Fellowship With The Light | 1 John 1:5 | 7-26-26 | Sunday AM

**Pastor Andrew Montoro** (0:00)
But I would encourage you, this morning, grab your Bibles, let's turn to the Book of 1 John, once again, 1 John, Chapter 1
The Book of 1 John, we are in Sermon No. 2, in a new series through the Epistle or the Letter of 1 John.
Our title is Full Fellowship Brings Full Joy.
So, I believe that's really what John is trying to communicate here, and so he's writing to churches, he's writing to believers, who are experiencing problems, who are dealing with teachers, who are trying to pull them away, and he's reminding them, no, no, no, you can have real fellowship with God, and in fellowship with God, that is where there is full joy. But in order to have fellowship with God, we have to come to God his way, and there has to be communion with God. And so let's, since we're so early in the series, let's just start in verse number one, kind of get a, get where John is saying, and our text this morning is just gonna be verse number five. I was planning to preach a little bit more, but just, this is really one of the key verses in the entire Epistle of 1 John. This is the foundation, verse number five, and so I just felt we needed to spend some time here to understand everything else that God is saying to us. And so John writes, that which was from the beginning, that 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. For the life 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 have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But verse number five one more time. This then is the message, which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Let's pray and ask the Lord's help. Dear Heavenly Father, I come before you. Lord, I do ask just for your help. Lord, I pray that I would only preach what you have said. I pray that you would give clarity. I pray that you would give boldness in preaching your word. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to not only hear, but to understand and to allow your word to change our thinking, to change us, Lord, so that we can serve you. And Lord, have the fellowship with you that you desire to have with us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So our title this morning is simply this, Fellowship With The Light.
But have you ever had a situation where you thought you knew something, you heard something about it, or you are familiar with the ideas, but then you realize later your actual understanding of the situation was way off. You heard something about it from somebody, or maybe you'd gotten some information about it from somebody else, but when you actually got there, it was very different. This can show up in a very irritating way for those of us who live on Long Island. We have friends from around the country, and they call us up and they ask us, how is the city? Right? How many have had somebody do that? Right? And they talk about the east end of Long Island, like there's 500,000 people and it's all cement. We've never seen grass before. Maybe they saw a movie with the Statue of Liberty in it, or maybe they read a lot about New York, or maybe they've even been to New York City.
But because we're in New York, they think we live like right next to the Brooklyn Bridge, or that there's just people everywhere. And so for us, we're like, no, no, no, you have never seen this, right? You don't know what you're talking about. Out here on the East End, like they grow the grass for Yankee Stadium out here.
They literally do. That's what I'm trying to explain. Like, no, no, no, they grow the grass for Yankee Stadium out here on the East End. Oh, and it goes whoosh, okay? Because they haven't seen it. And then we have the music groups or other people come in from Heartland. They go, this is so different from New York City, because now they can see it, okay? But sometimes they hear things about it, and they just assume the East End is like New York City.