When Hearts Are Exposed | John 13:18-38

All right, here we go. So this time I normally I just

read the passage. I'll just, I'll go just a few

lines at a time here. All right, so verse 18, it says,

I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen.

But it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, that he who eats

my bread has lifted up his heel against me.

From now on, I'm telling you before it comes to pass, so that

when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.

Truly, Truly, I say to you, he who receives whoever, whomever I

send, receives me, and he who receives me receives him who

sent me. When Jesus had said this, he

became troubled in spirit and testified and said, truly,

truly, I say to you that one of you will betray me.

So we're looking at Judas's betrayal.

I love that Jesus. I love this line and it's often

missed, right? I, I want to tell you this

before so that when you finally do experience it, you know that

it's from me. That is so loving of our Lord

and Savior right to to tell us beforehand to to comfort his

disciples is the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

So when they saw coming, he said, Oh yes, the word of God is

true. How many you know that when you

read the Bible right and you're soaking up the scripture and

then all of a sudden you see it come true.

What what does that do it it strengthens your faith.

God's real he's here. He loves us.

He did say he he's going to come through and what he said he was

going to do what he promised. It's so good.

But here it says this that you know, throughout like the the

last few chapters in John, here, if you remember, it says over

and over again that Jesus willingly died for us.

Why is that important? Because no one took his life.

He wanted to die. And that reason why he died is

because so that he could save you, as we've been talking the

last couple weeks, not only save you, but walk with you, have an

intimate relationship with you so you could hear his voice.

So you can walk with him, obey him, experience his glory.

That's why. So it is important when you see

something like that in Scripture to underline and say, man, he

willingly. It was a willingness.

It wasn't somebody just trapped him, took his life and now some

good came out of it. It was a plan and it's a plan

that happened way back in Genesis 315.

So he willingly gave himself up for us.

It says here, you know, betrayal, there's no other way

to say it, right? It just stinks.

It's awful. It's it if you've ever been

betrayed, and I have many times, a couple of more serious ones.

They're never fun, but it's part of walking with Jesus.

It just comes, comes with the territory, right?

And Psalm 41, it says this, that he who eats my bread, we'll,

we'll see what what he means by this has lifted his heel against

me. It's in today's vernacular.

It, it just would mean he kicked me while I was down.

I'm already down. I'm already thinking about what

I have to do. It says in Luke that he

literally he sweat, he sweat blood.

Why? Because he knew what was going

to come. It wasn't just the beatings.

It didn't say that everyone who went through.

I don't, I don't think there's any other record of somebody

going through maybe the, the, you know, the the Roman

crucifixion, the process of that.

I don't know. There probably could be.

But the reason why it was even more intense for Jesus is

because he was going to take on the sin of the world.

If you could just think about all the sin that you've ever

committed since you were born and all the sin you will commit

and the sin that you're in even now, that's just one person, let

alone all these other people, right?

And that the entire world who Jesus died for, it was it was on

his body and he experienced that horrible separation.

Do you ever feel separated from God?

That feeling of like man, I I feel like God's not close that

feeling multiply that times a a billion, right.

I mean, just the amount of people in the sin that it caused

that anguish. And so it says that he was

troubled again, but why is he just why is he troubled even

more so even in this moment is because no one likes betrayal.

You have to remember Jesus is both God and man.

And so he felt everything. Remember we talked about a

couple weeks ago. He didn't he didn't numb out.

He actually felt it. He felt the betrayal wasn't just

words on a page. You actually felt that.

And this is what it says in Psalm 55.

This is why betrayal hurts even more.

Betrayal is hard because you share meals with them, you talk

with them, you have phone calls with them, you meet with them,

you think you're friends, you think they have your back until

they don't. And so Jesus got to experience

this and Psalm 55, verse 12 and 14, it says it is not an enemy

Psalms 55:12

who approaches me, right. If it's an enemy, we're just

like, then I could bear it. He says the Psalmist like he, I

could bear that. I, I mean, they don't love God,

they hate God. They're, they're, they're

running rampant and sin. It's like they don't like me.

Oh, who cares? That's not what we're talking

about here. Nor is it the one who hates me

who has exalted himself against me.

Then I could hide myself from I could just say, Hey, forget this

guy, I'll move on. But it is you, a man of my

equal, my companion, my familiar friend who we had sweet

fellowship together, walked in the House of God in the crowds.

This is what David experienced in Absalom son who betrayed him

at the gate and so many others. It's the his love for Judas.

He had a love like it says over and over and over again.

Jesus wasn't like, I hate that guy.

Doesn't matter. Who cares?

It's it's Jesus. It's not an enemy, it's a

friend. And they're close.

There's there's a closeness that's there.

And it says he was troubled because of an ingratitude,

because of the presence of evil since Satan entered him.

Do you know, do you ever just like, do you ever just feel the

presence of darkness? Do you ever just feel that like

that, that like it's almost the enemy's breathing on your neck

in a moment, right when you're tempted, you just feel the

presence of evil or you just you're, you're, you've been

betrayed or you've been hurt and you just, you just you're,

you're, you're beyond just troubled.

Your, your heart is aching. I've talked to a few of you guys

even earlier. It's like, man, my heart, it's

like so much, so many good things can happen in this last

calendar year, but yet I ache. I have an ache in my soul.

You know, that's what it means to follow Jesus.

It's cost, isn't it? And we get to see that he went

before us and just it was funny. Just the other day was one of my

kids is there he was washing the dishes like kind of, you know,

we kind of say like, Hey, make sure that you obey quickly,

cheerfully and completely that keyword cheerful, right?

It's just it's hard, isn't it? It's not like just doing is

like, like I'm like, what's what's bugging you, son?

You know, and he just belts out this cry.

He just cries like they don't appreciate me, like all this

kind of stuff. And I'm like there, there's no

thank you, not even 1, you know, just this whole thing.

And I'm like, let me tell you something.

How do you think Jesus felt like I'm like getting right up in his

grill, right? Like right up.

Like how do you think Jesus felt in it?

He died for all these people and some people will go to the grave

without saying 1 thank you. Like you get a little taste of

what your Savior has experienced.

You at the sink, him at the cross.

Big difference. So why did Jesus, why did Jesus

follow or why did Judas follow Jesus?

What were the motivations? And I'll, I'll share with you a

few of them because it all tied together later.

But at the end he had hoped, right?

We say this often. He had hoped that Jesus would

overthrow Rome. That was his expectation.

Let me tell you it the the whole title of this message.

OK, I forgot to tell you that the title of this message is An

exposed heart must run to Jesus. The only thing an exposed heart

must do is run to Him. And that may not make much sense

to you right now, but it will in the end because when our hearts

are exposed and all Jesus is doing right now is He's exposing

a lot of hearts at the table. They're all around the table.

This is the upper rim and the upper room.

You're going to be like, wow, they're at the table for a long

time. There's a lot of chapters here,

really all the way through chapter 17.

And there's a lot of content. And we, we, we got to stop right

now at 13 because 14, when we come home, we'll start with

that. Still at the table three months

later, but they're at the table and they're they're disgusting.

A lot of things. And I would just say this that

there's a lot of hearts being exposed and and and as they're

as Jesus, we just saw in the last scene, he was washing the

feet of Judas, the one who would betray him.

And there's so much love. He loves us.

It says here he loves us to the end.

And it's not just his disciples, right that the 11, but also the

12th 1, the 12th man that betrays him.

We all know the end of the story.

Let's stick with the drama. What we know in the moment right

now, there's there's a man that all their hearts are being

exposed. Do you ever have you ever, have

you ever have your heart exposed?

You ever had that before? It's not fun, right?

I mean, just someone's sharing truth with you and you're like,

uh oh, I've been found out, you know, and I don't have to do

anything huge and serious, but just maybe even as your wife and

you and your wife are talking, going for a walk and you're

just, your heart's just being exposed.

You see the selfishness in your heart.

You see the pride in your heart. There's things that are

happening there. What do you do?

Well, there's 2 tracks here in this story, One that John takes

and one that Judas takes. There's only one thing you do,

only one thing that you must do when your heart is exposed.

You must run to him. In Judas, expectations were not

being met. Of course, you know what was the

last straw, right? What was the last straw for

Judas? Is he made-up his mind in the

moment? What was that?

It was when the alabaster jar was being broken over Jesus's

feet by Mary. He says enough is enough.

I could have used that money. That is all of our campaign

money for what to take over Rome and this guy's not doing that.

Did you ever have expectations for God that were on an unmet

like I thought God, I thought you were going to.

I thought I was going to be married by this age and I'm not

he's exposing something expectations.

I thought I would be making this much money.

I thought this would happen. I thought these I thought I

would be healthy. I thought it whatever it is, I

don't care what it is, but I thought I thought I thought I

thought I thought it's not God is exposing your heart and you

have a choice. Do you run to him or not?

And he's showing us and again, sorry for we're getting right

into it. I told you we're just getting

right in. There's no like fluffy intro,

but I want us to see that God is exposing our hearts all the

time. He doesn't have to just use this

path. He's exposing our hearts all the

time and he's drawing, wanting us to draw near.

That is what we talked about even last week, but it was

interesting here in this next verse 22, it says the disciples

began looking at one another and at a loss to which to know which

one was he was speaking about. They're like, who is it?

I mean like it's crazy. I mean Mark 1419 says surely not

I you know what's crazy is the disciples were suspicious of

themselves, more like before they even suspected Judas.

That's what the text is showing us.

They had no clue. They're like, it's not I is it?

I mean, because their hearts were being exposed, right?

Because they're all like, who's the greatest?

Who's the greatest, Who's the greatest?

And this king of the universe literally comes down and starts

to wash their feet and they're like, wait a second, there's

something more. He's going to get us.

He's going to ZAP us. He's going to blow us away to

blitterines, right? But he doesn't right?

He, he's lovingly serving us and that's exposing something,

right? It's the kindness of God that

leads us to repentance. Sometimes you can't even

sometimes you're like, I expect punishment to happen, but when

you see kindness come, you're more terrified.

He was like, this can't be this can't be this can't be how God

truly is. And so they're like, well, maybe

maybe it was me. Are you, are you the guy?

Are you the guy? And you know what's crazy is

listen, as you got to put the all the synoptic, you got to

bring John and the Synoptics together.

Matthew 2625 said this. Even Judas said, surely not I

Rabbi. Wow, are you awake this morning?

Did you see that sin is blinding?

Sin is blinding and that if you think that was bad, listen to

this. Luke 2223 says they discussed

amongst themselves who could do this thing.

Did you ever wonder what Judas might have been discussing?

Like, was he? Was he so audacious?

Was he so bold to say? Are you kidding me?

I could never do something like that just to cover himself.

Wow. Do you realize how much sin is

blinding? It's so hard sometimes when your

friends or your family or people, it's called blind spots,

right? Why people come up to you and

say, hey, I, I mean, man, there have been times when I've been

in meetings where it is so clear to me, another person send and

to watch the other person say you don't know, you have no idea

what you're talking about. And there's like two or three

witnesses and they're like, you're wrong.

OK, Sin is so blinding. It's so blinding.

But yet there's so much love in the room for these 12.

So Peter took initiative and he found he wanted to find out

being the guy, you know, he's always like, OK, who is it?

You know, like. And so he's like, all right, I'm

not going to ask Jesus, John, you ask Jesus because you're

always calling yourself the beloved, you know, so you ask

him. So he asked, who is it?

And I want to show you something about the seating arrangement.

Sometimes you just have to pause, look at this, Don't just

go over the scripture so fast. Check off the box in your quiet

time, but just wait a second and ask questions and say, wait a

second, what's the scene arrangement?

So right, what do you have here? There they were reclining.

You guys know how they ate, right?

So Jesus is probably on his left arm right leaning because they

didn't have chairs. No one's sitting by the way.

You know, all those pictures that I just went to a wedding

the other day and they showed the upper room picture and

everybody's sitting at a nice chair.

The chair is so elaborate. I'm like, no, they're all on the

floor. OK, So he's sitting like this

with his arm on the floor and he's they're eating with their

right hand. And so there's a spread of food.

And so he takes the bread, he dips it in the olive oil and

it's like a bunch of spices and everything in there, piece of

bread, unleavened bread. And he takes that.

And what does he do with it? So he's on, he's sitting like

that. John is on his right hand side,

right? And Peter's right next to him.

Peter's saying, hey, John, who is it?

And Jesus says it's the one where I dip the bread in to the

spices and I give it to the person on my left.

Where's Judas? Right next to Jesus.

Do you know you could be so close to Jesus and not know him?

You could come to church every week and not know him.

And do you know what Jesus does? Do you know why that is so

important for him to do that? He's showing whenever a host,

which Jesus is the host for this party.

Whenever a host dips the first bread and gives it, he gives it

to the guest of honor. That is crazy.

If you guys, I don't know what sin you're in this morning.

I have no idea what sin you're in, but he loves you.

You think you might be so far from God, right?

But he like the person that is going to betray him and turn him

over to Rome for 30 pieces of silver is right next to him and

he says you're my guest of honor.

Do you know how many times what he's showing?

He's showing him over and over and over.

He's like, wake up, Judas. Before it's too late, wake up.

I'm right here. I'm giving you everything.

Everything. I'm not even paying attention to

the rest of these jokers. I'm giving everything to you in

your last moment. It's amazing.

Incredible. The lessons here, guys, that you

need to learn. OK, here's a few lessons on

this. It's just so important.

Judith was a teenager. We know this because the

scriptures, if you, if you look at it, Exodus says the, the, the

men who are 20 and over have to give the temple tax.

Now we know either he was in his early 20s because I know that

they spend 3 1/2 years together. So we don't know.

We'd have to do some math here, but he's either between 19/18/19

or 20 or 21 at the most. He's a young kid.

He's a kid, he's a college student, and most scholars and

everybody would say this is an example of a lost opportunity

and a wasted privilege to be next to the Son of God, to be

given a purpose and a family, and it's wasted.

Here's why. Here's a couple of reasons why I

want you to write these down. This man heard Jesus everyday

teach everyday. He heard him teach wonderful

truths personally interacted with him.

In fact, there were so many people that wanted Jesus's

attention, right? If you go through the synoptic

Gospels especially, there's just like they wanted his attention,

wanted his attention, wanted his attention.

Do you know who got more attention than any of those

people? Him on the left.

He got so much attention. In fact, he got the most

attention even at that table by getting the gut being the guest

of honor. And here's one I would say for.

Most of our young adults in the room, this is what took him out.

Not only did he hear the teachings of Jesus, not only did

he get to interact with him and watch the insurance and outs of

Jesus heart to see the purity of his heart, but he loved money

and that took him out. He loved money.

Do you know people that have a lot of money doesn't mean they

love money. You know of people that have no

money could love money. So it has nothing to do with how

much you have in your banking account.

It's what you put your trust in and this man lived for himself

even in the midst of going to church.

It meant more to him than Jesus salvation because he never, you

know, it says in in 2nd Corinthians 13, five, it says

examine yourself to see if you're in the faith.

Judas never examined himself until it's too late.

He never examined himself. And not only that, but here's a

few others. No one in that room could tell

that Judas was backsliding. No one could.

The dude was like starting to fall apart, but no one knew it.

No one knew it. Everyone even at that time, like

surely not no one knew it. They're not all like I know who

it is. No, they were all like, who is

it? Because he he had a show for a

long time. And guys, you can fake it.

You could put on your mask every single week and no one would

ever know. But eventually it will.

I just read in numbers the other day, right numbers.

Was it 22? Your sins will surely find you

out. It doesn't have to.

You can bring them to Jesus, you can bring them to him.

Everything will be all right. Just bring it to Him.

But he chose not to, and then his seared conscience.

Do you ever sear a piece of meat or tuna?

Right. I eat tuna.

You just sear it. It's just a little bit cooked on

the surface now. It's not as meat's not as

pliable anymore, is it? Once it's seared and once your

heart is seared, it's just calloused.

It's maybe some of you guys have been calluses, whatever, but

it's calloused, It's numb. You've grown numb.

You, you bypass all the warnings, all the warnings.

There's so many warnings. I mean, he's like bypassing all

the warnings. He's just simply didn't care.

Guys, I think the most scariest thing is what we read.

And let me just look at this for a second Turn there with me.

Hebrews. It says this in Hebrews 6, verse

four and six. For in the case of those who

have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift

and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted,

these are words of experience. These aren't just intellectual,

you know, you always say, well, I just, you know, intellectually

go through the motions. No, no, no, these people

actually tasted something of God, partakers, partakers of the

Holy Spirit. They tasted the good word of God

and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away.

For it is now impossible to renew them again to repentance,

since they again crucified to themselves the Son of God, and

put him to open shame. And then turn over to Hebrews

12. It says this in verse 14.

Pursue peace with all men at the sanctification, without which no

one will see the Lord without holiness.

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that

no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it

many have defiled. And there will be no immoral or

godless person like Esau who sold his own birthright for a

single meal, for, you know, that even afterwards, when he desired

to inherit the blessing he was rejected for, he found no place

for repentance, though he sought it with tears.

That's what's happening here. He's getting to the point where

he's hardening his heart so much so that he doesn't even know he

felt so much remorse. What did he say?

It says as soon as Judas left, he went.

And he, he, you know, he, he went to the priest.

He realized, oh, shoot, what did I just do?

So he's going back, right? He's going back to the priest.

He's like, hey, I don't want anything to do with this.

He gives back. He's like, take it, take it

back, take my coins back. I don't want anything to do with

this. I realized, oh, shoot, what did

I just do? And they threw it back at him

and said get out of here. And what did he do?

Judas never saw the light of day.

He left in the night and what do you do?

He went and killed himself. He ran away from Jesus when his

heart was exposed. And listen what it says with JC

Rowlett says this. The extent to which we may

harden ourselves by resisting light and knowledge is one of

the most fearful facts and our sinful nature.

Listen to what he says. We may go past feeling like

those whose limbs are degraded before they die.

We may lose entirely all sense of fear or shame or remorse, and

have a heart as hard as a millstone, blind to every

warning and deaf to every appeal.

The strongest Christian is the one who feels his weakness,

weakness most, and cries most frequently.

Hold me up and then I'll be safe, guys.

That feeling of you're not doing OK right now is a gift that

Judas did not feel until his dying day.

The rest of them did. They were all like, Oh no, is it

me? Is it me?

Is it me? I'm not sure.

I don't know, just walking in that sense.

They had a lot of pride, but they had enough sense of maybe

this could be me. And you know, at the end here,

Jesus addressed him as friend. You know, we will get there a

little later. But he goes up, right?

And he kisses, it's like the last part of I don't think

there's any other chosens, right?

They could kind of ended with the kiss, right?

I don't know if you watched that part, but it was like there's

the kiss, right? Judas kisses Jesus and he says

friend, even up to that point, he says, friend, do you know

what? You know what's crazy is listen,

he's like man, as we read on, he says when I dipped the morsel he

took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon.

He gave it to his left. And he says after the morsel,

Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him,

what you do, do quickly. That was the last thing that

Jesus said finally until you said, friend, at the very end

before he kissed him. You would think in that moment,

whatever you do, do quickly. You would think in that moment

he'd be like, OK, the game's over.

I am so sorry. I am not going to do that.

Guys. Are you listening to Holy Spirit

in temptation? Are you listening to the Spirit

of God saying, no, no, no, no, don't go there, Don't go there,

don't go there, Don't do that. Don't say that.

Pausing, saying, you know, sometimes we hear the warnings

of God. They're so like, oh, I don't

know, they're the kindness of God.

His voice is kind. Whatever you do, do quickly.

You've seen he's basically trying to get his attention

multiple times and then it says now no one now, no one of those

reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this to

them. Again, they're clueless.

For some, we're supposing because Judas had the Money Box

that Jesus was saying to him, buy things we need for the

feast. It's just funny how we all have

a different interpretation of what Jesus says, right?

Or else that he should give something to the poor.

So they still thought he was kind and generous, but he's full

of greed. So after receiving the morsel,

he went out immediately and it was night.

And I love you know, John, he, he focuses in on these words and

uses them. He doesn't just waste words.

He talks about the night is darkness.

This man was in darkness. And not only did he leave in

darkness, but he's still today in hell, in darkness 2000 years

later, because he chose to run away from Jesus when his heart

was exposed. Now verse 31 says there is now

repentance just means, hey, I'm wrong.

I need your grace. Lord, I want to turn to you.

It's not just do you know that you know you can.

You can think you're repenting, but you're not.

But all it is is just remorse, God, like worldly sorrow.

Just to feel bad or to feel like uncomfortable about sin doesn't

mean you're repenting. Repentance means I'm wrong.

Lord, please change my heart. Bring me back to you best

repentance. It's turning away from sin.

It's it's godly sorrow. Second Corinthians 7.

You can read that later verse 31.

Therefore, when he had gone out, now he's just with the 11 and

listen to what he says. The affection, the love that is

being poured out to his own says now the son of man glory be

glorified. Now is the Son of man glorified

and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God

will also glorify him in himself and we'll glorify him

immediately. It's a lot of glory.

What does he even mean? I was just talking about kids

the other day. I was like, what is the glory of

God? And I was like, yeah, I don't

like, it's when we magnify him or we put put focus.

I was like, you know what? Listen, the glory of God is

simple. It's the nature of God.

When you see God show up in justice and power and holiness

and faithfulness and wisdom and love, that's his glory.

Did you ever experience that? His glory has got to be tasted,

felt, experienced. It's it's his, it's his nature.

When God comes through like he miraculously answers your prayer

and you're like, no way. I just heard a few people just

talk about just generosity. Some you don't have the whole

idea of like, you know, if God, if God shovels money towards

you, right? You shovel it back, but he

shovels it back even more because his shovel is bigger,

right? That's later.

No, but I love that that you can't out give God.

But just even this week, just seeing the glory of God, right?

And when people just generously give, they there's a couple

people that like gave $50, they got back 425.

Another person gave 50. They got back 1000.

Another person gave 3000, got back 3000.

It's amazing. You can't out give God.

I've just watched it over and over and over again.

That's the glory of God, seeing his generosity when we don't

deserve it, seeing his promises come through.

Now he's the, it all culminates. I mean, you could see the power

of creation. I mean, as you read through the,

the, the, the scriptures, you see the power of God, of him

rescuing the Israelites from Egypt, all that's the glory of

God. But where we see the glory of

God the most. And this is the one that warms

our hearts and changes our hearts.

It's the love of God and Jesus is pouring out.

He's about to get there in a second.

He says little children. It's the only time he actually

addresses. You know who else says little

children often? The one who writes this book and

his letter, his personal letter to the churches.

He says little children, little children, I am with you.

I love that underline that little children, I'm with you.

Like he's talking to us. Why do you know he's talking to

us? Because Judas is gone now.

There's no other unbeliever in the room.

It's just the church. It's just his people.

And he's saying, little children, I love you, I'm with

you. A little while longer you will

seek me. And as I said to the Jews, and I

also say now to you, where I'm going, you cannot come.

And of course, that's a scary thought.

What do you mean? What's going on here?

A new commandment I give you that you love one another even

as I loved you, that you also love one another.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples.

If you have love for one another, this is it.

This is the premier quality. If you have this, you have

everything and I love it. It's just like, what is the new?

By the way, have you already noticed that?

What's new? What's new it's it's like all of

a sudden now like Jesus is saying love each other.

This is the first time. No look at the Old Testament as

you read all throughout the Old Testament talks about loving

your neighbor, loving each other.

But what is he saying here? What is he adding to?

What is he saying? He's like, look what I just

demonstrated you within the last few minutes.

This is how I want you to love with humble, sacrificial, dying

love. That is the new commandment.

I'm I'm, I'm adding to it something that's already true,

right? I'm basically saying, look, I

want you to love the same way that I love you as I wash your

feet, as you are full of pride. I'm going to sacrifice for you

and I'm going to go all the way to the death.

It's it's dying. It's dying love.

I, I told the the couple last yesterday when I was doing the

wedding. I was like, Sean, most likely

you're not going to die for Amanda.

Most likely. I mean, you might, I don't know.

I mean, be kind of crazy if that actually happened.

But if most likely that's not going to happen.

But in the meantime, while you're waiting for this heroic

opportunity to die for your wife like it's some movie, just do

the dishes, you know, do something that serves your wife

really well. But it's when you, I love the

the line that we always share, you know, at the weddings when

you feel like it and when you don't.

Where we got that from, I think was from our pastors when they

married us. I don't know, 22 1/2 years ago,

22 years ago, yeah, almost 22 years ago.

I was like, man, I like that line.

That's not in the traditional vows.

We they kind of added that and we took that and ran with it

many years later. But it's when husbands, do you

always feel like loving your wife, Dick, do you always feel

like loving your wife? I know I was waiting for the

Thunderbolt, like the lightning bolt to kind of I was like, is

that thing coming down or what? I mean, just got good shield

here. You know, it's like, wow, better

be careful when you go outside. But no, we, if we always had to

wait till we feel like loving our neighbor, it would never

come, right? We'd never do it.

It's not about you what you feel.

And that's what Jesus is saying here.

It's not about what you feel. It's actually just remember that

in the most simplest way, right? Maybe it is just the dishes,

whatever it is and you look, we're just being really

practical here for a second. It's just if someone asks you to

do something, you're like, I don't know, I see it all the

time in our household, right? Our little the kids are like I'm

like start now. This is what Jesus said.

I have a new commandment, you know about loving people, but I

want to add something to this that's very difficult and you

cannot do this on your own. I'm going to ask you to love

when you don't feel like it. I'm going to ask you to

sacrifice and to lay your life down for one another to the

least of these to people. You don't feel like it if all

you do is love the people that you feel like loving.

You know what Jesus says about that?

Unbelievers and pagans do that, so good job.

That's not that hard, but it's much harder when everyone's

trying to claim to be the greatest.

And I'm troubled. My heart aches.

No pastor in the room and I get down on my knees and I watch

every one of your feet, including the one that betrays

me. That's love.

That's what I want you to do. So the next time you think about

whether you're a loving person or not, put yourself up against

that standard, and then you'll see if you love first.

John 316. We know this.

John's saying this in his letter.

He laid down his life for us, so we ought to do the same.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church

and gave himself up for it. You know two ways that you can

easily just practice love, Ask for forgiveness and forgive.

Just ask for it. You know, that might be the

hardest thing to do is just go up to something and say, hey, I

just want to say, will you forgive me for, for what I just

did? That's love.

And then the most loving thing to do is to return and say, you

know what? I do forgive you.

And I hold nothing against you. You know, I've watched over the

last, I don't know, 25 years of walking with Jesus, but

specifically the last 14 here at this church.

I just want to say something very clear.

You cannot say you love God and not love the church if you don't

love God's not in you because God is love.

The amount of times that I've heard someone say before they're

about to literally destroy this church.

I'm not kidding when I say this. The amount of times that someone

looked me straight in the eye and said, I just want to say I

love this church and then what comes proceeds out of their

mouth. It is such vehement hatred in

vitro. I am shocked.

I literally look at them like you're Satan because they are.

You cannot say out of one side of your mouth you love God and

the other side hate the church. Can't do it.

It won't fly here. You won't.

Just not going to happen. We went through a lot over the

last year of being attacked and we know who loves God and who

doesn't. It's very clear if you destroy

this church with your mouth, you hate God and you hate people.

It's as simple as that. And I think we've grown as a

church. I'm just talking to you like a

dad. We've grown as a church.

I've watched our church literally mature over this last

year and I'm proud of you. We've done a great job.

I mean, we've been, I mean, I'd probably take the most, most of

the hits on that one, but but we've, we have grown so much

over this last year, numerically, maturity wise,

growth, It's been incredible to watch.

Let's not ruin that. Let's define love the way Jesus

does. You know, those people you talk

to at the workplace, They're like me and Jesus, We're like

tight. We're good.

We we're, you know, oh, so do you go to a church somewhere?

No, I'm not really into that. You don't love God.

You literally don't love God because he says if you love me,

you'll do what I tell you to do. And that is?

To love humbly and sacrificially.

It's my definition. I give you this new commandment

that is to lay down your life for the sheep.

You know what it ultimately what he's saying.

If you love God, you will serve the church until your dying day.

It's not about like I'm going to church and I'm loving God and

I'm loving people like in this generality.

No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not getting letting you guys get

away with that. This is what he says.

He says it this way, this way, and he has there's no other way.

If you love God and say you love God, you will serve this church

until your dying day. And that is a humble sacrificial

love. Even at the at the point where

maybe you have a bitterness or offense with certain people, you

will work that out before you die.

You work that out before you actually go to bed tonight

because it cannot come out of two sides of your mouth.

I know that's hard. I know I'm, I'm, you're probably

thankful that I don't have to preach for another three months,

but just, I'm just saying, OK, you're like, OK, thank you.

We're going to the Psalms summer in the Psalms.

Yes, OK, but I just, I love, I love this.

I, I, Jesus is enduring love in the face of our weakness and

sin. So if you're feeling like beat

up, you're feeling like, oh, I can't do this right, Go to God

and say I can't love like he loves.

I can't love that way. Lord, help me, help me.

He's going to give you power. If you have a desire and your

heart is exposed right now, run to Jesus, run to him.

Romans 83839. Nothing, not even them fleeing

Jesus for a moment would separate them from his love.

It's secure, it's covenant. Oh, he's in it for the long haul

and he's, he's the bigger one in our in the relationship.

Amen. I love this Peter's like he's

just Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going?

Little like he's just he's like he is never mind the new

commandment love all this stuff right.

He's just like, hold on a second.

I I lost you. I'd like you can't come with

with me. Where are you going?

You know, like he just never mind.

I love the guy, like Jesus rocks this man's world and he's a

different man in the book of Acts.

But he just where are you going? And Jesus says you cannot follow

me, but later, but later you'll follow me.

OK? Peter says, Tim, Lord, why can't

I not follow you right now? Like I want to follow you now?

Like who are the stubborn people in the room, right?

I'll be like type a stubborn. I will lay down my life for you.

You know, it's so ironic, isn't it?

It's like, actually it's the opposite.

I'm going to lay my life down for you.

You will you lay your lay down your life for me.

Jesus says truly, truly, I say to you, and that's again, truly,

truly. Every time you see that it's

like this, it's coming down. Some truth's going to happen

here. Listen, listen, because they

don't have like they didn't, they didn't do italics.

They don't have, they don't have that in the in the, in the

grammar. And so they have to repeat.

And that's why you see holy, holy, holy, right, Because

there's, there was no like exclamation point in that sense.

So he says, truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster, you will not

crow until you deny me 3 times Judas betrays me, you deny me,

but I will restore you. You're going to heaven Peter,

and you will be where I am forever.

Stick with it, keep coming to me, keep coming to me, keep

coming to me, keep asking for help, keep humbling yourself.

That's what he's saying over and over and over again.

Do you know that how much ignorance is in our heart?

Do you know how much ignorance is in your heart?

It was pretty ignorant for Peter to say that.

And I'll tell you right now, all of us have ignorance in our

hearts. It's the fact.

It's OK. Let him expose it.

Let him say, like, you know what?

You're not that great. You know, you're not that

wonderful. Oh, you want to be so famous,

You know, like I'm not saying Jesus probably doesn't do that.

That's me. OK, That's my impression.

But Jesus, like I'm not doing that.

Like, but he exposes all the pride and ambition in our heart,

so much selfish ambition in our hearts.

He's like, oh, I just want to make a lot of money.

Why? Because I'll give so much of it

away. He's like, no, you won't.

I just want to be famous for you, Lord, and I'll tell

everyone about Jesus. No, you won't.

If I just get married, I will be the happiest person and I will

live for you, for your glory. No, you won't.

If you need something else to start living, your Christian

walk now ain't going to happen. It's now today, it's today.

You can glorify God today. You can give today.

You can do great things today if you just give your life to Him.

Give your life to Him fully without any hindrance.

Go. I love this.

The love of God breaks the chains guys.

This is what we've been meditating on.

This is what's been so glorious the last four or five weeks.

I love this. I love it, I love it.

I want to stay here. I literally do.

I'm not kidding. I'm like, can we just do another

week? Can we do another week?

I just, I, I, you know, by the Providence of God, he knows,

right? We're just going to have to

break. But I love this.

I can't wait to sit on my desk and study.

John 14. It's been so rich, so good.

I'm telling you guys, the love of God breaks chains.

If we could just meditate on this, if you could just stay

here a little while longer. This is so rich, so good.

Listen to what? Karl Bart.

You don't know who Karl Bart is. Some of you guys do.

Some of you like who? Who does know?

Like some of you theologians, you know?

Yeah. Like a Hunter Calvary.

Yeah. Karl Bart, man.

I'm going to rap about him next week.

It's awesome. That's right.

Come on. Like, bring it in a song.

I dare you. OK, So this dude's, like, dry

theologian. OK, Dry theologian.

Super smart. Like, way smarter than anybody

in this room. OK, maybe.

I don't know. As he got older, his faith got

way simpler and deeper. And towards the end of his life,

he was asked to state the most profound truth he knew.

Just think about this. Old man theologian.

Smart dude. Wrote a lot of books.

Lot of books I had to read some of it in seminary.

I was like, Oh my gosh. But after all that he says this,

Jesus loves me for this. I know for the Bible tells me

so. Any simple people in the room,

you know, the more you know about God, the simpler you got

to be, the more childlike, more childlike.

You can't enter the Kingdom of God without being like a what

child, you know the synoptics emphasize Jesus's mission.

Do you know this? Does this sound familiar?

Can we called on fire? That was the beginning, right?

It was all mission, mission, mission, mission with these

deeds, synoptics. Nothing wrong with Matthew,

Mark, Luke. In fact, we might go through

Luke at some point because I want to get into Luke at some

point. Maybe then in the coming years,

but if you look at them, they're great.

It's all mission. It's mission, mission, mission.

You in fact never see says I love you.

It doesn't speak a whole lot about the love of God.

A lot of mission sending the 72 out, sending the 12.

I mean mission, mission, mission, mission.

But I love what Jerome said in 347 to 419.

He wrote about this. He's writing as a as a church

historian, right? He's writing about the the

Apostle John in life group. So they had life group back

then. We still do that today, about

2000 years later. He's saying this during

individual gatherings. The Apostle John usually said

nothing but this little children love one another.

He's like 100 years old, you know, he's like old, you know,

he's just go to life group. He's like Dick in about 220

years, you know, he's just like little children of one another.

Look, and it's crazy. Even they were annoyed, right?

The disciples and the brothers in attendance often annoyed

because they always heard these same words.

Finally they said, teacher, why do you always say the same

thing? This is how he replied.

Because it is our Lord's commandment.

And if this alone is kept, it is sufficient.

You know, what is the difference between him and everybody else

is he believed it. He believed it kind of what

makes me out to cry almost like he just he actually believed it.

He called himself, Do you remember when we first started

this? I don't know how many years ago

it was. Why don't we start John a number

of years ago, but he calls himself the disciple to whom

Jesus loved no one else did that.

Why? Because he believed it.

Do you know what would happen as the church if we actually

believe the love of God for us and we believe all it really

matters is that we love others with the sacrificial love and we

go to life group and we're just like little children.

Let's just love. Let's love God.

Let's love each other sacrificially telling you the

simpler we are and more profound, powerful and God's

going to use us around the world has already been doing as you

close here, I just want to share a few more things here, kind of

going to the Old Testament. Adam was, if you can believe

this, Adam was 687 years old when Enoch was 65.

Can you imagine living in a world like that?

You're like, wow, you are old, like, but you're 65, you know,

he's like retirement age. That dude's like, like, you

know, I don't know what the percentage is, but long, long

past the retirement age. Yeah.

So anyways, he 687 years old when Enoch was 65, Enoch walked

with God for 300 years. It says 300 years.

And this pleased God and he died at 365.

It says this please God. Hebrews 11 verse five.

I would just a short word as we close here because as we wrap up

the spring semester, start the summer semester, this whole idea

of we must draw near to God. He will draw near to us.

Noah walk with God. It's Genesis 69 Abraham walk

with God, Genesis 17 one Exodus 19, every book of the Bible, you

could just trace this and I'm doing that right now as we

speak. I'm just trying slowly, slowly,

slowly, just tracing the love of God in every page of the Bible.

And as I'm looking at Exodus 19 four, it says you have seen what

I did to the Egyptians. You've seen what I've didn't

done to your sin, buried it. It's no longer.

I remember how I bore you on eagle's wings and listen how I

brought you to myself. I want you to get something

before when we go on mission. When we go on mission, there's

the eighth location. Of course it's Orlando.

Never forget that. Jeremiah 1713.

I want you to remember this when we go for the next three months.

I spoke to you rising up early and speaking, but you did not

hear. I called you, but you did not

answer. God is constantly knocking at

our door to dine with us. Psalm 13917 and 18.

How precious are your thoughts about me?

They're innumerable. Who could count them?

And they outnumber the sand guys.

What is your value to God? What?

What is your value? Every one of us has a value

assigned to us. And God saying you are worth

your soul is worth everything. Do you know why?

That's what it says that what is a profit?

A man to gain the whole world. But lose your soul.

That is most precious. You want to gain the whole world

and then lose what is most precious to you and to most

precious to God. Don't be deceived.

Don't be blinded. What will a man give in exchange

for a soul? That's why Jesus died for you,

because he knew your soul is worth everything.

But I'm going to show you something here as we close and

Mark, Mark 5 says this. I don't know if you guys ever

saw this. We taught on this not that long

ago, went through the Gospel of Mark.

It was a Jesus is going near the disciples.

He's in the bottom of the boat, right?

He he goes, he says, OK, after he gives us great teaching on

the parable of the seed, mustard seed, etcetera.

He's leaving. He says one day when evening

came, he said to them, go over to the other side of the lakes,

pretty Big Lake. And leaving the crowd.

He took him along with them in a boat just as he was and other

boats were with him. And there are rows of fierce and

Gale of wind, crazy storm. They're all freaking out.

They're like, teacher, please wake up like we're going to die.

He says, hush, be still to the wind.

He says, why are you afraid if you have no faith?

And then he's tired. He's journeying.

Mark just captures the the strenuous calendar schedule for

Jesus and it's like it never ends.

And he gets over to the other side.

It says here and he meets this demoniac.

He meets this guy who's got dozens and dozens, hundreds of

demons inside of him. He's screaming amongst the

tombs, gashing himself with stones, it says.

And then he just says, come out of this man, you unclean spirit.

He says, what is your name? He gives the name, sends the

demons into the herd of swine. And then it says, I love this

verse 15. It says he was clothed and in

his right mind, not loving. I mean, this guy, I don't know

about you, but I don't know, maybe one of you guys overseas

this year will encounter A demoniac.

I guarantee you 10 out of 10 of you would run away instead of

doing this. And you think that was just

enough right there. Just putting it in context.

You'll see here in a second. And he says, hey, I want you to

be my missionary. I want you to stay home here.

I want you to be in this tent city called the Decapolis.

I want you to be a witness to me.

I just love this story. Why?

Because after such an exhausting day of ministry, it's such an

exhausting season. As he gets his ministry off the

ground, he decides purposely to go across the sea to meet this

man. And that's what does it say

Verse 21, he heals this man. He says when Jesus had crossed

over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd

gathered. He did all of that to get to 1

guy because he loves him to one guy.

He crossed the sea in a storm, got there, healed the guy,

crossed back, offer one guy. Is that not amazing?

And what he's asking all of us in this room and even this

summer and the end of the spring, he's saying, look, draw

near. Draw near to him.

Just one step. If you got any strength right,

and it comes from the Holy Spirit anyways, just draw near.

You know, as I gave a word to the college students this

summer, I said, look, you know, you're either going to be a lean

inner or a lean outer. And if you're a lean inner, just

a slight, just slightly, just slightly leaning in, you'll be

with us. You'll be here.

God's got this. But I'll tell you what, if

you're already kind of going, I don't know, man.

I don't know where you'll be, but it's you.

It's the promise of God is if you draw near, he will draw near

to you. And we cannot do this in our own

strength. We know that we can't do it in

our own strength. As I let as I, I just want to

share one more story because this caught my, my attention

this week. And I'm like, man, this touch my

heart if he touches yours. But there's a Christian man

named Ben Sassy. He's AUS senator, former US

senator and U.S. President.

He's years ago. He's 5054 years old, but he's

saying to this 60 minutes, he's, he's sharing his story, saying,

Hey, I'm, I'm on borrowed time now.

Like I, they've extended my life just a just a wee bit.

But he, he said it just gave him a touch of grace to reflect like

God's exposing my heart and he's showing me these things as

before I die. He was diagnosed with cancer,

stage 4 pancreatic cancer. That's usually a death sentence

here. I had months to live.

He's reflecting on his disease, and he learned that his cancer

metastasized to five cancers in his body.

And he's saying this, he's like, you know, I'm married 31 years

to my wife. We'll just be apart for a little

bit, and then we'll see each other.

It's like the thing that really bums me.

She's, he's like, it's not my wife.

My wife. My wife's going to be fine, she

said. She said she's tough, gritty and

theologically sound and rooted. Not worried about her.

It's my kids. My daughters are in their 20s.

I won't get to see them married. And my son, I'd love to see him

turn into an adult. And you're a young man.

He's 14. That part's hard.

He's saying the lie is this. The lie is I want to tell myself

is that I'm in the center of everything and I'm going to be

around forever. And the lie is also this, that

if I can work harder and store up enough, then maybe I can

atone for my own brokenness. But I realize I can't, and

neither can. We must go to the cross, each

one of us, as our hearts are exposed.

You got to run to Jesus. Just keep running to Him.

He'll restore your soul. He'll save you.

He'll give you a life you'll still live with an ache in your

heart at times. That's the Christian life.

We go through seasons, Seasons come and go.

But let's run to him when he's exposing right now, guys, as I

see around the room, I'm like, no, I know he's exposing hearts

this morning. Maybe it's thin.

Maybe it's things you have to reconcile with somebody else.

Things are happening right now. Like man, don't run.

Don't run like Judas did, but run to him.

He's faithful. As you draw near to him, he'll

draw near to you. He's faithful.

Father, we thank you for what you're doing in this church.

We thank you, we celebrate. We celebrate so much.

But God, there's so much work still to be done.

We don't want to be like Peter. We don't want to be like, oh, we

got this, we got this. Where are you going?

Hey, I'm with you, I'm with you. And yet he falls because of

presumption. He falls because he thinks he's

OK. He's not Judas.

His ears were plugged the entire time.

Lord, I pray that you unplug our ears.

You open our blind eyes. Oh God, I pray for those if

there's needing salvation this morning at the sound of my

voice, if you hear God this morning, do not turn away from

him. He's, he's knocking.

He's knocking at the door of your heart right now.

He's saying, I want to come in and dine with you.

I want to fellowship with you. Give your life to me.

Trust me. Acknowledge your sin.

Acknowledge your heart heartedness.

Acknowledge that yes, at times you're like Peter and at times

you're like Judas, but now your heart's exposed.

Run to Jesus, run to him, and he'll save you.

He'll save you from all of your sin, your past sin, your future

sin, your present sin. Even now, He's faithful to the

end. So he is.

And he gives you warning after warning after warning.

But maybe at one point those warnings won't be there anymore.

You'll enter the next phase of calloused hearts, hard hearts.

You won't even see it anymore. He'll say things like whatever

you do, do quickly and that doesn't wake you up from your

slumber. And we're just asking God right

now, would you wake people up or across the room?

Would this be a new day where they walk not in darkness, but

in the light? And for the rest of us, if we

just need to get right with you, just even in that first John 19,

if if you confess your sins, he's talking to little children.

If you confess your sins to him, He is faithful to cleanse you

from all unrighteousness. We could just breathe, Breathe

in his grace this morning. Breathe in his grace.

He's faithful. He's faithful.

When our hearts are exposed, we run.

We run, we run, we run to him. We run to the throne room of

grace, knowing that there is grace available for everything

that we need. We thank you, Jesus, we thank

you, we give you our lives fully to you.

Let's just stand to our feet. Let's worship God, let's worship

the Lord. If you need prayer this morning,

there's prayer available. We'd love to pray for you.

We just thank you God for all that you've done.

We thank you, we give you praise, we thank you Lord.

Just praise God, just praise him for his grace.

There's grace after grace. We started in John one.

It says grace after grace after grace.

There's grace flowing towards you.

We thank you Lord, we thank you for your grace and your mercy.

We worship you all the days of our life no matter what comes

our way. In Jesus name, Amen.