See What Kind of Love

That song's kind of like my second point, and I figure we might should just sing it again rather than listen to what I have to say.

But um before we get into that, we we have our big three weather spring picnic coming up next Sunday, right?

That's kind of a culmination of our community groups that have met that we come and gather Sunday evening on the lawn for a meal, uh, some fellowship.

It really is a beautiful time.

Uh, this is about the most perfect weather you could have, so we might have missed it by a Sunday.

But uh the other is VBS.

How many of you have served at VBS before?

Like three people.

That's a lie.

The sermon should have been on lying.

Uh, all of you have, because VBS is awesome.

And the reason it's so awesome, aside from my awesome wife, uh, is you all serve in it.

You you're you're what make it amazing, right?

And it is one, if not the greatest outreach opportunity that we put on every year.

And so if you have friends who have kids who would be in the ages for RVBS, please invite them.

Please provide them the opportunity to hear the gospel and to hear how loved they are.

Because it is truly uh, as I guess Benton has now kind of phrased it, the greatest week of the year at Cahaba Park.

So we would love for you to be a part of that.

As well as uh May 1st uh is the deadline for our El Salvador trip.

You can talk to Ryan Sanders if you're interested in doing that.

Uh he spoke a few weeks ago um about how it's made an impact on his family uh when they went this last time.

So um, those are some things to think on.

Uh now, if uh you are able, please stand with me uh for the reading of the word.

I think it's you know, I was thinking about this this morning of you know, the reading of this word and the realization that it's it's not our words, right?

These are God's words and his thoughts.

So 1 John 3, 1 through 3.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God, and so we are.

The reason why the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be 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.

There's a show called Below Deck, it's a reality TV show.

Not endorsing it.

I have watched it, um, and it follows uh yacht crew.

All right, so it's these individuals who work on these yachts uh for these private charters, and it just kind of follows them through the charter season.

And this preview they had on TV the other night was, I guess, was advertising this upcoming episode.

And uh one of the crew kind of backstory is they always have longed and kind of lived for their father's approval.

Um, had a good relationship uh with her father, but always just wanted to make sure that he was proud of her, um, that she represented him well.

And in this preview, they she makes a poor decision and comes to the realization that she's on a reality TV show.

And so that uh her dad now, if if he watches this show, uh, is going to see this.

And so it terrifies her of what she's done and what he's going to think and how he's going to respond.

Uh now, some of you might struggle with some of the same um insecurities or issues of people pleasing or earning approval from your parents.

Um, I think on some level we we all struggle with that, and it can be agonizing, and that's kind of what they were previewing.

This was she was just agonizing over what he was going to think.

And maybe you've been like that before.

Like maybe it's with a friend, maybe it's with a family member or coworker, whoever, like you are agonizing over does this person approve of me?

What do they think of me?

Now, that's those are kind of natural human responses to relationships.

But what can happen, right, is now the struggling of people's approval, how they see you, can bleed into your feelings towards does God feel this same way about me?

Right?

Have you ever projected your feelings of maybe how you feel about yourself, maybe how you feel someone else feels about you, as this is how God currently feels about me?

Do you project those feelings as God's feelings?

Right?

Times of, well, I'm disappointed in myself.

So God must be disappointed in me.

Right?

Or I don't like myself.

I'm not very likable right now.

So there's no way a perfect holy God could like me right now.

Right?

See, there's something really powerful about our beliefs.

They affect your emotions.

Right?

A prime example would be if you were uh going for a dance tryout, right?

And you have all the belief that, you know what, I've I've got this routine down, and you pull it off, and you've got a confidence because you believe, hey, I did well, and I knew it well.

Now you go in another way, and you you actually perform the same as the comedies you had, but you're like, I don't I don't feel good going into this, I just don't know it well enough, I'm not good enough, right?

Then you think, oh, that was a horrible tryout.

Right?

So you can see how the belief affects the emotion.

And then when we start projecting that emotion on the Lord, we can get ourselves in trouble.

And when you start projecting that, now you're trying to earn it back, right?

Now you've completely turned from the gospel.

And now it's about what do I need to do to feel like God approves me again?

How can I earn it?

How can I try harder?

And here's the thing: most of the time it they're good acts, right?

It's I need to read my Bible more, I'm gonna, I'm gonna read my Bible more, I need to pray more, I'm gonna give more, I'm gonna go to church more.

I can do all these things, I can do more and more and more of these things.

And these are things I need to do because then it's gonna make me emotionally feel like that's how the Lord feels about me.

But I don't want us to do that today.

So this is a one-off series, right?

I was telling Adam uh this week as we're gonna work on the sermon.

I just wanna, at the most basic level, have you leave here encouraged about what God's word says about you.

And this is not a, well, John, the Bible's not about us.

I know that, right?

The Bible is about Jesus, all of it.

But we also recognize that the Bible scripture is not man's words.

It's not man's words describing God.

We didn't conjure God up in our mind and say, hey, this is a this is a good idea, because all the other gods are kind of demanding and make you follow them or give things to them for their approval.

But let's go the opposite direction.

Let's let's write about a God who just unconditionally loves us.

No, these are God's words.

All of Scripture is God's.

And it's his thoughts, his truths.

And so today it's it's resting in that.

It's knowing, who are you in God's eyes?

So verse one, see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.

What kind of love is that?

That you are called a child of God.

An unconditional love that you did not bring to the table to be called a child.

No one makes a choice.

I want to be a child of this person.

Right?

God predestined you before the foundation of the world, knowing all of you, all of who you are, your tendencies, your insecurities, your weaknesses, to say, I want you to be called one of my children.

Romans 8, 30, and not to get into like the nerdy Greek parsing of it, but when it says you've been predestined, you've been called, you've been justified, you've been glorified, all of that is in the air's tense.

Okay, that's just a fancy word for completed action.

It's already happened.

Think about that.

He predestined you, he called you, he's justified you, and he's glorified you.

Those are not in the present tense of ongoing, they've already happened.

Because from the beginning of the world before you were ever born, he said, I'm going to call you my child.

Galatians 4, 9, the very Galatians 4, it's talking about how you formerly knew God and your sinful self.

And then Paul starts talking about now you know God.

But then he makes this little nuance.

He says, you know, you've come to know God, or rather been known by God.

And he just puts that little distinction in there.

But it's vitally important.

Because if you live your life on the basis of how much do I know God, how much does that matter and impact my status with him?

You're going to live your whole life trying to earn it or question it.

But rather, he makes a distinction known by God.

You're already fully known.

What's more terrifying for someone who is always struggling with people pleasing, earning people's approval, it's being known.

That's the ultimate fear.

I think that's why sometimes people, maybe even the South, right, or in just Christianity as a whole, they struggle if they're not a part of a church, coming to a church and seeing everyone just beautifully dressed up and smiling and kids behaving, and life looks like it's together.

And it's this fear of, oh man, if people really knew me, would I fit in here?

Now, one thing I love about our church, right, is I don't feel like we really put off that vibe.

I feel like you all are very vulnerable in the ways in which you struggle and you need the Lord.

But it'd be terrifying, right, to be fully known.

But yet that's the freedom we get to live in.

There's no one on earth who fully knows you other than you.

Your spouse might know a lot about you.

Maybe 99%, right?

Your friends.

But not everything.

Not every thought.

Yet hear it saying in the already completed action of the heirist, he predestined, he called, he justified, he glorified you.

Knowing every single sinful thing, thought, word, action you've ever done or ever will do.

You're not even aware of what you're going to descend next week.

Much less than an hour from now when you go to lunch and you know things are going haywire at the table.

But God does.

Because He decided to make the choice while you were still a sinner.

He died for you.

Right?

Romans 5.8.

When children are adopted, do they pick the parent?

Do they know who the parent's going to be?

No.

The parent chooses.

And that choice is remarkable because what it's conveying is it's witness is a witness and a testimony to I am going to love you.

I'm going to love you.

And you might know a little bit about the child, right?

You've maybe gotten a little bit of a background or a history, but you don't know who they're going to be in the future, but you've committed to them.

How much more great is God's witness to his love for you, of who you are in his eyes, that he still chose you, despite knowing everything you're going to be and all of your struggles.

But we're not just children, right?

That's not just our title or our name.

It's also your nature.

See, now your name equals your nature.

I think that's always a struggle.

But look what he does in verse 2.

Beloved.

Now go read Colossians 1, 21, or go read Ephesians 2.

What's it gonna say?

You are a child of wrath.

You were once a son of disobedience.

Right?

Colossians 1 is making basically the implication, you are an enemy of God.

And now God is personally calling you beloved.

It's not an enemy.

It's not a son of disobedience.

Right?

That word is agape, right?

The big love word, right?

There's the four of them.

C.S.

Lewis kind of wrote a whole book on them.

But agape is the big one, right?

This active love for his son and for his children.

John Piper put it, it's sacrifice in pursuit of another person's good.

I kind of like to think of love in the simplest terms of it's just when you take joy in serving someone else.

How do you know you love someone, you take a joy in serving them?

And doesn't that absolutely represent how God thinks of you?

His sacrifice for your good.

I'll loan you some money.

No, it was his life.

He sees you as beloved because his action said, I was willing to sacrifice my life for your good.

Right, Zephaniah 3.17, it says, He rejoices over us with gladness.

I mean, how can that really be?

I don't even rejoice over myself most of the time.

Right?

It's just more discouragement.

Well, how can he do that?

Well, because of what we're going to see during the offery of Galatians 2.20.

Because it's Christ who lives in you.

See, you're beloved because when he looks at you, he sees Jesus Christ because you're hidden in him.

Because now it's Christ who lives in you.

And so he always sees his son.

You're now a son of obedience, not of disobedience.

You might feel like a son of disobedience.

And I'm not up here saying we don't sin anymore, right?

We we still struggle with sin.

But that's why you bring him joy.

That's why you're lovable.

Because you were in a state where you were not lovable, and now you are.

And that can't be taken away.

He doesn't go back on that.

Because he always sees Christ.

And you can rest in when he sees you, he sees Christ.

Right?

Joy's kind of always about looking forward.

Right?

It's necessary to look forward and not just keep bringing up the past of like, well, but I did this, but I struggle with this, but I made this promise and I broke it.

But I thought I'd be better, right?

When you look back in the past, and it's just all these failures.

But what he's trying to say to you is like, look, looking forward, it's always Christ.

It's always in Christ.

You're always in Christ.

You're always in Christ.

It's necessary to look forward.

Because he's not bringing up the past anymore.

He doesn't recall the wrong anymore.

He doesn't have anything to be disappointed with you anymore.

Because he's forgiven you.

He's completely forgiven you.

That's why he can see Christ in you.

Because of what he did.

So we go farther on in two.

It says, We are children now.

What will it be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him.

Because we shall see him as he is.

Those are very definitive statements.

Right?

That's not someone questioning what the future is going to be.

It's actually helpful to read these definitive definitive statements, is how do you view sanctification?

Right?

Sanctification is a realization of who you are.

It is not a process of who you want to be or who you think God wants you to be.

It is a process of this is who you are in Christ, and now I am making you more and more like that.

To recognize who you are now, not trying to get you there.

Right?

Because there's if your standard, right, if your standard of sanctification is what you want to be, or what you even perceive what God wants you to be, you will only be discouraged.

There's no hope in that.

Because what you're actually trying to do is lead yourself to justification.

Right?

That's kind of where our our Catholic friends kind of mess that up, right?

They take justification, they take sanctification, they kind of blend them together.

They kind of let's work these together so that we can do well and be justified.

But we reject that.

Now it's funny, you you said that a lot, like, yeah, I reject that doctrine, but then how often are you living your life thinking, I'm still trying to work to a point of what I think I should be?

Right?

If I was to ask you right now, are you are you as good a person right now at your age as you thought you would have been 10 years ago looking forward?

Imagine you'd be like, no, I thought I'd be better.

I thought I'd have more self-control.

I thought I'd have more patience.

I thought I'd have more kindness.

I thought I'd be more loving or sympathetic.

It's always like that because if we're going off our own standards, we'll never make it.

But it's who are you already in Christ?

See yourself as God sees you in Christ.

And what he accomplished.

That's why I picked this today.

It's because we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.

And I've said this up here multiple times.

The day you see Jesus Christ is going to be a day as you are looking in a mirror and you finally get to see the self-realization that that person is exactly how God has always seen you.

Because when you look in the mirror right now, often, I mean, depending on the day, it's probably I don't like what I see.

This is discouraging.

But one day you will get to see the totality of what God has been saying all along.

The manifestation of all of these promises throughout all of Scripture, and you'll get to stand there and finally be like, that's what he was talking.

About.

Man, he loved me.

Man, I have an infinite now reasons for all eternity to worship and glorify him.

Because I finally see it.

I finally get what you were saying when you meant I'm one of your children and that I'm beloved.

And that I'm in Christ.

Right?

You're kind of this workmanship, right?

In Ephesians 2.10, it talks about your God's workmanship.

That word kind of has this connotation of like artistic expression, right?

Art is the expression, right, of this inner desire of an artist.

What were they thinking?

What were they feeling?

You see it in this artwork.

We'll hear scripture saying you are his workmanship.

You are his artwork.

His inner love expressed in your personal creation.

That then it goes on to say that he's also prepared good works for you beforehand, that you should walk in them.

Well, that's very gracious to do.

Because if you're like me, you're very self-forgetful about what Scripture says of who you are.

And what's the best way to be reminded?

It's obedience.

Obedience is not do this so you stay in my love.

Do this so it will have been worth it for me to die for you.

Obedience is here's an opportunity for you to have the self-realization of who you are in Christ.

Right?

Sin is choosing.

That's not who you are now.

Satan continually wants to bring that up.

Nope, you're a failure.

You always struggle with this.

Hey, your whole family has always struggled with this.

Like you're not, this is who you are.

But that's not true.

Every day we're given infinite opportunities to be obedient to the Lord because He is trying to continually show you look at who you are in Christ.

Look at your new self.

I'll kind of close with this.

You're not just like a distant created piece of artwork, right?

Because he also makes this amazing distinction that God calls you his friend.

Right?

In John 15, 13, 14, actually 15, but I'm just gonna read 13, 14.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I commanded you.

Now that it's remarkable to think about friendship.

Jeremy Pierre, who is a dean at Southern Theological Seminary, which is Southern Baptist Seminary, he has a quote about friendship.

A friend is someone who loves you more than needs you.

I mean, let that sink in.

A friend is someone who loves you more than needs you.

Is that not perfectly describe Jesus' friendship with us?

He does not need us.

There is not a single bit of joy that you bring to Christ that he's not already full in.

There is no glory missing from Christ that you could possibly give him.

He is not bored and just has created you for entertainment.

You bring him nothing.

And yet he calls you a friend.

Because it is his joy to love you more than expect something from you.

And I, you know, that that quote kind of hit me when I think about my close friendships, right?

Or I even think about the friendships many of you have with me and how you've loved our family so well over the last 10 years, right?

Like it's kind of started to hit me, I've been here 25% of my life.

But the friendships you all bestow on me and my family, and how you love us when it's not necessarily we're able to provide something to you that you really need.

You just you just love us.

And that means a lot, right?

It's a it's a wonderful representation of the gospel.

But when you think of friendships, you're like, well, you know, part of the reason I have friendships is because we have a common interest.

Right?

We have, you know, we have things in common, things we like.

What could a sinner like me possibly have in common with a holy, perfect God?

Right?

Again, it is I don't feel like I have anything in common.

I fall short of all things I know.

I wish I had things in common.

But you do.

You share in his righteousness.

You actually have everything in common.

Right, Ephesians 4.24, the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Like, do you actually believe that?

Like, again, these aren't just random quotes to make you feel better.

This is a fact.

These are facts.

This is the reality in which you live in through Christ.

You have all of his righteousness and holiness in common with him.

And he wants you to live that out every day.

And this joy of what he's given you, and this friendship that you have.

See what love God has for you by his sacrifice on the cross.

Hear what love God has for you by his words written to us in Scripture.

Believe what love God has for you by the dwelling of his spirit in you.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, it's shocking how much you make promises to us about being in Christ, about how much Christ has accomplished, about how no one can ever rip us out of your grasp.

Yet we still struggle with do you love us?

Have we done enough for you?

Are you pleased with us?

Do you approve us?

Are you proud of us?

And the answer is yes.

Because of Christ and what he accomplished and the life he lived and the sacrifice he paid.

Father, we ask your spirit would help us today, tomorrow, all days going forward, how much you love us.

How free we really are to live for you out of just joy, not out of obligation, but out of gratitude and thankfulness.

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.