The Sudden Arrival
Notes
Transcript
INTRO – What Brings You Here?
Have you ever been sprung by an ‘official visit’? One moment you’re living your ordinary life, and then there’s a knock at the door, and it’s a parent, or boss, or teacher, or even the police – right there, looking right at you.
Maria Supprising me with getting her P’s
It can be confronting. Often our first instinct is to blurt out ‘Er,
What brings you here? Why are you here?
This series will look at the ultimate version of that. What happens when God shows up? What happens in us? It will greatly help if we know the answer to the question ‘What brings you here?’ And you may well be surprised.
We’ll look back 4000 years (Exodus), where 3 times God says ‘I’m coming down’ – for 3 different reasons. And we’ll look back 2000 years, to God’s arrival in the flesh – and see that he had the same driving motives. And in doing so we’ll get a fresh glimpse, right here and now, of the God who still turns up at our door and knocks.
Our strategic plan is that we want to be a church that opens the door.
Read John 3:19-21
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
1. Humans are nervous creatures…
• We really don’t want to be exposed.
• We invest a lot in covering up! Shelter, clothes, privacy, security. Our homes are our comfort and kingdom
• In fact, our instinct/desire to ‘not get caught’ can be stronger than our instinct/desire to ‘be good’ or ‘do right’
Our relationship with light and dark
Physically vs desires
don’t like to be in the dark, yet the darkness Jesus is talking about we are happy to sit in the dark. (this kind of darkness is believing the devil, gossiping about someone, looking at things online that you know you shouldn’t, and meeting up with people testing the limits of what we are comfortable with. Darkness is following our desire to maximise pleasure and minimise pain even if that pains/hurts someone else).
We like to be in the light, yet it can hurt when we are first exposed.
Batman - a bad role model - the pinnacle of human ability and the ability to fight for justice.
Cultural interest in the night - the sense that if injustice happens to us, that it is our right to fight for justice our way
Bat symbol - bring light and a warning.
People don’t want to say they are the ones caught in darkness and need help out.
2. And so we can be very wary of God … jumpy at even the mention of God…
• In Genesis 3, when God approaches in the garden, Adam & Eve’s instinct is to hide and to cover up.
Have you ever felt nervous about being near someone who truly knows you? If you have a secret you don’t want to share but you know that person can just sense someonthing is off. So you avoid them so that you don’t spill the beans.
• Our own instinct to hide and cover is a sign that something’s not right with us. We can’t have real peace in ourselves or real closeness with God and others unless we are able to live openly and confidently.
• And so, so many people live in a constant avoidance of God
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
3. But there’s a huge pay-off if we dare to turn and face him…
• What brings God to our door is not to crush us or humiliate us or to condemn us.
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 did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
• He comes to help us with our predicament. He is for us. Very, very, very much for us.
Fishing with Dad last week
This Year I have been so thankful for God’s peace and being for me.
A couple of months ago I was feeling I was missing out on hearing from God (Maria Island). But it was going to the prayer room at Newstead Christian School.
I AM blessed when I am pure in heart and I will see God
Matthew 5:8 (NIV)
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
I was reminded this week of that with the verse in my daily reading being Psalm 119:2
Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart—
I have felt that, I am really enjoying being in the light, pursuing the light and no longer in the darkness. because I have been in the darkness, living life my way (it led to wearing a mask and covering up, trying not to be exposed and that is exhausting, Santa?) and now I am devoted to helping others into the light, into freedom.
How about you? enjoying being in the light? Need a hand out of darkness?
• Truthfulness is needed. Like a doctor/surgeon needs everything brought to light so she can operate, we need the courage to bring ourselves into the light rather than scurrying off into the darkness.
• And we’ll find that God is not merely a surgeon.
The news will get better and better as we discover over the next few weeks, just what brings God here.
CONCLUSION
• Even simply from what we’ve explored today, will you – for the first time or afresh – say ‘Lord Jesus, I choose to fight the instinct to run and take cover – I choose to face you and hear you and to step into your light.’
Prayer