“Waking In Obedience”
1 John 2:1-5 and James 1:19-25

    One of Satan’s favorite tactics is to cause us to question whether we indeed are in fellowship with God. John counters that with some great identifying marks and the first one is this; Are you walking in the light? Remember that the one word John uses a lot here is “continues.” We must be continuous-ly in the light! Jesus said, we must “remain” in the vine… not just be in the vine once in a while, or whenever we feel like it, or just when it’s appropriate…Not just “step into the light” on Sundays…but, continuously!

    The second is, “Are you walking in obedience?”  Somewhere along the line people have the mistaken idea that salvation is without obligation. However, John says in verse 3 "We know we have come to know Him, and now here’s the if- “if we obey His commands."
    In other words, we know that we have come to know him, we have the security, the assurance, because we have seen in our lives the change that has taken place so that;
*The commands we once thought were ridiculous and stupid and life-destroying, we now learn to joyfully obey… because God’s work in our lives changes our understanding.
*We have come to learn that this God who we used to hate, we now love.
*And the commands that we used to disregard and were “not for me”, have now become something we follow.
    What can explain a psalmist writing, "Oh, how I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long." Does that sound like something a typical non-believer would say? No. This is a person who has been changed, who’s understood that the God he hated and feared is in fact a God of tremendous love and has embraced him and brought him into fellowship with Him and he says, "Man, I love your law! The lights are on…the blinders are off, and now I can see how wonderful your Word and your commands are."   "If anyone obeys His word," verse 5 says, "God’s love is truly made complete in him."…not - will be made complete, IS made complete!
    This obedience or “keeping of God’s Word” means we are actively complying with His Word. It means we habitually keep or keep on keeping His commandments. What I know does not mean a whole lot unless it leads me down the path of obedience.
    This is not something based on feelings; I can’t just “feel” like I am a Christian; or “feel” like I know where my eternal destiny is…no, John says absolute assurance comes from a clear understanding of the facts. Back in the “good ole days” there was a show called Dragnet, and when ever a witness would begin to ramble on about something, Sgt. Friday would always say; “Just the facts Maam, just the facts.”  John says, the fact is that “We know that we have come to know Him if we are walking in obedience.”
    That does not mean that our lives are characterized by total, perfect obedience…there is only one that is perfect…but, that our lives will be characterized by a consistent and continual desire to do what is right and good according to God’s Word. In other words, there will be more than just “hearing and reading” God’s Word, there will be a desire to “understand and apply” what we know.  And, when this is happening in our lives, Romans 8:16 tells us that the “Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
    John is very blunt and to the point in verse 4 when he says; “the man who says “I know Him” but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” This is the second time John has told us to quit lying to ourselves! In verse 3 the words  “that we have come to know him” suggests a growing process. In that process we “come to know” more about God; we “come to know” more about Jesus; we “come to know” more of His Word”; and we “come to know” what He desires of us; and we come to obey! That’s what brings assurance. Not out of fear or force, but a true desire to please God and obey as a result of a loving relationship.
    I like to put it this way; “Being a Christian is a “Be” experience; “Believing”; “Becoming”; and “Behaving” all of which are a part of “obedience.”  Believing is the first step to Becoming and Behaving… and, Becoming and Behaving are the direct results of believing! I think John would agree that if there is no becoming and behaving, there really is no believing!
    Assurance comes from obedience to his commands…such as; Matthew 4:19 "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."…there are too many Christians who are no longer “fishers of men” but “keepers of the aquarium!”
    In Matthew 25:6 -10 we read, "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go ye out to meet him. And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut." I believe that we are living on the threshold of that midnight cry. For many, the door will soon be shut. Now is the time - the time for those without Christ to come to Christ! Now is the time for those who are in darkness to step into the light!

 “Eight Ways To Grow In Assurance” 
 “Walking In The Light”
 Ephesians 5:8-14 and 1 John 1:5-7

    What I want us to look at today is the subject of “light”.

    The writings of the Apostle John - are the last four books of the Bible; plus his Gospel.  John sums up his gospel in John 20:31 with the words; “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”. The Book of Revelation has its purpose in the very first verse; “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place”…Revelation is a book concerned with the “end times” the “last days”…things of the future.  And then, there is 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd John, where he writes in 5:13 - “I write these things to you who believe” - that is Christians - “so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life”…That’s assurance… That we may KNOW!
    In this letter of 1^st. John, I find at least 8 ways that we can “know” or have the assurance of eternal life. The assurance that “in and through Christ” we have and are walking in “fellowship with God” and can be at peace, knowing that our name is in the Lamb’s book, and heaven is our home!
    First of all it’s important to know that John is not just giving his opinion here as to how we ought to live and grow, for he says in the very first verse; and watch the progression here…“That which we have “heard”, that which we have “seen”, ( or we could say that which we have “read” or “looked at” or “studied” ) “and our hands have touched” (personal experience)….“This is what we proclaim to you!” You see, John was there! He heard Jesus, he saw Jesus, and he touched Jesus! He tells us of his experience by summing it up in the words - “God is light!”
    John pulls no punches in this letter. For one, he uses the verb tense of the word “walk” which means to “keep on walking”…it is an action… if we keep on walking, we have continual fellowship.  I cannot stand in one place and say I am walking…It involves forward movement or progress. Walking is however harder than talking about walking. I can sit in an easy chair and talk about walking. I can even talk the language of walking, but until I actually walk, it has little value. John uses the same reasoning here, If we say we have fellowship with Him, but are not walking in the light, we lie!  In other words, if we claim to be a Christian, but there is no sign of motion or movement or growth, John says we lie.
    Do you know that even the greatest scientists are baffled by the mystery of light? They can study it and explain the effects of it, but they still don’t understand what light is! Humm…John simply says; “God is light” and he is just as mysterious in the spiritual sense as light is in the natural to scientists.
    An October 2001 edition of the National Geographic had an amazing article on the “Power of Light.” This is what the introduction said; “Light reveals the world to us. Body and soul crave it. Light sets our biological clock. It triggers in our brains to the sensations of color. It feeds us by supplying the energy needed for growth. Light inspires us with special effects like rainbows, sunrises and sunsets. It gives us life-changing tools, from light bulbs - to lasers - to fiber optics. Scientists don’t fully understand what light is or what the limitless possibilities are…They just know that it will illuminate our future!”
    Let me take just a moment to compare that with knowing God;  It says in John 8:12 - “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the “light” of life!” You see, knowing God, who is light, reveals to us the world as it really is.
    Light is essential to our lives. When you don’t have light, or you are without light for an extended period of time, sadness and depression set in and growth is stifled!  *God, who is light, triggers the sensation of color in our brains and we are able to see the beauty of all that he has created for our enjoyment! 
    *God who is light has given us many tools to show us the unlimited power of light!  Listen to this; Fiber optic cables, when pulsated with infrared light can transmit ten million phone conversations at one time! Now, if one fiber optic cable of light can do that, how is it that God can hear the prayers of millions of people at the same time? Because God is light!  Lasers are available for everything from surgery to stopping missiles from space! …and…God Is Light!     
    *Finally, the article says that scientists know that light will illuminate our future!  John knows, and you and I know that when you come into God’s light, he illuminates our future! This is worth getting excited over!
    John talks about “walking in the light.” Light enables us to work; it produces growth; it reveals beauty and provides safety; light represents what is good, pure, holy, and true. Is it any wonder why Jesus tells us to “let our light shine?”  Light also exposes… In the dark, good and evil look alike…It’s hard to distinguish something in the dark…In the light they can be distinguished! You can tell the difference.   If you want to know where you are going, WALK IN THE LIGHT! Says Jesus…that’s Assurance.
    Let me address one more thing in closing; What happens when I sin after I am a Christian?  Do I all of a sudden stop being a Christian? Do I have to start all over again? John’s answer in verse 7 is “No”… “But, if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another”…NOW, watch this…”and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
    Notice the little two letter word “IF” in those two scriptures; “IF we walk in the light” and “IF we confess our sins”…. We have a responsibility in this process, and IF we do our part, He will do his! Let’s me use the example of the child learning to walk;  “Oops, he fell…Do we condemn the child? No, we know that as long as the child keeps trying and practicing, it will eventually learn to walk. And, as the child continues to grow, he will even learn to run and jump and climb. Have you ever watched a child learning to walk?  When they are learning to walk, what do they do with their arms?…(Hold them high) 
        The new twenty dollar bills are out. How many have had a good look at them?  Just a few days after they came out  there were counterfeits on the street.  It is interesting that a new twenty dollar bill has all kinds of anti-counterfeiting things on it. They’ve got colors. The number “twenty” is in a kind of a gold paint. They’ve got a blue eagle on it and if you hold it up to the light you can see another picture of Andrew Jackson – kind of a watermark. Of course, there’s always the plastic strip that’s embedded up in the corner or the whole width of the bill, and a color copier can’t see that. So, if you have a twenty dollar bill you have a lot of ways to tell whether it’s real. You can hold it up to light and if it’s been copied, then you’ll see all kinds of things missing… Let me repeat that again, in case you were sleeping; “You can hold it up to the light and see if it is a counterfeit, because you will see a lot of things missing”…
    Walking in the light gives us assurance…

 “The Key To Loving Is Knowing”
 Jeremiah 9:23-24

O.K. - I’m going to list some character traits and you tell me who I’m talking about…Holy, Creator , Omnipresent , Omniscient , Omnipotent, Faithful, Just, Sovereign, Unchanging ?

    How did you know it was God? Was it because you know God…or was it because you know these things about God? Our message today is the last in this series about the abundant life… Jesus said; “The thief comes to destroy and kill, but I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly”. In this series we have looked at 4 of the 5 keys to really living this abundant life that Jesus came to give. Today we will look at key #5 – “The key To Loving is Knowing.”

    This key is demonstrated in all of our relationships. It’s kind of like a universal principle; You can’t really love  someone unless you “know” them. This is true in a marriage as well as in a friendship. Love, the closeness and intimacy of love, is based on knowledge…but not just a knowledge about someone, but a knowledge that can only come from a relationship experience.
    If you think about this series, you will find that we really have looked at it backwards. We started with “bearing fruit” and then we went to the key to bearing fruit is abiding; then to the key to abiding is trusting – which leads to obedience; the the key to obedience is loving; and the key to loving is knowing… It ought to be the other way around; First we must get to know God, then we trust and obey, which verse 10 of John 15 tells us is a sign that we are abiding, and if we are abiding…we will bear fruit!
    But, how can we come to know God in such a way as to cause this sort of spiritual “chain-reaction” in our lives through which we can experience the abundant life? … Here is where the truth of Jeremiah 9:23-24 comes in – “but let him who boasts boast about this; that he understands and knows me!”
    Being known and understood isn’t nearly as important as knowing and understanding. To often we have things backwards in the most important areas of life. Wisdom, might, and riches are the things that most people want to be known for…Yet God clearly declares that in these things we should not glory. God’s giving us a very important truth concerning mans tendencies…He’s showing us that we tend to glory and brag in the things we excel at…And, the things a person excels in are the things he most intimately knows. If a man glories in His wisdom, or His power and His riches then obviously this is where his focus is. This is where his true “knowledge” lies.
    God declares to us that it is better to know and understand Him. We were made to know God, not in a superficial way but in an intimate way. Tony Evans says in his book, “Time to Get Serious”: If God is the all-consuming, all powerful, all knowing, loving, and infinite Creator, sustainer, and redeemer of this universe, then nothing else we can do matters quite as much as getting to know Him.”
    Before we move on, it’s important to heed a warning issued by J.I. Packer in his book called, Knowing God. It is possible to know about God without knowing God intimately. This is the danger of sterile intellectualism. It’s easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that since we know a lot of things about God, that we must know Him well. Tony Evans also uses a great illustration: “I can’t fully explain what it means to know God. I can use the terms, but it’s like defining a kiss. Webster calls a kiss ‘a caress with the lips; a gentle touch or contact.’ But anyone who has kissed someone knows that a kiss is really much more than that. You can’t explain it, but Lord have mercy, it’s good when you get it! I can’t fully explain what getting to know God feels like, but I know that – like a kiss - you will like it when it happens.”
There are at least 4 ways that we can know God.
    The first way is by relying on our imagination. Each of us carries around a mental picture of who God is. That picture is a collage’ of a lifetime of experiences, impressions and assumptions…However, those are most often wrong.
    2^nd. We get to know Him by God’s Invitation - We can’t begin to get to know Him unless He extends an invitation. But, God invites everyone to “come” – to “taste and see” – to “seek and find”… God desires for each and every one of us to know Him.
    3^rd. Is by God’s Revelation - One way God reveals Himself is through creation. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature ­ have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” God has also revealed Himself through the Scriptures... 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” If you want to get to know God, you do it by getting to know this book. If you want to hear from God, then read this book….If you want to see God then read this Book! The Bible is bursting with direct statements from God about God ­ and it reveals His mind, His heart, and His will and purpose for you.
    4^th. God’s primary vehicle for self-disclosure is through Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches in Hebrews 1:3 that “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being…” Jesus reveals who God the father is. As Jesus said in John 8:19, “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” Colossians1:15 says “He is the image of the invisible God.”
    You see, the question is not so much, “Do you know about God?” but “How well do you know Him?” Even for those of us who have been believers for some time, the adventure of knowing God never ends. In fact, one of Paul’s prayers, in Ephesians 1:17, shows that our pursuit of knowing God is to be on the front burner, all the time: “I…keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.”
    There was a popular song many moons ago that Judy and I used to dance to, it went something like: “To know, know, know, him; is to love, love, love him”…It wasn’t a song about God, but it is still the truth. To know him is to love him; to love him is to trust and obey him; to obey is a sign of abiding in the vine; and when we abide in the vine we will be as “trees planted by the streams of water, that bears it’s fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers!” Such a tree withstands the buffeting winds and the storms of life, and it blesses man and animals and birds with its unfailing fruit and shade. It lives an abundant life!