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What if you REALLY Believed God Loves You? | Pastor Di Beals | Venture Church

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  1. Hi, and welcome to Venture Church Online. My name is

  2. Kelsey and I'm our online campus pastor. We're so glad

  3. that you're joining us. Drop a comment below of where

  4. you're streaming from. We would love to interact with you. We

  5. hope that you enjoy today's so much.

  6. Yeah, go ahead and Sam, if you're a veteran, we

  7. are grateful. Thank you so much, Thank you so much,

  8. And if you missed it, we do have a free

  9. Venturevets T shirt for you in the lobby. Thank you veterans.

  10. Thank you for joining us today here and in the.

  11. Room and online.

  12. If I haven't met you, my name is Die, part

  13. of the team here at our Mill Creek campus, and

  14. you are joining us for our series called from Ephesus

  15. as we are making our way through the Book of Ephesians.

  16. Just as a quick review, and I'm going to refer

  17. you to learn more. If you missed any of our

  18. previous previous messages through this series, to go back and

  19. listen online, but as a quick review. Phesians is a

  20. letter written by Paul to the church at Ephesus. Ephesus

  21. was in ancient world, the third largest city in the

  22. Roman Empire. It was so it was large, it was wealthy,

  23. it was a port city. It's no longer a port city.

  24. It's I mean it's ruins today. But it lost its

  25. ability to be a port city because the water kept receding,

  26. and so it is now far away from water. But

  27. it was a very influential port city at that time.

  28. It was also a pagan city, so it was the

  29. home of the Temple of Artemis, and that was one

  30. of the most impressive structures in the ancient world. But

  31. it was also the center for pagan rituals performed for

  32. the favor of Artemis. So that's what pagan means. It

  33. was not based on Jesus or God. It was it

  34. was Artemis. So Paul starts a church in this city

  35. and he spends over three years there in Ephesus and

  36. Ephesians is the letter that he writes to this church

  37. while he is not with them, and Paul's letters to

  38. various churches make up a bulk of the New Testament,

  39. and they were so valuable and so important that many

  40. churches passed them on to other churches in the ancient world,

  41. and many copies were made in order to be passed along,

  42. and there are still today many copies of the ancient manuscripts,

  43. so we have all of Paul's wisdom here in the

  44. letters in our New Testament of our Bible. We've covered

  45. so far in this series chapters one and two of Ephesians,

  46. and I just want to highlight the important piece of each.

  47. So in chapter one, and that was the first message,

  48. we learned about the importance of being in Christ, connected

  49. to Christ, all in grafted in connected, not in the

  50. periphery of or not hovering near Jesus, but all in

  51. committed to Jesus.

  52. Being in Christ.

  53. We learned about being dead in our sins but God,

  54. and we focused on that little phrase but God. We

  55. have no future and no hope but God. And God

  56. gave us grace, which is unmerited favor. And that grace

  57. is what has brought us to write relationship with God

  58. and also is the foundation for our unity. That salvation

  59. found in Jesus is for all, and that was where

  60. we focused last week. Is the unity of salvation for all,

  61. not just for the Jewish people, but for all people.

  62. And that extends even to today for all people. So

  63. it's extended to us as well. So today we're going

  64. to tackle chapter three, which really is the bridge between

  65. the first half of Ephesis or Ephesians and the second.

  66. So there's six chapters in the book. It kind of

  67. lives right smack in the middle. And that first part

  68. of the book really focused on our identity, who are

  69. we in Jesus?

  70. Being connected to Jesus? Who are we?

  71. And then the second half really focuses on like and

  72. what do we do as a result? So then how

  73. shall we live? And so chapters four through six focus

  74. in that direction what is our response? And three again

  75. is like the connection point between the two. Last thing

  76. before we tackle today's text is I went back and

  77. I reread Ephesians chapters one, two, and three, and I

  78. wanted to take a look. And so we're going to

  79. do this together at just some of the ways that

  80. we are described by God through Paul. How does God

  81. feel about us or how does he see us? And

  82. he instructs Paul to write that way. So Paul's words

  83. are He's the conduit of how God feels about us.

  84. Listen to just a couple of these.

  85. According to God through Paul, we are loved and chosen,

  86. We are holy without fault, we are adopted, we are free,

  87. we are forgiven. We are united with Christ. We are alive,

  88. we are saved, we are masterpiece, we are created new,

  89. we are brought near to Jesus. We're at peace, we're

  90. together as one in Jesus, and we are citizens and

  91. members of God's family. Those are some pretty awesome descriptions

  92. if you needed to pick me up today. Hopefully that

  93. helped you. But I'm going to stick with just the

  94. first one that I read, which is the first one

  95. you're gonna come across if you reread chapters one, two,

  96. and three. It's in chapter one, verse four, God through

  97. Paul says this, even before He made the world, God

  98. loved us and chose us in Christ.

  99. You're loved and chosen.

  100. And I want to begin by asking this question to

  101. each of you today, What if you really believed God

  102. loves you? What would be different? What would change? How

  103. would you live? How would you think?

  104. How would you.

  105. Behave if you really believed God loves you? I'm gonna

  106. invite you to pray with me as we open God.

  107. We want to wrestle with that question today. Say truly

  108. believe you answer it for us in your word. But

  109. I'm asking not just for head knowledge in this place,

  110. not just for understanding in our brains, but for comprehension

  111. in our hearts, that we would truly, maybe some for

  112. the first time today, truly understand and be affected, impacted,

  113. changed by your tangible and unmistakable love. So let your

  114. love be obvious today. Lord, it's in your name, we

  115. pray Amen. So what if you really believed God love you?

  116. There are a lot of ways we could answer this,

  117. but we're gonna use Ephesians chapter three as our guide.

  118. I encourage you to take notes. I don't know if

  119. you know this, but our what's next page of our

  120. app actually has a note taking button and you can

  121. take notes right there. But I think the first thing

  122. that would happen if we really believe that God loves us,

  123. you'd see things in perspective. You'd see things in perspective

  124. now right off the bat Ephesians three, verse one, Paul says,

  125. when I think of all of this, I Paul a

  126. prisoner of Christ Jesus for the benefit of you gentiles.

  127. That's like his how he starts off this entire chapter.

  128. So let's just get our heads wrapped around this piece

  129. of information. How he's describing himself. So Paul was imprisoned

  130. in Rome. He actually at this point is on house arrest.

  131. And I don't know what you picture when you picture

  132. house arrest, but it probably wasn't awesome. But it's not

  133. like he's in a dungeon, but he is imprisoned against

  134. his bill. He is in prison, and he's in prison

  135. because he was preaching about Jesus, which I don't know

  136. makes me want to ask, like why did he get

  137. thrown in prison for preaching about Jesus?

  138. But how did this happen? Is the question.

  139. While the religious leaders in Jerusalem, the Jewish religious leaders

  140. who felt threatened by Jesus's claims that he was the

  141. Messiah and his teachings and they didn't think he was

  142. the Messiah. Those that didn't, they pressured Rome to arrest Paul.

  143. Now Jesus is gone at this point, he has died

  144. on the cross, he has resurrected and is now no

  145. longer with his followers. But Paul is here. Paul has

  146. given his life to Jesus, and now Rome has pressured

  147. is pressured by the Jewish religious teachers to take Paul

  148. and bring him in for trial for treason and for

  149. causing a rebellion amongst the Jews. So that's their accusations

  150. against him.

  151. Paul had appealed.

  152. For his case to go as high as it could go,

  153. which is before the Emperor, before Caesar himself, and now

  154. he's awaiting trial.

  155. He's awaiting that level of trial.

  156. So Paul starts this section of Ephesians describing himself first

  157. as a prisoner, and then the next twelve verses here

  158. are described in ancient writings as a digression. Okay, so

  159. it's like allowed that he digresses. He kind of goes

  160. off topic for a second, because he does it for

  161. a reason. So he describes who he is. I Paul,

  162. a prisoner for Christ. But then he's gonna say, and

  163. here's some things you need to know. He's going to

  164. fill in some information in these next twelve verses. Now, normally,

  165. if you describe yourself as a prisoner, you'd think that

  166. would be a mark of shame. But I think that's

  167. the part I want us to notice today is that

  168. Paul's done nothing wrong and he appears to not be

  169. ashamed at all. He's arrested for telling people about Jesus,

  170. and probably if he could be asked, he would say yeah,

  171. and I would do it again too, And yet in

  172. verses two through thirteen, we do not see. Here's what

  173. we don't see. We don't see Paul wondering why God

  174. has left him, or why God is allowing this in

  175. his life, or if God is mad at him, or

  176. if God is disappointed in him, or if this is

  177. just God punishing him for a whole bunch of things

  178. he did wrong before he gave his life to Jesus.

  179. We don't see any confusion, we don't see any anger,

  180. and we don't see any shame.

  181. Instead, we see.

  182. Perspective that Paul has an interesting perspective in these next

  183. twelve verses and also in other places that Paul has

  184. written in the New Testament, which I'm not going to

  185. read it here, but I'll just direct you to Philippians,

  186. chapter one if you'd like to study that. Paul describes

  187. how prison has served a purpose for him.

  188. What is the point of prison? Well, Paul's going to.

  189. Explain it himself, and he describes it as God's mysterious plan,

  190. be him being in prison, God's mysteries, which maybe it

  191. was sarcastic, That's how I like to imagine it, like

  192. God's mysterious plan that I get to be in prison.

  193. What's this for?

  194. But he describes it as God's mysterious plan for the

  195. good news salvation in Jesus to be offered to all people,

  196. Jews and non Jews, so everybody. So here's how he

  197. says it. In verses eight and nine of chapter three,

  198. he says, though I am the least deserving of all

  199. God's people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling

  200. the gentiles about the endless treasure available to them in Christ. Okay,

  201. so he privilege. There's perspective here I was chosen to

  202. explain to everyone. And here it is this mysterious plan

  203. that God, creator of all things, has kept secret since

  204. the beginning. So throughout the New Testament, and again especially

  205. if you want to look at Philippians, we can see

  206. that Paul's imprisonment, this is his perspective on it has

  207. given him access to new audiences that he would never

  208. be able to have an audience with if he weren't imprisoned.

  209. So not only has the good news salvation in Jesus

  210. spread to the gentiles, but specifically now also to the

  211. highest leaders in the Roman governance system.

  212. So it's the lower level leaders like soldiers.

  213. But also he's going before multiple court officials and sharing

  214. the gospel. It's led him to share the gospel to

  215. the entire gentile world because the entire gentile world in

  216. this region at this point in time is ruled by Rome.

  217. He's also emboldened and inspired other believers. So Paul's perspective,

  218. his understanding, the way he sees his imprisonment is that

  219. he's been able to be a model for other people

  220. who suffer or struggle in any way to go. If

  221. that guy can do it, so can I. And Paul

  222. being in prison has validated the power and the authenticity

  223. of the message and showed that God's work is unstoppable.

  224. Not even Paul being in prison can stop the message

  225. of the good news of Jesus's salvation being for all people. Really,

  226. what has happened is Paul's captivity has become his pulpit.

  227. I don't know if you know the word pulpit. It's

  228. like a churchy word. We have a table. This is

  229. not a pulpit if you're picturing like a lectern. But

  230. it's less about the actual thing and more about the

  231. opportunity it provides. It's this spot by which God is

  232. allowing me right now to stand in this position to

  233. share the good news with you. Paul's captivity has given

  234. him a broad pulpit, a broad opportunity to share the

  235. good news. He's not just a prisoner, He's an ambassador

  236. for Jesus. His perspective allows him to see that his

  237. prison has actually got a purpose that's beyond what he

  238. ever thought it could have. He says himself in verse thirteen,

  239. Please don't lose heart because of my trials here. I'm

  240. suffering for you. So Paul's belief and hear this. His

  241. belief in God's love for him allows him to see

  242. the good that comes from him being in prison, and

  243. he's willing to do it. Now did he have a choice,

  244. I mean he had a choice in his attitude. He

  245. had a choice in his perspective. And his perspective is

  246. I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this so that

  247. I can encourage you. I'm doing this so that the

  248. message of the good news can go forward. And when

  249. you and I don't fully grasp or understand how much

  250. God loves us, When you don't understand or fully grasp

  251. how much God loves you, often your suffering or your trials,

  252. or your difficulties or your bad news become an automatic

  253. question of is God mad at me?

  254. Is he punishing me? Is he finally now getting.

  255. Even for the things I did before I ever knew

  256. him or came to church? Have I disappointed him recently?

  257. Did I deserve this? In some way, shape or form.

  258. And as much as we want to say no, no, no,

  259. I don't struggle with that thinking, we do, and the

  260. grasping of God's love for us, giving us perspective is

  261. what allows us to see a bigger plan, that there's

  262. a bigger purpose beyond what I can see right now.

  263. That's if we just stopped right there, that's enough for

  264. us to all chew on. But if we really believe

  265. that God loves us, we'd see things in perspective. And

  266. number two, you'd understand your position.

  267. Now.

  268. This just is one short little verse, but look what

  269. we can pull from it. In verse twelve, Paul says,

  270. because of Christ and our faith in Him, we can

  271. now come boldly and confidently into God's presence. Let's break

  272. that short little verse down just a little. Because of

  273. Christ is how he starts. It's because of Christ, and

  274. that's that's how it starts. It's not based on you,

  275. it's not based on me. It's not based on us

  276. and what we do or what we don't do. It's

  277. because of Jesus and what he's already done. And it's enough,

  278. and it's through faith. Our access is personal and it

  279. is direct. It is straight to the Father. Because we

  280. choose to believe God's love for us, we have access

  281. straight to him, not a religious exercise, not a ritual,

  282. but it's but it's our privilege, and it's in him.

  283. It's access by faith, but it's in him. So it's

  284. because of Christ and our faith in him. So in him,

  285. our position is secure. It's in him. We are linked

  286. to him and his works, and his works are enough.

  287. There's no need to strive to gain his good graces,

  288. or to prove ourselves or to earn our way. We're

  289. covered by his righteousness in spite of our failings and shortcomings.

  290. We are holy and completely accepted, and that gives us

  291. a confidence and a sense of worth. It gives us

  292. the feeling that we belong not because we earned it,

  293. but because we're counted as righteous by the work that

  294. Christ did on the cross. And so Therefore we come

  295. boldly and confidently into God's presence.

  296. This is one of the most freeing truths in.

  297. Scripture that because of Jesus, we don't come to God

  298. timidly or in fear of rejection, or thinking of all

  299. the things we did wrong, or all the things that

  300. we should have done that we didn't do. Instead, we

  301. come freely, boldly and confidently, knowing we are fully loved

  302. and fully welcomed.

  303. That's that's transformative.

  304. If we really understood God's love, not only would we

  305. have perspective, but we would understand our position. And the

  306. position is in the ladder we climb. It is just

  307. fully and wholly accepted.

  308. Period. But also, if you really believed that.

  309. God loves you, you'd be transformed by his passion. In

  310. verse fourteen, Paul says again, when I think of all

  311. of this, okay, So that phrase is bookended. He says

  312. it in verse one, and he says it again in

  313. verse fourteen. And that's an ancient literary tool. It's how

  314. you know that the bookends have what inside of them

  315. a digression. So Paul makes his statement in verse one,

  316. he digresses to fill in the information, and now he

  317. gets to his point. So him saying this phrase again

  318. is like a cue for an ancient reader that we're

  319. translating into modern readers to understand that Paul's not going

  320. to tell us what the point is. And what's the point.

  321. It's God's passion for you. Jesus's sacrifice, his suffering, and

  322. his death on the cross is often called his passion.

  323. Maybe you've heard or heard of it or seen the

  324. movie The Passion of the Christ. It's all about what

  325. Jesus willingly sacrificed and what he endured because of his

  326. passionate love for you and I. It's the ultimate expression

  327. of divine love. That's like I was trying to come

  328. up with words to say that, and that was the

  329. best expression I could come up with. Jesus's passion, God's

  330. passion carried out through his son Jesus, who also has

  331. passionate love. That is the ultimate expression of divine love.

  332. It's not just a word, it's action. It's love in action.

  333. His love is more than betrayal. It's more than is

  334. suffering too. It's more it endures betrayal. It's more than

  335. just what he endured. It's more than the humiliation. It's

  336. more than the betrayal. It's more than the beatings. It's

  337. more than his death for the sake of other people.

  338. It is the true depth of God's compassion and the

  339. lengths that He is willing to go to to restore

  340. broken relationship with you. I struggled with how to say this.

  341. I really words were hard this week. I chose the

  342. word transformed. The word transformed. If we really knew how

  343. much God loved us, we'd be transformed by his passion.

  344. Because I started with we'd understand his passion, and I

  345. was like, man, understanding is just in your head, right,

  346. It's like a knowledge, and comprehending is kind of the

  347. same thing. It's like this, I'm aware of, I perceive

  348. And that led me to recognize.

  349. Perceive, know. All those words felt like they lived here,

  350. And how many of you know?

  351. So often the distance between here and here is the

  352. greatest distance there is to go from knowing and understanding

  353. and being aware of and perceiving. Yes, I know God

  354. loves me up here, but to have it get here.

  355. This is where the transformation happens. This is where, this

  356. is where our lives are upended and turned upside down

  357. and and and changed to the point of being unrecognizable

  358. because of God's love for us. I was thinking about

  359. this yesterday and I was like, man, what's a what's

  360. an illustration of this that would help us understand how

  361. much transformation happens. And that led me down a rabbit hole,

  362. which I started studying butterflies and like, caterpillars that turn

  363. into butterflies, And.

  364. That's wild stuff. People. I don't think I've ever actually

  365. I'm aware.

  366. I'm aware a caterpillar goes into like some little thing

  367. and then comes.

  368. Out as a butterfly. Never actually understood.

  369. They hang upside down for months and their body scientifically

  370. liquefies before they are then reorganized and assembled into an

  371. adult butterfly.

  372. Like that's wild stuff.

  373. And I was like, man, but that still doesn't do it,

  374. Like how do we how do we internalize this? And

  375. and all I can do is tell you my own

  376. personal story, and I will just share the brief version,

  377. which is I grew up in a church where I

  378. learned the Bible and I knew a lot about God.

  379. But I can honestly say it really never made it

  380. here until, by the grace of God, I ended up

  381. in college in a Christian College at Northwest University, and

  382. it was there that my heart was confronted. That God

  383. confronted my heart with like, do you really know how

  384. much I love you?

  385. And I didn't. I was aware of God's love.

  386. I was also aware that he was real and aware

  387. I needed to like ask him to forgive me, and

  388. you know, that's how you go to heaven like all

  389. that lived up here.

  390. But it was in.

  391. Bible College that I was in a class where a

  392. professor was talking about the lordship of Christ, like surrendering

  393. everything to Jesus and how when we surrender everything he

  394. comes in and tell over and that blew my mind.

  395. Some of you have heard me tell this before, but

  396. that I had never heard of that concept before ever,

  397. and I didn't know what to do with it.

  398. And I'm a really all or nothing person.

  399. So now that I have this information, I have to

  400. do something with it. I can't just claim ignorance, which

  401. I don't think works when you stand before God.

  402. Someday anyway, but I.

  403. Went back to my dorm room and I just was

  404. wrestling with like, I think if I died right now,

  405. I would not go to heaven, because yes, I believe

  406. there is a God and I would say, there is

  407. a God, I do not have a relationship with him.

  408. I do not spend time with him, I don't live

  409. for him, and I have not surrendered my life fully

  410. to him. So now what am I going to do?

  411. And making a long story short, because I spent a

  412. lot of time really wrestling with that, I ended up

  413. kneeling on the floor of my dorm room and for

  414. the first time in my whole life, and I was young,

  415. but for the first time, I had just a glimpse

  416. of my sin and how far I really was away

  417. from God and from his love. For the first time,

  418. I understood I deserve separation my sin, which you know,

  419. maybe on some grand scale that doesn't really exist before God.

  420. Like I haven't done as bad as things as other people,

  421. but in my head, that's what I was telling myself, Like,

  422. I mean, I know there's a God and I have

  423. prayed to him, but I didn't have a relationship until

  424. that moment.

  425. It was in Bible College.

  426. Then I knelt on the floor of my dorm room

  427. and I asked Jesus to forgive me, and I don't.

  428. I said, I don't deserve your love, and I don't

  429. deserve your forgiveness.

  430. But if you'll have me, I'll give you everything. I

  431. will live for you.

  432. I will I will never look back on this moment

  433. and second guess it. This will be a hard pivot.

  434. I will change what I watch, how I talk, what

  435. I listened to, who I spend time with, what I

  436. read it. It's all on the table right now, if

  437. you'll have me. And at that moment, on my dorm

  438. room floor, I experienced the love of Jesus that was

  439. full and complete and smothering. And it changed everything. It

  440. changed everything. I cleaned house literally and spiritually. It changed

  441. who I hung out with, It changed what I read.

  442. I threw away tons of my music at that. I

  443. mean like it literally changed everything. That's what we're talking about.

  444. If you really know how much God loves you, his

  445. passion for you will transform you. It will change everything.

  446. Verse eighteen, Paul attempts.

  447. To describe this love.

  448. He says, maybe you have the power to understand, as

  449. all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high,

  450. and how deep his love is. Those words are so

  451. much wordy, they're so insufficient, But he's saying that God's

  452. love is complete and total. It reaches every single corner

  453. of your life and your experience. It's wide, It covers

  454. the breadth of your experience and the breadth of your life,

  455. and it reaches out beyond you, to the whole world,

  456. to everyone. His love is long, it continues the entire

  457. length of your life and beyond, and it covers everything.

  458. And his love is high.

  459. It reaches to the heights of celebration and the highest

  460. highs of your life. And his life is and his

  461. love is deep. It reaches to the very depths of discouragement,

  462. of despair, and even to death. When you feel shut

  463. out or isolated, you can never be lost to God's

  464. love ever.

  465. Romans eight thirty eight. Paul says it this way.

  466. I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from Christ's love.

  467. Not death, not life, not angels, not demons, not our

  468. fear of today, not our worries about tomorrow. Not even

  469. the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.

  470. No power in the sky above, no power in the

  471. earth below, And indeed nothing in all of creation will ever, ever, no,

  472. never be able to separate us from the love of

  473. God that's revealed to us in Christ, Jesus our Lord.

  474. Yeah, it's his passion. Hear me say this, You are

  475. his passion. You are.

  476. If you really knew how much God loves you, that

  477. love would turn everything upside down. And maybe you're sitting

  478. here and you're like nodding along with me, like, yep,

  479. I know that love.

  480. I know it.

  481. Maybe you're here and you're like, WHOA first time here.

  482. I'm so glad you're here. And maybe you're here and

  483. you're thinking, I thought I knew that love, or I

  484. used to know that love. But I don't think I do,

  485. because I don't think it's transformed me. A love that

  486. alters your perspective, a love that reminds you what your

  487. position is, A love that makes you complete. Ephesians four

  488. nineteen Paul says, may you experience the love of Christ,

  489. though it's too great to fully understand. The NIV translation

  490. of that verse says it this way, that you may

  491. be filled to the measure of all fullness of God.

  492. That can literally be translated this way. Hear this, that

  493. you might be, that you might understand, that you might

  494. be fully satisfied, that you might be fully finished, that

  495. you might be fully completed with that which fully satisfies

  496. completes and fully finishes that which is of God. That's

  497. how that verse is translated, and Colossians two nine, which

  498. is also written by Paul. It's the only other place

  499. in the Bible he uses that expression.

  500. The fullness of God, he says for Christ.

  501. In Christ lives all the fullness of God inside.

  502. Of a human body. It's Jesus.

  503. He's the fullness of God whose love drove him to

  504. suffer willingly, to lay down his life willingly to conquer death,

  505. hell and the grave, and by his spirit that fills

  506. us and makes us full or complete. It's in Jesus's love.

  507. And maybe you know this, but it needs to get here.

  508. It's in Jesus's love that you find love, joy, peace,

  509. purpose of future direction for your life.

  510. And fullness, completeness. And the opposite is true. It is

  511. a life without Jesus that.

  512. Lacks the love, the joy, the purpose, the peace, the

  513. direction and all the fullness. And then that life spends

  514. its life trying to find those very things, and they're

  515. found in Jesus. I loved what one commentator said to

  516. summarize this. He said, now picture Paul has painted for us,

  517. that it is God's love for us. That's deeper than

  518. any ocean, longer than any highway, and farther than a

  519. trip to the furthest reaches of the galaxy and back,

  520. and Jesus is the only proof we need of that love.

  521. If we really believed that, if you really believed.

  522. How much God loves you, it would change everything. Everything.

  523. It has changed everything.

  524. I'm gonna ask you to take the communion emblems that

  525. you received when you came in, because we're gonna conclude

  526. by tying this together with communion. If you did not

  527. receive one of these little communion emblems, if you just

  528. put your hand up, an usher will bring one to you.

  529. You'll notice that there's a clear film on the top.

  530. I'm go and invite you to go ahead and peel

  531. that back and take the wafer and just hold it

  532. in your hand. And as the ushers are delivering communion,

  533. those of you that have it, just take that wafer

  534. and hold it in your hand. And here one more verse.

  535. This is in First John, chapter four. It says God

  536. showed how much he loved us. Did you catch that?

  537. Because the question today is what if you really knew

  538. how much God loves you? Showed how much he loves

  539. you by sending his one and only son into the

  540. world so that we might have eternal life through him.

  541. This is real love, Not that we loved God, but

  542. that he loved us and sent his son as a

  543. sacrifice to take away our sin. That's real love, and

  544. it changes everything as you hold that waifer. On the

  545. night that Jesus was betrayed, so this is just before

  546. he's going to be arrested and tried unjustly and convicted

  547. and beaten.

  548. And tortured and crucified.

  549. Just before all of that, he shared a meal with

  550. his closest disciples, his closest friends, really, and he took

  551. a piece of bread and he broke a piece off,

  552. and he passed the bread and he said, this is

  553. my body. It's given for you. When you eat this,

  554. remember me. And so why do churches take communion. It's

  555. because we want to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made.

  556. And of course his disciples didn't understand what he meant,

  557. We're going to eat your body until they could look

  558. back on that moment and go, I get it now

  559. that he knew what was coming, that he knew the suffering,

  560. and he willingly faced it for you.

  561. As a sacrifice for you.

  562. And so as we take this cracker, Jesus, we remember

  563. your sacrifice and we say thank you. Did you go

  564. ahead and take the wafer, and now you're going to

  565. open the juice. It's just grape juice. We say it

  566. a lot around here. That's not what it is that matters.

  567. It's what it represents, and what does it represent. It

  568. represents the blood of Jesus. And what is the significance

  569. of the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is

  570. our forgiveness.

  571. It's grace.

  572. Grace is unmerited favor. We didn't earn it, and we

  573. couldn't earn it. We couldn't earn God's love. We couldn't

  574. earn the love of Jesus that drove him to a

  575. cross on our behalf. And the Bible says, while we

  576. were still sinners, Christ died for us.

  577. Do you know what that means? Like he's not God's

  578. not bound by time.

  579. While we were actively rejecting him, he was actively choosing

  580. to sacrifice himself for our forgiveness and right relationship with

  581. our father God.

  582. That's what it represents.

  583. And so in a moment, we're going to drink this,

  584. and it's our way of saying, Jesus, I remember you,

  585. and I also receive the forgiveness that is offered that

  586. this cup of juice represents. So I'm going to ask

  587. you to stand to your feet with me while you

  588. hold that, be careful if you'll bow your heads, and

  589. just would you just contemplate for a moment, God's incredible,

  590. vast love for you, His love that pursues you, his

  591. love that accepts you, his love that makes you whole

  592. and complete, His love that brings you peace, His love

  593. that brings you purpose, His love that everything else makes

  594. sense when it's under God's love. That's the love that

  595. God has for you. And we get the choice whether

  596. or not we want to receive that love and that forgiveness.

  597. And so all across this room, if you would say.

  598. I want to know that love.

  599. I want to know the love of God for me

  600. that is provided through Jesus. Maybe maybe you've known it before,

  601. maybe you've walked away, maybe it's been a long time,

  602. maybe you just need to revere reminded. If that's you,

  603. would just raise your hands so we can pray together

  604. all across this room.

  605. Thank you, up down, Just up and down. Thank you,

  606. lots of you.

  607. We're gonna pray this together as a family. We do

  608. this here so that we're all together in this. It's

  609. good for us all to pray this. Would you just

  610. repeat after me as we ask Jesus's forgiveness, So repeat

  611. after me, Dear Jesus, this morning, I ask you to

  612. forgive me, and I thank you for your love for me.

  613. I receive your forgiveness, and I receive your love. I

  614. choose to follow you with everything. And now, Jesus, I

  615. just pray over this room, over every individual, over every

  616. person watching online or who will listen to this in

  617. the future, that we would be by your love, transformed

  618. by your love.

  619. Somebody, and I think lots of.

  620. Somebody's listening right now needed to be reminded. It's not

  621. about what you've done, and you can't disqualify yourself from

  622. this love. So Jesus, allow for your love to be

  623. real and broad and deep and high and vast and transformative.

  624. Would you fill us God with the love that you

  625. have for us that costs you to send your son

  626. and Jesus, would you fill us with the love that

  627. made you choose to go to the cross on our behalf.

  628. We receive that love. It's in your name, we pray. Amen,

  629. go ahead and drink the back cup and honorver.

  630. No, how much costs to see my sin upon that cross?

  631. No honey, everno? How much costs to see my sin

  632. upon the cross?

  633. No owne verno?

  634. How much costs to see my sin upon the cross?

  635. No own.

  636. Verno?

  637. How much cost to see my sin upon? Thank you Lord?

  638. No howna vernon? How that k cost to see my

  639. sin upon the cross? On verno? How that because to

  640. see my sin upon that So here I am to hership.

  641. Here I am too bad down here I am to

  642. say that your mind, God, you're to gather love all together,

  643. all together one foto. Here I am here, I am

  644. to f ship. Here, I am too about town. Here

  645. I am to say that your mind, God, you're all

  646. together a love all together, all to get their wander.

  647. You're wander.

  648. You couldn't ever earn it.

  649. The Lord freely gives it to you, and he loves

  650. you so dearly. If you heard today's message and you're

  651. wondering what do I do next? I would love to

  652. direct you to our What's next page?

  653. This has all the resources that.

  654. You need to talk about today's message and some the

  655. next steps that you can take, so you should go

  656. check that out, but go and be in the presence

  657. of the Lord's life.

  658. Thank you again for joining us. If you enjoyed today's service,

  659. go ahead and subscribe to our channel so you can

  660. see future messages. If you'd like to learn more about

  661. Venture Church, you just like the link that's in our bio.

  662. We hope to see you again.