WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:08.640 My mentor was here last week, Scotty Smith, and he preached, perhaps you were here, he preached a great, great message on the lavish love of God. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:09.519 It was incredible. 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:18.239 Oh, I was just sitting there, I was soaking it up, I was relishing in it, and we went back to my house after lunch, and we're watching the falcons get demolished. 00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:24.480 And somewhere within that horrible game, I said, Scotty, do you realize what you've done to me? 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:39.280 I mean, you come into town and you get 1 John 3, 1 through 3, and then you leave, and then I get 1 John 4 through 10, and there's stuff about sinners or of the devil, and there's the devil, right? 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:41.840 I mean, I'm like, thanks, thanks, thank you for that. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:43.439 You really uh helped me out. 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:45.679 You took the good one and you left me with this. 00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:49.679 Because I know when we read it, some of you are like, Great, what's he gonna do? 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:50.960 What's he gonna do with this? 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:52.479 How's this gonna work out? 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:54.880 Well, here's the key with a passage like this. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:59.119 The key with a passage like this is that this passage is amongst other passages. 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:00.719 We can't isolate it. 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:06.400 Meaning, whenever we read a given text or a given passage, it's within the context of other passages. 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:07.840 So we don't isolate it. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:13.760 We read four through ten, knowing we just read one through three, and we read one through ten in the context of the entire book. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:22.560 Not only that, we read 1 John in the context of all of his work, and we read all of his work in the context of the metadarrative of the entire scriptures. 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:28.000 Now, that's a lot to do, but that's also the work of beginning to try to understand the scriptures. 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:30.319 Now, Scotty showed this painting last week. 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:33.599 This is Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:58.879 So if we look at it, up in the upper right corner, we have uh the moral elder brother who is in arrogance and judgment over what is happening here because his younger brother, if you know the story of the prodigal son, the younger brother took his inheritance, ran off, lived it up, did what he wanted to, and then when he was bankrupt, he came back to his father in brokenness and need. 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:07.359 And the father, this father is welcoming in this younger, broken son. 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:18.800 And so maybe you see yourself and you go, oh man, I've had some of that arrogance of that older brother, or maybe you go, like, no, I know the position of that younger son when you're broken and in need. 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:23.039 For most of us, you probably recognize yourself in a little bit of both. 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:27.280 Priest and author Henry Nowen sat in front of this painting in St. 00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:31.199 Petersburg's Russia for days contemplating this painting. 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:34.159 Out of that, he wrote a book called The Return of the Prodigal. 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:36.639 Here's a quote from the book. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:42.400 Rembrandt is as much the elder son of the parable as he is the younger. 00:02:43.039 --> 00:02:56.800 When during the last years of his life he painted both sons in return of the prodigal son, he had lived a life in which neither the lostness of the younger son nor the lostness of the elder son was alien to him. 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:00.400 Both needed healing and forgiveness. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:03.120 Both needed to come home. 00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:07.520 Both needed the embrace of a forgiving father. 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:14.960 So last week, Scotty talked about these two hands of the father, if we look at the painting, and he said, you know, take note. 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:16.479 I had never noticed it really. 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:18.719 I've looked at this painting many times over. 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:31.599 Uh, and one hand is a masculine hand representing the strength and the hold of God, and the other hand is a feminine hand, representing the nurturing heart of God. 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:41.599 And so Rembrandt's point is a beautiful point for us, and it's that God holds us in both strength and tenderness. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:52.479 That's why John says in 1 John 3:1, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:54.960 And so we are. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:02.080 This is the imagery and the understanding that we're carrying into this context of verses 4 through 10. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:04.800 Two weeks ago, I took my six-year-old daughter on a date. 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:08.319 We went and we grabbed some pizza, and then we went up to the square to get some ice cream. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:13.120 So we we parked in the parking deck, we're walking out of the parking deck, and there's the dilemma, if you know the square. 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:18.079 It's either Sarah Jean's or Sweet Treats, big divide in Marietta, uh, depending on which one you are. 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:20.160 We have a we have a family divided on that. 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:27.600 Two daughters are, you know, Sarah Jean, and uh, but Greta, my youngest, she is uh she's sweet treats, which is across the square. 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:32.639 So so we cross the street, and then all the streets were blocked off setting up for the arts festival. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:34.560 So we kind of meander around, which is fun. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:37.040 So six-year-old to get a walk in the street, that's amazing. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:47.199 And so we're walking the street, and then we go over to the train, then we go to the fountain, then we make it over to Sweet Treats, and we come back and we sit on a bench, we go back to the fountain, we go over the train, we go back, you know, we were just all over. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:49.680 Finally, we make it back to the car. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:57.040 Now, there were times that we backtracked, there were times we stopped, there were times we looked at like a bird or you know, like dropped our ice cream and stuff like that. 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:02.160 There's all of that, but we simply kept moving forward in the direction we were going. 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:07.600 And this is the word walk that John taught us back in chapter one, and we talked about it. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:10.959 I actually told a story that time about my daughter and I going on a hike. 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:14.720 All right, I just did the same thing again with ice cream, by the way, if you're picking up on what I'm doing. 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:20.879 And so this word walk is this imagery that is being carried through 1 John. 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:23.920 And we don't give it up when we come into verses 4 through 10. 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:26.720 And here's the point from the previous context. 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:28.079 Point number one. 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:36.319 Knowing Christ is an imperfect relational walk toward love and obedience. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:41.279 Okay, now we read the opposite of that point. 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:45.360 1 John 3, 4 through 8. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:50.879 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:53.120 Sin is lawlessness. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:58.879 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 00:05:59.519 --> 00:06:02.639 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:06.319 No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:08.480 Little children, let no one deceive you. 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:12.959 Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:17.920 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:24.000 The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:30.639 Alright, so this passage has been used for a lot of shame, a lot of shame-based faith. 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:45.360 A lot of legalism has come out of this passage, because if we leave all the earlier context that John is building for us, this idea of what a walk is with Christ, the idea that Christ is sufficient, the idea of lavish love, the idea of abiding in Christ. 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:52.399 If we leave all that and just read this, I mean, you could end up thinking that if you sin, you're not a Christian. 00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:56.480 You could end up thinking that Christians must be perfect. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:58.959 That's not what John's saying. 00:06:59.279 --> 00:07:04.639 All the security and the lavish love's already been communicated to us. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:09.519 John's now writing about a group of people that left the church. 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:15.120 They've denied Christ as being God or them needing Christ as Savior, and they're causing chaos. 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:16.800 And John's fired up. 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:18.639 He's letting it rip. 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:27.600 He's saying those people willfully have no care for the destruction that sin causes. 00:07:27.920 --> 00:07:29.360 They don't care about it. 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:37.360 There's no regard, there's no repentance, and there's no imperfect movement toward love and obedience. 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:42.480 See, in the grace of God, Christians, we don't live perfect lives. 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:51.839 But we grow in awareness of our imperfection and sin, and in that lavish love of God, we live repentant lives. 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:54.399 Verses 9 and 10. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:08:05.439 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:15.040 Now, this is all in the imagery of a walk, an imperfect movement toward something, but as a Christian is an imperfect movement toward love and obedience. 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:20.160 Verse 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:26.480 Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:29.519 So we have the reference to devil. 00:08:29.839 --> 00:08:33.279 Well, devil, the word devil is really the word liar. 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:41.120 I mean, I actually, when I read the scriptures and I read through, because when I read the word devil, there's actually a part of me that sort of laughs. 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:48.080 There's this part of me that is so stuck in the caricature of like a Halloween costume that I sort of chuckle a little bit. 00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:52.080 And I have to just replace that word in my mind with the word liar. 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:55.200 And then all of a sudden I start to get it a little bit more. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:07.279 And here's point number two The devil is an evil force with personality, which can be understood as liar or slanderer. 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:16.080 British theologian John Stott said it this way: He said, We need to rid our minds of the medieval caricature of Satan. 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:28.720 Dispensing with the horns and the hooves and the tail, we are left with the biblical portrait of a spiritual being, highly intelligent, immensely powerful, and utterly unscrupulous. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:36.480 So perhaps you've been places and the idea of the devil was behind every single thing. 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:39.200 Like children didn't misbehave, it was the enemy at work, right? 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:41.679 Randy Joe didn't have an affair on his wife. 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:42.480 It was the enemy. 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:46.960 What Randy, you know, heaven forbid, it was the enemy at work. 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:52.080 And in that language, personal responsibility can be downplayed. 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:53.919 And that's very dangerous. 00:09:54.879 --> 00:10:02.080 Now, on the flip side, maybe you've come from places where there was absolutely no recognition of the devil as a legitimate spiritual reality. 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:03.120 Now, here's what I think. 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:07.519 Take it or leave it, there's a spectrum here that I think we're all gonna land on at different places. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:10.799 But here's what I think is perhaps a healthy place to land. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:17.279 I think it's safest to put human responsibility on the human depravity. 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:22.960 Put responsibility on human depravity until there's no other explanation. 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:31.840 And then when we're at the point there's no other explanation, then we can become open and go, maybe the enemy's at work here. 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:44.080 See, what this could do is what this means is it doesn't build a culture of blame and excuses, but it allows us to still remain open to the reality of evil. 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:55.120 This passage is an odd passage, I think, but I do think it breaks us because it makes us look at our lives and realize we are not perfect. 00:10:55.360 --> 00:11:00.480 There's a little bit of fear when we read something like this and go, oh no, who am I? 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:02.639 Where am I in this? 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:15.200 So it breaks us a little bit, and at the same time, it woos us back to the love of the Father because even amidst all this strong language, John can't resist writing verse five. 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:20.159 In the midst of it, he says, You know that he appeared, you know, you know. 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:29.759 So he's writing all this, and he's like, Oh man, this is heavy, but he says, You know, you know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:30.799 You know that. 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:32.720 We've already talked about that. 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:43.279 And it's not that in you or in your merit there is no sin, but it's in him that you are hidden in Christ. 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:49.679 Your sin is taken from you even while you're imperfect and sinful, and you are deemed righteous. 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:52.799 Point number three is this last point. 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:56.240 The lavish love of God is always enough for you. 00:11:56.559 --> 00:11:58.879 The lavish love of God is always enough for you. 00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:03.840 If we think back on the return of the prodigal painting, we see the destruction of sin. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:13.360 We see it in the condition of that broken down prodigal and uh in his feet and his clothing. 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:14.960 I mean, he's on his knees. 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:18.639 He is worn down, exhausted. 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:22.080 You can see the destruction of sin. 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:24.480 You've seen it. 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:29.600 You've seen it in your family, you've seen it in friends, you've seen it in culture, you've seen it in yourself. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:36.879 We also see the destruction of sin in this elder brother. 00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:41.919 Refusing to be a part of this celebration that his brother's home. 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:45.120 He stands in that much arrogance and judgment. 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:48.559 He can't get out of his own pride. 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:52.399 And you've seen that. 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:58.320 You've seen that in your family, and you've seen it in your friends, and you've seen it in your culture, and you've seen it in yourself. 00:12:59.279 --> 00:12:59.919 I have. 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:08.000 And then we see the lavish love of a strong and tender Abba Father. 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:13.519 I love the way the New King James Version has verse one. 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:24.720 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:27.440 I love that word, behold. 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:28.639 We don't use it much anymore. 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:29.919 You probably hadn't used it in a while. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:36.960 I don't think when you took your kids to the Grand Canyon, you opened the door and you said, Behold the Grand Canyon. 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:39.120 This is why we came here. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:40.639 Behold it, children. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:42.480 Probably didn't say it. 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:46.720 No, you said, look at this. 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:54.159 Look at, look at, we came all this way to see this. 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:55.039 Look at this. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:56.559 Don't, no, no, no, no, no. 00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:58.080 We're not going back to the gift shop. 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:00.559 No, look, look at, we're gonna sit here for a little bit. 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:02.960 Two and a half minutes, probably. 00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:07.200 But look at it, relish in this. 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:16.559 Christy and I were married a little over 15 years ago at Snellville United Methodist Church. 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:17.840 It's about an hour away from here. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:19.360 Beautiful sanctuary. 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:25.360 And the day of our wedding, I woke up and I was running errands and packing, getting ready for the honeymoon. 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:28.000 She was getting ready for the wedding. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:31.919 And she was getting all pretty hair done, makeup done, and all of that. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.879 And finally, by late afternoon, we're both up at the church. 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:42.559 I'm with my groomsmen, and I get my tucks on, and you know, that took about you know six and a half minutes uh for me to get fully ready. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:48.320 And you know, her like eight-hour process of getting ready was finishing up, and she was with her bridesmaids. 00:14:48.720 --> 00:15:02.480 At some point, uh somebody came and got me out of our room and he said, Come on, and took me into the sanctuary, had me stand right at the altar, they cleared the entire sanctuary, big, beautiful sanctuary, cleared it out. 00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:03.919 Nobody was in there at all. 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:11.200 And then the the rear doors opened up, and she walked in. 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:20.720 Behold, I was not counting how many pews there were in that room. 00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:25.600 I was undone to see my bride. 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:34.720 And she walked down the aisle toward me and we talked and we prayed, and I was not looking at how the choir loft blended into the pulpit. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:38.720 I was not looking at how the ceiling came down and went into the sidewalk, right? 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:42.320 I mean, I was I was locked in. 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:45.519 I couldn't take my eyes off of it. 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:51.840 Behold, relish, pause. 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:54.000 Don't move, don't move on. 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:55.679 Don't move on. 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:00.480 You're gonna do a lot in your life. 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:12.159 You're gonna do stuff with friends, maybe have a family, maybe you'll stay single, maybe you'll go places, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have a quiet life, maybe you'll have a very visible life in this world. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:15.360 You will have success, you will have failure, you'll have both. 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:17.039 Fine, fine, right? 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:31.360 But behold that there is a God that could not, an Abba Father that could not love you any more or any less based on anything that you have done, doing, or will do. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:35.679 Not if you're in Christ. 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:49.519 Let me pull out the lawn chair, sit down and relish and gaze and look at the love that never ends for you. 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:52.960 Don't move on. 00:16:54.399 --> 00:16:55.519 Don't move on. 00:16:55.840 --> 00:17:10.640 The very thing that empowers and animates that imperfect relational walk toward love and obedience is the behold the love of the Father for you. 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:19.599 My brothers and sisters, behold the lovest, the lavish love of the Father who holds you in strength and tenderness. 00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:21.119 Let's pray together. 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:31.119 God, thank you that you do not hesitate to call destruction what it is. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:18:04.720 Help us to see more and more of the ways that our hearts are prone to wander and woo us back to greater faith and belief that in Christ we have all the forgiveness and all the righteousness we ever need, and would that create such great healing, such great worship, that we would be more enamored by your goodness and your love for us, a love that never ends, a love the world cannot match. 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:08.880 I love the promises of sin cannot match. 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:15.119 And may our lives honor you in greater ways. 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:15.920 Amen.