August 10, 2025 Rooted: Rediscovering True Joy through the Epistles of John (1 John:1-4)

Music.

So this morning, we're going to begin a new area in our Rooted series in the Epistles of John.

And I'm very excited to go here. There's so much content and rich, rich theology.

Today, sometimes we struggle with the idea of joy, right?

You've met people to walk around like they got something stuffed up their tailpipe

or they're just like constantly angry about something, right?

And they claim to be a believer. And yet their face tells us that they're not,

they just look overwhelmed and burdened.

So today I want to look at, we're going to look at the idea of joy.

Like, what does it mean to be truly joyful? Where does

that lie and what is the what is

the doctrine what does god say about it what's what's

behind it that true joy so if

you go in your bible uh we're gonna we're gonna go to let's see if this thing's

gonna work today bryson how it did let's go to john first john first john kind

of cut it off there, doesn't it?

Yeah, we're going to go to 1 John 1, 1 through 4. All right, let's read it together.

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes,

what we have observed and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

That life was revealed and

we have seen it and we

testify and we declare to you

that eternal life was with

the father and then was revealed to

us what we have seen and heard we also declare to you so that you may also have

fellowship with us And indeed our fellowship Is with the Father And with his Son Jesus Christ.

And we are writing these things We are writing these things So that our joy

May be complete Jesus I thank you for,

Leaving us With your truth Through your disciples and apostles Where you preserved

your truth for us so that we don't have to be confused about joy.

We don't have to be confused about these things that are going on in the world.

We don't have to be confused about just life in general because we have your word.

And you, you sovereignly kept that preserved for us so that today,

in the year 2025, we could go back and actually look and see what true joy is.

To see the power of your gospel on this planet.

And your intent to restore us once again to you.

Jesus, I pray that your word, you promise us that your word will never come back without impact.

It will never come back void. It will always have impact on us.

So Jesus, I pray for everyone that's sitting here today.

Whether it's on vacation or just a day off.

They came today with an entire life behind them and weighing on them jesus i

pray today through your holy spirit your holy spirit would totally take over

and make your word come alive,

jesus i pray that your holy spirit would get me out of the way and as we bring forth your truth God,

I pray that it would just be so evident and real and also practical for us that

we could live this out day in, day out in this authentic life that we are to live focused on you.

So, Jesus, I pray that you would work now in Christ and we pray. Amen.

So as we start here, John, he starts out like there is no introduction.

There's no nothing it's just boom what was seen what was heard and he he gets

right into it and he's talking about christ so he's saying what was what was

from the beginning what we have heard what we have seen with our own eyes what we have observed.

We have touched with our hands. So he's getting right into this idea of that

Christ was, we're talking about Christ, and that he is at the beginning.

He is there at the beginning.

Because what was going on in those days was this wrong, false teaching that

Jesus actually never came to earth.

There was no Christmas. There was no incarnation. There was none of that.

So what was going around was this teaching was that Jesus wasn't actually there.

It's a theory. It's a fairy tale.

And they were trying to promote this false teaching.

And so God knew that. And so he sets John on this mission where he comes right down.

And he goes right into it, explaining a hands, feet, an actual literal account.

They actually, the disciples, that's what he's talking about here.

Because you notice here we say that John uses the word we.

So he is speaking on behalf of the disciples of what he has seen personally.

So from the get-go, we have this understanding that God wants us to know,

kind of like what Ron has been sharing with us, that what you have in your hand,

whether it's a phone or in your Bible,

wherever you have, it's God's word, right? And God's word is literal.

And it was inspired by God. It was breathed out literally by God so that we

can have confidence that when we read God's truth, it's factual, it's real.

Bryson, is there a way you can turn that down just a little bit,

but it seems a little loud.

And so we're given this truth here that John is saying, look,

we have seen it with our own eyes.

We have literally touched. We touched Christ.

We have heard, we have seen with our own eyes, we have observed with our hands

concerning the life that was revealed.

And we have seen it. And then we just didn't see it now. They're declaring it. They're testifying it.

So what God is saying here through John is,

It says that we have this first experience, first-hand account of who Christ

is and what is it. What is Christ?

We have the next part here. That life was revealed.

The word of life was revealed. So this is Christ. This is Jesus was revealed.

Jesus was actually brought to this planet to restore what man had broken.

And man, back during the fall, God originally, you know, his original intent

was that we would be able to have fellowship with him.

And Satan weasels his way in, brings in the lies, brings in the false teaching

and all these things trying to say, oh, hey, if you just do this,

God doesn't want you to be like him.

So therefore, just he doesn't really mean that.

Like, he doesn't want you to eat from this tree because then you're going to

be like him. And he played in their

pride and played into their desire for something that God said no to.

And because of that, the curse transferred to all of us, right?

The curse is with all of us. You don't have to, no one has to explain to you how it works, right?

No one had to sit there and say, oh, you know, you need to be,

you need to work on your anger with your wife.

You need to work on your anger with your

husband. You need to work on your disobedience to your parents, right?

No one has to sit down. You don't have to take a Zoom class on that,

right? We do that naturally.

And so we have this fall that's there.

And the apostles now are saying, we have seen Christ. We actually know.

Like, no, Jesus was actually revealed.

He was incarnate. He came from heaven.

And God's desire was to restore what man had broken.

Think about that. God actually desired to fix you and to fix me.

Even those thieves that were on the cross who were literally about to die and

they were still rejecting him, Christ still, in that moment, you talk about a trial.

He's got nails through his skin. He's got all the beatings.

He's sitting there being hung at absolute shame.

And yet in that moment, he tells the one thief, today you will be with me in paradise.

Today you will be with me.

So when you think about yourself and you get trapped in the mindset of,

oh, I've done all these things, I'm not worthy of God.

No, you're not. Neither am I.

But that's the incredible thing about the gospel is that Jesus was sent to be our Savior.

Even though we did not know we needed it, he knew that we needed it.

He knew what your mind is like.

He knew how your thought life goes to lust. He knew how your thought life would go to fear.

He knew how you desire for control. He knows all of these things.

And he knew exactly what you and I needed.

And it wasn't just to keep it amongst a tight little group of people. But no, it was revealed.

Christ was revealed and we have seen it. And now we have these words here,

testify and declare. lawyer.

Testify is simply, Joel would know it, like, because he's a lawyer back there in the red shirt.

If you guys want to know about the study on Israel, he's got a good friend that's

going to be here, I think it's next week, right?

You guys, so if you enjoyed Mark last week and understanding about Israel,

make sure to see him about that.

But Joel is a lawyer, and so I'm sure you've, or you've been to court before,

and you have someone to testify.

You give this first-hand account.

And so that's this word right here. This word is that they give this first hand

account of who Christ was and that he was actually revealed.

And that he was actually still working. It wasn't just a one-time account,

but this is actually the impact of what he did is still moving forward, is still impacting us.

And so God is saying here through John that we testify and we declare to you

the eternal life that was with the father was revealed to us.

I've been studying this for several weeks, so I'm just completely overwhelmed

at the majesty of this idea.

My mind is boggled to think about this, that the God of eternity,

the God of eternity decided,

the God who created everything, everything you see out there,

the Quammon and Falls, wherever, you see it, God created it.

Your eyeballs, your ears, God created it all.

The creator decides to reveal himself and not as a majestic king with full of

power, full of all the stuff that we would think of, ready to smash down the evil one.

No, he reveals himself as a servant.

He comes on this planet as a servant, giving us the model that we have.

And he revealed to us that he was with the father and he was actually shown to us.

So if you think about this, this is God actually coming in human form.

In the Old Testament, right? What do we know about the Old Testament?

If someone actually saw God, what would happen?

What's that? They're dead, right? They're dead.

Moses, remember what happened to Moses when he said, can I just see you?

God said, no, you'll die.

But what I will do is I will pass by and you will see the backside of me.

And we know what happened with Moses when he actually came back down off the mount. What's that?

You can talk out loud. Sorry. There's glory, right? It was so much that people

couldn't even stand seeing it.

So you know, when the sun is out there, it's super bright, and you got to get

your sunglasses on. It was worse than that.

This is what, and this was just God literally passing by him.

And so now you have God who is way past anything we could possibly think or imagine.

The book of Revelation, right? You can't even wrap your mind around who God is.

But God decided through Christ to come and reveal himself to the world.

Paul talks about the mystery that was hidden for years and years and years.

Now, finally, through Christ, he has come.

He has come. And why?

What we have seen, we have also declared to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us.

And this word fellowship is not something that's just a cheap little hangout.

This isn't just something you hang out with your friends or even with your wife,

you know, you're together.

No, this is a deeper understanding. This is a deeper connection with God.

Because now we have the disciples saying, look, we have actually seen Christ.

We've seen everything we did. This is not conjecture.

No, we've actually seen it. And now we are declaring to you.

We are literally testifying. And not just testifying, we're giving our hand

account, but now we're proclaiming it.

We declare, we're yelling it out to you.

So that you may also have this fellowship with us.

That you can have the same thing that we do.

Dusty was praying that earlier so that we would give opportunities,

right? To get the gospel out.

Opportunities, because it's not just about you knowing about eternal life.

If you just keep it to yourself, shame on you.

God would say, I'm not sure the love that I have is in you.

As we go through the rest of this book here, this letter,

Jesus is saying, look through John, if you

have that light that light does not

say just with you you should be like the disciples

you should be like the apostles who desire to declare not

they they give this hand i this hand and eye

testimony but now they're also declaring

it loudly boldly even willing to give their lives and we can't get our behinds

out of in the morning to even come to church or we can't inside of ourselves

to talk to that young lady who looks troubled at the cash register because we

don't want to inconvenience them.

We create all these things, but these disciples, they were willing to put down

their lives to get the gospel out so that we may also have, we could have this fellowship with them.

Last part of verse three, and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son.

This is a massive amount of doctrine right here in this statement.

John is telling us, God is revealing to us that our fellowship that we have

with God is connected through Christ and Christ then is connected to God.

Let me say that again. Our fellowship that we have with our creator,

that we can actually have with our creator, is through Christ first.

And because of Christ now, we have this fellowship. We have this deep connection.

We have this deep, profound connection to our creator.

So much that Jesus calls us joint heirs with him.

He wants to adopt us. He wants to adopt your and my sorry self.

Amazing he wants to adopt us we

don't deserve it there's nothing we can do for it

but now we have this connection now and these

and the disciples are saying look this this

fellowship that we have we don't want to keep it to ourselves we are

now just we are with the father and also with the

son jesus christ so in case we are wondering who

is being talked to at the beginning what was

from the beginning what we have seen what we have heard right we're

talking about jesus christ Christ Jesus was

revealed to us our loving savior was revealed in a real tangible way and so

that in verse 4 we are writing these things so that our joy our joy may be complete.

We are writing there's there's a purpose behind all of this one the purpose

was look no Christ actually was revealed here. He actually was born.

He did all these miracles.

We were with him. We saw him. We literally touched and felt.

We were with him. We are this hand-eye, and we're giving this testimony.

We're testifying, and we're also proclaiming that this is what Jesus did for us, and now our desire,

our desire is that we would have this same connection, that you would have the

same connection that they had with Christ.

We are writing these things so that our joy, our joy may be complete.

And the word joy there, the word joy is this, it's a bigger word.

It's not Pollyanna, you know, skipping down the road and just seeing the positive

and just always positive Pete.

That's not what we're talking about here. You could actually have joy, but,

world we live in right now maybe you should talk to god about how much news that we consume.

Right how much news from the stinking fallen world

do we consume a lot right you see

it all the time whether it's on social media the social media

you know tiktok or instagram or facebook or just

the news the world has fallen yeah

duh he was at the beginning he was he and

he has not stopped he has perfected it and

he desires for you to be distracted he desires

for you to be overwhelmed because if you're

overwhelmed with all this stuff if you walk around like oh can you believe it

can you believe this happened can you believe this happened yeah god says there's

going to be trials there is going to be testing all those things are going to

be true but the other thing that's true is that Jesus Christ was revealed to us.

And not just revealed, but he was actually given to us that we could have eternal life.

That we could have eternal life through him and through his blood.

So this idea of joy, it's a deep rooted contentment in God's truth.

Joy that they're talking about here is this deep rooted contentment and god's truth,

and it's not something that's a

one-time deal it continues on it continues on until finally satan is crushed

we get to spend eternity with god so the idea here this word here that that

your, that your joy may be complete,

that our joy may be complete or completely filled.

The idea is that you, it's, it's coming all the way.

I'm trying to try not to spill, but coming all the way to the brim.

Your joy, like the disciples, never stops from that spot right there.

That's the idea behind this word, is that our joy should always be at the top.

Our joy should always be at the top. But if you make room, you can always make

room for the world and negativity.

I can always make room and to get distracted.

I can always do that. But no, Jesus is saying here through his disciples,

look, we have seen him. We've seen what he did.

We saw those people get fed.

We saw Peter walk in the water. We saw all these things.

And John says in his gospel, there are so many more things that he did that

every page of paper could not contain the amount of things that Christ did.

And he said, look, that our joy, our deep seated, rooted in truth,

not rooted in how you feel, not rooted in how I feel, because you can feel constipated

today, right? And then you're going to feel not so great.

You can feel like, oh, our lives are constantly changing.

And some of you, I can't imagine what you have to deal with with the pain,

the chronic pain that you wake up with.

And so to find that joy, the joy isn't where you're just whistling down the street.

No, the joy, remember, joy is a deep contentment that's rooted in God's truth.

Even if I'm in the midst of a trial, even in the midst of losing a child.

Even in the midst of almost you fill in the blank, going through cancer,

that you and I can have that deep-rooted contentment.

That deep-rooted contentment that does not get pushed off easy.

Because God's desire is for us to always be full. And that's the tense that's

used there. It's a constant ongoing.

It's not a one and done. Oh, I got joy today at church. No.

No, no, no. God wants you and I to understand that our attachment to him is through Christ.

Our Savior. Later on in the epistle, John says, the verse that many of us probably

know, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Our Savior was needed. And we have that through Christ.

We're connected to God and that our joy, our joy, this deep contentment,

it's rooted in the truth of who God is.

It's rooted in the truth of who God is and what he did for us through Christ.

So God's desire for us is for you and me to understand and master and dwell continuously of joy.

And the idea of 360 joy, it's always easy to be filled with joy around other

Christian people, right?

Or when life is going swell for you. but no

god wants us 24 7 365

360 all around us to

know our standing with christ our standing

with god has nothing to do with what you and i can do and our joy should be

rooted that means that so what happens how does that look like then and then

we'll close how does this look like how does this flesh out it fleshes out in

our life is that we begin to see things as god sees it through that deep-rooted truth.

You just don't take that joy and just hold on to that joy. No.

The idea behind this joy is that we live in our lives full of joy and contentment.

So then when you see things happening in life, the trials come,

these things take place, all these trials come, you find your joy,

you find your contentment in who God is.

For the one maybe who came today, just overwhelmed and struggling.

It may be all you can do to get in the word, but it's worth it.

You may want to get so immersed in the world and all the chaos that's going

on because it's everywhere.

It's everywhere. You cannot ignore it, right?

But God doesn't want our focus there. our fellowship now is with Christ and

knowing who he is and who we are through Christ.

So what does that do? That impacts how you look at people. It impacts how you look in the mirror.

So when Dusty looks in the mirror, he doesn't see Dusty if he's looking through the Spirit.

If he's thinking about this joy, how he's made complete through Christ,

he's no longer looking at dusty in the mirror he's looking at

this earthly shell but the reality he looks at himself as you know what no god

says that i am redeemed i am a joint heir with god i am a saint i am redeemed

i am loved the evil one wants him to look at that mirror and see everything

that he doesn't want to see.

Wants you to look in that mirror and see all the crap you did,

all the things you've done,

how the way you talk to your wife today, how you, how you were a jerk to your

child, how you, like all these things, the thoughts you had,

what you clicked on, what you're stuck in, you're in this loop of lust.

And he wants you to be stuck in that.

No, God says, look, we are going to fight. We're going to battle sin.

It's not going to stop. The battle doesn't stop. It's what you do with the sin.

God says if you confess your sin, he's faithful. He's just.

He's going to forgive you those sins. He wants us to get rid of our sin when it happens.

When you lose it with your wife, don't go to bed angry. When you lose it with

your kid, don't go to bed angry. Go and confess it.

When you click on something you desire not to, but your flesh wants to,

You go before God and you ask for forgiveness.

And if you need accountability, go find a brother or a sister to get accountability.

You know the battle that you're in right now. You know it.

God sees it. You see it. It's not a duh. It's obvious.

But what you got to know is that when you look in that mirror, you see not the flesh.

You see what God sees. He sees Christ. And it's because of that,

that you and I can actually have fellowship with our creator.

And it starts here on this planet. We don't have to wait to heaven.

No, God wants us living in that truth.

Jesus, I pray today. I wasn't sure exactly where you are going today with this,

but God, it's obvious now.

We need to know that we are deeply rooted in who you are not in our flesh not in our old man,

Jesus I pray for the I'm just gonna say as a body today my brothers and sisters

every one of us are struggling with something right now and if we're not honest

with ourselves then the first thing is pride,

because every one of us is struggling with something right now.

Jesus, I pray that we would understand your truth, that with the disciples,

with the apostles, they're saying, look, you don't have to live like that.

You don't have to live under all of that.

Desires to have us have complete joy. Deeply rooted in eternity future.

What's to come? Who we are through your son.

Not the shame of what we did or did not do.

And living under that. Oh Jesus, it's such a horrible life to live with our eyes off you.

So Jesus, I pray for my brother and sister today. If they are struggling with

joy, if they're struggling with that, God, God, I pray that you would break

the bonds, that the chains of that,

that they would realize that they can be filled to the brim of the understanding

of who you are and live that way until you come.

Jesus, I thank you so much for your word and how you didn't leave us with question

marks. You gave us everything we didn't know.

So Jesus, I pray that we would be deeply rooted in you and that we would deeply

be rooted in the idea that joy, it's not a feeling.

It's not some butterfly in our stomach. No, but it's a deep-rooted knowledge and your truth.

I pray you change us. God, if there is someone here today that this Christianity

thing seems really different, but they're searching, maybe they've played church their entire life.

They've gone to church, they played religion, God, I pray that they would realize

that eternity could start two seconds

after we say amen, and they would be trapped forever away from you.

So Jesus, I pray for my friend that they would know, one, that we love them and we care about.

We are the same place they are right now.

And if it wasn't for your grace, Jesus, we would still be stuck and the curse of sin.

So Jesus, I pray that if there's one like that today, that you'd break the pride,

break the fear, and they'd come talk to one of us.

We're not crazy. We're not mean. We'd love to talk to them about your truth.

And Jesus, for my brother and sister, if there's a sin battle that's going on,

I pray you'd help break that,

and that they would confess and forsake And rely on your truth Not how they

feel For my sister or brother who are weighed down with pain Worry, hurt,

All that this world is throwing at them God, I pray that your truth,

Your grace Would smile upon them And that they would know that they're loved by you.

And that someday this is going to pass. And as Paul says that your grace is

perfected in our weakness. You become more on display.

So Jesus, I pray you would show up in their life. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Isn't that a great truth? Oh, come on.

Did you not learn anything today? Come on. Tell your face you're happy. Come on.

Now, very glad you're here today. I do appreciate you. And I feel very privileged

to be able to get to do this full time. Like, I love it.

And getting to know people. As Dusty was sharing earlier, pray that God sends,

maybe it's not an unbeliever, but maybe it's a believer who just needs to know

that they are seen and loved by God.

Because there are a lot of folks who struggle, who are hurting.

And they need to have truth brought gently and gracefully put in their face.

Dusty would you close us there You and yourself Thank you for the Testimony

of John That he saw you, he heard you, he observed you He touched you,

Lord I haven't seen you with my eyes And I haven't heard you with my ears And

I haven't touched you with my hand But I have seen you and I have heard you And you have touched me,

And just like John I can tell other people About what you have done for me.

Lord it's easy for us to look in the mirror And see the old man and hate ourselves.

Yeah. And rightfully so.

But Lord, your son died for us and our joy should be this. I am not that man anymore.

Amen. Yes. Let us not be afraid to have joy in our hearts because of that.

And let us not be afraid to tell others about it. Please give us opportunities.

As Josh said, it might not even be an unbeliever. Maybe it's a believer.

And today they just need to be reminded that you love them and you died for them. Yes.

Lord, give us those opportunities as we go from here this week.

Be with us as we go Thank you for your son And thank you for what you've done

for us And thank you for what we are not anymore I ask this all in your name Amen.