Oh, we are thankful that we can continue in the presence of the Lord. And I have a belief that during this hour, many are going to have the opportunity to know the Lord as their peace.
Some might be nervous, but praise God, we have that word of peace to start with. And He will give us that perfect peace, that we will be able to share all that the Lord has put upon our hearts.
We know that, as we have been sharing and praying, this Sunday we will have an open time of sharing—not the normal ministry. Actually, the topic is going to be the same. If you consider the ministry of the Word, in general the topic is about the Lord. The topic this morning is going to be the same also, and so we are excited about that.
We are thankful for the encouragement we see in 1 Corinthians 14: that as we gather, there is that whole spirit of encouraging one another, of edifying one another. And that is the desire that we have as we come together during this time.
It also says in 1 Corinthians 14: it is a time for everybody. It is not a matter of old or young, but we are thankful that, for every brother and sister, as the Lord has spoken to your heart, we are anxious to hear.
I would like for us to turn to 1 John 1:1-4, because again, this touches on the topic of our testimonies. We look at 1 John 1 and verses 1 through 4.
Mine starts out, it says, “What was from the beginning?” Now, I am going to take a little liberty, and I am going to change the what to who, because that is what it is speaking of. The what is speaking of a Who, because this is what we will be sharing about this morning.
So we look at 1 John 1:1-4. It says:
Who was from the beginning,
Who we have heard,
Who we have seen with our eyes,
Who we have beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life.
That is, again, a Who. That is about our Lord.
And the life was manifested—that is His life—and we have seen, and bear witness, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
Who we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also,
That you also may have fellowship with us.
Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father
And with His Son, Jesus Christ.
And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
We are thankful that as we come and as we share Christ with one another, there is a fullness. There is a completing of the joy that the Lord has.
We are thankful how, as we come together, we know the Lord has been speaking to many through His Word. Maybe you had an experience and you saw a word become life in a very living way. And this is what we would be jealous for in this time.
I just want to have a couple of guidelines as we are together. The principal guideline is that we love one another.
And in that loving one another, we consider one another so that many will have the opportunity. We show our love by considering one another and giving many the opportunity to share.
We show that love by supporting one another. When one is up here, they are not just up here alone. We are all standing with them and supporting them.
And we are supporting them in prayer, because some brothers and sisters may not be accustomed to sharing publicly. And if you have not done that, sometimes you have something on your heart, but it is hard to get out, and it is a limitation.
And so, thank the Lord, we can pray with every brother and sister that is here, that all that the Lord has spoken in life to hearts will give utterance. Those words will come out in life.
And this is how we love one another. It is how we support one another: we pray for one another. And we pray for one another, too, that we not be too nervous.
If you are not nervous at all, we will pray you get a little nervous. There is a holy nervousness. We do not want self-confidence here, okay?
And we also do not want to hinder others from sharing. One of the ways that we can not hinder others, but provide an opportunity for many to share, is by not going on too long.
We have set a guideline of about ten minutes to help us, because sometimes, when we are sharing, and if we are not accustomed to sharing, we are not conscious of time.
So, at about eight minutes, we have a sign. Emma, show the sign. We have an eight-minute sign. This is the yield sign, all right? I think you know what that means.
That means, kind of start wrapping it down so others will have opportunity to share. And then you have ten minutes. I think that is self-explanatory.
So may the Lord’s grace abound. This will not be on the website. This will not go out on the website, but it will be recorded.
And if somebody would like to have the recording, you can see the ones at CTM—the Cox family, Noah—and he will take care of it for you.
So, let us go ahead and have a word of prayer and commit the time to the Lord.
Lord, we are very thankful for this opportunity, because it is an opportunity to prove You. Lord, it is an opportunity to taste of the fullness of the body of Christ.
We are thankful, Lord, that we can bring this time under Thy headship, Thy lordship. We would be jealous for the very life of Your Son to come forth through our brothers and sisters.
And Lord, we do commit this time into Your hands. Lord, we call this an open time, but it is open to all the things that are from You.
But we are thankful that it is closed to the things that are not of You. And You are the government over this time. In Jesus’ name, amen.
All right, feel free.