Message - My Father's Eyes - Kyle Wade - Elder

John 3:16

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SPEAKER_02 0:42

Good morning again. It's been a while since the last time I was up here and preached. Not quite a year to be exact. Probably not long enough for some of you, but I did warn you, and thank you for sticking around. Last time I preached, I had mentioned that I had this concept of a sermon that I wanted to give, but after the murder of Charlie Kirk, uh didn't seem like the right message for that time, so I went a different route. But as the saying goes, this sermon's kind of been living in my head, rent-free, since then. So I am excited to have the opportunity to share it with you today. And I pray I do it justice. When you were a child, did you ever have that thing? You know that thing that brought you comfort and joy, that thing you couldn't leave home without. Maybe it was a blanket or a stuffed animal or a favorite toy. Maybe it was a bottle, a sippy cup, or a pacifier. Any of you ever have a passy baby? If you had a passy baby, you had extras in every vehicle, the diaper bag, you stuffed your pockets with them because you dare didn't dare leave the house without one. Well, believe it or not, I still have my childhood thing, and I brought it here to share with you all today. But I I don't do magic, so you'll have to go to the state fair for that. So this is Monzy, or my pet monster, like me, a product of the 80s. And I can still remember the Christmas I got him. In the 80s, they only made like three couches, and my parents had one of the three. It's that ugly tan one with like the cornucopia that's like brown and red, orangish, with a weighed a thousand pounds because it had a hidea bed in it. So me and my brother camped out on the hida bed waiting for Santa Claus to come, and I woke up to that beautiful face right there and was instantly in love. From that day on, I took Monzi everywhere with me. I even have photo evidence. Now, the picture on the left, is that not the most 80s picture you've ever seen in your life? Probably belongs in a calendar somewhere, but if you notice, my mom was a teacher, so apparently I went to prom more than I realized as a kid, but different color bow ties. That was years apart. So Monsi was my thing. In kindergarten, we had show and tell, and each week you were supposed to bring something that started with whatever letter you were going over that week. And I brought Monzi every week. If it was A, he was an animal. If it was B, he was my buddy. C, cartoon. You you get the picture. Until they told me I couldn't bring him anymore, and I was crushed. One year for my birthday, my mom spent I don't know how many hours making this cake. I mean, this was like days. I mean, you only have what, four food coloring projects or colors back then. So she was mixing them, trying to get all the colors just right, spent forever on this cake, and it turned out great. And then, as was the custom, when my friends were over, we would go out to the porch and she'd take a picture with all of us and the cake. Well, moments after this picture was taken, the cake slid off onto the concrete. And as my mom would tell the story to this day, my friend Bryson Keen, Brad's older brother, he bent down, started picking up crumpled pieces of cake, popping it in his mouth. He's like, it's still good. I told that, it's funny how God works these things out. I I had that in the sermon, and I didn't realize Brad's parents were gonna be here for a service. So it's just funny how those things work out. But needless to say, my mom was crushed. She spent all that time on the cake. Cake was ruined, but we ate it anyway. So you may ask yourself why? Why did I love this hideous thing? And the answer is, I don't know. It was the 80s. We had my pet monsters and zuba pants, so it was just weird times. But I'm gonna leave Monzi up here. He's gonna help me illustrate something later on, as long as he's not too distracting. But did you know that God also has a thing? Today I hope to demonstrate what that thing is as we reverse review a verse you're probably very familiar with, John 3.16. So, with that, let us pray. Lord, I pray that uh speak through me today, and I pray this sermon brings you glory. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So, John 3.16, probably one of the most recognized verses of the Bible. If you had to pick a single verse that best describes the message of the Bible or the gospel, this one is certainly in the running. It's a sort of Christianity 101. So we're gonna start out here with a little exercise, because I know you know this verse. So if you look at this verse kind of like a poem, there's basically four stanzas. So I need four brave people to give me the verse. What's the opening line? Just the opening line.

unknown 6:44

For God will love the world.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Good. For God so loved the world, what?

unknown 6:50

Is it the sun is a God's son?

SPEAKER_02 6:52

King James, I like it. Alright, what's next? Very good. For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. So you know this verse. We know this verse. We know it here, but do we know it here? There's a saying, sorry, I'm gonna detour for a second here. We're gonna come back to John 3.16. There's a saying that familiarity breeds contempt. What do you think? What does that mean? That familiarity breeds contempt. Let's go back to the thing, right? As children, we have our things, but as adults, we have things as well. They just look a little different, right? So maybe as an adult, your thing is your is your car. In America, we love our cars. We spend a lot of time in them. We all know that car guy or truck guy, right? Guys that take meticulous care of their vehicles. They love showing them off, telling you the work they put in them, describing you know everything that's in the vehicle. And even if you're not a car guy, like you can still appreciate that, right? And I think everyone enjoys getting a new vehicle. Maybe not brand new, but new to them. And is there anything better than a new car smell? So it's exciting when you get a new vehicle. But a new vehicle doesn't stay new, does it? One day you come out of the store and you notice that there's a nice door ding in the side of your vehicle. Or working in the industry I do, someone backed into you, hits your bumper, your rear panel, and of course there's no note. So over time, you begin noticing the chips and the scratches and the paint, the dents, but no longer has that new car smell. If you have kids, it has a smell you can't quite identify. There's stains in the carpet, tears in the seats, and certain features that no longer work. The repair and the maintenance bills start stacking up and you start weighing what's more expensive, the repairs or new vehicle. But you start to develop almost this disdain for your vehicle that at once brought you joy. Familiarity breeds contempt. Maybe your thing is your house. Do you remember the excitement when you bought your home? The potential it had. Maybe you built your house. Maybe your house has been passed on through the generations and your great-great-grandfather built it. But you've repainted, remodeled, did some updates, you've decorated and made the house a home. Maybe it's the house you brought your kids to from the hospital. Or maybe it's the home you predominantly raised your kids. The memories that took place in your home. But like a car, maintaining a home is expensive. You no longer like the paint color you chose for this room, your kitchen's dated, and it doesn't have enough storage, because we never have enough storage. The carpet needs replaced, there's cracks in the driveway, the sidewalk sinking, there's patches in the drywall, a water stain in the ceiling, the lawn you can't keep up with. You finally paid off the house, but now you still have to pay property taxes and insurance. The kids have moved out, so it no longer feels like the home you knew. It's just a house. Familiarity breeds contempt. Maybe you think I'm being extreme, or maybe I haven't convinced you yet. So I want you to think back to when you first started dating your spouse. When you were getting ready for a date, what did you do? You showered, you shaved, you brushed your teeth, put on some cologne or some perfume, you dressed up, put your best foot forward. Fellas, maybe you showed up with some flowers or chocolates, you opened the car door, and you didn't dare pass gas. Fast forward, and how does that look now? Well, I guess it's flannel pajamas again. There he is in his holy t-shirt and his gross recliner. Hey honey, pull my finger. You may argue, well, that's not contempt, that's comfort. And yes, I hope you're comfortable with your spouse. I hope that's the person you can go to and not have to worry about putting on any fronts. But sometimes comfort is a husband who stops pursuing his wife. Or comfort is a wife who no longer respects her husband. In a culture like ours with high divorce rates, I think it's safe to say that many marriages fail because familiarity breeds contempt. We see several examples of this in the Bible as well. If you look in the books of Exodus and Numbers, we're given one such example. And so I'll remind you before I get into this that the Israelites have been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, but the Lord hears their cries, and so he sends Moses to perform his wonders. And the Israelites experience firsthand God's wonders, the ten plagues, the pillar of fire and smoke, the parting of the Red Sea, Pharaoh's army getting swallowed up. And as they begin their journey through the wilderness, almost immediately they begin grumbling. Exodus 16, 3 If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt, there we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. In verse 4, God responds, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Once again, the Lord provides, and he gives this manna that Psalm 78, verses 24 and 25 describes as the grain of heaven, the brain of bread of angels. Yet if you turn to Numbers 11, verses 4 through 6, they begin to grumble again. The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, If only we had meat to eat, we remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost, also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite, we never see anything but this manna. But in Numbers 11, 19 through 20, the Lord says, This you will not eat it, that's the quail meat, for just one day, or two days, or five, ten, even twenty, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, Why did we ever leave Egypt? Until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it. So what if I put it this way? We complain about expensive car repairs, yet we have transportation. We complain about having to work, yet we have gainful employment. We complain about having to do never-ending laundry, yet we have clean clothes. We complain about having to figure out what to make for dinner, yet we have food to eat. We complain about having a messy house, yet we have children to make the mess, and a home to raise a family. Today's complaints are things we used to pray for. And we are truly blessed in this country that we take so much for granted when a good portion of this world doesn't know when or where their next meal will come from or where they will lay their head tonight, or how they're going to support their family. We have first world problems, but if we're not careful, they can steal our joy. Look, I'm not trying to convince you that you should have contempt for your car or your house or your spouse or the blessings from God. Quite the opposite. I truly pray that is not the case. I'm simply trying to illustrate how familiarity can, in fact, breed contempt if we're not careful. So consider this a warning and do not fall prey. And is there anything or anyone we are more familiar with than ourselves? Have you ever been driving in a car by yourself, just going about your day, and all of a sudden a memory of some past sin enters your mind? You don't know why. And all you can do is let out an audible sigh and ask God for forgiveness for the thousandth time. Or maybe it hits you some restless night when all the sins of the past seem to be crushing your chest. Or maybe it's not a big sin, but a small sin that you keep doing and you can't stop. And you keep tripping over the same stone again and again and again. Maybe it's not even a sinful act with some dark thought that enters your mind that you don't know where or why it came. You simply stop, shake your head, and ask yourself, what is wrong with me? What if almost like a Pinocchio effect, you know Pinocchio, every time he lied, his nose grew. What if every time we sinned, it manifested in some physical feature on our bodies? A wart here, a hairy mole there, horns, twenty teeth. Before long, we'd start looking like my friend Monzi here. That's certainly how Satan views you. We have an enemy who is very familiar with us. He knows your sins, your weaknesses. He's so familiar with you and your sins, but also the sins of your father and the sins of his father, all the way down to the beginning of your family line. And he uses that knowledge to shame you, to torment you, to tempt you, to steal your peace and your joy, to try to separate you from God. In a war for your soul, this is how he presents you to God, and so much worse. Our enemy has nothing but contempt for you. Not only you, but everyone you hold dear, and most of all, God, who he is also very familiar with. I think sometimes on your darkest days, you look in a mirror and you might see a face like this staring back at you. A face only a mother could love. But what about in the eyes of a father? I'm gonna give you a phrase, and it's not a phrase I came up with. I came across it myself while doing a study called 30 Days to Resilient. It's a John Eldridge study available in his app called Pause. Now I know I've probably mentioned John Eldridge in every single sermon I've done, and I promise you I'm not on his payroll, but there's something about his work that resonates with me, so he finds his way in my sermons, I guess. But this phrase that I'm gonna share with you, when I came across it, it dawned on me that no matter where you are in your Christian walk, whether you're a mature lifetime Christian or new to the faith or here seeking, you probably have not heard this phrase before. Because I certainly had not heard it put this way before. So I want to share this with you, but before I do, I'm gonna give you a disclaimer. Some of you are gonna want to call me a heretic. Some of you may have a Peter moment where you say, Lord, Lord, get away from me. For I am a sinful man or a sinful woman. This phrase is probably gonna make you feel uncomfortable, but it could change your life. I want you to do another exercise. This time I want you to close your eyes. Take a deep, a few deep, take a slow breath. Clear your mind. Picture in your mind being at the foot of the cross of Christ. Now say to yourself this was for me. I am worth the death of Christ. That's how much I'm loved. I know many of you are having an internal battle with what I just said. It sounds scandalous. You're probably thinking something along the lines of Romans 3.23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That is true. The Bible says so. We are all sinners, we all fall short of the glory of God. And Romans 6.23 tells us that the wages of sin is death, which we all deserve, and the hell that comes with it. We can never measure up to God. We can never do enough good to outweigh the bad. We can never serve enough, tithe enough, praise enough. A single sin separates us from God because He is holy and just. So what do you mean my life is worth the death of Christ? In your eyes, in my eyes, in the eyes of the enemy, it's not. Because you are his thing. If that's not true, then what are any of us doing here? It's an uncomfortable truth we all must face. And why is it uncomfortable? Because the pain and the disappointments of this life erode our confidence in the goodness of God. I stated earlier that we know this verse in our minds, but do we know it in our hearts? Familiarity breeds contempt. I know some of you, when I first put John 3.16 up on the board, you thought to yourselves, well, not learning anything new today. Our sin separates us from God, even as believers. We may understand that God loves us, that he sent his son who died for us, and if we believe and accept this gift, he will award us with eternal life, on a surface level at least. Here's what I mean. For God so loved the world, it's a blanket statement, right? So we tend to have this macro thousand-foot view of this verse instead of a micro, up and close view down to the individual level. Romans 5, 6 says, Christ died for the ungodly. In verse 8, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Well, we just confirmed we're all sinners. So there's nothing special about his love for me. He loves the world. It's a generality. Let me illustrate it this way. Where is God when you pray? Is he up in heaven while you're down here? Like a kid staring down on a Zay farm? Or is he in the room with you? Is he beside you? Is he embracing you? Or is he within you inside your heart? God loves you. God loves you. Not like some distant uncle who sends a birthday card once in a while. He loves you fiercely, he loves you intimately, because you're his thing. Maybe you've accepted God's love. You're good in this area of faith. But maybe you struggle fathoming that the creator of heaven and earth doesn't just love you, he delights and takes sheer joy in you. And I don't mean collectively, I mean each and every one of you. On an individual level, he loves you. Psalms 139-13. For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. Matthew 10 30, and even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Zephaniah 3.17, the Lord your God is with you, the mighty warrior who saves. He will take delight in you in his love. He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. Rejoice over you with singing. Psalms 149, 4. For the Lord takes delight in his people, he crowns the humble with victory. Psalms 147, 11, the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. For God so loved the world, for God so loved you. For God so loved you that he sent his one and only Son. And who is his son? The Christ, the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Emmanuel, God with us. God who took the form of a man, born of the Virgin Mary, who faced every temptation we face, yet he did not sin. The sacrificial lamb without blemish, who took the sins of the world, your sins, my sins, the sins of those that were before him, the sins of those that were with him, the sins of those after him, and the sins of those yet to come. Second Corinthians 5.21, God made him who had no sin to become sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. My friends, that is good news. Because Jesus willingly laid down his life on the cross, we are no longer separated from God. So when God gazes upon you, through his eyes, he doesn't see a monster. He doesn't see your sin. Isaiah 118, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. But you have to believe. John 17, 22 through 23, I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I and them, and you and me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Do you see the overlay? I am giving them, that's us sinners, the glory that you have given me, that's Jesus, God the Son. Then the world, the same world that God so loves, will know, let's believe, that you sent me and have loved them. But not everyone believes, do they? We're uncomfortable with the idea that someone could love us this much. We've allowed our enemy, life's hardships, our pain, our disappointments, the things we don't have explanations or answers for. We've allowed these things to make us skeptics. We become jaded towards our world, towards others, even towards ourselves. We even have a saying, don't we? If it sounds to be good to be true, it probably is. So we're uncomfortable with the idea that we could be given something we don't deserve. And not just something, but a gift so precious, so valuable, and so dear, we don't have the words to describe it. Eternity with our Heavenly Father. Brothers and sisters, do not let familiarity breed contempt. Do not gloss over this verse the next time you read it. You have a Father in heaven who loves you. He knows you better than you know yourself, and you are his thing. But how well do you know him? It's an open invitation. We just have to remove the barriers that we ourselves put up. Do not let the hurt you've experienced in this life erode your confidence in the goodness of God. If you're here today and you haven't accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, know that these words are true. Through the eyes of your heavenly Father, your life was worth the death of Christ. And you may have eternal life if you only believe in the goodness of God. That's why he sent his one and only Son, Jesus, who died for our sins. Your sins are washed clean in the blood of Christ if you accept this truth. Now go tell the world. And I want you to listen to the words carefully. For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and how long, and how high, and how deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Thanks, Kyle. Well, church, we're gonna close in one last chorus if you'd like to stand with me. What I love about the gospel is you can grow up in church, you can hear it so many times, and yet it can still be present it in a new way. And just love that visual you gave us, Kyle. And you know, if you've been sitting here thinking, maybe you've been to church your whole life and you haven't placed your hope in his unfailing love, or maybe it sparked some thought, maybe this is your first time here and you want to take that next step. There's people to talk to, talk to Kyle, talk to myself. Um you can shoot an email to Pastor Paul, he'll get it. But you know, get your questions answered. Um if if God's been poking at your heart and you want to make that decision, don't let this day pass, don't let this moment pass without taking that step. And we're here to walk you through that and walk with you in that in that journey. Uh with that, I'm gonna invite our prayer team to come up, uh, Tom and Roxanne. And if you need prayer this morning, they're up here as we close. And I know they'd love to pray with you. Let's sing this last uh chorus together, and we'll we'll end singing about how awesome our God is. Let's sing this together.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Is it not God here? One more time, church. Is it not? Um God here from heaven of dumb Iron.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Love our God is it not um god on that note, church, have a great week, great Sunday, and we'll see you next time.