Three16: Snakes on a Plain with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the Medichurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at Medichurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life.

God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

We love child dedications.

It's a great way to get into the message today.

We are in a series that's gonna take us all the way up to Easter, which just a reminder, I know you just heard it, but Easter is next Sunday.

Are we excited about Easter at MetaCurch?

We are adding a 115 service.

Those of you who are at the saloon, y'all know we used to have that service.

We're bringing it back for Easter, and here's what we're asking.

This is how you can help.

For people who come to the 11:30, that's you.

We're asking you either to come early or to come late.

I don't know if you noticed in this room and in the parking lot, there's not a lot of space right now, and it's not Easter yet.

So 11:30 is our primetime service.

This is when the majority of new people come.

We want to make sure they have room.

So next Sunday, plan on coming to the 945 or to the 115.

Bring your friends with you to those services so we can make sure people can find a seat.

Everybody nod 9.45 or 115.

Thank you for agreeing.

Beautiful.

We're in a series called 316 where we are focusing on what is probably the best known scripture in all of the Bible, for sure, in the Christian scriptures or the New Testament, and that is John 3.16.

It says this for God loved the world in this way.

That is the gospel in a sentence.

It's the good news of Jesus in a sentence.

It tells us who God is, who we are, why Jesus matters, and what he came to offer us.

Something we talk about pretty much every week at Metachurch when we get into the scripture is establishing proper context.

Context helps you to know what is going on in that passage, what's going on in the world at that time.

And without proper context, you will not come to a proper interpretation of scripture.

It is no secret here at MetaCurch that we are a congregation who many, many of us have experienced church hurt in our past, myself included, that you have had people in positions of religious authority in your life who have not lived that out in a way that actually looks like Jesus.

And the question is, how do well-intentioned people so often bring so much judgment and condemnation into Jesus' church?

And one of the key answers is that they approach scripture without its context, which means you can make scripture say whatever you need it to say to make the point that you want to make.

Context is so important.

And in this series, particularly, we have taken it to the next level.

We're taking five weeks to understand the context around John 3.16.

It is that important of a verse, and it does matter that much to your life.

So far in the series, we learned that Jesus had begun his ministry on earth 2,000 years ago.

He was born into a Jewish context, and the nation of Israel had come under Roman occupation.

That means that they had lost their sovereignty, they had lost their autonomy, and they could no longer see their destiny.

Now, unfortunately, we have something going on in our world right now that if you can understand and empathize with it, you can understand the context Jesus was in.

You see, right now, the Russian Empire is seeking to expand itself into Ukraine.

And you can open your smartphone and see pictures and videos and the heartbreak of a nation who is scared to death to lose their autonomy, their sovereignty, and their sense of destiny as a people.

If you can understand what's going on in Ukraine right now, then you can understand what Jesus was living through in Israel.

What was on everybody's mind in Israel was getting their country back.

They were God's chosen people in the Old Testament.

They couldn't understand why they were under Rome's occupation.

They were desperate for a Messiah to come, and in their mind, the Messiah would be a military leader who would kick Rome out and rebuild the kingdom of Israel.

And all of a sudden, Jesus shows up on the scene.

He is preaching and speaking with words of power and authority no one's ever heard before.

He is doing miracle after miracle.

He's actually healing people, he's controlling the forces of nature itself.

And the everyday person flocked to Jesus.

Everywhere he went, thousands of people would show up to hear him speak and see him perform his miracles.

Everyone but the religious elite.

The religious elite wanted nothing to do with Jesus.

As a matter of fact, he was a great threat to their power.

There was one of these Pharisees, religious leaders, who got really curious.

His name was Nicodemus, and in John chapter 3, starting at the very beginning, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and what he's trying to do is suss out like exactly who this guy is, and whether or not all this power he has displayed will be used for how the Pharisees want it used, whether or not Jesus will use his power to drive out Rome.

John 3 · chapter mention

Begins the conversation that leads us all the way to John 3.16.

And what happens is Nicodemus keeps asking about physical things, and Jesus keeps spinning it and talking about spiritual things.

And Nicodemus is left hanging, you know?

He wants the kingdom of Israel built, and Jesus keeps talking about the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus thinks that he's already secure in entering the kingdom of God because he was physically born as an Israelite, and Jesus says, No, you must be spiritually born again.

And Nicodemus is just lost.

He's on his heels, he's spinning, he has no idea what to make of what Jesus is saying.

And so what we're gonna see today is Jesus takes Nicodemus, a religious leader, a Pharisee of the Jews, who knows Israel's history backwards and forward.

He takes them to a moment in Israel's history to help him understand exactly how to apply what he's saying.

The story Jesus references is found in the Old Testament book of Numbers, chapter 21, and it starts in verse 4.

Numbers 21 · chapter mention

It says this Then they set out from Mount Hor.

Now it's on our minds, don't know who named the mountain, okay?

Don't know who the mountain offended.

Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to bypass the land of Edom.

But the people became impatient because of the journey.

And the people spoke out against God.

And Moses, why have you led us from Egypt to die in the wilderness?

There's no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food.

And then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them so that many Israelites died.

And then Samuel L.

Jackson came to Moses and said, I'm tired of all these snakes and this God forsaken.

No, the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you.

Intercede with the Lord.

That means talk to God so that He'll take away the snakes from us.

And Moses interceded for the people.

The people of Israel are out in the wilderness on the plains of Moab.

And all of a sudden, they have a giant serpent problem.

Now, you guys know this because you come here.

I'm not very good at sermon titles.

As a matter of fact, in our creative meetings, I usually come up with two or three for every single sermon, and then the staff tells me how awful all of them are.

But today, my message is titled Snakes on a Plane.

Yes.

We did it, guys.

You don't have to think that's funny.

I will still love you.

We just can't be friends.

My message today is snakes on a plane.

Would you pray with me?

God, we love you and uh we just thank you for what you're doing here.

God, we thank you for full seats and full parking lots.

We thank you for these young families bringing up these kids.

We thank you for Easter just around the corner and all that that means.

We thank you for a place like Metachurch that exists for all people.

It exists for the seasoned believers as well as the skeptics.

It exists for those of us who have been hurt by religion and are giving this a second shot.

It's a place where people can belong here, even if they don't believe all the things we believe.

I thank you for this community and God, we thank you for your love.

And that's all we're trying to do is show that.

And we want to hear from you today, so I pray we'd lay down any pride we're bringing in, any preconceived notions, and we would just allow you to speak to our hearts.

We ask it all in Jesus' name.

If you're ready to get going on snakes on a plane, say, Amen.

Amen.

Now we're gonna get to John chapter three, but I really want to stick in this story in Numbers chapter 21 to really get the full context and understanding of exactly what Jesus is saying.

Numbers 21 · chapter mention

Because here's the deal.

When Jesus quotes this story in John 3 to Nicodemus, Nicodemus gets all of it.

But we're not in that context.

We're not professional historians of the Israelite Exodus.

And so I want us to try and get somewhere near Nicodemus' level and understanding of what Jesus is alluding to here.

And so maybe you know the story of Moses because the the Israelites got stuck in Egypt and they were slaves there for 400 years.

And for 400 years they cried out to be rescued.

And eventually God sent Moses, and Moses used the power of God, and God showed off with 10 different plagues, and eventually the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, he decided to let the Israelites go.

A million plus three labor, walk away.

And so they headed out towards the land God had promised them, but soon they ran into the Red Sea, an impassable body of water.

And about that time, the king of Egypt he changed his mind.

He's like, yo, what am I doing?

We cannot let these people actually go.

He sends the Egyptian army after them, and pretty soon they are pinned down on the edge of an impassable body of water, and behind them is the Egyptian army, and it's certain death.

Maybe the most important miracle in all of Israel's history happens when God parts the water of the Red Sea.

The wind blows and stacks up the water like walls around them, and Israel walks through the Red Sea on dry ground.

It is the rebirth of the nation of Israel on their way to the promised land.

And now they're in the wilderness, they're wandering, but they're on their way to the land of promise.

That's where we pick up in Numbers chapter 21.

Numbers 21 · chapter mention

It says in verse 4, then they sent out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to bypass the land of Edom, but the people became impatient because of the journey.

Now notice they are going by way of the Red Sea.

The same Red Sea that God parted and the whole nation had walked through on dry ground, they are now using as a source of direction for them.

They're actually using the Red Sea to guide their way, which means they are literally walking within yards of the miracle, and still the people became impatient because of the journey.

So often in Scripture, the Israelites come out just like kids.

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

They are walking next to the miracle and have already lost sight of the mission.

And we have to be careful because religion will convince you that you should read everything through the lens of judgment.

And it's it's so simple to go, how could these people who have just seen the miracles of God over and over again, the 10 plagues that he did in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea, how can these people lose their faith in God so quickly?

And the answer is it's actually quite easy.

And before we go judging them too harshly, it's worth considering that all of us are living in the midst of miracles all of the time and yet find ourselves so often looking to God, wondering why He won't show up on our timeline and get on our agenda.

So here's what happens there's like maybe what you could call minor miracles, you know?

Like the fact that somehow you pulled off that degree when you never went to science class, but always went to the sorority house, you know?

Like that's like a minor miracle, but a miracle nonetheless.

Some of some of you guys in the room, like somehow we convinced these women to marry us, you know?

Miracles.

When she met you, your full-time job was playing guitar hero.

She looked right past it.

You told her you had a 401k.

She didn't know that meant 401,000 Pokemon cards, all right?

And still, you wake up every day next to your miracle.

You know, we get really self-obsessed.

It happens very easily, and we live in a very narcissist society, so we're kind of encouraged to do it.

But if we would zoom out a little bit, we realize that basically all scientific data at this point points to the fact that this universe at one point did not exist.

Instead of something, there was actually nothing.

And somehow, out of nothing, we got something.

We're here now.

The Bible says that God spoke and the universe leapt into existence.

We exist in the midst of a miracle.

The apostle Paul in Roman 1 said the fingerprints of God can be seen through his divine natural revelation.

If you've put your faith in Jesus, you know that that means that the God of the universe stepped out of heaven and into this world, lived an actual perfect life, died the death that you deserve, defeated death by resurrecting forever and ever.

Amen.

That your life was dangling between the heaven that is eternal intimacy with your maker and the hell that is eternal separation from the source of all that is good in life itself.

And Jesus came and snatched you out and brought him into himself.

We are living every day in a miracle, and still the Red Sea is there, and we grow so impatient.

And we want life to work the way that we want life to work.

We don't want to be inconvenienced.

We want to be a part of what God's doing on the earth as long as it can happen the way that we want it to happen.

And so before we're too quick reading this through the lens of judgment, maybe we can lead it, read it through the lens of humility and seeing that as they are, so am I so often.

And how do I get back into right standing with God?

In verse 5, the people spoke against God and Moses.

Why have you led us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness?

There's no bread, there's no water, and we detest this wretched food.

Isn't it interesting that they say there's no food and we hate this food?

See what happened when they got in the wilderness is there was no food.

And they prayed to God, and God brought manna.

And manna is actual food from heaven, and six days out of the week, every week, for 40 years, God would door-dash food to the to the outside of their tent.

And it's like, okay, God's about to send some snakes, right?

We don't really like that part, but for those of you with kids, if you've ever spent like two hours on a meal, and the first thing they say is, ugh, it's like God, where are the snakes, you know?

I bend over backwards for these children.

God's like, I brought you out of Egypt, I split the freaking waters, I brought food from heaven, everything you ask, you get.

Superior armor armies come against you, I defeat them for you, and here you are.

There's no food or water, I mean, except for the food that literally miraculously comes from heaven, and I don't like it.

They're rebelling against God, they're walking in opposition to God, they are saying what they often said during the Exodus, the trip from Egypt to the Promised Land.

We wish we would have stayed as slaves in Egypt.

In verse 6, then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them, and many Israelites died.

If we're not gonna be honest when we come together, then we're really genuinely wasting our time.

Many church doesn't exist for you to check some like religious box and feel a little bit better about your week.

We come here to get real and let's just be real.

We don't love this side of God.

We like the love side, you know?

We like the gentle God.

We we like the Psalms where He's like a shepherd and we get to nap in the grass and stuff, you know.

We don't love the wrath of God.

We're not huge fans of the justice of God unless we believe that somebody else outside of us is the one who deserves it.

You have to realize that this is Israelite history, which means it's being written from the perspective of those on the ground.

Actually, most scholars believe that Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament.

And so all they see from their finite perspective is God did miracle after miracle after miracle.

All we did was spit in his face and reject him.

All of a sudden, snakes show up.

So, of course, God sent the snakes.

However, a deeper understanding is an understanding rooted in the nature of God.

And you see, God, by definition, is ultimately simple, which means he cannot change, he never has changed, he never will.

That's actually revealed to us in scripture.

He's the same yesterday and the same today, and the same forever and ever.

God doesn't change, we change.

God is love.

Love isn't something that God does as an action, he is love as his very nature, he's the source and standard of it.

And love is his preeminent attribute, the highest of his attributes.

However, true love requires justice.

And justice is simply getting what you deserve.

God is all love and God is all justice.

And out of his love, he has called all of us who justly deserve the wrath of God, because we constantly and consistently sin against that God, but in his love and mercy, he has offered for us to join him and to walk in his ways.

Does he expect you to do it perfectly?

Absolutely not.

Does he expect you to continually seek him and follow after him?

Yes.

And what happens is God doesn't change, we change.

But when we get on God's path, we move ourselves under the umbrella of God's love and mercy.

And so often, as hard as the world can be, we are not experiencing the full consequence that justice would actually cause us to deserve.

And God, in his perfect nature, created us with freedom.

True love requires freedom.

And sure, God could have created autonomatons, you could have been robots or puppets, you could have been on God's leash, him directing and deciding everything for you.

And had he done that, you would be perfect.

You'd never go astray.

You would never talk back, you'd never get off the path.

But love requires freedom.

And love that is coerced is not love at all.

He's given you a free will, which means you have the free choice, even the free choice, to walk yourself out from under God's umbrella of protection for your life.

And when we turn our backs on God, God, who is a loving, perfect father, will allow us to experience the consequence of life without Him.

This is one of the most difficult things as parents.

Is we want our children to avoid all suffering in life, even suffering that they have brought about as consequence of their own actions.

And so grace is beautiful.

But if you extend grace, your kid has to know it's grace that there is a punishment you deserve, and graciously you will not receive it.

But there is another side of grace that loves someone enough to allow them to experience the true consequence of their actions so they will learn the way that God's world actually operates.

And I'm not raising adults yet.

Parenting adults is so difficult.

But this year, my oldest will turn 18 years old.

I am dangerously close.

And raising adult kids is one of the most difficult things to do because everything inside of you wants to shelter them from all of the consequences of their actions.

And so, what do uh what do the Israelites do?

The uh the Israelites came to Moses and they said, We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you, and so intercede with the Lord so that he will take the snakes away.

And Moses interceded for the people.

He was like, God, I know these fools, am I right?

Over and over again.

I get it, but I think the snakes really did it this time.

I really think they get it.

So if you could just kind of like Thanosnap the snakes away, we learned our lesson.

And God said, no.

As a parent, be warned.

You will desire to take the snakes away, take the consequence away, pad their actions, clean up their messes again and again.

And eventually, you are no longer an empowering parent, you are an enabling parent of behavior that will end up putting your kid in deadly and dangerous situations.

All we're doing is teaching our kids that they can go against God's rule for his world and suffer no consequence for it.

And ultimately, that will prove to be mistaken.

God did not take the snakes away.

And this is so difficult because God is just and God has given us freedom.

And you know, you've maybe heard in some religious setting that every sin is weighed the same on God's scale.

It doesn't matter if it's the smallest white lie or the most heinous, violent crime that every and all sins separate you from God.

And that is true, however, nowhere in scripture does it say that different sins don't bear different consequences across time.

And there are things that we can do and paths that we can go down where we end up bearing consequence even after we've returned back to God.

There are things that happen in our life where, as bad as we want the snakes to disappear, they stay in place.

So often it is suffering that is a direct result from walking out of God's purposes that ends up leading us back to the realization of just how bad we need God in the first place.

You know this if you're a parent, that if you always remove the consequence from your children, they will never understand how badly they actually need your guidance in their life.

They will think that they can rely only on themselves because they've never experienced a consequence that would show them otherwise.

The same is true with us.

And so often when people come to God, not always, but very often, it is right after the bottom falls out.

We're all looking for something to put our faith in.

And the world puts a lot of paths in front of us that promise success and significance and a sense of purpose.

There's all kinds of things that the world lays out that are guaranteed to alleviate the pain inside that we all feel, that sense that we're not enough or we're not measuring up, or we're meant to live for something more.

But all of those paths in the world are made of things of this world, and ultimately, there is nothing in this world that can bear the weight of your hope.

And so you try and you try and you go down all the paths that the world puts in front of you, and eventually you've run into enough walls where the bottom falls out, and finally, in desperation, it's like, yo, if you're up there, I am ready to find you.

And it's a little bit of a misunderstanding.

Because the idea that we find God is almost like God is playing this cosmic game of hide and go seek, you know?

And the truth is that when you come to the bottom of your consequences and there's nowhere else to turn, is not the moment you realize that God has hidden himself from you.

It's the moment that if you will turn and look, you'll realize that through it all, no matter how far you rebelled, no matter how many times you ran in opposition, that God was pursuing you the entire time.

That is the life-changing truth of the gospel.

Please, God, take the snakes away.

In verse 8, the Lord said to Moses, make a snake image and mount it on a pole.

And when anyone who is bitten looks at it, then he will recover.

It's a very odd thought that Moses was supposed to put as a point of reference and as the cure an image that represented the very source of the problem that they were facing.

And yet, oftentimes it is only when we are willing to come face to face with what is actually causing our suffering, with what is actually keeping us tied up, with what is actually holding us back from God so often until we are ready to look all of the ways that we have rebelled against God in the face, we will not find the actual answer, which is getting that thing out of our life and making room for God in it.

In verse 9, so Moses made a bronze snake and he mounted it on a pole.

And whenever someone was bitten and he looked at that bronze snake, he was saved.

Israelite history was written in Hebrew, looked at is the Hebrew word Ra-a.

And it doesn't mean just to visually perceive something.

Ra-a means to look with faith.

And the Israelites in their camp, now surrounded with vipers.

And here's what you have to understand: the vipers were always there.

We know the path Israel walked.

All along that part of the world, there are carpet vipers.

Every square inch is almost covered with carpet vipers.

The miracle wasn't that the vipers showed up, the miracle was that the whole time they were walking with God, he kept the vipers away.

And now, if they are to take one look of faith, even if they are bitten by the viper, they will be healed.

It took us a while, but we're back to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

Now you know the context.

Now you're caught up like Nicodemus the Pharisee was caught up.

And Nicodemus and Jesus have been battling for 11 verses so far in this series about the physical and the spiritual, the physical and the spiritual, a new covenant, a new birth, and Nicodemus doesn't understand how it happens.

In John chapter 3, verse 12, Jesus says to him, If I've told you about earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

John 3:12

If you can't even understand the physical realities of this world, how will you understand the spiritual?

Jesus said, No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven.

That's him, the son of man.

Nicodemus is a Pharisee.

He is he's like the top of Judaism.

And in the Jewish prophecies, the Son of Man was the one who would come to bridge the gap between heaven and earth, between God and man, between the spiritual and the physical.

And here it goes in verse 14.

Just as.

Just as Moses.

This is a powerful, powerful connection.

Just as means, in exactly the same way, just as means, if you can understand this metaphor, you can directly apply it to what I say next.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man, Jesus, the bridge between the spiritual and physical, the Son of Man must also be lifted up.

Jesus calls back to this famous story, a story that Nicodemus understands backwards and forwards.

We spent 25 minutes on it, and you understand one one-hundredth of it that Nicodemus understands.

All of it.

He's got all of that knowledge, but he doesn't know how to apply it.

And the same way that the serpent went up on a pole, the son of man will be lifted up.

Look at verse 15.

So that everyone who believes in the Son of Man may have eternal life.

Jesus told Nicodemus, You must be born again.

And remember from week one, rebirth requires a real death.

We're at Easter.

On Friday, we celebrate Good Friday.

We call good the day in history where the only innocent man to ever walk the earth was killed in the most gruesome fashion imaginable.

In the same way that the serpent was lifted up to take one look of faith for your physical salvation, the Son of Man will be lifted up so that if you take one look of faith, you will be saved spiritually and experience eternal life.

I learned something interesting as I was getting ready for this message.

I started studying about snakes and vipers and carpet vipers.

It's really interesting.

You know, they called them in some translations of the Bible, they call them fiery serpents.

And those carpet vipers that have invaded that part of the world, they say when they bite you, their poison goes in, and as you're dying, it feels like you're on fire from the inside out.

I started studying about anti-venom.

If you're bit, you know, most likely by a rattlesnake here in Texas, if you're bit, your best chance of survival is to get to a clinic or hospital as quickly as possible that has rattlesnake anti-venom.

But here's what was surprising: you would think the key ingredient in the process of making anti-venom would be anti-venom, like the opposite of the poison.

However, in 1895, a French scientist named Albert Calmet developed the very first anti-venom.

He developed it against cobras, which were a big problem in the part of the world where he was studying.

And the way that he invented it actually started with the venom itself.

You take the poisonous snake and you actually milk its fangs for its venom.

It's a crazy process, a really dangerous process, but by milking those fangs, you can get enough of a dose of the venom to start the process for anti-venom.

But the next step is where it gets really crazy.

In order to develop the cure that would save you and I, the poison must be injected into a host animal.

People use different things like cows or horses, specific for rattlesnakes, they usually use a lamb.

The lamb takes the same poison that would be killing you were you bitten by a poisonous snake, injects it into the lamb's body, when it hits the bloodstream, the immune system kicks in and begins creating antibodies against the poison.

Those antibodies must be extracted.

And the antibodies are in the blood.

And the anti-venom is made by spilling the blood of the lamb.

So if you are bitten and rush to a hospital, and if they have the anti-venom you need, then the cure that you are now experiencing started by someone else taking the poison on your behalf.

And this is the story of Jesus and his cross.

This is the story of John 3.16.

Every week we focused on a different part of the verse.

It says, For God loved the world in this way.

You want to know about God?

The God that the church you grew up in convinced was full of nothing but wrath and judgment.

He had a lightning bolt in both hands, just waiting to strike you down.

This is how God loved you, that he gave.

That means past, present, and future, your sin and my sin, all of it went upon Jesus.

Do you know how Jesus was announced when he began his ministry at the beginning of John's gospel?

He was announced by a prophet named John the Baptist who said, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John saw Jesus coming and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And that is an exciting declaration.

What people didn't understand is to take away the sin would require the blood of that land.

We have all been bitten by the original serpent, you know, the one in the creation narrative who convinced humanity that they could live as gods and no longer needed their creator.

And the poison of sin has coursed through every one of our bodies, and it is, without a cure, a death sentence.

Not only will you die physically, that comes for us all, but the kind of death that results in eternal separation from a God who loves you so much that he went to the greatest extent to enter into a relationship with you.

God loved the world, no matter where you've been or what you've done, no matter your track record, the decisions that you've made, or the consequences that maybe you still suffer to this day, God loves you enough that he gave his sons, Jesus' life for you.

And now you have to decide what you are going to take your look of faith towards.

Just as Moses lifted the serpent, which required a Ra, one look of faith.

So Jesus has been lifted up for you, and we all put our faith in something.

Maybe for you, your faith is in your finances.

And if you can just get enough money, if you can get the next promotion, if you can buy a big enough house, if you can drive a nice enough car, if you can wear the right brands, if you can just get your money right, you're convinced you can fix all of the problems in your life.

And you know that pain that's been in you since you were a child, the pain that you weren't enough or weren't good enough, or no one would ever love you, or that you're not significant enough, or you're not as pretty as someone else, or you're not as smart as your sibling, or your parents didn't actually care.

That pain that has pushed you every step of your life, you are convinced you can solve it with money.

Some of you are just sleeping with everyone that you can get in bed with you, trying so desperately to find a sense of worth that you'll never find.

And you know this because every person who gets in your bed leaves you emptier than you were before.

Man, the world will offer you every opportunity, whether it's success, social status.

For some of you, your mood every day depends on how many likes or shares you got on your social media posts the night before.

We all put our faith in something, but there is nothing in this world that can hold the weight of your hope.

And humanity has to have hope.

The gospel presentation of John 3.16 is the opportunity for you to take one look of faith, to put the hope for who you are, where you're going, and your eternal life in the one who loves you enough to take the poison for you, to live the life you could not live, to die the death that you deserve, and to offer back to you a new eternal life, and all that is asked of you is one look of faith.

Would you pray with me?

Right where you are, you can bow your head and close your eyes.

There's nothing magic about that, that just creates some space for you and for the people around you.

Life is so difficult.

It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter how many privileges you've had, life is hard and suffering is scalable.

And so maybe you don't think your kind of suffering registers because you know other people have it worse than you.

And that's probably true.

But God cares deeply about your unique suffering because he cares deeply about you.

We do not serve a distant God who stayed far away from us.

We serve a God who put it all with his words.

His love for you moved him to action.

He left a perfect heaven to come down to a world that is so broken, so full of darkness.

Everyone is putting their faith in something.

The question is, what are you looking to for your hope?

If you're here today and you've never believed in Jesus, you've never had that moment, that single moment in your life where you chose to believe that Jesus is who he said that he was.

God in human flesh, that he did what he claims to have done, died for your sins, rose again defeating death, and is ascended back to heaven one day to return for us all.

If you've never had that moment, today you can choose to take one look of faith, the most important decision that you will ever make during your time on earth, the one decision that has eternal, eternal consequence.

If you're here today and you are ready to believe in Jesus, I want to ask you to do something that will require you to be bold, will require you to be vulnerable.

I want to ask you right where you are to just simply look up.

Look up where I can see you.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

By looking up, you are symbolizing one look of faith.

I don't know what you've been taught.

There's no magical prayer to get you into heaven, there's no classes to attend, there's no hoops to jump through.

It is just your faith in Jesus.

And for those of you who have decided to exercise that faith today, I want to pray for you.

God, I thank you.

I join with all of heaven, rejoicing in life's made new.

You are a father who loves us more than we could ever even imagine loving someone.

You are perfect love.

You pursue us at every stop.

You come after us, you seek us out.

There is nowhere we can run to escape you.

You will find us there.

There is no amount of sin we can commit that will make you quit.

God, I thank you for lives made new.

For those who have already believed, I pray that in this moment, as we reflect on the one who loved us enough to take the poison for us, that we would be overwhelmed with gratitude for who you are and what you've done for us.

We thank you.

We thank you for your love.

We thank you for new lives.

And because of it, we worship you now in Jesus' name.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

And I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.