Be Amazed | unCERTAINty, Week 7

All right. Good morning, good morning.

Uh, it's Fr-... here. I don't know, (laughs) I live in

Colorado and I, so I know what cold is, but it doesn't usually feel cold

and wet at the same time. So, I was just very surprised this morning.

But, uh, yeah, my name is Ben. Uh, all you really need to know about me

is I am a friend and fan of your church and your community

and your pastors, and I'm very thankful to be here right now.

And, and I'm thankful you're here.

Uh, we're continuing in this series today called Uncertainty,

where you're studying through the book of 1 John and just trying to figure out

like how can we be certain of who God is and certain of who we are

in God's eyes, which is what 1 John is all about, and we're

gonna continue that study together this morning.

But before we do that, let's talk a little bit about cliches. Okay?

So, you know what a cliche is. Cliche is a wisdom or a wisdom

saying that you've heard so many times that it's beginning to lose

its impact, right? That's what a cliche is.

Usually when you hear a cliche, you just kinda roll your

eyes. Um, for me, I, I think of 13 years

ago when my wife, Ali, was pregnant with our very first kid, I would

talk to parents all the time and I'd ask like, "Please, give me some advice.

Like, what tips do you have for me as a future dad?" And nine

times out of 10, these people would look at me and they would say something like,

"You just need to cherish every single day because they grow up so

fast." And 13 years ago, I would just roll my eyes, right?

It's like, co- I'm looking for real advice, dude.

(laughs) Help me here. Um, like, I don't know how to change a diaper.

(laughs) Uh, uh, another pretty common

cliche is, let's say just hypothetically,

you're sitting on your porch one evening, you're with your buddy and you're hanging

out, you're talking. Then, across the street, your neighbor pulls into their

garage in a brand new, shiny,

carbonized gray Ford Bronco. Okay?

And let's just say this is your dream car and you want one so bad, even though you

probably know you'll never be able to afford one, but you did drive one for a

couple of days on a vacation in Florida and it was the best experience you ever

had.

(laughs)

Hypothetically. (laughs) All right.

So you see your neighbor pull in in this Ford Bronco, you turn to your, your buddy

and you go, "Man, like, I wish I had his job.

I, I wish I could afford that car." Well, if your buddy, you know,

pats you on the shoulder and goes, "Hey, the grass is always greener on the other

side," like, what are you gonna do?

You're gonna at least roll your eyes, right?

Or, or you're gonna take him in, hypothetically, your beat up

Kia Sedona and drop him in the middle (laughs) of nowhere, right?

'Cause it's-

(laughs) ... it's cliche, right? It's like, that's not what I need to hear.

I've heard that before. Okay? The problem is that

cliches are almost always true and

contain wonderful wisdom, (laughs) right?

Like, I mean, it's true that your kids grow up before you know what's going

on. Like, uh, my kids are already 12 and 10, and my

youngest turns eight next week, and I literally don't know how it happened.

And, and so I'm that person now. People are like, "You got parenting

advice?" I feel like shaking people going like, "You have to listen to us.

(laughs) It really does go faster than you think." And guess what?

The grass really is always greener on the other side.

And so your neighbor has your dream car.

For all you know, though, he's closing his garage door, looking across the street

at you on your porch and thinking to himself, "Man, I wish I had a buddy to

sit on the porch with tonight." Like, c-

cliches are cliche because they get repeated

too often. But the only reason they get repeated too often in the first

place is because they're true. Cliches are only

cliche because they're true. All right?

Why in the world am I bringing any of this stuff up?

Well, because today in, in our passage from 1 John,

we are going to talk about something that, especially if you've been a Christian

for a long time, it's something that might run the risk

of becoming cliche in your heart. It's just we,

we've heard this idea so many times that it's starting to lose its

power for us, and when we hear it, we don't feel amazed.

Instead, our, we typically, we're just kinda like, "Yeah, yeah.

I know that one." Like, "Next." Because today,

John is going to talk about God's love for

us. And immediately, even if you've...

Uh, like, if you've been coming to this series week after week for the last few

weeks, like, you're already tempted to say to yourself, like, "Goodness, like,

Aaron talked about this, Clay talked about this, you talked about this,

like, four weeks ago. How many times can we talk about loving other people

and talk about God's love for us in one series?" And

the answer is, actually quite a bit.

(laughs) And the reason that we're talking about it so often is because

this letter, 1 John, is written by John, and

this is kind of John's thing. Okay?

He is constantly talking about how we should love one

another, and he's constantly talking about God's love for us in his

letters, in the gospel that he recorded.

In fact, in, in his gospel, John refers to

himself as the disciple that Jesus

loved. And he's not being cocky and he's not saying that

Jesus loved him more than other people.

Instead, it's like love is the primary lens through

which John understands Jesus and other people

and life itself. However, we hear the news that

God loves us, and if we're being honest, in our heads, we're like, "Yeah, yeah.

I know. I already know." Like, how about you teach us something that we

don't already know? Teach us something new, something unique.

And I personally, I think that's too bad because this

truth is amazing, right? And for some of us

that may... There was this time i- in life where that truth blew our

minds, right? We couldn't believe it and we walked with a bounce

in our step and nothing in life seemed insurmountable. Why?

Because we learned that there is a God and He loves us.

But then you fast-forward to today, and for whatever reason, we've just kinda

lost that loving feeling (laughs) a little bit, right?

And it's like, we still appreciate...... that truth.

We understand that it's foundational to everything that we believe, it's

foundational to our faith, it just doesn't, like, floor us

anymore when we hear it. And again, I think that's

just too bad. So here's what we're gonna do today, this is

spoiler alert, I'm just gonna tell you exactly where we're headed today.

We're gonna talk about what is potentially one of the most cliche

truths in our faith, and we're gonna dig into

probably hands down the most cliche Bible verse in all of

the Bible, and we have one goal this morning.

Our goal is to see if we can't make the truth that

God loves us either come alive for the first time, if

you never knew that, or come alive again for those of

us who have known that truth for a really long time.

In- in short, today we're gonna try our best together to

be amazed again.

And so let's jump in. Uh, well, it's, uh, Jason's right, it's a long chunk of

scripture, I'm not gonna cover (laughs) all of it either, it's too much.

And so we're not gonna be able to get through the whole thing, we're just gonna get

through the first four verses today together, but we will get started

now. We're gonna be in 1 John 4, starting in verse 7.

John writes this, he says, "Dear friends, let us love one

another, for love comes from God. And everyone who loves has been

born of God and knows God. But whoever does not

love does not know God, because God is

love." So again, if you've been coming week after week to this

series, this is a theme that you're familiar with at this

point. John says that we're supposed to love one another.

Why? Because love comes from God. Then he goes a step

further and he says if you truly know God, you're gonna love

other people. And then he goes a step further and he says if you

don't love other people, you must not know our

God very well. Why? Because God

is love. All right, this is a little bit

of an aside, but I think it's important to notice that John did not

just say love is God. Okay? That's

an entirely different thing. Okay?

The idea that love is God is one of those, like,

anti-Christian half-truths that Aaron talked about last

week, because if we think that love is God, we start to

reshape who we imagine God to be based on our

current understanding of love. And so this is how you wind up with

a God who, like, doesn't really care at all how you live your life,

because He just supports you no matter what. Right?

We end up with a very weak God, because typically we have a very

weak understanding of what love is.

But that's not what John says. He does not say love is God,

instead he says God is love. So in- in other words,

our understanding of love should be shaped by the kind

of love that we see in God. Okay? So the next

logical question is, okay, if I'm supposed to love other people like

God loves me, how does God love us? What does His

love look like? Which is exactly what John says in the next two

verses. Look at this, he says, "This is how God showed

his love among us." Okay? "He sent his one and only Son into the

world that we might live through him." He goes, "This is love." Let me just spell

this out for you, "This is love: not that we loved God but that God loved

us and sent his Son as an atoning

sacrifice for our sins." And here's what I just

noticed. Okay? I noticed that I read those two verses

and no one jumped onto their chair shouting for joy,

and no one hit their knees (laughs) , and no one went sprinting out the

front door to go tell everybody they know.

Like, I didn't just lose full control of this

room. And a- a- I'm not judging you really, 'cause I'm the same

way, it's just we- you- we- we're not floored by that truth anymore.

We- we hear it and we're not shocked. Why?

Because it's, like, becoming almost cliche to most of us.

We're like, "Yeah, yeah, I- I know that one." In fact,

those two verses that I- I just read, John is really just

paraphrasing, saying in his own language something that

Jesus said himself that John recorded in his

Gospel. And- and the thing that Jesus said has become maybe the

most cliche Bible verse of all time.

Like, chances are if this is your first time ever walking foot into a church

building, you've still heard this one before, where Jesus

says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that

whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal

life." That's John 3:16. Now, you'll see that one

John 3:16

written on signs at football games, and- and again, I just

read that verse and no one in the room is like,

"What? Like, say it again, I can't believe it."

Right? 'Cause it's we've just heard that one more

times than we can count. But just like a

cliche, we've heard that verse so many times because

it might be the single greatest, most

concise summary of the good news of Jesus

in the entire Bible.

And so here's how we're gonna actually spend

the rest of our time. We're gonna unpack this idea of God's

love for us that John is talking about in 1 John

4. We're actually gonna do it by unpacking word for word

John 3:16, because first of all, it's the same

John 3:16

truth that we find in 1 John 4, but we'll unpack this one

because chances are that one's more cliche in your mind.

You probably heard John 3:16 more times than you've heard 1

John 3:16 1 John 4:9–10

John 4:9-10. And so we're gonna unpack John

John 3:16

3:16 word for word and see if we can't be

amazed by this verse again. Okay? 'Cause

John 3:16 it's- it's one of those verses where ev- like,

John 3:16

every single word in this verse matters.

Every- every little chunk of this verse teaches us

something new and amazing about who our God is.

And so let- let's break it down together.

This morning we're gonna try to make John 3:16 great again.

John 3:16

Okay?I want-

(laughs) I want that hat. I won't wear it, but (laughs) but I

want that hat. (laughs) All right, so let's look at

the first two words of John 3:16. Remember, this is Jesus

John 3:16

Himself speaking, and He says, "For God so

loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him

shall not perish but have eternal life." For God.

And the word for in this verse means because, so

because God. And- and what it means is, is that

God is the primary character in this verse.

He's the one acting, not us. And- and what it means

is that everything that Jesus says after these two words is only

made possible for us because God did something for

us, and not because we did something for God.

And- and that's important, because we get that confused.

We get that one confused all of the time. Right?

H- how many of us kind of just grew up believing that, like, we'll get to go to

heaven when we die, sure, because God did something for me, but- but mainly

because I did a lot of good stuff for God?

Right? So, like, we might have John 3:16 memorized, but what we actually

John 3:16

believe is because I, right?

Because I read my Bible every single morning, or

because I finally cleaned my act up, or because

I seem to be doing a little bit better than most of the people that I'm

surrounded with, because I did something, God finally

viewed me as worthy enough to send me His one and only

Son. It's like, no. Nuh-uh. Right?

And- and whenever- whenever we catch ourselves thinking that we can earn our

way into God's favor or into God's grace, (laughs) it's because

we already screwed up the first two words of

John 3:16. We did not receive the gift of Jesus

John 3:16

because we did anything. We received the gift of

Jesus because God, because God

did something.

What are the next two words of- of what Jesus says?

Well, look, "For God so loved

the world." And so God is the- the primary character in this

verse. He's the one acting. He's doing something.

What is the motivation for His actions?

The motivation is His love. But again, we get this one

messed up all of the time. And so a lot of us, if we're going to be really

honest with ourselves, which, by the way, this is the place to be very

honest with yourself. But if we were to be honest, what we actually believe is

that God acted out of some begrudging sense

of duty and responsibility toward us, or

God acted in order to trap us into obedience by

sending us on a lifelong guilt trip.

What we actually believe is, is God is in some distant, far away outer

space Heaven, and He's looking at us with a grimace, and He's constantly just

going like, "Can you please get your acts together?

Like, l- don't you realize what I had to do to my one and only Son

for you?" We get it confused. And so again, we

might have John 3:16 memorized, but what we actually

John 3:16

believe is because God was so frustrated with my

brokenness, or because God wanted to manipulate

me into debt with Him, or because the devil forced

God's hand, He gave His one and only Son.

Jesus just said that's not true.

He said the motivation for what God did for us is love.

In fact, we're- we're- He says, "For God so loved the world." So

translation, "Because God loved you so

much," is what Jesus said. So the- the motivation

for God's actions, it was not guilt, it was not punishment, it was not

obligation, it was love.

Okay? Next question, what kind of people does God

love? That's the next two words. "For God so

loved the world." Right? The original

Greek there is cosmos. We still- we still use

that- that word today. Cosmos. It means the entire universe.

So who does God love? Well, everyone.

It means if you are living and breathing on- in this

universe, God loves you. On top of that,

in the Bible, that term the world often has a negative connotation,

so it's often used to talk about the sin and corruption and

hatred and rebellion that you see all throughout the

universe, which means what Jesus is saying is not only is

God's love available to anyone and everybody in the entire

universe, but it's available to us even though we're broken,

messed up, sinful people. Right? The

first six words out of Jesus' mouth in John

John 3:16

3:16 are so important, 'cause it sets the

stage for- for everything He says after that.

And so as we continue breaking this down, let's change the

first six words of this verse, just to kind of hopefully make it more

fresh for our minds this morning, because we could say,

"Because God loved every single broken, messed up person

so much." That's- that's the heart

behind the first six words out of Jesus' mouth in John 3:16.

John 3:16

The heart is God loves all of us, He loves us a lot,

and He loves us even though we're broken, messed up,

sinful people.

And then because of this great love of God's, He decides

to act. He does something about His love.

What does He do? That's the next part of the verse.

Because God loved every single broken, messed up person so

much, He gave His one and only Son.

Okay? Remember, this is Jesus Himself speaking, and Jesus is the Son of

God. And so basically, what Jesus is saying is like, "Hey, God loves you so

much, I-... and I'm gonna sacrifice

myself on your behalf. And I'm, I'm the one telling you this.

I don't have to do this. I want to do this. Why?

Because my Father and I love you.

All right. Jesus i- is God's greatest act of love toward

us.

Two more quick questions. The, the, the first one goes like this.

What did Jesus accomplish for us? And to answer that,

we'll go to the end of John 3:16. "Because Jesus died on a cross and was

John 3:16

resurrected, we shall not perish but

have eternal life." And, and to try my

best, I'm, te- I'll try my best to take like a bunch of, like,

theology and just, like, kinda sum it up really quickly.

The reason Jesus had to die on a cross is because you and I were in

this seemingly impossible,

unsolvable dilemma. And here's the

dilemma. The dilemma is God wants to be near you because

He loves you. The problem is God is also

righteous, and righteous means sin can't even

enter into His presence. He's too good, He's too

perfect, He's too righteous for sin to enter into His presence,

for sinful people to come into His presence.

That's like trying to f- fly a spaceship to the sun.

Like, you're gonna burn up w- before you even get

close. And so, the dilemma is, well, how can

God be loving and be near us without

losing His righteousness? And that's what the

cross is all about, 'cause God knew that the only solution

for paying off humanity's infinite debt would be to

cut an infinite check.

And so, rather than surrender us to, t- to the

punishment of our own sin, and rather than surrender His perfect

love, and rather than surrender His righteousness, God and S-

instead chose to surrender Himself on our

behalf. And so, Jesus enters into humanity so

that He could erase our infinite debt through payment of

His infinite sacrifice. Why? So that we don't have to

perish, but instead we can begin an eternal life

in relationship with our God, our Father who loves us.

Which brings us to our last question. That sounds like an awesome love.

What do we need to do to receive this love?

Is there anything that we could do to receive this love?

And the answer is yes, but relatively speaking, God

sets such a low bar of entry for us. Like, He

did all of the heavy lifting Himself, so that

absolutely anyone and everyone in the cosmos could become one of His

sons or daughters. All we have to do, Jesus says, is

believe in Him, and that's it. And,

uh, j- so just to make myself so clear, what do we

have to do to receive this great love?

Do we have to memorize the Bible front to back?

Do we have to clean up all of our addictions and our bad patterns and our bad

habits before we can begin this new life with Jesus?

Do we have to quit our jobs and become missionaries?

Do we have to come from a certain family and a certain upbringing and a certain

social status? What do we need to do to receive this great love?

Jesus says, "You simply gotta believe in me."

Meaning, we believe that Jesus is who He says He is and He's gonna keep every

single promise that He made. Jesus says if we do that, immediately our

souls become whitewashed and clean and we begin

this eternal relationship with our Father, the God who loves

us more than anything. That's John

John 3:16

3:16.

And when you break it down and you start to understand it, like, we start to

realize th- He, Jesus is sharing an

amazing truth with us. And here's the amazing truth.

He's telling us that m- God had the right, He, for sure He has the

right to stay distant from us. But instead, He chose to be

near. And God had the right to remain silent.

Instead, He chose to speak up. And God had the right to let

us suffer the punishment for our own sins.

But instead, God bore that punishment on Himself.

And then, what Jesus just said is He did not do that because His hand

was forced or because He felt obligated or responsible for us

or because He was fed up with us. Instead, He did this because He

loves us. He loves us with, like, a

fierce, relentless, I would do anything for you, even

die, kind of love. Like, Jesus is saying, "There

is a God and He literally died to be near

you again." It's beautiful.

To go back to 1 John 4, which we just read together, John says,

"This is how God showed His love among us.

He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through

Him. This, this is love. Not that we loved God, but that God loved us and

sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." And when John

writes that, we're supposed to hear John's words and kinda recall what

Jesus said in John 3:16. We're supposed to put the whole puzzle piece

John 3:16

together and simply be

amazed. John is trying to crack through the

calloused shells of our hearts to amaze us

again with the love of our God. That's, that's what he's

doing throughout the whole letter.

I mean, sometimes it sounds like he's coming out of his chair to do it.

Like, in the chapter before this, he writes, "How great is the love that the

Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God?" And that is

what we are. It sounds like, it's like he's shouting from the rooftops, going like,

"Man, that's what you are. You're a son of the living God.

You are a daughter of the living God. Stop forgetting it.

Stop becoming calloused to that truth and instead,

be amazed."

There's this, uh,

TV show that I love. It's like a guilty pleasure.

I watch it a lot while I'm traveling, 'cause Ali would never watch this show

(laughs) with me. It's called Body Cam. Okay?...

before you're like, "Ugh," let me explain.

(laughs) So, uh, (laughs) , it's kinda like that old show,

Cops. Remember Cops? Except there's no reenactments.

And so, basically, they interview police officers over spec- about

specific, you know, calls that they've been on, and as they're being interviewed,

they show footage of the actual moment that they're talking about

and it all comes from their body cams or their dashboard

cameras. And I've got a few friends who are police officers, and so, like, I- I

don't know why I- I don't- honestly, I don't know why I got obsessed with this

show. (laughs) I think, I just think it's cool. But I saw this one ...

Actually, last time I was here in North Carolina, I saw this one.

I wanna share it with you 'cause I th- I think it's amazing.

It's this young police officer. He's, like, in his early 20s,

and he's an officer in rural Georgia.

I can never say r- rural Georgia. (laughs)

He's an officer in non-urban Georgia w-

(laughs)

... which is important 'cause it's like, he- he's an officer in the middle of- of

nowhere, and one night, he's driving around at, like, 2:00 AM and he

gets a call from dispatch. There's this woman who has wrecked her car, the car is

up on its side, she's trapped inside, and the engine is on

fire.

Okay? He's the closest officer to the scene.

He speeds over there, he jumps out, he's immediately assessing the

situation. Yes, she's absolutely trapped.

Yes, this engine is on fire. Any minute now, this thing could hit the gas

line and the whole thing could just explode.

On top of this, he explains, "She's in the middle of nowhere and the fire

department and the next nearest police officer, they're not gonna be there for,

like, 15 to 20 minutes." And so he explains, "For the next 15 to

20 minutes, I am all this woman has."

Meanwhile, she's inside the car. Remember, you're seeing all of it. It's crazy.

You're watching the actual moment. She's inside, she's screaming for help.

She's sobbing, she knows she could die at any minute, and so what does this

police officer do? He pulls out his MagLite, you know, those

massive, heavy flashlights, and he just starts pounding

on this lady's windshield. Okay? You can go try this

later, if you'd like. You can go to the parking lot, go punch your

windshield as hard as you can. Guess what's gonna happen?

(laughs) You're gonna break your hand. (laughs) Like, nothing's gonna happen.

These things are designed to withstand car wrecks.

In fact, this lady's windshield has already withstood a

car wreck. At the same time, the officer explains, he's like, "I've

got no other option for the next 15 to 20 minutes until the fire

department shows up." And so he just starts going to town,

and he's just pounding on this woman's windshield over and over and over

again. Every now and then, he rears back and just kicks the thing as hard as he

can. The entire time, he's- he's screaming to her and he's yelling to her and

he's going, "Hey, I'm here. I'm not leaving.

Don't worry, I'm not leaving." He keeps calling her baby, which I could never get

away with, but he- he pulls it off. (laughs)

So he's just, over and over, he's hitting this windshield and he's going, "It's

okay, baby. I'm here. I'm not leaving, baby. I'm not leaving.

I'm not leaving." And for 15 minutes, this man

full on attacks this lady's windshield.

And what happens is, over the course of 15 minutes, the thing starts

to crack, and then eventually, it begins to sag, and then there's this

one moment where he rears back and he kicks it, and the thing

shatters. At this point, the car is engulfed

in flames, like, they've- they're- they already have burns from it, and he starts

yelling to her and he's like, "Okay, baby, we gotta go. We gotta go.

We gotta go." He pulls her out of the windshield, he carries her back behind

his squad car for protection, and like a minute later, this lady's

car explodes. And he's

got her wrapped up in a blanket and he looks at her at one point, and you can see

all of the footage. It's crazy. He just goes, "Hey, can I give you a

hug?" And she just, I mean, she

collapses in this young man's arms.

She's weeping and crying into his shoulder, and she just says over and over

again, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." And he just rubs her back and says over

and over again, "It's over now. It's over now.

It's over now."

I swear, I got chills just telling you about this.

(laughs) It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my whole life, and

as I watched this thing, just like, totally gripped, I couldn't help think to

myself, it's like, "Man, I know there's bad eggs out there, I know there's

bad people, but every now and then, humans can just be

so amazing."

And I remember thinking, like, if I ever wreck my car and if I'm ever trapped

inside and the engine is on fire, man, I'm gonna be praying that the

officer who shows up has such a disregard for his own safety

that he's willing to risk his own life to save a stranger.

And if you're anything like me, as I was telling that story, it's like maybe your

heart started beating faster at one point 'cause you don't know what's gonna

happen, or maybe you got chills at the image of this guy just banging on

the windshield, or maybe you even felt like getting choked up at the image of these

two strangers hugging because they narrowly avoided death.

It's like we feel amazed by the story, and then at the same time, I

can say that the God of the universe had such a disregard for His

safety that He was willing to sacrifice His own life to save

us from the burning wreckage of our sins, and we're like, "Yeah, I

know. I've he- uh, I've heard that, I've heard that one before.

What else do you have to teach this morning?"

Man, may we pray, like right now, like, as I speak, that

God breaks through the calloused shells of our hearts

to amaze us again with the relentless force of His

love? That's what John is trying to do in 1 John chapter four.

It's like he's trying to dunk us in cold water and wake us up again, and

he's shouting at us, "Be amazed! This is

the kind of God you have. Be amazed."

Why? Because- because there is a God, there is this infinite

being who created the cosmos,

and He's all-knowing and He's all-seeing and He's all-encompassing.

We would be right to stand in fear of such great power.

We would be right to stand in awe and amazement in the blinding

light of God's glory, and yet scripture also tells us that it's that

same exact God who knows you by your first

name-It's that same exact God who has numbered the hairs

on your head.

It's that same exact God who knows the plans He has for you, and they're

plans to prosper you and not to harm you, and they're plans to give you all hope,

and to give you a future. Check this out.

We're told that that same exact God knows every single sparrow who

falls to the ground. Like, that God, our God, holds a

personal funeral service for every bird that dies. Why?

Because every bird is, is a creature that He created and He loves.

And at the same time, we're told that that very same God knit you and I

together in our mother's wombs, and wonderfully and fearfully, He

created our innermost beings. And so, I think He probably, He loves us at least

as much as He loves His birds. And

then John tells us that that same God had such a

disregard for His life that He chose to sacrifice

it. Why? Man, to be near

you.

Amen.

That's it at the end of the day.

To be close to you again. Right? To be, to be close enough to

call you His son and to call you His daughter, so that you could be

close enough to Him to call Him Father again.

Like, man, at the end of the day, our God put His life on

the line to call you family again.

Be

amazed. I

... Yeah.

(applause)

Don't have time to cover the rest of this passage.

You should absolutely go spend some time with it later today. It, it's great.

I mean, John says that because this love is so amazing, if we're amazed at God's

love for us, we should go show amazing love to other people.

It's great. But we don't have time.

And, and also, like, I think it could please our Father

to just simply be amazed by Him again.

And so, I'd love to end this thing with, with an encouragement. Okay?

I'd love to encourage us to spend this Christmas season

being amazed again.

It's like, sometimes we lose it. We, you know, we lose the amazement in the midst

of the schedule, and we got family coming in town, and we got work parties and

shopping malls and music and lights.

We get, like, caught up in the, the holiday season whirlwind, and the next thing

you know, it's New Year's Eve and we don't know where December went.

And so, what if, for the next two and a half to three weeks, we just

found time to intentionally create moments to be

amazed by our Father again?

This, this is ... Late at night when you get the kids down and the house is

finally still, or you've got, you know, a quiet moment in your

car at a red light, or you woke up in the morning and you're sipping your coffee,

just find some time to be amazed again. Because I get it.

It's busy. We got presents to buy. We got people coming in. We gotta watch Elf.

We gotta watch Christmas Vacation, or whatever your favorite movies are.

Like, I know that we've got a lot to do, but what we're actually

celebrating at Christmas is that 2,000 years ago,

God acted. He acted on

His love.

And what we're celebrating is that the same God who hung the stars in

space chose to lower Himself down to Earth, and

the same God who breathes life into every living creature took

His own first human breath as a baby squirming around a

feeding trough in the middle of nowhere, Bethlehem.

What we're celebrating is that the great and the almighty creator

humbled Himself to nearly nothing, taking on the very nature of a

servant. And then we're celebrating that eventually, that baby, that baby

grew up

and He became the kind of man who fiercely, relentlessly loved

everyone. That He, He cured the sick and He

healed the disease and He fed the hungry and He loved the unlovable and,

and He spent time with people you'd never dream of spending time with.

Fiercely, relentlessly loved everybody.

Then He told us to c- just be more like Him, and He taught us how to be more like

Him. And then that man set His face toward Jerusalem and He marched to

the cross. And go read about that moment.

He's still forgiving the unforgive- unforgivable.

Like, with His dying breath, with His dying

words. And then three days later, He came back

walking out of that tomb king over everything, victorious over

everything. But it started in a barn on the wrong side of the

tracks with a terrified young mother and her husband, that

everyone thought was a fool, watching the birth

of the eternal God.

It's

amazing.

And God did that. We're just told in John 3:16.

John 3:16

He did all that, not because we earned it, not because we deserved it, but

because He wanted to. And He wanted to, not because He tolerates

you, not because He's fed up with you, not because He

feels responsible for you, but because He fiercely,

relentlessly loves you. And what we're celebrating on

Christmas is that He did move heaven to Earth to prove it to

you. There is no other word. It

is amazing. It is an amazing

love. Hope for the next couple weeks, may we

find time to slow down and pause in the midst of the

chaos, and find time to be amazed by our

Father again.

Let me pray over us.

God, I thank you for this moment and, and these people here,

and at Apex, and watching online. God, I thank you for a chance to just

kinda hit pause in the middle of a crazy season and be together

as brothers and sisters, and be together as Your sons and, and Your

daughters, and just get to know You a little bit better, who You are as a

Father, and try to figure ourselves out a little bit

better. God, I, I think it's, I think it's

normal, and I think that it doesn't shock You, but at the

same timeWe don't necessarily like this thing

where we followed you long enough that we're not amazed by your love

anymore. We've heard it so many times, it just kind of

feels cliché now. We go all the way through Christmas season and

we don't even really pause to think that, "Wait a minute, you became a

child?" What, you, wait a minute, you entered down into

reality to be with us?

God, it, it's... I don't think it's a lot to ask, but it, it's a lot

of work on your part. Could you please move through the hearts of your children

this morning and the next day and over the next few weeks?

Would you chisel away at the hard, calloused stone around our

heart? God, we want to be amazed by your great love for

us again. God, do that in your, in our hearts.

I c- I can't do that, and there's no worship song out there good enough.

So God, would you please amaze us with who we have as a father?

I love you, and it's in your son's name I pray, Jesus Christ,

amen.