Love Letters Part 1 | The Lord's Loving Light with Chris Schlotterbeck

He is glorious.

Behold the one who has come for us.

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

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Thank you and enjoy the message.

Hey, good morning, everyone.

How's everybody doing today?

I just walked out here and realized that I wore blue

and I'm supposed to be wearing red because it's February.

So please forgive me for that.

If you're joining us from home,

thank you for welcoming us into your space.

One additional announcement that I did make

on Friday night at our Freedom Night,

for those of you who came, we had an awesome encounter

worshiping God and letting go of the struggles

that God has highlighted in our life.

And at that night, I spoke about what our end of the year

Christmas offering is going to be.

So many of you know that last year we raised $56,000

and gave it away to Blood Water Mission,

who will make a difference in Africa

by building wells to provide clean drinking water

to families and communities in those areas.

The cool thing about that,

I just found out, I got an email back

from Blood Water this week.

Jess and I have been invited to go to Kenya in May,

which we will be going to.

But while on that trip,

after speaking with Blood Water Mission,

they actually have wells being built in Kenya

that we are going to get to see and take pictures of

to send back to all of you,

just to highlight what your money,

what our Christmas gift did this past year.

So I'm super excited about that

and I know it's gonna make a difference.

Now this year, fast forward to Christmas,

we've been praying, we've been asking God,

what do we focus on, what can we give away,

money to to make a difference.

This year it's gonna go to freedom.

We are gonna give our Christmas gift

to different organizations that are focusing on

ending human trafficking.

We're gonna partner with A21 around the world.

A21 builds houses, recovery houses for victims

that are saved and set free from human trafficking

where they can live and recover.

And we're also gonna partner with some local agencies

that are making a difference locally

in the state of Maryland

to end human trafficking in the state.

Yes, it does happen here.

And we now have a team that is raising awareness.

We are going to do a walk for freedom.

Actually, it could be a walk run.

We don't know yet.

We're working on that as far as the details in October.

But we want to as a community of faith

be a part of ending human trafficking in 2024.

So our Christmas gift this year in December

is going to go to that effort.

Is that okay with everyone?

All right, cool.

Just wanted to make sure.

Just wanted to make sure.

So it is the month of love, of course.

And we're kicking off a new series called Love Letters.

Does anybody wanna guess what this series could be about?

There you go.

That's not very hard to figure out.

We're gonna focus on God's love the entire month.

Now the cool thing about love letters, listen to this.

The longest and probably simplest love letter ever written

was from a Parisian painter named Marcel de Leclerc in 1875.

It was addressed to Magdalen de Villalour.

The letter contained one phrase,

j'ai vu ami, I love you,

1,875,000 times.

Now the lover didn't write the letter himself

but hired a scribe.

He could have just said, right, I love you,

1,875,000 times.

However, he actually dictated the letter word for word.

Each time he would say the phrase,

he would ask the scribe to repeat it back

before writing it down.

By the time the letter was finished,

I love you was spoken and written.

5,625,000 times.

Now I don't know about you

but that's a lot of expression of love.

Husbands get busy, okay?

We got a lot of work to do.

Now I don't know about you

but if you ever laid in bed at night

and you just kind of had one of those feelings

you couldn't go to sleep, you're staring at the ceiling

and you just feel unloved and alone.

I mean you could be married,

your spouse could be laying beside you

but you just have this sense within you

that you wish you had someone to hold you

and tell you that they loved you.

See the love we experience here on earth

will never compare to God's love for us.

Our hearts have been made to cry out for a love

that can only come from the creator.

A man or a woman may seem like that's the best fix

but only God's love is lasting solution.

This truth is actually written throughout the Bible.

Did you actually know that the Bible

is God's love letter to us?

That throughout the scriptures,

I know there's some weird parts in the Old Testament

but ultimately it's the unending story

of God's pursuit of his creation.

In Isaiah 43, this is a great example

of a love letter from God.

One way to study the Bible is to read it

and then to write it down in your own words.

This actually helps you to better understand it

as you read it.

So I wanna challenge you this week.

Read Isaiah 43 as if God was writing a letter to you.

Then after reading it, write it down in your own words.

I did it this week.

Here is my love letter from God

that I wrote down in my own words.

Chris, I created you, I formed you.

Fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name.

You are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I'll be with you.

The waters won't overwhelm you.

When you walk through fire, you won't be burned.

And the flame shall not consume you.

I am the Lord your God, your Savior, the Holy One.

You are precious in my eyes and honored and I love you.

Fear not, for I am with you.

I created you for my glory.

I formed you and made you.

See friends, God loves us and he has written us love letters

and for the entire month of February,

we're gonna be discussing the letter that John wrote to us

in the book of 1 John.

John the Apostle, one of Jesus' disciples,

spent three years with Jesus.

He wrote the Gospel of John,

of course an account of Jesus' life.

Then he became a pastor in Ephesus.

He wrote this letter along with the second and third letter

to the churches around Ephesus in Asia Minor,

which is now modern day Turkey, near the end of his life.

Now in these letters, you will discover

that he is expressing his heart as a pastor

for these churches.

And it is my prayer that as we go through this book

this month, that you encounter two truths

that I believe will radically change your life.

And the first is that you have eternal life.

See, one of the main purposes of the book of 1 John,

interestingly enough, is that you can find it

at the end of the Gospel of John.

So when you look at John's Gospel,

at the very end John says this in John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs

in addition to the ones recorded in this book.

But these are written so that you may continue to believe

that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,

and that by believing in him, you will have life

by power of his name.

See, that is the theme for John.

And in here, in John's first letter,

he uses phrases like eternal life over and over again,

in fact, 10 different times,

an average of twice in each chapter.

To go along with that, he also uses words

knowing and perceiving another 50 times.

So John wanted the men and women in the churches

around him that he was pastoring

that they had eternal life.

And friends, I want you to know that as well.

And it's so important because so many people

can be easily deceived about eternal life.

And that's why John is writing this letter.

Some of the people in his churches were deceived.

They were saying, oh, well, I'm a Christian,

and I believe in God,

but it wasn't coming out in their life.

They were simply speaking the words

to associate with the churches.

But they weren't experiencing the change that God desires.

There was no evidence of change.

And even today, that deception continues

in the American church.

I mean, there's all kinds of people

who think they're Christians, but they're not

because they simply check a box in a census, right?

Or they put in their profile page, I'm a Christian,

or they grew up in a Christian home.

Friends, that does not make you a follower of Jesus.

That makes you an associate of him.

So my first prayer is that as we go through this book

this month is that you understand

the meaning of eternal life.

My second prayer, and just as important,

is that you would experience God's everlasting love.

So it's eternal life to know that you are living in it,

and not only that, but the word love is used 50 times

in just 100 or so verses.

That means on average almost every other verse

in 1 John talks about love.

Now when we say God loves you, right,

that's a very common phrase that you hear in the church.

In fact, it's constantly being used,

but what does it really mean?

Not just to hear it or know it in your head,

but to experience it in your heart.

There's a big difference.

There's a big difference between knowing and experiencing.

For example, think about someone you enjoy

and want to spend time with.

You know, if I was to think about people

I love to spend time with, it's my family.

I love spending time with Jess and the kids.

I'm still looking forward to the family times

and vacations that we spend at the beach

every summer during the year.

I mean, that time together, those memories that we create,

they last a lifetime.

I mean, every time my memories pop up on my phone

and it starts scrolling beach pictures,

I find myself crying tears of joy.

Why?

Because I love to spend time with them.

It's not just vacation.

Many of you know that spring's right around the corner

because didn't a groundhog not see a shadow or something?

And we all believe in that, right?

We all believe in the groundhog.

Don't you love the groundhog?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, for me, it's not about the groundhog.

It's Bill Murray, right?

I mean, and some of you are so young,

you're like, who's Bill Murray?

And what's it have to do with the groundhog?

Well, you're just too young.

Go watch some movie called Groundhog Day

and you'll understand it.

But see, spring's coming.

And many of you know that I spend a lot of my spring

coaching my kids.

You know, I love being a part of their lives

and coaching their sports.

I'll be coaching Lily in softball very soon.

Phoenix, our four-year-old Phoenix starts T-ball.

Give me a high five for all those T-ball coaches.

We're looking forward to wiping snot

and teaching them to hit a ball.

You know, it's all kinds of fun.

And then of course, I'll be spending time with Nolan

as we work on his baseball.

And the reality is, I do those things,

not so much that I want to coach.

I do them because I love spending time with my family.

Right?

And that's what it's all about when it comes to a relationship with God.

God desires that we enjoy our relationship with Him,

that we enjoy spending time with Him.

And allow your relationship with Jesus

to become a mere religious exercise.

Because I tell you what, if it becomes a duty

or it just comes monotonous motion,

there's not going to be any love.

And more importantly, there's not going to be any joy.

And no one outside of these walls

is going to see God living inside of you.

And friends, there's far too many Jesus followers

that aren't experiencing that enjoyment today.

And it's my prayer

that as we go through this book

and we understand God's eternal,

eternal and everlasting love,

as we understand His eternal life

that we'll spend with Him for eternity,

that our whole outlook on life will change.

And all of that leads us to our first thought this morning.

It's not just about spending eternal life with God.

See, Jesus is eternal life.

And this is key.

If you want to know that you have eternal life,

you have to know Jesus.

I had to do a celebration of life yesterday

for a young lady that passed way too soon.

And as I was meeting with the family,

they looked at me and we were just sharing memories

and we were talking about our life.

And the mom looked at me and said,

the one thing that I do know

is that she loved God

and that she is now with Him in eternity.

And it's that type of confidence

that John wants us all to have.

And that's the type of confidence

that John desires for us to experience.

This is what he writes at the end of the letter

in 1 John chapter five.

I've written this to you who believe

in the name of the Son of God

so that you may know you have eternal life.

You know, as their pastor,

John wanted his people to know

and experience that eternal life.

And that eternal life is experienced through what?

It's experienced through Jesus.

And he opens the letter this way

in 1 John one through two.

We proclaim to you,

the one who existed from the beginning,

whom we have heard and seen,

we saw him with our own eyes

and touched him with our own hands,

he is the word of life.

And John is communicating to the church friends.

John spent time with Jesus.

He saw him.

He walked with him.

He touched him.

He listened to him.

And through those experiences,

he understood eternal life.

And then John continues.

This one,

notice he doesn't even mention his name.

It's just like he's pointing us to the one.

This one who is life itself

was revealed to us

and we have seen him.

And now we testify and proclaim to you

that he is the one who is eternal life.

He was with the father

and then he was revealed to us.

And that's the point of these verses.

Follow this.

The concept of eternal life

cannot be separated from the person of Jesus.

Jesus is eternal life.

Right, without Jesus,

we don't have eternal life.

And this is exactly what the gospel of John

teaches us about Jesus.

So if you go back to John's gospel, right,

you go back and you read through it.

Notice what he says about Jesus.

John 1, 4 through 5.

The word gave life to everything that was created.

And his life brought light to everyone.

The light shines in the darkness

and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Then in John 14,

he writes this.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

And then in John 17, 3 we read,

this is the way to have eternal life.

To know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ,

the one you sent to earth.

See, this is eternal life.

That you may know God and that you may know Jesus.

And when we know Jesus,

that's when we know we have eternal life.

Now, listen, that's a bold claim to say

to seven billion plus people

that are living in this world.

And countless more throughout the history before now

that Jesus is the only hope

for anyone and everyone to have eternal life.

I mean, how is that possible?

I mean, think about it.

In a world of religions and ideas and thoughts,

Jesus says, I'm the only way to eternal life.

And John tells us this is true

because Jesus is the revelation of God.

And that's the language in 1 John 1, 2.

The one who is life itself was revealed to us

and we have seen him.

It was revealed by God,

the author of all life from the very beginning.

Notice how it echoes Genesis 1, 1.

In the beginning, God.

So in the beginning there was God.

Jesus is the revelation of God who was in the beginning.

And the Bible is saying, see who Jesus is.

He is the one who was with God, the father

from the very beginning before anything else ever was.

And this is important because there were people

during this time that assumed that they were Jesus followers

but they denied that Jesus was God.

So they said they were Christians or Jesus followers

but they were denying, no, Jesus isn't God.

And John is warning the church, that's false teaching.

Don't believe that.

Jesus is the revelation of God.

He is God in human flesh.

See who Jesus is, what he's done, he's come to us.

And that's the point here in 1 John.

God has come to us.

We've seen him, we've heard him, we've touched him

with our own hands.

And this is the reality of the Bible.

So if you've ever wanted, if you've ever wondered

what does God look like, if God could visit me,

if God could sit beside me, you know who he is.

His name is Jesus.

He walked this earth with us and for us

and it changes everything because the implications

of that truth have ramifications for all of us

in this room, all of us watching online

and not just for our life now but our life forever.

Right, it's not just about being in general our life

but for every single detail of our life.

Right, from our relationships to our jobs

to our families to our income, Jesus should be involved

in every single detail.

And that's important because many people just view Jesus

as just a good religious teacher.

He had good teachings.

We should model ourself after his teachings

who did good things but they're not willing

to follow him as God because if you're not willing

to follow him as God that means you're not willing

to allow him to be Lord over your life,

to direct and guide your life.

And it's just my fear that there's so many people

in the church who live that way.

They're content to show up to church,

give Jesus a high five at the door,

throw your hands up in a little worship

but then Monday through Saturday just go

and do whatever you want.

And that's not Jesus.

I mean Jesus wants it all.

He doesn't wanna be kept at an arm's length.

He wants to be Lord over your universe.

And let's be honest, we believe we're the center

of the universe.

I mean think about where your thoughts go

and the first thing you do when you wake up.

It's all about us.

See eternal life hinges on us humbling ourselves

and acknowledging who Jesus is.

Jesus is eternal life.

Not part of your life.

Not just on Sundays, right?

Maybe on Wednesday when you show up to men's group.

No, your entire life.

That's the first truth which leads us to our next doll.

Jesus offers everlasting love.

So Jesus is eternal life.

Jesus offers everlasting love.

First John four eight.

But anyone who does not love

does not know God for God is love.

See here's the crazy thing.

Many of us know that statement.

Oh yeah, God is love, Chris.

We've been created to enjoy God's love.

Not just to know those three words, right?

We haven't been created to say oh yeah, God is love.

No, we've been created to enjoy it, to experience it,

to be with God.

Notice first John one three through four.

We proclaim to you what we ourselves

have actually seen and heard

so that you may have fellowship with us.

And our fellowship is with the Father

and with his Son Jesus Christ.

We are writing these things

so that you may be fully share in our joy.

Now notice I mentioned that the word love

is all over first John.

But you'll notice it's not found anywhere

in the verses I just read.

In fact it's nowhere written in chapter one.

You don't see love mentioned at all.

But that doesn't mean the love of God is not there.

It's all over what we just read.

Think about it.

How do you know someone loves you?

How do you know it?

They show it, right?

It comes out in their actions.

They reveal it.

They make known their love for you by their actions.

I mean someone might frequently say to you

that they love you but if they're not living it out

do you believe it?

Of course not.

You need to see it

because actions speak louder than words.

So in this sense in order for love to be love

it must be made known.

What is John saying?

He's saying I've seen it.

I've heard it.

I've touched it.

I've experienced it.

This is love.

And that word fellowship

is repeated four times in chapter one, twice.

In what we just read

and then once in verse six and once in verse seven

fellowship comes from the Greek word koinonia

and it means a close intimate bond.

In fact it's used to describe a marriage relationship.

So John just said we have a bond,

an intimate relationship with the father and his son, Jesus.

And he's pointing us to the reality

that it's that closeness that he desires for us.

That's love.

But so many people,

this is where the struggles come in

they begin to question it because they think,

oh wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

But Chris I sin.

I make mistakes.

I make bad choices.

And I get that each one of us in this room have,

we all deserve separation from God.

We deserve judgment.

We warrant it in fact because God is love.

But the beauty of this passage is that God

has not left us alone.

He has not separated himself from us.

He's made a way for us to reconnect.

We reconnect through what?

Jesus.

We've seen him, we've heard him, we've touched him.

All the way to the point of this, think about this.

We crucified him.

That's how we touched him.

As rebellious sinners against God,

God took on flesh and he was nailed to the cross

in the most cruel form of death

that we could ever conceive or even imagine.

Yet Jesus endured that cross.

Do you know why?

Because he loves us.

Because he desires to be with us.

1 John 3, 16 says, we know what real love is

because Jesus gave up his life for us.

Jesus willingly and lovingly died for sin.

He didn't commit.

He endured the judgment of sin, death that we deserve.

But he did it so that we could turn from our sin

and believe and put our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

He made a way for intimacy,

just like a marriage relationship.

Because that's what God desires for his creation.

And this is so important to understand

because it leads us to our next thought.

Look, God is holy.

And like Chris, you used that same statement last week.

I sure did and it's important

because we read in 1 John 1, 5,

this is the message we heard from Jesus

and now declare to you God is light

and there is no darkness in him at all.

Now in the previous verse,

John wrote that you may fully share our joy.

So here's the message that is intended to bring joy.

God is light.

Joy in our lives starts with a proper understanding of

and focus on God.

A God centered approach to everything.

A kingdom minded focus.

And that's very different from the way we normally think.

We think joy starts with what?

Focusing on ourselves.

What we think we need, what we think we want,

what we gotta have.

That's where we always go first looking for joy accordingly.

But that's not what the Bible says.

The Bible says joy starts with seeing God is light.

So what does that mean and why does that bring joy?

For God to be light means he's the source of all goodness.

So that means.

And that's why we use the term holy, set apart.

Right?

God is the source of goodness.

For God to be light is a picture of pure life

that is found in him.

Now remember back at the beginning of the Bible,

where did life begin?

Genesis one, three through four.

Then God said, let there be light.

And there was light and God saw that the light was good.

And he separated the light from the darkness.

Life began with what?

Light.

And it's no coincidence then that John writes

in his gospel account of Jesus' life.

He opens up by saying that Jesus in fact

was the light of life for all men.

The light shines in the darkness

and the darkness can't overcome it.

So in announcing the coming of Jesus,

John is saying light has come.

Light is walking on this earth.

So for God to be light means he is the source

of abundant life and God is the source of goodness.

Why?

Because he's perfect.

He's holy.

Now to contrast that statement for you and I,

there isn't a day that goes by

that we don't mess something up, true or false.

Why? I didn't hear too many truths.

There's not a day that goes by

that we don't mess something up, true or false.

Thank you, all right.

I just want to acknowledge that there's not too many

Jesuses walking in this room.

I mean, for simply saying something to our spouse

that was hurtful, have you ever said something

and you literally see it leaving your mouth

and you're like grabbing it in slow motion,

like no, too late.

You've done that before, yeah.

I mean, some of you got angry over a driver

that was going too slow on the way to church this morning.

Right?

I mean, yesterday, let's be honest,

many of you were gossiping with a friend.

Oh, I was speaking truth, Chris.

No, you weren't.

No, you weren't.

Isn't that a great Christian excuse?

Oh, it was truth.

Sure it was, yeah.

It's so funny, I've so gravitated away from social media

because when I'm on it, I just judge.

God forgive me.

And if you're doing it, just get off of it, right?

And here's the reality, you know what I'm trying to say?

We're not perfect.

And that's what's different about God.

God never has to worry about messing things up.

He can't mess up.

It's not in his character.

He is perfectly good.

And good is the key in that description

because light is contrasted with darkness

all over the Bible to depict what?

Good and evil.

So when John says there's no darkness in God,

he's saying there's no evil in God.

Everything in God is good.

But the bad news is that while God is good and holy,

we mess up.

We make mistakes, we sin.

And nine times between 1 John 1-6 and 1 John 2-2,

John mentions sin.

And that's more than once in each verse.

And that's in addition to talking about darkness,

unrighteousness, deception, and lies.

So our sinfulness is all over the opening of this passage.

And the problem, it's not just that we sin

every once in a while, the problem is we were born into it.

So we have a natural bent, if you will,

to lean towards sin.

First John 1-6, eight and 10.

So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God

and go on living in spiritual darkness.

We are not practicing the truth.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves

and not living in the truth.

If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar

and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

You see that bent?

We all have that lean towards sin.

And all of us do, including me.

And what does that mean?

That just means we have a bent or a lean

toward disobeying God because if you go back

to the beginning, right, what did we want?

We wanted control.

We wanted to be in control of our world.

And if you want a definition of sin,

John writes this in 1 John 3-4,

everyone who sins is breaking God's law

for all sin is contrary to the law of God.

So in other words, what that means,

let me put it in understandable terms,

whenever we think, desire, or act,

in a way the Bible tells us not to think, desire,

or act, it is.

Sin.

Let's try again.

When we fail to think, desire, or act

in a way that the Bible says we should think,

desire, or act, then we.

Sin.

It's much better.

So now many of us can realize that,

okay, Chris, I get your point, yes, I sin.

I sin.

But here, now listen, I wanna blow your mind here a second.

I wonder how often do we actually stop

and feel the weight of that reality?

See, I'm guessing that for many of us,

we've never actually stopped

and felt the weight of that reality.

And this is where I want you to see in this passage

how bad this news is, and particularly in light

of the good news that God is holy.

You put those two pieces of news together

and there's a massive problem.

And the problem is not just for us,

the problem is also for God.

God is holy, perfect, faithful, just, without sin, right?

We are the opposite.

We tend to lean towards sin, toward darkness.

Now listen, we're about to dive into

the theological deep end here, okay?

Everyone take a deep breath.

Everyone stand up real quick, stand up, stand up.

Sit back down.

There we go, okay.

There we go.

Okay, now listen, it's important.

You guys laugh, I did that for a reason,

because you were losing focus,

you're like, oh, theological deep end, I'm checking out.

I don't need that, I'm not gonna understand it,

it's gonna go right over my head.

Okay, so let's do it.

Ready, here we go.

So God is holy, he's perfect, he's faithful and just.

We're the opposite.

As a result, we deserve his judgment.

So for us, to sin means we've turned

from the light to the darkness,

we've turned from good to evil,

and as a result, you and I deserve the judgment due sin,

which is eternal separation.

And suddenly we have this tension

that is at the center or the core of the Bible.

How can a holy God show his love to sinners

when they are rightly due his judgment?

And see, that's the most important question in the Bible.

How can a God be true, just, kind and loving

when in reality, we don't deserve it?

And we gotta really feel that,

because for many people, they don't think

it's a problem at all.

There's not too many people in the United States of America

losing sleep every night, tonight,

because God is kind to sinners.

Like they're not worried about it.

In fact, if we're honest, it's just the opposite.

Humanity actually points its finger at God

and says, how can you send someone to hell?

I thought you were a loving God,

how does a loving God do bad to other people?

How could a loving God, have you heard that before?

We all hear it.

How does a loving God do this?

How does a loving God do that?

How could a loving God send someone to hell?

Who are you, God, to judge someone?

Hey, God, how can you tell me

what's the difference between right and wrong?

Hmm.

That's what we think, that's what humanity thinks.

But the question in the Bible is the exact opposite.

See, it's completely right.

The question in the Bible is, God,

how can you be just and still let sinners

experience eternal life?

It's the exact opposite.

And if we look at it, let's step back.

One is very man-centered.

One is very man-centered perspective, us.

How can you do this, God?

The other is a what?

God-centered perspective, kingdom mindset.

And the good news is that God is holy.

The bad news is that we sin.

And all that leads to the best news ever,

which is our final thought, Jesus died for God.

First John 1,7.

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light,

we have fellowship with each other in the blood of Jesus,

his son cleanses us from all sin.

And now some of you, I'd say 75% of you

are sitting there thinking,

Chris, did you just misspeak?

Did you just say Jesus died for God?

I thought he died for us.

That's the best news.

I thought he died for us, that's the best news,

that Jesus died for, remember,

what are we trying to shift?

Perspective.

We're trying to shift perspective from us-centered

to God-centered, kingdom mindset.

And the kingdom mindset, that perspective says no,

Jesus died for God first.

Think about it.

Think about God, okay?

And you see it in First John.

Don't get me wrong, Jesus did die for us,

but here's the reality.

Many followers of Jesus have never realized

that his death just wasn't for us.

His death was ultimately for God first.

We're not the center of the universe.

Who is?

God.

God is the center of the universe.

Everything revolves around him.

That's why First John is teaching us God is light.

That's where it all starts.

In him there's no what?

Darkness.

Then in the verse, we read that the blood of Jesus' son

cleanses us from all sin.

How is that possible?

How can Jesus' blood cleanse guilty,

mistake-ridden sinners from their sin?

Well, notice, he himself, First John 2.2,

is the sacrifice that atones for our sins,

and not only for our sins, but for the sins of all,

the whole world.

Now we're gonna learn a new word

from the English Standard Version.

He is the propitiation for our sins,

and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.

It's a great word.

The only time you're gonna hear this word is in the Bible.

Okay, that's it.

Propitiation, everyone say that.

Propitiation.

All right, say it again

and don't spit on your neighbor's head.

Propitiation.

Because there's a bend to sin, propitiation.

But many of us don't even know what it means.

Right, we don't even know what propitiation means.

Propitiation is a word that simply refers to

a sacrifice that settles judgment or satisfies wrath.

Throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites,

when they sinned, what did they have to do?

They had to sacrifice an animal.

Many of you learned a few weeks ago

that Chris didn't want to be a pastor back then

because I can't even shoot an animal,

much less cut its head off.

Okay, I couldn't imagine doing that.

But worse yet, I couldn't imagine

plucking into your boils, okay?

So that sacrifice was a propitiation.

It was a symbol for the penalty of sin.

As a result, God forgave the people.

But in the New Testament, the whole point

is that those Old Testament sacrifices, it's not enough.

None of those sacrifices could pay the full price

of people sinning against God.

So the question remains, how can a holy God

show his love to guilty sinners?

He solved the problem by sending his son, Jesus,

who never sins, never broke God's law,

but kept God's law perfectly.

He didn't deserve the penalty due sin.

And that made him, think about it, God in flesh.

He was qualified to pay the divine penalty due sinners.

And that's what Jesus did on the cross.

And he did it, not for us, but for the glory of God.

And how do I know that?

Well, let's look at his prayer, John 12.

Now my soul is deeply troubled.

Should I pray, Father, save me from this hour?

But this is the very reason I came, notice.

Father, bring glory to your name.

See, the glory, the goodness, the light of God

drove Jesus to the what?

To the cross.

And Paul says it this way in Romans chapter three,

for God presented Jesus as a sacrifice for sin.

People are made right with God when they believe

that Jesus sacrificed his life, shed in his blood.

This sacrifice shows that God was being fair

when he held back and did not punish those who sin

in times past.

Again, English standard version, not King James,

English standard version, whom God put forward

as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness

because his divine forbearance

he had passed over for a sense.

See, Jesus died to show that indeed God was holy.

He's perfect, he's righteous, he's good, and he's loving.

The one crowning moment in all of human history

is that Jesus died to satisfy the judgment of God

on all of us.

Because he passionately loves us

and he wanted to be reconnected to us.

Chinese church leader, Watchman Nee, puts it this way,

if I would appreciate the blood of Christ,

I must accept God's evaluation of it

for the blood is not for me, but for God.

I mean, Jesus died for the glory of God

in all of his holiness and justice and love,

and that's key.

We've got to be grateful for that.

See, we've got to realize we need to turn the tables

and have a what?

Kingdom-minded focus of what the cross is.

A God-centered view.

The cross is first and foremost about God.

It's not about us.

It's a decoration to the world that God is holy

and that his love is holy and his judgment is real.

The cross is intended us to think more highly of God.

You look at the cross and you see God is holy.

Is that your view?

Because Jesus died for God, and that's the point here.

It changes everything about our view of the gospel.

God has made a way for you to be forgiven of all your sin.

In his great love, he sent his son to be poured out

with that judgment that we deserve instead one on Jesus.

And that's John's challenge to his church,

which leads to our action steps.

Church, you're called to walk in the light.

And what does that mean?

When we walk in the light, what is God?

God is light, thank you.

Remember, we learned to just learn that.

So that's why John's challenge is we've got to walk

in the light because we want to walk

in all of God's goodness.

We want to walk in all that God has for us,

his abundance to therefore live the good life.

But here's the problem.

What's the world tell us is the good life?

A bigger house, a large car payment.

Have you watched those new commercials?

Listen, have you watched those new commercials

of the new cruise ship?

I mean, that thing looks amazing.

I mean, there's like water slides, there's snowboarding.

I mean, it's like you can bungee jump off the side.

I'm just like, that looks amazing.

I want to go on that ship.

But then you would get around all the people

and they would drive you absolutely bonkers

and you would want to jump off the side of it

to get away from everyone.

What is it?

It's a lie.

It's not the good life.

The good life is fellowship with God.

That's it.

That's it.

The good life is having a passionate relationship

with Jesus because everything else

is gonna leave you empty.

So five simple steps, I'm gonna get through these quick.

I know I'm running a little long.

I'm sorry we went deep theological talk today.

But I know you all learned something

and you're gonna leave here forever changed, amen?

And the first is this, you got to examine.

First John 1, nine through 10,

but if we confess our sins, everyone say sins.

Say it again.

Thank you.

Notice it says sins here in first John.

Sins speaks to specific sins, not general sin.

And so many people in their relationship with Jesus,

they once say, God forgive me of my sin.

And they don't wanna get specific.

They don't wanna get to the cusp

of what is going on in their heart.

And it's not just about saying God forgive me my sin.

It's not a one time thing that we do

at the beginning of our relationship with God.

Yes, that's important.

But remember God is light.

And part of the purpose of light is to expose what?

Darkness.

Darkness.

Now I know none of you have darkness,

but he wants to expose it in our heart.

Not all of it, just a little bit.

Because the closer we get to the light,

the more clearly we will see the areas of our lives

that aren't lining up.

Right, in the past when we've gone to the beach,

I was talking about the beach, I love the beach.

We've gone out on the beach before at night.

I'm sure many of you have done this.

You take a flashlight, right?

And you turn the flashlight on and suddenly you look down

and there's crabs everywhere, right?

I think in the first service they called them ghost crabs.

You know what I'm talking about?

Everyone just nod a little bit, play with me.

All right, you know what they are.

So you got that light out and you shine it

and when the light hits the crab, what do they do?

They run.

They run into their holes.

Now my kids, they wanna run and dig into the holes.

I'm like no, because to me it seems like

they might get pinched, but accordingly they don't pinch.

I don't know if they do or not,

but I still don't want them to

because that might be painful.

I'm on a tangent, I'm sorry.

So the point is when the light shines on the crab,

it's when the light shines on the crabs, they run

because light exposes the darkness, oops, sorry.

So the same goes for us.

And my challenge to you is when God exposes light

into our darkness, don't run and scurry or hide.

Go to Him and confess, which is our next step.

If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just

forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness.

And I love that image of God cleansing us.

How many of you were here when I climbed out of the

baptismal and spoke to you soaking wet?

Were some of you here for that?

Some of you aren't raising your hands and nodding

and saying you're lying to me.

I forgive you though.

The point is I was standing up here soaking wet, dripping.

It was probably the stupidest thing I ever did

because I had to stop chattering my teeth

because I was so freezing cold to share with you an example.

But I believe it was a good example.

But the point is that's the image I want you to see

of God cleansing us.

See when He exposes us and then we go to Him and say

God forgive me for that sin specifically, what does He do?

He cleanses us.

He cleanses us.

Think about it, that's why Jesus taught us to pray

that Father forgive us our sins.

He didn't say Father forgive us our sin.

It's plural.

And it's necessary to have an ongoing relationship with God

that we what, confess.

And for those of you that think that God's gonna get mad

at you and He's gonna be upset with you

and He's gonna, listen, listen, I have a lot of children.

I happen to have one that's four years old right now

and he doesn't listen.

Out of all of our children, he is the most disobedient child

and he doesn't listen.

And it makes me upset and frustrated.

Sometimes I get angry.

Sometimes.

But the point is, okay, though he is disobedient,

do I love him any less?

Of course not.

I don't love him any less, I love him more.

Now do I want him to listen?

Of course I do.

So here's my point.

Stop being so foolish to think that you can go

and hide in the sand all your sin.

God already knows it.

Don't be like a little crab that scurries to its hole

because you're in your hole and you can't move anywhere

and your sand falling in your face and you're miserable.

Yeah.

But God says, I see it anyway.

I know what's going on in your heart,

I know what's going on in your mind,

I know how you're living.

Confess.

I still love you, but get right with me.

Which leads us to our next step, receive.

So you gotta remember, examine, confess, receive.

My dear children, I am writing this to you

so that you will not sin.

But if anyone sins, we have an advocate

who pleads our case before the Father.

Listen to that.

He is Jesus Christ, the one who is true.

Friends, we receive grace.

We receive grace happily, in fact.

And that's the beauty of these verses.

The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins.

God's not angry with you.

He's not angry with you, he wants you to come

and be close to him and be passionate and love with him,

but it only happens when we have our heart right.

So you receive the grace.

And unfortunately, the Bible calls Satan the what?

The accuser.

And when we sin, the enemy, you're not worthy.

You can't go to God, you can't seek forgiveness.

But listen, in those verses, picture a courtroom.

Right?

The judge is standing or sitting behind the desk

and the enemy is accusing you.

You can't get forgiveness, you'll never be free.

And Jesus stands up and says, he's forgiven.

She's forgiven.

That makes a difference.

That's why we receive God's grace happily.

Our fourth step, we need to obey.

And we can be sure that we know him

if we obey his commandments.

Those who say they live in God

should live their lives as Jesus did.

We confess sin, we receive grace,

and then we want to obey.

We want to walk in the light.

We want to humbly obey him.

Are we ever gonna be perfect?

No.

But John clearly is allowing for sin in the picture here.

And here's the reality of what John wants us to see.

John wants us to realize we're never gonna be perfect.

It's not about holy perfection, it's about holy direction.

That as long as your direction is going towards Jesus,

then that's the direction you wanna be going in.

But if you're standing still, you're going nowhere.

And your relationship with God is gonna stall out.

You're gonna be boring, it's gonna become religious,

and then you're gonna disappear.

And God says focus on the direction.

Focus on where you're going.

I mean, here's the reality.

I shared this at our celebration of life yesterday.

There's gonna be a time coming

where there'll be no more death or mourning or crying

or paying for the old order of things is what?

Passed away.

And that's gonna be a beautiful time

that we all wanna be in as we spend eternity

with our creator, but here's the reality.

Until that time comes, we need to be moving

in the direction toward Jesus.

And as we're looking and moving towards Jesus,

then suddenly he's gonna give us

the opportunity number five to share.

He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins.

And notice, and not for our sins only,

but for the sins of what?

The whole world.

And here's what I wanna tell you.

When you have the opportunity to share

about Jesus' eternal life, his forgiveness, his grace,

when you're pointing people to what Jesus did on the cross

and you see someone come into a relationship with him,

you'll never be the same.

There'll be an exceedingly abundant joy

that wells up within you that says yes,

I wanna do it again.

And that's what John wants for his church.

John desires that his church shares about this grace,

this forgiveness, this joy, and this abundance

so that we're constantly just giving it away,

heaping it on people's heads,

pulling them out of the sand,

pulling them out of the trenches,

allowing them to see God's abundance in their own lives.

And I wanna challenge you,

don't allow the fear of man to keep you down.

And that's the only thing that keeps us down

from sharing the goodness that God has done for us

with others.

So we're gonna share in communion to close.

Don't stand up.

It's easier to give it out.

If you didn't get a communion element,

put your hand up so we can give them to you.

Look around, if the people's hand's up,

you can see who was late.

Who was late.

But don't judge them.

If you need gluten-free, you can be a holy roller.

Ah, there we go.

There's always one in the crowd.

Let's see if she can keep them up though.

Frank, anyone up here in the front?

Got it.

All right, so while they're going around,

I just wanna encourage everyone,

as we take communion together,

the bread is simply a reminder

of Jesus' broken body on the cross.

Jesus died for who first?

Jesus died for who first?

Okay, thank you.

All right, just checking.

Just a quick quiz.

Quiz.

Jesus' broken body.

The juice simply is a reminder of Jesus' shed blood

for the forgiveness of sins.

So, everybody good?

All right, let's stand.

All right, before we, now listen.

Before we take and share a communion,

I'm gonna pray a simple prayer,

because some of you may need to get right with God.

I don't want you sharing in communion

without being right with God.

So we're gonna pray a simple prayer.

For those of you that are in a relationship with Jesus,

I wanna encourage you if God put a flashlight on your heart,

ask for forgiveness for whatever He highlighted

before we take communion.

That's the point in taking communion,

so that we can what?

Get right.

So let's pray.

Jesus, I'm broken.

I'm full of doubt, shame, regret, sin.

I believe you're God's son.

I believe you died for me.

I believe you died for me.

Oh God, set me free.

Make me new.

Fill me with your Spirit.

In Jesus' name, amen.

On the night He was betrayed,

Jesus took bread and broke it.

He gave it to His disciples and said, take, eat.

This is my body which is broken for you.

Do it in remembrance of me.

Likewise, after supper, He took the cup of wine

and when He had given thanks, He drank it.

He said, this is the blood which is shed for you

and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Drink it often and do it in remembrance of me.

Yes, God.

All right, now before we go, hold on.

I gotta do one more thing.

God highlighted something for me to do before we leave.

It's gonna be a little weird.

We did it first service though.

I know you guys are better.

You're more awake, you're stronger.

Okay, so we can do it.

I want us all to join hands.

Everybody, even crossroads.

I want a community of faith with linked hands.

Come on, you can do it.

You can do it.

You can do it, yes.

Oh, this is beautiful.

There you go.

All right.

All right, Johnny, pinky me.

You go that way.

There you go.

Now listen, I'm gonna invite the Holy Spirit to come

and I'm gonna ask God to reveal

someone in your sphere of influence

that you're called to share this good news with

and I'm gonna pray for all of us

that we have the faith to step out and share it this week

and that even includes praying for the sick.

That even includes praying for someone's marriage

to be restored.

I mean, whatever comes across your path,

you're gonna step out and do it.

So Holy Spirit, come, God, reveal to us

that person, those people in our sphere of influence,

God, that just need your grace, love, and forgiveness.

And I pray for this community of faith, God,

that they would boldly step out in faith

and see your kingdom come and your will be done.

Signs, wonders, miracles, miracles,

signs, wonders, miracles, more importantly,

new life in Jesus.

Use us, God.

Help us be the church.