Hearing God’s Voice from His Word
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 36:5-9 Lord, your faithful love reaches to heaven, your faithfulness to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your judgments like the deepest sea.
Lord, you preserve people and animals.
7 How priceless your faithful love is, God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8 They are filled from the abundance of your house. You let them drink from your refreshing stream.
9 For the wellspring of life is with you. By means of your light we see light.
Read the Entire Psalm
You preserve people and animals. The wellspring of life is with God. These verses speak of God’s common grace. He gives grace to all by just allowing people and animals to exist, but He does more than allow us to live in His universe. He enables us to continue to have life. He is the wellspring of life. Thank God for preserving your life and the life of those around you. Praise Him that He is the wellspring of all life. He is the source of life.
SCRIPTURE READING:
1 John 1:1-4 – New Living Translation
1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanksgiving to God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
- Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”) - Bring your personal requests to God.
(Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”) - Pray for someone in your small group.
- Join with others from River and pray for those who do not know God. Ask God to help you see the lost people around you and have compassion for them. Ask God for opportunities to build trust. Ask God to give you opportunity to have gospel conversations.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
John will give three key “tests” of knowing whether or not you have eternal life. These tests are theological, moral, and social. If someone claims to be a Christian but does not believe that Jesus is fully God and fully man, then they are not a Christian. They may be religious, sincere, and devout, but they are not a Christian. To know Christ is to know him as he actually is. To say you are a Christian but not be growing in Christlike morality is to be deceived. This is not to say that you are going to have moral perfection, but if a person lives in persistent sin and is unconcerned and unconvicted, then they must not claim to be a Christian. Finally, John writes that if a person claims to be a Christian but does not love people, then they are deceived. He offers the simple logic that since God is love, if you claim to love God (whom you don’t even see) and don’t love the people right around you (whom you can see) then you are deceived. John does not intend for us to run around using these three things as a sort of metric to decide if we think people are Christians. Jesus even said you won’t be able to tell. The weeds and the wheat can grow in the same field, and if you try to pull the weeds you might get some wheat. Let God, he said, sort it out. So, what are we to do with this three-fold test? We are to consider our own lives. Not in order to feel insecure about our salvation, but to be secure. Focus on biblical doctrine, holiness, and relationships. These are our birthrights in Christ. We should thrive in these things. We should be growing in them and in the confidence that this growth brings.