You Can Have Real Fellowship With God | 1 John 1:1-4 | 7-19-26 | Sunday AM

**Pastor Andrew Montoro** (0:00)
So let's turn to the book of 1 John, Chapter 1 in 1 John. We're going to be starting a new series this morning through the epistle or the letter of 1 John. And so we're going to give some of the background, explain some of even the title for the series. Here is our title, and we'll give some explanation. This is the title for the series, Full Fellowship Brings Full Joy. Full Fellowship Brings Full Joy. And so it's interesting just how I believe the Lord led. We went through a couple of years ago, we went through the Gospel of John on Sunday mornings, and then we went through the letter of Ephesians, or the church there at Ephesus, a church that many believe later John would pastor. We don't know that for sure, but many believe that. And now, just going through the book of 1 John, which many believe John would have written while he was pastoring there at Ephesus. We don't know that for sure, but even just connections there, it was definitely written to the churches in that area.
And it's a very short book, five chapters. In my Bible, it's only four pages.
But this is a very simple, and yet a very deep, very important truth that John is communicating. And so as we begin, let's read verses 1-4. This is what many call the prologue or the preface to the book. He's basically introducing, this is what I'm talking about. Ordinarily, you have in the New Testament letters, Paul, the apostle, to the church at this, or Peter, the apostle, to the, James, the servant of Christ, to this. John doesn't introduce himself. We don't know what. He doesn't in his gospel either, so that's very much in his style. He doesn't give a whole introduction. He starts whammo right from the beginning. He starts right there in the front. He just says, this is where we need to start. Verse number 1, John writes, 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, for the life was manifested, 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 also 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. And so our title this morning, as we get into the series, is simply this, you can have real fellowship with God. You can have real fellowship with God. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before you this morning. Lord, I thank you for the truth of your Word. Lord, I thank you for the simplicity. And Lord, I just am asking for your help, for your power in preaching your Word. Lord, I know that in my own strength, I cannot. And yet, Lord, this is something that, this is truth that you desperately want us to understand, us to be able to grasp and enjoy. I pray, Lord, that you would just speak through your Word this morning, that your message would be clear and simple, that we would hear, most importantly, that we would obey. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
One man said this, just in my study, he said this, the search for something real is not new. It has been going on since the beginning of history. Men have looked for reality and satisfaction in wealth, thrills, conquest, power, learning, and even in religion. The quest for something real is not new. And yet, in the world in which we live today, the separation between the imaginary and the real seems to have grown farther and farther. You go back even 20, 25, 30 years, and we have the invention of CGI or computer-generated images, so that most of what you see in entertainment, most of what you see in videos, the backgrounds or different things, is not real. It's computer-generated. Now, maybe they're creating something that looks like it's real, but we've gotten into this idea that, oh, okay, you can make something look however you want it to look, and if you don't like how it looks, just go into Photo Editor and you can change the heads, and you can do this, and you can, okay, everyone can get the perfect family picture now, which is nice. You get the picture, say, that person's eyes were closing this one, so you just switch the heads, and everybody gets the perfect family picture. Now, that's not the way it really turned out, right? But that's the picture that we have. And, okay, why are your kids always perfect for pictures? Because they took 1,000 and they edited them, right? Okay, or many, now we live in the world of AI or Artificial Intelligence, where they're creating videos or different things, where it is very difficult to even tell if something's real or tell if something's fabricated. One of the scams that has been going around is people will get a recording of someone's voice, then they will call their parents and use AI to create that voice as if they're kidnapped and they need ransom.