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00:00:02 today's scripture reading is taken from 1 John chap 1 verses 1-4 that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked at and our hands have touched this we Proclaim concerning the word of life the life appeared we have seen it and testified to it and we Proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and has appeared to us we Proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is
00:00:42 with the father and with his son Jesus Christ we write this to you to make our joy complete this is the word of God is it on good morning brothers and sisters in Christ good morning okay before we start let us uh Commit This Time to the Lord in prayer shall we bow our heads Our God and our father we come this morning with uh gratitude and thankfulness even for the person of our Lord Jesus in whom is manifested life eternal and father even as we consider the words of uh John the Apostle father we just pray and ask that
00:01:23 as we stand before you on Redemption ground with deep anticipation and eager EXP expectation father we just pray that you'll make your voice heard even to us even this morning even through your Holy Spirit father we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ amen good morning Brothers and Sisters in Christ so today we are considering the topic of joy and uh knowledge of God and the reading was read just now from John um first John actually uh chapter 1 only four verses very short consideration um let's look
00:01:56 at it again in little more detail so I'll read the whole thing very quickly uh 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 so John is saying here we as the apostles we have seen him we have heard him we have touched him this life verse two 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
00:02:28 have seen and heard declare we unto you why why was this declared why is the Lord Jesus declared and proclaimed to us that ye Also may have fellowship with us with John with the apostles with Christians and truly our fellowship is with the father with God himself and with his son Jesus Christ and these things write me unto you that your joy may be full so we're going to work our way backwards today we'll start with verse four and these things write we unto you that your joy Joy may be full so the
00:03:02 entire epistle is written for the sole purpose of making us joyful all right so that our joy will be full now that backs the question what is that joy and um this is a slight about the overview of the entire um constitution of the four verses we have today we'll start with the purpose of fellowship and um even this morning the AV team asked me you know is there something wrong with your slides you know uh why is the first two missing and no there's nothing wrong with the L we are working our way
00:03:31 backwards okay so we start from verse four we'll go on to verse three and then verses 1 and two and we'll see the reason why we're doing that so the purpose of Fellowship as mentioned the real reason the sole aim and goal is so that your joy may be full so what is this Joy what is it um is it something that is future it possibly could refer to a future Joy or is it referring to to a present joy and furthermore you know what's the source of This Joy you know think of things that make you happy all right um say
00:04:10 sometimes people patting you on the bed and say you know oh well done you know uh good job here for your work or maybe there's some success maybe you say okay you know um I managed to complete a project successfully right or or sometimes maybe just even being in the presence of your loved ones you know that will bring you Joy all right but here we're going to take a short break okay um there's something that um my family and I were discussing recently uh we are saying that har R is just around the corner uh in fact it's
00:04:42 actually next month uh the weekend of the 22nd of April around that weekend and uh that means that Ramadan is just around the corner in fact it's actually starting this Wednesday and I was like wow you know time really flies and during the time of this fasting month um we tend to hear a lot of things especially if you're on the road um who here listens to radio on the road no one go got okay like maybe like Light FM or hits FM you know all right and usually you will hear something like this during the month of Ramadan for
00:05:23 those who are not so well versed with BM I have to apologize it goes something like this sopia Saina etc etc and we'll go with the Yu over and over again all right who has heard that before God okay yeah so it's not foreign if not some people will say that I'm speaking in tongues up here all right now Yu T is a brand of medu dates so I think people know what dates are it's not the kind that you go out oneon-one with a another person it's it's it's a type of fruit sweet all right and what you see here in the photo
00:06:23 is a date palm it's very common in the Middle East you know usually if you watch any of those Middle Eastern movies you'll see this um tree pop up from time to time now what I want you to notice about this tree is that it's in the desert right and the leaves are green and the fruits are there so how is this tree green and fruitful when there is no water or at least rain is very uncommon so the reason for this is because dat Palms actually have very deep roots and in this uh study they were saying that 85% of the roots go up
00:07:06 to 2 m which is really not that deep but the rest goes up to at least 6 M and it has been documented to go as far as 25 M very deep underground where water can be found so rain is not common but can be found deep underground where this external environment is dry and then you're going to ask me William what does this have to do with joy so remember just now we were asking about what Joy is is it based on external circumstances yes mostly it is but the joy that we are talking about today in first John is a joy that is not based on
00:07:48 external circumstances it's different why because it depends on God and this is the fullness of joy that's ever present think of it as a water that is a source of water that's underground that's ever present and only needed for you to reach out for it a fullness of joy that's ever present is Everlasting it's always there but what is it based on remember it is based on your fellowship with God it's possible to have this Everlasting Joy it's talked about in Psalm 1:3 Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse 8 so
00:08:26 let's take a look and see this is a joy that always flows and 1:3 says this and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water you see what are the um the the prerequisites in a sense what what are the requirements he will meditate on the word of God day and night that bringeth forth fruit in his season his Leaf also shall not with it shall not turn green shall not turn brown and whatsoever he doth shall prosper so he has that Jo Jeremiah 17:8 very similar blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the
00:09:00 Lord is for he shall be as a tree planted By the Waters and that spread out her Roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh but her Leaf shall be green same thing in the time of drought neither shall seed from yielding fruit so this is the kind of joy that we are looking at today it's not um happiness in every single circumstance if you think about it this way um think of it by using an example you know is it is it happiness saying that oh no matter what comes in life I'm going to be happy my
00:09:34 mother broke her leg you know praise the Lord or or my father died praise the Lord is it is it a kind of Happiness some people will say you know you're crazy is you know if if if external person looks at us and say you know what kind of Christian is this always happy you know no matter what only only a person is in Asylum would be like that right so the joy that's mentioned here is is a different kind it's joy in spite of grief we can be yes thankful and praising the Lord but not happy at the same time it's yeah we we it's possible
00:10:07 for us to be discouraged and the Lord Jesus um he was very discouraged you in fact you'll find that he's the only man that's ever discouraged so much and yet never depressed he he saw Lazarus um tomb he wept he grieved in the face of wickedness and it's not there's nothing wrong with that but this Joy is not based on anything in this world it is B based in God alone and what if our external sources are removed one by one where do we draw our Delight from are we affected by the things that happen
00:10:39 around us I think it's quite common there was a recent announcement uh not announcement in the news um Silicon Valley Bank svb you know has collapsed you know and and how does that affect us you know will it affect our joy so let's move on um the Lord gives us a way out Psalm 16:11 in your presence is fullness of joy so what is the source of this joy we saying that it is found in God but how now I'm going to bring up a picture that brings up your dopamine levels okay everyone sees this everyone gets happy I
00:11:16 saw so I was like Wow but as you see money Malaysian ring right now I'm going to pose a question to every one of you I'm very early in my career so I can't say much about it but I'm sure you can how to find money okay how to find money so keep this answer in your mind right I give you 5 Seconds think of a way to find money all right now if you have your answer with you just think in your mind is it this is it finding money quite literally on the floor you know so if you tell me say William if I come up to you and say you
00:11:55 know I want you to teach me how to find money okay you just go to the floor find and and pick not really right okay now what's the point of this what I'm trying to say here is this that things that we some things that we find are byproducts of a process and money is one of those things money is really a byproduct of value creation or a service that's provided think of it that way all right you can make money by selling something something or you know um helping someone out with something else but you can
00:12:34 never really find money just by finding for it and God's joy is very similar now finding Joy is a byproduct of something else and the Lord tells us that blessedness and joy is never a result of pursuing it directly it's not something that you can find say I want to find joy and therefore I will find it it's a byproduct pursuing something else and there's even better proof for this think about it this way when the Lord spoke in the Beatitudes in Matthew Chapter 5 has he ever said blessed are they who are
00:13:14 finding blessedness or hunger and thirst after blessedness not really the Lord will always say blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are the those who are meat blessed who are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness it's always about something else and then the blessedness and joy comes as a side effect so the purpose of Fellowship now coming back to verse four we are saying and these things right we that your joy may be full where does this come from and this comes from fellowship that's in
00:13:44 verse three which we will look at as well and it comes from two things one is very explicitly mentioned in verse three that's Fellowship to know God and his son the Lord Jesus Christ and the second one's implicit it's not so obvious in the first verses but you'll see that as um you know you study first John more and more it's Assurance it's to know not just him but to know that we know him know that we know God all right that's also found in first John um chapter 5:3 and to prove the point so first and
00:14:21 foremost what is know all right we'll look at the second one and then we move back to fellowship and um look at it in more detail because that's where our concentration is to know is really you know this is the definition um to be a aware to yeah I think everyone knows what no is and in the whole book you can see that these are the mentions of no we find that there are 25 mentions in first John alone which is roughly more than 10% of all the mentions in the New Testament so there's a lot about knowing
00:14:52 in first John it's not so much about feeling that we are saved feeling that we know God John talks about knowing it's a certainty no no no no no okay and 1 John Chap 2:3 and hereby do we know that we know him I know it sounds confusing but never mind um we Le that for another time all right let's move on to the the actual portion of this um study so Fellowship what does it mean to know God and to know his son Jesus Christ so what is fellowship which brings us to our next point but let's read that verse
00:15:27 together that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you why that ye Also may have fellowship with us with fellow Christians and truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ Our concentrate this morning on that second part the latter part of this verse not so much on the fellowship with other Christians that in is a huge topic alone but let's concentrate on that second part so we have already considered the purpose of Fellowship is so that our joy may be full and now
00:16:02 let's look at the participants of Fellowship who is involved what is it now um in terms of participants there are people who are involved in this Fellowship but before we talk about who is in let's talk about what so Fellowship the Greek word is coiner and it really means to have something in common to communicate to have communion to have to have distributed it's to share that's the idea of Fellowship you share in something together you have something in common together with the other person so
00:16:42 the word Fellowship is used a lot in New Testament we can have fellowship with Darkness as well um which we shouldn't have so what is it why is it so important what is it that we need to have in common now I think we all know this movie right um very famous at least in our time it's called The Law of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring so there are these little small tiny little people who gather together and say you know find other people who are maybe a little bit bigger than them and say okay
00:17:16 you know we need to destroy this ring you know this ring is an evil ring you know if anyone wears this you know he can find the most evil person in the Land We Must Destroy This Ring so they had something in common then what they they have in common they had a common goal so this backs the question um can we have fellowship with people who are outside of church in the sense yes because we can have things in common with them right you can have fellowship with people who um enjoy music um or you can
00:17:46 have fellowship with people who enjoy food but is that really the fellowship that John is speaking about the fellowship that we have with God and with fellow Christians now let's go back to the Garden of Eden a long long long time ago before Middle Earth Adam and Eve they had perfect fellowship with God and how do we know this in Genesis 3:8 it says there that the Lord God was walking in the garden he was walking together with Adam and Eve it wasn't something that was unusual for that time we don't see God walking in a garden
00:18:31 anywhere here you know you can go to your garden you know near your Taman and you won't find God walking there and the idea of walking here maybe it's used anthropomorphically that's to say that it's just an um it's not in a literal sense but the idea is that they had Fellowship they had something in common in that time Adam and Eve communed with God face to face they spoke even the the Lord made himself known he says where are you he asked Adam Adam can speak back to God there was that Fellowship
00:19:03 but unfortunately that Fellowship was broken and in that due to sin sin is the very thing that separates us from God so when we talk about Sin and what death is death really is just the separation between God and man is just that due to sin for the wages of sin is death we are separated from God God and that's what happened in the garden that Fellowship was broken so we have an idea of what that Fellowship is it's to have communion it is to have something in common to share with God now moving on what are the things
00:19:44 then that we share in common with God right so what you see is a ven diagram I'm not sure if everyone has seen it it's a very mey sort of diagram but it shows an intersection where there there is something there is an uh something in common so that is the idea of fellowship and what do we share with God what do we hold in common with God and Tim Keller puts it this way with um some of the older Christians um we share in God's life that's number one we share in his life in second Peter chapter 1
00:20:17 ver4 we share in God's nature we are made partakers of the divine nature we share in his interest we now have the mind of Christ if we become Christians and we also share in his communication John 20:1 17 we'll look at this in more detail but the idea here is that these are the things that we share um with God so what do we share in his life now let's talk about life when we talk about life um here is really referring to the nature that is within us that has changed the moment we become Christians
00:20:55 the moment we accept the Lord Jesus as a the the moment We Believe believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we take on a new nature Now can anyone tell me who is the guy on the left anyone I think it's Tom Hanks I hear I hear Tom Hanks all right on the right is his son Colin Hanks okay so Tom Hanks has a number of sons and this is one of them and you can see they look very similar all right so you can see that Colin inherited certain features that the father has the eyes the nose the mouth they look similar there is an
00:21:35 inheritance usually when we talk about inheritance we're talking about you know property you know like house you know um you know cars but here when we talk about inheritance we're talking about nature the nature of the characteristics of that person and it's the same thing with us if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to them gave he power to become sons of God children of God right and if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we are now made sons of Gods uh sons of God sorry so we then have something that we
00:22:10 have in common with God we have something of his nature be holy for I am Holy there is a nature that we have inherited from God it goes beyond just believing and applying what we have learned we are sharing something with him and CS Lewis puts it this way it's a very long quote but the phrase that we look at is a bright stainless mirror we become a reflection of who Christ is when Christ learned to forgive people learn he obedience by the things which he suffered he forgave others we can become a reflection like him if we were
00:22:45 to forgive others so that is the nature that we can take on if we believe on his son so we have already mentioned in 2 Peter chap 1:4 whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these he might be partakers fellow hes of the divine nature it's not to say that we are going to become God himself right we don't have God's power but we have his nature so in Galatians chapter 2 verse 20 it is not I who lives but Christ who lives in me we sing that song all the time right yet not I but through Christ
00:23:20 in me it's Christ who lives in us now not so much ourself we have died to ourselves but Christ has now living in us now let's move on to the the next one we share in his interest we share in his mind so we get his mind his heart and his priorities become our priorities we'll look at an example of this so in 2 Corin uh 1 Corinthians chapter 2:1 16 we have the mind of Christ now consider two things are we religious people or do we have fellowship with God so let me ask you in this sense this question religious people only go to God
00:23:56 at critical times or there there's a time of need you know okay I need to go to God and pray or you know especially if you if you see our our friends who are not Christians when something goes wrong you know oh we must go to the temple right are we religious if something goes wrong we must go to church we must pray or are we actually having Fellowship something in common with God are we sharing with him on a continual basis not just only in times of need is in a sense we are like putting God on like a pair of spectacles
00:24:31 through which we now see everything do we have fellowship with him do we share his interest so let's look at an example now if you are within your family think of anyone that you're close to whether it's your father your mother your son your daughter you know your sister or your brother think of someone that you're close to and that you actually speak to all the time somehow if you spend enough time with that person you get to know how that person thinks you start to have an idea oh you know um when he sees that um
00:25:05 you know record player I know he will say okay you know that's a very nice record player I want that or you know when you see Chu was like Wow sure that person say nice one so you start to know what the other person thinks and the dynamic is very similar but far more profound with God it's the same thing if we have fellowship with God we shareing his interest you start to think a bit like him it's not to say you are God again you're you're not him but you start to think like him so the things that we know are wrong now turns our
00:25:39 stomach it's not something that we find palatable anymore oh no you know I I why would I want to do that because God would not be happy he W he would not be pleased then things that make him sad will griev us if we look outside and we see our our friends who are not Believers you know what is their future we we grieve right if you hear someone who has passed away and say is that person a Believer no not really you know um he never professed anything you know there was no life in that person you
00:26:09 grieve you feel sad you know another Soul lost so things like light and darkness and sin and Grace and Redemption and Eternity become very common in your view now you know it's something that you think about on a more constant basis so we have thought about how we share in his life we have thought about how we share in his interest now let's talk about how we share in his communication now I'm going to bring your attention to a that same actor that we saw just now Tom Hanks again all right now I'm going to ask another
00:26:39 question for all the movie goers here do you know what movie This is called anyone would like to give a try Cast Away I hear Cast Away okay very good now in this movie Cast Away what happens is that there was this man who is um part of a FedEx um he he was a FedEx delivery man all right he was on a flight uh and apparently something happened over Malaysia you know um as with all other planes Malaysia is very well known for our planes right um but nothing right about them so what happened was this plane
00:27:15 crashed and he was marooned on this island um with a few delivery boxes and etc etc and one thing that he found was this ball Now can anyone tell me what is the name of this ball Wilson fantastic now I'm going to ask you what's the name of the main character no one can tell me right everyone remembers Wilson but no one remembers the main character's name let's call him Tom Hanks as usual okay but I got Wilson all right and Wilson is indeed correct all right so that's Wilson why is he named Wilson because
00:27:52 he's named after a brand of that ball so what happened if on this island was when he he he was the Lone Survivor there was no other survivors he was the only one and he felt really really lonely so he took this ball and then he also injured himself long the way it was very gory movie and there was blood all over and what happened is that he actually hit the ball away and that stain he actually just painted a face on it and he called the name Wilson because out of his loneliness he started finding a
00:28:18 companion so Wilson became Tom Hank's companion throughout the movie and he's actually very famous now think about it this way for those who watched the movie you know that Tom Hanks always talks to Wilson he's always communicating with Wilson Oh or is he is he really communicating with Wilson and in a sense at the risk of sounding flippant and Casual sometimes speaking to God feels like talking to a Wilson it feels that way right there's no answer that comes back you're just talking and it's like you're talking to
00:28:55 thin air you know like is God really listening does God really hear me how can my prayers go unanswered for so long I think it's a common experience that we all have talking to a Wilson it feels that way all right but the Bible tells us that God hears in Isaiah 59:1 behold the Lord's hand is not shortened or his ear heavy that it cannot hear God hears in Exodus we read of God hearing the Cry of his people the cries of my people have come to me that's why he told Moses and I want to deliver them I want to save them
00:29:39 out of Egypt because he heard so it's not to say that God doesn't hear God hears now the other thing is that in Hebrews chap 11:6 we are told that we need to have faith without faith it is impossible to please him to please God for he for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and he's a rewarder of them that Del seek Him you must believe that if you were to diligently seek God and his face that you will find him and God makes that promise as well and you shall seek me and find me this was made to the Israelites but the
00:30:12 principle Remains the Same and I will be found of you when you shall search for me with all your heart so God hears we may sound like we're talking to Wilson but it's definitely not a Wilson God hears in fact he's looking at us right now and he's hearing us right now any prayers that you have so let's move on the communication is what is it it's an interchange of ideas and feelings it's a two-way exchange that's what Fellowship is it's not one way it's not talking to a ball one way but you get to receive in return
00:30:54 okay so there is some dynamics that goes on we will not go into details of what communication really is but it's also subject to degrees sometimes there's um hostility sometimes intimacy there's enjoyment um Tim Keller uses the example of marriage again in here you know I I can't say because I'm not married but in that experience from what he says you may know the other person um very well but being married to the other person the fellowship with that person can change there are days where you can be
00:31:26 happy with that person and days you know you can be so annoy and say why did I marry this person this this is the idea that he gave so this is subject to degrees and and God is the same we have fellowship with him there are days we may feel he is like alienating us he's so far away but there are days we enjoy his presence and we know that he's near we pour out to him and he pours out to us two ways and I'm going to use another example later on um but here is about us communicating with God it's an upload
00:31:57 and a download us to him if we have received the Lord Jesus Christ and the mind of Christ is growing in us we would naturally want to pray right we automatically just find time to pray and and we'll see exactly how later on and and from him to us God speaks to us as well and I would like to talk about this in further detail have we ever sensed his presence knowing that he's really there with us every Christian I believe there has been a time in your life life that you can say with certainty there has been a time he
00:32:32 has shown he has manifested himself to me not not physically show himself but to just show himself in small little Glimpse in in a still Small Voice in just a meditation of scripture and that's when we know that he's speaking to us when we meditate on his word certain truths get large certain truths get big certain things we understand and like wow there is aha moment that's when God speaks to us the truth begins to shine and that's how God makes his presence known we'll talk about this in a little more detail
00:33:08 manifestations of reality is not just knowing about the Lord Jesus Christ it's knowing him do do you know God personally it's a personal relationship Fellowship not just belief it is not just an intellectual understanding yes you know yeah I believe it's more than that the truth begins to shine in John chapter 16 we are told that the holy spirit will take of mine he'll take my words and he will glorify me and surprisingly he didn't say he will take new words and then glorify the Lord Jesus he will take my words already
00:33:44 existing every part of the Bible that we have is about the Lord Jesus he points to him he doesn't give you new words he actually just takes the existing ones and he makes it new to you so practically what does this mean you ask me oh William you know this is all very airy fairy very theoretical practically what does it mean so we are told that yes we have to pray pray without ceasing and and and this term pray without ceasing can sound very uh unrealistic all right in 1 Thessalonian 5: 17 pray without ceasing does that mean that even
00:34:18 you know everywhere I go every single time I must be praying to God and I don't think that's the the idea behind it the idea is that do not cease do not stop stop as in don't have a season of praying and then stop continuously pray in that sense not to say that you must pray nonstop in Nehemiah chapter 2 right Nehemiah was a cup Bearer to the king Octor and he uh before the king he was a cup Bearer and he was sad in his presence and and the King noticed you know like H why are you sad um and and
00:34:53 you know nemiah he was actually very troubled about his land the people that were in Exile and Nehemiah replied and said to him you know but the king sorry the king asked Nehemiah what what is your request what do you want and for a second there you notice in verses three or four neiah prayed so I prayed to God so that's a picture of on the right hand side of neiah before The King and I pray to God so think about it this way did he pray in the sense that he tells the king wait King I'm going to go and
00:35:30 pray for a day and I'll come back to you or say wait King I'm going to pray I'll come back to you in um 1 hour you you see the pattern or did he say you know King just wait let me go and pray for half an hour etc etc she straight away answered the king so the idea here is that Nehemiah actually prayed a very silent and very quick prayer Lord help me to answer the king and that's just pretty much eight that's what we can deduce from the passage and that's what it means to pray continuously so 2 Timothy chapter 2:15
00:36:05 tells us that we should study to show ourselves approved unto God second Timothy chap 3:16 all scriptures is given we need to have the word of God in our life why because that's how God has fellowship with us John chapter 20:1 17 the Lord Jesus is the one who restores that Fellowship that was once broken in the Garden of Eden look at the last part of that verse I Ascend unto my father and your father I send unto my God and your God it's the first time he's making such a profound statement and have you ever considered why he's
00:36:45 now saying that my father is now your father my God is now your God and it's only possible because I have died for your sins and now they have been raised again from the dead I have Justified you and now you can have access to God himself you can have fellowship with him he was forsaken so that we can be heard he says my God my God why has thou forsaken me he was forsaken so that we can be heard now this two-way communication is not just now possible to say your prayers we can boldly approach and have
00:37:17 this interactive communion with God two-way communication and sometimes we can ask is he listening do you know when he's listening to you do you know when he's counseling you do you know that he's showing you things or is there do you know that there's an exchange going on have you ever felt that in your life when you pray and he answers it takes time but have you felt it before is there a personal interactivity in our prayer life is there this personal Fellowship is it passive or interactive is it like a subscription oh I subscrib
00:37:50 to Netflix you know um is our religion flat you know is is it like a subscription model I just tune in you know and that's it or do we really know him we're talking a lot about interactivity this days you know with your phone it's very interactive right two ways and is that our case with God now let's move on to the last section before we close first John chapter 1 ver4 that which we that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen your eyes John is giving a testimony we as the apostles we have
00:38:20 seen we have heard we have touched the prerequisite of Fellowship we need to do something before this what is the prerequisite and that is to believe what the apostles have said about the Lord Jesus for we have not followed kindly divis fables Peter says but we have made known unto you the power and coming of Lord Jesus but were eyewitnesses they were eyewitnesses what we see I want you to see what we have heard I want you to hear that's what John and Peter was saying it's an objective reality with a subjective experience
00:38:55 what does that mean so so first we have to believe in the Lord Jesus now Christianity refuses to be categorized as a left brain or right brain religion in a sense why because it's neither fully just intellectual and neither is it just fully experiential usually it will lean to one of two but it's both why God can be known experientially we'll talk about the intellectual part Moses says I want to see your glories in Exodus chapter 33 you please Lord Show Me Your Glory this is what I want to do I want
00:39:33 to know you and I want to know you intimately I want to know you as a person but God says that will kill you no man can see me at any time and live and so God says I'll show you my back Parts just the back and the Lord Jesus makes this possible for us what Moses wanted is now made possible because he has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus Christ has made this glory shine shown seen in our hearts we now can have that personal connection with God it was
00:40:14 what Moses wanted in fact what God wants as well for the father seek of such to worship him so it's necessary for you to believe first before you can experience fellowship with him why because the mind mind must be filled with the truth of the word of God before it descends into the heart now that is fellowship when that happens when you understand the truth of God's word it descends into your heart God is speaking to you that's his voice like in Luke chapter 24 there were two on the road to emus it becomes
00:40:47 real so the two people who were walking with the Lord Jesus they asked did not our heart burned within us when he opened to us the scriptures we have to go to the truth you have to contemplate it you have to meditate on it you have to reflect on it submit to it the truth is where we will find God's Fellowship until it starts to catch fire in our hearts and he can even happen now if you have already accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior this Fellowship is now possible even for you 1 Peter
00:41:23 1:8 this is that joy unspeakable it brings us back to the reason why this letter was written so that you might have joy remember that this Fellowship is based on truth the way the Lord Jesus says I'm the way the truth and the life notice the second part of that verse which is not up there no man cometh unto the father but by me through me the truth is the way for us to know God so this is where the the intellectual part comes in and it combines together with the experiential if the Lord Jesus Christ he really did come come he really
00:41:58 lived he was seen he was heard and John declares that there's a reason for it the purpose of the gospel and everything that the Lord Jesus Christ did the sole purpose was so that you and I can have fellowship with God it's a very purpose of the Declaration of the Gospel it's not just a belief in God we we don't become Christians just because yes I believe that the Lord Jesus is the son of God yes I died I believe he died for me we can believe that but is that really eternal life and we'll look at
00:42:27 the the definition of it the aim of the Gospel the goal of everything the Lord Jesus did was so that you and I can have this fellowship with God so we will say sometimes that oh yeah eternal life it results in fellowship with God but have you ever considered what eternal life is if you think about it eternal life is by the very definition fellowship with God it is what it consist of is this living relationship with God and if we haven't even experience it we could say we haven't even begun to live what is this eternal life and this
00:43:03 is eternal life John 17:3 the Lord Jesus gives us the example the definition that they might Know Thee they they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent it's not no about you is to know you that's the idea that the Lord Jesus is presenting life eternal is a relationship with God it's a living relationship with God so how do we get this joy infallable we have talked about it we have to know him and his son we have to know that we know so that Assurance but that comes later
00:43:38 so how do we know it's not just an objective it's a subjective experience we've talked about it and it results in Fellowship in that eternal life that's how we get that Joy now that brings us to two implications the first one is it's a test so test ourselves do we really have that fellowship with God so we should approach this verse with fear and trembling many people will spend their lives you know saying that they want to defend the truth of the gospel and they believe you know that Jesus died for
00:44:06 them but they don't really know what it means to live with God to walk with him there was no inner spiritual life if Christianity is just a set of rules and religion um uh just about compliance there is no inner transformation no inner life no inner change then it is really just religion and not really a living relationship with God truth must penetrate the heart as a seed must penetrate the ground for us to be born again but implication number two is not just a test it's also an encouragement God is not trying to
00:44:38 play hide and seek with us he's not trying to play peekaboo you know God is wanting to have that Fellowship sometimes you know it can be because our we we lack spiritual discipline you know there's a lack of concentration but God wants it he has done everything he can to make sure you have this with him John chapter 4 the the Lord seek of those as such to worship him we'll skip the example of um forgiveness let's take a look at William CPUs him in holy contemplation the second um stanza on the right hand side we sweetly then
00:45:10 pursue the theme of God's salvation and find it avue how do we find this Fellowship is through meditation is it this kind of meditation not really okay the meditation that the scripture speaks about is in holy contemplation not emptying your mind but f in your mind is the other way around is meditation on his word the word of God right in front of us is the very key to understanding to have fellowship with God so you have to study it and you have to pray it's somewhere in between this meditation this holy contemplation we
00:45:47 sweetly then pursue the theme of God's salvation and find it avue something that is new there's a list of questions here you know that you can ask yourself you know how can I praise him I since I have to confess you know how do I know him better in the interest of time we'll skip this Martin Luther's meditation is very similar he takes a passage and he meditates on everywhere he takes the Lord's Prayer he will say like okay you know Our Father which are in heaven okay hour I have to thank God you know that I
00:46:17 have fellow brothers and sisters in Christ father now I have this relationship with you so the holy spirit makes it real to him because he really wanted it now let's ask the question to our our elves before we close before we sing our final song I like to have Fellowship but I don't know how is simply going to him and say that I thirst I'm not having fellowship with you and I want that relationship with you study the word of God contemplate it and enjoy it be like blind bimus and what did blind bimus
00:46:50 do he sat down where the Lord Jesus was passing by do we sit down where the Lord Jesus is passing by and then what did he say what do he cry he said Lord have mercy on me he says Lord I need you it's as simple as that sit down together with the Lord in holy contemplation on his word pray Lord have mercy on me Lord I need you seek Him and know him and there you you will find your joy is full in his fellowship with God now that is the conclusion of our consideration this morning before we sing our final song shall we just Commit
00:47:41 This Time to the Lord in prayer Our Father we come before you with Thanksgiving again that we can know you through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ we thank you that we can have this living relationship with you this fellowship with you and we pray that through this Fellowship our joy may be full we pray our father that we may be transformed by your truth as we see Christ even in the scriptures father we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ so as we sing this song Lord I need you let us consider what blind Bim
00:48:17 May said do we need him are we ask him to have mercy on us shall We rise to sing [Music] s Lord I come I confess th we here I find my rest without you I fall apart you're the the one that guides my heart sing I need you Lord I need you oh I need you every every hour I need you I want defense my rightous oh God how I need you sin Your Grace is more but Grace is found is where you are and where you are Lord I am every Hol is Christ in me sing where you are yes where you are Lord I am free Hol is Christ in
00:50:23 me Lord I need you I need you every every hour I need you my defense my rightousness oh God how I need you teach my so te my S toise to you when Temptation comes my way when I cannot stand I'll fall on you Jesus you're my sing again teach my song So teach my S to rise to you when Temptation comes my way when I cannot stand I'll fall on you Jesus Jesus You're My Hope and St Lord I need you oh I need you every every hour I need you my one defense my rightous oh God how I need you just your voice says Lord I
00:52:11 need you Lord I need you oh I need you every I need you my defense my rightousness oh God how might you 1 John 5:20 and we know that the Son of God is come and have given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ and this is the true God and eternal life and shall we all say Amen the meeting is now over thank you all for coming
