will not bring a famine on you And I will multiply the fruit of the tree And the produce of the field That you may not receive again The disgrace of famine among the nations God is going to be with you He's going to bless him He's going to cause the spirit to be within him He's going to cause him to walk in his ways He's going to bless him with all kinds of fruit and vegetables

And everything's going to be good And look what their response is Then you will remember your evil ways And your deeds that were not good And you will loathe yourselves in your own sight For your iniquities and your abominations I'm not doing this for your sake Declares the Lord God Let it be known to you Be ashamed and confounded for your ways O house of Israel There's going to It's It's It's kind of a paradox for Christianity Because We are forgiven And we are set free from sin But the more we spend time with God in his holiness The more we realize How much he has saved us from And how sinful the sin is that is in our lives In verse 8 it says Back in 1 John If we say that we have no sin We are deceiving ourselves And the truth of God is not in us

And we are not in sin Now I have met some believers Who believe in sinless perfection And what they do is They take our position in Christ Because we are hidden in Christ And we're covered in the blood of Christ God doesn't see us in our sins anymore He sees us in Christ And they take that to the extreme That I no longer can sin Because I've been forgiven Sin is no longer an issue I can do whatever I want And it's no longer considered sin Because God's dealt with it And that's not how God wants us to live our Christian life In Colossians it tells us That we are hidden with Christ in God And in Romans chapter 5 it says We have been justified That means we have It's just as if I'd never sinned We have been declared righteous

But we are not righteous in and of ourselves We have only been declared righteous You see when Christ died on the cross He paid the penalty for sin When he rose from the dead The power of sin was broken But the presence of sin is still very real That hasn't changed yet When Christ comes back Things will change But for right now the presence of sin Is still very real In Galatians chapter 5 or 16 and 18 and 25 it says But I say walk by the Spirit And you will not carry out the desires of the flesh For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit And the Spirit against the flesh For these are in our hearts Are in opposition to one another So that you may not do the things that you please But if you are led by the Spirit You are not under the law

If we live by the Spirit Let us also walk by the Spirit So we're in a battle with our flesh Our flesh wants to do one thing And our spirit wants to worship God and serve God And it's a constant battle Before you accepted Christ you didn't have that battle You just sinned all you wanted to It wasn't any big deal Now you've accepted Christ And God is convicting you of sins He convicts you of things And he wants to change things in your life In verse 9 he says If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness That reference to confessing our sins in the Greek Is in the present active It means it's something you're to continually do We're to continually as believers

Confess our sins to him And where it says that he is going to forgive us That's in the aorist active tense That means the aorist tense is kind of Like in the past tense That God has already determined ahead of time That when you ask him When you confess your sins He is already ready to forgive you Before you even ask He's ready to forgive you So you might ask If he's already forgiven me Of my sins Why do I have to continually ask for forgiveness Of my sins if he's already forgiven me Why do I do that Well it's like in a marriage In a marriage There are times when you just have Disagreements Things pop up and you just don't get along with each other And when that happens You don't communicate You're still married to each other

But you're not communicating And until one of you apologizes There's not going to be any communication But once you apologize And get things right That communication starts taking place again And that's what God wants with us We're not dealing with your salvation here We're dealing with your fellowship with him God doesn't want anything to take place in your life That's going to hinder that fellowship And for that to happen You have to be willing to confess Now in our relationship with him God is holy He has nothing unrighteous in him So if anybody's going to mess up It's going to be us So if anybody's going to have to confess anything It's going to have to be us Because God's already got it all together In verse 10 he says

If we say that we have not sinned We make him a liar And his word is not in us If you believe that you are a Christian And you have never Acknowledged your sin Then I would say that more than likely You are what I refer to as a cultural Christian A cultural Christian is somebody Who's been raised in the United States Where you have a big Christian culture That's around You've been raised in church maybe all your life But you've never actually come to know Christ yourself And the only way you can do that Is to first acknowledge your sin Know that you're a sinner Because until you know that you are a sinner You will never see your need for a savior And If that is you This morning If you Have thought you're a Christian

Because you've done all the right things all your life And you've gone to church And everything seems like you're okay But you've never acknowledged your sin Well after the service is over I'm going to be up here up front I'm just going to hang out up here And if you want to ask Christ to come into your life I'll be more than happy to pray with you And you can begin that fellowship with him For real Not just going through the motions And coming to church But actually have that real fellowship with him Fellowship that we're going to have Throughout eternity In which God is going to constantly Pour out to us And reveal to us The love that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit The joy that exists The peace All those fruits of the Spirit

That we're going to know throughout all eternity With you And I'm going to pray with you Without limit Can you imagine how wonderful it's going to be? Right now we're still stuck in this flesh But we have his Spirit And he wants that eternal life That fellowship with him to start now Not later on So Let's go ahead and pray And then I'll have Jared come up And lead us in some worship Lord you have so many things that you Desire to reveal to us You have so many things in store for us You took six days To create heaven and earth And you told us when you left Before you ascended into heaven You told us That you were going to go prepare a place for us And you've been gone now For almost 2,000 years You created all this in six days And I can't wait to see

What you for the past 2,000 years Have been preparing for us God you're an awesome God And I don't want to see anything separate our Fellowship I want us to draw close to you I want us to be a people that love you And I pray that you would just Help us Lord just to Have that desire just to surrender to you In every aspect of our life And if there's anybody here That doesn't know you this morning Lord I just pray that they won't leave without knowing you first I thank you for your Holy Spirit And I thank you for the work That you're doing in our lives In Jesus name, Amen

Oh and dead in my sin Lost without hope With no place to begin Your love and mercy come in When death was arrested And my life began Ash was redeemed Only beauty remained And my orphan heart Was given an end My mourning grew quiet My feet rose to dance When death was arrested And my life began Oh your grace So free Washes all And mains with you It's your end Release from my chains I'm a prisoner no more My shame was a ransom Faithfully born He canceled my death And he called me Here to die Is for in That's when death was Thank you Lord Jesus Oh your grace So Washes all Displayed on a criminal's Witness rejoiced As though heaven had

This a road That's when death was arrested And my life began So Washes all Green down Come join the song Of all the redeemed Arrested When death was arrested And my life began When death was arrested And my life began God we thank you For the freedom that we have In your son Jesus Thank you for the new life That he brings us Lord in him Lord I just pray that If there are those Here this morning God that are I just don't know But they're holding out God Today would be that day They would come right on up here And visit with Pastor Rick Enter into that relationship Oh your grace So washes all Your grace so washes all Oh your grace so washes all Oh your grace so washes all It's your endless love Rain down This new One more time Oh your grace So

Lord we just thank you God For the work that you're doing in our heart Lord I just pray that as we leave this place That I pray that your Holy Spirit go with us And continue your mighty work Lord God don't let us just stop here The second that we walk out of these doors Lord That's not That's not how this works Lord I just pray that as we leave here That we would just continually Be seeking after you Lord Day after day And in your word And in prayer And in worship God God strengthen us in you For the days ahead We love you Lord We praise you in your precious name Amen You guys have a wonderful week Be blessed