Love in Advent

I don’t think I will ever get tired of that video. I don’t think that you should either, but it’s so easy to become numb to what we’re celebrating on Christmas, which is insane!

God Himself. The creator of the universe. The One who is powerful enough to split an entire sea. The One who lead Israel through the desert by a PILLAR OF FIRE. The One who thunders through the night, but speaks to us in a whisper.

There was someone in the Old Testament who wanted to see the Lord too. Before Christ came to Earth, He was following the Lord and so deeply desired to see Him that he prays to God and says “please… Show me your glorious precense”

There was another time he was talking to God and said “God, I don’t want to go anywhere where you are not. Whereever you are is where I want to be.”

That’s the kind of heart we should have. To just desire to be in the precense of God, all of the time, no matter what else is going on. Just focusing on Him and His precense.

Do you guys know who I’m talking about? Who in the Old Testament prayed those prayers?

It was Moses. He asked to see God, to have his goodness pass in front of Him. Which was a crazy thing to ask, because here’s the deal- Sin cannot be around God. It just can’t be. He is so Holy that sin is destroyed in His presence. So if we -a sinful people- see God face to face, we should be destoryed.

And Moses says “I just want to see you. You’re so good and powerful and awesome, just let me see you.”

So God says okay here’s the deal, I’ll pass by you and you can get a glimpse of me through this cloud.

The cloud covers the Lord, but it made it possible for Moses to be in this Holy place and God passes in front of him and the Bible describes God as

Compassionate, merciful, and patient

Loyal, faithful, and forgiving

but also just and One who punishes sin.

He is known as having ways that are higher than our ways.

Our understanding of Hid greatness in limited, but He desires to make Himself known to us.

And He desires for us to know Him. So much so that He humbled himself enoguh to come to Earth as a baby.

That big, powerful, God. The all knowing. All powerful Lord and ruler of the universe made himself a baby.

Had to be fed by humans.

Had to have someone else give Him a bath.

Had to learn to walk on two feet.

How humiliating for the God of the universe..

But then He showed us that He could walk on water.

That He could multiply bread and feed thousands.

That this baby, was actually the Messiah that they had waited thousands of years for.

We should never lose awe of that.

But Christmas will be here in a few days and how many of us are going to wake up that morning, run around the house, and say “guys! Remember when God come to Earth for us??”

You don’t really hear stories like that. No, it’s usually stories about kids waking up their parents at like 5:30 in the moring, because they didn’t know they were up all night wrapping presents, and then saying things like “Santa’s been here!” but it’s not about Santa being here, it’s about Christ coming here.

I know we usually do small groups on Sunday mornings, but we’ve been looking at something called Advent this year and Advent is usually observed on the four sundays that lead up to Christmas, now we’ve been talking about the Advent themes on Wednesday night, and there’s one more that I wanted to observe before Christmas gets here.

We’ve looked at Hope, Preperation, Joy, and this morning I want us to look at Love.

If you haven’t been able to join us on Wednesday nights then you might be asking- What in the world is Advent.

The word “Advent” litterally means “coming” and the Church tradition of observing Advent is done by taking the four weeks leading up to Christmas and focusing our hearts and our minds on Christ advent or His coming.

And as we look to Christs return we find Hope and Joy and we prepare ourself for that return and we know that when He came to Earth the first time, He taught us what Love is.

That’s what we will be looking at this morning.

Love.

But things will go a little diffrently this morning.

We had our Christmas party last night and you probably noticed that there’s still a Switch set up in the back and there were some cookies and milk with our donuts this morning. You’ll have some time to enjoy those things in a second

but what’s going to happen is we’re just going to look at the word of God together, then play a game together (where you could win a prize), and then we’re just going to hang out together.

So go ahead and open your Bibles to 1 John 4 we will be starting with verse 7

1st John comes right after 1st and 2nd Peter. Its pretty close to the end of the Bible, so it goes Hebrews, James, 1st and 2nd Peter and then 1st John.

And like I said, we’re going to be talking about Love this morning, which is something I’ve seen alot of people talking about over the past week.

A little over a week ago we had some pretty devestating storms rip through Ky. Owensboro was spared, but the communities around us have been hit pretty hard. And even though the people of Kentucky have been hurt, we have done an amazing job of coming together and loving one another.

And people from all over have noticed it and something I keep seeing are comments about how the people of Kentucky have shown the world, with our actions, what it looks like to love our neighbors.

And I don’t love that people are hurting, but I love that we are showing people what love looks like.

And I think the Lord is watching the Churches right now and I think He see’s the ones that are acting and is saying “well done my good and faithful servant”

Because this is what the Bible says about love and how w, as Christians, should do it

1 John 4:7–10

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9 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.

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

So lets break this down a little bit

“Dear Friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”

So if you go and look at this in the original Greek language, where is our Bibles say “Dear Friends, let us love or Beloved, let us love..” It also translates, from the original language, to say “those who are loved, let us love.”

We are not commanded to love one another to earn or become worthy of God’s love. We love one another because we are loved by God, and have received that love, and live in light of it.

This is a command to all believers to love our brothers and sisters for no other reason than the fact that we are “those who are loved.”

John even talks about this later in the chapter and says “we love because He first loved us.”

But so often, we love others because deep down, we’re selfish.

We love others because of what they do for us. We love others because they’re funny. Or because they make us feel good about ourselves.

We love others because they’re “good people”

But that’s not what the Bible says about love. The Bible says we love people, including the people that we don’t like, because God first loved us.

That means the people we don’t agree with. That means the people who are bossing us around and the people that have nothing to offer us in return.

That means we don’t love people to make ourselves feel good. We love people because God loves us and the love of God is so big that it flows out and into the world around us.

And then he says that “anyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”

What does he mean by this? Because I know plenty of people who aren’t Christians and still love people.

He isn’t saying that you become a Christian by loving people, but he is saying that if you are a Christian, if you are a follower of Christ, your live will be marked by how you love people.

If love is of God, then those who claim to be born of God, and claim to know God, must be able to love one another.

I’ve told you guys this before, but I have spent nights, laying awake, trying to figure out how to get my lost friends to understand what it means to follow Christ and the Bible answers that question. Actually Jesus himself answered that question. He prayed for us, before we were even born. Before he went to the cross, he cried out to God and said that He wanted us to be unified. Because when the beilievers are unified and loving each other the way God intends for us to love one another, than the world will know who He is.

But we overcomplicated sometimes and God just says “nahh. You want people to know me? You want to see people come to Christ? Love each other. Show them what love really looks like.”

so John says that Christians will be know for their love and then in verse eight he says “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

So if you don’t love people, then you don’t know God and if you do know God, you will love people.

Got it.

But John keeps talking about “knowing God”

What does he mean by that? Because we live in the Bible belt and there are a lot of people who have a knowledge of God, like they know the story of the Bible, but they don’t follow Christ.

When John is talking about knowing God is experience. Again, if you go and look at the original language the word John is using means to have knowledge from experience.

John is saying when we really experience God it will show by our love for one another.

That’s a pretty easy concept to grasp I think and I think everyone in here would agree with this.

When God comes into our life- we begin to truly love the people around us and it comes from experiencing the Lord.

Have you ever heard someone speak about “agape” love before?

It’s another Greek word, but it’s important to understand what kind of love John is talking about here. He’s not talking about the way we love our favorite food. He’s not talking about the way we loved going to see the new Spiderman movie. He’s not talking about how we “love” the really cute boy or girl in our science class. When the Bible speaks about this agape love, it is the concept of a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting re-payment – it is the God-kind of love.

And when we decide to follow Christ, not only do we experince this God type of love, but we are able to love others with the same kind of sacrifical love Christ shows us

And since this is God’s kind of love, if we want to do what the Bible says and love one another, we must also love the Lord.

As our love for the Lord increases our love for one another increases.

If we want to love each other the best way that we can, we have to draw closer to God as well because, just like John just said, love is of God.

Verse nine 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.”

God shows us His love, by sending Jesus into this world so that we might live.

The trinity is an incredibly difficuly thing to understand and nobody fully graps the idea of it completly, but

a lot of people think of God the Father as being this big, mean, God who only casts judgement and God the Son as being nothing but love and mercy and then they don’t really know what to do with God the Spirit, but they all share the same charecteristics.

God the Father is not lacking in love, a matter of fact, He loves us- the sinners, the evil, the wretched, lost people that we are- so much that He willingly sends His son to our dark and broken world?

He loves us so much that He gives up His son?

Look I just now found out that I’m going to be a Dad. Angela’s pregnant and baby Jude isn’t even here yet and NOBODY is going to take him from me so you have to be OUT OF YOUR MIND if you think I’m just going to give him to a group of people who I know are going to torture and kill him one day? No I dont think so, but that is exactly what God does, because He loves us so much.

That is absolutly mind blowing.

and the Bible is clear in telling us that this isn’t even a normal son, but God himself, that’s why John said that this was God’s “begotten” son. This Jesus, is God’s one and only son and they are essentially the same being.

We use the term create to describe something that may come from someone, but isn’t of the same essential nature or being.

A man can create a statue that looks just like him, but it will never be human. However, we use the term beget or begot to describe something that is exactly the same as us in essential nature and being. We are adopted sons and daughters of God, but we are not of the same essential nature and being as God – we are human beings.

But Jesus is the only begotten Son, meaning His Sonship is different than ours; He was and is of the same essential nature and being as God the Father. We are human beings; He is a “God-being” – who added humanity to His deity.

And here we are at Christmas time, talking about Jesus coming into the world like it’s not a big deal.

That holy, powerful, compassionate, just, and perfect God- is here? In a broken, sinful, dark, world?

It’s wild.

and He did so that “we MIGHT live through Him.”

Jeez.. Might? He gave up EVERYTHING for the possibility of us turning towards Him. Jesus lived and died for people who MIGHT turn towards Him. There are people who choose to follow the world and Jesus knew that there would be people who wouldn’t follow Him and He still did what He did.

Jesus loves us so much that if ONE person in the course of all humanity decided to follow Christ, just one and the rest of the world didn’t… Jesus would still come and die for that one person.

and it is so that we might LIVE through Him.

The love of the Father was not only in the sending of the Son, but also in what that sending accomplishes for us. It brings life to all who trust in Jesus and His work on their behalf, because He is our atoning sacrifice.

1 John 4:10

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Atoning sacrifice? What in the world does that mean?

It means that the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross made up for all of our sin. It is a sacrifice that turns away the wrath of God.

We are deserving of God’s wrath. We are born as rebels against the Lord. Our default destination is Hell.

The place we all deserve to go and the place we are all heading if we are without Christ.

We need someone to save us.

Hell is not a place reserved for the worst of the worst, Hell is a place reserved for those who don’t follow Jesus.

But on the cross, Jesus took the punishment for our sins. He took the punishment that we deserve – His sacrifice turned away the judgment we would have received.

That is love. To give up your life for another.

The fact that God sent his the Son and not some angel should tell us how much love God has for us. But God sent the Son and not on a fact-finding mission or a mission of compassion – He sent the Son to die for our sins.

Someone said it like this

“If God had merely sent Jesus to teach us about Himself, that would have been wonderful enough. It would have been far more than we deserved. If God had sent Jesus simply to be our example, that would have been good too and would have had some value... But the wonderful thing is that God did not stop with these but rather sent His Son, not merely to teach or to be our example, but to die the death of a felon, that He might save us from sin.”

For our sins…

God died for sinners..

We can understand some one dying for some one nobel or important. Jumping in front of a bullet for the president or something like that..

But for the enemy? For someone who never did them any service, but instead treaded them injustly, ungratefully, and with mallice in their heart? Who would do that?

The Bible says that this is love.

And as followers of Christ we should naturally be people who love others.

It is crazy to me that people are coming to church and pastors are begging people to follow Christ.

We’ve been reading through the book of Mark, right? Do you all remember the deomon possesed man that Jesus heals in chapter Mark 5? The guy who was filled with demons and Jesus cast them into the pigs?

DO you remember what the man did after he was healed? He runs back and starts BEGGING to follow Jesus.

But today you come to church and find pastors begging people to read their Bibles. Begging people to get plugged in at Church. Begging people to serve. Begging people to worship the God of the universe. Jsut begging and begging people to find some interest in the God of the universe.

That’s insane.

If you’re a Christian that loves the Lord, you shouldn’t have to be begged or convinced to worship your risen savior.

Hunters hunt.

Runners run.

Workers work.

And worshippers worship.

Christians love.

and we do so, because God first loved us.

But I want to ask you a question.. what do you imagine when I keep using the word “love?”

Love is an action. It’s not a feeling or a something that we fall into. It is a choice that we make. We choice to love. God shows us this when He sends His son. He didn’t just tell from Heaven “Hey guys! Good luck down there! Love ya lots! Here are my thoughts and prayers!” No, He acted.

So when I say “love your neighbor” what do you think of?

We’ve been reading through the book of Mark and we’ve learned a lot about servanthood, right?

When I say “love” do you think of serving people?

Is love going to help our neighbors who have been hit by a tornado?

Yes, it is.

It is feeding the hungry in our own city?

Yes, it is.

Is it taking care of our eldery, who can’t take care of themself?

Yes, it is.

Is it packing backpacks for students who need school supplies?

Yes.

Is doing yard work and painting sheds for people who can’t do it on their own?

Yes.

and we do these things because we have experienced the love of God.

But what about sharing the message of Christ with our friends? Is that loving?

What if you knew that those storms where coming a week before they got here. Would you tell people that it was coming and that they needed to get out of the way?

Because here’s the deal- you have lost friends who are going to go to Hell if you don’t tell them about Christ.

I’m constantly talking to people after funerals who say things like “I wish I wouldv’e talked to them about Christ, because now they’re gone and I don’t know if they knew HIm or not.”

I remember a time, not long after I became a Christian, that my uncle got sick. I very clearly remember thinking to myself that I needed to go and have a conversation with him about his faith before it’s too late, but I got “too busy” and never got around to it.

My uncle passed away and there was a lot of talk from my family members about whether he was in heaven or not.

I’m in no place to judge someone elses heart, but the fact that people were wondering if he was a Christian or not should tell you everything that you need to know.

But I remember being at that funeral and thinking to myself “I will never let this happen again. I will never go to a funeral of someone I know and have to wonder if they were saved or not, because I’m going to have this conversation with everyone I can.”

And what’s scary is that a lot of people here think they are Christian’s because that how they were raised.

Or because they go to Church.

Or because they know the Christmas and Easter story.

Or maybe they think they’ll get to Heaven because they’re just a good person....

But none of that is true. You’re a Christian once you realize that you’re a sinner who needs a savior and you look to Jesus to be that savior. You become a Christian when you understand your sin, look at Christ and say “okay God. I’m following you now.”

And your friends, they need someone to explain that to them.

To tell them what Christianity really is and if you really love your friends- You’ll have that conversation with them.

How will they hear if no one tells them?

My biggest fear in the world is getting to Heaven one day… looking over.... and watching all the people I met going to Hell… and them just looking at me- asking, “why didn’t you tell us… you knew… why didn’t you say anything?”

Ya know… as your pastor it is my job to help you follow Christ and sometimes that means I have to tell you uncomftorable things and right now I’m just wondering how many people in this room could tell their friends how to become a Christian.

What that looks like or what it even means and that scares me, because I love you guys, but here’s the deal...

If you truly are a Christian, than you have a story about how you became one- because no body is born a Christian. That’s not how it works.

And if you’ve made that decision to become a Christian, all you have to do is tell people that story.

But if you can’t do that, I wonder if you’ve made that decision. Have you made the decision to follow Christ and if you have are you sharing it with others? Because that is our natural response. To share the love of Christ with others.

So this is the season of Advent when we focus on Love. I want to remind you that God loves you enough to send his Son to die for you. So that you may choose to follow Him and spend all of eternity with Him.

And if we’ve experienced that love, it should pour out of us and into the world around us. Lets focus on that as Christmas comes and the baby who saves the world is celebrated. You want to keep Christ in Christmas? Serve you’re community. Feed the hungry. Help those in need and most importantly.. tell them about Christ while you do it.

Pray

Game?

Chill