WEBVTT 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:07.200 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:11.599 We exist to awaken this generation to a new life in Christ. 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:12.960 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:13.199 --> 00:00:16.399 To find out more, go to awakeningchurch.com. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:22.399 Awakening Church, uh, happy Advent season. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:23.519 So good to see you. 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:27.920 And it was great to see some of you at our Christmas drive-thru party this past Sunday. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:40.719 I really enjoyed interacting with you, and our our whole goal was to show you and to join with you in the joy of Jesus that he brings to us during Advent, during the Christmas season. 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:42.159 And I think we accomplished that. 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:43.920 I think the joy of Jesus was present. 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:45.840 We had booths and treats for you. 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:48.159 And if you weren't able to make it, man, we missed you. 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:55.840 But um it got me thinking because I was talking with so many of you and I was asking a lot of you, like, how is it going this Christmas season during 2020? 00:00:55.920 --> 00:01:02.399 And, you know, even behind masks and stuff, I could tell there was uh, you know, a little bit of hesitation. 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:05.599 It was like, yeah, we're doing the best with Christmas this year. 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:07.439 Yeah, we can't go home and see family. 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:10.560 Yeah, we're not gonna be able to be around the same people this year. 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:15.439 We're not gonna be able to go to the same holiday parties we love to, but we're doing our best. 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:23.359 And what I sensed at the drive-thru was maybe, you know, a sense of tension, you know, a time of tension that we are in. 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:30.319 And this Christmas has that tension, the tension between the joy of Jesus and the reality of 2020, right? 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:34.239 And you might be thinking, man, I'm just not in the mood of Christmas for Christmas. 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:37.840 I don't have the spirit of the season or the spirit of Christmas around. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:49.040 But I want to argue that while you may not have the spirit of Christmas, I think that tension between joy and reality and pain is actually the habit of mind for Advent. 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:51.840 That's really where Advent places us. 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:54.159 You know, Advent is not the same thing as Christmas time. 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:57.920 You know, Christmas time, Christmas time is actually, I don't know if you knew this, it's one word. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:59.920 It's like a way to talk about a season. 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:02.719 Christmas time and Advent are not the same thing, right? 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:12.639 Christmas time is the bright lights, the smattering of sweet treats, it's the uh ability, the joy in a child's face when you unwrap a present. 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:18.879 It's um, you know, ads targeted towards your nostalgia of Christmases long, long ago. 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:21.680 But Advent is is is not that. 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:26.080 Advent is the habit of mind that reflects reality. 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:33.520 Advent is able to look at the pain and the darkness of this world with a light shining on it. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:37.360 You know, Advent is the tension between the joy and reality. 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:46.000 And so, might I just tell you if that's the way you're feeling this Advent, you're like trying to navigate the joy and the difficulty. 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:48.719 I just have to say, welcome to Advent. 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:53.919 Um, Fleming Rutledge is a theologian I admire, and she writes this in her book on Advent. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:00.479 In a very real sense, she says, the Christian community lives in Advent all the time. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:14.960 It can be well called the time in between because the people of God live in the time between the first coming of Christ, incognito in the stable of Bethlehem, and his second coming in glory to judge the living and the dead. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:21.360 Tension is a habit of mind for Advent, but tension that we are sure will be broken. 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:25.199 We wait in hopeful expectation that the tension will be broken. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:27.520 Advent declares reality, right? 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:30.639 Life is tense and dark, but not forever. 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:32.560 Fear is real, but not our master. 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:32.879 Why? 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:39.120 Because, like Fleming Rutledge says, Advent is about the celebration of two arrivals, two advents. 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:40.319 That's what the word literally means. 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:41.680 Ryan said this last week. 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:44.479 The word literally means uh arrival. 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:49.759 And we sit in the habit of Jesus' once and future coming. 00:03:50.080 --> 00:04:00.319 Um, and we've been reflecting on this over this series uh through this series, looking at Isaiah 9, okay, this famous Christmas passage, right? 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:01.599 You maybe have heard it before. 00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:12.159 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, his name shall be called, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:14.000 And we've been looking at this passage, right? 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:25.920 And we've been saying each of these names are not only about Christ's coming, but the way Christ can inhabit our lives today and how he will come in the future. 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:33.040 So Advent declares the reality that Christ has come and Christ will come again in these ways. 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:38.399 And we heard Christina talk about Wonderful Counselor, and Ryan last week on Mighty God. 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:41.680 And next week, Nassim will be preaching on Prince of Peace. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:45.040 Today I want to talk to you about the everlasting Father. 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:47.040 The everlasting Father. 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:51.439 How the everlasting father enters into this tension. 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:57.120 Maybe you have a good experience with that word or a bad experience with everlasting father. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:09.439 I want to show you today how the everlasting father enters into our tension and helps break it, helps ease it, helps relax it, helps embrace that season that we're in right now. 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:13.199 I want to do that through showing you this passage of Jesus teaching his disciples. 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:19.600 I'll set up the context a little later, but just read with me Matthew chapter 10, starting in verse 26. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.639 Jesus is teaching his disciples, he says this. 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:24.639 So have no fear of them. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:31.439 For nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:37.680 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:44.879 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:51.519 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father? 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:54.000 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 00:05:54.079 --> 00:05:59.920 Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:06.399 What does the everlasting father offer us in a time of tension? 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:11.920 Jesus is teaching his disciples about a truth about the Father. 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:17.360 And this truth can be taken to us in Advent, a time of tension. 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:20.240 What does the everlasting father offer us in a time of tension? 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:21.439 Just a couple thoughts for you. 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:26.480 First, the everlasting Father offers everlasting truth. 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:31.040 The everlasting father offers everlasting truth. 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:35.279 The context of this verse in Matthew 10 is interesting. 00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:38.160 Jesus says at the start of it, have no fear of them. 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:39.120 Well, who's them? 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:40.240 Who's he talking about? 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:44.720 You know, the disciples at this point are being sent on mission by Jesus. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:57.680 They're being asked to proclaim good news of the gospel of the kingdom of God, but they also are in the knowledge that by proclaiming that good news, they're going to be persecuted and face danger. 00:06:57.920 --> 00:06:59.360 So there's the tension. 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:08.319 They want to share the joy of Jesus to the world, but they are coming up against the reality that it is not going to be easy. 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:12.639 And many of them will face danger, physical harm, and even death. 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:30.000 And Jesus is saying as you're going on mission and you experience that tension of the joy of my message and the difficulty that comes with proclaiming it, you have an everlasting Father who's able to care for you and share with you a kind of truth that you need not be afraid. 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:37.199 The disciples are not instructed to leave the crisis or avert their eyes from the tension, but to walk in courage in the tension. 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:38.319 And how are they going to do that? 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:43.600 Well, Jesus tells them that they have a truth. 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:58.000 They have something that is, you know, Jesus calls it hidden or said in the darkness that they're going to say in the light because they have a knowledge and a wisdom that the rest of the world does not have. 00:07:58.240 --> 00:07:59.759 They've been shown Jesus. 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:02.000 They've experienced the revelation of Jesus. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:05.439 And this right here is why it's an Advent passage, if you can believe that or not. 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:14.240 You know, it doesn't seem like a traditional Christmas passage, but it kind of is because Jesus is saying one day all the things that are hidden will be revealed. 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:23.839 All the ways in which Christians are misunderstood and the gospel message is not heard correctly, one day it will be made plain. 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:31.360 It has been made plain through Christ, and the disciples know that, but one day at the second coming of Jesus, it will be made plain to all. 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:36.960 So Jesus says, What you hear in the dark, say in the light, because the Jesus who has come will come again. 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:43.840 The Jesus who showed up in Bethlehem will show up again in the new heavens and the new earth. 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:48.320 Both advents teach us that God reveals Himself. 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:51.600 The first Advent is the disclosure of Christ. 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:54.159 And the second advent, he arrives in glory. 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:58.879 The truth Jesus shares with us at Advent is this, right? 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:04.559 Our life is bookended by the once and future coming of Jesus Christ. 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:09.519 Human history is bookended by the once and future coming of Jesus Christ. 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:20.879 We live in between two Advents, two arrivals of God in humility, coming in humility, and God is his arrival in glory. 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:24.879 God arriving in a manger, God arriving in the clouds. 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:35.200 And this is the truth that frames our life, bookends our life, that gives us the knowledge that we can live in this world with joy and with pain. 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:44.320 You know, when I was first a Christian, this kind of stuff really helped me because it helps me make sense of the world that we live in that is both painful and joyful at the same time. 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:52.720 We understand these things as Christians, and we understand that because we know them, because we know Jesus has come and will come again, we don't need to be afraid. 00:09:52.879 --> 00:10:07.279 And it's not that we don't need to be afraid because we're like stronger than other people or better than anybody else, but because we've been shown someone, we've been shown Jesus Christ, we've been granted a perspective of wisdom. 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:11.200 Paul writes it this way in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 6. 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:15.600 Yet, he says, Among the mature, we do impart wisdom. 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:16.399 Now look at this. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:32.559 Although it's not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:34.559 Look at that verse just for a little bit. 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:37.360 God decreed before the ages for our glory. 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:41.679 It was a secret and hidden wisdom that was revealed in Jesus Christ. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.120 And in Jesus Christ, we're given a revelation of life and what's going on. 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:51.759 God has given us profound, eternal knowledge as the everlasting father. 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:57.759 It's like a father grabbing a son around the arm around his shoulders and saying, Let me tell you about life a little bit. 00:10:57.919 --> 00:10:58.399 It's okay. 00:10:58.559 --> 00:10:59.759 Things are gonna be okay. 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:04.639 You can get through this day of school, you can get through this difficult soccer game you're going through, right? 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:10.320 Buddy, it's gonna be okay because I have superior knowledge as your father. 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:14.960 And as the father instructs us with his superior knowledge, we know the truth. 00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:18.399 I remember even singing this in Catholic Mass growing up. 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:20.080 It's still a profound truth. 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:25.039 Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:28.399 That revelation eases us in our attention. 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:33.039 You know, when I was a kid, um, I was terrified of lightning storms. 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:37.919 I don't know if you were, um, but I was frightened of like lightning storms. 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:40.720 I was like six or seven or something like that. 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:42.559 And we wouldn't get them that often. 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:43.519 I grew up in Oregon. 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:45.679 We especially didn't get them that often in Portland. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:46.720 I grew up in the city. 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:52.000 But when we would, I would actually hide in the basement, paralyzed. 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:58.639 I remember shaking and awaiting the next thunderclap or boom of you know, thunder or something like that. 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:08.000 But my father, uh, he grew up in Michigan, and in Michigan they have incredible storms, storms beyond anything this organ boy had ever seen. 00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:14.960 And I remember him consoling me one day, telling me about the beauty of the storm, the beauty and the majesty of a storm. 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:28.720 He, as a boy, he would watch the clouds roll over Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes, thunder and lightning, rain and hail, and watching the storms come across the lake was a beautiful sight for my father. 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:36.799 Beyond that, he would tell me about being a teenager and driving around in his old cars with his friends, going into the heart of the storm to try to chase them. 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:49.919 I remember him even telling me that being in a car was one of the safer places to be because you were low to the ground and grounded by rubber, therefore leaving many storms or lightning strikes, rendering them ineffective, right? 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:54.000 He was giving me this insight, this wisdom that I didn't really have. 00:12:54.159 --> 00:13:00.720 And over time I became convinced, I'm happy to say now, as a 33-year-old man, I'm no longer afraid of storms. 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:05.519 And the reason I am is because I'm not anymore, is because my father taught me. 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:14.320 And for one predominant reason, I really trusted my dad is that my dad had been into the middle of the storms and he'd come back to tell me about them. 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:18.559 He was an authoritative voice who had been there and come back. 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:20.399 And so I could trust him, right? 00:13:20.639 --> 00:13:29.600 So one of the ways our fears are assuaged is when we receive information from a source of wisdom much more experienced than we are. 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:32.639 Someone who has been there and come back to tell us about it. 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:34.879 So why are Christians unafraid? 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:36.000 Look at this. 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:40.639 Only because we have received information from a profound source of wisdom. 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:45.519 We have heard from the only one who has been to death and back again. 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:50.720 The only one who's harbored and gone through the center of the storm and come back to tell about it. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:57.840 The only one who has physically died and spiritually taken on the consequences of death in the cross. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:04.240 Scripture says that he in his he bore his um our sins in his body on the tree. 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:13.200 And because Jesus did that, because he went there and came back, that's why Jesus says, you don't have to be afraid of somebody who just kills the body. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:20.559 Have no fear of those who just kill the body, because I'm the one who has gone to hell and back for you. 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:21.519 No one else will. 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:24.879 It's why Jesus, he's like, who cares, those who kill the body? 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:30.159 Christ has taken the existential and physical sufferings of sin on the cross. 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:35.519 He did not just physically die, but on the cross said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:44.320 He took on the consequences of sin, of spiritual abandonment, and then he rose from the dead to proclaim life to all creation. 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:51.279 There's no need to be afraid of anything once we know our Father has come back from death. 00:14:51.440 --> 00:15:00.720 That's why Isaiah, by the way, calls him the everlasting Father, the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit in Jesus on the cross, resurrecting from the dead. 00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:03.679 That's why Isaiah calls him everlasting Father. 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:08.159 You know, you might think it's not just that the Father lives forever, everlasting Father. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:12.639 It's not just that the Father lives forever, it's that he lives through anything. 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:15.840 He can live through any pain or anything. 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:18.159 He's gone to death and rose from the dead. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:21.200 Therefore, you and I can trust him, and we don't have to be afraid. 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:23.200 One thing the Father brings us. 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:25.600 He goes, I know how this story goes. 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:27.840 And death is not the end of the story. 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:30.080 Pain is not the end of the story. 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:34.240 A pandemic is not the end of the story, economic collapse is not the end of the story. 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:38.720 The story is between Christ's once and future coming. 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:41.679 And we have great hope in his coming again. 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:47.440 So the Father offers us everlasting truth, but the father also offers us everlasting love. 00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:52.080 The everlasting father offers us everlasting love. 00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:58.960 It's not just that he shares with us information, but he shares with us his very self. 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:05.039 When I was a kid growing up, scared of storms, going back to that time in my life. 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:14.000 Um as I said, I found my fears calmed because my father provided me information, authoritatively sharing with me truth. 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:18.159 But you know, I also got over this fear for another reason. 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:27.919 My father accompanied me through various hiking trips, and my dad owned a Jeep, so we'd go out on these Jeep rides together through various storms in eastern Oregon. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:41.840 I can remember going through the bad lands of the high desert, storms of hail, thunder, and lightning with my dad driving the Jeep, going through these windy roads, experiencing these storms together, enjoying them after a while. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:47.279 One summer in particular, I was like 12 or 13, and my dad rented this RV. 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:52.559 Uh, and me and my family went from Oregon to Wyoming and back. 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:55.440 I don't know how much I'd recommend this trip, but we did it, okay? 00:16:55.759 --> 00:17:00.559 And in this large RV, we went through some apocalyptic storms. 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:13.599 I remember one in particular, towards the tail end of our trip when we were out in Wyoming, out in the vast country of the American Midwest and these massive skies, and we were going through this intense storm, like the worst storm I've ever seen. 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:20.240 I'd never seen a storm like this: hail, lightning, thunder, darkness, blackness. 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:33.839 And I remember still having moments of my own fear at being 12 and 13, afraid of those storms, sitting in the back of the RV, gripping the side rest of the chair. 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:43.440 And I remember looking, though, in the rearview mirror at my father, who was lightly gripping that large RV steering wheel. 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:46.400 And I realized that he was smiling. 00:17:47.519 --> 00:17:51.119 He was smiling, he was he was at ease. 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:57.839 You see, an experience of terror for me was an experience of peace and maybe even joy for him. 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:06.880 And suddenly I was able to receive the peace and joy that was in his eyes and his face was transmitted to me. 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:15.519 Because now not only had he gone there and come back, but I was with him too in the midst of this storm. 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:24.240 And it's not just that the everlasting father equips us with truth about circumstances in which we will endure, or even about death itself. 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:28.720 You see, God does not just give us information to alleviate our fears. 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:33.759 No, more profoundly, he accompanies us inside the terror. 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:38.720 God goes before us, but he also goes with us. 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:44.880 He went to the grave and he came back, and he will not abandon us to the grave. 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:49.519 You see, God not only goes before us, he comes with us. 00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:52.799 He has been on this ride before, he accompanies us. 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:56.799 And the everlasting Father, it doesn't just mean that his care never runs out. 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:02.559 It's that he cares for us in such a way that is demonstrably different from any created being. 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:06.480 No one will be able to accompany you the way God will accompany you. 00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:11.440 No one will be able to love you the way that God is able to show his vast love and care for you. 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:20.240 And here in the text in Matthew 10 that we originally are reflecting on, Jesus expands our vision of this, that God's care doesn't run out. 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:25.680 He expands, showing us where the everlasting Father is present with his creatures. 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:27.839 And he does this through that metaphor with the sparrow. 00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:30.799 Remember, he says, sparrows are like a penny. 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:32.160 This is the cheapest bird. 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:36.400 And he's right, by the way, sparrows were the cheapest bird in the market. 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:38.480 Many people in the ancient day would buy them. 00:19:38.640 --> 00:19:43.359 Poor people, especially in lower classes, would buy sparrows to sacrifice them at the temple. 00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:46.319 They were worthless, essentially, worthless. 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:51.440 They were only reserved for the poorest of the poor to buy to do religious obligations. 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:54.319 They were never seen as a delicacy in any way. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:20:03.920 And Jesus says that even when a sparrow falls, the line he says is, not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:11.039 And I think that's a beautiful rendering of the Greek sentence because studying it, you know, it it's that bare of a sentence. 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:15.759 Um, the sparrow will not fall to the ground apart from your father. 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:22.319 Notice, he doesn't say apart from your father's knowledge, he doesn't say apart from your father's sight. 00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:24.559 He says apart from your father. 00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:27.200 And the Greek sentence literally just says that. 00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:37.039 You see, it's not just that God knows the cheapest bird on the lot falls, it's that he's with the cheapest bird as it falls. 00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:41.200 See, no sparrow falls apart from the father. 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:46.000 God accompanies even the cheapest of all creation to its death. 00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:50.799 And Jesus' argument is this wouldn't he do the same thing for you? 00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:53.839 You're so much more valuable than that. 00:20:54.079 --> 00:21:01.519 And so if God accompanies the sparrow to its death, will he not accompany you through life's greatest storms, including death itself? 00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:04.960 You see, you and I have nothing to be afraid of. 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:09.200 Why be afraid if God will accompany you anywhere? 00:21:09.440 --> 00:21:11.359 He's been to death and back again. 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:13.839 He'll go with you anywhere. 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:19.039 That's why Dallas Willard says, he says, we live in a God-bathed world. 00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:22.400 That God is so present with us everywhere. 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:35.359 Catherine Sonderager, in her systematic theology, she writes this: God is not an object encountered in the world of creatures, nor in the vast silence of limitless space of the universe. 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:37.759 God is not located. 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:43.599 Despite much loose talk, there is not, quote, more God in some places rather than others. 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:44.400 Listen to this. 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:55.200 He is everywhere present through his cosmos, not locally, but rather harmoniously, equally, generously, and lavishly in all places at once. 00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:59.839 And right here, the profound truth of God's omniscience. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:04.880 Omnipresence, his all-accompanying power over our lives. 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:10.559 Right here is where my metaphor with my dad it kind of breaks down. 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:16.640 And it breaks down in a beautiful way and it breaks down in a little bit of a painful way. 00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:22.240 A lot of you know that my story with my dad doesn't really have a happy ending. 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:26.640 My father was there for me at a young age in a thousand ways. 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:33.200 And but later in life, when I was turning 19, 18 or 19, my dad left. 00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:36.960 He left our family and he left my mom and he was gone. 00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:44.880 And really, from that point on, his presence in my life has only diminished slowly over the years through choices he has made. 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:49.759 My father has all but receded from my experience. 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:56.079 And you know, when he was first leading, leaving, I was um, I was dealing with these fresh fears and pain. 00:22:56.240 --> 00:22:58.079 And I had this tension. 00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:10.400 Um, I was, you know, looking to get married in the next couple years and um looking forward to all the things that were going to happen in my life, but I was realizing that my dad would not be there for them. 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:11.680 And and he wasn't. 00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:13.599 He he missed many things. 00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:18.880 Um many moments of adulthood, right, that were difficult to navigate. 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:26.400 He wasn't there for paying for college or weddings, funerals, times in my adulthood where you just need that assistance. 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:34.640 Now I had plenty of family support and amazing people around me, but to miss the my father was a difficult part of my life. 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:41.279 And during that time, I was um I was in Celebrate Recovery, which is kind of like the Christian AA. 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:42.559 And it, I was there. 00:23:42.720 --> 00:23:46.319 Um, you know, I was a part of the group, and then I led a group for a little while. 00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:48.559 And I was there not because I was addicted to anything. 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:53.200 I fortunately have just never suffered from addiction, but I just needed a healing community. 00:23:53.680 --> 00:24:13.119 And so when I was there, um, the first year when I was being led by a group of guys, and um, I remember one of them telling me, you know, when I was dealing with the pain of knowing if my dad would be there or not, he was like, he told me, you know, your earthly father was put in your life to show you the everlasting father. 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:13.839 I said, how? 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:17.680 To show me that he's just gonna be gone, you know, that just the same way my dad was gone. 00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:19.519 And he said, no, he shared with me this. 00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:30.400 He said, the gaps of our earthly fathers, uh, the gaps that they leave are invitations to experience the care of the everlasting father. 00:24:30.640 --> 00:24:41.519 The very spaces that you feel abandoned by whoever are potentially the precise location of God's presence. 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:45.200 Okay, so maybe your dad didn't leave, maybe it's something else. 00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:54.319 Maybe it's a divorce, maybe it's financial pain, maybe it's family tension, maybe it's uncertainty of a job, but there's a gap in your life of trust. 00:24:54.640 --> 00:24:58.400 There's a gap in your experience of knowing that God is near to you. 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:04.160 And sometimes in those gaps, we feel tension when we should be feeling the very presence of our father. 00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:08.079 Because if he doesn't abandon the sparrow, he will not abandon you. 00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:19.920 And the gaps that our fathers leave, or the gaps that pain in our life leave, are not the vacancy of God's presence, but the abundance in which he will fill his presence in. 00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:26.400 And so, in fact, it's both good fathers and bad fathers can bring us to the everlasting father. 00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:37.119 Good parts of our life and bad parts of our lives, because the best news of this text is the dramatic difference, the vast difference between earthly and everlasting fathers that Jesus paints. 00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:39.920 No sparrow falls apart from this father. 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:42.160 No hair goes uncounted, Jesus says. 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:44.400 He has the hairs on your head counted, right? 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:48.160 Earthly fathers, no matter how good or how bad, right? 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:50.480 They're gonna miss something, right? 00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:57.519 Dads, whether they miss a soccer game or miss most of your life, I mean, earthly fathers are just earthly fathers. 00:25:57.599 --> 00:25:59.920 They're they're limited in their capacity. 00:26:01.039 --> 00:26:05.519 You know, at some level, like we're we're not gonna be there for uh our kids. 00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:06.720 I'm a dad myself, right? 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:11.279 And I'm not gonna be there for my kid, maybe because I'm, you know, probably gonna die before him. 00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:13.039 He's gonna live a life without me. 00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:19.519 So we need an everlasting father, but both good fathers and bad fathers lead us to the everlasting father. 00:26:19.680 --> 00:26:23.200 And this is what I'm learning this Christmas, kind of as a new dad, right? 00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:26.160 Okay, I'm learning, my son Jude. 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:29.119 I've already failed at being a perfect dad a year in. 00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:37.680 I hope that the gaps of my inaction or action are places where Jude feels the sense and the presence of Jesus Christ. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:46.160 And so we're faced with this question here, which is will we acknowledge the reality of the personal God, the everlasting Father? 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:51.839 I didn't conclude the verses because I want to conclude them now. 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:54.880 This is the very end of this section of scripture, Matthew 10, 32. 00:26:55.119 --> 00:27:03.519 Jesus says this, okay, so everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my father who is in heaven. 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:09.519 But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my father who is in heaven. 00:27:09.839 --> 00:27:11.920 Here's what Jesus is saying. 00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:14.319 The Father acknowledges you. 00:27:14.640 --> 00:27:17.759 Do you acknowledge the everlasting Father? 00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:22.480 So the Father acknowledges you and will not leave you. 00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:24.640 You must acknowledge the Father. 00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:36.880 Because in order to be a child of God, we must call upon the Father, not run away from home, not try to disassociate ourselves from the Father, but acknowledge the Father in his presence. 00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:39.680 And this is our precise problem with God a lot, you guys. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:41.279 God is personal. 00:27:41.599 --> 00:27:42.880 God is relational. 00:27:43.599 --> 00:27:46.799 God wants to know you. 00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:49.039 And that can be a problem for some of us. 00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:51.200 We want to scoot away, we want to run away. 00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:55.759 But what if God is pursuing you and has found you? 00:27:55.920 --> 00:28:00.960 What if his personality, his aliveness is actually here to sustain you? 00:28:01.119 --> 00:28:02.000 Look at what C.S. 00:28:02.079 --> 00:28:03.039 Lewis writes. 00:28:03.359 --> 00:28:05.839 An impersonal God, well and good. 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:16.240 A subjective God of beauty, truth, and goodness inside of our own heads, better still, a formless life force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap, best of all. 00:28:16.480 --> 00:28:25.599 But God himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband, that is quite another matter. 00:28:25.839 --> 00:28:30.079 There comes a moment when children who have been playing burglars hush suddenly. 00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:32.079 Was that a real footstep in the hall? 00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:38.400 There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion, man's search for God, suddenly draw back. 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:40.480 Supposing we really found him. 00:28:40.880 --> 00:28:42.480 We never meant it to come to that. 00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:45.519 We're still supposing he found us. 00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:49.839 Don't miss the grand invitation of Advent. 00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:51.279 It's this simple. 00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:55.039 God is near to you as the everlasting Father. 00:28:55.920 --> 00:29:01.039 And that in fact you don't have to go looking for God because God has come to you in Christ. 00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:08.000 Searching for God, it's okay to give that up in light of the coming of the Father. 00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:15.440 You now, as the Son and Daughter of God, can acknowledge the Heavenly Father, but you must acknowledge Him to be the child. 00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:21.839 And so, my friends, would you cry out to God today and ask Him to be your everlasting Father?