WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.360 My name is Russ Masterson. 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:03.120 I'm the pastor here at Redeemer. 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:04.000 We welcome you. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:05.280 We're glad you're here with us. 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:13.919 Whether you're one of our regular folks and you've been with us for a while or a short period of time, or whether you are new to us here at Redeemer, maybe it's your first time. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:14.880 We're just glad you're here with us. 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:23.199 What we like to say every single week, hopefully without fail, is that we are we are more flawed than we originally thought. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:29.600 We're more broken than we originally thought, more sinful than we originally thought, but we are more loved by God than we could ever dare to dream. 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:34.000 And we know this concretely in the person and the work of Jesus Christ for us. 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:36.399 And that's what we say every single week. 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:42.719 Hopefully that's what I will say today as we work through this passage, which has a whole bunch of different stuff for us to get. 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:46.000 But I love this passage, and I think it's an amazing passage. 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:48.799 I've been excited about it all week. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:55.439 About 10 years ago, a friend of mine took me to Israel, and I got to stand on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:56.880 This is the Sea of Galilee right here. 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:58.240 This is a northern Israel. 00:00:58.399 --> 00:00:59.759 So different stories in the Bible. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:02.240 You may read about the Sea of Galilee, and that's that sea. 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:04.400 Now, maybe you haven't been to that sea, maybe you've been the Caribbean Sea. 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:05.599 Maybe you've been to the Caribbean Sea. 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:07.760 Here's a picture of the Caribbean Sea. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:09.120 We would all love to be there. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.959 Maybe some people are on fall break of our church, and maybe they're there and we're jealous of them. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:14.879 We'll see those pictures somewhere, I'm sure. 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:17.120 And one day there's another sea I want to go to. 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:18.480 Here's another sea that I want to go to. 00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:19.519 Can anybody name this? 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:20.959 Geography for 100? 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:21.760 Mediterranean. 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:23.519 Aegean. 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:24.560 I heard somebody say Mediterranean. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:26.879 It looks like the Mediterranean, but this is the Aegean Sea. 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:30.480 So that's the sea between Greece and Turkey over in that pocket of the world. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:31.519 That's on my bucket list. 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:39.280 So I mentioned these seas because when you stand on the shore of them, or maybe just a big lake, maybe you've been to Lake Altoona, right? 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:40.239 Okay, we'll count that. 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:43.040 So maybe that's that's as far as as we've gotten. 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:43.760 That'd be okay. 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:54.959 So when you stand on the shore of a big body of water, or you swim in it, what is clear, and it's just very clear, it's just basic, is the sea is bigger than you are. 00:01:55.439 --> 00:02:00.640 Now here's a quote by Martin Luther coming from our passage this morning. 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:02.000 This is what he said. 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:08.560 This is a theologian from Germany a few centuries ago, and here's what he said based on our passage this morning, what I just read to you. 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:17.759 Even if our conscience makes us faint-hearted and presents God as angry, still God is greater than our heart. 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:21.759 Conscience is like one drop. 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:27.439 The reconciled God is a sea of comfort. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:41.199 Now I nerded out a little bit this week, and I found out that if you added up all the water and all the seas of the entire world, it would be 1.332 billion cubic kilometers. 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:41.680 Okay? 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:44.159 That's all the seas, all the water and all the seas. 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:48.240 And then here's some eardrops I got out of our kitchen cabinet this morning, and maybe you can see it. 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:50.879 I'll just, okay, there is, okay, right there. 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:51.680 There it was, right? 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:58.159 That that's that's what a drop is 0.05, 0.05 milliliters. 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:00.240 Just a drop. 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:04.960 One drop in comparison to the waters of the seas. 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:23.120 God's comfort to us, even when we don't feel it, is like the water of the seas in comparison to one little drop of negative conscience that we so often have. 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:25.520 All right, that's gonna come back around for us. 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:26.400 Let's look at these verses. 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:27.840 1 John 3.11. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:32.479 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another. 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:39.199 Now, if we remember verse one of this chapter, chapter three, we've been talking about, we're sort of like seeing this thread through 1 John. 00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:44.960 And 1 John 3, 1 says, look what lavish love the Father gives to us. 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:48.879 Okay, so if we think about that, look what lavish love God has for us. 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:55.599 And then John says a little bit later on, 11 verses later, hey, by the way, from the beginning, you remember this, that we should love one another. 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:57.199 So we get this, our first point. 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:05.120 Our first point is this love received from God empowers love given to others. 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:08.159 That's how we love, that's how we're able to love. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:12.400 It's how we're able to love without judgment or self-righteousness. 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:14.560 Verse 12 says this. 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:17.759 This is John using a negative example, what not to be. 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:22.800 He says, we should not be like Cain, good advice, who was the evil one and murdered his brother. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:24.319 And why did he murder him? 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:27.839 Because his own deeds are evil and his brother's righteous. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:36.079 So Cain, if you remember the story in Genesis 4, Adam and Eve's boys, Cain, in jealous hatred, he kills his brother. 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:38.160 And John says, Don't be like that. 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:40.160 Maybe you want to write that down. 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:41.759 Good advice. 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:54.079 And the point here is see, if you know you're loved, then the righteous deeds of your brother or your sister don't threaten you. 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:56.800 See, that's often how we react, isn't it? 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:58.480 That's often how I react, right? 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:03.759 Like my brother or my sister or my friend has something or is something I am not. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:08.720 And instead of being able to go, like, hey, that's amazing for you. 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:13.519 It threatens me because I'm insecure. 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:32.079 But if we are secure in the lavish love that God has already given to us, then the righteous deeds of our brother or sister and what they have going on and what they got and what they received and who they are and who's applauding them, and all of that, we just say, hey, that how good for you. 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:48.399 And see, this is how the imperative of the love, you should love one another, the imperative to love, the call to love, the mission to love, whatever language you want for it, the imperative to love is being empowered by the indicative that we are already loved. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:52.000 So you are indicated to you, you are loved by God. 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:53.759 It's lavish, it's to you. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:06:07.600 And if you get that, as we get that, and we grow in the awareness of that, we are empowered to love our brother and sister and not sit in judgment or self-righteousness or feeling like we're not as great as them. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:09.519 We're empowered. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.680 Verses 13 through 15. 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:14.480 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:18.319 We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:21.279 Whoever does not love abides in death. 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:26.879 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:30.720 So this is strong language, and a lot of last sermon kind of bridges into here. 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:32.240 So I'm not going to repeat last sermon. 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:33.759 You can listen to the last sermon. 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:36.399 But point number two is this coming out of these verses. 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:42.639 We are called to be people of conviction and people of love. 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:44.639 This is what John is doing. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.199 It's amazing in this letter that he's giving to us. 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:47.839 This is a gift. 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:49.040 It would be so easy to read over. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:07:02.959 It's almost like you don't pick up on it until you sit in this book for a while and you start to hear his conviction against what's going on in the false teaching of a group of people who have left their church in this community and is causing chaos. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:08.160 And John is a person of conviction, and he is fired up on this, and he will talk about it. 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:12.879 And at the same time, he is a person that is saying, hey, you you should love. 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:16.560 We should love, not just in word, but in deed. 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:19.439 And this is such a gift for us. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:26.160 We don't have to give up love to hold on to a belief about an issue. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:31.439 And we don't have to give up belief on an issue in order to give love. 00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:41.360 Both the extreme conservative and the extreme liberal makes this issue dualistic. 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:49.360 Meaning, if you do one of these, have a strong conviction on an issue, you can't do the other. 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:54.800 Or I want to love my brother or sister, or love that person, so I can't have a strong conviction. 00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:59.360 The extreme conservative and the extreme liberal, they both say you can't do both these at the same time. 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:00.720 You've got to pick. 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:07.199 Either let go of your belief and love, or hold on to your belief and you can't love them. 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:09.120 It's just not true. 00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:32.000 We get to be a people who have convictions on issues, and get to be a people who never withhold love to real people, not stereotypes of people, but real people who are not perfect and hold very different opinions and beliefs than us, and maybe have chosen different life choices and life paths. 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:33.600 We get to do both. 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:35.919 This is what John is doing. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:44.799 He's writing with such conviction on issues, and at the same time, he's saying, love people, love your brothers, love your sisters, love, love, love. 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:47.440 Verse 16. 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:50.480 By this we know love. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:57.840 That he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:06.399 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:12.080 Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:19.759 Point number three is this: when something in the world takes hold of your heart, it also closes your heart. 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:23.519 When I was 13 years old, I began to buy truck trader magazines. 00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:25.519 Was anybody in the truck trader magazines? 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:26.559 Maybe you're about my age. 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:30.159 Okay, so truck trader magazines, you got them at the gas station, Brad. 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:31.919 I bought them at the OneStop. 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:33.120 I don't know where you bought yours. 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:35.200 Shell the Shell Station. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:36.639 And it was all the ads. 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:39.120 Now it's online, Auto Trader and Truck Trader, it's online. 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:46.799 But it was the magazine, and you got it, and it was like newspaper quality, and it had everybody in the whole region, the truck they were selling. 00:09:46.879 --> 00:10:11.440 I was 13 years old, and I'd buy this truck trader, and I had a highlighter, and in the evenings I'd sit on my couch and I would thumb through the truck trader, and I'd highlight all the good deals, and slowly I was building up my knowledge of what truck I wanted and what pricing and what mileage and what it had, and I was learning all about the different trucks, and I determined that what I wanted was a Toyota, and I've talked about this before because I still dream about this truck, mind you. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:14.720 I would go, if I could find this truck, I would go buy this truck. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:19.679 There was a 1985 Toyota 4x4. 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:22.159 Do you remember the truck in Back to the Future? 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:24.159 Does anybody remember the truck in Back to the Future? 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:26.159 Okay, that's kind of what it was. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:27.440 It was amazing. 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:30.879 From the age 13 to 16, I cut grass. 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:32.639 I saved up$2,500. 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:42.799 My mom matched$2,500 at$5,000, and we went out and we bought a Toyota 4x4 truck, and I love that truck. 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:45.440 I put big tires on that truck. 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:55.279 I put a CD player with detachable face on that truck because that was a big deal, and you took the face off, you put it in your pocket when you walked around. 00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:56.720 Somebody's gonna steal it. 00:10:57.360 --> 00:10:58.240 Big is a big deal. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:00.399 A pioneer detachable face. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:04.879 I washed it, I waxed it, I armored it. 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:08.000 I love, I love that truck. 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:12.879 And looking back on it, it it was not just a truck, was it? 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:18.240 You can tell by me talking about you're like, this is beyond truck, this is beyond material, right? 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:20.639 It was my value, wasn't it? 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:22.320 It was my value. 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:27.440 It was my statement to my high school of how I wanted to be seen and known. 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:39.120 And if it was between loving that trot and loving a person, oh you better believe I was gonna choose the trot. 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:42.639 I mean, I was just I would've forget you. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:44.159 I'm going with the trot. 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:47.039 And here's what John is saying. 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:50.480 It is true of me then, it's still true of me now, I still do it now. 00:11:52.559 --> 00:12:03.600 When I use the world to feel valuable or to escape my shame, the world puts a tight grip on my heart. 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:06.799 That's just what happens. 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:15.759 If anyone loves the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:19.200 It means that God's love is not an operation inside of you. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:20.399 It doesn't mean you're not a Christian. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:29.279 I mean God doesn't love you, it just means that you are not abiding in God's love and allowing that love to abide and manifest and come out of you toward a person. 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:35.600 So this is the point in the passage where you're like, ah man, John has been hammering us on love your neighbor. 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:37.200 The world is getting a hold of your heart. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:40.000 I mean, it is like it is mission without grace. 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:42.639 Mission without grace is law, law condemns us. 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:47.919 And this is what's happening at this point in the passage is we can start to feel like, well, I just certainly don't do any of this. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:49.039 You know, great, okay. 00:12:49.279 --> 00:13:00.559 Verse 19 comes in, though, because John's probably feeling the same thing as he writes, by this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him, because we're gonna need it after everything we just read. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:07.039 For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:10.080 And he knows everything. 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:12.159 Beloved. 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:18.080 If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:28.159 So our last point is this is even our calling to love can create self-condemnation, but God is greater than our conscience. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:42.399 So that word heart in this passage, it means the fountain, it's the center of your thoughts, it's the center of your affections, it's the center of your purposes and your will, it's your character, it's the inmost part of you. 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:46.879 And it's the place that stirs up both good and evil. 00:13:47.679 --> 00:13:52.240 Now, if we jump back to our opening quote, and I didn't read all of it, here's the rest of it. 00:13:52.399 --> 00:14:01.279 Even if our conscience makes us faint-hearted and presents God as angry, still God is greater than our heart. 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:05.519 Conscience is one drop, the reconciled God is a sea of comfort. 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:11.039 The fear of conscience or despair must be overcome, even though this is difficult. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:26.960 It is a great and exceedingly sweet promise that if our heart blames us, and I would say, when our heart blames us, God is greater than our heart and knows everything. 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:31.200 God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:32.320 Let me explain it this way. 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:33.679 We all know the number four. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:34.879 We know the number four. 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:36.799 It's gonna pop up here in a second. 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:38.159 There it is. 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:39.759 We also know this. 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:41.440 Four is greater than two. 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:42.399 It just is. 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:42.879 Okay? 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:44.080 Just is. 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:45.759 We all know this guy. 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:47.440 This is LeBron James. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:51.600 He is a beast on the basketball court, one of the greatest basketball players that ever lived. 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:52.960 He is like six foot eight. 00:14:53.039 --> 00:14:57.679 He, I don't know how much he weighs, he's all muscle, he's amazing, and we also know this is true. 00:14:57.919 --> 00:14:59.759 He is greater than me. 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:04.960 That was too much laughter. 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:07.120 I mean, I planned for some laughter. 00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:23.759 At the peak of my high school, the peak of my basketball career, that sweet Anglo-Saxon Protestant boy, he's greater than I am. 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:25.279 You get the idea. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:38.639 What John is laying on us here is in this lavish love that we have, verse one, God's greater than all the words of condemnation that you will hear, even from your own heart. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:45.120 Even as this scripture says, love your neighbor, and you go, well, I don't do that all the time. 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:47.360 And some condemnation can begin. 00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:49.440 Or don't let the world define you. 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:52.639 And you go, oh, uh-oh, you know, I had a truck one time. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:56.159 And condemnation can begin. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:00.639 Or, you know, messages like, you're not really enough. 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:03.759 Has your heart ever said that to you? 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:05.679 You're not really lovely. 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:08.480 You're not really smart. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:13.759 You're not ever really gonna mean anything. 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:19.279 You'll never get rid of this guilt, you'll never get rid of this shame. 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:25.600 And John says, God is greater than our hearts. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:33.200 He's saying, my belovedness is greater than my self-condemnation. 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:44.799 Because our belovedness is based in God's love and Christ's work for us that is outside of us and it is spoken and given to us in full grace, and it never fades, and it never goes away. 00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:51.840 And the self-condemnation we have is based completely in our fickleness and finiteness and our imperfection and our sin. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:55.519 Conscience is one drop. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:01.679 The reconciled God is a sea of comfort. 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:05.200 Last few verses, verse 21. 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:08.640 Beloved, there it is, beloved, second time he's called us that. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:18.960 If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God, and whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:20.799 Now that's interesting. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:25.359 Chapter 5 revisits that and clears that up for us, so I'm not gonna get into that now. 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:32.960 Verse 23, and this is his commandment that we believe in the name of the Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:40.559 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him, and by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:44.400 So it doesn't mean every prayer will be answered. 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:51.519 Prayer is a connection to the Abba Father, who loves and accepts and listens to us. 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:58.000 Prayer is prayer, contemplation, even scripture reading. 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:00.240 Those are all practices. 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:07.359 They don't exist to make you beloved, they exist to remind us that we are already beloved. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:14.400 And this brings us back to verse 1, which has been framing this entire chapter. 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:15.839 1 John 3 1. 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:18.480 I like the New King James version of this verse. 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:22.160 Behold what manner of love, I read it last week. 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:27.359 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:30.400 And what we said last week is we don't use the word behold a lot, right? 00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:41.119 You didn't walk into the new brave stadium and you walked in and you saw that green, that unbelievably perfect green grass that was especially for that stadium. 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:45.759 And the perfect lines of the infield to the outfield and the stands. 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:49.119 You didn't walk in and you didn't say behold. 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:53.440 No, you walked in and you said, Wow. 00:18:57.279 --> 00:18:58.480 This is amazing. 00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:01.039 Look at that, and look, look at that. 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:04.240 That's unbelievable. 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:14.480 We've been talking about this Rembrandt painting of the prodigal son ever since Scotty Smith was here and preached for us a few weeks ago. 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:23.599 This is the story of the prodigal son who went off and rebelled and he comes back home and he is broken, and you can see him, he's broken down, he is worn out, his clothes are tathered. 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:25.200 I think he has on one shoe. 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:28.880 I mean, he has nothing left, he's on his knees. 00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:34.319 And you can imagine how this boy felt. 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:38.079 Because we've all been this boy. 00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:40.319 We've been this kid. 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:42.400 And we're like, will the father take me back? 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:44.079 Or maybe the father's angry. 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:52.640 Can you imagine the amount of self-condemnation this kid's heart was speaking to him? 00:19:52.960 --> 00:20:00.400 That walk home and those moments until he falls before the father and the father embraces him. 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:04.240 Of course we can imagine it because we know it. 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:07.200 We know that walk and we know that self-condemnation. 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:15.519 And we know the evil messages that exist inside of self-condemnation, and they are I'm not enough, I'm not welcomed, and I'm not loved. 00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:21.200 But the painting gives us the truth of the gospel. 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:27.359 That though we're not perfect, though we are sinners, we are welcomed by the Father. 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:31.920 And the Father is greater than the child's condition. 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:41.359 God is greater than our hearts, greater than our brokenness, greater than all we can even muster up in our little bit of faith when we come to Him. 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:43.119 He is greater than that. 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:46.400 Behold the lavish love of the Father. 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:47.039 Don't move on. 00:20:47.119 --> 00:20:47.680 That's what it means. 00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:49.519 Don't move on, don't move on. 00:20:49.839 --> 00:21:01.680 The way you will be empowered to not be defined by the world, the way you will be empowered to love your neighbor is to behold, because you and I are fully known already by God. 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:06.799 And we are fully loved already by God in Christ. 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:14.880 My brothers and sisters, may the comfort of God be greater than the words of self-condemnation that you feel from your heart. 00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:16.640 Let's pray together. 00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:31.759 God, thank you for this great news that we need because we so easily feel self-condemnation of what we have done, what we have not done, what we want to do, and we don't think we'll ever be able to do it. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:39.119 We feel messages of self-condemnation from the world, we feel it maybe from other people, we certainly feel it from our hearts. 00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:49.680 We hear that we are not welcomed, that we're not enough, and we're not loved. 00:21:51.039 --> 00:22:03.599 And what we know from your good news, your gospel, is we are enough, and we are welcomed, and we are loved by you, that you are greater than our hearts. 00:22:05.599 --> 00:22:09.119 God, would you increase the little bit of faith that we have? 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:23.759 May we behold in greater and greater ways that our lives, our hearts, our minds, our very beings may trust in you in greater ways, and that we may go and love our neighbor. 00:22:24.079 --> 00:22:24.720 Amen.