In the Chronicles of Narnia, in the story of Prince Caspian, there's an interesting conversation between Lucy and Aslan. Aslan is the Christ figure, the lion, who is the king of Narnia. And this is when Lucy returns to the land of Narnia and sees Aslan again. And she has this conversation with him. Welcome, child, Aslan said. Aslan said, Lucy, you're bigger. This is because you are older, little one, answered he. Not because you are bigger. I am not, but every year you grow, you will find me bigger. Aslan said to Lucy, I'm not bigger, but every year you grow, you will find me bigger. And that's how Jesus Christ is. As we grow in our knowledge of him, in our understanding of him, as we walk with him through the next trial, the next temptation, the next blessing, as we delve into the depths of what God's word teaches us about Jesus Christ, we will find him bigger and bigger and bigger and more powerful and more worthy of our praise. It's not that he actually is any bigger. than he always has been. But as we grow, as we're able to see more and more of who he is, we will see him in our minds as bigger and bigger. He's not like that childhood playground that you go back to as an adult and you say, wow, I remember this is way bigger than it looks like now. It looks like it's so small now. Jesus is just the opposite of that. The more we know of him, the more we experience of him, the bigger he will seem to be. to us. If you know just a little bit about Jesus, you may wrongly assume that he's not that big a deal. You may think he's just some religious figure from a long time ago. Or worse, if you know even less about him, you might even think that those words Jesus Christ are just swear words that people say sometimes when they're upset about something. We are so fortunate to have God's Word, the Bible, to instruct us in so much detail about the person and work of Jesus Christ, our Lord. We have the opportunity to know so much about Him and to know Him personally, to draw close to Him, to have fellowship with Him. And as our knowledge of Him grows, as our relationship with Him grows, we will see new and wonderful things about Him. Even at the end of this life, we will not know the fullness of His glory. will just be scratching the surface, which is why we look forward to eternity in heaven, knowing him better and better and better, seeing more and more of him. Hanging out with Jesus will never get old because there will always be more to learn about him and to know about him, more to admire about who he is and what he's done for us, more experiences to enjoy of him being in his presence. Well, today we're starting a new sermon series going through the New Testament letter of 1st John. And I want us to approach this new study with that kind of attitude and anticipation of knowing our Savior better, seeing more of his glory, cherishing what he has done for us. If Jesus is small in your mind, I pray that over the course of this study, he will grow and grow and grow in your mind and in your heart as you perceive him more accurately. So let's pray for that now. I invite you to pray now with me, and then we will get into this new study together. Let's pray. God, we thank you for who you are, and we thank you that you are a God who speaks. As we heard from Genesis 1, you are a God who speaks things into existence. Your word is powerful. You say, let there be light and there is light. And we pray that you'll do that for us spiritually in our hearts, that you will speak things into our lives that grow us in our understanding of you and change us from the inside out. You are powerful. to do that, and your word is powerful. We thank you that what you have spoken and what you've spoken through apostles like John, these things are preserved for us in this book, the Bible. We thank you that we have such access to the Bible. We have these printed copies of the Bible here. We can pull up the Bible on our on our phones and computers and so many ways that we can hear from your word. And I pray this morning as we study together, I pray that you'll guide me in everything I say and guide all of us to be discerning of what we're hearing and learning from your word. And I pray your spirit will apply these things to our lives in powerful and meaningful ways as each of us have need of you to do this. So we commit this time to you and pray for your blessing upon it, in Jesus' name, amen. So I invite you to open a Bible or open your phone or however you are gonna be looking at this, to 1 John 1. And in the Pew Bibles, this is on page 1,021. the letter of 1 John. I'm just gonna read the first four verses. That's what we'll be covering this morning after I give an introduction to this letter and its author, the Apostle John. 1 John chapter one. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the father and was made manifest to us. 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. So for the sermon this morning, I want to begin with an introduction to the letter and to the man who wrote it, the apostle John, and then we'll cover some of these amazing realities that are covered in these opening verses, truths about Jesus Christ, about the word of life. And I'll use the following four headings as we get into those verses. First, the eternal word, second, the incarnate word, third, the word of life, and fourth, the word of joy. So we'll look at those four points. But first, a few things about this letter and its author. The letter is unique in its format. In fact, some question whether it should even be categorized as a letter, because it doesn't open or close like a typical New Testament letter, like a first century letter. John doesn't begin by identifying himself. He doesn't actually anywhere in the letter say who he is. He doesn't identify himself as the author. He doesn't have an introductory word of greeting to his readers, not like the customary format we're used to. Who it's from, who it's to, a word of greeting, then the body of the letter, that's the typical format in other New Testament letters. Paul, Peter, James, Jude, all follow that general formula. Even 2 John and 3 John have something like that, but not 1 John. Hebrews is the only other New Testament letter that is similar to John to first John In this way just launching right into the message without any personal word or reading Joel Beaky and his commentary on first John says no other epistle or letter in the New Testament begins more abruptly Than does the first epistle of John it has no formal salutation no personal words of greeting and no concluding benediction It is not addressed to a particular church or individual. So in those ways, there's some details we just don't know about 1 John. We can be confident that it was the Apostle John who was the author of this letter, even though he doesn't give his name. Others in the early church who knew John and knew this letter identified this as a letter from John. There were individuals like Polycarp. Maybe you've heard his name. Polycarp was a disciple of John. And then Irenaeus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, they identify this letter as being from John. Also, as we'll see, there are many similarities between this letter and the Gospel of John. The writing style, the vocabulary, and different themes show a lot of overlap between the Gospel of John and 1st John. The purpose of the letter is clear. You can look over to 1st John 5 13. We also, I think, have this verse on the screen. 1st John 5 13. We see the purpose of this letter. John says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God and there's the purpose statement, that you may know that you have eternal life. You see the purpose there? That you may know that you have eternal life. And it's interesting to compare that to the clear purpose statement in the Gospel of John, John chapter 20 verses 30 and 31. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So you see John in his gospel, he has the aim to see unbelievers come to faith in Jesus Christ. And then later, writing this letter to believers in the early church. John has the aim of helping believers know that they are believers. So he writes the gospel account, praying and hoping to see unbelievers come to salvation. And then he writes this letter to help those who are already believers to have greater assurance of their salvation. So you see the similar and related, but the development here of the purpose of the gospel of John and the purpose now of this letter of John. And John will, in this letter, he will point to three main things that help us to know that we're believers. And we'll see these as we go through the letter. He'll talk about truth. Do you believe the truth of the gospel about Jesus Christ? who he is and what he's done. That's one significant mark of a true believer. Second, he'll talk about our lives. Does your lifestyle reflect the truth you say you believe? Are you obeying God? Not that we're going to be perfect in our obedience of God, but we are going to be different. And that's another mark of a true believer. And then third, John will talk about love. Do we love one another? Do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ? That's another key evidence of saving faith. Truth, life, and love. Another way to put it would be the doctrinal test of do you believe the core tenets of the Christian faith about Jesus Christ? Secondly, the moral test of do you live according to that truth? And then third, the relational test of do you love your brothers and sisters? And if by God's grace we see those things happening in our lives, those evidences of God's grace should bolster our assurance that we are truly believers. We do truly belong to Him. John the author. Let me talk a little bit about this man, John, and who he was, the writer of this letter. This was John, the son of Zebedee, one of the 12 disciples. And not only was he one of the 12 disciples, he was part of an inner circle even within the 12. So there were the 12 disciples, but within the 12, you remember, there were this inner circle of three, Peter, James, and John. These were among the very first disciples Jesus called to himself. The Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark both record this. Jesus called Peter and Andrew, who were brothers, and then Jesus called James and John, who were brothers, the sons of Zebedee. And then we see these three men, Peter, James, and John, being included in some very significant events. There was the transfiguration. when Jesus' face shone like the sun and his clothes became like light, white as light. And Moses and Elijah appeared there with Jesus. Peter, James, and John were invited into that experience. And when Jesus raised Jairus' daughter, he took just these three into the house. He took just Peter, James, and John with him to witness that. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus took Peter, James, and John to pray with him. Of course, the guys totally let Jesus down on that occasion. They fell asleep. But still, they had that privilege of being extra close to Jesus in these really significant moments. In John's gospel, here's an interesting thing about how John writes of these eyewitness accounts and how he sees himself and conveys that he was there, but in kind of a veiled John refers to himself in a few places as the disciple whom Jesus loved. If you've studied the Gospel of John, you've maybe noticed this. There's those references to the disciple whom Jesus loved. So John remains anonymous, but in those places where John was personally involved in what was going on, he just refers to the disciple whom Jesus loved. So a veiled way of referring to himself without identifying himself. And I'm going to read you a couple of those places, but just think about that phrase for a moment. What a wonderful way to think of yourself. And when John is using that phrase to talk about himself, he's not saying that in a prideful way at all, I don't think, as though he deserved Jesus' love. He's not saying that. Nor is he saying it in an exclusive way, as though he's the only disciple Jesus loved. But John includes those important details of the story of Jesus, details that John was an eyewitness of, but at the same time, he doesn't want to call attention to himself. He's not writing any of this to make a name for himself. So he just talks about the disciple whom Jesus loved. And if you're a believer in Christ, if you're united to Christ by faith, All of us, we can think of ourselves with that same description as disciples whom Jesus loves. You, if you're a Christian, you are a disciple whom Jesus loves very much. And it's not because you're particularly lovable or because you're especially dedicated or faithful to him. It's not anything of ourselves that draws his attention to us or his love. but he has called us to himself. He has made us his disciples, and he has a deep and abiding love for us. Let me read you a couple of these passages. One is in John 19, the Gospel of John, chapter 19, the account of Jesus on the cross. We read this, that when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold, your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. So there's John writing of that. Of course, he was there. He's the one Jesus is speaking of there. And it shows how close John was to Jesus. So close that Jesus would give John the assignment of caring for his own mother, Mary. And then John was one of the first eyewitnesses of the empty tomb. We read in John chapter 20, now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple And they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter. I like that, that John put that in there. I think John was significantly younger than Peter, so that would make sense. But he says, the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. he saw the linen cloths lined there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lined with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet, they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. What a powerful scene there, John writing of his own experience seeing the empty tomb, and believing. So this is the man we're hearing from in the Gospel of John and in this letter of John. This is the eyewitness, the close disciple whom Jesus loved, whom God ordained to write these things under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that we would have this very up close and personal narrative of Jesus' life and teaching in the Gospel, and that we would have this apostolic instruction this letter John was one of the leaders in the early church the Apostle John the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians refers to Peter James and John as pillars pillars of the church that's in Galatians 2 9 So this John son of Zebedee disciple of Jesus Apostle We know he was not only the writer of the fourth gospel and also the writer of 1 John, but also of 2 John and 3 John, and also the last book of the New Testament, the last book of the Bible, Revelation. He wrote that as well. So a great deal of divine truth was revealed to this man and through him, and preserved even to this day for us to benefit from. So I hope this will add to our eagerness to study this letter. We get to sit under the teaching of one who was so closely involved with Jesus in his earthly ministry, who was there when Jesus died, who was there when Jesus rose and ascended, and who served the early church for decades. Whatever he has to say, we will do well to listen and to listen very carefully. Okay, so let's go to these first four verses now. And first, let's think about the eternal word, the eternal word. The abrupt opening to this letter begins with this phrase, that which was from the beginning. What does that first phrase make you think of? Well, knowing The writer of this letter is also the writer of the gospel of John you may recall that the gospel of John starts like this in the beginning was the word and The word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God That's the opening of the gospel of John And if you're very familiar with the Old Testament your mind goes to those very first words of the Bible which Paul read for us earlier in this service. The very first words of Genesis, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So I think this phrase, in the beginning, which John uses at the start of his gospel and at the start of this letter, I think he's making a point here about the fact that Jesus Christ is eternal. He's from the beginning. He's before what we think of as the beginning. He's always existed. with the Father. Jesus Christ, the Word, is eternal. He was there even before the world was created. In the beginning, when there was nothing but God, the Word existed. We also see in 1 John 1, in verse 2, that John refers to the eternal life. You see that in verse 2? The eternal life. We hear those words, eternal life, and we think of heaven. We think of the eternal life we will have in heaven, and that's true and awesome, but notice here in this context, notice carefully how John says this in verse two. He's talking about proclaiming to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest So in this verse, do you see that the eternal life is a person? Just like in verse one, the word of life is a person. And who is this person? It's none other than Jesus Christ, who was from the beginning, who was in the beginning. The word, who was with the Father from eternity past. Some have claimed, like Arius, way, way back in the early church, And the Jehovah's Witnesses, even today, claim that there was a time when Jesus Christ did not exist. That he was the first being God created. But there was a time before that when he did not exist, and therefore he's not eternally God. These heretical teachings would say that Jesus is maybe divine in some sense, but not quite on the same level of divinity as God the Father. But that contradicts what we're learning here in these verses of Scripture, that Jesus is eternal. He's co-eternal with the Father. And why is that significant, that Jesus, the Word, is eternal? Well, if you deny that Jesus is eternal, you deny that Jesus is fully God. And if Jesus is not fully God, then he cannot fully save sinners. which then leaves you with a religion based on your own good works, which is what these heretical teachings end up as. Then you have to kind of fill the gap. You have to do the good deeds to earn whatever Jesus wasn't able to cover for you. Anyone less than God might be able to be a good example for us or a good teacher, but he cannot fully atone for our sin if he's not fully God. And why is that so? Because our sin is an infinite offense against God. Our sin isn't something that any mere human could cover, could atone for, could pay for. We can't quantify the damage our sin has caused, not only to other individuals, but most significantly, the dishonor we've shown to Almighty God. It is an infinite offense because He is an infinitely holy God. and therefore considering the gravity of our sinfulness, we understand that it took the God-man himself, an infinite and eternal being, to fully pay the penalty for our sin. So I hope you see that this is crucial to the good news being truly good news. It's only the eternal word that is really and truly a good word to sinful humanity. Anything less becomes something of a self-help religion. But this is different. Jesus doesn't just give us some good tips to make our lives better. Instead, he lives a perfect life in our place, and then goes to the cross in our place, bearing the infinite wrath of God against our sin. He's the only real Savior, eternally God. taking on flesh to become one of us. And that leads to our second point. So we've talked about the eternal word. Now let's talk about the incarnate word. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. And verse two, the life was made manifest and we have seen it. And again, in verse three, that which we have seen and heard. This is why I wanted to read you a couple of those passages from the gospel of John, because I want us to picture vividly what John would have been thinking about as he wrote these verses in the opening of 1 John. Being with Jesus. Remember how close John was to Jesus. Hearing, seeing, looking upon, touching with his hands. And notice he's using the first person plural here too. Which I think is an indication that he's including the other Apostles in this in this eyewitness testimony It wasn't just John was an eyewitness to Jesus in the flesh the other disciples experienced these things too and all of this bolsters the the credibility of what John is testifying to what John is proclaiming and a critical piece of this is that Jesus did take on human flesh and He really and fully became one of us. In thinking about the eternal word, we looked at the parallel in John 1.1. Now with this point about the incarnate word, we have a parallel in John 1.14, later in the prologue of the Gospel of John. Remember John 1.14. And the word became flesh. That's the incarnate word. The word became flesh. Dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth It's crucial that we understand both of these things about our Savior He's eternal and he came in the flesh as a human being into this world Because he cannot be our Savior if he is not both fully God and fully human Only God can save, as I've already talked about, and He must also be fully one of us in order to stand in our place, to be our substitute. An animal can't be a substitute for our sins. The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were not sufficient to actually atone for sins. They were but a pointer. is actually one of us. He became one of us. He remains fully God and he became fully human. And in this way, he's the only being who can do what he did. He's the only one who can accomplish our salvation, forgiving our sin, bringing us into fellowship with God. And this is part of why John is writing this letter, that we would have fellowship with God. Did you notice that word in verse three? He says, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. Fellowship, that word koinonia, is another significant point in these verses. I'm gonna save that for next Sunday, since that word comes up again in verses six and seven. So in next week's sermon, I'll say more about our fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and the fellowship we have with one another as a result of that. But it's the incarnate word who makes this possible. Jesus Christ, the word made flesh. He's the connection bridging that great chasm between perfect divinity and depraved humanity and Jesus bridges that gap by remaining perfectly divine and perfectly sinless and then becoming fully human just like us in every way except without sin as We learn in Hebrews 4 15 where it says for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses and but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. So just think for a moment of all that this means for us, what this means for you in your daily walk with God, the fact that Jesus Christ, the word, became flesh, that he was incarnated. Just a couple points of application here. First of all, when you're facing trials or temptations, Remember that Jesus Christ can identify with you. He can identify. Sometimes it's hard to find someone who can really understand where you're at, who can really identify with and empathize with your particular unique struggle. You may think there's no one else on the planet who really gets me, who really knows what I'm going through. Well, Jesus does. Jesus understands. Just think of what he, went through. And he endured all of that suffering and temptation without sin. So he's the best person to go to because he's not only faced those trials and temptations, but he has triumphed over those and has endured through those. So go to him, speak to him about your heartaches, your heavy burdens in your life, your baggage, your struggles. He will understand and he can help. And then here's another thing to think about. When God feels distant, that inevitably happens at different seasons in our walk with the Lord. There can be times when God just feels far away, like you're praying and it's just, am I really communicating? Am I really connecting in some way? When God feels distant, remember that he has come so very close to us in the person of Jesus Christ. He has lived on this earth as a human being. And let that be a motivation to you to read the Bible, to commune with God in His Word. Read about Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, God in the flesh, and the things He said and the things He did and experienced during His life here on this earth. God has made Himself known in the person of Jesus Christ. The eternal Word became incarnate. He came in human flesh. And he didn't merely appear to be human, as some have claimed. Here's another type of false teaching, a heretical teaching called docetism. We'll talk more about that as we go through 1 John, because that was part of what John was correcting and warning against. And that's part of why his opening was such an emphasis on his eyewitness experience with Jesus, that he's seen and and heard and looked upon and touched. He's saying Jesus really became human. He didn't just appear to be human. That's the false teaching of docetism. That's from a Greek word that means to appear to be or to seem. The false teaching was that Jesus looked like he was human, but he didn't actually take on a material body. And John is saying, no, that's not right. Jesus really, truly became one of us. So he's the eternal word and the incarnate word. The next two points will be brief here. Two more wonderful emphases in these verses. The word of life. The word of life. We see this in verses one and two. At the end of verse one, the word of life referring to Jesus. whom John heard and saw and looked upon and touched, Jesus is the word of life. And in verse two, the life was made manifest, the eternal life. Last Sunday, I preached at Pittsburgh Chinese Church, and being there, I preached from the end of Romans six. That was the passage I chose to preach on, talking about slavery to sin and slavery God and in that paragraph at the end of Romans 6 the very last verse of Romans 6 which maybe you've memorized At some point in your life for the wages of sin is death But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord We understand what the Bible teaches about slavery of sin and the the seductive power of worldliness and the lies of the evil one and We understand that the world, the flesh and the devil, um, what do they do? They hold out life to us, right? At least what is presented as life. Hey, this is really living. You know, if you want real life, if you, if you want to get in on the good life, um, then here's where it's at. And in so much of advertising is, is, is playing on those desires of ours. but so much of it is a lie. The world, the flesh, and the devil are certainly bringing lies to us when they offer life. But what's the wages of that path? The very opposite, it's death. The wages of sin is not life. The wages of sin is death. To continue your days apart from Christ, pursuing the sinful pleasures and sinful pursuits of this world, that path leads to death. But there's a different there's a different path. There's another path that leads to life, to eternal life, and that's a gift given freely and received by faith, and that life is in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the life. He's the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him, as Jesus said in John 14 6. So I encourage you, friend, don't be deceived by the path that looks so appealing, but is actually a path leading to death. Turn to God, trust in Jesus, and find true life. As David says in Psalm 1611, praising God, he says to God, you make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. And that's a good segue from thinking about the word of life to our last point, the word of joy in verse four, the word of joy. John says in verse four, we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. There's some question over that pronoun, depending on what translation you're looking at, or maybe there's a note in your Bible, over whether it should be read our joy or Your joy there are discrepancies in the ancient manuscripts on that minor detail I'd be happy to talk with you after the service about that if that's of interest to you But I want to close the sermon simply by highlighting the joy of this message Which John is conveying to his audience. He's writing for the purpose of joy and the joy grows and is fulfilled in the communication of this news about Jesus. First we see, looking at these verses as a whole, we see God's initiative in communicating to us. Did you notice that in this passage? God's enthusiasm, God's joy in making these truths known. In verse two, the life was made manifest the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. So twice there in verse two is the word manifest. That's our eternal triune God bursting forth with delight, going public with the glory of who he is. And why do you think John refers to Jesus as the word? Isn't that interesting? That Jesus is the word, both in the gospel of John Chapter 1 and here in verse 1 the word of life Think of all the places the Bible mentions the word of the Lord or the Word of God The point to see here is that our God is a God who speaks He communicates he's not a silent God. He talks he talks to us. He reveals himself He communicates personally with his people and we are so blessed to have the written word of God telling us about the incarnate word of God, who is Jesus Christ. So we have God communicating to us in a person, Jesus Christ, and then recorded for us in words for us to read in the Bible. So it's God's initiative, first of all, to reveal himself And then John, the apostle, who had a front row seat to witness the glory of Jesus Christ, the God-man, in the middle of verse two, John is testifying to it and proclaiming this news about the word of life, the eternal life. Again, in verse three, John is proclaiming this. And verse four, he's writing these things. You see all those words about how he's communicating this? Verse four, he's writing these things so that his joy may be complete. And I think that's the way this verse should be read, that he's saying it's our joy, his joy, and the apostle's joy would be complete as he communicates these things. So John delights in writing these things. God delights to reveal himself to us. John, the apostle, delights to communicate this. And it's a joy for us to receive this knowledge. And then I think by implication, we should think about this too, that there's so much joy in proclaiming this good news and sharing it with others. So as a closing application and exhortation for us, let's not miss out on that joy. We know the eternal word, the incarnate word, the word of life, who is our word of joy. And there's a fulfillment of joy. There's a completion of joy as we get to share that good news with others. I pray this letter will be a tremendous means of grace to us as we continue to study it in the weeks to come. I pray Jesus will grow and grow and grow in our minds and in our hearts as we learn more about him. Let's pray. God, again, we thank you for your word. We thank you for all that you communicate to us. There's just such a depth to your word. There's so much to learn and glean here. So continue to guide us as we study through 1 John together. I pray that you will Change each one of us and grow us as a church as we love you more and more as you reveal yourself. We thank you that you're a God who speaks so much and so clearly to us. It's a delight for us to sit under your Word and be shaped by it. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.