SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people 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.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, when we sing great hymns like that, what we're saying is that 10,000 years is not going to be enough time to tell you how much we love you, how much we appreciate you, how much we understand how merciful and how good you are.
SPEAKER_02: And so we anticipate that.
SPEAKER_02: And so when we gather for worship, we're not waiting for them to worship you.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to do that now.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to lift our voice.
SPEAKER_02: As men, we're going to learn songs that we by nature don't understand, but we're going to think about it because hymns are full of good nutrient, dense thickness, and good doctrine that shapes the way we think and the way we feel.
SPEAKER_02: It gets our attention and our affection.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, if you're worthy of anything, you're worthy of that.
SPEAKER_02: And so today we open up your gospel and we begin to look into John.
SPEAKER_02: And so we ask your Holy Spirit to illuminate what's there and to magnify and make much of Jesus today from the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: So that when we leave here, we can make much of Jesus and the way we think about him and the way we relate to him and the way we love him and the way we talk about him in our city.
SPEAKER_02: So that our city gets filled up with the fragrant aroma of big King Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's what we ask you to do.
SPEAKER_02: We ask it as your sons and daughters, and we ask it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You could have a seat if you have a Bible.
SPEAKER_02: I invite you to take it and open it up to John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_02: John chapter 1, if you're our guest today, we're starting to go through the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_02: And today I want to talk to you about why God came into the world and why it matters.
SPEAKER_02: Why God came into the world and why it matters.
SPEAKER_02: And while you're finding John 1, I want to confess, uh, begin with a confession.
SPEAKER_02: One of the hardest things for me in college, and especially grad school, uh, was writing papers.
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't the act of writing papers.
SPEAKER_02: It's just uh there were certain requirements.
SPEAKER_02: I had some classes, the paper had to be 15 pages.
SPEAKER_02: There were some classes that had to be 25 pages, and then some upper level graduate school courses, it had to be a 40-page paper.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and I remember early on I had a 25-page paper requirement, and I did all my research and laid everything out and started writing in the first draft, got it written, and I got done.
SPEAKER_02: I had 14 pages.
SPEAKER_02: And so I had to go back and just add words to every sentence in the thing to kind of build it out and make it last.
SPEAKER_02: And so it was overwhelming because I was just like, what in the world am I doing?
SPEAKER_02: There's no way I'm gonna get 25 pages.
SPEAKER_02: So what I had to do was scratch that, start over, and go back and do more research.
SPEAKER_02: And it was miserable.
SPEAKER_02: I was just like, I hate this class.
SPEAKER_02: But in grad school, you couldn't drop.
SPEAKER_02: You had to have it.
SPEAKER_02: And so I had to learn to think about, hey, I I I gotta meet the requirement.
SPEAKER_02: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_02: I tell you that because in John's gospel, he doesn't waste a word.
SPEAKER_02: There's no serial filler.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't go, hey, I got 14 pages, I'm supposed to have 25.
SPEAKER_02: I better go back and add some these and tha's and ands and commas and what.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02: Every word.
SPEAKER_02: You talk about nutrient dense, dense, and rich.
SPEAKER_02: John's gospel is exactly that.
SPEAKER_02: And you'll see that this morning as we talk about why God came into the world and why it matters.
SPEAKER_02: John chapter 1, verse 1, the Bible says this.
SPEAKER_02: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_02: He was in the beginning with God.
SPEAKER_02: All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
SPEAKER_02: In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
SPEAKER_02: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is not overcome it.
SPEAKER_02: There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
SPEAKER_02: He came as a witness to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
SPEAKER_02: He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.
SPEAKER_02: The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
SPEAKER_02: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
SPEAKER_02: He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
SPEAKER_02: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
SPEAKER_02: And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.
SPEAKER_02: Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: John bore witness about him, and he cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.
SPEAKER_02: For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_02: For the law was given through Moses, and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: No one has ever seen God, the only God who's at the Father's side, he has made him known.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when I say that John doesn't waste a word, that's exactly what I mean.
SPEAKER_02: It's so dense and it's so packed together, and every word, every sentence, every paragraph, there's a reason John records it here as he does.
SPEAKER_02: And so I want to make five points this morning from this passage that we just read.
SPEAKER_02: And the first one I want to make is that God comes at us in ways that we recognize.
SPEAKER_02: God comes at us in familiar ways.
SPEAKER_02: And so uh be careful that when you become a Christian, that you don't just try to divorce yourself from everything you've ever experienced because God uses that as a frame of reference to come to us sometimes, you say, and and communicate things to us.
SPEAKER_02: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: The people that John is writing to are Jewish people uh that they're very uh uh religious.
SPEAKER_02: Uh they don't have a relationship, but they're very religious, and they value intellect.
SPEAKER_02: They have this Greek mindset that they value intellect.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, uh to understand this passage, you have to understand the background of the people John's writing to.
SPEAKER_02: So, as a matter of background, I want to tell you four things about these people that John is writing to.
SPEAKER_02: The first thing is this Greeks believed that the universe was governed by this order of nature, they called it, and they use this word to refer to this moral principle uh or this reasoning ethic.
SPEAKER_02: And the word they use was logos.
SPEAKER_02: Logos, uh, which which is a Greek word for word.
SPEAKER_02: As early as the sixth century, there was a philosopher named Heraclitus who described the Logos as the stabilizing principle of the universe.
SPEAKER_02: It was all it was this all-pervading principle or this rational principle of the universe.
SPEAKER_02: It was, they just they didn't know what to call it, and so they called it logos because they valued intellect and they said the thing that holds everything together is the Logos.
SPEAKER_02: We don't know the Logos, it's vague, it's unknowable, it's out there in the nether regions, but we know that something, as we look around, something holds all this together.
SPEAKER_02: And they referred to it as this highest principle of reasoning, and they called it Logos.
SPEAKER_02: Second thing, a well-lived life in their mind was defined as a life that conformed to this rational and moral order.
SPEAKER_02: A well-lived life was this was defined as a life that conformed to this rational and moral order.
SPEAKER_02: That's why for some of you in this room, you're not Christians yet, but you have this, every once in a while, not all the time, but every once in a while you have this aching sense that something's missing in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the reason I say some some of the time and not all the time is because if you're not a Christian, that doesn't mean you're unhappy all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Not at all.
SPEAKER_02: Uh people that are unbelievers, they have enjoy some of them have very enjoyable lives, but even for those that like you see on TV and you're like, oh man, they're not missing God at all.
SPEAKER_02: They're millionaires.
SPEAKER_02: I promise you, there's points in time in their life where they just kind of lay in bed and they have this gnawing hole in them that kind of says, Is there more than what I believe and what I experience?
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02: Because their life is not conformed to this rational and moral order.
SPEAKER_02: We call it higher power.
SPEAKER_02: Some people call it karma.
SPEAKER_02: For the Greeks, they called it this logos.
SPEAKER_02: Third thing I want you to know about them is that for them, life was about contemplating this order and trying to discern what it was all about.
SPEAKER_02: Lots of talking, lots of discussion, big emphasis on intellect.
SPEAKER_02: There's a parallel uh in the Bible for these kinds of people.
SPEAKER_02: The Apostle Paul at Acts 17 is in the city of Athens, and he's kind of walking around the city one day, and he sees all these idols, all these statues to these different gods, and he sees this one, and the inscription on it says, to an unknown God.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul gets up and he uses that as an inroad to talk to these people about Christ.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Hey, as I walked around your city today, I observed that you're very religious.
SPEAKER_02: I saw all these different idols, and I saw this one that said to an unknown God.
SPEAKER_02: And then he turns the table on them.
SPEAKER_02: He says, What you worship is something unknown, I will make known to you.
SPEAKER_02: That's what John does here in John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_02: You don't get three sentences in and you stumble over the fact that John has come at them in some very familiar ways and he's arrested their attention.
SPEAKER_02: But before we get to that, I show you that.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just say the fourth thing you need to know about them.
SPEAKER_02: One of the reasons they put so much energy into contemplating this logos is because they also thought of God as detached from the world when it came to our struggles and fears.
SPEAKER_02: So figuring this all out was up to them.
SPEAKER_02: That's the key point.
SPEAKER_02: Figuring this all out, in other words, now track with me here for a little bit.
SPEAKER_02: This is this is not a scientific lecture, okay?
SPEAKER_02: But I'm building a platform so we can get on it and we can look at John chapter 1, verse 1 from a whole new perspective, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Uh and so basically these people he's writing to, they know that there's something out there.
SPEAKER_02: They don't know what it is, but for them, it's a principle.
SPEAKER_02: It's this reason, it's intellect, and they don't know what to call it, so they call it the Logos, this governing, uh uh reasoned principle that holds everything in the universe together.
SPEAKER_02: And life was about conforming to this.
SPEAKER_02: Think about it for a minute.
SPEAKER_02: What if your life, um, a successful life, was defined as conforming to something that you could never understand?
SPEAKER_02: It's just kind of like, hey, I don't know if I get it.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I'm measuring up.
SPEAKER_02: I know it's out there, but I live with this constant sense that I stink, I fall short, I'm never going to measure up.
SPEAKER_02: That's what they were like.
SPEAKER_02: And so for them, they sat around and thought about it all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, back to Acts 17, Paul said about the Athenians, he said they enjoyed nothing but sitting around and thinking and talking about things all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Because their life consisted of figuring this thing that was unknowable, figuring it out, and building their life all around it.
SPEAKER_02: And and the the the kicker for me is that it all depended on them.
SPEAKER_02: They had to figure this out because God was detached.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was like calf rope, and God kind of got it going and was like, you're on your own.
SPEAKER_02: It's deism.
SPEAKER_02: And they didn't think God created the world.
SPEAKER_02: They just said, hey, and they didn't think about God.
SPEAKER_02: For them, Logos.
SPEAKER_02: We figured out.
SPEAKER_02: Now, why do I tell you all that?
SPEAKER_02: I want to build this platform, I want us to stand on that and look down and hear the first thing John writes to these people.
SPEAKER_02: It's verse one.
SPEAKER_02: Hear it again, having said all that, in the beginning was the word.
SPEAKER_02: Or is the Greek word is logos.
SPEAKER_02: In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God.
SPEAKER_02: All of a sudden, their ears perk.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he drops a bomb on them, and they are like, What?
SPEAKER_02: No way! And John just keeps writing because why?
SPEAKER_02: Because God comes at us in ways that we recognize, he comes at us in these familiar ways.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you're here today and you're not quite there, you're not quite a believer in Jesus, you say, I don't, I don't believe the claims of Christianity, just keep listening and listen in ways that are familiar to you because God will speak in ways that are familiar to you.
SPEAKER_02: And by coming at them in a language that they recognize, John is taking Christianity out of the realm of the intellectual elite, and he's making it available to everybody.
SPEAKER_02: He takes it out of the realm of the intellectual elite.
SPEAKER_02: Now, for us nowadays, we don't think in terms of the intellectual elite like they did back in in John's day.
SPEAKER_02: We think in terms of the moral elite.
SPEAKER_02: The moral elite.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you in this room think this.
SPEAKER_02: You think I've done so much bad, there's no way I could ever live the Christian life because I am such a screw up.
SPEAKER_02: That's just that's just human nature.
SPEAKER_02: We all beat ourselves up about what we've done in our past, what we continue to do in our present, and what we think we might want to do in the future.
SPEAKER_02: And so we just disqualify ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Well, John writes to these people and he takes it out of the realm of the elite.
SPEAKER_02: And here's why that's such a big deal.
SPEAKER_02: If this abstract principle is not, it's if this whole logos is not an abstract principle that is so deeply mired down in complexity that only the really educated and intellectual people can ponder it.
SPEAKER_02: If it's not that, and it really is a person who makes himself available through relationship, which is open to anybody, then game changer alert, all of a sudden this goes from whosoever can to whosoever will.
SPEAKER_02: Do you hear the difference in those two things?
SPEAKER_02: It goes from whosoever can.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, if you sit, if you've got time to sit and ponder and think about this, let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you in this room have enough time to think about all the things you want to think about?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, man, I can't get a deep breath.
SPEAKER_01: My kids like, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, Scotty, Scotty, Scotty, Scotty, how does that sound?
SPEAKER_01: How does that feel?
SPEAKER_01: Shut up.
SPEAKER_02: But you don't say that.
SPEAKER_02: No, you put your hand on the phone and go, mommy's on the phone.
SPEAKER_02: I'll be done right now.
SPEAKER_02: If you go in my wife's office, there's a magnet on her refrigerator, and it's this sweet dressed-up woman, she's on the phone looking at her kids, and the caption says, Because shut up, that's why.
SPEAKER_02: That's how we talk to our kids, okay?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's just like these guys had nothing.
SPEAKER_02: They just sat around and thought about it and thought about it and thought about it.
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people just said, hey, they thought about it five minutes and realized I don't stand a chance.
SPEAKER_02: I can never get this figured out.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm just gonna live like it doesn't matter to me because if it's whosoever can, I can't.
SPEAKER_02: And John changes the narrative and said, it's not whosoever can based on ability, it's whosoever will, and it's based on willingness.
SPEAKER_02: That's that's why I say he didn't waste a word.
SPEAKER_02: He says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and there's a progression to the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: When we say incarnation, that's the idea of God leaving heaven and putting on flesh and come to live here on the earth.
SPEAKER_02: That's the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the progression to this uh to the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: It's first of all, the word existed.
SPEAKER_02: The word existed, and by the way, when he says the word here, he's not talking about the Bible, he's talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He's talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He says the word existed.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, uh, the word was with God, uh, not identical, but they're one.
SPEAKER_02: And thirdly, the word was God.
SPEAKER_02: The word was God.
SPEAKER_02: Why is that such a big deal?
SPEAKER_02: Remember, John is writing to a Jewish audience.
SPEAKER_02: He's a Palestinian Jew who's come to faith in Christ, come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that people can, sins can be forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: Our sins can be forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have to keep some religious rules.
SPEAKER_02: We can be in a relationship with this personal God who wants to know us in a personal way.
SPEAKER_02: Game changer for John.
SPEAKER_02: He writes to people who are like him that he went to high school with and says, Hey, hey, it's not about us.
SPEAKER_02: It's about him.
SPEAKER_02: It's not about what we can do in the present, it's about what he's done.
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02: Now, here's the big deal.
SPEAKER_02: It goes from, hey, the word existed uh to the word was with God.
SPEAKER_02: And then thirdly, the word was God.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Jews are radically monotheistic.
SPEAKER_02: They would get up every day and recite the Shema, which is the same, it's quoting Deuteronomy 6.4, which says this, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord our God is one.
SPEAKER_02: They begin every day reciting that, they begin their worship services reciting that.
SPEAKER_02: And John comes along and he's not saying, listen to me, he's not saying, uh, hey, now there's two gods.
SPEAKER_02: He's in no no.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying the God that we believe in, this one God, he is expressing himself in his son.
SPEAKER_02: So when he says, Hey, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, what John is saying unequivocally and unapologetically is Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: And so, because of that, there's a deep, deep importance on everything the Bible ever says about him.
SPEAKER_02: Second thing the text tells us is that God is most recognizable in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He says in verse 2, he was in the beginning with God.
SPEAKER_02: So this logos, this is not a thing or a concept or a principle, but a person.
SPEAKER_02: He existed with God before anything came to be, said differently, he was pre-existent.
SPEAKER_02: So John is not telling us a bunch of religious uh uh uh information about him, he's telling us historical information about him.
SPEAKER_02: Why is that a big deal?
SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus was not created by God, because he existed with God.
SPEAKER_02: Now think for just a minute, and I'll bring this down in about four minutes, I'll bring this down to where we live.
SPEAKER_02: Are you still with me so far?
SPEAKER_02: Some of y'all are like, uh, okay, is there gonna be a quiz on this?
SPEAKER_02: Is this gonna be on the test?
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, John doesn't waste a word.
SPEAKER_02: He says what he says to lay the foundation here for what he's going to say next.
SPEAKER_02: And he says what he says here to lay the foundation for what he's gonna say next.
SPEAKER_02: And if you could just follow the progression, all of a sudden it's like, oh, I get that now.
SPEAKER_02: And what happens is that things that used to offend you, yeah, that just made you uh intellectually angry, all of a sudden they bring you great comfort.
SPEAKER_02: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_02: When I say that God is the most recognizable in Jesus, a lot of people you hear nowadays, people say this, well, I I believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I believe he was a good teacher, a moral example, or even a prophet.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, they're relating to Jesus like he was just another created being.
SPEAKER_02: And John says from the get-go, no, no, no, Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, that is the thing that got Jesus in trouble.
SPEAKER_02: Uh John, don't turn to it, but just write down John chapter 5, verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: Now we're in John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_02: So it takes only four chapters for Jesus to make people so angry that they would pull their beards out and they would rip their clothes.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever been so mad at somebody that you just ripped your shirt and was like, Bah! That's the way people would respond to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: John 5.18 says this.
SPEAKER_02: This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him.
SPEAKER_02: Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.
SPEAKER_02: Now I want to draw your attention to those five words, we're seeking all the more to kill him.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, they had been seeking to kill him before, and now their desire to kill Jesus had gotten bigger.
SPEAKER_02: We're seeking all the more.
SPEAKER_02: What does Jesus do in four chapters that makes people so angry?
SPEAKER_02: Because we don't live in a day and age where we get how offended they were, and they would just be like, What?
SPEAKER_02: Because what Jesus did in John 5 is he heals a guy on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_02: The Sabbath where you're not supposed to be doing anything, just laying there on your mat.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus comes rolling into the town like big and rich.
SPEAKER_02: He walked into the room passing out hundred dollar bills because it thrills and it kills like the horns on my Silver Rado grill.
SPEAKER_02: And people are going crazy.
SPEAKER_02: And he heals somebody, and they're like, What?
SPEAKER_02: You can't do that on the Sabbath?
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus is like, hey, this guy's messed up and I can make him better.
SPEAKER_02: Why wouldn't I make him better?
SPEAKER_02: And they were just and they would tear their shirts and they would go home and go, he's not doing it right.
SPEAKER_02: It's like this if you're married, men.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes your wife says something, and you think in your mind, there is no way you can actually feel that.
SPEAKER_02: But she does.
SPEAKER_02: And you're kind of like, Do I say what I'm thinking?
SPEAKER_02: Or do I just do that?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just do that.
SPEAKER_02: That's the answer.
SPEAKER_02: But every once in a while, my wife and I have conversations, and she says stuff, and I'm just, it's, it, it's in there, and I'm doing good.
SPEAKER_02: But remember when you were a kid and you had those little cars men, and you put them on the ground and you roll them backwards, and they go, and then you have to let them go.
SPEAKER_02: That's me.
SPEAKER_02: My wife will say something, and I'll think, there's no way you can logically get to that place where you feel like that about me.
SPEAKER_02: I am awesome, and you're just missing it.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm gonna say that, and I'm struggling off, listen, this is my posture.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, uh-huh, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02: And she'll say, and I'm like, I don't see where you get that.
SPEAKER_02: And she'll say crazy stuff like you don't have to understand this, you just have to help me process it.
SPEAKER_02: And every once in a while, if we're in a room where there's a clock, I'll just glance over and look at the clock because I just think we're we're we're just we're getting on the word train, and this is gonna be 45 minutes of just a pride swallowing siege.
SPEAKER_02: And I and I'm still not saying anything.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And then she'll say, and she talks like this is actually real.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm thinking, this is impossible.
SPEAKER_02: You, how did you get?
SPEAKER_02: I said this, and you got this from this.
SPEAKER_02: The fact that you got this from this is not my fault.
SPEAKER_02: Why do I have to be here?
SPEAKER_02: And occasionally, I just I just like I can't take it.
SPEAKER_02: And I just and I say that.
SPEAKER_02: And I say, Inla, I'm not a yeller, I don't yell, I'm just like, hey, you're feeling something that I never intended.
SPEAKER_02: Why do I have to help walk you back to reality?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you think I'm in non-reality?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, no, I think the golf tournament came on 40 minutes ago.
SPEAKER_02: And we, who why do I say that?
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: Because that's the way people responded to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Religious people would just rip their clothes and be like, shut up.
SPEAKER_02: No way.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus would be like, Why?
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because he's God is most recognizable in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's why Jesus would say things if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
SPEAKER_02: And people will throw dirt in the air because that was a sign of mourning.
SPEAKER_02: They were just like, Oh no, and by the way.
SPEAKER_02: Way.
SPEAKER_02: That is the thing that got him killed.
SPEAKER_02: Not that he broke the religious rules, he kept telling people, I'm God.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I only do what I see my father doing.
SPEAKER_02: Third thing I want us to see in the text this morning is that all of humanity is morally responsible to God.
SPEAKER_02: All of humanity is morally responsible to God.
SPEAKER_02: It's verse 3.
SPEAKER_02: All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the Bible is not written for smart people.
SPEAKER_02: It's written to about a seventh grade level of education.
SPEAKER_02: And so because I spent two of the best years of my life in the seventh grade, I understand it very clearly.
SPEAKER_02: Listen again to what the Bible just said, okay?
SPEAKER_02: He says, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
SPEAKER_02: This is why I say to you, all of humanity is morally responsible to God.
SPEAKER_02: Because what you'll hear out in our city and our culture is you'll hear people say, Well, we're consenting adults, we're not hurting anybody.
SPEAKER_02: You do what you want, I do what I want.
SPEAKER_02: It's up to me.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, well, that's great.
SPEAKER_02: You could operate under that, but I want you to know that understand this, because God created everybody and everything you see.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, God has the rightful claim upon everybody and everything that exists today.
SPEAKER_02: This is why, whether you're you consider yourself religious or non-religious, you consider yourself, you could be sitting here thinking, I'm immoral, I'm atheist, I don't give a rip about this.
SPEAKER_02: You need to think about your standing with God, where you are in relation to God, even if you're the most immoral, indifferent spiritual person that anybody knows.
SPEAKER_02: And here's why.
SPEAKER_02: Because God operates with this in mind, and the world operates with this conclusion in mind, and it always has and it always will.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: You should think about, regardless of where you are on the spiritual spectrum, you should think about where you are in relation to God because God operates with this principle in mind that all of humanity is morally responsible to God.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because He created you.
SPEAKER_02: He created not just you, but everything that you see.
SPEAKER_02: And so, as creator, He has moral authority over everything that He created.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I say things like that, and some of you are like, I don't have a degree.
SPEAKER_02: Could you stop?
SPEAKER_02: Let me bring it down and apply it to us.
SPEAKER_02: I got a phone call one time, middle of the night.
SPEAKER_02: Lady said, Can you get to our house?
SPEAKER_02: My husband's got my son down in the driveway.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'll be right there.
SPEAKER_02: Tell him to hold him down.
SPEAKER_02: And I get up, get dressed, get over there.
SPEAKER_02: What has happened is the son is a home from college.
SPEAKER_02: He's a sophomore.
SPEAKER_02: He's home on the weekend for the summer.
SPEAKER_02: And the dad's already talked to him and said, Hey, listen, you're welcome in our home when you're out of college and everything.
SPEAKER_02: But even though you're 20 and you're you're you're you're you're in college, when you live at our house, you're under my roof, you're under my moral authority, you follow my rules.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Here's the thing your mom does not sleep.
SPEAKER_02: She emotionally holds her breath until you get home.
SPEAKER_02: And so when you come home late, my wife doesn't sleep, therefore I don't sleep, so you and I got a problem.
SPEAKER_02: And the son said, I got dad, I got it.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Okay, I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just, you're getting kind of loose with this.
SPEAKER_02: You act like this is a stopping shop.
SPEAKER_02: You come in, we do your laundry, your mom fix you food, we give you money, and you do as you please.
SPEAKER_02: Three nights later, he gets home at about 2.15, 2.30 in the morning, and he's hammered drunk.
SPEAKER_02: And dad's waiting in the entry hall with a Batman pose.
SPEAKER_02: And he walks by his dad and he says, Hey, none of your business.
SPEAKER_02: I'm 20, I can do as I please.
SPEAKER_02: And dad turns around, takes three steps, gets him by the neck, and choke slams him right there in the entry hall.
SPEAKER_02: And mom, oh, call Pastor Neil.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, if that happens at your house, please call me.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because I want to come over.
SPEAKER_02: I don't care what time of day or night it is.
SPEAKER_02: I get over there, and the dad's sitting out on the steps, and he's like, hey man, if you come over here to read me the ride act, I ain't gonna listen to it.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I didn't come to read anybody the ride act.
SPEAKER_02: Tell them what happened.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Hey, I'm tired of my son disrespecting me in my home, disrespecting my wife.
SPEAKER_02: So he popped off to me, so I put him in his place.
SPEAKER_02: I said, I come over here, shake your hand.
SPEAKER_02: Walked in here, and the kid, and the son's in there with the mom and the kid, I said, Hey, you don't want any of that old man up there on the steps.
SPEAKER_02: That cat's old school.
SPEAKER_02: He ain't gonna whip you with a belt.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, I mean, he caught me off guard.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, when people get choke slammed, they usually don't see it coming.
SPEAKER_02: And the mom is like, you know, tell him, tell my husband's uh pastor, that that's inappropriate.
SPEAKER_02: I said, the great inappropriate thing here is that your son acts like he's not morally responsible to anybody.
SPEAKER_02: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_02: Some of you men right now are thinking, I'll tell you what if my son did that to me.
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't call you, I'd call the sheriff.
SPEAKER_02: Because somebody going to jail.
SPEAKER_02: That's you know why you feel that way?
SPEAKER_02: Because it offends you when your kids act like they're not morally responsible to you.
SPEAKER_02: And so for you to act like you're not morally responsible to God makes you the biggest hypocrite you know.
SPEAKER_02: See, remember when I told you a few minutes ago, if you follow, we're gonna do this, and then we're gonna go to this, and then we're gonna go to this.
SPEAKER_02: Now we're there.
SPEAKER_02: Now, y'all are like, I don't get that low guy, shut up, I don't care, I'm sleepy.
SPEAKER_02: Is there more coffee?
SPEAKER_02: Wait, chokeslam is kid.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm with that.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because there's nothing as a boss, as the owner of a company, there's nothing that makes you more crazy than people you pay disrespecting you by not working hard.
SPEAKER_02: You're just like, what?
SPEAKER_02: You have an inkling of an idea of what God feels like.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine billions of people that you created in your image just thumb their nose at you and kind of go, it's my body, I'm gonna do what I want.
SPEAKER_02: Now you understand why the Bible says that God's rich in mercy.
SPEAKER_02: Because if God wasn't rich in mercy, not a good, not a good thing, beloved.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, uh, this is also the moral basis for judgment in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: This did this principle here that everything that God created is morally uh responsible to God.
SPEAKER_02: This is the principle upon which the judgment of God is leveraged.
SPEAKER_02: People say, well, my God's a God of love.
SPEAKER_02: My God would never judge anybody.
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
SPEAKER_02: Account, it's not about love, it's about accountability.
SPEAKER_02: That's what it's about.
SPEAKER_02: So stop hiding behind sentiment and take a step into maturity and begin to build your life based on principle.
SPEAKER_02: Because God is a very principled being, he's not ruled by how you feel.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: God is a very principled being, he is not ruled by how you feel.
SPEAKER_02: And he's never going to be.
SPEAKER_02: He's just not.
SPEAKER_02: Fourth thing is God came to be received.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 4, he says, In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
SPEAKER_02: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is not overcome it.
SPEAKER_02: There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
SPEAKER_02: He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.
SPEAKER_02: He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, by the way, verses six, seven, and eight, here's what God is saying.
SPEAKER_02: God's saying, I so don't want you to miss this that I'm gonna send somebody to as a messenger to get you ready for it.
SPEAKER_02: So when it comes, you kind of go, Okay, yeah, this is what the guy was talking about.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 9, he says, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
SPEAKER_02: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
SPEAKER_02: He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
SPEAKER_02: But to all who did receive him.
SPEAKER_02: See, John takes this negative.
SPEAKER_02: He comes, he came into his own.
SPEAKER_02: He came to this people, into this world he created, to a people he created, he came into his own, and his own did not receive him.
SPEAKER_02: Watch this, beloved, look at me.
SPEAKER_02: And John takes that negative and he turns it and drives the point home.
SPEAKER_02: He says, He came into his own, but his own did not receive him.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
SPEAKER_02: When I say God came to be received, uh in verses four to thirteen, there's three things I want to point out.
SPEAKER_02: The first one's in verse four, he says, In him was life.
SPEAKER_02: In him was life.
SPEAKER_02: You say that's no big deal.
SPEAKER_02: It's four words.
SPEAKER_02: That's four words that changed the world.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because the Bible says that we are spiritually born dead.
SPEAKER_02: We're spiritually dead, we're incapable of uh of doing anything to make our situation better.
SPEAKER_02: So for dead people, our greatest need is life.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you've ever gone to a funeral, if you've ever lost somebody that you love, I promise you, you sat there in the crowd and thought, God, just please let them get up out of that casket.
SPEAKER_02: I will do anything, I'll take their place, I'll do anything because you want to see life triumph over death.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus comes and says, I have come to make that uh that that possible and available.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, Hey, he come, they may have life.
SPEAKER_02: In him was life.
SPEAKER_02: Dead people don't need forgiveness, they don't need hope, they don't need peace, they don't need sex, they don't need pizza because we can all find false versions of these on our own.
SPEAKER_02: We can fabricate them and make them look satisfying.
SPEAKER_02: Do you realize that?
SPEAKER_02: We as a culture are so advanced, by the way, uh uh if you want to understand, we have fallen in love with our capacity and we've forgotten our nature.
SPEAKER_02: Now just think just for a minute.
SPEAKER_02: We have fallen in love with our capacity, what we're capable of.
SPEAKER_02: Artificial intelligence, smartphones, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, I read a report this week that said, by the way, for the first time in 24 years, suicide has surpassed homicide as the number one cause of death among teenagers.
SPEAKER_02: And they said, here's one of the reasons.
SPEAKER_02: Because again, back to we fall in love with our capacity and have forgotten our nature.
SPEAKER_02: They said, because smartphones and technology give students this sense of being connected to a greater global community.
SPEAKER_02: How many times have you had that phrase shoved down your throat?
SPEAKER_02: They're connected to the greater global community, and then one day they wake up and go, I'm not connected to anybody.
SPEAKER_02: I'm in my bedroom on my phone reading posts from other people.
SPEAKER_02: No one even knows I exist and care about me.
SPEAKER_02: My own mom and dad don't have time for me, and they end their life.
SPEAKER_02: And they had the great community, uber connected, have had a smartphone since they were seven.
SPEAKER_02: And yet we don't see that suicide.
SPEAKER_02: And it's not because of some stupid movie, some stupid uh sit uh uh series on Netflix.
SPEAKER_02: It's because our kids don't have any sense of community, and and and to a culture like that, we should preach the incarnation more than we do.
SPEAKER_02: Because they're longing for connection, they're longing for some old people who look at them and don't see punks and problems, they see people and they ask meaningful questions.
SPEAKER_02: We we are in love with our capacity.
SPEAKER_02: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: Uh used to the values in America came from East Coast.
SPEAKER_02: It was kind of rooted in New York.
SPEAKER_02: It was, you know, people say, oh, the media is controlled by all the Jewish people and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02: And New York was kind of the center and the and the hub of thought in America over the past four or five years.
SPEAKER_02: It's slowly but but very clearly, it's that's not the hub anymore.
SPEAKER_02: The hub now is Silicon Valley.
SPEAKER_02: It's all these internet companies, Google, Facebook, social media companies who make billions of dollars and they give millions of dollars to fund and promote and push causes they believe in that are anti-God and ways you could never even fathom.
SPEAKER_02: Now, by the way, in the first service, I called it instead of Silicon Valley, I called it Silicone Valley.
SPEAKER_02: That's Los Angeles, by the way.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: You get that.
SPEAKER_02: It's free.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's Silicon Valley.
SPEAKER_02: It's because Silicon Valley has convinced us that we are capable of anything.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna make flying cars and we're gonna do all that, and hey, I'm all for, don't miss me, I'm all for technological advances, but but not at the expense of avoiding what the Bible says is obvious about human nature.
SPEAKER_02: All the king's horses, here's where we're headed, beloved.
SPEAKER_02: All the king's horses and all the king's men.
SPEAKER_02: Can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again because we've fallen.
SPEAKER_02: And let's don't fall in love with our capacity at the expense of our nature.
SPEAKER_02: God came to be received.
SPEAKER_02: In Him was life.
SPEAKER_02: We can have, because of our capacity, we can manufacture a sense of forgiveness or hope or peace or or our sex or pizza, uh, uh, and even love.
SPEAKER_02: All these false versions, you may think, what's false version of pizza?
SPEAKER_02: It's called gluten-free.
SPEAKER_02: And don't come up to me, all you celiac people.
SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry, you're you're celiac intolerant.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not.
SPEAKER_02: So when I come to your house, don't meet me at the door and say we're gonna have pizza.
SPEAKER_02: Now it's gluten-free, but it's really good, Pastor.
SPEAKER_02: No, it's not, it tastes like a brick.
SPEAKER_02: Send your emails to Neil at grandparkway.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse nine.
SPEAKER_02: The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
SPEAKER_02: He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
SPEAKER_02: He came to his own.
SPEAKER_02: His own people did not receive him.
SPEAKER_02: But to all who did receive him, see, he takes the negative, turns it around, and drives this point home and says, Hey, he came into a world that he created, to a people that he created, and they were indifferent to him.
SPEAKER_02: The greatest insult to the incarnation is your indifference.
SPEAKER_02: It's your, hey, live and let live.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: It's not 1967, and we're not on the corner of hate Asbury.
SPEAKER_02: And he says this in verse 12, but all who did receive him, he who believed in his name, he gave the right.
SPEAKER_02: He gave the right.
SPEAKER_02: It's exousia in the Greek, this powerful authority to become children of God, who were born.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what children of God are, just so we'll be clear.
SPEAKER_02: Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
SPEAKER_02: About 25 years ago, the church in America took on itself as its guiding ethic and moral principle and number one priority to get bigger.
SPEAKER_02: It's called church growth.
SPEAKER_02: And millions of dollars are spent trying to figure out how to make the church get bigger.
SPEAKER_02: And the salt has lost its saltiness as study after study after study has proven.
SPEAKER_02: And here's why.
SPEAKER_02: Because what happens is in well-meaning people, well-meaning parents, they're in churches and there's an invitation going on, and they look at their kids and go, come on, we're going forward.
SPEAKER_02: And your kid comes forward and you just kind of join the church and get saved on the family plan.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the problem: your kid doesn't have this powerful authority that's born of revelation resonating in them.
SPEAKER_02: They just smile and nod and pray a prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what happens to people that just kind of pray a prayer because they don't want to go to hell.
SPEAKER_02: It's they want to avoid something, they don't want to know this God who is the truth.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what happens: they do good for a couple of weeks or maybe in a month or so, but at some point it doesn't work anymore, and they think they got this, and they just beat their Christianity on the table and they go, I got a version that doesn't work, and they walk away from the faith.
SPEAKER_02: Or I see it all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Your kid gets of a certain age and they look at you and they go, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I don't believe this anymore.
SPEAKER_02: And you say the worst thing you could ever say, mom and dad.
SPEAKER_02: You look at your kid and go, Yes, you do.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, What?
SPEAKER_02: Mom and dad, you're just you're just saving your own face.
SPEAKER_02: You're you're garning your own reputation at the expense of the truth.
SPEAKER_02: Your kids like, no, I don't believe it.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes, we remember when you I've seen it.
SPEAKER_02: I've heard it.
SPEAKER_02: I've sat there front row and watched parents say to their parents, oh, their kids, oh, I remember you were 14, you walked out youth camp.
SPEAKER_02: We were there as sponsors.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, we went down by the lake, and we thank God for that now that you're saved and we're all good.
SPEAKER_02: Do you want to be all good and have a false sense that your kid's going to heaven, or do you want to be set free by the truth?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, I mean, John says right here, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right, he gave the powerful authority to become children of God who were born not of blood.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, they can't inherit it.
SPEAKER_02: Well, my grandpa was a deacon.
SPEAKER_02: So what?
SPEAKER_02: Nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.
SPEAKER_02: The will of man, let me tell you something, insecure preachers tend to grow really big churches because they see their church as a statement about them.
SPEAKER_02: And it's the will of man.
SPEAKER_02: They manipulate people.
SPEAKER_02: It's horrible.
SPEAKER_02: That's why I, when I was a cr when I was 16, not a Christian, just an angry pot-smoking kid.
SPEAKER_02: I went to church every once in a while, and they'd always get to the end and they try to scare people into it.
SPEAKER_02: They were riding down the road, smoking marijuana, listening to Deaf Leopard, and their car careened out of control, and they burned up that night.
SPEAKER_02: And then their heads are bowed and eyes are closed.
SPEAKER_02: If you're in the backseat of that Camaro and you're going into a Christeless eternity, what would you do?
SPEAKER_02: And then these kids come down the aisle because they don't want to burn up in a Camaro listening to Deaf Leopard.
SPEAKER_02: But look at me.
SPEAKER_02: What's worse than that is they don't want to know God.
SPEAKER_02: Regeneration has not happened, so they can't repent.
SPEAKER_02: All they can do, instead of repenting, they regurgitate some prayer that you feed to them line by line.
SPEAKER_02: It's an arranged marriage, and your kids are spiritually infertile.
SPEAKER_02: They can't reproduce the life of God in them.
SPEAKER_02: He came to be received.
SPEAKER_02: He came to be received, not believed upon, mental ascent, not agreed with, received.
SPEAKER_02: Fifthly and finally, it's the nature of God to reveal himself.
SPEAKER_02: It's the nature of God to reveal in verse 14.
SPEAKER_02: And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we've seen his glory.
SPEAKER_02: Glory is the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: And here verse 14 again, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory as the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: John bore witness about him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me.
SPEAKER_02: For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_02: For the law was given through Moses.
SPEAKER_02: Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
SPEAKER_02: God said, I trust myself to represent myself, so I'm sending myself into the world.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the that's the reality.
SPEAKER_02: He just pushes him, his son forward and says, Get a load of me.
SPEAKER_02: This is who I am.
SPEAKER_02: That's why in verse 14, when he says, Hey, uh, and the word became flesh and dwelled among us, look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_02: It's like all of a sudden, E.T., you're elegant, and E.T.
SPEAKER_02: lands in your front yard and says, Where are the Reese's pieces?
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm here for that, and you got no excuse.
SPEAKER_02: You could say, hey, this was this vague kind of logos, this reason principle that governed the universe, and all of a sudden I got a flesh and blood reality in my front yard, and he wants to eat with me.
SPEAKER_02: That's why this same John, who would write the book of Revelation, writes to these busy Christians in the church of Laodicea, and says, if anyone hears my voice, he says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
SPEAKER_02: If anyone hears my voice, I'll come in and I'll sup with him.
SPEAKER_02: I will eat with him.
SPEAKER_02: I don't need, hear this beloved, we're almost done.
SPEAKER_02: Are you still with me?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is saying to you, I don't need you to fix me a meal.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, he's gonna come in, open the refrigerator, pull out all the leftovers you're embarrassed of, put them on the counter, and just fire up a marlboro and go, let's stick some of that in the microwave and hang out.
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, oh, but I make a great pot roast.
SPEAKER_02: Just give me 45 minutes, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus is like, I ain't got that much time.
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you heat up some of them taters and put some bacon in there and let's get at it?
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, ah, ah.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he says in Revelation 3.
SPEAKER_02: I will come in and sup with him.
SPEAKER_02: I'll come in, look you in the eye, and smack out loud.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to so believe in me.
SPEAKER_02: I want you so to realize.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he says to doubting Thomas in John 20.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, touch me.
SPEAKER_02: Put your hands right here, give me something to eat.
SPEAKER_02: I'll prove to you that I'm real.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I mean when I say it's the nature of God to reveal himself.
SPEAKER_02: But not only this, but he reveals himself as being full.
SPEAKER_02: Let me show you this and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_02: You up for that?
SPEAKER_02: Hey, look what he says in verse 15.
SPEAKER_02: Because we kind of miss it, because verse 14 he says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_02: We've seen his glory.
SPEAKER_02: Glory is the only of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: And then verse 15, there's this parentheses.
SPEAKER_02: So we miss this principle of fullness that God brings to the table.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Hey, we beheld his glory as the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: Skip down to verse 16 where he picks up the narrative.
SPEAKER_02: For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_02: For the law was given to Moses.
SPEAKER_02: Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Now what do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: He says, Hey, we beheld his glory as the only begotten, the only son of the Father.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, This is the way he's like, He's full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: And then, verse 16, he says this He says, For from His fullness we have all received.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_02: It is the highest form of cruelty for God to be full, and you never receive from His fullness.
SPEAKER_02: But John says, hey, we've beheld his glory, only God, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: And we have received from his fullness grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: Let me put this in a context, maybe you can understand.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you realize this, but every one of you in this room has two kinds of friends: those that are full and those that are empty.
SPEAKER_02: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, here's what it sounds like.
SPEAKER_02: Your wife says to you later on tonight when you're taking a walk and she looks at you and says, Hey, you know, John and Mary want to come over for dinner one night this week, and your husband's like, oh.
SPEAKER_02: Really?
SPEAKER_02: Those people are empty.
SPEAKER_02: They require a lot of energy.
SPEAKER_02: We all got friends that are like that.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's people that are just full.
SPEAKER_02: Every time you get around them, it's kind of like, I don't know what's going to happen, but I got a friend like that.
SPEAKER_02: His name's John.
SPEAKER_02: John calls me.
SPEAKER_02: John texted me this week and said, hey, Kelly and I are in California with some friends, and we had we we tasted this great Argentinian mall back, and I'm gonna bring you some.
SPEAKER_02: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_02: Bring it among.
SPEAKER_02: And I got other friends that go to California and they come back and tell me about it.
SPEAKER_02: How does that help me at all?
SPEAKER_02: They're empty.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to hear about your experience.
SPEAKER_02: My friend John, he always, Martin had dinner with him last Thursday night.
SPEAKER_02: And he said to me, Hey, I'm bringing something for you and something for the church.
SPEAKER_02: Because he's full.
SPEAKER_02: He's always just full.
SPEAKER_02: He's always bringing me stuff.
SPEAKER_02: It's a little unsettling.
SPEAKER_02: I think I'm a generous person, and I get around him, and his fullness just spills out on me.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're at dinner and he slides his check.
SPEAKER_02: He hands me a check.
SPEAKER_02: After dinner, he goes, Hey, here you go.
SPEAKER_02: It's a check for$15,000.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I'm like, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I could use this.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, Oh, that's for the church.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, I got your gift.
SPEAKER_02: My gift was this beautiful calligraphy, the book of Philippians in calligraphy on this beautiful piece of art.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Hey, and by the way, you get enough full people gathered in the church, what you have is a full church.
SPEAKER_02: He said, The 15,000 is from my church because he didn't say this, but what I heard was, we're so full, we just want to spill out on other churches.
SPEAKER_02: Don't you want to be that kind of church?
SPEAKER_02: Don't you want to just be a church that hey, we don't know anything?
SPEAKER_02: We're debt-free, and need pops up.
SPEAKER_02: We're just like, hey, here's$15,000.
SPEAKER_02: Be blessed in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: He's just like, what in the world?
SPEAKER_02: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_02: I'm saying that when God comes into the world, he's full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: And that doesn't mean anything, beloved.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me, until you receive from it.
SPEAKER_02: And what do you get?
SPEAKER_02: You get grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_02: Why does the Bible say it like that?
SPEAKER_02: Here's why, and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says it like that because the Bible knows that all of us, we have kind of a scorecard.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, you know, God, I keep sinning, I keep doing this one sin or these two or three sins a lot, and you're probably sick of me and doing those things.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm not even gonna pray.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, who am I to pray to you?
SPEAKER_02: Because I'm just a screw up, and I'm gonna go over here in the corner and just be a screw up, and I'll do my best, and you worry about people who deserve it.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: If God's gonna worry about who, people who deserve it, who does he start with?
unknown: No one.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Because none of us deserve it.
SPEAKER_02: And so he says, Hey, you receive grace upon grace.
SPEAKER_02: What is he saying?
SPEAKER_02: Very subtly he's saying this.
SPEAKER_02: God says, I'm so full, I never run out.
SPEAKER_02: I never run out.
SPEAKER_02: I never look at you and go, hey man, I'm dry, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02: You have sucked the life out of me.
SPEAKER_02: No, that's your empty friends that show up at your house.
SPEAKER_02: And some of you right now on the way home, you're gonna tell your wife, by the way, that's that's that's that's your mother.
SPEAKER_02: Cancel Thanksgiving, it's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, he says, and from his fullness, look at me.
SPEAKER_02: From his fullness, we have received.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the reason God's full, beloved.
SPEAKER_02: Because he wants you to receive.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: If you're a guest today, just we like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it.
SPEAKER_02: And so take some time to think about it.
SPEAKER_02: And to ask yourself, what had my name on it?
SPEAKER_02: What was God kind of pressing in on me today?
SPEAKER_02: Because it is the nature of God to reveal Himself.
SPEAKER_02: Why does that matter?
SPEAKER_02: Here's why it matters.
SPEAKER_02: Because where we started off is where we ended up.
SPEAKER_02: It's because God doesn't leave it up to you just to figure out this vague uncertainty that exists out there beyond you in the nether regions, and it's just for smart people.
SPEAKER_02: No, it's for people that smoke cigarettes and weed and drink too much and eat too much and say inappropriate things and make inappropriate choices and hate themselves and cry in the shower where no one can see them.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus comes and says, I'm full, and I got some fullness with your name on it.
SPEAKER_02: And what he says to you today is, don't you want to receive that?
SPEAKER_02: Aren't you just sick and tired of just with that little gas light on, indicating that you're empty and you're in danger of running out?
SPEAKER_02: God did not leave it up to humanity to figure him out because he came into the world in his son Jesus, put on flesh, walked on this earth among us to say, it's not all up to you, it's up to me, and I've done everything necessary.
SPEAKER_02: I am a God who's full.
SPEAKER_02: That's the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Let's think about Him for a moment.
SPEAKER_02: Father, thank you that the Bible is so consequential, it never goes out and comes back void.
SPEAKER_02: And today we all have to walk out of this room and we have to ask ourselves can my life best be explained by saying God is full?
SPEAKER_02: Or can it best be explained by saying, I'm empty?
SPEAKER_02: Because to those who've been given this powerful authority, this right to become, who receive you, and because of that, they have they they're able to believe in you.
SPEAKER_02: Then they receive fullness, and their life only makes sense by saying, Oh yeah, God's full.
SPEAKER_02: Some of us have yet to receive you, our life, the trajectory and the narrative of our life only makes sense by saying I'm empty.
SPEAKER_02: Because if God's full, then how do you explain my life?
SPEAKER_02: I pray, God, that those just binary realities will just drive us to your fullness.
SPEAKER_02: Because fullness is the essence of who you are, and for that we are humbly grateful.
SPEAKER_02: So we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: If you're a guest today, let me say thanks for being part of our service.
SPEAKER_02: You're always welcome.
SPEAKER_02: You say, Hey, I I'm the guy that doesn't believe, you're always welcome.
SPEAKER_02: You're always welcome.
SPEAKER_02: Just keep coming and keep listening.
SPEAKER_02: And God, we believe God will reveal Himself to you.
SPEAKER_02: Uh when you came in, you're given a worship folder on the far right side.
SPEAKER_02: It has a little part for some personal information about you.
SPEAKER_02: If you want us to know that you are here, we're not going to show up at your house unannounced.
SPEAKER_02: Uh if you want us to know that you're here, just fill it out, tear it off, and drop it in one of these wooden boxes by the doors.
SPEAKER_02: It's also where we we we worship God through giving, through obedience and generosity.
SPEAKER_02: So if today's the day that you do that, uh that be sure and take care of that before you leave.
SPEAKER_02: Let me make you aware of two announcements.
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh that are some of them are in your worship folder.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think one of these is, but two announcements today I want to remind you of.
SPEAKER_02: Today, we have an outreach to Village of Oak Lake at four o'clock right here at the church, and this is what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02: These are uh gallon ziploc bags that are full of muffins.
SPEAKER_02: Have a little note on there.
SPEAKER_02: We Village of Oak Lake was pretty affected by the flood, and we just want to go and bless them uh because we're a church of fullness.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we want to spill out on them and just say in a practical way, hey, God has not forgotten you.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we're not going there and giving out religious literature.
SPEAKER_02: We're just saying, hey, we want to bless you.
SPEAKER_02: And we want to just say, God's not forgotten you, and we've not forgotten you.
SPEAKER_02: If you'd like to be a part of that, meet here at the church at about 3.30, and we'll be put on a team and you'll be given some instructions.
SPEAKER_02: You won't have to do anything you're not comfortable doing, okay?
SPEAKER_02: We just want to go and be a blessing.
SPEAKER_02: Second thing I'll remind you of is that this Wednesday night, uh, we have a special guest lecturer.
SPEAKER_02: I'm teaching an apologetics class uh this semester on Wednesday nights uh at 6.30.
SPEAKER_02: And apologetics is simply a reasoned defense of the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_02: Or as I like to say, it's where you learn how to not walk away from conversations frustrated because you didn't know what to say.
SPEAKER_02: That's what apologetics is.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Mary Jo Sharp, she is the assistant professor of apologetics at Houston Baptist University.
SPEAKER_02: She's gonna be our guest lecturer, so we are in, we're having all of our adult classes come and meet right in here at 6:30.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we'd love everyone's invited.
SPEAKER_02: You say, hey, I've never been before, that's okay.
SPEAKER_02: Uh you'll enjoy her.
SPEAKER_02: She's not an egghead, she's very relatable, very down-to-earth, and she lets people ask questions.
SPEAKER_02: She's gonna talk about transformative apologetics.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, shouldn't the reality of God make a difference in our life?
SPEAKER_02: That's what she's gonna talk about.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and so if you say, hey, I think I would enjoy that, come on, you're more than welcome, okay?
SPEAKER_02: That's all I got.
SPEAKER_02: Stand to your feet, hold your hands out, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_02: Your God comes from a place of fullness, and he comes with fullness.
SPEAKER_02: That means you can receive, and you can be full, and you can take fullness to this world.
SPEAKER_02: So depart now and take the fullness of God to the emptiness all around you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Bless you dismiss you.