SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together, church.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we've come to do exactly that on this Christmas Eve.
SPEAKER_02: It is our pleasure to gather and worship as believers have done over the centuries, regardless of what day it falls on.
SPEAKER_02: We are your people and we've assembled together.
SPEAKER_02: And so, Lord, uh, rescue us from sentiment and deliver us into principle, to understanding.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we want to grasp the love of God in a way we've never grasped it before.
SPEAKER_02: So fill it with wonder today, because we've emptied it of wonder and filled it with sentiment.
SPEAKER_02: So we ask you to come, Holy Spirit, and from the Scripture and by the Spirit, to fill the love of God with wonder today.
SPEAKER_02: Let us grasp the magnitude of it and therefore be motivated by it.
SPEAKER_02: Not just today, but the rest of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 that the love of God compels us.
SPEAKER_02: We want that kind of compulsion to well up inside of us today.
SPEAKER_02: Not as a feeling, but as a reality that's born out of an understanding.
SPEAKER_02: So, Holy Spirit, I can't do that.
SPEAKER_02: I need you to do that.
SPEAKER_02: And so I ask you to do that in Jesus' name and for God's glory.
SPEAKER_02: And all God's people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_02: If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to 1 John chapter 4.
SPEAKER_02: I'll start reading verse 7.
SPEAKER_02: If you're a guest today, you're in town visiting people and they drug you to church.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for not resisting too much.
SPEAKER_02: This is the fourth Sunday of Advent.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, if you're here and you're a child, you're getting Madden 24 because you came to church on Christmas Eve.
SPEAKER_02: Amen?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, there's one person in particular right now that's kind of looking at his mom like, really?
SPEAKER_02: Uh today's the fourth Sunday of Advent, and each Sunday has a theme.
SPEAKER_02: Each Sunday we light a candle.
SPEAKER_02: This is an advent wreath.
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh, and it's just kind of a reminder.
SPEAKER_02: We like to slow down and go down a little bit deeper when our culture around us speeds up and just kind of skims across the top.
SPEAKER_02: I want to talk to you this morning about the full of wonder love of God.
SPEAKER_02: The full of wonder love of God.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you're a smart elic, you're thinking, why didn't you just say wonderful?
SPEAKER_02: Because it's such a pallid word, it doesn't do it justice anymore.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and so uh it this dawned on me when I was having a conversation.
SPEAKER_02: You ever have a conversation with somebody and they say something that you didn't think would alarm you or catch you off guard, and it does, and you don't say anything, but your face says something?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I was talking, and the person said, Hey, is it true you make a New Year's resolution?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't make a New Year's like I want to run more or do more sit-ups.
SPEAKER_02: I make it like like this past year, my New Year's resolutions was I want to say thank you, Lord, as often as I can this year and mean it.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and so I I think I've I've been a more grateful person.
SPEAKER_02: I think I'm always grateful, but I was just like I woke up this morning and my first thought was thank you, Lord, for another day.
SPEAKER_02: I usually not do that.
SPEAKER_02: That happened because I and so the person said, You know what?
SPEAKER_02: My New Year's resolution is gonna be this year.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, No, tell me.
SPEAKER_02: We're winding down lunch, and this person said, I just want to love God more.
SPEAKER_02: And my face went.
SPEAKER_02: And then what's wrong with that?
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Because you can't hide.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just like out there.
SPEAKER_02: I just said that that's the worst thing you could do.
SPEAKER_02: Do not make that resolution.
SPEAKER_02: You want to love God more?
SPEAKER_02: How many people, how many of you in this room have ever said you want to love God more?
SPEAKER_02: Say amen.
SPEAKER_02: We say it almost every Sunday, and the person's like, Pastor, what's wrong with that?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, should we want to love God more?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you should want to love God more, but you loving God more is it is a response to understanding the love of God.
SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't try to love God more.
SPEAKER_02: That should, that just happens.
SPEAKER_02: It's a reflex uh to really understanding the love of God.
SPEAKER_02: And you should ponder that, and then it I tried to get out of it and I couldn't explain it, and I was like, I gotta go back to work.
SPEAKER_02: Wade Bird just is gonna fire me.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and so we're leaving, and the guy goes, So don't make that resolution?
SPEAKER_02: That's terrible.
SPEAKER_02: I'll try to talk about it more on the fourth Sunday of Advent.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, Well, that's weeks away.
SPEAKER_02: We'll show up and we'll see, okay?
SPEAKER_02: So here we are, the full of wonder, love of God.
SPEAKER_02: First John chapter 4.
SPEAKER_02: I'll start reading verse 7.
SPEAKER_02: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.
SPEAKER_02: And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
SPEAKER_02: Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.
SPEAKER_02: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
SPEAKER_02: In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
SPEAKER_02: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
SPEAKER_02: No one has ever seen God.
SPEAKER_02: But if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
SPEAKER_02: Now there's there's a couple things I want to say from the text.
SPEAKER_02: The first one is simply this.
SPEAKER_02: All right, or really, I just want to I don't want to say something from the text.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to see what the text is saying.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and the first thing the text is saying today is that the love of God has a source and an order.
SPEAKER_02: A source and an order.
SPEAKER_02: It's verse 7 and 8.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the source.
SPEAKER_02: Uh when it says right there very plainly, let us beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.
SPEAKER_02: Love is from God.
SPEAKER_02: This is the source.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: It means God needs nobody or no thing to be loving.
SPEAKER_02: He is loving in and of himself and for himself.
SPEAKER_02: It is not loving you or loving your kids or granting all your Christmas wishes or answering all your prayers that makes God loving.
SPEAKER_02: What makes God loving is God.
SPEAKER_02: God being loving does not depend or hinge on anybody or anything outside of God.
SPEAKER_02: He's never outsourced love to somebody else, to anybody or anything, nor is he ever outsourced the motivation to love to anything outside of himself.
SPEAKER_02: Love belongs to the divine sphere.
SPEAKER_02: Love is from God.
SPEAKER_02: It is, and here's the great thing about that.
SPEAKER_02: Because this is the source of love, it is untainted when it gets to us.
SPEAKER_02: And so there's source, and then there's order, which is what he says in verse 8.
SPEAKER_02: No, notice what he doesn't say.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't say that everyone who's been born of God loves.
SPEAKER_02: That would be obligation.
SPEAKER_02: That would be a wait.
SPEAKER_02: Do you have anybody in your life, maybe that they're here for the holidays that's kind of hard to love?
SPEAKER_02: Don't point, just say amen.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, you're just kind of like, ooh, okay, whoo, whoo, whoo.
SPEAKER_02: You know you got a pack of marbell reds hidden the garage, you got to go out there and hotbox one like the deacons after they take up the offering, and you stamp it out.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I can go listen to her talk for another 45 minutes.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02: But see, the Bible does not say, hey, everyone who's been born of God love, because that's like laying a burden on you of obligation.
SPEAKER_02: Instead, notice what it says.
SPEAKER_02: It says, Everyone who loves has been born of God.
SPEAKER_02: So you and I being loving people is not obligation, it is expression.
SPEAKER_02: It is expression, it's not obligation, it is expression.
SPEAKER_02: Love belongs to the divine sphere, and people who love like this belong to the divine sphere.
SPEAKER_02: You say, What do you mean the divine sphere?
SPEAKER_02: They belong to God.
SPEAKER_02: That's why the Bible says crazy things like they will know us by our love.
SPEAKER_02: By this, all men will know that you're my disciples.
SPEAKER_02: You have love one for another.
SPEAKER_02: One of my prayers for our congregation going into the new year is that we just become more and more and more loving people.
SPEAKER_02: You say, now it's important because uh our culture comes along and says this, you know, that hey, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.
SPEAKER_02: Now, that last part, whoever loves has been born of God.
SPEAKER_02: That's the part that we get, we just take that and consume it upon our love.
SPEAKER_02: Anyone who loves has been uh has been born of God.
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people say, Well, I'm not I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious, and I'm the most loving person you know.
SPEAKER_02: Think Oprah.
SPEAKER_02: Very cultural, and like, oh, Oprah, good person does a lot of good, but let's just be clear.
SPEAKER_02: You got to grasp what the text is not saying.
SPEAKER_02: It's not saying that if you're a loving person, that equates to the fact that you're a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: It does not.
SPEAKER_02: Unbelievers are capable of being very loving people because of the doctrines of creation and common grace.
SPEAKER_02: They were created, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: They're created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, this image was defaced by the fall, but not destroyed.
SPEAKER_02: And so, therefore, they're still capable of being very loving people, but not like a Christian, because a Christian, the way a Christian loves, it redounds to the reality and the reputation of God.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: The difference in a lost person, an unbeliever, and a Christian is the unbeliever is very loving, very kind, very generous, very mannerly, all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_02: But the way a Christian loves, it redounds.
SPEAKER_02: It redounds.
SPEAKER_02: Pure Tanical word.
SPEAKER_02: It just kind of magnifies, it flows into the category of you by nature are not this person.
SPEAKER_02: God made you this way.
SPEAKER_02: Like someone said to me this week, man, you are like super generous.
SPEAKER_02: I it's convicting being around you.
SPEAKER_02: I said, actually, I'm not very generous at all.
SPEAKER_02: I by nature am a very selfish, sinful, fallen person who thinks only of myself.
SPEAKER_02: And this person said, Oh, you shouldn't talk about yourself like that.
SPEAKER_02: I said, I'm not talking about myself, I'm talking about God at work in me.
SPEAKER_02: Because if God had not had not transformed me, that's who I would be today, who I would always be since I was born.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm not being falsely humble.
SPEAKER_02: I I I want this to redound to God's reputation.
SPEAKER_02: God takes a man that is damningly self-centered and says, I've been so good to you, never forget that.
SPEAKER_02: Generosity flows out of that.
SPEAKER_02: I've never I've never had a New Year's resolution.
SPEAKER_02: I want to be more generous.
SPEAKER_02: I want to understand how merciful and generous God has been to me.
SPEAKER_02: How do you not experience that?
SPEAKER_02: How do you not taste and see that the Lord is good and not turn around and be generous as well?
SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02: This is what I mean when I say redounds.
SPEAKER_02: The way a Christian love redounds to the reality and the reputation of God.
SPEAKER_02: So the love of God has a source, love is from God, and it has an order.
SPEAKER_02: It's not obligation, it's expression.
SPEAKER_02: He says, I'm gonna so I'm gonna so love you that the way you love is gonna remind everybody about me.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the second thing we see in the text the love of God is demonstrated.
SPEAKER_02: The love of God is demonstrated.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: It's verse 9.
SPEAKER_02: In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
SPEAKER_02: Now, hear that part into the world.
SPEAKER_02: Into the world where Russia is currently occupying large portions of Ukraine and innocent people are being killed.
SPEAKER_02: Into the world where war is raging between Israel and Hamas and the Gaza Strip.
SPEAKER_02: Over 20,000 people on both sides combined have lost their lives.
SPEAKER_02: And we're trying to get food into this place.
SPEAKER_02: And it's into that world.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, God knew because when man looks to man to meet his need, the byproduct is always violence, always violence.
SPEAKER_02: And God knew that, and he sent his son into this world, not just the world as it existed in first century Judaism, he sent his son into the world that you and I occupy today.
SPEAKER_02: Sent his son into the world.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: So that we might live through him.
SPEAKER_02: So when I say the love of God is demonstrated, it's that little phrase made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world.
SPEAKER_02: That to make manifest means to make actual and visible.
SPEAKER_02: It's a reference to the incarnation of God taking on flesh and being born through the womb of a virgin and laid in a manger.
SPEAKER_02: He comes crashing into this world in a very innocuous, innocent, non-threatening way, and yet is the most threatening thing that's ever happened in the history of humanity.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because it's not this ethereal concept that we could never ever verify, but an actual person.
SPEAKER_02: You ever notice that all world religions have a set of teachings about how you can get up to where they are?
SPEAKER_02: If you do this and do this, and then you're enlightened, and then you get to this stage and then that stage, and oh, you messed up, go down three stages and start over again.
SPEAKER_02: It's like eventually you just give up.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: All world religions, do your homework.
SPEAKER_02: Google it this afternoon.
SPEAKER_02: They have a set of beliefs and things you got to do to get there.
SPEAKER_02: Only in Christianity does the God come down to where you are.
SPEAKER_02: This is the beauty of the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: He comes down to be with his people.
SPEAKER_02: And in these places that great theologian Johnny Cash thing about a kicking and a gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.
SPEAKER_02: That's a native environment for the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: That's where it happens.
SPEAKER_02: This is where Jesus was born.
SPEAKER_02: And in doing so, by the way, in the incarnation, by being born, Jesus didn't diminish his deity, nor did he become greater than humanity.
SPEAKER_02: It's important you understand that he didn't diminish his deity.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't stop, you know, all you're 72% God, and now you took on, you know, 18%.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't diminish his deity, one iota.
SPEAKER_02: And at the same time, he didn't become superhuman.
SPEAKER_02: No, he was one of us.
SPEAKER_02: That means that Mary looks over his mother every once in a while and says, Man, that's God eating my lasagna.
SPEAKER_02: Don't screw that up.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: He said, of course she knew.
SPEAKER_02: An angel appeared to her before he was born.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Oh, by the way, that which is in you is of the Holy Spirit, and He's the Messiah.
SPEAKER_02: Stop reading parenting books.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna teach you.
SPEAKER_02: Had the same needs, same emotions, same feelings.
SPEAKER_02: The incarnation brought heaven and humanity together in such a way that there'd be hope for a restored relationship with a perfect God for imperfect people like you and me.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: The incarnation, God take it on flesh, brought heaven and humanity together in such a way that there would be hope.
SPEAKER_02: Without the incarnation, there is no hope.
SPEAKER_02: There is no hope.
SPEAKER_02: You're just on your own.
SPEAKER_02: Make as much money as you can, pile it up, as Finney said.
SPEAKER_02: And if they hate to let them hate and watch the money pile up.
SPEAKER_02: Just pile it up because you're gonna need it because it's dog eat dog.
SPEAKER_02: Or God came hurtling into the world in the incarnation through the womb of the virgin and said, everything's different now because something is available that has never been available.
SPEAKER_02: So what's the big deal?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: I get it.
SPEAKER_02: The incarnation, God takes on flesh.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just tick off four things about the importance of the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, the incarnation validates the teaching of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: The incarnation validates because every promise made about him has been fulfilled.
SPEAKER_02: Where he was born, how we'd be born, who we'd be born to, what nation it would happen in.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's so many things that could have gone wrong, but they didn't.
SPEAKER_02: Because God is not just a God of instrumentation, He's the God of orchestration, He conducts everybody and everything.
SPEAKER_02: The incarnation validates the teaching of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, the incarnation shows us that God loves us enough to make a way for us through Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It's that part that He comes into the world.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: So that we might live through Him.
SPEAKER_02: So that you are not on your own, left alone to figure it out.
SPEAKER_02: Say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: C.S.
SPEAKER_02: Lewis said it like this in his classic book, Mere Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: He said, The Son of God became man to enable men to become the sons of God.
SPEAKER_02: This is the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: The third importance of the incarnation shows us that Jesus understands the struggles of humanity.
SPEAKER_02: This is why I don't do well when preachers get sentimental and give little seven-minute ditties during Advent because you know, oh, you know, it's Advent.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, dig in, put your big boy pants on and teach doctrine so your people understand the wonder, the significance of the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the significance of the when I say it shows us that Jesus understands the struggles of humanity.
SPEAKER_02: Like, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: Remember, he didn't diminish his deity and he wasn't superhuman, he was one of us.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're here today and your ex has the kids because you had them at Thanksgiving or last Christmas, and you got up and you felt kind of this numb hole in your gut, this baby born in a manger who lived a sinless life only to go to the cross in your place and for your sins, he gets you today.
SPEAKER_02: He understands what that feels like.
SPEAKER_02: You might be nobody knows what like look at these people, these happy families.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, I am so sad.
SPEAKER_02: I don't even want to be here right now.
SPEAKER_02: And God says, I'm glad you're here because I know what that feels like.
SPEAKER_02: This is the significance of the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: You say, Well, I've got my kids, but some of my kids are with my God.
SPEAKER_02: The thing, the the feelings that are so deep and so dark you can't let out of your mouth because people will recoil in horror like me when they when the guy said, I just want to love God more.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, and by the way, I said, first John, it teaches that, he says, Hey, we know and rely on the love God has for us.
SPEAKER_02: You trying to ramp up your love for God is you increasing your determination to rely on your love for God.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible never tells you and I to rely on our love for God, it says we know.
SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to help you know the love of God so that you can rely on the love God has for you.
SPEAKER_02: I've never, I'll take that back, not never.
SPEAKER_02: It's been years since I've said I want to love God more.
SPEAKER_02: I say consistently, God, I want to understand all the facets, all the nooks and crannies of your love for me, and then the rest will sort itself out.
SPEAKER_02: You say, What do you mean the incarnation shows that Jesus understands the struggles of humanity?
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15 says this for we do not for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, and yet without sin.
SPEAKER_02: He gets it.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the last importance of the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: It reminds us that God has a plan for the world.
SPEAKER_02: God has a plan for the world.
SPEAKER_02: We can't watch the news at my house much anymore.
SPEAKER_02: My wife's like, I just can't let in this negativity.
SPEAKER_02: I recorded every night until I like to know what's going on in the world, and I was watching like 9:30.
SPEAKER_02: I can't watch if I go to bed.
SPEAKER_02: I can't, I can't wind down and sleep.
SPEAKER_02: You realize that God has a plan for the world.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, the world is like it is because people are sinful, not because God's not sovereign.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I don't need a theological lesson before bedtime.
SPEAKER_02: That gets me stirred up too.
SPEAKER_02: Gets me stirred up too.
SPEAKER_02: It makes me want to read a hard book by a dead guy.
SPEAKER_02: And to which my wife says, You're a strange little man.
SPEAKER_02: And I love you, and I'm going to bed.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to know how screwed up the world is.
SPEAKER_02: I already know.
SPEAKER_02: And I hear the old uh delirious.
SPEAKER_02: I go way back.
SPEAKER_02: I hear that delirious was a worship band out of England, had a song, and the chorus just said, And God will save the day, and all will say, My glorious, my glorious.
SPEAKER_02: I used to sing it over my children when they were little.
SPEAKER_02: If you come in my office, there's a frame, bunch of frame pictures of my kids, and they y'all all go, Why are these pictures of you and your kids were little?
SPEAKER_02: They're like 25 and 20 now.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they were more enjoyable back then, and cheaper and easier to manage.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: I I had them on a string.
SPEAKER_02: I could just stick them down like a dog in the backyard.
SPEAKER_02: They couldn't go very far.
SPEAKER_02: But if you look, there's a little piece of paper with a bunch of little lists up for both of them.
SPEAKER_02: They did it individually.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we were going on a date in our babysitter.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Madison was sobbing, and and and she just said, Sarah said, Hey, you like your daddy.
SPEAKER_02: I love my daddy.
SPEAKER_02: I love being my dad.
SPEAKER_02: And Sarah grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper and she said, What do you love about your daddy?
SPEAKER_02: And she wrote a list down.
SPEAKER_02: And one of them on the list says, I love it when he sings glory, glory to me.
SPEAKER_02: Because she would get in bed at night, and I would just, I wanted my kids to grow up, not just emotionally, like, oh my gosh, I'm 16 and I don't have I'm not married yet.
SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't have a boyfriend when you're 16.
SPEAKER_02: It's a waste of money and affection, but I digress.
SPEAKER_02: I would sing on my kids, and God is bigger than the air I breathe, the world will leave, and God will save the day, and all will say, My glorious, my glorious.
SPEAKER_02: And every once in a while, Madison would go, stand up, daddy, and do it.
SPEAKER_02: And I would march around her bedroom and sing, and God is bigger than.
SPEAKER_02: And so when she was 16 and girls were mean, I would say, Hey, God's bigger than these punk-faced mean girls you go to school with.
SPEAKER_02: You just say the word, and your dad would take a 40 cal down there and chitty chitty, bang, bang.
SPEAKER_02: Because sometimes God sends a messenger to deliver the message.
SPEAKER_02: And she would say back to me, she would gospel me, and she'd go, Dad, God's bigger than that.
SPEAKER_02: You're starting to sound like your mother now.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: See, here's the here's the third thing I want you to see in the text.
SPEAKER_02: The love of God is demonstrated in the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: And then thirdly, the love of God is defined.
SPEAKER_02: The love of God is defined, verse 10.
SPEAKER_02: In this is love.
SPEAKER_02: He says, in this the love of God was made manifest.
SPEAKER_02: Another one, it's put on display.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna demonstrate it.
SPEAKER_02: Here, he says, I'm going to define it.
SPEAKER_02: Because left to ourselves, we'd come up with some schmalchy, cheesy, this is tensely trinket of a definition of the love of God.
SPEAKER_02: But the Bible stabs a wooden cross in the ground and says in verse 10, in this is love.
SPEAKER_02: Not that we've loved God.
SPEAKER_02: Stop trying to love God.
SPEAKER_02: Understand his love for you.
SPEAKER_02: And then you will just as add a reflex, you'll love God.
SPEAKER_02: And this is love.
SPEAKER_02: Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
SPEAKER_02: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean when you say the love of God is defined?
SPEAKER_02: Now John sharpens the focus and says, In this is love.
SPEAKER_02: The love of God was demonstrated in the incarnation, and here it is defined on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Advent is a great time to ponder the atonement because it's intended to arouse this adoring wonder from each of us.
SPEAKER_02: And you maybe think, okay, but how?
SPEAKER_02: Just that little word that we we just kind of see in the Bible you go, prop.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, anyway.
SPEAKER_02: Next, it's propitiation, and it means this appeasement.
SPEAKER_02: Appeasement.
SPEAKER_02: And you may be like, okay.
SPEAKER_02: So, what's being appeased?
SPEAKER_02: Here's why, here's where you a right knowledge, a right understanding of the love of God just causes you to love God more without effort, but because of understanding.
SPEAKER_02: Stick with me.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna want to be offended at this.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want you to be, but but but I gotta tell you the truth, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Uh propitiation means uh uh uh uh uh the the the appeasement, okay?
SPEAKER_02: In verse 10 says, and this is love.
SPEAKER_02: Not that we've loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
SPEAKER_02: That means appeasement, okay?
SPEAKER_02: So who is being appeased?
SPEAKER_02: It's not you, it's not God dancing to all the your little expectations, it's not God not being offensive, not telling you, hey, morality matters.
SPEAKER_02: You you you don't you you've never needed to be appeased by God.
SPEAKER_02: God, holy, righteous God, has to be appeased.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because he's offended and he's angry and he has to be satisfied.
SPEAKER_02: God's nature demanded a sacrifice, and God's love provided the sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, he has to be satisfied.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so what does that have to do with me?
SPEAKER_02: Here's what it has to do with you propitiation, why you should see that word and go up to, if you don't go to this church, go to some church and say, hey, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_02: And if they lied to you, find another church because they are robbing you of sufficient motivation for worship and the capacity to love God out of reflex and not labor.
SPEAKER_02: Why is this what's the big deal that an offended, angry deity has been satisfied?
SPEAKER_02: What's that got to do with you?
SPEAKER_02: Because you and I are the ones that he's offended by and he's angry with, so it has everything to do with you.
SPEAKER_02: It applies to every one of us in this room, but in different ways, depending if you're a believer or an unbeliever, a Christian or a non-Christian.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: For the believer, you should meditate on the propitiation that God sent his son as a wrath, atoning, uh, appeasing sacrifice for your sin.
SPEAKER_02: And for the believer, this is a constant source of worshipful gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: When those kids last week kicked into what he's done, what he's done, all glory and the honor to the sun.
SPEAKER_02: My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven.
SPEAKER_02: I had to walk out.
SPEAKER_02: And it's like my second or third time, and a guy back by the door said, Hey, you okay?
SPEAKER_02: I gotta get some toilet paper.
SPEAKER_02: These kids are killing me.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because it just welled up in me.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because of what he's done, and I didn't say, Oh, I'm gonna try to love God more this year.
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't help myself.
SPEAKER_02: It was like, oh my gosh, yes.
SPEAKER_02: So for the believer, you should you should ponder, you should think about propitiation, that the wrath of an angry deity has been satisfied on the cross by God.
SPEAKER_02: For the unbeliever, it's a constant source of concern.
SPEAKER_02: It should be.
SPEAKER_02: But have you ever noticed that lost people, unbelievers, non-Christians are not concerned about being lost?
SPEAKER_02: You ever notice that?
SPEAKER_02: And one of the reasons, church, is the untrue things the church has taught them for years.
SPEAKER_02: Things like, well, God loves the sinner but hates the sin.
SPEAKER_02: It's not biblical.
SPEAKER_02: God hates the sinner and the sin.
SPEAKER_02: You go, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_02: I do.
SPEAKER_02: No, he hates the sinner.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_02: He hates the sinner and the sin, and he intends this hatred to lead you to repentance.
SPEAKER_02: It's Romans 2.4.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't I didn't put it in my notes.
SPEAKER_02: That's my mistake.
SPEAKER_02: I'll just read it to you.
SPEAKER_02: You can write it down.
SPEAKER_02: This is what Romans 2.4 says.
SPEAKER_02: Because people are kind of like, hey, I do what I want.
SPEAKER_02: God hasn't done anything to me yet.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul has to check them up and he says, Oh, do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
SPEAKER_02: And so if you're here today and you don't have a relationship with Christ, I would just say, don't presume on the riches of his kindness.
SPEAKER_02: Because God could hate you and still be loving.
SPEAKER_02: God was loving and will be loving regardless of how he regards you.
SPEAKER_02: And you make your head may be swimming right now, like, oh no, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_02: I've always told God hates a sin but loves a sinner.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I just, if you believe that, then I propose this.
SPEAKER_02: How about I get up tomorrow morning, don't shave, grab a cup of coffee, come to your house and open your kids' gifts and take them home with me.
SPEAKER_02: You don't want to live in the theology you believe because it's non-sustainable.
SPEAKER_02: Because if I walked into your house and grabbed your kid's presence and said, Thank you, I'm going home now, your kids will be like, Dad, what is he doing that for?
SPEAKER_02: Because your kid understands that, hey, being your kid comes with certain rights and privileges, and not being your kid does not come with the same privileges.
SPEAKER_02: You don't want universalism in your parenting, but you want it in your God.
SPEAKER_02: And it's nowhere in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: God hates the sinner and the sin.
SPEAKER_02: And he's patiently forbearing with you, unbeliever, in the hopes that his kindness, his undeserved kindness, would lead you to repentance.
SPEAKER_02: And if it never does, you'll just be like Esau.
SPEAKER_02: God hated him before he was ever born.
SPEAKER_02: He had done anything right or wrong.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just fundamentally opposed to him.
SPEAKER_02: And he's still a loving God.
SPEAKER_02: This is what fills the love of God with wonder.
SPEAKER_02: This is what you say.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I have a let me show it to you in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: This is Psalm, both the believer and the unbeliever, right here in the same passage in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm chapter 5, verse 4.
SPEAKER_02: For you are not a God who delights in wickedness.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_02: Evil may not dwell with you, the boastful shall not stand before your eyes.
SPEAKER_02: You hate all evildoers.
SPEAKER_02: You destroy those who speak lies.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
SPEAKER_02: But now the believer, I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house.
SPEAKER_02: I will bow down towards your holy temple in the fear of you.
SPEAKER_02: Remember for the believer, a constant source of worshipful gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: I will bow down towards your holy temple in the fear of you.
SPEAKER_02: Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies.
SPEAKER_02: Make your way straight before me.
SPEAKER_02: What fills the love of God with wonder is that it could have been so different for you, Christian.
SPEAKER_02: It could have been so different for you.
SPEAKER_02: Could have been so different for me.
SPEAKER_02: So I ponder doctrines like the uh the atonement or propitiation that God, I Ephesians 2 says that I by nature and am an object of wrath.
SPEAKER_02: I was born with a bullseye tattooed on my chest, and I deserved it.
SPEAKER_02: And when I place my faith in Jesus, that got removed and favor was bestowed on me.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't live in fear.
SPEAKER_02: My children don't fear me.
SPEAKER_02: One of my children put her Christmas list together on Canva.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: It's like some software where you design stuff.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what happened to a pencil in a grocery bag?
SPEAKER_02: Oh dad, I want it to be kind of artistic and beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: So can we just appreciate the art the artistry and the beauty, or do you want this stuff?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I want that stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I got lost in that.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna get it.
SPEAKER_02: And my married daughter who's driving in tonight after their Christmas Eve service at the church she works at, she's like, man, working in this church is inconvenient.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to adulthood.
SPEAKER_02: I'll be in about 9 o'clock tonight, Dad.
SPEAKER_02: Have some snacks.
SPEAKER_02: And the son-in-law, he had a list.
SPEAKER_02: He got off some of his list.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, do we have to still buy for the married kid?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, aren't they their own family, right?
SPEAKER_02: Can't they just no?
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, no, we gotta okay, just a second.
SPEAKER_02: What about my list?
SPEAKER_02: You don't need anything.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm not bitter or anything.
SPEAKER_02: As I sit around and watch people open gifts that I pay for.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: See, what fills the love of God with wonders, it could have been so different.
SPEAKER_02: And yet it's so good.
SPEAKER_02: Now, by the way, I'm joking.
SPEAKER_02: My favorite thing, I had to choke back tears as I watched my kid open gifts.
SPEAKER_02: Because I'm just like, oh God, you've been so gracious to us.
SPEAKER_02: See, I can buy stuff for my kids and my son-in-law, buy him stuff, and be like, hey man, relax.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna bite you.
SPEAKER_02: Got you some presents.
SPEAKER_02: What'd you get me?
SPEAKER_02: Nothing?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02: You're consistent.
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: Let's be done.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we got a little thick in here.
SPEAKER_02: Did y'all feel that earlier?
SPEAKER_02: Some of you are like, hey, bro, it's Christmas Eve.
SPEAKER_02: I gave you a present early.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Because if you rightly understand what the Bible said today, you will never, ever, ever go, I'm gonna try to love God more this year.
SPEAKER_02: No, it will rise up out of you.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: It's the old hymn here is love, vast as the ocean, loving kindness as the flood.
SPEAKER_02: And it just rises up.
SPEAKER_02: Now, let me say this: if you're here and you're an unbeliever, it could be different for you too.
SPEAKER_02: God is patient, he's forbearing.
SPEAKER_02: He's not out to get you.
SPEAKER_01: But but but he's not missing you.
SPEAKER_01: He's not like, oh, I wish Daryl believed in me, or Susie believed in me, or Johnny believed in me.
SPEAKER_02: No, he will be glorified in your life, whether you believe or not.
SPEAKER_02: He just will.
SPEAKER_02: He's that sovereign, that big, and that good.
SPEAKER_02: But do not miss this unbeliever.
SPEAKER_02: It could be different for you starting today.
SPEAKER_02: All you have to do is repent of your sins and put your faith and trust in Jesus and what he did.
SPEAKER_02: Propitiation means that Christ stepped in your place and took what you deserved to give you what you don't deserve.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: I I don't have any problem just receiving.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody walked up to me uh uh yes or about two days ago and said, Hey, I got you a little something for Christmas.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Oh, good for you.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02: My wife's like, shouldn't you be like more low-key about that?
SPEAKER_02: I love receiving, I think it's my spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_02: So if you've got something for me, I'll be right over here.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: You ain't gotta wrap it up.
SPEAKER_02: Just pull it out of your billfold and hand it.
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_02: And my wife is like, but babe, but what?
SPEAKER_02: Act like I'm not excited?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, somebody brought me, by the way, the lady that burnt the brownies, brought me new brownies the other day.
SPEAKER_02: Put them on my doorstep.
SPEAKER_02: And my father-in-law got here yesterday, and I and I opened the tin and his hand was in.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, oh here, here, here you go.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, here, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_02: It could be so different for us, Christians.
SPEAKER_02: You should ponder.
SPEAKER_02: Not not punish, but ponder.
SPEAKER_02: Don't punish yourself, but ponder.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, you've been so good to me.
SPEAKER_02: Starting with the cross.
SPEAKER_02: An unbeliever, it could be so different with you.
SPEAKER_02: Starting with you, just bowing your head in your heart, Tim, and saying, I give up.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to run my life anymore.
SPEAKER_02: I need you to run my life.
SPEAKER_02: I believe in and I trust in you and what you've done.
SPEAKER_02: That could happen for you today.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: We like to give you some soul space after we teach the word to think about what the Bible said.
SPEAKER_02: Some questions come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: That's just for your consideration.
SPEAKER_02: Let me voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Lord Jesus, thank you for the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: It's so thought-provoking, it's textured, it's jagged, it's sharp, but it's sharp like a surgeon's scalpel.
SPEAKER_02: It's sharp and it cuts us to heal us.
SPEAKER_02: It never cuts us just to wound us, to say, take that.
SPEAKER_02: No, it slices us open to restore and to repair.
SPEAKER_02: And so, Holy Spirit, come and heal in this moment.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we're mindful today because by your spirit and from your word, you've reminded us that the love of God is wonderful and it is marvelous, and it elicits those kind of words out of us.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, oh, this sense of worshipful gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: As we say with people who've who've echoed that hymn over the years, and my song shall ever be.
SPEAKER_02: Can't help myself, cannot help myself when I think about the wonder of it all.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for anyone in this room today, anyone that's watching uh our service, uh, somewhere else in the world.
SPEAKER_02: They've never believed, Holy Spirit, bring them to the point of belief even now.
SPEAKER_02: It's not too late.
SPEAKER_02: You're patient, and your kindness is intended to lead us to repentance.
SPEAKER_02: This is not a contest because you have no equal.
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna stop blaming you for what is people's fault.
SPEAKER_02: And when we stop blaming God for what's people's fault, we see God clearly.
SPEAKER_02: And then our soul wants to know that God because He's deliciously good and right.
SPEAKER_02: So, Holy Spirit, sort all that out in us.
SPEAKER_02: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: And everyone said, Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for your presence today.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you're our guest today, know that you're always welcome here.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, always welcome.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we don't want to just preach too, we want to we want to be your pastors, we want to walk through life with you.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, let me remind you that we culminate our Advent journey tonight uh at our Christmas Eve service, which is at 4 and 5:30.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, they're identical service, they'll last about 50 minutes.
SPEAKER_02: You can come and then go home and enjoy dinner or go to Carabas or wherever you go for dinner and just enjoy your family, okay?
SPEAKER_02: But not mutually exclusive.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, let's finish the Advent journey.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and bring your family with you and have a good time, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02: Say amen.
SPEAKER_02: We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_02: So if you would stand to your feet, hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't have to.
SPEAKER_02: He chose to.
SPEAKER_02: You didn't make him, you didn't feel bad enough to move his heart.
SPEAKER_02: No, his nature's motivation enough.
SPEAKER_02: The staggering, indicting reality that God loves you means that you have the capacity to turn around and love other people the way God's loved you.
SPEAKER_02: Stop making excuses.
SPEAKER_02: Outgrow your preferences and stumble into the wonder and the wideness of the love of God.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Bless you.