Established in Love: Knowing God

Good Morning! It is a great day to be alive! There are lights to light our way, there is love amongst us as we gathered this morning, evidenced by the chatter and laughter I heard as I entered the sanctuary this morning, and most importantly, we have praised and worshiped God together! But there is much to learn and re-learn, and re-learn, and re-learn!

This morning we begin a time of reflection for the next 6 weeks in which we will try to connect to God in a deeper way, a way that helps us to remember that we are established in God’s love. For many of us, this might seem redundant but at the same time, our attitudes often reflect that we don’t necessarily always believe this.

This past week, I was fortunate enough to have been given the chance to spend some time with my colleagues and not just spend time with them but also to provide some instruction and discussion around what it means to be in covenant with one another. It was a difficult day for me because I often forget how much I truly know and understand about covenant. Because of what I have experienced in my life, there are voices that always ring in the back of my mind that I give way too much power and authority to, to override what is the absolute truth…God created me to be exactly who I am in this moment and God instructs my life, not those voices from my past. But if we are completely honest, we all easily push God’s voice aside and focus on the words of those who have told us that we are not worthy. It is so easy to give over that power and authority to those voices but here’s the thing, when we don’t consider God’s voice greater than all others, I have to wonder if we truly live out what God created us to be and more importantly what God desires for us to accomplish in this life...

Established Means...

Being established in God’s love means that we should be listening to God’s voice over and above all others. And yes, I hear you already, but pastor, I try to do that and I want to remind you of a quote that I mentioned a couple months ago…“Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” You see, when we try, we forget that there really is no trying to do anything in this life. I mean think about it…if we try to play baseball, are we are simply playing or not playing baseball? If we want to try to play golf, we need to go out and do it, right? If we want to try to live a life of love, we have to get out and actually exhibit love, right? I love Yoda, you all know that, and it is not because he is a short, green, wise being. I love Yoda because, there is infinite wisdom in what he said as a character in several movies. While Yoda is not what most would consider a religious icon, his words have spoken way more truth than many who would claim to know God and end up judging others, just sayin’. And whether you agree with me or not, it does not matter to me, because frankly, I am doing everything I can to make God’s voice the priority in my life because I am tired of hearing negativity everywhere I go...

Here’s why this is important to us…as we look just a mere two months from now, we will be welcoming Immanuel into this world, and it is a really good time to start getting some new habits established…the first one that I believe many, if not all of us, needs to begin doing is realizing that God created us for unity and not division, God established us to love God first and love each other as God exemplified love for us, and most importantly God established us for relationship. Being established by God means that our lives completely belong to God and not us...

I want us to really consider this in the coming weeks. I believe that in a world that is so focused on outward appearance and is so willing to cast judgment, we need to be the ones who make a difference and change the world into what God desired for it to be. I am going to be blunt here. I am dismayed that we are no different than the world around us…it hurts me to know that judgment occurs more often than not, and that gossip and rumors are passed as truth. When we act in this way, a way that is typical of those who do not know, deep down, that we have been created and established in God’s love, we too fall prey to casting judgment, spreading rumors, and gossiping. I do my best to exemplify what it means to believe that I am established in God’s love but there really is only one person who has ever shown the perfect example and thank God that I am not him. This is important for us in today’s society because frankly, I look around me and see a whole lot of disdain, distrust, and discord, which is so clearly NOT what God wanted.

Today we heard a bit about what Jesus saw and what Jesus desires for those who came after him…so, let’s look at how Jesus prays for his followers, for us, and the world, as a way to begin understanding how God made us to be and act in this world. And to set us up a bit for this scene, we are in the midst of the night of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest. Jesus has taught the disciples about what it means to be his disciples and has tried to give them comfort all amid a warning that they will face trouble in life because of their belief in him and who he is. This prayer that we are looking at this morning is one that I think we should really consider to be the Lord’s prayer. It is about Jesus praying for those he has been with for the last three years and it is about what they and as a result, we will face in this life. The very first part of this prayer is about himself but the remainder is about us…listen to the first part again...

John 17:1–5 NLT

After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.

Before I read what is on the screen, there is one other thing that we need to realize…in this whole prayer, this is the only time that Jesus prays for himself and it is not necessarily about what is about to happen or about the trouble he is to face or has faced, but it is about being one with God and acknowledging that all Jesus is, is because of what God has done…read the passage on the screen...

And really the only thing he says in these words about what he is to face is that he wants to return to the place where he began…that’s it. Now, for us here this morning, this might not be a feasible thing to understand or even grasp but I want us to consider these words very carefully…this is the way to have eternal life, to know you and to know Jesus Christ as the one sent to give glory to God. Think about that for a moment…to know God. We are going to spend the rest of our lives getting to know God, that is how we are designed and I don’t think that we are designed to truly know and understand before our time here is complete. But does that mean we should not strive to get to know God better throughout our lives? Absolutely not…and it should be our first priority in this world so that we too can bring glory to God. And honestly, if we are not bringing glory to God for all that we have been given, why are we really here?

Let’s look at the next piece...

John 17:6–11 NLT

“I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me. “My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory. Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are.

…read the first screen…So going deeper into this prayer, Jesus is now praying for the disciples he knows and those he does not know, but rather those who are to come as a result of the disciples’ work after Jesus dies. The part of this that we need to keep in mind is that the reason that Jesus came was to bring God’s people back to knowing God. At this time in the world, there was a deep chasm between God and God’s people. Not unlike today, people were caught up in living in the world and being a part of the world. They had begun to forget about all that God had done for their ancestors. They had forgotten what it meant to give God glory and praise.

Jesus is saying here that he has fulfilled his mission. He has brought some people back into relationship with God, not that God abandoned that relationship but rather that the people had moved away from God and abandoned their relationship with God and there were many more yet to bring back into relationship with God, the work was not yet done. I get it, it’s easy to question why things are happening in this world. I was reminded of that very much in the past week. We get so caught up in all that is going on that I think we often forget that somethings happen, they just happen, and God is not at fault but our society teaches us that someone needs to take the fall. And truthfully, it is really easy to look to God and put the blame there.

A Challenge for the days ahead...

But I want to challenge us to begin thinking differently. It’s not God’s fault that any of us fall away from God’s love for us. It’s not God’s fault when bad things happen. It’s not God’s fault that the world is the way that it is. I fully believe in free will and we have choices to make and sometimes, when we forget to remember that God will speak to us, we so easily blame God for the choices that we have made. God created us in God’s image, just like one of our natural parents, God has never stepped away from us or abandoned us. Even when it feels like we are all alone, we are not. Whether we choose to listen to the things around us that may be God speaking into our hearts is a different story. But God does speak to us…you know, on Tuesday night I saw about a dozen deer on my way to church. I actually felt God saying to me, here they are, you may not be able to use one for someone else’s benefit, but I am here watching you and keeping you as you go about doing the work that I have called you to do. God speaks to us because God loves us and only wants for us to reach out and say, “I am here God, listening, choose me.” It is time for things to change...

Let us pray...

God, when we start to fall away and begin blaming you for our stuff, remind us that we are loved even when we blame you. Speak into our hearts in this moment, reach out and tug at our heart strings so that we are prepared to receive the child this Christmas, we are truly ready and able to accept the gift of his life and ultimately his sacrifice which guarantees us an eternal life. Here we are, use us to change the world we know and the world we don’t know, Amen.