In David Green's sermon titled 'Eyewitness Account & True Fellowship,' the speaker delves into the significance of the opening verses of 1 John, emphasizing the apostle John's role as an eyewitness to Jesus Christ's life and the profound fellowship believers share with God and each other. The sermon explores the term 'Word' (Logos) as a representation of Jesus' divine nature, highlighting its theological implications and roots in both Jewish and Greek thought. Green underscores John's purpose in writing his epistle: to affirm the physical and divine reality of Jesus, encourage believers, and promote true fellowship. He discusses the historical context of early Christianity, emphasizing the Gnostic challenges and the importance of accurate translation and understanding of Scripture. The sermon stresses the joy derived from genuine fellowship with Christ and fellow believers, urging the congregation to prioritize spiritual relationships and personal faith over denominational divides and societal pressures. Green calls for self-examination in maintaining closeness to God, highlighting the necessity of prayer, scripture reading, and church participation for spiritual well-being.

1st John chapter 1, 1st John 1, and today we're gonna read verses 1 through 4 as our text. 1st John chapter 1 beginning verse 1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested, we have seen it. Bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard and declare unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.

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. Let's again go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, how thankful we are for your word and Lord for the truthfulness of it. We thank you for the text that is before us.

We pray our Father that you might apply it to our hearts and our lives. Not only that we as your people may be strengthened and encouraged, but also that others may come to know you as their Savior and be added to this church. Lord, we pray that you give me unction from on high, that I may be able to preach this in spirit and truth and that truly, truly your Word will be presented in a way that will bring honor and glory to your name Lord I ask that we'll leave the cares and Problems of this world outside of these four walls how thankful we are to be able to meet here in this place Lord I come before you asking you to be with those who do not have such a blessing as this. I especially pray for our brother in South Africa and those who are involved there. I ask that you keep him safe and return him back to his family.

Lord, give courage to those who are in that church. Lord, I pray also for those who have recently lost loved ones. Lord and Sister Elsie and the family there here and Lord I pray also for Brother Sam and Lord in the loss of his uncle. Lord I pray that you'll be with him and Sister Dorcas while they're away and Lord I pray that you'll be with him and sister Dorcas while they're away and Lord I pray that you'll be with others in the church those that have been mentioned for prayer Even this day, I pray that you will Forgive us of our sins our shortcomings For it's in Jesus and then we pray. Amen.

That which was from the beginning. In this church we've been studying in the beginning. Yes, I say in this church, because we assemble sometimes in this building, sometimes at my house, sometimes at the park. But it is all the same. It carries the same authority.

Why we post all the sermons on sermon audio and YouTube, but equally the same. Our judgment, whether it's the preacher or the hearer, our judgment will come from those sermons. What we do with them and where we go and how we act and all those things. A pulpit, a padded pew, nice building like what we have here. Those things are great and nice, but they do not make a church, nor do they make a sermon carry any more weight than what is preached anywhere else.

In fact, whether it's preached in a home or a coffee shop, in a park, or in a church building. Search the New Testament. From beginning to end, you'll not find any church buildings like what we've got. We are truly a blessed people to have what we have, but you'll find churches and preachers and sermons and so it is today. So it is Wednesday.

So it is here in Georgia. So it is in South Africa and New Guinea and on and on. Indeed, I spoke of the folks there in South Africa, and I don't know what's going on with their church. And you imagine their pastor got abducted, some masked men armed came in and took their pastor and took their cell phones and all that. Do you imagine that they went back to their church building if that's where they were meeting?

Probably not. Maybe they did, but they may be meeting somewhere else if they weren't already. Many of the churches in the New Testament met in homes, and they met in synagogues, they met in the temple, they met in different places. As I mentioned in the introduction, these epistles that John wrote were towards the end of the first century. John was the last living of the apostles.

I'm not going to give another introduction, but I'll say this. There were uncertain times. Many of that first generation had died off. All the other apostles were dead. John was the last living.

There are a lot of uncertainties going on, but he writes this and he says, that which was from the beginning. I struggled coming up with the title for this one. My original title, my working title, was the Word of Life. Then I changed it. I changed it to eyewitness account and true fellowship.

Either title will work if you're taking notes. But John is writing to warn and to encourage and all of these things. And he begins, that which was from the beginning. Who or what was John talking about? That which was from the beginning.

Well, he goes on and he says, 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. John is referring to none other than Jesus Christ Himself, the Word that was made flesh. He uses that term, that term Word. You Bible readers, Bible scholars, seasoned saints, automatically ought to think back to John's Gospel. This introduction is very similar to John's Gospel in John chapter one.

John chapter one. You know, Matthew started his gospel with the genealogy. Mark began with the prophets. Mark, Mark began with the prophets. Luke, Luke begins his Gospel with the birth of John the Baptist.

But John, oh John, John says, I'm not going to start with any of that. All that's important. All of that is important. What Matthew, Mark, and Luke began with, that's important for the Gospel. But John says, I'm going to take you back even further.

I'm going to take you back even further than what they did, because the story of the Gospel, the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ goes back further than that. Notice what he says there in John. The Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life. The life was the light of men. And if you skip on down to verse 14, he 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." John says, I've got something to tell you. And it goes back beyond the genealogies.

It goes back beyond the manger. It goes back beyond John the Baptist. It goes back to eternity past, because in the beginning was the Word. He uses that term, Word. If you notice in King James' Bibles, but the same thing in other translations as well, that word, word, is capitalized.

It doesn't simply mean something that makes up a sentence, a word, a group of words. No, no. There's something special about that word, word, here. In the Greek, it's the word logos, or some people say logos, logos, however which way you pronounce it it It depends on where you come from, I think. Kind of like Pican or Pican.

Amen or Amen. This text has fascinated me for many years. In fact, many of you know that I use a Bible program called Logos Bible Software. But if you go back before I even had that program, I did a study on this word. I have a t-shirt with the verse on it.

I have a coffee cup with it on it. I love this. I love this text. And if you study the word and you dig deep into it, you know that this is a Greek word. It's the word from which we get our word logic.

Our God is a God of order, logic. As a teenager, I faced a lot of battles that sadly many of my peers faced. And they ended up leaving the church. And some of them came back, some of them did not. But The reality is that as a Christian, we don't leave our brains at the door.

It's not science versus Christianity. It's not science versus the Bible. This book, these 66 books, the Bible, Christianity, though it is hard for man to understand, it is Not impossible. With the Holy Spirit, it is logical. It's God's logic, not man's.

God's got an order, Not only in His revelation, but also in the world, in His universe. And on and on we go. And it is fitting that John used that word, logos, here for Jesus. Now, it wasn't originally a word that was for Jesus. You trace the word back.

It's very fascinating. In fact, the original readers, whether they were Jew or Greek, would have caught on to what John was saying here. He was attributing deity to Jesus. In those days that John wrote, there was either Gnosticism or the beginnings of Gnosticism coming up, in which I'm not going to go into a full study of Gnosticism right now, but just know this, there was questioning of the deity of Christ. That's why when John writes his gospel, when John writes the way that he does, he's more focused not on the humanity of Jesus, but on the deity of Him.

And he uses this word, logos here. Albert Marnes writes about this word, and he says, This name is given to him who afterward became flesh, or was incarnate, that is, to the Messiah. Whatever is meant by it therefore is applicable to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says there have been many opinions about the reason why this name was given to the Son of God, those opinions, it is unnecessary to repeat. The opinion which seems most plausible may be expressed as follows.

First, a word is by which we communicate our will, by which we convey our thoughts, or by which we issue commands, the medium of communication with others. Second, the Son of God may be called the Word because he is the medium by which God promulgates his will and issues his commandments. Third, this term was used before the time of John. It was used in the Chaldee translation of the Old Testament. Isaiah 45 verse 12, I have made the earth and created man upon it, the Chaldeans I by my word have made, etc.

This term was used by the Jews as applicable to the Messiah. In the writings, he was commonly known by the term memre, that is word, and no small part of the interpositions of God in defense of the Jewish nation were declared to be by the word of God. Thus, in their Targum on Deuteronomy 26, 17, 18 it is said, ye have appointed the Word of God a king over you this day that he may be your God. The term was used by the Jews who were scattered among the Gentiles and especially those who were conversant with the Greek philosophy. The term was used by the followers of Plato among the Greeks to denote the second person of the Trinity.

The term therefore extensively in use among the Jews and Gentiles before John wrote his gospel and it was certain that it would be applied to the second person of the Trinity by Christians, whether converted from Judaism or paganism. It was important, therefore, that the meaning of the term should be settled by an inspired man and accordingly John in this commencement of his gospel. It is possible also that the doctrines of the Gnostics had begun to spread at the time of John. They were an oriental sect and held at the time that the Logos or the Word was one of the aeons that had been created. And this one had been united to the man Jesus.

It is that doctrine that had begun to prevail. It was one of the more important for John to settle the truth in regard to the rank of the logos or word, this he did in such a way that there is no doubt about its meaning. And so, what he's doing here is presenting the gospel in a way to Jew and Gentile alike that they would understand who Jesus was. To go along with the other gospel writers to settle once and for all and in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God.

By the way, while I do believe that we have some very good translations in English. If you ever pick up a translation, and you turn it to John chapter 1 and Verse 1, and it says, In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. Understand something. That is not a good translation. There is no Greek manuscript anywhere.

Understand this, there is no Greek manuscript anywhere in the world which reads the Word was a God. That was pushed by the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses and maybe some others, and that English translation is corrupted and is not good in John chapter 1 and verse 1. And so avoid, avoid, avoid those types of translations. Avoid those types of translations. Back in the beginning, in Genesis chapter one and verse one, what this tells us was when we read, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

When we read that, and we say, oh, so Genesis 1, 1, what Moses wrote, when it tells us that Elohim was there, and that's that plural word. Remember I brought that up on Wednesday night. One God, Yet it's a plural word there. We understand now that this is the Trinity being spoken of. And yes, God The Father is there.

Yes, God the Son is there. Yes, God the Spirit is there. He is. The Father is Elohim. The Son is Elohim.

The Spirit is Elohim. Genesis chapter 2, when we read the Lord God, Yahweh, we understand all. Here it is. John chapter 1. The Father is Yahweh, the Lord.

God the Son is Yahweh, the Lord. God the Spirit is Yahweh, the Lord. You see, if a preacher ever gets up into the pulpit or you're listening on the radio or whatever, and he says, the God of the Old Testament is this, but we prefer the God of the New Testament. No, no. No, no.

The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. You see. And indeed, John is And indeed, John is writing in this epistle in 1 John chapter 1, presenting this good news, which should bring us great joy. That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, our hands have handled the Word of life. I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot lately, but folks, you have in your hands, On your laps, I have here on the pulpit, I'm preaching from, eyewitness account of the life of Jesus Christ.

You may encounter, nay, you will encounter professors, atheists, skeptics, agnostics, friends even, family members, who will doubt the existence of Jesus Christ. They will doubt that He was buried, that He rose again. Well, folks, those people have nothing to stand on. They will say, well, where is Jesus if He's alive now? Listen, You can get into a debate as to whether or not George Washington existed, whether or not Jefferson Davis was real, or whether or not Ronald Reagan actually lived.

If you deny any of those three men, you're an idiot, plain and simple. Unless you Get it all figured out before you die, you'll die an idiot. But the life and times of Jesus Christ is much more serious. Go through life and get it wrong about Jesus. Get it wrong about what the Bible says.

Not only are you an idiot because of all the eyewitness accounts and all that, but you'll die and spend an eternity in hell. You see? Not only are you ignoring facts, plain facts, that are written, but, but, spiritual consequences are there. But spiritual consequences are there. By the time John wrote this.

He was an old man. But here's the deal. Once you've met Jesus, Once you've known Jesus, your life has changed. Those memories were permanently etched on his mind, and as he wrote under the inspiration of Holy Spirit, he He says, I'm telling you, we saw with our eyes, we looked, our hands handled. Have you met Jesus?

Do you believe what's been written? Verse 2, For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life. That word shew in English can get real tricky. It means to proclaim or to declare. The life was manifested, bear with me, and proclaim what he's saying here.

Unto you that eternal life which was with the Father was manifested unto us. The life was manifested, meaning That His life, the life of Jesus, was manifest or visible to us. He wasn't some ghost. He wasn't hidden. He was out in the open.

The being of Jesus was not here on earth, but He was made manifest in the incarnation. He appeared, born of a virgin, lived among men so that they could see Him, hear Him, touch Him. It's not always that way. In the beginning He was the Word. The Word was with God.

The Word was God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He didn't quit being the Word. He became flesh and dwelt among us. John says we have seen and bear witness and proclaim.

The word bear witness, John felt that he was known to be a man of the truth. No doubt would be put to a statement. He wrote similarly elsewhere in John 19. John, the Gospel of John, The Gospel of John, John chapter 19 and verse 35. He that saw it bear record in his record is true.

He knoweth that he sayeth true that ye might believe. Chapter 21 in verse 25. Chapter 21 in verse 25. Well, it's 24. This is the disciple which testifies of these things and wrote these things.

And we know that his testimony is true. See, he wrote true things. Only see He wrote that way in the Gospel of John. He wrote that way in his other epistles. He wrote that way in Revelation.

Revelation chapter 1. Verses 1 and 2. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by his angel and to a servant, John, who bear record of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw." John was a trustworthy apostle, but that makes sense, doesn't it? Because he was given this word, whether it's Revelation or the three epistles or the Gospel of John, he's an eyewitness. What John wrote was not hearsay.

Everybody who got his letters, they knew it. Obviously they could trust it, it's the Word of God, but also the human element of it is this, and that is that this is no secondhand book. He was not writing some rumor. He was not writing some secondhand story. This was actual facts, eyewitness, This was actual facts, eyewitness, truth of Jesus, of His incarnation, His humanity, and of His deity, which is meant by the phrase, the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

John is making reference there to the eternality of Christ in His pre-incarnate glory. The day that Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary, The day that Jesus was born, that was not the beginning of Jesus. I don't know. John brings that out so well. Praise the Lord, he was no secret savior.

1 John chapter 1 and verse 3. We continue on here in the text. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." John, being an eyewitness, did not want to keep this secret so that they could have some sort of a club with that first generation of folks who had seen, heard, and touched Jesus. No, he wanted others to share in what he had.

So he says, what we've seen, what my generation saw, I'm going to declare to you. Like I said, some commentators believe that this letter may have been attached to sin along with the Gospel of John so that when he got circulated, those who received it received both. And that is a possibility. But the other possibility is that those who received this letter had already received the Gospel of John. There were no secret meanings or secret societies that were built up in the early churches, at least not with the gospel writers or the apostles.

The message was meant to go out. That's the reason for the commission that Christ gave. Indeed, John says, what we've seen and heard, we declare it to you. Why? That you may have fellowship with us.

What is that word, fellowship? It's a Greek word originally, and it means having in common or sharing with. Christian fellowship means sharing the things of Christ. In order to do this, as J. Vernon McGee put it, so ably in his commentary, in order to do this we must know the Lord Jesus, not only about him, but we need to know him as our personal Savior.

And that was John's desire. John's desire. The word Baptist, capital B Baptist, Sovereign Grace Landmark Missionary Baptist. Landmarked Missionary Baptist. And oftentimes, we tend to think of fellowship in a kind of a tribal way, a social kind of a way.

And in many circles we're familiar with, fellowship is a list. You've got to do this, you've got to do that, you've got to have this, you can't have this. And on and on we go. Some have a tighter list than others. Some pastors will cut fellowship over the most arbitrary things sometimes.

But John here lists this as something very welcoming. I like it. Indeed, he says, talking about Jesus, he says, 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.

His opening statements here are not about how much water is in the baptistry. It's not about the elements of the Lord's Supper. It's not about what church you go to. His opening statements are about where you at with Christ, the gospel. John here says to those that he writes to, as well as to us, as it's the Holy Spirit Bible, He's writing to not only affirm the physical reality of Jesus Christ, but also to produce salvation in those who read it.

And in that verse, we must conclude something about this. He equates fellowship at a level that sometimes, well, number one, the carnal mind can't comprehend it, and comprehend it. And sometimes we forget it. His readers, and by extension we, are to be partners with John in possessing eternal life. And at the very base level, this is where fellowship begins.

And in this verse, in this passage, we must conclude the genuine fellowship with believers that were never out of fellowship with each other. We're never out of fellowship with the Lord. For sure, we sometimes fall out of fellowship with each other, but that's us, not God. This fellowship that's spoken of here equates it with salvation. Paul wrote it like this in Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians chapter 1, Verse 5. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. He was thankful for the folks at Philippi for their fellowship in the gospel. Peter said it this way in 2 Peter chapter 1. St.

Peter chapter 1, in verse 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through us. So, being partakers of the divine nature. Let me put it this way. In our minds, sometimes being Baptists, when we talk about fellowship, we automatically think about church fellowship.

And that's all we ever want to think about. And indeed, indeed, there is that. But let us remember, at the root level, the root level, the base level, the most important level, We ought to be able to have fellowship, individual fellowship, with our brothers and sisters in Christ, even if it's somebody that we may not be able to have in our pulpit at church. Even if it's somebody that we may not be able to have come, and maybe we disagree over how much water is in their baptistry, We wouldn't be able to accept their baptism, but we can rejoice over the salvation that we both have in Christ, you see. If we look to another believer and see that person as an enemy rather than as a brother or sister in Christ, We've missed the point.

This is true. Whether we go back in the trail of blood and we look at all the persecutions that happened, the Roman Catholics and the Protestants were guilty when they persecuted the saints they disagreed with. They missed the point. But it's just as true today for those who slander, falsely accuse others in the name of Christ. John had a great desire Here in this letter, at the start of it, in 1 John chapter 1.

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." He wanted others to know Jesus. His big concern, beloved, was for the salvation of His readers. Is that your concern today? Is that my concern? Oh, don't miss this.

Oh, don't miss this. Top of mind should be that others would come to Christ, not come to church. Sometimes we get to cart before the horse. Don't misunderstand me. I think everybody who's saved ought to be a Baptist.

I wish everybody would join our church who lives in this area. But our top priority, our commission, is to go and preach the Gospel. And the Gospel is all about Christ. If in your lifetime, you take that Gospel, and you present it, and people are saved, but few ever join the church. That's no disappointment.

That's reason to rejoice. John had a heart for people. The thief on the cross, he was saved but he was never baptized, never joined the church. You know, heaven was rejoicing when that man repented. When that man repented.

There are some men, some women, some children who may be saved, who may never join the church. Let us rejoice when they're saved. There's some movements that are going on right now. I don't understand it. People are being saved in other churches.

I pray. I pray that there are legitimate movements. I pray for them. And you know if they are, those movements are not the enemy. The gospel is being preached in places where I'm not preaching, and I rejoice.

I rejoice in that. And if somebody comes to my house, or if I meet somebody along the road who's a Methodist or Presbyterian, they're my brother, sister in Christ, we can have some fellowship one-on-one. Let's not forget that. Let's not forget the basics here. Truly, our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

He mentions these two of the Trinity, but you know in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, in chapter 13 and verse 14. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and love of God in the communion, the Holy Ghost or the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all. So the Holy Spirit is mentioned there as well. We have fellowship with our great God. Again, realize this, and I want to kind of park here for just a moment.

True believers are never out of fellowship with God. In our text, this is equated with salvation. Sometimes when people get upset and they leave a Baptist church, or they get upset and they're gone, and they go to another church. Sometimes people say some pretty harsh things. They'll say, oh, well, they've departed to faith.

They've left us because there were no of us, and we need to pray for their salvation, all that sort of thing. We need to get that out of our vocabulary if it's there. Let's understand something. There are people who do get upset in Baptist churches, and they do leave. And sometimes they end up in other churches.

And they may not be the kind of churches that we would approve of. But just because that happens does not mean that they've departed from the faith and assumed so that they were never saved and all that sort of thing. And it does not mean that on the base level, the absolute most important level I should say, that we can't have some fellowship with them. If they're true believers in Christ, you'll know it. They'll know it, and you'll be able to get along because there's fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians and other passages give that very clearly. And so you'll be able to see that as time goes on for sure. You pray for them, pray for them. Do some self-examination too, because contrary to popular belief, Baptist churches aren't always perfect. I mean, just read through the New Testament.

It's the fact of the matter there. But thank God that He's not tribal like we are. As I thought about this text, you know, how much fellowship that we have with him, and how we're never out of fellowship with him. Thank God he's not tribal like we are sometimes. If God were like us, he would only fellowship with people like him.

And who's he gonna fellowship? Among the sons and daughters of Adam. We might think to ourselves, well I know he wouldn't fellowship with him, and I know he wouldn't fellowship with her, and I know he wouldn't fellowship with... No no, just look in the mirror, look in the mirror, we wouldn't have any fellowship with God if He chose only to fellowship with people like Him. Thank God.

Thank God that we do have a place at His table as it were. Thank God that He doesn't just fellowship with individuals that are exactly like He is. Praise the Lord that Jesus came and died for our sins. He paid our sin debt. We have His righteousness, and we are there.

And yet, there are times. There are times for every child of God when we do feel out of fellowship with God. It's a terrible feeling, But we all get in those seasons. He didn't go anywhere. The Holy Spirit never leaves us.

He never forsakes us. Christ is with us always, even until the end of the age He promised. So if you're not as close to the Lord as you once were, reckon who moved. If you don't feel That fellowship, and I know every time that I've had those seasons, and every person I've ever talked to who's gone through those times when God feels so distant, and they've drifted, I ask these questions, and you can save them and use them for your self-evaluation, but how is your prayer life? How is your Bible reading?

And how is your church attendance during those times? And You'll find that those things are lacking. Get in the Word of God. Be in prayer with the Lord. And be with the saints in the church services.

And I guarantee you, it will be a blessing to your soul. He's writing these things. He says that your joy may be full, or that our joy may be made complete. There is spiritual joy to be had, not in the future, although yes, that will be joyful. But praise God, Joy is not something to be had sometime off in the future, only, but now.

These things are written about the deity and eternality of Christ, the truth of His humanity, His incarnation. These things are written that our joy may be full. There is joy to know that we have fellowship with our Heavenly Father, His Son, Jesus Christ. You know, things happen in life. People come and go in your life.

Maybe friends that you thought were friends and they turn on you and that sort of thing. I've been ostracized, slandered, blackballed by people I had no idea that it would happen in my ministry the past three years and especially. But you know my identity and your identity is not in the comings and goings on the most popular circles in the churches or on social media. Here's the deal. People live and they die.

People come and go. Men are sinners. If my Christianity, if your Christianity was lumped up and whether or not certain groups of people or certain people liked us then well I don't know about you but I would have quit long ago. And if your Christianity is contingent on me or some other pastor, you're in trouble. But our Christianity is in Christ.

Get in God's Word. Read 1 John. Be happy, full of joy. Even when there's a failure, a friend, loved one, spouse even, someone close. There's some sweet fellowship to be had in him.

Men and women may fail. God never does. One of the beautiful things about the way that John brings up his gospel, starts John, starts 1 John, is From the beginning, he never changed. Now, yeah, well, one day he put on human flesh, but still, he never changed. Guess what?

He ain't changed now either. Praise God for that. True fellowship. True joy. What a blessing.

Our joy may be full. May God add the blessing to the preaching of His Word.