WEBVTT 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:08.720 This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:12.480 Helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:18.000 For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org. 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:24.079 Father, it's our understanding that you have come and that you're going to come again. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:25.920 We find joy in the second coming. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:27.839 It doesn't stir up fear in us. 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:33.920 It's going to be the valid uh the validation of everything we've ever heard and what we've come to believe. 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:36.960 And it's going to be the experience of what we longed for. 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:40.640 But in the meantime, we've got to be about the Father's business. 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:42.159 We've got to love what you love. 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:46.159 We don't want to just spend our lives saying to you, thank you for loving me. 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:53.759 We want to love what you love the way you love it, because we understand when you came the first time that you altered everything in this world. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.960 You changed not only what we love, but the way we love it. 00:00:57.200 --> 00:00:59.840 So help us love the right things today. 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:10.159 Focus our heart and our spirit, our gifts and our abilities, our talent, our time and our treasure all in and around the things that you came to cause us to love. 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:13.680 And help us love them today in a way we've never loved them before. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:19.280 Help us love them in a way that other people are jealous because they don't love these things. 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:23.760 Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth today because that's the only thing that sets us free. 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:26.000 And that's what we were created for freedom. 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:29.680 So we ask you to give back to us what was forfeited in the garden. 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:31.519 Give back to us that freedom today. 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:32.719 We pray in Jesus' name. 00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:34.640 And everyone said, Amen. 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:35.120 Amen. 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:36.400 You could have a seat if you've got a Bible. 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:39.280 I invite you to take it and open it up to 1 John chapter 3. 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:42.400 And if you're our guest today and you're visiting, let me just explain to you what you're seeing. 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:44.000 This is the season of Advent. 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:46.879 Advent is the four Sundays that lead up to Christmas. 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:50.719 Advent is from a Latin word Adventus, which means arrival or coming. 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:55.680 And each each Sunday has a theme: it's hope, peace, joy, and then today is love. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:58.719 And I want to talk to you about what love makes us love. 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:10.639 Because when Jesus came, he came not just to express the Father, the fact that the Father loved us, for God so loved the world that he gave us one and only Son, but He came to change the way we love what we love and the way we love it. 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:13.840 And so I want to just jump in, start reading 1 John chapter 3. 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:18.159 There's three things in the text I want us to love today, to think about for a few minutes. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:25.520 1 John chapter 3, verse 11 says this for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should uh we should love one another. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:29.039 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:30.479 And why did he murder him? 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:33.520 Because his own deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:36.879 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:40.800 We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brothers. 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:44.719 Whoever does not uh whoever does not love abides in death. 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:50.800 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:52.080 By this we know love. 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:56.000 They laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 00:02:56.240 --> 00:03:04.159 Verse 17 says, But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, and yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:08.639 Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:12.960 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him. 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:18.080 For whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:26.879 Beloved, 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. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:33.759 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he commanded us. 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:36.879 Whoever keeps the commandment abides in God and God in him. 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:41.759 And by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:44.319 Now, what do I mean when I say what love makes us love? 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:46.319 There's three things in the text I want to point to. 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:49.439 That the fact that Christ came is an expression of the Father's love. 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:57.199 And again, not just to remind you God loves you, God loves you, God loves you, God loves you, but to alter the way you love the things you love. 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:00.960 And the first thing that the Bible calls us to love in the text today is to love the message. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:01.919 It's verse 11. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:03.599 What I mean to love the message. 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:06.960 Have you ever noticed it's hard to talk about things you do not love? 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:12.400 Like I was in a conversation recently, and three people were talking about something that I have zero affection for. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:18.480 And after about 15 minutes of them just talking passionately about it, one of the guys looks at me and says, So, well, Neil, what do you think? 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:20.959 And I just said, I don't have any affection for that. 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:23.920 I don't love that, so I don't got no words around that. 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:25.279 And it was awkward. 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:26.399 And he goes, What do you mean? 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:28.000 And I said, I just could care less. 00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:32.800 And so I could talk, but I would be faking it because I got no affection for that. 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:33.920 I don't talk about that. 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:40.079 It doesn't just rise up in me like you guys talk about it, like you just invented the sun and you're gonna warm the world. 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:43.279 I'm sitting here kind of thinking, I got nothing. 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:45.279 Now, now you say, Why do I tell you that? 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:53.680 Because some of you, when it comes to your faith, you feel about your faith or about the faith, the message of Christianity, the way that I felt about the topic they were talking about. 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:54.480 I got nothing. 00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:55.600 It's not a bad topic. 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:57.120 I just I just don't love it. 00:04:57.199 --> 00:04:59.759 And so because I don't love it, I don't talk about it. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.319 Words don't naturally rise in me. 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:10.079 But the Bible says when I say love the message, he says verse 11, for this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:10.959 This is the message. 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:13.120 It's not hard, it's not complicated. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:15.439 And here's the best thing it's not new. 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:19.120 This has been the message from the beginning, okay? 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:22.079 This is where it all starts, this is where it all ends. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:24.399 This is the thing that never ever changes. 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:36.000 And it is one of the hardest things that you will ever do is to actually love people because we love people and we look at people and we love them on the basis of what they deserve, not what they were created for. 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:38.480 Well, I don't know if they deserve this kind of affection. 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:41.040 I don't know if they deserve me to forgive them and love them. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:47.439 And I just want to say this has always been the message, and it's also, it sounds innocuous, like, okay, love one another. 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:47.680 Really? 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:48.959 You that's what you got. 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:51.360 But see, here, you got to put it in deeper terms. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:54.160 Loving other people is evidence of your faith. 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:57.120 This is what verse 14 says when he says this. 00:05:57.439 --> 00:05:59.279 He says, excuse me. 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:05.040 Uh, he says, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:06.160 Hear that again. 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:09.839 We know that we have passed out of death into life. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:15.600 Now, when you say we have passed out of death, I want you to understand the natural state of humanity is spiritual death. 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:18.480 Okay, Jesus didn't come to make bad people good. 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:23.759 He didn't come to make mean people nice, he came to make dead people alive people. 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:30.639 And the way he does that, he regenerates their cold, dead heart, but he puts this thing called life in them that we'll get to in just a minute. 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:40.399 But I just want you to understand when the Bible says the natural state of humanity is spiritual death, an inability to do anything about your state and standing before God. 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:47.759 However, when a person comes to faith, they pass from death, which is what you think it's just death, it's inability, it's absence of life. 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:50.399 They pass from death into life. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:52.319 Now, you need to grasp what it's saying here. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:54.079 This is one of my favorite words in the Bible. 00:06:54.240 --> 00:06:55.279 I've told you this before. 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:56.800 I'll never tire of telling you this. 00:06:57.040 --> 00:07:02.959 Matter of fact, probably the last time I preach to you, whatever that is, I'm gonna talk about this because there's two words in the Bible for life. 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:11.839 There's bios, which is biological existence, and then secondly, there is Zoe, which refers to a supernatural way of doing life. 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:13.199 It's the life of eternity. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:16.000 But here's what I want you to grasp what is being said here. 00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:23.439 Zoe, when he says you pass from death unto life, Zoe, this eternal life, this life of eternity, it is not about living forever. 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:24.879 It's not about quantity. 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:27.279 And this is the way it was always spun to me. 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:36.879 I didn't become a Christian until after I graduated high school because the people that talked to me about Christianity, and there were some, they would say to me, like, oh, don't you want to live forever? 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:39.759 And I had deep thoughts as a pot-smoking 16-year-old. 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:43.600 And one of them was, no, no, I don't want to do this forever. 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:47.839 If heaven is this life I'm living right now, forever, no, thank you. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:49.439 I'll take plan B. 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.000 And you church people had no response to that. 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:55.920 And I was like, I'm not trying to be edgy, I'm just like, follow me home, bro. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:57.360 Would you want to live this? 00:07:57.680 --> 00:07:59.040 No, I don't want to live this forever. 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:01.120 I don't want to live this tomorrow. 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:07.279 And so well-meaning, ignorant religious people would say, Hey, brother, don't you want to live forever? 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:11.199 No, thank you very much, but I'll take a big fat zero. 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:18.480 Living forever didn't interest me because it was just the way they spun it was it was this this life goes on uh for forever. 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:20.800 What's the big word? 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:22.000 Impertuity or whatever. 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:26.720 I was just like, you really don't, that's not really good news to me, okay? 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:28.560 So no, no, I don't want to do that. 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:33.120 You see, there's a difference in living forever, which is what the church has always talked about. 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:36.639 What the Bible talks about is forever living in you. 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:38.879 Big difference in the two. 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:42.240 So if you're here today and you're and you're like, I don't believe this kind of stuff. 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:44.320 I'm just here because it's that time of year. 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:46.240 You know, I checked the Jesus box. 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:53.279 Uh, I just want to say Christianity is not just your life going on forever, it is forever living inside of you. 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:55.600 It's this word Zoe that I referred to earlier. 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:56.960 I brought you a definition for it. 00:08:57.039 --> 00:08:58.639 I never get tired of reminding you of this. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:11.919 It's this it's like the Zoe life is absolute full sub life, both essential and ethical, life, real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed in the portion, even in this world, of those who put their trust in Christ. 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:14.399 But after the resurrection, see, it doesn't just stop there. 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:20.159 This is why 1 Corinthians 15 says, if only in this life we have hope in God, we're to be pitied above all men. 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:28.960 But after the resurrection, it just gets better to be consummated by new and better experiences, including a more perfect body which will last forever. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:32.799 A more perfect body means a body that's incapable of getting cancer. 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:41.360 A body that's incapable of breaking down and needing a knee replacement or a hip replacement or a shoulder replacement. 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:46.960 So when I say love the message, what I say is to love the message, you have to understand the message. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:51.759 Because the message of Christianity is not this, oh, you get to just go on living this life you've always lived. 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:52.960 No, no, no, no, no. 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:55.919 It's not living forever, it's forever living inside of you. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:58.080 And this section ends in verse 15. 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:06.799 He says, No murderer, because he talks about Cain and how Cain killed his brother, because his came, Cain's uh life was his deeds were evil, his brothers were righteous. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:07.759 He was jealous of him. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:09.840 And then he drops this bomb on us in verse 15. 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:12.480 He said, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:15.759 And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:17.039 Hear that last part. 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:20.960 And no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:25.200 Again, it's not living forever, it's forever living inside of you. 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:28.720 This is this is the quality of life that lives inside of you if you're a Christian. 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:31.440 Again, it's not quantity, but it's quality. 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:33.440 And it doesn't start when you get to heaven. 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:34.320 That's another thing. 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:42.000 People would say, hey, basically they use different words to say it's really hard in this life, Neil, but when you die, it's going to get really good. 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:45.519 No one ever said to me, it could get really good today. 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:50.559 The kingdom of God could come down and your life would forever, never be the same. 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:54.320 I would have become a Christian in the second grade if I understood that. 00:10:54.559 --> 00:11:00.000 But all I got was religious determination and behavior modification with a cross on top. 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:01.919 And I wanted no part of that. 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:06.000 And some of you in this room right now may be thinking, that's what I've been told my whole life. 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:15.440 And I'm just gonna say, hey, listen, when you become to faith and you live out, you get to this, God puts his spirit inside of you, and his spirit brings this zoly life to bear. 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:16.879 It's not about going to heaven. 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:19.039 You begin to bring heaven to earth. 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:21.919 And it is a totally different way to live. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:26.480 So when I say love the message, don't check out and roll your eyes and go, great, love the message. 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:30.159 When you, if you understood the message, you wouldn't share your faith. 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:32.000 Your faith would share you. 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:35.039 You would find yourself getting in conversations. 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:39.200 Okay, like I had lunch with my Jewish friend uh uh on Friday. 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:44.320 Uh my Jewish, he's a very devout Jew, uh, a little disillusioned that I'm like, imagine that. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:52.799 Uh and we're talking in a restaurant down in the hipster part of town where he works, like down like 59 and Buffalo Speedway, places I've never heard of. 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:53.679 And we go on there. 00:11:53.759 --> 00:12:04.000 And so we get into a conversation, and in the booth right behind us, was a mom and her two kids, and they got up and moved because we were just talking out loud. 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:09.039 And I just said questions like, Hey, it sounds like you have a religious tradition, but not a relationship. 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:11.360 And I don't think she liked hearing that. 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:17.600 She wanted to protect her kids from that, and I wanted, I I didn't, but I wanted to walk over and say, You can't hide from this, okay? 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:19.600 You should tell your kids the truth. 00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:20.960 But I didn't. 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:23.600 But see, I love the message. 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:31.759 And when people don't understand the message, I find words just kind of coming up out of me for them, not in condemnation, but instead in invitation. 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:34.000 So, so what love makes us love? 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:35.840 Love makes us, first of all, love the message. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:37.759 Secondly, it makes us love the opportunity. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:39.840 That's verses 16 to 22. 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:43.519 Look at what it says, by this we know love that he laid down his life for us. 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:45.759 We ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:50.159 But if anyone has the world's good and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him. 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:52.480 How does God's love abide in him? 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:57.039 Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. 00:12:57.200 --> 00:12:59.840 See, when you love the opportunity, three things happen. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:03.360 You think differently, you see differently, and you love differently. 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:04.320 Let me say it again. 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.200 You think differently, you see differently. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:11.519 Most people in American Christianity, they don't see, they look. 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:13.519 We'll get to that in just a minute. 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:17.440 But when you think differently, you see differently, and you love differently. 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:21.519 Ask yourself, have I loved people the same way my entire life? 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:25.440 Or since you came to faith, has anything changed in the way you love people? 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:31.120 Because my growing concern is most of us love in word and talk, but not in deed in truth. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:33.440 Hey, I love you, bro, praying for you. 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:36.799 Well, that's not gonna get my truck fixed, but thank you very much. 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:39.360 Uh you say, what do you mean? 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:41.120 When you love the opportunity, three things happen. 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:41.759 You think differently. 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:43.360 We'll just take that one, verse 16. 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:45.759 You say, What do you mean you you think differently? 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:53.039 Uh, the opportunity that I'm referring to is not that God laid down his life, not you thanking God for laying down his life for you, okay? 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:57.919 Christianity is full of people who have shrunk their responsibility down to this simple thing. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:05.120 I come to a certain building on Sunday, I sing songs where I tell God, thank you, I'm sorry, and please forget, please forgive me. 00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:11.039 All the things I said last Sunday, thank you, thank you, please forgive me, I'm sorry. 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:13.120 And and this is all it comes down to. 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:18.080 But I just want to say the opportunity is not thanking God, okay, for laying down his life. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:23.679 The opportunity that scripture talks about and points to is you and I laying down our lives for others. 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:26.639 This is why Jesus lays down his life for you and me. 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:31.679 Now, when he when the Bible says of him, he lays down his life, that means he actually dies to himself. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:33.519 Uh uh, and we'll get to that in a minute. 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:37.840 But Jesus lays down his life not to be appreciated, but to be imitated. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:39.600 He basically says, you know what? 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:42.559 In the garden, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:47.360 There's honesty, but nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:52.159 Now, when it comes to Jesus laying down his life, that means he dies on the cross. 00:14:52.399 --> 00:14:53.840 You and I lay down our life. 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:56.480 Uh you don't have to die for someone. 00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:59.200 Oh, to God that it were that easy. 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:00.559 Let me say it again. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:07.200 When the Bible says to you and I, hey, you got to lay down your life, that doesn't mean, oh, you just you just sacrifice yourself for your wife. 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:08.000 Oh, no, no. 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:10.799 Oh, oh, again, oh to God that it were that easy. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:20.639 No, laying down your life, okay, is saying no to yourself in order to say yes to someone who you would like to lay their life down. 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:22.720 Yes. 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:24.320 Stop looking at your spouse. 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:25.679 Oh, that it was so easy. 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:29.120 I'm just gonna, I'm gonna martyr myself for you, honey. 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:30.159 This is great. 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:31.679 No, no, no. 00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:38.720 See, you you say no to your life in order to say yes to someone uh who you'd like to just take their own life sometime. 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:41.759 It's laying aside your life to prioritize someone else's. 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:43.840 This is what Jesus does in the garden. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:47.600 So when Jesus says yes to the Father in the garden, he did that. 00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:48.240 Look at me. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:50.799 So you could say no to yourself today. 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:54.559 Because Jesus says, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:57.120 But nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. 00:15:57.200 --> 00:15:59.039 I'm saying yes to your will, God. 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:06.399 So you and I, as a Christian, you now have the capacity to lay your life aside in preference of somebody else's life. 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:10.559 So ask yourself this question today: whose life do you prefer over yours? 00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:14.480 Yeah. 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:16.639 See, this is the way the Bible thinks about it. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:19.919 So when I say you love the opportunity, it means you think differently. 00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:20.879 This is what I mean. 00:16:21.039 --> 00:16:22.240 Secondly, you see differently. 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:23.360 It's verse 17. 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:24.879 Here's how you know you lay down your life. 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:26.879 You're like, well, I don't know if I laid down my life. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:34.639 I would just say this: not until you lay down your life do you start to see things differently because you start to see people. 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:36.639 You notice things you didn't notice before. 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:40.320 Now, I'm not talking, I'm talking about seeing, not just looking. 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:45.039 Uh, don't waste your life walking through life just looking, but train your eyes to actually see. 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:52.240 Because the word here in the Bible to see means to perceive with the eyes, to discern and ascertain, to find out by seeing. 00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:55.279 You kind of look at the world and it's like you're wearing 3D glasses. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:56.799 Anybody remember a 3D movie? 00:16:56.960 --> 00:16:57.840 Say amen. 00:16:58.159 --> 00:16:58.480 Yes. 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:08.079 When you begin to see, when you lay your life down, when you say, I'm not gonna obsess with myself, I'm gonna set this over here, and I just want to see the world the way you see it. 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:09.519 It's 2 Corinthians 5. 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:12.880 He says, We we hey, we regard no one according to the flesh. 00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:16.400 We once regard Christ this way, but we do so no longer. 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:21.279 As long as you regard people according to the flesh, you'll always give yourself an excuse. 00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:26.240 You'll always say things like, Well, if they did Dave Ramsey, they'd have money, they'd have an emergency fund. 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:30.160 You're just giving yourself an excuse for being selfish. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:34.559 Merry Christmas! Thanks for coming today. 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:40.799 By the way, someone said to me, Hey, when you preach during Advent, it's not typical Christmas sermons. 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:42.559 And I just let it hang in the air. 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:43.359 I said, like what? 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:44.079 Sentiment? 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:48.640 Like a Thomas Kincaid painting with ambient glowing light. 00:17:49.519 --> 00:17:51.680 Is that what we think about Christmas? 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:54.480 Because that's not the way the Bible thinks about it at all. 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:58.640 Uh Jesus is a great line in Johnny Cash's song, A Boy Named Sue. 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:04.799 He talks about getting in a fight with his dad later in life, and he says, We were kicking in a galgeon in the mud and the blood and the beer. 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:07.599 This is that's the native environment for the gospel. 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:11.680 And when you and I begin to see people, you think differently, you see differently. 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:13.359 Here's ask yourself this question. 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:17.039 When's the last time you had an experience that you couldn't explain? 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:23.680 And the reason you don't have experiences is because you don't see the world around you the way it was created to be seen. 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:26.079 It's like, oh, what do you mean? 00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:26.640 See? 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:30.880 No, looking is directing your eyes in a particular in a particular direction. 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:35.119 Seeing means to notice, become aware of something by using your eyes. 00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:40.480 I'm on a phone conversation with a young pastor in Missouri on Friday, and we're just talking. 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:42.079 I can't see him with my eyes. 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:43.359 He's a long way away. 00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:46.400 And we're talking, but rising up in my spirit is this question. 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:49.920 And sometimes in conversations, I ask awkward questions. 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:53.200 I don't want to be awkward, but it just comes out, okay? 00:18:53.359 --> 00:18:59.599 And so we're talking and he's droning on about his church, and he's got to deal with a situation and blah, blah, blah. 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:03.759 And he's paused for a breath and I said, Hey, can I ask something off topic? 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:04.720 And he said, Yeah. 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:06.960 And I said, How are you doing financially? 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:11.039 And he came back with some answer, just like a pastor. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:11.920 Oh, I love him. 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:14.240 If I was God, we'd hunt those rascals. 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:18.480 Uh, not to kill them, just to like bag them in nets and hang them from trees. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:20.160 Uh, look, I got three. 00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:21.920 I bagged out, I met my limit. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:23.039 Uh, and then he said this. 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:26.559 He said, You know, like the book of James says, I'm glorying in my low estate. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:31.920 And I said, That would be a great response if I asked you, tell me what you took away from the book of James, you preached through. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:33.359 I'm asking you, how are you? 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:37.920 They've got four kids, the oldest is seven, the youngest is four months. 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:45.519 Oh, I was glorying, not in my low estate, but in my empty nest. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:48.880 But anyway, I said, I'm gonna ask you again, okay? 00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:52.000 And I don't want a Bible answer, I want the honest answer. 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:54.240 How are you guys doing financially? 00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:57.680 And he said, Well, we um we live paycheck to paycheck. 00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:00.319 That makes Jesus angry. 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:03.359 He said, Well, this guy in my church lets me live in his house. 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:07.359 I mean, I live in a beautiful home surrounded by millionaires, I only pay a thousand dollars a month. 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:10.640 All that means is when you're done, you don't have any equity. 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:13.200 You're getting poorer every month. 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:19.759 And all of a sudden the conversation went from this issue in my church to hey, hey, how are you guys doing financially? 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:25.359 And he's like, Well, I oh I, you know, I'm just glorying in my oh, stop it. 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:27.200 I I heard you the third time. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:29.119 Yeah. 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:33.440 If you want to know how you're seeing things, ask yourself this real simple question. 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:36.240 When's the last time you had a really interesting conversation? 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:41.519 I mean, not like you know, verbal badminton. 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:42.400 Hey, how are you? 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:43.279 Good, good, good. 00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:44.640 Oh, what are you doing for Christmas? 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:45.359 Are you traveling? 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:46.720 Are you staying home? 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:47.599 Oh, look out there. 00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:50.000 It's like pickleball, we're getting crazy. 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:55.759 What a really interesting conversation where you walked away and you were a little disheveled. 00:20:55.839 --> 00:20:59.599 You were just kind of like, ooh, I might need a marble red to recover from that. 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:06.319 I had to think about some things I by nature don't think about and had to talk about some things that I didn't have a script for. 00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:08.160 Yeah. 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:14.799 See, when you love the opportunity, you see, you think differently, you see differently, and then here's the best part you love differently. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:15.839 It's verse 18. 00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:17.279 Look at verse 18. 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:18.240 What does he say? 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:20.240 It's right there in the Bible, okay? 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:22.640 It's not me, it's the Bible. 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:32.559 He said, But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother and sees, actually sees, doesn't just look at, but sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him. 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:34.559 How does God's love abide in him? 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:37.039 And then little children, here's the love part. 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:41.279 Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth. 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:48.480 My concern is about 98% of the Christians in America love in word and talk, but not in deed and truth. 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:51.680 And see, this is why you don't want to be friends with me, okay? 00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:58.799 I'm telling you right now, and I tell the second service, you should tell your wife on the way home do not give that man my phone number ever, okay? 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:02.079 We want him to be our Pastor, we do not want to be friends. 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:03.039 Here's why. 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:10.799 Because every once in a while, when I see stuff, I'm I stopped looking a long time ago and I started seeing and I started living a more interesting life. 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:15.599 Like Friday morning, or excuse me, Thursday morning, my wife and I and our youngest are going to go tour grad school. 00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:16.559 She's curious about. 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:17.599 And so we're getting ready. 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:18.960 And I was like, let me check my email. 00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:20.000 I'm gonna be out all day today. 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:21.119 Check my email, bam. 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:29.599 Got an email from a lady in our city that said, Hey, do you know anybody that's getting rid of a washer and dryer because our dryer quit working last night and our washer hasn't worked in a while? 00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:32.400 And I'm washing our clothes in the bathtub. 00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:36.640 And I got angry because I hate injustice. 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:38.799 And I was like, I want to hid something. 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:44.160 I refuse to live in a world where a woman has to, a mom has to wash her clothes in the bathtub. 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:49.599 And so she said, You know anybody that's upgrading their washer and dryer and getting rid of a getting rid of a washer and dryer? 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:50.559 Yes, I do. 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:52.640 Their names are the Home Depot. 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:55.680 And so this is why you don't want to be friends with me. 00:22:55.759 --> 00:23:03.519 Because if you're friends with me and I've been to your house and I think you might have a little left over in a bank account, I'm gonna call you and say this. 00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:06.000 Hey, can I lay something at your gate? 00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:08.880 He's saying, What do you mean, lay something at your gate? 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:22.160 It's Luke 16, the story of the rich man of Lazarus that says that this guy was like the good the rich man lived dressed in purple and fine linen every day, and at his gate was laid uh this beggar longing to eat the crumb that fell from the rich man's table. 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:25.839 Hey, by the way, in the world's economy, we are the rich man. 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:28.640 So don't opt out like, oh, I'm not a millionaire. 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:30.079 Stop. 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:30.799 Stop. 00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:31.680 Just stop. 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:36.319 And so I just said, hey, let me reach out to you. 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:37.440 I made some phone calls. 00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:39.200 Hey, can I lay something at your gate? 00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:43.599 We got some people that need a washer and a dryer, and not a hand-me-down, but a new one. 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:47.440 Can I lay this at your gate and you tell me how much you want to give to this? 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:50.480 That's why you don't want to be friends with me. 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:58.559 That's why you don't want me to come to your house, look around, and kind of go, man, all right, I think this person could help me the next time I see something. 00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:03.200 And by the way, it's gonna be delivered tomorrow. 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:07.519