Part one of Brian Habig’s three-part talk at Grace Downtown’s 2011 Fall Retreat starts us looking at the Bible’s exhortation to encourage one another.

We’ve looked at the priority of love to the character of God, and we’ve looked at ways love can be mis-directed in our lives. But John’s letter doesn’t just lead us to consider love itself—it also prompts us to consider the opposite of love: Who is it from? How does it work? And what does it ultimately show us?

Last week, we looked at how central love is to God’s character. But what happens in our own lives when we love the wrong things first? Glenn Hoburg leads us through the objects of such false love, the heart behind that false love and what brings that false love to an end.

The next five installments of our look at how to know God through the lens of 1 John are dedicated to love. Is that excessive? Not when you realize how central love is to both John’s letter and God’s character. This week, we’ll start to look at the priority love has and the resources it provides.

Can you imagine someone who is in a legitimate position to condemn you taking your consequences upon themselves instead? That’s the beginning of understanding the biblical concept of atonement. But to understand the gift of atonement more fully, we need to consider who gives it and how it changes us.

To some modern sensibilities, the concept of atonement sounds unloving, or even barbaric. However, atonement is a vital part of relationship, and without it all relationships are in a state of brokenness. For two weeks, we will look at what the book of 1 John says about atonement, starting with our need for it.

Sermon audio will be posted later this evening.

“God is light, and in him there is no darkness whatsoever.” This is not an easy line to hear, and it can be an even harder one to believe. But it is also the crux of who John says God is, and the book of 1 John helps us understand just how it is John can say this.

There is a difference between knowing of someone and actually knowing the person. Through the book of 1 John, we’ll be looking at what it means to go from knowing of God to knowing God, beginning with what the apostle has to say about the way to know God and why you should do it.

As Glenn Hoburg shares the experience of his family’s three month sabbatical the question he poses is: Are you able to rest?

How do you deal with the losing something deeply significant or being deeply disappointed? Where do you go when the bottom falls out and you can’t seem to find God? Through examining Genesis 22, as Abraham is called by God to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac, we see that even in the midst of trials and a lack of understanding about the cause of such suffering, the Lord will provide.

Scott Seaton is the pastor of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Arlington, Virginia.