Living in the Valley
1 John 1:1-4
April 30, 2006
For the next 2 months we will be exploring and going through the book of 1 John on Sunday mornings together.
As we begin this series that I’m calling "Living Well in the Valley", I want to tell you 2 things I wish for you. Two things I wish for us.
1. The first - I wish for us to be free.
For us to take in life
To live life
To know/experience/enter into all that God has for us.
To live our lives with full assurance and peace that we are God’s. He is our Father and we can simply be his children.
Thursday afternoon, Deb was trying to get Ben and Emma down for a nap. There was no chance of Luke taking a nap, too much to explore. So he and I jumped on our bikes for a long bike ride on the miles of paved trails.
We rode for the ocean, collected shells,
floats
sticks
We stopped for water breaks and
Lifesavers.
The whole time I was grinning ear to ear. There I was spending time with my son. Seeing him ride his bike so well, so free after only 2 weeks without training wheels. I rode behind him snapping pictures.
Luke - my Son - Exploring
Excited
Cruising around. It was a highlight.
It was a moment when I caught the joy of him experiencing freedom.
The 1st thing I wish for us - that you and I could be free from our spiritual training wheels. That you and I would unscrew/
Remove those things that give/provide safety for you.
Those things that are prohibiting you from fully embracing God.
The 2nd thing I wish for us is that you and I would have the ability to take God in.
To recognize.
To see.
To be open to the vastness of God in any moment of everyday.
Last Sunday on our final day of vacation, Luke Ben, Emma, Deb and I got out our backpacks, filled them with water and snacks to go on one late hike. Big rock.
As you might remember, it was a beautiful day. So beautiful that we could see the Olympic Mountains with their snow covered peaks to the West and the Cascades and specifically Mount Baker to the East.
There we were scrambling up and down the rocks eating our animal crackers and drinking our water while sitting between these two mountain ranges of the Olympics on the west and the Cascades on the east.
And I kind of had to pinch myself and say wow - we pastor here in the Skagit Valley. In this place between mountain ranges.
This place, full of vibrant life in the valley.
Deb, Luke, Ben, Emma and I were given a glimpse of god, his handy work. We saw it, we touched it, and we gazed at it. We enjoyed it. We thanked God for it.
Our guidebook/our trail map for this series called Living well in the valley is going to be the book of 1 John. This book because the book itself is found between 2 more prominent books by the same author. John, the author of 1st John, our guidebook also wrote the incredibly beautiful book called the Gospel of John and also wrote the well studied and famous book called Revelations.
The Gospel of John tells us about the beginnings of Jesus
The Book of Revelation tells us about what the end with Jesus will look like.
And our book, text - 1 John will help us to live between these realities. This book will help us to live in freedom (wish #1).
And aid us in experiencing knowing and recognizing a world marinated with Jesus. (wish #2)
These are my two wishes for us.
Read 1 John 1:1-4.
There was a heresy circulating in the early church when John wrote these words. By heresy, I mean a false, untrue teaching. This heresy was called Gnosticism. This teaching said that spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil. These were some of its points.
1. Human bodies - the physical body - because it is matter is evil.
God because he is spirit - because he has no body is good.
2. Salvation/life after death will be an escape from the body achieved not by faith in Jesus but by a special knowledge. Salvation to the Gnostics was a mental exercise and not a faith/experimental act.
3. Christ’s humanity/Jesus’ body wasn’t real. Jesus only seemed to have a body.
Gnosticism - this false teaching, sought to lead its followers away from life in this material/physical world. Gnosticism sought to lead its followers into a spiritual state that had nothing to do with reality.
In a sense this teaching sought to lead its followers to mountain top experiences where one’s breath is taken away. Where one is continually ohhed and ahhed by the splendor of the spiritual while forsaking all that was material down in the valley. It sought to take its followers to Hallelujah Glacier and Amen Peak and Righteous Rock and Light of the World Lookout.
And John the writer of these words couldn’t stand for this false teaching. It just wasn’t true. It wasn’t what he had experienced from his time with Jesus. He wanted to get the matter straight so John writes this letter to a group of people seeking to follow Jesus who have been influenced by these false teachers. John wants to clarify for them the Truth, that which they could know for sure so that they can live life well where they are. So convinced is John about Jesus and the ways of Jesus that he tells his readers that they can have "complete joy" (1:4) and know God’s "complete love" (2:5) here and now. Joy and love aren’t extra-terrestrial things. Things received outside of this material world - no - not at all. These are gifts out God desires his children to experience now, in the present, in the valley. John in a sense is saying - you can take your training wheels off. Those spiritual training wheels. Take them off. I know you’ve been told some false things. I know you’ve been led to believe by those false teachers that-
Anything physical
Anything earthly
Anything material has no hope.
But what I’m telling you is that I’ve experienced Jesus. He writes -
I’ve seen him
Looked at him
My hands have touched him
God’s appeared in this world.
He’s come to you - now quit playing it safe. Be free.
No doubt these people were hurting.
No doubt these people were confused.
They had been led astray
They had been bruised
Taken some falls.
And perhaps they were tempted to put their training wheels back on. To play it safe. Not wanting to keep exploring God and His ways.
And John will have none of it.
How does he seek to communicate this?
Personal experience.
I know what those guys said.
That anything spiritual can’t take on physical qualities
But I’ve touched him.
I’ve heard him.
I’ve seen him.
I know what those false teachers told you, earthly life is futile, a waste.
That we should seek to escape it
But I’m telling you - God came to us.
He entered into it. Taking on physical form to redeem.
This I share with you.
So that you may have fellowship.
So that you can know our love and support.
Hearing the personal experiences that others have had with God always helps me to keep my training wheels off.
Every Sunday morning in Boot Camp, our adult Sunday school class that is open/has seats for each of you. We’ve been experiencing joy together - not from my teaching but after I’m through.
Once I stop my lesson, I invite one volunteer to come up and share about the times in their life when God came near.
Made himself real.
When they saw
Touched
Gazed upon him.
These people have taken their training wheels off. They experienced God and together we celebrate. Together we are encouraged that god is real, is active - these lives testify to it. They’ve seen him, touched him, gazed upon him and they shared. And together we felt joy.
We’ve discovered anew each Sunday how God has made. Is making himself real to normal people living in the valley.
I remember vividly the day I took my training wheels off or asked my dad to
My neighbor friend - Pam Greener took her wheels of her bike and wanting to keep up with her, I asked my dad to do the same.
So he did.
And after many attempts up and down our sidewalk at 2317 west 11th street, 964-3455 - I finally got it. My Father set me free.
Oh how our God wishes for you and me to be free,
For us to experience him in the valley for us to see, touch, gaze upon him.
Let us spur each other on.
Let us tell our stories.
Let us celebrate and recognize God among us so that we can enter into his love and so that others will come to know of it as well. Amen.
Pray
Thank God, again for people, whose faith has touched yours, influenced yours, helped you.
Identify what needs to be taken off
Removed from you so that you can trust in God more deeply.
Are you holding onto your family to tight, not trusting God with them?
Are you holding onto your career to tight not trusting God to provide?
Are you holding onto your dollars to tight?
Are you holding onto your spouse to tight?
Are you holding onto your calendar to tight?
Ask God to remove these so that you can be set free.
Ask God to have hands to touch.
Eyes to see.
Ears to hear him and his work in this big world.
Prayer
We live in the valley between the Olympics and the Cascades, we seek god to live here well. As we read the book of 1 John, would you remove the
False teachings
The lies
The untruths in our lives that we would come to know your true way.
Would you give us the courage
to be set free
to take the next step
to get out of our spiritual ruts.
The faith to know that you will hold us when we do, so that we can learn more of you that we are currently allowing ourselves to know.
For we want to know you.
Your fullness, our Heavenly Father. Amen.
