In the book of I John, John uses the word "know" 36 times! In this final section of the letter, he wants us to know three things: 1 - You have eternal life, 2 - Your prayers are being heard, 3 - You will be kept by God. If you are already trusting in Jesus, this should be incredibly encouraging, and if you are not, it is not too late to look to Jesus and make Him Lord of your life.

There is nothing more important than having eternal life. So where does eternal life come from? In this passage, John tells us that there are three witnesses - the water, the blood and the Holy Spirit - that testify to the fact that eternal life comes through Jesus.

Jesus spoke about the need for someone to be born again and John picks up this theme in his letter. Our spiritual rebirth is much like our physical birth, most notably because we rely on the power of God to make it happen. After we are born again, we believe in Jesus, we develop a love for the Father, we overcome the world, live in joyful obedience, and love the children of God.

John uses the word "Love" 29 times in these 15 verses, making the theme of God's Love impossible to miss. He reminds us that God's love for us produces love for others in our heart. We often turn this around, trying to love others so that God loves us, but our good works and love for others are merely the fruit of us being rooted in God's Love.

John knows how easily we can be swayed by the words and ideas of those around us. Because of this, he reminds us that we need to test everyone else's ideas against God's Word. We need to be alert for anyone who tries to add or subtract to God's Word and stand firm when they try to convince us to believe something that isn't true.

How do you know someone is alive? By looking at their birth certificate? No, you look at what they do today, and the same is true with our spiritual life. In this text John says that we know someone is a true believer if they demonstrate love for others. How are you demonstrating God's love for others in your life?

In this text, John encourages us to let our lives demonstrate our knowledge of the fact that we are God's children. Just like we often seem to become more like our parents as we get older, we should become more like our heavenly father as we mature and grow in our faith. If we are children of God, then we should live like it!

Today's text begins by saying that the end is near and that there are some who seem to be believers but turn out to not be. We can endure to the end, but it won't happen by accident. This sermon looks at three realities that will help us in this goal. 1. We are living in the last days of deception. 2. If we don't get Jesus right, everything else goes wrong. 3. We must abide in God's Word and align with God's people to persevere to the end.

Do you know if God loves you? In this letter, John reminds us that our sins have been forgiven and that we have overcome the evil one, all because God loves us. He then goes on to say that if this is true, that God loves us, then we have no need to love the world. When we have Jesus, we have no need for anything else to capture our affections.

This week we continue to ask ourselves how we can know that we are Christians. In this section of I John, we are prompted to ask three questions to help diagnose our spiritual health. 1) Do you believe in Jesus? 2) Do you live like Jesus? 3) Do you love like Jesus?

Sometimes we look at our lives and see our sin and wonder if we are actually a true believer. Other times we look at the sins of other people and assure ourselves that we must be a Christian, since we aren't that bad. John lays out several distinct traits that will help you see if you are a true believer, or just think you are.

We all have questions about life and faith and we all want to be sure about the answers. This week we begin our series walking through I John, asking the question "How Do I Know?" The good news is that we can have confidence that our faith is real. Join us as we begin this series and find out how we can know.