It's 1 John chapter 1. The theme of this book, of course, is the deity of Jesus Christ. Why was Jesus crucified on the cross? Well, we would all say, as far as God's concerned, as far as from His perspective, it was to be the Lamb of God would take away the sin of the world. But you see, mankind could not see that. They were focused on what He said. They were focused on the fact that He claimed to be the only begotten Son of God. He was crucified as far as the Jews were concerned, as far as what they gave to the Romans as concern, that He claimed to be God, that He was a blasphemer. He was not a blasphemer. He told the truth. But for that, He was crucified. And in 1 John, the whole book is devoted as a theme along many wonderful other truths that we learn along the way. But the ultimate theme is that Jesus Christ is who He said He is. And if you noticed when Brother Jim was talking with that lady on the phone in Connecticut, do you remember him saying, do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Folks, it is critical who we believe Jesus to be. I'm thankful that He's the greatest teacher that ever lived, but this world did not really need a teacher. I'm thankful that He is the healer, but the world did not just need another physician or a healer. What the world needed and what the world needs today is a Savior, the Lamb of God, to be our sin sacrifice. That's the presentation of 1 John 1. And let's look, please, in verse 1 as we read, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and we have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." Isn't it interesting how God puts a service together And the special that is played before we read this text is holy, holy, holy. In him is no darkness at all. He is light. Let's go to him, the God of light, our Savior and our Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that we can trust in you through your son, Jesus. And Lord, I thank you that he is the true Messiah. He is a Savior of mankind. Lord, we're here to worship him. We're here to lift his name high. Lord, help us to do that. Help us in our heart, not just in a message, but in our heart and in our life. As we leave these doors to be a minister and a missionary to a lost and dying world, Lord, feed us and charge us, I pray. Help us to be willing and bold to share the good news to a lost and dying world that doesn't know Him. Bless, I pray, in this time. Encourage our hearts. In Jesus' name, we ask these things. Amen. Here in 1 John 1, verse 1, that which was from the beginning Make no mistake, this is talking about a person, exalting the person of Jesus Christ. This is the first thought here in this passage, is that we can never go wrong by exalting the person of Jesus Christ. The orchestra played a song for the offertory. I will serve thee because I love thee. You have given life to me. Now, whenever we serve Him and have an impact on people's lives for the cause of Jesus Christ, someone is going to walk up to you, and they're going to say, thank you so very much. No one has an impact on my life like you have. You pointed me to Jesus. You are the greatest example I've ever seen of Christ-likeness, of being a Christian, and what that really means. And they're going to lay it on, and they're going to mean it, and they're going to be sincere. Some people, they're just professional at that, and they can do it without meaning it. But sometimes you're going to have folks and they're going to really mean that. And what do you do with that? What do you do with that kind of praise? Make sure that you find a way to deflect that praise in your heart to the Lord. Do not let that inflate you. Exalt the person of Jesus Christ. Were it not for Him, where would we be? We would not have a place to serve. We would not have power to serve. We would not have any effectiveness. Anything done with eternal value is done by Him through us anyway. So he makes sure right out of the gate. I mean, there's no, I, John, write unto you, the blessed church of, you know, there's no salutation, no greeting. He jumps right into the crux of the matter and he gives the headline, this is about Jesus Christ. And so may our lives be that. May our church be that. May our families be that. It should be our goal to magnify, exalt the person of Jesus Christ, that which was from the beginning. I don't know. I've mentioned this before, I think, but I don't know if you've ever tried to ponder eternity. I'm not sure if you've ever done that. And you can take your pick. Eternity past or eternity future. Either one will make you, if you really think about it very long, it will make you physically ill. Because your stomach will start turning as you wonder about, okay, thousands of years back to creation. And if you have a different take on that and stuff, God'll straighten all of us out when we get to heaven, but I'm a young earth guy, and I think the world is thousands of years, not millions of years, but that's okay. That's my understanding, and I understand I've been wrong many, many times, but that's just where I'm... But if you think about thousands of years, The eternity past goes back millions of years. It goes back beyond years. It goes back past eons. It has no beginning. If you think about that. Or you think about eternity future. Eternity future is kind of a little bit of a better thing because we're going to be with Jesus. Amen. We're going to be in heaven. We're going to be a new heaven, a new earth, and everything's explained in a little preview given to us in the book of Revelation. But that which was been from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, the hands have handled of the word of life. He exalts the person of Jesus Christ and he explains the proof of Jesus Christ. the proof, the evidence. Now, faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I'm thankful that we have evidence to put our faith upon. We do not have a blind faith, a leap into the dark, that which our eyes have seen, our ears have heard. Now, this is not redundant. Look, please, in verse 1, which we have seen with our eyes. and which we have looked upon. There's a little difference there. If you see something, that's one thing. If you look at it and you examine it and you look at it, it's different. Seeing it, hearing it, and listening. Just ask your wife, gentlemen, what the difference between hearing and listening is. They'll explain to you what that means. Did you hear me? Yes. What did I say? And if you are really sharp, guys, you can replay, just like a football game, you can do a quick replay and generate it out of your short-term memory. If you're really sharp, but most of us aren't that sharp. Listening usually involves turning the head and looking at the person and listening to what they have to say. Explaining the proof of Jesus. If you need to turn back one page, it's 2 Peter 1. Just maybe one or two pages backwards to 2 Peter 1 in verse 12. Follow along, please, as we read. Now, this is the Apostle Peter writing his final epistle. And he says, while I'm in this tabernacle, in this body, this is my last chance. I want to bring something important to your remembrance. Verse 14, knowing that shortly I must put off this, my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were, what's the word, eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Twice that took place. When was the first time? At the baptism, River Jordan, baptism of John the Baptist, and there in the Jordan River. The second time was when? Transfiguration. Verse 18, and this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a sure, more sure word of prophecy where unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. A more sure word of prophecy than what they witnessed. What in the world could be more sure than their experience? I mean, they heard it, they saw it, they experienced it. What in the world could he be talking about? Look at verse 20. Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Here the Apostle Peter is making a very good and powerful point. He was saying, Hey, look, I did not just spin a yarn to you. I did not just tell you some things that might tickle your ears. I'm telling you the truth of what I saw and what I witnessed, and there were other witnesses. We saw it with our own eyes. I'm going to tell you something even better, that the holy scriptures that God gives by inspiration is even more sure than my testimony and my witness. That is the witness of God in written form, writing it down. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for a proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. The man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. So, exalting the person of Christ and explaining the proof of Christ. John 1, verse 1, the Bible says, "...in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Verse 14 says, "...and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." So the Word that was before time ever began, that was with God and was God, became flesh. God became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The proof of Jesus Christ is explained here right out of the gate here in chapter 1 and verse 1. Look at verse 2, please. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it. and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us." This begins this third thought, not just exalting the person of Jesus Christ and explaining the proof of Jesus Christ, but also examining the preaching of Jesus Christ. Examine the preaching, examining the witness. When you're talking about witnessing for the Lord, no less than three times in the book of Acts, and possibly partially even four, is recorded for us in the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul's personal salvation testimony. Not once, not twice, three times in great detail. Now, anything that is repeated in the Word of God is there on purpose. It's not just by accident that it's repeated. It's for a reason. Your greatest witnessing tool in pointing people to Jesus Christ is to be able to tell them what Jesus did for you, okay? Outside of the precious, inspired Word of God, the only other thing that you have is what God, to tell your story of what God did for you, what you experienced. In essence, John is doing the very same thing. He's saying, I'm telling you about Jesus. I saw him. I was an eyewitness. He's telling you his experience, okay? And so, that amplifies the inspired Word of God. It allows us to apply it to their life. What God did for me, he will do for you. And here in verse 2, it says, we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life. We are surrounded by death. We are surrounded by discouragement. We are surrounded by despair. People are taking their own lives and taking the lives of others every time we turn around. It is now commonplace and we're not at all shocked and surprised when we hear about shootings and multiple deaths and all that kind of thing. It used to be that when that was reported, that we stopped, we gasped, and we thought, well, where is that? That's in Chicago, or that's in New York, or that's around the other side of the globe. No, that's in Orlando. That's in DeLand. That's in Orange City. Death and despair, discouragement, depression. The Bible says that the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy, and he has given us a mission, a mission to preach the good news, the good news, to bring witness of that, the mission. The Bible says in verse number three, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. That's what going to these homes of people who have come to journey through Christmas, knocking on their door. and say, hey, we do care about you. Brother Les Rawl was talking about making some visits this afternoon. He and Susan made some visits this afternoon and also on yesterday in Orlando. And he was talking about the folks in Orlando, how they received that spiritual birth certificate in the mail. Thank you, ladies, those of you who helped Sandy and Betsy put those out. Thank you so very much for doing that. And they said, yes, we received that in the mail. And they loved having that reminder of their spiritual eternal decision for Jesus Christ. When you knock on that door, you're trying to make an impact for the Lord to declare the mission, the good news, to declare unto you. And here's our motive, not just our mission, but our motive. Verse 3, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. There's a motive. There's a motive. It's wonderful when God's people get together. Satan's goal is divide and conquer. If he can divide a family, if he can divide a church, if he can divide a work of God, if he can divide, then he can more easily conquer. A predator will try to divide the herd, try to find the weak, the young, the injured or whatever, and go after them and feed on them. That's the work of Satan, folks. And we need to draw people into the fold, not push them out of the fold. Draw them in that our fellowship might be with you. Now, there are different ways of getting people in. Notice the miracle of fellowship, not just the motive of fellowship, but the miracle we read on. Ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. So we're wanting to point people to Christ so that we can fellowship with them and so that we together can fellowship with God the Father. Now, when you do something together, isn't it more exciting? Some of you love to watch football. Is there a difference? Is there a difference? For you to attend a sporting event, and you go to the sporting event, and you're in the stands, and you're there with thousands of other supporters, is there a difference between that and sitting at home watching it on TV? I mean, are you going to get more into it on the bleachers than you do in your recliner? The answer, of course, is yes. I mean, there's going to be wonderful things that you have at your disposal there watching on TV. You get close-ups. You get replays. You get all these kinds of things that, I guess, in the newfangled modern areas, they've got these now big screens, and you can see the replays right on the big screens, but it didn't used to be that way. But there, when you're surrounded by people, and you're about to say something to someone, and all of a sudden, you hear people, yay! They jump to their feet, and you see exactly what's happening, you wanna, oh yeah, go, go, go, go, go! No, no, watch out, he's coming, get him! And you find yourself into it, and at the end of it, you're hoarse, and you're happy about it. Listen, there are people who cannot come to church. There are people who, their sicknesses and their problems and they can't drive after dark and all these kinds of things. And they have physical ailments and problems and they can't be here. And their lifeline to Volusia County Baptist Church is the live stream. But I'm telling you folks, it's not the same watching on TV and on your computer as it is right here. It's a little better when you're fellowshipping with the family of God. And when we're fellowshipping around what God's doing. Not about our church. Certainly not about the preacher. But about what God is doing in our hearts. And we sense that amongst us. And someone over here gets blessed and they praise the Lord. Somebody over here says, Amen. And you know, you just don't get that, you know, on a recording. There's something about being together with a family of God. Forsaking not the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. We're to be exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. So, in the preaching of Jesus Christ, we examine our mission, we examine our motive, we examine the miracle that takes place, and we examine the message. The message. Jesus said this, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. We live in a tolerant society wanting to tolerate everything but truth. Okay? And we just erase truth out of the matter and say, anybody that is sincere can be right. I'm not going to say that I'm right. I'm not going to say that you're right. We're just going to tolerate anybody and everybody and everything just fine. Well, in getting along down here on earth and in politics and in your job and those kinds of things, there might be some rules that you have to follow, and we certainly understand that. But as far as coming to God, God is truth. And the message must be in agreement with what God says. And I do not make apology for that. I didn't make the rules. I did not write the book. I'm to proclaim it and I'm to preach it in its truth and as accurately as possible. The message, verse 4 says, and these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. We're not mad about the truth. We're happy about the truth. We're glad about the truth. We're glad to be on God's side. It's marvelous when we're in tune. It was a few weeks ago before King's Brass came. I said to Hope, I said, I was going through the documentation and they were saying that the piano needs to be tuned to A440. If you don't know what that means, don't worry about it. It means it needs to be up to par, you know? And I said, when's the last time we had the piano tuned? She said, oh, it's been a while. I said, well, we better get that taken care of and get that tuned. Contacted the man he came out and and tuned up the piano and get it up to where it's supposed to be and everything in because you know sometimes a piano not only gets out of tune flat sometimes even gets out of tune with itself and Certain notes when you play it, you know, it just there's a little twang a little run around, you know and things in your in your ears You don't really understand Why that is? But you know that happens in a church That happens in a family When we get out of tune with God, we find that we're out of tune with one another. And whenever the Lord begins to play through us, and to minister through us, through junior church, and ushers, and choir, and whatever capacity that you might be serving, and then something comes out of our mouth that shouldn't really come out sideways like that. I've been there, done that. God forgive me. We're out of tune. And it causes dissonance. It causes problems. When we are in tune with God, guess what He gives? He gives joy in our fellowship. Joy amongst one another. Joy in serving Jesus. The joy of the Lord is our strength, the Bible says. If you do not have joy in your life, you are just running on fumes. Sometimes fumes stink, by the way. The Bible says that your joy may be full and this then, verse 5, as we close, this then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. He never makes a mistake. He never misses a beat. He can see around the corner. He knows what tomorrow holds. Oftentimes, I've prayed, Lord, I pray that you would guide us around the corner because you know what's over there and we don't. God knows what's going to come into your family and come into your home, come into your life and my life, into his church. And God wants to see Jesus Christ magnified by life or by death. As we look through the Word of God, how many characters, how many Bible characters can we see the time after time after time that great misunderstanding, great trial, great accusation, starting with our Savior and then going down from there? You think of a man named Daniel. He had an excellent spirit. He was thrown in a den of lions. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Others should have stood, but they all bent the knee and bowed before Nebuchadnezzar and his image, and they said, no, we will not bow. We will not bend. Joseph. Here's a young man. He was innocent. Had he done anything wrong? The only thing he could have done wrong is that he was loved by his father. And perhaps he was just a little bit, his father was maybe just a little bit partial. And that made the other brothers jealous. But jealous enough to want to kill him? To sell him into slavery? And you go on and on and on through time after time after time. And then you look back at those lives and you see how God vindicated, how God blessed their faithfulness. Look at Job and how that God bragged on Job. I doubt seriously that God has ever bragged on me. I doubt seriously. I know me. I know my life. But God bragged to Satan. Have you considered my servant Job? He maintained, the Bible says, he maintained his integrity. Integrity, the word means wholeness. His heart's desire was full and whole to follow God in his life. He prayed for his children. He prayed with his children. And yet, God allowed some terrible things to enter his life. The end of the story, as you fast forward to the end, you find that God gave him back double of what he had. Double of his animals, double of his flocks, double of everything. And then God gave him the children that he had lost. He gave him the same number of children. Didn't give him double children. For the loo that bothered me for a while, it really did. Why did he give him double animals and double properties and double all this that he took from him? Why did he give him double and then he didn't give him double children? He did. He did. You see, his first children were in heaven waiting for him and he was going to see them soon. He got double children. God pays his debts in magnificently wonderful ways. He's worthy to be trusted. He's worthy to be followed. So it's all about Jesus. It's not about us. Love God, love people. Do you remember, by the way, my daughter came and picked up my suits. I appreciate that. Melody's out in the nursery tonight and helping with the kids. And I looked back while I was talking to some folks and she was picking them up. And one dear lady, she left me a note or sent me a... No, someone watching on live stream sent me an email and said, make sure and have your suits dry clean before your wife sees them. If our service for God is anything but out of love, it's sounding brass, a tinkling cymbal. It has no value. But if we say, Lord, I just want to show you that I do love you. Nine-year-old boy, he said to a man, he said, I love my mom with all my strength. Now, you find that in Gospel of Mark chapter 12 that we read in our church reading today. He said, I love my mom with all my strength. The man who he said that to, he looked at him and said, well, what do you mean, son? He said, well, we live in this apartment building right here. We live up on the fourth floor. My mom, she cooks, she cleans, she takes care of us kids, and I'm the oldest. My dad's not around. He said, it's real cold. He said, I go down to the basement, and I get a great big, as much as I can carry, container of coal, and I climb those four flights of stairs. And that's about all that I can carry, sir. When I get to the top, boy, I'm just thrilled to dump it out and I've got to go do it again. It holds three of those. And my mama, she can't do that. She's too tired. She has her hands full. And so this is something I can do for my mom. And I love her with all my strength. I wonder if we can say that about Jesus. Lord, I love you with my strength. I give you what I have to offer right now. Let's bow our heads together, please. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. It's all about Jesus, worshiping and serving him. One day, we're going to see him. The Bible says, whom having not seen, ye love. So even though we haven't seen him yet, we will see him soon. But until then, my heart will go on singing. Until then, with joy, I'll carry on. Until the day my eyes behold my Savior. Until the day he calls me home. Lord Jesus, we bow our hearts before you, Lord, we humble ourselves before you. You set us not by might nor by strength, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. But, Lord, help us, whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do, to do all to your glory to give the right opinion of God. I pray now that you would speak to our hearts now as your church. Lord, there might be some here that have been attending who would say they've been saved, but they've never followed you in obedience to your command to be baptized. I pray, Lord, that they would show their love to you by being baptized. Lord, there are some that have been saved and baptized, and you've been dealing with their heart about having a church home to sink down their roots and get busy for you. Time is short, and I ask you, God, that you would move upon their hearts and speak to them clearly when it's time. Lord, if you would lead them here to join. Lord, for the members, I pray, Lord, that you would call people into areas of need and areas of service. Lord, we need people. We need people to drive the shuttle bus on Sunday nights and on Thursday nights to help go pick up people who would come to God's house, but we don't have a driver. Lord, to help with our preschool age on Sunday evenings in this new program, we don't have anyone to help with the preschoolers. As the Riley's are heading up the Sunday night program this coming Sunday, we don't have anyone for that. But, Lord, You're going to take care of all these things as needed and, Lord, we'll trust You in that. We need folks to play instruments in the orchestra and sing in the choir. We need folks to go and knock on doors as soldiers of the cross and say, we're glad to have you journey and glad you got saved. Lord, there's so many needs, so many needs. May you call your people. May you enlist us in your great army. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness to us. The grace is greater than our sin. in Jesus' name, as we stand.