John: We don't see. He sees.

All right, so we're going through the book of John a little bit by little bit, a little passage by passage.

But I want to start out talking about I have a friend who has a farm in the North Georgia Mountains just outside of Clayton.

It might be 50, 70 acres, something like that.

And it's a beautiful plot of land.

You drive back on a gravel road and then eventually to a dirt road, and the house is kind of nestled up onto the mountainside, up into the woods, and it overlooks out the front over two pastures, and there's a kind of a dirt road breaking the pastures in two.

On the back side of the house, there's this great screened in porch and then an open porch, and it sits right beside a waterfall and cascades, and it's just it's just perfect, right?

I mean, and there's ferns and there's moss growing on all the rocks, there's azaleas, and what's great about this property is it's it's just the right amount of well-manicured where it should be and wild where it should be.

And it's just it's beautiful.

This cascade turns into a creek and it flows to the pasture, and I've spent some time up there and took my dog up there and walk into the pasture along the creek, and you kind of see you see the horses running across the pasture, and you hear the birds chirping and the wind and the trees.

And it's one of those places where you're there and you're going, you know, everything's gonna be okay.

I mean, you know, all the anxieties and fears and you know, in me or in the world or whatever, you know, you're thinking everything's gonna be okay, and there's this part of you that just starts to think about, boy, wouldn't life like this be great?

Like if this life was perfect, void of all this stuff.

And this is how it was in the beginning.

That's how Eden was.

Um, it was this beautiful and more.

It was serene and wild, it was, it was it was perfectly designed.

Beautiful trees and shrubs and flowers and fruit.

And there's two trees in the middle of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And river came out of the garden, which watered the garden.

It turned into forehead waters that went from there.

And there were animals, which we talked about last week, the creative expression of God.

There were animals.

I mean, it's just a gorgeous, beautiful place.

And there were people.

There was a man and there was a one woman, Adam and Eve.

I'm hoping there was a hammock.

I've been thinking about this.

I mean, the idea of this perfect place without a hammock wouldn't be perfect.

I'm hoping there's a hammock for them.

Um, but nothing made them sick or lonely or afraid or hesitant or self-conscious.

It was void of all of that.

I mean, they had peace.

They had freedom from anxiety and freedom from what do they think about me, and freedom from what am I going to do from with my life, and freedom from how's what how am I going to pay for this?

And freedom from the pressure of just wanting more of this or money or whatever.

They had freedom from all of this anxiety that we can have.

And then the liar showed up, Satan, which means liar, showed up in the form of a serpent.

And he showed up and he said, Did God really say you can't eat of any tree in the garden?

So he twisted it, because what God really said is God said, You can't eat of the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

You can't eat of that, and if you eat of that, you will die.

That's what God said.

The serpent comes and says, Well, does God really say you can't eat any of the trees?

And the lady actually corrects him, Eve corrects him.

And then the liar says, Well, you know why he's saying this.

Because if you eat of this tree, you'll be like him.

And we love to try to be like him, to be in control, to know as much as we can, to secure as much as we can.

And this is this was the beginning of our condition that we have now, beginning of all of our issues, which we all have, is us trying to be God, to have control rather than to trust, to make something rather than to receive something.

See, they ate of the fruit, and then what happened?

Right?

They saw each other as naked.

They were naked the whole time, but they saw each other as naked.

They didn't die, but they did die.

That's what's interesting about it.

Is God said, well, if you eat of the fruit, you'll die.

They didn't die, but they did die.

Because now all of a sudden, shame, fear, anxiety, loneliness, separation, disharmony.

All of this is created.

And what did they do?

Where they decide we need to cover ourselves.

They make something.

They decide to be their own provider.

It's the same story.

It's always the same story.

Later, the same story is in Exodus chapter 24.

Exodus 24 · chapter mention

I just kind of picked a couple places to kind of show this story.

Exodus chapter 24, God's begun to give the law to the Israelites, how they should live, how they should deal with sin, brokenness.

Exodus 24 · chapter mention

Um, and big picture, God's doing this to help them see they actually need outside help.

Small picture, um, they reply and say, All the words which the Lord has said, we will do.

I mean, these people are on fire, they're committed, they're passionate, I mean, you know, they're off the beach retreat, and they're, you know, for God.

I mean, they're fist in the air for God.

I mean, and Moses is back up on the mountain getting more, he's getting the Ten Commandments at this point.

And this Exodus chapter 32.

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

Moses has been on the mountain and he hasn't come down.

He hadn't come down in the timetable that um the people wanted, right?

Because they want control, and this isn't working out, how they want it to work out, their plan, and they start to get antsy.

Maybe they're questioning whether God exists, and maybe God killed Moses, maybe we don't like this God.

They're starting to question all of them.

What do they do?

Will they make something?

They say, Well, let's get together all your gold, take off your earrings, and they get all the gold together and they form a golden calf, an idol.

And they say, This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.

Right?

I mean, a statement of complete self-reliance.

I mean, seeing, saying the thing that we made is the thing that delivered you.

Same thing Adam and Eve did, made something to deliver themselves from their situation.

Now in Exodus, these people are doing it again.

They started to make things, and God sees what's going on and says, Moses, you gotta get, you gotta go, you gotta go down, you gotta get down there.

They're making stuff down there.

This is the last thing they should be doing, is making stuff.

It all seems like really primitive, right?

I mean, uh gold idol.

I mean, it seems so kind of like almost barbaric or so foreign to us.

But what this is about is this this is about where do people place their hope?

Where do they place their trust?

This golden calf is just a covering, is what it is.

So we get to John 1, verses 10 and 11.

John 1:10

And it says this He, Jesus, was in the world.

And though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

So I have a series of questions this morning.

Usually I have a series of questions.

I have a lot of questions, actually.

Uh, question number one is why didn't they recognize him?

Well, recognize is more than just intellectual.

I mean, this this word is like a friend, like a loved one, like you intimately would recognize somebody, and he's referring primarily to the Jewish people, but like I said, it's the same story over and over again, whether it's Adam and Eve or whether it's an Exodus, or you know, we were twice this week, we were at Centennial Park, which is odd because we very rarely go to Centennial Park.

And the first was Tuesday night for the Mumford and Sons concert, which was fantastic.

And we were toward the back because we didn't want to get there super early, so we're toward the back and having a good time, and we decided at some point in the concert we're gonna walk all the way down as far as we can, you know, get to see what's going on down in the mix, you know, and then we cut across, we cut through the cry, and it's the the further down you got, the tighter it got, um, the drunker it got, to be honest, um, and the more dramatic it got.

The closer you got, the more and more dramatic it became, just the whole thing.

And, you know, just look at I mean, just you know, thousands of people slammed together.

And most people just having a great time.

Same story.

Everybody's living out the same story, it just looks different.

And then we go to Centennial Park yesterday, very same spot, very different settings, because this time it was Doc McStuffin's who was there, not Rumford and Sons.

Different crowd, mind you.

Um, and so it was families bringing in all their little girls to see Doc McSuffin's.

Y'all don't know Doc McStuffin's, that's fine.

A line of literally a mile long to see Doc McStuffin's.

I mean, parents with their kids, I mean, we saw the line and we're like, sorry, you know, to ours, because we're like, we ain't waiting in that.

Don't care.

We'll show you a picture online later.

I mean, I mean, we're not waiting in that line for a quick picture.

So we take pictures next to the truck, which was painted like Doc McStuffin's.

That's that's what they got.

But while we're next to the truck, Doc McSuffins walks out, so which they wave is fantastic.

So thousands of people, again, very different setting, different, you know, a lot of different clientele, lots of families, moms and dads, same story.

John 1, same story.

This is referring to the Jewish people.

They're under the covenant of law, there's a system of sacrifices, there's a system of rules, and what they've turned to for acceptance is rules.

That's what they've turned to.

And Jesus' message was radically different than a bunch of rules.

And these rules had given these Jewish people power, given them money, given them their lives, social status.

And Jesus was coming in fulfillment of all these rules, and yet they couldn't let go of them.

They couldn't recognize him because they were too busy with their religiosity.

So, question number two.

Question number one, why didn't they recognize him?

They were too busy with his religiosity.

They were.

Question number two is why don't we see him?

Why don't we recognize him?

So when Josie was born, our five-year-old, she was our firstborn.

So our whole world changed.

Before, Christy and I, we kind of self-orbited in our house, like I orbited and did my thing.

Christy orbited and she did her thing, and it was a great freedom for both of us.

Now there's a baby, we are self-orbiting, now there's a baby, and now we go to orbit around the baby.

Actually, maybe she's orbiting around the baby, and I'm maybe still orbiting out here.

Um, but I'm trying to orbit with her around the baby, and and think about it from this baby's point of view.

Born into the world, I cry, a need is met.

People, these grown people, figures, they're all over me.

They're looking at me, they serve me, they help me.

And this goes on for months and months.

There's more people.

There's grandparents, there's friends, they all come to see me.

They all orbit around.

Of course she thinks she's God, right?

I mean, of course any baby thinks they are God.

And what's the what's the role of a parent?

To help your child understand you're not God.

But the problem is, the same problem we have, because we were once babies and children, um, we keep trying to be.

Right?

Like we know we know we aren't.

Like we get that.

Like we grow up, maybe when you're like a year and a half, maybe you get broken of that.

Or some point along the line you get it.

Like, oh, I'm not God, and I just gotta kind of fit into this situation.

But the problem is we keep trying to be.

I mean, we get that we aren't the Almighty, but our sin nature, it keeps us operating as if we are.

And in these pursuits of trying to be God, in these pursuits we don't see them.

I mean, Adam and Eve were making their coverings, we still make coverings.

A name, a business, a church, right?

I mean, I feel inadequate myself.

I'll build a big church, a lot of people, feel real special, I'll feel important, build a portfolio, a body, an image, a reputation.

All to cover ourselves, all to feel accepted and validated, and all of this is a rejection of God, and there's no freedom in this sort of life.

The world, the peak people, our characteristic reaction to God is to not love him, but to reject him and his grace because we're busy trying to be him.

Question number three.

This is where the news gets good.

It's a lot of bad news going on so far.

Here's where the news gets good.

And all this brokenness and difficulty we create for ourselves, family, people around us.

Does he still recognize me?

This is where the news gets good.

Verse 12.

Right?

Bad news, verse 10 and 11, verse 12, yet.

Right, good news coming, yet.

To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God.

So this week Christy gets a text from a friend of hers who has a baby, like eight months, eight months old, nine months old, something like that.

And the baby's been sick and crying and demanding.

And she the text just says, I'm so frustrated.

I'm so upset.

I feel like I'm a bad mom.

I want to cry every morning when my husband leaves.

I know I need to give it to God and it will get better, but I can't seem to.

We have this long conversation, first off of uh, well, how do you how do you reply to this?

Um but also like what does that mean to give it to God and it's gonna get better?

Because obviously she's been trying to give it to God and nothing's gotten better.

So what does that act?

What does that really mean?

What does that mean?

We say that all the time, you give to God or I'm gonna surrender it.

What does that mean?

Well, I think there's a lot of Christian moralism in this kind of thought, right?

Like, you need to surrender.

It will be better if you just trust God.

Uh being when I say that, that's a true statement, but if if if what we come away with is like, if you do a better job of trusting, then your life will be better.

You need to get better at trusting.

And then what do we do?

We get manic about our trusting.

Like, oh, I need to trust more, I need to surrender more, I need to you get focused on this instead of on the fact that somebody actually is concerned about taking the anxiety away from you.

Okay, so I get the surrender, I get I'm I'm forced surrendering, I'm forced surrendering things over.

The question is just what does that mean?

To give it to God doesn't mean you become more self-consumed about giving it to God.

Actually, you're not giving anything to God, you're just more self-consumed.

You are still your own God.

Giving it to God means you're you're you aren't going to be manic about your frustration anymore.

You're done.

It means you're done.

You're okay where you are.

You will now begin to receive it's it's death is what it is.

So that new life might come.

So we crafted a reply text.

After I rambled for a long time, Christy narrowed it down much further.

Something like, perhaps there's freedom in not trying, quotation marks, to give it to God, but resting in the relief that it's okay to be a frustrated mom and you're still God's beloved.

And she replied back that the text brought tears to her eyes.

Well, why would it bring tears to our eyes?

She already knew that she needed to surrender it to God.

Because it was relief.

It was the gospel.

It wasn't anything clever that we came up with.

That's just the gospel.

You don't have to keep making a covering.

You can stop.

Even if your covering is some religious act, you can stop.

You can be broken and frustrated and dead and lonely and ashamed, and you and you're still his beloved.

That's the very thing that brings new life is that death, that confession, that repentance.

Last question: where do we rest?

This is the great thing about this passage that is so clear.

Our rejection of him and what he has done for us, verses 12 and 13, verses 12, that we believe in his name.

We don't believe in our name or our works or anything that we've done.

We believe in his name.

Not our reputation or what we've built up, what he has done.

He gave the right, verse 12.

We didn't give ourselves the right.

We didn't commit our way into it.

He has given us the grace to receive him.

Verse 13, we're born of God, not born of our commitment or our ability or our passion, or race, or family heritage.

Born of God, a new birth.

Born of God means you are accepted and secure even when your commitment and your passion wanes.

That's the very thing that will help you have commitment and passion.

Even when you feel frustrated or apathetic or screwed up.

Means you're free from trying to fix yourself or get yourself better as to be approved by God.

I mean, I like I I need this every day.

I was sort of a pill yesterday.

Christy probably knows that.

I mean, I kind of got over it maybe halfway through the day.

I was kind of impatient and discontent and apathetic.

Y'all are never like that, are you?

You never have this situation or problem.

I need to know that that my status with God is secure outside of what I've done and I'm doing.

It's the very thing that will help me want to glorify Him and honor Him with my life.

I need to hear it.

I need to hear that I don't have to keep making coverings or that I have to like make a bigger covering to make up for something I just did.

In high school, it's kind of a silly story, but I thought about it this week.

Um I was a junior.

Right, I mean, it is high school.

I mean, social status was everything, right?

We're all so different, you know, if we've grown up, right?

I mean, it's still the same thing, right?

Different setting.

Uh and this little bump appears on the side of my nose.

Like, not like down here on the cheek or like under the chin.

I mean, it was like dead center.

Christy remembers this.

I mean, it was it, and at first you think, well, it's just it's just a little pimple.

You know, I'll I'll squeeze that sucker.

I mean, this is what you're thinking.

We've all thought this.

Don't act like you're too good for this story.

And it just kept getting bigger.

I mean, it and and it just kept getting bigger and bigger.

And it got to the point where I was like, I just gotta put a band-aid on this sucker.

I think first I tried some makeup and just kind of confess here.

Um, I think I tried some makeup just to kind of get the redness gone, and and but it was just so big.

Oh man.

And so I finally just, you know, like a little round band-aid and kind of just covered it up.

And I mean it had become a topic of conversation at this point.

What is this?

And I'm just, you know, horrified.

Every morning you wake up, it's still there.

And so finally I covered up.

And and so that this is my covering of this blemish, and and and then it became about, you know, is is it is it covered?

Is it still covered?

I'm in class, I'm thinking about touching it, making sure the band-aid's sealed on all the sides, and does it come off?

Is it kind of is it flopping open?

I'm in the halls, you know, I'm you know, terrified.

You keep going to the bathroom, checking the covering, you know, checking all this.

Is it completely unable to see anybody else?

Or be concerned about anybody else?

Because I I gotta worry about covering this blemish.

Right?

About me and about my status and my image and my great popularity.

We've come so far since high school.

Sarcasm.

What if there was a covering that was given to you and it was always and it was forever?

And it was fully sufficient.

That's the good news of this passage is there is.

I mean, what Adam and Eve was doing, these people in Exodus, I mean, what all of us are doing with all of our coverings, we don't have to do it.

The love of God known in the blood of Jesus Christ is a sufficient covering.

Hebrews 9, 22, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness.

See, it's always been about blood.

Because blood has life.

You don't have blood, you don't have life.

Physically, spiritually.

We either live by Jesus' blood, his work and his record, or we live by our blood, our work and our record.

Hebrews 9, verse 12.

Hebrews 9:12

He, Jesus, did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

So the two are hiding in the garden, they have their coverings.

They're hiding, I don't know, behind some shrubs or something.

Maybe you're behind their hammock.

And God comes, he says, Where are you?

I mean, God knows where they are.

He's God.

I mean, he wants them to understand where they are.

I mean, this is the point here.

And Adam says, he says, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid.

Because I was naked.

So I hid.

Here's the fear.

If anyone saw me as I am, could they ever accept me?

Or do I just need to keep pretending?

Keep covering.

Keep working, keep making something.

Well, at least with God, God fully knows you.

Fully loves you.

We hid and he came.

We rejected and he came.

Today, tomorrow, we will wander and he will come again for us.

This is what God does.

This is God's nature, unconditional love to us.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you that we are free.

We are free from having to create our own righteousness.

We are free from having to create our own identities and to feel important or accepted.

That we are valued.

We are important, not by our blood, but by your blood, not by our works, but by your works.

Give us greater belief in this so we might have greater freedom and life, and that our lives might glorify you and honor you.

We pray this in Jesus' name.