SPEAKER_01: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Father, what makes this night that we're singing about?
SPEAKER_00: This night where you kind of crashed into the cosmos.
SPEAKER_00: What makes it divine is that you introduce some realities into our lives that we can never escape, uh, we can never deny.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a world that kind of tries to keep it at arm's length, but it doesn't change the veracity, the truthfulness of it.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a divine night because in the incarnation, God took on flesh and moved into the neighborhood and said, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, I'm here so that you could come to me and be different.
SPEAKER_00: You could come to me and experience something you're not gonna find anywhere else.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not religion.
SPEAKER_00: The world does not need more religion.
SPEAKER_00: What we need is to realize we were created to have a relationship with our Creator God.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we're gonna immerse our minds, not just kind of look at with our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to immerse our minds in what the Bible says today, and we'll be the better for it.
SPEAKER_00: So before I finish this prayer, I want you to just to take about 15 seconds and just say, I know it's a lot going on this time of year.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's a lot of things and travel and family and all that kind of stuff, but just for the next 15 seconds, just ask God to say something this morning that has your name on it.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask God to just interrupt you and involve you in what he's doing in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, our prayerful desire today is that you would involve us by interrupting us.
SPEAKER_00: Rescue us from a life that can be explained, that makes sense, and deliver us into a life that cannot be explained and yet makes a difference.
SPEAKER_00: This is a reflection of the life of Jesus, and it's what we were created for.
SPEAKER_00: It's what we desire.
SPEAKER_00: So we ask for it now as your sons and daughters, and we ask for it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take an open 1 John chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, it's running your row on.
SPEAKER_00: I'm on page 1,022.
SPEAKER_00: 1022.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you this morning about the Advent of Love.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest today, let me just tell you what you're looking at.
SPEAKER_00: This is an Advent wreath, and each Sunday we light a different candle because there's a each candle represents something.
SPEAKER_00: We started off on the first uh Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about hope.
SPEAKER_00: And Advent is a time of hope.
SPEAKER_00: And though it gets dark and it feels like it's just a dog-eat dog world out there, and we're tempted to just kind of get real transactional and just think every man for himself, the hope of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: God punched a hole in the night with the incarnation, with sending his son into the world, and so we have this hope as the anchor for our soul.
SPEAKER_00: The next Sunday we talked about peace.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, last Sunday we talked about the advent of joy.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus was born, a standard of joy was established that we can never deny.
SPEAKER_00: And today we'll talk about love.
SPEAKER_00: The fourth Sunday of Advent is about love.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk to you about the Advent of Love.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Advent is a word that means arrival or coming.
SPEAKER_00: So we talk about the Advent of Low.
SPEAKER_00: We're saying that a way of being loved was established by God in the incarnation, in the fact that God entered into the cosmos and was born in the womb of a virgin, that God established a standard.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just give you a picture for what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: When you understand that, and what I'm gonna try to do briefly this morning is kind of just kind of point to some things in the Bible and say, hey, here's how unique this is.
SPEAKER_00: But once you understand the way God loves you and the implications of being loved by God in that way, because it'll start off and he'll say, see what kind of love the Father has given to us.
SPEAKER_00: And when he says see, that word in the Greek doesn't mean look with your eyes, it means perceive with your mind.
SPEAKER_00: And once you perceive with your mind the way God has loved you, it will inform the way you allow other people to relate to you and call it love.
SPEAKER_00: For example, about six years ago, uh I have Marcy and I have a friend that went through a brutal divorce uh years earlier, and then she met somebody and she said, I mean, we really love each other, we're really excited, but I want you to meet him because your opinion means a lot to me, Neil.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to meet my new love.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Okay, some all come excited, they come by, they come and sit down in my office, we're talking, and and and I'm listening, and I'm kind of like, so tell me how what you do.
SPEAKER_00: And and he said, Well, I I've worked my whole life, but since I I met her, now her family has resources.
SPEAKER_00: Can I say it that way?
SPEAKER_00: Her family has money, they're like loaded, uh, and they're very successful, and so I'm very protective of her.
SPEAKER_00: And and and and and the guy says, Well, I've worked my whole life, but since I met her, I've decided to take a year just to find myself.
SPEAKER_00: And because I know what it's like to love and be loved, my kind of radar kind of went up, like, I may have to hit you when this is over.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I just kind of said, and and and she was all giddy out, and he was just kind of like, Yeah, I mean, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I said, So basically, you work uh full-time.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I just keep working.
SPEAKER_00: I love my job.
SPEAKER_00: I don't work as I need to buy.
SPEAKER_00: I I love helping people.
SPEAKER_00: And you're taking a year to find yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, You act like you got a problem with that.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we're gonna go prison rules, huh?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna come sit in my office and drink my coffee and get all mouthy with me when you're mooching off this woman?
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say all that.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You're gonna get a problem.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look on your face says you're uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: I said, You said you're taking a year to find yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I've been talking to you about nine minutes.
SPEAKER_00: I think I've already found you.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: I said, What that means is I don't think this is love, I think this is abuse.
SPEAKER_00: And my friend went, Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Let he and I talk.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing, man.
SPEAKER_00: If you're taking advantage of a woman, you're not loving her, you're abusing her.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00: You say, How do I know?
SPEAKER_00: Because what I said to them, I said, I just go to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Song of Solomon, chapter one, this woman Shulamuth, she's hanging out with Solomon, and she's like, hey, don't look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter one, don't look at me because I'm swarthy, I'm sunburned, I don't like my body.
SPEAKER_00: I've worked outside, but I've not really taken care of myself.
SPEAKER_00: Please, I'm uncomfortable that a man would find me interesting.
SPEAKER_00: And then time elapses, and chapter two opens up.
SPEAKER_00: And this same woman says of herself, I'm the rose of Sharon, I'm the lily of the valley.
SPEAKER_00: I just, my fear is if my friend gets with you, that's gonna be reversed.
SPEAKER_00: She's the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley.
SPEAKER_00: And if she gets with you, she's gonna end up hating herself.
SPEAKER_00: So pardon me, but I'm not excited about this.
SPEAKER_00: And for whatever reason, the conversation was over shortly after that.
SPEAKER_00: And I walked them out, and they just kind of did this.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, So, uh, anyway, hey, it was good visiting, and no one said anything.
SPEAKER_00: They just walked out.
SPEAKER_00: And a week later, I got an email from my friend, and it says, Hey, thanks for your words.
SPEAKER_00: I did not appreciate it in the moment.
unknown: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: But my family agrees with you, and I have ended the relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I'm I think it's a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: And not that I don't like that guy, it's just that I know what it's like for you to be loved because I've been loved by God in a way that makes me different and better.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think you're gonna get better.
SPEAKER_00: I think you're gonna get diminished in that relationship.
SPEAKER_00: No, why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Because what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: See, when when love comes to town, it changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus was born in a manger, God introduced this way for you to be loved by God.
SPEAKER_00: That is never going to change.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, it's gonna change everything.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it like this: 1 John chapter 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so we are.
SPEAKER_00: The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, we're God's children now, and what we will be has yet to appear, has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is, and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is lawlessness.
SPEAKER_00: You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
SPEAKER_00: No one who abides in him keeps on sinning.
SPEAKER_00: No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
SPEAKER_00: Little children, let no one deceive you.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: For the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him.
SPEAKER_00: And he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
SPEAKER_00: By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
SPEAKER_00: See, with the advent of love, John says some things got introduced to us and imposed upon us, which is why he says, see, which is uh I said a minute ago, it's not seeing with the eyes as much as it is perceiving with your mind to take it in and to immerse yourself in this is not an experience, it's an understanding.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says these two words, what kind of love?
SPEAKER_00: And literal translation from the Greek is see, not instead of what kind, what country, what does this kind of love come from?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't come from a country, it comes from a kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you uh immerse your mind in the text this morning, what you'll see is three things.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is that this love is transforming.
SPEAKER_00: This love is transforming.
SPEAKER_00: This love, it's not transformative, it's this ongoing reality.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a transformative event where you agree with some things about yourself and Jesus when you're nine at vacation Bible school, and that's all well and sentimental and good and everything.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, nobody is transformed simply by what we agree with, but you're transformed by what you experience.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody is transformed simply by the fact that you agree with some things.
SPEAKER_00: You're transformed by what you experience.
SPEAKER_00: For example, in the next 90 days, Americans will spend over 400 million dollars on diets and dieting accessories.
SPEAKER_00: They all agree that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: 88% of them will experience no benefit from that.
SPEAKER_00: You're not changed by what you agree with.
SPEAKER_00: You're changed, you're transformed by what you experience.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this word is not a good word in our culture.
SPEAKER_00: We're not comfortable with the word transformation because it seems to suggest that who I am as I am is not okay.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible is unapologetic in that when it says, yes, everybody needs to change.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone who is changed by God, they're they're they're they're converted, they're saved, they're transformed, they move from darkness to light.
SPEAKER_00: That's just not a one-time event.
SPEAKER_00: Then it's a life of being perpetually transformed.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't leave you alone.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we say this love, when he says, see what kind of love that the Father has for us.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of love that God has for us is that he changes us and he continues to change us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, our culture kind of says, hey, you should just tolerate me as I am and celebrate me as I am.
SPEAKER_00: If you really loved me, you would just accept me as I am.
SPEAKER_00: God is not a God of tolerance, God is a God of transformation.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a big difference in those two.
SPEAKER_00: Our lives cannot be what they are right now forever, because eventually the Bible says we will be like him.
SPEAKER_00: And so what the the end goal that God is working towards is God is working in us to make us more and more and more like him.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it like this: as a Christian, you're like the model home in a new subdivision.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever gone to a new subdivision, but my father-in-law was a home builder in Florida.
SPEAKER_00: He's retired, been retired for years.
SPEAKER_00: But every time he and my mother-in-law would come, they would say, Are there any new subdivisions going up around Sugarland?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: It's everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if it's a blank field today, tomorrow, they're bulldozing everything.
SPEAKER_00: And they would say, Well, let's go look at the model homes.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, in my mind, why do you want to do that?
SPEAKER_00: But we would go and we walked in, and and and and I like my house, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I love my house.
SPEAKER_00: I think my house is great.
SPEAKER_00: I'm content until I go look at a model home.
SPEAKER_00: And then I hate everything about my house.
SPEAKER_00: And so, I mean, it's great when they're like, oh, we'll go driving out on 59 and going all that.
SPEAKER_00: But then they come years ago, they come and they go, hey, there's a big subdivision going right there by the church.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go look at those model homes.
SPEAKER_00: They got model homes right down here.
SPEAKER_00: When you walk in and you're just like, my mother-in-law goes, Oh, look at this, because we start on the end.
SPEAKER_00: That's where you park.
SPEAKER_00: And when you walk down, and it just slowly moves up the food chain.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, we got to one, it had two walk-in master closets, his and hers walk-in closet.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The man's closet was so big, it had a like a bookshelf on the back wall and a leather-like club chair in front of it, about 10 feet away.
SPEAKER_00: And it was about five feet of room that way, five feet of room that way.
SPEAKER_00: I just thought, I could come in here and close the door and just sit in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: This would be heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And he'd go out and there's the bathroom and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: We went to one and walked in, and I was like, man, this is really beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And then the lady opened the back door and she said, Would you like to see the upgrade package for the our outdoor package for this model?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What's the outdoor package?
SPEAKER_00: It comes with a swimming pool and a spa and an outdoor kitchen and a seating area with a fireplace and a flat screen TV.
SPEAKER_00: It was basically my house in someone's backyard.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm not encouraged by this.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, I'm thinking, I'm going back to the to the hood where I live.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking around, and it's not just me.
SPEAKER_00: My kids are coming like, mm-mm.
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, dad, get a real job.
SPEAKER_00: We can have a house like this.
SPEAKER_00: I went upstairs and my kids are in the bedrooms running around.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, this is what a bedroom's like.
SPEAKER_00: These people are just showing off, baby.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get don't get attached to this.
SPEAKER_00: So I drive home and my father-in-law's like, Well, tell you what that thing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: I was just like, sh.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Because we live in a culture that says tolerance.
SPEAKER_00: And you worship a God that says, no, no, no, transformation.
SPEAKER_00: Ongoing.
SPEAKER_00: You are to be the reminder to everybody that meets you.
SPEAKER_00: You're like the model home.
SPEAKER_00: People should walk into you and get a taste of what's possible, what's available, and what's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And it should ignite in them a desire to kind of go, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's more than what I'm just experiencing in this life.
SPEAKER_00: And so if we're created and God loves us in a way that's transforming, to just settle, to demonstrate tolerance, it's really a hate crime.
SPEAKER_00: Dorothy Sayers is a writer and thinker, she helps us understand what I'm trying to get at.
SPEAKER_00: She says this in this world, in the world, it's called tolerance.
SPEAKER_00: But in hell, it is called despair.
SPEAKER_00: The sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there's nothing for which it will die.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says in a lot of part of verse 1 there, the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, you cannot walk intimately with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can't have this transforming love of Jesus being manifested.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be the model home that people walk into and they hate where they're living right now and how they're living.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that and be accepted.
SPEAKER_00: And the world's not going to get us because it didn't get him.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons, it's one thing for the culture to cry of tolerance, but the church kind of says, hey, I'm loving my friends and by being tolerant.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, we're not loving them.
SPEAKER_00: We're loving ourselves too much and letting ourselves off the hook.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this progression that happens in here.
SPEAKER_00: These three little phrases that I just kind of meditated on, starting in verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Beloved, we are God's children now.
SPEAKER_00: We are God's children now.
SPEAKER_00: Does that still move your heart?
SPEAKER_00: We are God's children now.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: There's stuff under the tree at my house, not because my kids deserve it, but because I'm their dad.
SPEAKER_00: And when they open it up, I expect them to look at me and go, Oh my gosh, dad, we didn't deserve this.
SPEAKER_00: I go, you're right, you didn't.
SPEAKER_00: I got it for you because I'm awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And I will say that on Christmas morning.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife will look at me like, Really?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you have to say those kind of things?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's true.
SPEAKER_00: You think our kids deserve this?
SPEAKER_00: I don't get Christmas so I can get my kids some more stuff.
SPEAKER_00: How awesome is that?
SPEAKER_00: Now, one of my friends is like, You're just kidding.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not kidding.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't shame my kids.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I did without, so you could have Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need anything.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a grown man.
SPEAKER_00: If I want something, I'm gonna go buy it.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't waiting around to the end of the year.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make a list and hope you people get this for me.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm gonna get it myself.
SPEAKER_00: So Christmas Day, I'm gonna sit there and drink my coffee and just look and kind of go, man, it must be nice having a dad like this.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, ask my kids.
SPEAKER_00: I go, yeah, my dad says that.
SPEAKER_00: And if you catch them in the same moment, they'll go, and he's right.
SPEAKER_00: He's right.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Now why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: Not to make a big deal out of me, but to remind you, you have a father that's the same way.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, we're God's children now.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's a progression.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, What we will be has not yet appeared.
SPEAKER_00: Right there in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, woo-woo.
SPEAKER_00: We are God's children now.
SPEAKER_00: And what we will be has not yet appeared.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Meditate on that.
SPEAKER_00: What we will be is not yet.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I I it may be good now, but it's going to be even better in the new year.
SPEAKER_00: You ought to look at your wife before you go to bed and say, honey, hey, the best part of me is still to come.
SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned.
SPEAKER_00: This is getting better.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And if your wife's even like my wife, she's like, oh boy, I can't wait.
SPEAKER_00: There's more of this.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot more of this to come.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, brace myself.
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: What shall we see?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing about being loved by God in such a way that doesn't just, it's not just transformative, it's transforming.
SPEAKER_00: It's this ongoing life of renewal.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, he says, ultimately, we shall be like him.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, beloved, hey, hey, we're God's children now.
SPEAKER_00: And what we will be is not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him.
SPEAKER_00: Are you comfortable with that reality today?
SPEAKER_00: That's why this love is transforming.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just look at you where you are and go, Oh, I love you.
SPEAKER_00: Keep being you.
SPEAKER_00: There's no greater offense to the gospel than that kind of self-centered understanding of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing about this love, this love destroys.
SPEAKER_00: This is why you have to see with your mind and not just your eyes, you have to immerse your brain in this.
SPEAKER_00: This love destroys.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is lawlessness.
SPEAKER_00: You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6: no one who abides in him keeps on sinning, and no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
SPEAKER_00: Let me stop right there, because when you read something like this in church, people begin to kind of go, uh, oh, wait a minute, what does this mean for me?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it means.
SPEAKER_00: When John says you know in verse 5, you know, look at it in verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: You know.
SPEAKER_00: You know that he appeared in order to take away sins.
SPEAKER_00: That is an assumption and it's an invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: It's an assumption.
SPEAKER_00: You know.
SPEAKER_00: It's an assumption and it's an invitation.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, he's inviting us, hey, let's keep living with what we know to be the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep living what we know to be true.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, how we live limits what we're willing to believe.
SPEAKER_00: How we our life begins to define what we can call the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And if the further you get away from the gospel, the smaller your definition of truth has to become.
SPEAKER_00: Because your life determines what you can call the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, hey, for we know this is uh this is an assumption.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you know this, right?
SPEAKER_00: So let me invite you to live this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not careful, you you how you live limits what you can believe, which is why this section of the Bible makes a lot of people uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: We're just kind of like, oh, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_00: I'll pick up in verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: No one who abides in him keeps on sinning.
SPEAKER_00: No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
SPEAKER_00: Little children, let no one deceive you.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil's been sinning from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's not putting pressure on you.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, get your act together.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's, as it always does, is magnifying the accomplishment of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The reason the Son of God appeared is to destroy the devil's works.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, now let's come and bask in.
SPEAKER_00: Let's come and live in the light of all that's been accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible is saying, you no longer uh uh the longer you know God, the longer you abide in God, you you realize that you can't keep on sinning because God's seed, the ability to reproduce God's life, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: And so you To have this experience where you try to sin and you realize that it's harder than it used to be.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible's saying.
SPEAKER_00: That the more we just kind of immerse our mind, not increase our effort, but immerse our mind in the truth.
SPEAKER_00: We find it's a church that teaches us the Bible and says, this is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't like to read three verses and then talk about the emphasis of the day, or this is the character trait for this week.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a public school.
SPEAKER_00: We're not trying to give you character traits.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to give you understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Because when your life is a reflection of what you understand, there's no limit to how good it can be.
SPEAKER_00: So ask yourself: is it increasingly more difficult for you to sin?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it the longer you're a Christian, the easier it is for you to justify sin?
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly and finally, this morning, this love clarifies.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: He says, By this, by this, it is evident who are the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime the Bible uses such exacting language, your ears ought to perk up.
SPEAKER_00: By this, this, this is how you know.
SPEAKER_00: By this it is evident who are the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a prayer I prayed years ago.
SPEAKER_00: It's this reality that I experienced today.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read this verse, and I want you to, as I read verse 10, I want you to listen for what word stands out to you?
SPEAKER_00: What word, when I say it, does something leap inside of you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm going to ask you for some audience participation.
SPEAKER_00: Here, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil?
SPEAKER_00: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
SPEAKER_00: What word stood out to you?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: Just say it out loud.
SPEAKER_00: Evident.
SPEAKER_00: The devil.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: Brothers.
SPEAKER_00: You people over here falling behind.
SPEAKER_00: Wake up.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: Who said practice?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there's my word right there.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, my word.
SPEAKER_00: Brent, practice.
SPEAKER_00: Practice.
SPEAKER_00: I got a lot of Alan Aberson this room.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about practice.
SPEAKER_00: What are we talking about?
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about practice.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who don't have a Sports Center, there's a basketball player named Alan Aberson years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Alan loved to play.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't love to practice.
SPEAKER_00: And so he got my like they set him down for a couple of suspended him because he didn't come to practice.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, man, I need to practice.
SPEAKER_00: Just when the game starts, I'm gonna be there.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, No, you gotta practice.
SPEAKER_00: And he had a press conference where all he said was, what are we talking about?
SPEAKER_00: We talking about practice.
SPEAKER_00: We ain't talking about the game.
SPEAKER_00: We talking about practice.
SPEAKER_00: So I read this this week.
SPEAKER_00: All I hear in my spirit was Alan Iverson.
SPEAKER_00: We talking about practice.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: So I got infatuated with the word.
SPEAKER_00: I looked it up.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the word means: it means to produce, to bear, to shoot forth, to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: Think New Year's Eve.
SPEAKER_00: The ball drops and confetti shoots forth and covers the streets of New York.
SPEAKER_00: This only happens when we realize that there's nothing God values more than a display of his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So we got to get busy practicing.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey, right there.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how you know who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
SPEAKER_00: Practice righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, unless you think, oh man, you're getting after us.
SPEAKER_00: God's people have been inconsistent at practicing righteousness from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: God's people, not just way back in the garden, but all through the Old and New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that they came up with these religious rituals, these feasts, and these worship songs that they would sing and say to God, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We didn't do it right and we're sorry.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Hey, I'm kind of concerned there's a trend here.
SPEAKER_00: If you listen to Christian radio, you'll hear it today as well.
SPEAKER_00: The trend continues.
SPEAKER_00: There's a trend of, hey, we didn't do what you said, but you're forgiving, and we love that you're forgiving, so all good, right?
SPEAKER_00: And God says, Not so much.
SPEAKER_00: Not so much.
SPEAKER_00: This is Amos chapter 5, verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: And start to verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
SPEAKER_00: Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them.
SPEAKER_00: And the peace offerings of your fatted animals, I will not look upon them.
SPEAKER_00: Take away from me the noise of your songs, to the melody of your harps, I will not listen.
SPEAKER_00: But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
SPEAKER_00: Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
SPEAKER_00: You shall take up Sikh, your king, and Caiun, your star God, your images that you made for yourself, and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: You know what all these things have in common?
SPEAKER_00: They're all man's feeble efforts to make it up to God for the fact that we didn't do what he said.
SPEAKER_00: And what God is saying to these people is what God says all through the Bible and continues to say today, and it's simply this to obey is better than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: To obey is better than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And what you hear if you turn on the radio nowadays is that we just we're we're we are a sacrificing people because we don't practice righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: You turn on the radio and it's like, oh God, you people say this about me, and but you say this, and I choose to believe this, and God's like, what took you so long?
SPEAKER_00: People have become millionaires writing songs about the fact that we don't practice righteousness and yet God forgives us.
SPEAKER_00: Can somebody pick up a pen and write a song that captures God's heart for people that practice righteousness?
SPEAKER_00: Just listen.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I love everybody, I think it's great.
SPEAKER_00: I believe too, Lauren Daigle.
SPEAKER_00: I believe.
SPEAKER_00: Does it take that long?
SPEAKER_00: That some of you are gonna go post on Facebook and go, my pastor was casting shade on Lauren Daigle.
SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
SPEAKER_00: I just I don't get why that's so popular.
SPEAKER_00: They say this, but you know, you say, and I believe you.
SPEAKER_00: This is nutty and novel, God, and I just pulled this out of my back pocket.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: You see, if you read the Bible very long, you'll realize that God never settles for less than what he demands.
SPEAKER_00: And so to these people and to you and I, God says this I will not settle for your feast, your solemn assemblies, your offerings, your songs, your music.
SPEAKER_00: What I want and what I expect from you is righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: For you, these other things may be a suitable substitute, but God says, Not for me.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's loved you in such a way.
SPEAKER_00: Hear this, we're almost done.
SPEAKER_00: God's loved you in such a way and continues to love you in such a way that you're capable of practicing righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Don't listen to anybody that tells you you're not.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not, you need to go back and ask yourself, do I have a relationship with this God?
SPEAKER_00: Or have I just engaged in a series of behaviors where I kind of sing my penance and tell God I'm sorry?
SPEAKER_00: And here's my fear that practicing all these things has become the dominant expressions of Christianity in America.
SPEAKER_00: I love to sing, I love to feel bad, I love to do good things, so peace God, because I just can't seem to obey.
SPEAKER_00: And and because if I did obey, I would begin to unleash righteousness on my city.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is Christians now are fleeing from the culture.
SPEAKER_00: We're fleeing the public square because we don't like what's going on there, and the kind of people that inhabit that.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the ultimate confession that we're not practicing righteousness, because God says until justice is like a mighty river and righteousness comes raging down Main Street.
SPEAKER_00: It's what that means, businessman, what that means, corporate banker, what that means, attorney, is that you're in the room and billion-dollar contracts are being negotiated and you're the cat practicing righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: You are great at what you do, but you're a man or a woman of integrity at the table.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody knows it.
SPEAKER_00: They know, man, hey, we can't buy her with a kickback.
SPEAKER_00: We can't send her to Vegas for a getaway weekend, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about it.
SPEAKER_00: When I get around her, I hate my house.
SPEAKER_00: She's like the model home.
SPEAKER_00: It just kind of reminds me of what's available, and I'm not experiencing it.
SPEAKER_00: And I just, I'm curious about how that guy got to be that way.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when God's people practice righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And so when I say that the advent of love, that God's ruined us for settling for all these less wild lovers that inhabit the landscape of America today.
SPEAKER_00: It all started when he sent his son into the womb of a virgin, birthed into, and laid in a manger.
SPEAKER_00: And he just said, Hey, see, get you immerse your mind in this kind of love that comes, that's so otherworldly.
SPEAKER_00: It changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're our guest, we like to teach the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And then we like to say, hey, let's think about this for just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: So some questions are going to come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: And we'd like to just spend the next couple minutes just thinking, reflecting.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Clyde will come and he'll just play, he may sing something over you.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to feel bad.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do what the Bible says when he says see.
SPEAKER_00: That's not look with your eyes, that's perceive with your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_00: God thinks that uh the Bible is very causal.
SPEAKER_00: It's comforting, but it's also causal.
SPEAKER_00: It causes us to think differently.
SPEAKER_00: And so now, God, we just want to take a few minutes to do what you created us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And let's think about you, think about our lives, and think about the intersection of those two things.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray now and we listen and we think in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we understand that being fitted for heaven is not a comfortable experience.
SPEAKER_00: It involves rubbing and scraping and cutting and destroying and bringing back to life.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it's what we were created for.
SPEAKER_00: To be fitted for heaven.
SPEAKER_00: To be the model home that reminds everybody around us, hey, this is what's possible and available, and this is what's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And it's going to get just more and more real.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Holy Spirit, we we just thank you that you've loved us this way, God.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder it's so popular in our culture for people to say, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.
SPEAKER_00: That whoever would believe in him shouldn't perish, but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: But so that the world could be saved through him.
SPEAKER_00: What we take from that, God, is that our only hope is in a relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: You're the only place forgiveness is available.
SPEAKER_00: You're the only place redemption is available because you're the only one who gave yourself for us.
SPEAKER_00: So if we want redemption, the forgiveness of sins, we have to come to you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you loved us, that you transformed and you are transforming us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you are destroying things that are intended to destroy us.
SPEAKER_00: And thank you that you made it clear.
SPEAKER_00: And now that we've kind of immersed our minds in it, let us take with us for the living what we've learned today.
SPEAKER_00: We say thank you as your sons and daughters, and we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for your presence today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a guest, let me just say this: you're always welcome.
SPEAKER_00: You're always welcome here.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, you've had an opportunity, pull a guest card in that little seat pocket on your row.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't filled that out already, would you take a minute and fill it out before you go and just drop it in this wooden boxes by the doors?
SPEAKER_00: And if this is your what you consider your church, uh, and today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity when it comes to giving, that's where you do that as well.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just remind you before you're dismissed that tomorrow is our last service of our Advent services, which is our Christmas Eve service.
SPEAKER_00: We have two identical services at 4 o'clock and 5.30 right here in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: We would love for you to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: It's a culmination of our Advent services, like I said, and they're about 45 minutes in length, uh, and they're meaningful.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just kind of a check the list kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we take it seriously.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but we also want to recognize that you have family rituals and traditions and our services at 4 and 5:30 to allow you to be a part of that and then get back and be with your family, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: Now that you've seen the kind of love with which the Father has loved you, depart and love yourself and other people with this same kind of incendiary love.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.