"Advent - Love" Pt.4

Hi, this is John Ozanting, lead pastor of Evolved Church, and this is the Evolved Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

This is the fourth Sunday in Advent, and I thought, you know, what a greater greater way to celebrate Christmas than by making a cup of coffee.

Any coffee uh drinkers in the room?

Show of hands.

Get loud, get rowdy.

Um, don't be ashamed.

Be proud.

How many of you um rinse your paper filters before you brew coffee?

Show of hands.

How many of you do not?

Oh, come on.

Ken.

Ken.

You always gotta, Ken, you gotta rinse the filter.

You gotta rinse it.

You know, it's just it takes an extra second, but it's part of the process.

Part of the process.

I'm using an origami pourover today.

Anybody own an origami pourover?

It's a nice looking gadget, right?

I think they have these for sale at various coffee shops around the city.

I'm not selling them, but uh uh I would like to um make you a cup of coffee, not just any cup of coffee, like a really good one.

Uh I'm gonna weigh out 16 grams of fresh beans.

I just opened this bag today, and here's what you need to know.

I I purchased this bag of coffee.

17, too many.

From square one, there we go, perfect, 16 grams going in the hopper of my burr grinder.

I'm using the uh virtuoso by Barazza.

Google it if you care.

Uh, gonna make a little bit of noise, but this here is um a single origin uh grown in Colombia.

The uh farmer's name is Marta Bader.

That's why it says her name on the bag, Marta Bader.

Uh and this, oddly enough, um the uh process they used to um develop this green bean is called a carbonic maceration process.

You're also gonna want to Google that if you care about anything.

Carbonic maceration, yeah, I said it.

Uh Origin Columbia, tasting notes of tropical fruits, peach, strawberry, guava, and caramel.

Sounds delicious.

Sounds great.

So um there's a guy named Ply.

Uh, he works at a roastery in the city called Rogue Wave, and Ply developed a recipe unique to the origami pour over, and that's the recipe I'm using today.

And the reason I chose this recipe is because Ply has won awards with this pour-over method.

So it begins by putting my 16 grams of freshly ground coffee into the pre-soaked, cleaned filter.

Uh I'm gonna tear my scale, I'm gonna hit start on the timer, and I'm gonna add 60 grams of hot water.

I brewed this kettle to 88 degrees specifically.

Seriously.

60 gram bloom for one minute.

What's a bloom, you might ask?

You wet the grinds to allow all of the gases to escape.

Come on, guys, you're familiar with gases escaping.

It's Christmas, after all.

Carl knows what I'm talking about.

Um, the CO2 is released, and if you look at a proper bloom, you wet the grinds, and there's like little bubbles forming.

And so these gases are released, and it preps the grinds.

I gotta watch my time here, 40 seconds, 20 more seconds.

It preps the grinds to receive the next round of hot water for optimal extraction of this coffee.

Count me down.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5.

Beautiful.

Three, two, one.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna add another 100 grams of coffee for the second extraction.

And this should only take me about 10 seconds.

Get me to 160 grams total so far.

Almost there.

There we go.

Uh, and this is the second pour.

Uh, I'm gonna wait till the water flows through.

So uh on my third pour of this origami method, I'm gonna have a fresh extraction, round three.

Um, is anybody really excited?

Any black, any black coffee drinkers in the room?

I see a few hands.

Uh yes, Matthew.

I see that.

Okay, we're there.

And then for the final and third pour, I'm gonna add another 95 grams of hot water.

Again, slowly pouring concentric circles.

It's gonna get me to 255 grams total for this pour over method.

You're laughing, but this is a real thing.

I believe it now.

You believe it.

255, nailed it, boom, just like that.

I don't do this every morning, but I do this some mornings.

Um, you know, on Wednesday, I was working from home and I uh I was like, oh, I'm Jones in for a coffee.

And so I pulled out my origami brewer and my gooseneck kettle.

This all sits, it lives on my counter at home.

I have this little coffee station.

It's been a dream of mine for years.

If you're first, if you're visiting Evolve, hey, nice to meet you.

My name is Johnno.

I'm a coffee aficionado.

Not snob, not snob.

Aficionado.

It sounds less pretentious, right?

And what I'm looking for, if you could see what I'm seeing, um, these grounds, so the water's finished.

We're just coming in just shy of three minutes, which is perfect.

We've got a nice flat bed on these coffee grinds, which is what you want to see in a good pourover.

You want to see a nice flat bed.

And the reason I love the origami method is my goodness.

If you could smell what I'm smelling, the origami pourover gives you like this really nice body but low acidity.

Nobody likes acidity in their coffee.

Great sweetness, but no bitterness.

It's just such like a nice clean cup.

It's so good.

And then you you couple that method of brewing with like a single-origin bean, which point of reference, in first service, sitting right where Tony and Julie are sitting right here.

In first service, Jonathan and Brandy Brosny were in the room.

And if you know the Brosnies, what you would know is that a few months ago they were in Columbia at this farm with these farmers selecting this green bean to bring into Edmonton to anecdote roastery, so that Jace, is are Jace and Katie here?

Jace, you're here.

Jace, come up here.

Come on up here, give it up for Jace.

Give it up for Jace.

Ladies and gentlemen, you weren't in the you weren't in the first service.

I I shouted you out then, but you're here.

Come here.

I'm not worthy.

You're even wearing an anecdote hat.

I love that.

Jace roasted this coffee.

So not only do we know, I know, yeah, yeah.

Smell that.

Is that what you'd hoped for?

Oh, yes.

Okay, do you want do you want a sip?

Yes, please.

Yeah, you do.

Jace wants a sip.

I'm gonna give you first sip, and then I want you to like just tell the room what you're tasting.

How's that sound?

Okay, while you're tasting that, I'm gonna make another cup of coffee.

I have a container of President's Choice Dark Rose Instant Coffee.

Who said yeah?

Who was that?

I I don't know how much to put in.

I'm just gonna wing it.

And the water's no longer 88 degrees, but nobody cares because it's instant.

So what are you tasting in that cup, Jace?

Some nice uh ferment.

Yeah, there's so there's some fermentation, and that's the um carbonic maceration process.

Could you explain that to the room?

Carbonic maceration?

Yeah.

CO2 into a cherry environment for the cherries.

Ferment.

So they pick the to harvest the cherries.

If you don't know, one coffee cherry has two green beans inside of it.

And so they put them in a bin and then they hit it with CO2 and it kind of ferments.

And so that is that guava though, is so like right up front.

This is such a syrupy, juicy coffee.

It's delicious.

I can't even begin to tell you.

Coffee.

Now, do you want to try the instant?

What are the tasting notes there, Jace?

Um, bitter and old socks?

Old socks.

Old socks.

All right.

Cardboard, bitter.

Give it up for Jace.

I didn't know, I'm glad you were here.

Um, give it up for this guy.

Uh I love that you're in the room, Second Service.

Thanks for roasting Edmonton's best craft coffee.

The funny thing is, um, here in this room today, there are some of you that would say, Pastor John, coffee's coffee.

Coffee's coffee.

I disagree with you.

I vehemently am opposed to that amen.

I respect your, no, I don't even respect your position.

Because coffee isn't coffee.

Say what you will.

But coffee isn't coffee.

Some people would argue that it is.

I disagree.

And in this context, consider the origin.

Like, we actually know the people that stand between us and that farm.

They're a part of our community.

They lead one of our small groups, their kids are here, their employees here today.

I love you, Jace.

Like, um her name's on the bag, Marta.

Consider the origin of this coffee, and then consider the method that I used.

I painstakingly researched the best award-winning origami pour over method, just to put on public display for you today, that involved a three-unique pour process.

Consider the origin, consider the method, and then consider the result.

My goodness, that tastes disgusting.

And this is, does anybody else want to sip?

Like, is anybody else curious?

Like, there's there's a there's a fruity fermentation here.

Come on, don't be shy.

Come, come.

If you're if you're not a germophobe, yeah, you could have a smell, June.

If you're not a germophobe, if you're okay drinking from like in Catholic Church, they use the same wine glass, right?

So we're gonna.

What do you think, Ken?

I know, right?

There's no bitterness, it's just like a nice clean.

There's a there's a whole lineup of people here.

The right side of the room is shy.

You can smell it.

Oh, yeah, I know.

So there's the carbonic maceration process kind of ferments the beans a little bit.

Yeah, take your time.

The longer you stand here, the longer I preach.

So uh, no pressure.

Communion.

Ben, your father would be so proud of you.

Where's Robin?

Is he working today?

Son of a nutcracker! You gotta tell him about this.

Yeah.

All right.

You just did.

Are you texting during church again, Carol?

That's okay.

Okay.

This is fun, right?

Yeah.

You want to try it?

Definitely.

Okay, so there's like that juicy, like sir, like the guava.

That's a good approach.

Yeah, yeah.

I know it's clean.

Okay, you know what?

Here, you take that um and finish it off.

I'm gonna move along.

Um, thank you, Nicole's pressuring me.

Again, coffee isn't coffee.

Say what you will, say what you will, but I have had too many wonderful encounters with the real thing to believe that lie.

Some of you are like, Pastor Giano, coffee's just coffee.

Give me the instant crap.

But coffee isn't coffee, and I know that because look at you.

I've I've had far too many consistent encounters with like the real deal to believe the lie that coffee's just coffee.

And with that in mind, I want to do two things pray and then invite you into scripture today.

Sound good?

Let's begin with prayer.

God, we love you.

All that this moment holds for us on this fourth and final Sunday in Advent are our season as Christians of holding our breath, our season of Jesus followers of expectancy and anticipation.

Over the course of this month, we were reminded of what it means, what's what it's gonna cost us to hold our breath in anticipation of the hope of Jesus and the peace of Christ and the joy that we're meant to experience.

And today, by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us and through us, I'm asking you, God, for a fresh encounter, a fresh experience with your love.

We honor you, Jesus.

Oh, come, Emmanuel, God, with us.

Take your place.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Our text for today is found in 1 John 4.

I'm reading verses 7 through 12.

And before I unpack it a little bit, I'd just like to read it out loud.

It'll be on the screens.

If you have a Bible or a notebook with you, you can pull those out now to take some notes.

Starting in verse 7, 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.

Pause for a moment.

I love that.

I love that text.

God sent Jesus not just so that we could learn about Jesus, but that we could live through Christ.

That's good news for somebody here today, somebody who's been maybe raised in religion, where Jesus was a far-removed concept that had nothing to do with the ebb and flow of your day-to-day life.

But today you hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit inviting you to consider what would it mean for me to live through Jesus?

Verse 10 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.

That's our text for today.

Following Jesus invites us to consider for the first time, or perhaps maybe consider, bring back to remembrance after a while.

But following Jesus has us consider this truth that this city, this province, this nation are not our home.

We are not citizens of Edmonton or citizens of Alberta or of Canada.

As Jesus followers, we belong to a different kingdom.

Jesus' kingdom, where he alone rules and reigns over every facet of our lives.

Which is why we sang today, he rules the world with truth and grace.

And Jesus makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love.

And we're talking about love today.

Often in the tension of our surrender to the authority of Jesus and the authority of Jesus' kingdom, we can sense and hear the Holy Spirit asking us to think or behave or live differently than the culture and the society that we've been invited to serve as citizens of heaven.

We live in this world, but we're not of it.

We're part of heaven's kingdom, and we're meant to show up different, counter-culture in the world that we're called to love and serve.

Often one of those differences shows up in conversations that we have around the idea or the topic or the truth of what love is.

This fourth and final Sunday in Advent, we're invited to hold our breath in anticipation and expectation of love.

Love is the theme on this fourth Sunday, but there's a narrative in our world today that wants each one of us to jump onto the societal bandwagon that declares this love is love.

But I want to invite each one of us to prayerfully consider with me as we're invited into this text today that love isn't love.

And as such, we get to choose exactly what kind of love we're anticipating, what kind of love we're holding our breath for, and what kind of love we're going to become to the world around us.

And so I invite you back in.

Verse 7, beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.

Say that with me, 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.

And so the first idea from this text is: would you consider the origin?

Consider the origin of love.

Real love is learned and understood when we choose to know God and receive a brand new, born of God identity.

So many people are struggling with their place in this world.

And what does it mean to be human?

What does it mean to be Canadian?

What does it mean to be male?

What does it mean to be female?

What does it mean to be employed or unemployed or any other label that you're trying to sift your way through to find a meaningful sense of identity?

We love not because we're good, not because we've landed, or not because it's the right thing to do.

We love because, despite what the culture and society preaches, love is love, we find our worth and our value in the origin of love, in the root of love, in the definition of love, which is God.

Much that is called love, Warren Wearsby writes, in modern society bears no resemblance or relationship to the holy, spiritual love of God.

Yet we see banners saying God is love displayed at many festivals, particularly where young people are doing their own thing, as if one could dignify immorality by calling it love.

Christian love is a special kind of love.

1 John 4.10 could be translated in this way is seen, the true love.

There's a false love, and this kind of love God must reject.

I want to add, if we're intent on following Jesus, we have to know what real love.

I want to know love is, right?

We got to choose what is true love, which may cause us also to reject a false narrative of love in the culture and society that we live in.

Love that's born out of the very essence of God must be spiritual and holy because God is spirit and God is light.

This true love is, I love this, poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5.

I also love the psalmist in Psalm 86, for you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

Have you ever called upon the Lord to experience and encounter his love?

And maybe for the first time today, your heart's in a place where you're like, I would love to experience real love in its origin.

I would love to consider the origin that God is love.

I would love an authentic encounter and experience with God because that's how we learn love and that's how we understand love.

Warren Wirsby also says God is love.

This does not mean that love is God.

And the fact that two people love each other does not mean that their love is necessarily holy.

It has accurately been said that love does not define God, but God defines love.

God is love and God is light.

Therefore, his love is a holy love.

And his holiness is expressed in love.

All that God does expresses all that God is.

I love that statement.

All that God does expresses all that he is.

Even God's judgments are measured out in love and in mercy.

Lamentations 3.

And so we consider the source today.

In a conversation of anticipating and expecting the love of Jesus made real through the truth of Christmas, we hold our breath to encounter the love of God.

But it begins with us remembering that love has origins, and that origin is in God.

God is love.

We go on to say, 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've loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins.

Say it with me, propitiation.

That's fun.

Say it again.

Ooh, say it again.

Mufasa.

Ooh, no.

Propitiation.

All that propitiation means is Jesus stands in the middle.

Jesus stands in the middle of us in the origin.

Jonathan and Brandi Brosny stand in the middle of us and this single origin, Marta Bader.

They're the propitiation for us to experience that coffee.

Jesus is the propitiation.

He holds the middle ground between us and the Father.

Consider the method is number two.

We consider the origin.

Number two, we consider the method.

We pay close attention to love in this season of Advent and Christmas because that kind of love is our life.

Without the love of Jesus, we have no life whatsoever.

To see and to know real love is to truly see and know Jesus fully.

The manger equals love.

Jesus equals love.

The cross equals love.

The empty tomb equals love.

To know and encounter and experience real love is to fully know Jesus.

And not just love.

But love divine.

All loves excelling.

Did you sing that hymn if you grew up in church?

You might have sung a hymn.

Love divine.

All loves excelling.

Joy of hell to earth come down.

Fix in us.

I love that hymn.

This isn't just any kind of love.

This is a divine love, an excelling over any other definition or any other kind of love.

Or as John writes in John 15, greater love.

No, there's no greater love than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

And that laying down of his life was made perfect in the sacrifice of Jesus.

Yes, we celebrate eight-pound, 14-ounce baby Jesus in a swaddling manger.

Why?

Because the cross is empty.

The tomb holds no power.

And the bondage of brokenness and shame and sin has been propitiated, if that's even a word, because of Jesus, this divine, greater, all loves expelling kind of love was God's freely given gift.

Jesus was God's method for expressing and communicating and distributing love into the world that you and I are called to serve, which is why John 3.16 is as quoted as it is, for God so loved that He gave.

Jesus was sent, fully God, yet fully man, Emmanuel, God with us, God with skin on, to model and template what it means to walk full of the Spirit of God, empowered by God, and radiating love and peace and hope and joy into the world, not just so that we could look on and read a story and go, cool, way to go.

Out of boy, Jesus, but so that we can encounter Christ and continue the method that God is distributing love into our world today.

It's you, newsflash.

You're invited to continue the method.

Romans 5, God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

One would scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare to die.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

You know this word love, one of the most frequently used New Testament unpacking of that word is the word agape.

Show of hands if you've heard of agape love before, one of the most well-known loves that we encounter in the origin of God and in the method of delivery through Jesus.

Agape means esteem, affection, regard, love, and get this fellowship meal.

How many of you think of fellowship meal when you think about love?

I didn't until this week.

I was like, wait, what?

Fellowship meal.

A couple Sundays ago we broke bread and drank of a cup together.

We were each invited to step forward in faith to the Lord's table and remember that Christ's body was broken and his blood was poured out for the redemption of humanity.

We enjoyed a fellowship meal.

In other words, we enjoyed the love of God expressed through Jesus' sacrifice.

It's why we break bread to remember.

It's why we pour a cup to remember.

To remember that we're uniquely and extravagantly and intricately loved by God through Jesus.

That was his method of delivery.

Hold your breath in anticipation and expectation of the encounter of the love of Christ.

You don't know love until you know Jesus.

And you don't fully begin to try and grasp or understand love until you say yes to the one who laid down his life to redeem you, to buy you back, to hold that middle space between you and the Father.

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

No one has ever seen God.

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

Number one, consider the origin.

Number two, consider the method.

Number three, consider the result.

Why does it matter that love or or has its origins in God?

Why does it matter that God's method of delivery for that love into this world and into your life was Jesus?

Why does it matter?

We're asked to consider the result.

And 1 John 4, 7 says, Beloved, let us love one another.

In verse 11, he repeats himself.

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

It's repeated, so it matters.

It's repeated, so it matters.

The result of us understanding, seeing, truly knowing the love of Christ is so that we might actively participate in its distribution to the world around us.

Not just to receive that love, not just to know about its origins, but to be the result of God's love being made known into this world.

Hey, stop settling for that dehydrated, instant gratification shortcut coffee.

Let me pour you a real cup.

This is the message of the believer.

By this, all people will know that we're his disciples if we love one another.

This is the result of the origin and the method of God sending his love.

It's this you shall love your neighbor as yourself, Mark 12.

There's no other commandment greater.

Not just to love in theory, not just to love as a good idea, but to love in practice.

Or Luke 6, as you wish that others would do to you, so do to them.

Stop being the kind of person that measures your response to people based on whether or not they respond well to you.

Do you want me to say that one more time?

You're distracted because Eddie and Chris are so ridiculously good looking.

Look at the arms on this guy.

My goodness.

I feel like a little man.

Look, it's it's nice to talk about the origin of that love.

God is love.

Cool idea.

It's even helpful to remember that Jesus Jesus is God's method for distributing that love into the world.

But it can't stay there.

But it can't stay there.

But it can't stay there.

But it can't stay there.

One more Warren Wearsby quote.

They're gonna put this on the screen.

He writes this.

A large quantity of radioactive material was stolen from a hospital.

When the hospital administrator notified the police, the administrator said, please warn the thief, warn the thief that he's carrying death with him, and that the radioactive material cannot be successfully hidden.

As long as he has it in his possession, it is affecting him disastrously.

And Warren Wearsby writes this in commentary to first John.

He goes on to say, a person who claims he knows God and is in union with God must be personally affected by this relationship.

Pause for a moment.

Consider when's the last time that you would confidently say you were personally affected by your relationship with love.

Your relationship with God.

And God is love.

To argue otherwise is to prove that one does not really know God.

And so in a world and in a culture and in a society that would dare to challenge you and say, Oh, love is love.

I want to push back.

And invite you to consider that maybe love isn't love.

Maybe there's no greater love.

Maybe there's a love divine, all other loves excelling.

And in first John, we see it it has its origins in the Father.

God is love.

First John 4, verse 7.

1 John 4:7

Love isn't love.

Say what you will.

But as recently as today, I've had too many wonderful encounters with the real thing to believe that lie.

And it's crucial for us as citizens of heaven's kingdom to embrace the fullness of the Father's love, expressed through the method, through the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Not just to embrace it, to be, but to be personally affected by it, to be changed, transformed in a way that the extent is that we have to, we have no other choice.

We have to share the love of God with the world around us.

Come out of the hiding secret service Christian.

Come out of the dark, nominal Christian.

Step into the light, the boldness and the courage and the unapologetic proclamation that love has origins and methods and results.

And God is the origin and Jesus is the method.

And you and I are asked to continue the result of that love in the world that we're called to serve.

In other words, hey, stop settling for that shortcut, instant gratification, love.

Let me pour you a real cup.

Together, let's taste and experience the fullness of God expressed in Christ that compels us to live differently now and forever.

Consider the origin, consider the method, consider the result.

That's why we celebrate Jesus.

Would you stand with me?

Close your eyes.

Take a deep breath.

And in your own words, in your own heart, audibly or inaudibly, it doesn't matter, but I would love for you to just take a moment and consider the origin, the method, and the result of love.

Made known through the Father.

Made personal in Jesus.

Made real through your life on display.

We ask for a fresh outpouring of your love.

Made known in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, Romans 5.

Expressed to us through the person of Jesus Christ, born, yes, raised to life, absolutely.

Those here in this room that find themselves in moments of deep grief and agony and loss.

Oh that the love of God would make itself known to you in a way that brings your heart back to hope.

Those of us here today in a season that feels dark and alone, Jesus, we choose to adore you, set our hearts on you, despite the circumstances.

We ask for a fresh understanding, a fresh outpouring of your love.

Those of us here who have only known God by name at a distance, perhaps his love is inviting you into a personal encounter today with his son Jesus in a way that leaves you forever marked, forever changed by the power of Christ, that you might be actively participating in the result of Christ's love in this world.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, pop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit Evolvechurch.com.

We hope to see you soon.