Why God Is More Than Love

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Lord, that's exactly what we've come together to do this morning, to behold you, to see you as you are, not as we want you to be or we prefer you to be, but as you are.

The God who was and is and is to come.

The God the Bible says is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So to ever know you is to always know you, because there's a consistency and a constancy to your nature that we can build and bank our life on.

That's why you, Jesus, said at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

Anybody hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, these things are going to hold your life up the rest of your life.

Regardless of what the price of gas is, regardless how much hope we have in electric vehicles, we have a hope that is certain that it's you, God.

And so it's necessary that we see you in the Bible today.

We didn't gather today just to read the menu.

We gathered today to see and savor the meal.

So we've come to feast on you, Jesus.

We've come to grow in our understanding of you, to be nourished in our spirit, to have our minds expanded and our hearts uh enlarged.

So, Holy Spirit, do all of this from your word and by your spirit.

We ask you to do this, God.

And everyone said in Jesus' name, Amen.

Amen.

You could have a seat if you got a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open it up to 1 John chapter 4.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

Let me introduce myself if you're visiting today.

My name is Neil.

I'm the lead pastor here at Grand Park Way.

What that means is uh that basically I do I do the majority of the preaching.

We have two other teaching pastors, uh, Brent Willison and Leo Almeida.

They teach at least once a month uh because we think that the kingdom of God is about variety and difference and personality and giftedness.

That's why we do that.

Uh, one of the things we do, we're always preaching through books of the Bible.

We're going through 1 John, and we're up in chapter 4.

And I'm gonna read verses 7 down to verse 12.

And I want to talk to you today about why God is more than love.

Why God is more than love.

Because we're gonna read early on this section of scripture, we're gonna read the phrase, it's the most misunderstood phrase in the Bible, and it's this little phrase, God is love.

And people take that and they build a whole theology out of that, and most people get it wrong.

So I want to talk to you because if you're not careful, you read the book of 1 John, and it sounds like it just says over and over and over love people, love people, love people, keep loving people.

So it's important that you relax your eye, kind of like skip on a rock, when it kind of slows down, it sinks down to the depths.

When you read the Bible, let your eye and your mind relax and see what is actually there.

I'm gonna read this passage, these verses, and then there's four things I want to point to right out of the Bible.

And then at the end, some questions will come up on the screen, and we'll just kind of get still for a minute before we dismiss and say, hey, let's think about what we just heard from the Bible, okay?

If you're down for that, say amen.

All right, let me start reading 1 John chapter 4, verse 7, why God is more than love.

1 John 4:7

The Bible says this, beloved, let us love one another.

For love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.

In this is love.

Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God.

If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

There's four things that the Bible invites us to see and think about and consider today.

And the first one is in verse 7 and 8, and simply this a different way to think.

A different way to think.

What do you mean, a different way to think?

Uh what I mean is that most people hear that phrase at the end of verse 8 where it says, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

It's those four words most people build their worldview on.

Really, those three words, because but here's the three words.

God is love.

That explains away so many things in people's life.

And the Bible invites us this morning to think differently about this.

I would say to think rightly or biblically about this, because most people hear this and they think that all I have to do is to be a loving, non-judgmental person about everything, and I'm okay.

And so let's all be loving people because God is love.

And what happens is you end up with a culture full of amoral and immoral people who recognize no authority except their own definition of what it means to be loving, because after all, God is love.

And so if God is love and I'm loving, then I'm being like God, and who can judge me when I'm being like God?

And see, here's the reality: nothing could be further from the truth.

So, what does it mean when the Bible says God is love?

Does this mean that the most godly thing you can do is love?

Does it mean that love is God?

Turn on your radio and they'll answer that question in the affirmative.

Of course, every song is about love.

Unless it's a country song and it's about hate and wanting to kill your ex-wife, but I digress.

Does it mean that love is God?

Meaning that love is the ultimate expression of spirituality.

So as long as we're loving, then we're right in God's eyes.

As long as I love the person I'm sinning with, then that makes it okay, right?

Absolutely not.

But this is why it's so important that the Bible invites us to a different way to think about this little phrase, God is love, because our culture has taken that and consumed it upon their lust and built a worldview that cannot be sustained.

Here's why that worldview doesn't work.

Because in that worldview, your motivation determines the moral nature of everything.

Let me say it again: your motivation.

Well, we love each other.

That doesn't change anything.

Your motivation, see, in this flawed, unbiblical worldview, your motivation determines the moral nature of everything.

And so as long as my motives are good according to me, then whatever I do is good.

Here's the problem with that, beloved.

That gives you and I a power that only belongs to God.

And we're not God.

And so that's important that we see a different way to think.

So when the Bible says God is love, what does it mean?

It means two things.

Number one, it means the essence of who God is, it is the essence of who God is, but not the summation of who he is.

Let me say that again.

It is the essence of who he is, it is not the summation of who he is.

I'll just take a short way in this room right here.

How many of you in this room have ever had an episode where you acted out in a way that you don't normally do that, but you kind of lost your mind for a split second.

Say amen.

Now, if someone saw you do that, lose your temper or whatever, like I saw Road Rage this week, a guy was waving another guy over, pull it over, pull it over, right on the side of Highway 90.

And I was like slowing down.

My wife's like, what are you doing?

The we fixing see a fight, what I'm doing.

They might need a pastor or a chaplain when this is over.

And so we've all been there.

You've had that.

Now, if someone saw that, they could point and go, Oh, that's who you are.

That's not who you are.

That's not the summation of who you are.

So to say that God is love is to really shrink God down to the size of your preference.

Love is the essence of who God is.

But just like no one could see you losing your mind on the side of Highway 90, cussing some guy out, and say, Oh, that's who John is.

No, no, no, no, no.

God is love, but that's not the essence, not the totality of who God is.

Here's the other thing it means, and this will get more specific here.

It means that anytime God expresses any attribute of his character, that he's being motivated by love.

Let me say that again, I'll unpack it.

It means that anytime God expresses any attribute of his character, that he's being motivated by love.

In other words, when he demonstrates his wrath, he is motivated by love.

I grew up on a farm in East Texas with a very strict father who was not abusive.

He just had this simple rule: do everything I tell you to do.

And so when we didn't do what my dad said to do, we didn't get put in time out like y'all got put in time out.

Go to your room and think about what you've done.

My wife said to me when we were engaged, I want to talk about how we discipline our children.

I said, Uh, you whip them.

And she goes, I don't believe in corporal punishment.

I said, What's that?

She said, It's whipping.

I said, She goes, Did you get whipped?

And I said, Uh yeah.

Like almost every day.

She goes, A lot.

I said, almost every day.

She goes, Why?

Because I was wicked, that's why.

And sometimes my dad didn't take his belt off.

He just kicked you side footed.

Just get out of here right now.

Now I'm not endorsing kicking your children.

I'm just saying my dad would tell us to do something, and we would do it about halfway, and my dad would tear it up and say, Do it over again.

And so I was like, okay, memo self, don't do things halfway.

But uh when you come along and you say, hey, when God demonstrates his wrath, it's not like a father that's out of control, okay?

It's not like, oh, well, no, no, no.

Again, anytime God expresses any attribute of his character, he is being motivated by love.

Now, my father would give us a whipping, okay?

Here's why I bring this up.

Not so you could talk about corporal punishment, how you discipline your children.

That's up to you, none of my business.

But my dad would, we would, he would ask us two questions.

Every time we got a whipping, what'd I tell you to do?

And you had to look him in the eye and tell him.

And he then he'd say, What'd you do?

And you had to confess your wrongdoing.

And then he would say, Bend over.

There was no talking.

You got three swats and it was over.

You went on with your day, okay?

And then at the end of that, my dad would put his belt back on while he's putting it on.

He'd go, Hey, you know I love you, right?

Now I'm eight years old.

I remember thinking, this doesn't feel like love.

But now I'm 57.

I got two kids.

One's 24, one's 18.

That feels like love to me.

Because I'm gonna I have to invite them into maturity.

Uh and so what why am I telling you this?

I'm telling you this because uh when God demonstrates his wrath, he's motivated by love.

If you shrink God down to where God is love, therefore love is God, you will live with this insufficient view of God and what's worse, this insufficient experience of God.

Because your God, all he can do is love.

He can never come to your defense, he can never come to your protection.

What I'm saying to you is that when God demonstrates his wrath, he's motivated by love.

He doesn't lay down one attribute to express another because God does not contradict nor neglect himself.

So God can be righteous, he can be law, he can be angry, he can have forbearance, he can demonstrate his justice, he can require sacrifice, and all of these things, all of these big, harsh-sounding things can be motivated by love.

Now you may be thinking, dude, I don't know about that.

There's a lot of big words in there, like sacrifice and righteousness and justice.

I'm telling you, demonstrating God's justice is one of the most loving things God ever does.

Because God's attributes, and that's a big word.

When I say attributes, look at me.

Think of it like if I'm holding a big diamond in my hand.

All the different facets of that diamond, that like the sides of it, that when the light hits the diamond, it has this light explodes, this brilliance to it.

That the Bible says teaches that God has different attributes.

There's different facets of his character and his being.

Now, if you just think God is love, then you don't have this beautiful, luminous diamond.

You have a pane of glass that you look through.

It's a one-dimensional flat view of God that's not biblical.

And you say, Well, I don't know what you mean.

Let me demonstrate again.

Remember what I said.

I said that it means that anytime God expresses any attribute of his character, he's being motivated by love.

Let me read from the Bible and let the Bible demonstrate what I'm trying to say.

This is Romans chapter 3, verses 21 to 26, okay?

Romans 3:21–26

It's talking about Jesus dying on the cross.

And listen to the language the Bible uses.

I even I left some of them in bold so you'll hear how jagged they sound.

He says this, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

There's no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one that has faith in Jesus.

Now, he's talking about Jesus dying on the cross.

Do you understand that?

Say yes.

Now, you may think, that's a lot of big words.

I didn't understand that.

Here's a more familiar verse that says the same thing.

This is John 3:16.

John 3:16

Talking about the same thing: the cross, Jesus dying on the cross.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Look at me, beloved.

Anytime God displays any aspect of his character or any of his attributes, he is motivated by love.

This is what the Bible means when it says God is love.

John 3 16 describes the same things as the same thing as Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

How can this be?

Because God is a simple being, he's not a complex being.

If I had 64 shoeboxes standing down here stacked into a cube, one of them is not God's love.

And so God opens that and he's loving, and then he has to close that to be justice over here.

No, no, no.

It's one box.

And all his attributes work together, they complement each other.

So he doesn't lay down love to demonstrate his justice.

In other words, demonstrating his justice is motivated by his love.

Here's what makes God distinct from us: he loves things we don't love in ways we don't love them.

And that's one of the things that there's kind of a line of demarcation between God and humanity.

And so when the Bible comes along and says this, that it talks about big things like uh use the word propitiation.

That's a big word.

It basically means that the wrath of an angry deity has been satisfied.

Here's what you got to understand God so loved you that he satisfied his own wrath with his own son, so that you could have a relationship with him and be forgiven.

Now, this beloved is a very loving thing to do because only a just being can justify you.

Only someone who's always been right with God, because he is God, can make you and I right with God.

So take deep confidence in this today.

Why?

Because God is love.

You have to think about that the right way.

The second thing the Bible tells us today is it wants us to see is a different way to live.

A different way to live.

Look at verse, uh, after verse 7 and 8, he says in verse 9, this in this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world.

Why?

So that we might live through him.

That's the different way to live.

You are not created to live a self-reliant, self-motivated, self-defiant, self-determined life.

All that's going to do is make you crazy, okay?

No, no, a different way to live.

Now, before we get to the different way to live, you have to acknowledge that this is made possible by these three little words.

His only son.

Look in verse 9 again.

In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son.

Now, before you get to this different way to live, you have to recognize the exclusive nature of his only son.

Why does the Bible point this out?

Here's why.

For you not to believe in Jesus, God says, This is my one and only son, for you not to believe in Jesus to say, I don't believe that, is to put something else on the same level that God puts Jesus.

And so I want to love you enough today to warn you against that because the Bible puts a lot of faith in God's one and only son.

Now, by the way, some bonus round material.

If if if you're one and only the thing or the being that you put on the same level that God puts his one and only son, one and only means there's not another, there's not another.

I don't have another plan B in case this one doesn't work out.

This is my one and only son.

For you to say no to God's one and only solution to your sin problem is to put something or somebody on it on the same level that God puts Jesus.

And let me love you enough to say if that's you and your intellect and your preferences, then I promise you this is what's going to happen.

You're gonna have to engage in self-medicating behaviors.

You're gonna struggle with anxiety, you're gonna need help.

Here's why.

Because you're occupying a position you were never created to occupy.

To put it in terms of the Ten Commandments, you're violating the first two.

The first commandment says, You shall have no other gods before me.

When you say no to Jesus and yes to somebody or something else, you're saying, I have this is my one and only, and I have more faith in this or that, this person or this thing or this way of thinking or living or being or my identity, then I have more faith in that than God has in Jesus.

You're putting a God before the real God.

And then secondly, you're you're you're breaking the second commandment, which says, You shall uh not make for yourself a graven image.

So to refuse God's one and only is to violate those two commandments.

Basically, it's to turn your back on the sun and fall in love with the smallness of your preferred shadow.

This is what happens, and so it's very important, beloved, that we uh understand this different way to live.

What is this different way?

He says that God sent his only son into the world for this reason so that we might live through him.

You ever had this thought go through your head?

I wish I could be different.

You ever look around?

I remember when I was in third grade, I had Mrs.

Acker as a teacher.

She smelled like lemons, that's all I remember.

But I would look around at other kids in the class and think they had this magical existence that was nothing like mine.

I had a stepmom that was a chained smoker and a gossip and drank too much.

Beyond that, she was a sweet lady and made a nice sandwich, okay?

But I would look around and just think, everybody else has got it better than me.

Now, if you've ever had that thought, I want you to understand this is how accessible God is.

He sends his only son into the world, not just to forgive you, not just to give you uh uh uh uh the opportunity to go to heaven when you die, but to live through him.

Now, if you ever want to see this, this is the most accessible way I know to get at it.

If you've ever uh like when my kids were little, they did like ballet and and and dance and gymnastics, and then had the little presentations or whatever.

And I would sit in the back and go, hey, we're going to Sonic when this is over, win, lose, or draw.

But almost every parent would come right to the front, especially the moms, no hate ladies, because I was one of the only dads there.

My wife would be, I'll take them, and there'd be women down there doing all the motions, living vicariously through their kids.

And they would look to me and they would bring in tripods, like they had a news crew to film this.

I'm like, your kids graduate in kindergarten, okay?

It ain't that big of a deal.

Uh like I got in trouble because somebody was like, hey, I graduated high school, and I said, people in prison graduate high school.

Apparently, you're not supposed to say that.

I just think, keep your powder dry, kids.

We expect you to graduate high school.

It's a big deal.

If you're having a party and finger sandwiches, invite me.

But deep inside, what I'm thinking is people in prison graduate high school too.

So don't go crazy.

So I'm sitting in the back of this one woman and she's like doing the whole routine.

She's talking to her kid over there, and I'm just like, and she looked at me, she goes, Is there a problem?

Don't ask me that question unless you want an answer.

And I said, Yeah, you put a lot of pressure on your kid and you kind of make an idol out of her.

But beyond that, there's no problem at all.

Well, I mean, this is our hope.

Our hope is that she's gonna get a dance scholarship, and she's gonna go to college on a dance scholarship.

And there I am at the bridge, great church where my kids went to Mother's Day out, and I just said, You should maybe have a bigger hope.

I can't apologize.

My wife is pulling on me, like, please would you stop talking?

She asked me a question, I'm just answering.

Look at me.

You do not want to be the person that's down there living vicariously through your kid.

Here's why.

God sent his only son into the world so you could live through him.

Why would you settle for anybody or anything else?

There is a different way for you to show up in every circumstance you find yourself in.

So why would you settle for anything else?

The Bible says it like this in Galatians chapter 2, verse 20.

Galatians 2:20

I've been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Do not miss this.

This life starts with a death.

You don't live through him until you die to yourself.

I've been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And a life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Simply put, to live through him means that you and I are motivated, sustained, and nourished by your faith in Jesus more than your faith in yourself.

And so if your hope is in the markets, you're having a bad day today.

It's been down for the past two months, eight weeks in a row.

Record, just down, down.

My retirement statement came in the mail the other day.

I burned it at the mailbox, didn't even open it.

I don't want to know.

I'm gonna work until I'm 90 now.

I'm gonna be the world's oldest youth pastor.

That's my gig.

That's my retirement plan right there.

You see, here's what the Bible says to not do this, to have faith in yourself.

You see, he says, Hey, I've been crucified.

If you've never been crucified with Christ, if you've never died to yourself, you can never live through him.

Does that make sense to anybody but me?

Hello, this is Mike on check.

I see lights.

Are there people out there?

This this starts with a death.

The Bible calls you and I to a life that starts with a death.

If you haven't fallen to the ground and died, like Jesus talks about in John 12, you will not produce as many seeds.

No one wants to be like you.

You're just still trying to figure it out.

You're bringing your kids to church because it's basically it looks good socially.

But if you ever die to yourself, crucified with Christ, and just get to the point where it's no longer you who are trying to live, but Christ lives in me.

It's not you living vicariously through your children, it's Christ living vicariously through you.

You see your life, your existence as the medium through which king and kingdom find expression.

To not do that.

It's to nullify the grace of God and believe that righteousness, that getting right with God, can be accomplished by simply keeping some religious rules.

When you believe that, or if I believe that, the Bible teaches very clearly right here in Galatians 2 that we're saying Christ died in vain.

That Christ did not die in vain.

And so the Bible just kind of calls out to us and says, hey, there's a different way to live here.

So let me just ask you, how do you live today?

Is it through you?

You kind of checking your resources, making sure you got margins, you're good, you're good.

Hey, we can still go on vacation, kids.

Gas can go up to$10 a gallon.

We're fine.

You're not living through through him.

Third thing we see is a different God.

It's a different God.

Verse 10.

I'm not I'm not overstating this, but I don't think I've ever read 26 more important words in my entire life.

This was my meditation all week.

My wife said to me, she's in Dallas, wedding shopping.

Um, if you see me on the side of 1464 picking up cans, that's why.

August 19th.

Because dang, everything about a wedding is expensive.

If you want to be a gazillionaire, build a wedding venue in the woods, paint it white.

I'm not bitter or anything.

Got that thing in the mail there.

My visa company visa called me yesterday.

Uh, Mr.

McLean, you're close to your limit.

What?

Hmm.

So anyway, my wife gets home tonight.

We'll talk.

Um, but my wife said, How are you feeling about Sunday?

I said, It's a lie.

I don't want to overwhelm them.

And I said, I've just been obsessing on these 26 words here in verse 10.

Hear this.

This is why God is so different.

This is why I want to take an axe and just chop down this tree of nonsense that says, Well, all religions basically believe the same thing.

All roads lead to God.

Not true.

Not a bigger lie has been perpetuated by Oprah and the culture of the therapeutic than that.

And I'm here to say, fire on that hell in Jesus' name.

And here's why.

Look at verse 10.

26 words that will wreck you.

And this is love.

Not that we have loved God.

See, the Bible doesn't trust you to love God sufficiently.

So why do you keep trusting yourself?

Next week it's going to tell us, hey, we know and rely on the love God has for us.

We'll get to that next week.

The Bible never puts the pressure on you.

And this is love.

Not that we have loved God.

Stop giving yourself gold stars, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Two things.

When I say a different God, I'm not trying to misrepresent Jesus.

I'm trying to represent him accurately and exclusively as apart from all the other false gods in the world.

Two things that make God different.

Number one, it is not based on our efforts.

It's not.

Not that we have loved God.

If you hear and you give yourself stroke because you do the right thing and you think, yeah, I'm awesome.

I'm I'm disciplined.

I manage my time.

I work out, I read the Bible, I meal prep on Sunday night.

My life is so organized.

My closet is immaculate, my clothes are always ironed, my kids are well behaved.

This is going to slay you.

My fear is that the church in America has taught this nonsense.

And you wonder why I'm doing all the right things and why do I feel wrong on the inside?

Because you are.

Because your motives reek of your ability and not God's glory.

It's not based on our efforts.

This is what makes God so fabulously delicious.

Secondly, by the way, not that we've loved God.

All the other religions are based on your performance, your ability to love God and keep the rules.

Do more good than bad.

When you walk over the bridge on the lake of fire, if you didn't do enough good, Allah's gonna kick you into the lake of fire.

So you better get out of here today and get busy doing good.

Here's the second thing that makes God different.

It's based on his accomplishment.

He loved us.

Notice this, it doesn't just stop there.

He loved us.

Yeah, people in your life tell you they love you, and you just think, no, you don't.

No, you don't.

My wife loves me.

My wife brings me coffee in bed every morning and rubs my feet.

Yes, thank you.

Rest of you women need to step your game up.

Now, I told somebody that just had a conversation a couple Sundays ago, and he's like, No way.

And I said, Yeah, I don't ask her to.

And then he goes, Where's your wife?

I said, She's right there.

And she walked over there and he goes, Do you really bring him coffee in bed?

And she goes, Yes, of course.

And do you rub his feet?

Yeah, yeah.

And I rub his calves.

Yeah, I wake him up rubbing his feet.

And the guy's like, Why?

And she goes, I love him.

I love serving him.

And I'm just standing over there, just kind of going.

Now, I don't try to figure that out.

I don't.

I'm just like, my wife loves me.

I don't know.

One of your kids came up to me, some 17-year-old punk, he went, Hey man, your wife's kind of hot.

Not something you say to a grown man, son.

But I can see by the look in his eyes, I said, Let me tell you what you're thinking.

How'd the fat bald guy get the hot blonde?

He got pretty much.

I'm not like you.

That's a big hint.

Yeah, yeah.

So when I say a different God, he said, it's based on his account.

He loved us.

And he didn't just say that.

Look at what he did.

And and he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin.

Propitiation, it's a big word that means God is angry with the wicked every day.

If you think God is love and your God can't get angry, you don't know the God of the Bible.

Psalm 5.5, he says, I'm angry with the wicked every day.

I don't ever stop being angry with him because my anger is an expression of the things that I love, and I'm never gonna stop loving the truth.

So when people walk in a lie, I'm not just like, here's more love.

No, no, no, no.

I'm gonna begin to alter circumstances to turn your heart back towards me.

And so he doesn't just, it's based on his accomplishment, not ours.

It's fascinating.

A guy named Tyler Ellis, just a young guy, just went around the country and he's just saying to people on the street, hey, can I buy you a cup of coffee?

I want to ask you 20 questions.

And while we're talking, I want to draw your picture, your portrait, and with one continuous line, I'll never lift the pen off the paper.

That's the thing that got people to do it.

They're like, What?

He goes, I can draw your portrait with my left hand while we're talking.

I'll never lift the pen off the paper.

I'll buy you a cup of coffee or a latte and let me ask you 20 questions.

And people are like, let's go.

Because people didn't think he could draw their portrait with one continuous line, and he could.

Meanwhile, he asked them spiritual questions.

I brought you uh the question that he asked everybody.

Here was the question.

Hypothetically, if God in heaven are real, on what basis do you believe God will or will not accept you into heaven?

Hear it again.

These are people off the street.

Hypothetically, if God in heaven are real, on what basis do you believe God will or will not accept you into heaven?

Here was the consensus response of everybody bold down.

Acceptance in heaven depends on performance on earth.

See how tragically misinformed people are?

And we can't get mad at that.

They just don't know.

Some common questions that people would ask.

He said, these are the two most common questions.

Do you believe that all past lead to God?

Secondly, how can one person's death enable another person's forgiveness?

They just couldn't get their head around.

How can Jesus dying have anything to do with me?

And then they talked about, he said that, hey, they come to some agreements.

There's similarities in all religions.

You know what they are?

Here's two of them.

Living a moral life equals peace.

Living an immoral life equals chaos.

And then here's the difference in all religions.

This is where we gotta understand the difference in all religions.

Number one, uh we're we're told, I brought a graphic because here's what we're told.

Uh religions lead to different mountaintops, okay?

Let me just hold on to that.

I brought you a picture because here's what we're told: all roads lead to God.

And so, whether it's Buddhism, New Age, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, it's all different paths, but you all end up in the same place.

This is what I call the gospel of Oprah, which is no gospel at all.

This is what our culture believes.

Hey, you got your way, I got my way.

We're all gonna end up at the same place.

And what we realize, and what Tyler Ellis realized, just talking to people, is that most people in America believe this.

Now look at me.

Church people believe this.

Who am I to judge my neighbor?

My neighbor just believes a different thing, they take a different pathway, we all end up at the same place.

Here's one of the things they realize that the difference in all religions is that the first thing is that religions lead to different mountaintops.

Let me show you a picture of what that looks like.

See, in Buddhism, you get to the top of the mountain, there's no God.

See, in the New Age, everything is God.

In Hinduism, there's many gods.

In Judaism, there's one God through the Torah.

In Islam, there's one God through Muhammad.

Now, in Christianity, there's one God through Jesus.

Now, how can you say that all roads lead to God when all these religions lead to a different conclusion?

You're smart people.

This is what every one of those religions thinks.

I'm not disrespecting any one of them.

I'm just logically proving that what you've been told as a cultural gospel is no gospel at all.

And if your hope is in that, then you're the most hopeless person you know right now.

Because there's no certainty in that.

There's none whatsoever.

And so here's the second thing.

The differences in all religions, religions lead to different mountaintops.

Here's the second thing.

Religions claim different ways of restoring peace from chaos.

Religions claim different ways of restoring peace from chaos.

Remember they said that, hey, an immoral life leads to chaos.

Remember that?

That was kind of the conclusions they came to.

Have you turned on the news lately?

We live in a very immoral nation.

Chaos.

And here's my favorite part the solution to everything is open borders, electric cars.

Really?

This is all you know to say?

This is the leader?

Wow.

Okay.

Chaos is abounding, it's going crazy everywhere.

Now, when I say religions claim different ways of restoring peace from chaos, all except Christianity believe that eternal peace is obtained on the basis of our merits.

We have to do something.

All these other religions teach that.

Christianity teaches that eternal peace is achieved on the basis of Jesus' merit.

So here's the conclusion, beloved.

To say that all religions basically teach the same thing and that all roads lead to God, look at me.

It's not a mistake people make, it's a choice that people make because they don't want to face the consequences of their lifestyle.

They formulate an unbelief that explains away what the Bible calls us to believe.

And because of this, it's very important that you and I don't argue, but we keep loving.

Let me say that again.

They formulate an unbelief.

I've had people say it to me constantly.

Well, I mean, I respect that.

That's your opinion.

No, that's not my opinion.

I didn't write the Bible.

Well, that's your opinion.

You got your truth, I got my truth.

Hey, there's not as many brands of truth as there are people in America or in the world.

No, no.

See, this cultural gospel.

Hey, hey, you got your thing, I got mine.

As long as my motives that you know, my motives determine the moral nature of everything I do.

We love each other, therefore it's okay.

That's a faulty worldview, beloved.

It will not stand up to the scrutiny of the Bible.

And so, what do we do in response?

Do we go out in the street and pick it?

No.

Here's what we do: you keep loving.

Here's why.

Look at the last two verses.

You still with me?

Say amen.

Look at verse 11 and 12.

We'll be done today.

He says, This, beloved, if God so loved us, pay attention to that little word so.

Circle it in your mind.

If God so loved us, in other words, it means if God loved us in such a way that you have a clear mental image and the experience of what it's like to be loved.

See, earlier to my wife bringing me coffee and rubbing my feet.

Some of you men are like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Here's the downside of that, man.

I wake up every day indebted to my wife.

I'm in the hole by the time I get out of bed.

I can't be selfish.

It would be the most offensive thing because I live with a woman who loves me and serves me and tells me I'm great and she respects me.

I'm not making that up.

She'll just say, unsolicited, you know, I respect you more than anybody I in the world.

I'm like, okay, I'm going to work now.

And she's like, I just want you to know that.

And I'm like, see ya.

Watch for supper.

I don't do well with affirmation.

And she constantly just heaps it on me.

You're a good man, Neil McClendon.

You need something?

It is the most awkward thing.

But see, here's the problem.

I got no excuse for not being a loving servant of a husband.

Because I'm married to a loving servant of a wife.

I can't say because she so loves me.

I can't say, well, I love you back.

Keep loving me.

Thank you.

See, it cuts both ways, ladies.

Same way in the Bible.

Verse 11 beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God.

John, in his gospel and in his epistles, he insists on the invisibility of God.

No one has ever seen God because these Gnostics, these knucklehead smart elects come along and say, Oh, we had these visions and God appeared to us.

He's like, You guys are lying.

No one's ever seen God.

If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

That's why when people disagree and they have a different worldview, we don't get mad and yell.

We engage them in conversation.

We say, Hey, can I buy you a cup of coffee?

Ask you 20 questions.

Draw your portrait with one hand, never lift my pen off the paper.

They're like, no way, way.

And people are led to the end of their insufficient logic, and they're like, Man, I gotta think about this.

I really had to think about this.

See, here's the fourth thing you see in the Bible: a different outcome.

A different outcome.

He says, No one has seen God.

What does that mean?

Living a life of love is what lets the invisible God be seen, is what that means.

Living a life of love, loving people the way God has so loved you.

That's what it means.

I saw it intangible this past week.

This man in our church, I won't tell you who it is, so don't ask me.

Uh just left an envelope for me at the office one day.

I was like, great.

I knew what it was.

It was full of money.

But it wasn't for me.

He's like, hey, you meet people, bless people, meet knees in Jesus' name.

So uh if you're like me, you've gone to the gas station lately.

It keeps going up every day, every day, every day.

And so I live right over here in this little glorious middle-class neighborhood.

And so I don't go to Costco where people can afford a Costco car, they get cheaper gas.

I go to the convenience store on the back end of my neighborhood.

And I just wait.

Walked up on the first guy.

He pulled up.

I said, Excuse me, sir, are you getting gas?

He goes, Yeah.

I said, How much you get?

And he goes,$10.

I said, that's about two gallons.

How about if you fill up and I pay for it?

He's like, excuse me.

And I said, Yeah.

You got like a Dodge Durango?

How much does that thing hold?

He goes, Man, this thing holds a lot.

I said, That's okay.

I got a watt of cash.

And I said, This isn't coming from me.

I said, You know where if you go through the neighborhood, there's a church right across from the high school.

Yeah, I said, I pastor that church.

And my church, one of our core values is blessing.

And a man in my church has empowered me to bless you.

I want you to fill your tank up.

He burst into tears.

He goes, Oh man, everybody wants to be blessed, but no one wants to be the blessing.

I want to be the blessing.

What's your name?

He said, My name's Adam.

I said, Adam, my name's Neil, man.

Gas up.

He goes, How does this work?

I said, I'll go in there and give them some money.

They'll turn on the pump to authorize a certain amount.

You just fill your tank up.

All the way.

$95.

The guy that runs the convenience store is like, What are you doing?

I said, I'm setting the kingdom down.

So here's 120.

I don't think it'll take all that.

Adam walked in.

He's so self-conscious, he filled up.

He goes, There's still some credit left.

I said, That's all right.

So I can just leave, just go.

Next day, I was out mowing, went by there, had a little tingle in my liver started quivering.

I walked up, this truck pulled up, man got out.

I was like, hey man, you getting gas?

He goes, Yeah.

I said, Hey, would it bless you if I filled your tank up?

He's like, What?

I said, Yeah.

He goes, man, I'm on empty.

I said, You need to get full.

I said, Listen, I pastor a church, and one of our core values is bless you.

I want to bless you.

Can I bless you?

No strings attached.

He's like, For real.

He didn't say, Are you a racist?

An African American man.

He didn't say, What's your motives?

Who'd you vote for?

No.

Are you a Republican or Democrat?

I'm a libertarian.

No, none of that.

He was just like, no, for real.

His wife rolled her window down.

What are y'all talking about?

I'm talking about blessing you guys with a take of gas.

He's like, come on.

He said, You pass my church?

I said, I'm not doing this if you come to my church.

We don't buy members.

I said, if you go to a church, stay where you are.

Walked in, the guy, the same guy was like, Again?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's gonna be close to 150.

There you go.

I'll just cash him out when he's done.

I'll take whatever's left.

Just give me my money back.

I gotta give all this money away.

So now I pull up, car pulling up to the gas station.

Look at me, I'm done.

When I say a different outcome, you've got to stop having interactions with people that leave that leave with conflict.

When you love people the way God loves you, God, this invisible God is put on display for the world to see.

I'm not kidding.

When I walk in that communion store now, everybody that works there is kind of like, oh hey, hey.

And I just say, I'm just waiting.

They go, How do you decide?

I just look.

I just look, I somebody's got like a beater, like a 71 Nova.

I want to get them gas.

You drive up in a King Ranch pickup, I ain't buying you nothing.

You're welcome.

But when we love people the way God loves us, the invisible God is made visible.

Look at me.

God trusts you so much, loves you so much.

He didn't just send his son as payment for your sins.

Listen to me and I'm done.

He trusts you and he entrusts you to represent him in this culture.

Let's pray together.

If you're our guest, we like to just teach the Bible and then give you a little bit of space to think about it.

So take a minute.

Some questions come up on the screen for you to ponder, to apply this to your life.

Let me voice a prayer.

God thinks for the truth of the gospel, that it's real, that the Bible's thought-provoking.

It's not just a cold, dead book, it's a book of life.

It kind of saws on us, it sands on us, it gets at the rough edges of us.

Because sometimes, Lord, we get dormant to things that we should be awakened to.

And so, Holy Spirit, awaken us to everything that's fallen asleep in us and put to death in us what hadn't died yet.

We're tired of trying to live without first having died.

And so we just want to say with the apostle Paul, I'm crucified with Christ and I no longer live.

I'm tired of trying to love God.

And I want to just embrace the fact that He loved me and He went first.

He demonstrated His love for me by sending His Son to appease your righteous wrath and anger and holy dissatisfaction with me, a sinner by nature and by choice.

And that's why the love of God is, I'm not afraid to say that, God, because the love of God found me and unwound me.

So I'm not trying to defend who I used to be.

I was as wretched as the Bible says I am.

And now I am as glorious as the Bible says I am.

This is the good news of Christianity.

So, Holy Spirit, just brood over us now in Jesus' name.

God, we we agree with the great hymn writer who said the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen could ever tell.

It goes beyond the highest star and it reaches to the lowest hell.

That's the love of God.

There's nobody in this room that has so jammed themselves up that you stopped loving them.

The most indicting thing you do to us is love us.

It's like having a wife that loves you and serves you well.

You got no excuse for being a jerk of a husband.

But you did that first.

You so loved us that we are without excuse when it comes to loving everyone around us, even our enemies.

And so, Holy Spirit, we feel the weight of the privilege.

Let us steward well the responsibility.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said Amen.

Amen.

If you're a guest, I'm gonna say thanks for being here.

You're always welcome.

Always.

If you have any questions about anything you you heard or saw today, we'll be available down front.

As soon as we're dismissed here in a minute, we'd love to help you process any questions you have and take your neck next step spiritually.

There's a few things going on in the life of our church we'll make you aware of, so give your attention to our screens for our announcements today.

Hi, my name is Krista Hood, and I'm the children's pastor here at Grand Park Way Baptist.

And my name is Nancy Mullins, and I am the preschool pastor.

We have a couple of scenarios we want you to imagine.

The first scenario is a family who gets home after a long day.

They order their favorite pizza, they sit down, starving and eager to enjoy their dinner, and open up the pizza box only to find this.

Bummer! Half the pizza is gone! The pizza delivery guy must have been hungry too.

The night is ruined.

Now imagine that you're getting ready for an important job interview.

When you go to take your favorite sweater out of the dryer, this is what you find.

Bummer! You left it there a little bit too long.

The sweater is shrunk and the job interview is ruined.

Now, how does this relate to kids ministry?

Well, every Sunday your children come to church.

There are around 70 kidmen volunteers ready to play with them, laugh with them, point them to Jesus, teach them God's word, and pray for them.

Yay! The team is complete.

All is well.

However, our faithful kids' ministry volunteers deserve a break.

So every summer starting in June, many of our volunteers will be taking the summer off.

This means that when your family comes to church on June 5th, this is what the kids' ministry team will look like.

Bummer! We will be seriously outnumbered by the children.

If you thought that getting half a pizza on a Friday night was bad or pulling a shrunken sweater from the dryer was terrible, a shrunken kids' ministry is tragic.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

You can change how this story ends.

You can help us unshrink kids' ministry by giving three to four Sundays, or even more this summer, to serve the children in our church.

Even if you say, I don't know if I feel comfortable being in a classroom with kids.

We have many other ways you can help out in kids' ministry.

So if you think you can help us out a couple of Sundays this summer, pull out your phone and text Unshrink to 55498.

Or you can stop by our guest check-in desk in the lobby of the kids building right after service and fill out a volunteer interest form.

Thanks for considering how you can help us unshrink kids ministry this summer.

We'd like to conclude our service with spoken blessings.