United In Christ · Growing In Grace · Reaching Out In Love

Sunday Morning Sermon Summary

“PACKING FOR THE TRIP”

1 John 1:1-4; John 1:4

Sunday, May 24, 2009

ME:        Our trip to Cousin Evie’s house: planned each day, route to take, # of miles, place to stay.  We packed what we thought we needed – I packed all the wrong clothes.

WE:       How many have been “Christians all their lives”? How many can point to a specific time and place when you accepted Christ as your Savior?  How many have had several times when you rededicated yourself to the Lord. HOW MANY ARE COMPLETELY SATISFIED WITH YOUR LEVEL OF COMMITMENT TO CHRIST?

 GOD:      1 John 1:1-4 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. (Time Out)

 John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word…In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify 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 with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make (y)our joy complete.

                John had at least 3 advantages you and I don’t have: he had HEARD, SEEN, and TOUCHED Jesus.  HE HAD A THREE YEAR JOURNEY WITH JESUS HIMSELF.

               He knew Jesus to be the Word of Life.

               The message of the three gospels:  

               Matthew (Jews about Messiah),

               Mark (Romans-short attention spans: good gospel for unchurched people),       Luke (Jesus’ biographer – events, miracles, lineage, place in history).

               Then there’s John:  what Jesus meant by what He said. 

                        Only disciple at the cross;  Disciple Jesus loved; given responsibility for                             His Mom, etc.

                        outlived all the others.

                        John saw heresy begin to come into the churches.

                        John knew his days were numbered; 

                        his purpose for writing the book was to do what he could to help                                                 young believers PACK FOR A TRIP HE WAS NOT GOING ON.

THREE ITEMS FOR THE PACKING LIST (we’ll unpack them in the next three messages):

               1)      The test of BELIEF (“Before You Head Out”)

               2)      The test of BEHAVIOR (“How to Get Lost”)

               3)      The test of BROTHERHOOD (“Rest Stops”)

Then we’ll ask the question all kids ask on every trip: ??????? (“Are We There Yet?”)

TRAVEL COMPANIONS:

               1)      Fellowship with “us” (The Apostles? The (believing) church? Not them (the secessionists)?

               2)      Fellowship with God and His Son Jesus (we have fellowship with what we’ve seen, heard, and touched, fellowship with us is fellowship with Him

YOU:     Get yourself ready for the trip:

               Fun, fellowship, family, and formality MATTER

               Fellowship allows for what John and I called UNITY last week

               True (biblical) fellowship with each other is centered on fellowship with God and His Son Jesus              

WE:       Three tests: Belief, Behavior, and Brotherhood

            Of those of us who have been “Christians all our lives”, how many can say they’ve bought into the fellowship (with God, Christ, and his church) that makes our joy complete? FUN AND FELLOWSHIP MATTER- and they go together!

               Of those of us who can point to a specific time and place when you accepted Christ as your Savior, how many can identify people they’ve led to Christ or helped grow in faith, or kept on track?  IT TAKES A COMMUNITY TO PROVIDE NURTURE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

               Of those who have had several times when you rededicated yourself to the Lord, how many of those times really made a difference in your life for any significant period of time:  WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH – YOU NEED A FRIEND!

               If you’re not completely satisfied with your level of commitment to Christ, you’ll need traveling companions, a community of people who are INTERDEPENDENT, who SHARE YOUR VALUES AND VISION, who NURTURE you and hold you ACCOUNTABLE, with whom you SHARE EXPERIENCES OVER TIME.

Direction for the journey: John 1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

             We need to make the trip!  The goal/destination/ is growth in our spiritual lives and new disciples for Jesus Christ (AN EPHESIANS 4 CULTURE THAT RESULTS IN AN ACTS 2 CHURCH) 

Legend:

Green: Mission and Vision
Blue: Illustrations and quotes
Red: Scripture

Note to the visitor:  These are Pastor Paul’s sermon notes from Sunday Morning.  They probably won’t make much sense if you weren’t in the service.  Feel free to contact Pastor Paul if you’d like more detailed information.
For past sermons, please visit the Sermon Archive. 

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