1 00:00:10,500 --> 00:00:12,583 "That God has so composed the body, 2 00:00:12,667 --> 00:00:14,792 "giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 3 00:00:14,833 --> 00:00:17,000 "that there may be no division in the body, 4 00:00:17,083 --> 00:00:20,417 "but that members may have the same care for one another. 5 00:00:20,500 --> 00:00:22,667 "If one member suffers, all suffer the other. 6 00:00:22,708 --> 00:00:28,167 If one member is honored, all rejoice together." 7 00:00:31,125 --> 00:00:35,250 We moved out here and we-- the plane landed and we got 8 00:00:35,333 --> 00:00:38,000 in the car, and we didn't know where we were going. 9 00:00:38,042 --> 00:00:39,375 I started crying. 10 00:00:39,458 --> 00:00:41,000 And Leslie started crying. 11 00:00:41,042 --> 00:00:43,208 A few days later, we go to church. 12 00:00:43,292 --> 00:00:45,167 It was Mars Hill Bellevue at the time. 13 00:00:45,208 --> 00:00:48,167 We went to church and we just stopped by the Welcome Desk, 14 00:00:48,208 --> 00:00:50,667 and we were like, "Hey, we're new to this area. 15 00:00:50,708 --> 00:00:52,333 "We don't know anybody. Plug us in." 16 00:00:52,417 --> 00:00:54,083 And that was our first Community Group, 17 00:00:54,167 --> 00:00:56,083 the people who were at the Welcome Desk. 18 00:00:56,167 --> 00:01:00,667 So yeah, I mean, it's like we're in community right away, 19 00:01:00,708 --> 00:01:02,042 which was key. 20 00:01:02,125 --> 00:01:05,000 And then that's how we kind of met a bunch of people 21 00:01:05,083 --> 00:01:07,750 and kind of built up our support network out here. 22 00:01:07,833 --> 00:01:10,167 Because you know, we don't have any family out here, 23 00:01:10,250 --> 00:01:13,792 but we have our church family. 24 00:01:13,833 --> 00:01:17,458 I think the Lord really kind of used Wes and Leslie as kind 25 00:01:17,500 --> 00:01:21,625 of pioneers of experiencing what it's like to come out here and 26 00:01:21,667 --> 00:01:25,333 not know anybody, so I really identify with that story. 27 00:01:25,417 --> 00:01:29,083 And Sarah and I moved out here about 2 years ago and didn't 28 00:01:29,167 --> 00:01:35,292 know anybody, and they were the first people that we really 29 00:01:35,333 --> 00:01:38,917 got plugged into and started being a part of life with. 30 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,000 We bought a new house, and before anything was in it, 31 00:01:42,042 --> 00:01:44,083 everybody came over, Pastor Alex, 32 00:01:44,167 --> 00:01:47,083 and just praying-- and Denise, yeah. 33 00:01:47,167 --> 00:01:49,292 We did, like, a prayer walk through the room. 34 00:01:49,333 --> 00:01:52,125 Yeah, we did, like, a prayer walk through all the rooms. 35 00:01:52,167 --> 00:01:57,000 My husband is in the military and he's gone for at least 36 00:01:57,083 --> 00:01:59,042 6 months out of the year. 37 00:01:59,125 --> 00:02:03,875 We moved here a year ago and my husband was scheduled to go out 38 00:02:03,958 --> 00:02:07,167 pretty soon after we moved here and we had not found 39 00:02:07,250 --> 00:02:08,833 a place to live yet. 40 00:02:08,875 --> 00:02:12,333 And by the time he was on the boat full-time, 41 00:02:12,375 --> 00:02:14,583 and I think they left for a little bit, 42 00:02:14,667 --> 00:02:17,875 we had just moved in to our place. 43 00:02:17,958 --> 00:02:20,500 The kids and I were still sleeping on the floor 44 00:02:20,542 --> 00:02:23,333 and our whole Community Group came out and helped me 45 00:02:23,417 --> 00:02:25,500 unpack all the boxes. 46 00:02:25,542 --> 00:02:29,000 And it was a huge help to me because it was the first time 47 00:02:29,042 --> 00:02:31,917 I was on my own, unpacking a whole house. 48 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:36,917 I had three kids at the time. 49 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,542 He's going to take care of them no matter what, 50 00:02:39,625 --> 00:02:42,500 and he's always been faithful even though I've been gone 51 00:02:42,583 --> 00:02:47,667 for more than 6 months out of the year for the last 4 years. 52 00:02:47,708 --> 00:02:54,500 Then as soon as we got home, we got a gift, 53 00:02:54,583 --> 00:02:57,292 and they volunteered to babysit him overnight and then pitched 54 00:02:57,333 --> 00:03:02,667 together to buy a hotel room and dinner just so we could get out 55 00:03:02,750 --> 00:03:07,458 before the fourth baby was born. 56 00:03:07,500 --> 00:03:09,458 I can't imagine the stuff we've gone through 57 00:03:09,500 --> 00:03:12,000 in the past 5 years when we've lived out here, 58 00:03:12,042 --> 00:03:14,000 I can't imagine going through any of that 59 00:03:14,042 --> 00:03:15,708 without our community around us. 60 00:03:15,792 --> 00:03:18,750 And it's also--I mean, you're just being obedient to what God 61 00:03:18,833 --> 00:03:20,208 calls us to do, right? 62 00:03:20,292 --> 00:03:22,417 I mean, God calls us to live in Community. 63 00:03:22,500 --> 00:03:25,167 God calls us to serve one another and love one another. 64 00:03:25,208 --> 00:03:28,667 And you know, we're just obeying that calling and we get so much 65 00:03:28,708 --> 00:03:31,375 out of it, you know, that we probably didn't even realize 66 00:03:31,458 --> 00:03:34,833 we would at first. 67 00:03:35,292 --> 00:03:36,708 Amen. 68 00:03:36,792 --> 00:03:38,208 Well good morning, Mars Hill Church. 69 00:03:38,292 --> 00:03:40,875 My name is Josh McPherson, lead pastor of Grace City Church 70 00:03:40,958 --> 00:03:42,292 over in Wenatchee. 71 00:03:42,333 --> 00:03:44,792 I'm also the rejoint director for Acts 29 Northwest 72 00:03:44,833 --> 00:03:49,500 and it is my joy, 73 00:03:51,375 --> 00:03:54,667 my privilege to be with you this morning. 74 00:03:54,750 --> 00:03:56,833 You feel like family. 75 00:03:56,875 --> 00:03:58,917 You're family to me. 76 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:01,208 I have a deep love for Pastor Mark. 77 00:04:01,292 --> 00:04:03,958 His family has blessed my family in a thousand ways 78 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,333 the media will never report on or hear about. 79 00:04:07,417 --> 00:04:09,667 I love your leaders here. I love you. 80 00:04:09,708 --> 00:04:11,208 I've been personally blessed. 81 00:04:11,292 --> 00:04:13,208 My church has received much from your church, 82 00:04:13,292 --> 00:04:14,625 and for that we're grateful. 83 00:04:14,667 --> 00:04:17,292 It's easy for me to be here with you this morning. 84 00:04:17,333 --> 00:04:23,750 No place I'd rather be. 85 00:04:29,375 --> 00:04:31,500 You need Jesus this morning? 86 00:04:31,542 --> 00:04:33,417 Whoo, I need Jesus this morning. 87 00:04:33,500 --> 00:04:35,333 You want to open up the word? 88 00:04:35,417 --> 00:04:36,917 Let's open up the word. 89 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,667 1 John 2 is where we're going to be this morning. 90 00:04:39,708 --> 00:04:41,875 The Good Lord has a word for us here. 91 00:04:41,958 --> 00:04:43,500 And as you're opening your Bible, 92 00:04:43,542 --> 00:04:46,500 I'd invite you to join with me in a word of prayer. 93 00:04:46,542 --> 00:04:52,917 Father, we come before you now, needy, broken, hurting people, 94 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:58,542 needing to be filled with your hope and healing power. 95 00:04:58,625 --> 00:05:03,583 That's us any given moment of any given day. 96 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:12,417 Whether we feel it or not, we are all broken, hurting, 97 00:05:12,500 --> 00:05:15,667 needy apart from Jesus. 98 00:05:15,750 --> 00:05:21,542 Lord, we come to you this morning with hearts hope-filled. 99 00:05:21,625 --> 00:05:24,667 No other place we could go. 100 00:05:24,750 --> 00:05:28,208 Like Peter would say, "Where else could we go, Jesus? 101 00:05:28,292 --> 00:05:30,125 To whom else could we turn?" 102 00:05:30,167 --> 00:05:32,583 We have nowhere else to run but to you, 103 00:05:32,667 --> 00:05:37,708 and to you then is where we come together this morning. 104 00:05:37,792 --> 00:05:41,500 To the foot of the cross, to the stone of the empty tomb, 105 00:05:41,583 --> 00:05:44,583 to the throne of heaven, we come. 106 00:05:44,667 --> 00:05:46,583 Jesus, would you meet with us? 107 00:05:46,667 --> 00:05:48,500 Would you meet us here? 108 00:05:48,583 --> 00:05:50,375 Would you help me to be helpful? 109 00:05:50,458 --> 00:05:55,000 Fill my mind, and heart, and mouth with truth. 110 00:05:55,083 --> 00:05:58,958 Would you give us wisdom and discernment to hear and receive, 111 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:03,333 repent where needed, and respond to your word? 112 00:06:03,417 --> 00:06:08,125 Father, we need you to do what only your Holy Spirit can do. 113 00:06:08,167 --> 00:06:10,500 Not eloquent enough, or smart enough, 114 00:06:10,583 --> 00:06:13,000 or adequate enough to know, and understand, 115 00:06:13,083 --> 00:06:15,875 and comprehend all of the needs going on in the room. 116 00:06:15,958 --> 00:06:17,792 You know. 117 00:06:17,833 --> 00:06:19,583 We trust you in that. 118 00:06:19,667 --> 00:06:23,167 And as we open up your word, we ask that you would be upon 119 00:06:23,208 --> 00:06:27,458 the reading, and preaching, and teaching, and receiving, 120 00:06:27,500 --> 00:06:31,000 and hearing of your word to bring about Jesus' fruit 121 00:06:31,083 --> 00:06:33,958 in the life of your church. 122 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,667 For the glory of Jesus' name we ask these things. 123 00:06:36,750 --> 00:06:40,667 And God's people said together, amen. 124 00:06:40,750 --> 00:06:47,667 There is a distinguishing mark of gospel people that separates 125 00:06:47,750 --> 00:06:51,792 them from all of the frauds, and all of the phonies, 126 00:06:51,833 --> 00:06:53,875 and all of the pretenders. 127 00:06:53,958 --> 00:07:00,417 John's question to you this morning is, "Do you have it?" 128 00:07:00,500 --> 00:07:06,000 There is a distinguishing mark that sets gospel people apart. 129 00:07:06,042 --> 00:07:10,792 John's question is, "Do you have the mark? 130 00:07:10,833 --> 00:07:12,500 "Have you been set apart? 131 00:07:12,583 --> 00:07:16,000 "Can you be distinguished from the frauds and the phonies 132 00:07:16,083 --> 00:07:18,917 by this mark?" 133 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:23,667 You don't have to know a lot of things to do 134 00:07:23,708 --> 00:07:26,000 great things for Jesus. 135 00:07:26,083 --> 00:07:30,333 You don't have to have vast pools of knowledge. 136 00:07:30,375 --> 00:07:36,917 You just need to know a very few things and be gripped by them, 137 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:40,625 so much so that they turn you inside out, 138 00:07:40,667 --> 00:07:44,583 the reorient your world view, and you move forward from 139 00:07:44,667 --> 00:07:47,833 encountering them, unable to see anything else 140 00:07:47,875 --> 00:07:49,375 except through the lens 141 00:07:49,458 --> 00:07:52,292 of those few things through which you interpret, then, 142 00:07:52,333 --> 00:07:55,500 everything that happens to you and happens around you. 143 00:07:55,542 --> 00:07:58,375 And John's going to take all of those things 144 00:07:58,458 --> 00:08:01,000 and he's going to pack them into this book, 145 00:08:01,083 --> 00:08:03,833 specifically into this text this morning. 146 00:08:03,875 --> 00:08:09,750 Suffice to say, the things John puts on the table for us 147 00:08:09,833 --> 00:08:15,042 could not be greater and more worth our energy to comprehend, 148 00:08:15,125 --> 00:08:18,625 understand, process, appropriate, 149 00:08:18,667 --> 00:08:20,958 and apply to our lives this morning. 150 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,667 We're going to see John spell out the sine qua non 151 00:08:23,708 --> 00:08:25,583 of the Christian life. 152 00:08:25,667 --> 00:08:29,792 What he articulates here is simply, 153 00:08:29,833 --> 00:08:35,792 "Without which, nothing." 154 00:08:35,833 --> 00:08:39,833 We're going to look at our text in three movements. 155 00:08:39,917 --> 00:08:45,292 The first movement, John's fatherly purpose. 156 00:08:45,333 --> 00:08:48,292 John's fatherly purpose. 157 00:08:48,333 --> 00:08:51,792 And we know John's writing this letter at the end of his life. 158 00:08:51,833 --> 00:08:56,250 You know what kind of clarity comes to the one 159 00:08:56,333 --> 00:08:58,667 who is nearing the end? 160 00:08:58,750 --> 00:09:03,208 My grandma went to be with Jesus 4 weeks ago, 161 00:09:03,292 --> 00:09:07,292 5 weeks ago this Sunday. 162 00:09:07,333 --> 00:09:10,750 You know what kind of clarity she had nearing the end of her 163 00:09:10,833 --> 00:09:15,583 life that differed greatly from the things that I was thinking 164 00:09:15,667 --> 00:09:18,333 about and looking at at the time? 165 00:09:18,375 --> 00:09:20,083 Because when you're nearing the end, 166 00:09:20,167 --> 00:09:21,583 all the secondary issues, 167 00:09:21,667 --> 00:09:23,333 and all the fluff, and the stuff, 168 00:09:23,417 --> 00:09:25,500 and the gunk just kind of falls away, 169 00:09:25,583 --> 00:09:27,833 and you're able to see with a renewed clarity 170 00:09:27,917 --> 00:09:30,500 that which is ultimate. 171 00:09:30,583 --> 00:09:32,833 That's the kind of perspective John's bringing here. 172 00:09:32,875 --> 00:09:35,667 He's lived a pretty crazy life, right? 173 00:09:35,750 --> 00:09:37,417 I mean, you know, Son of Thunder, 174 00:09:37,500 --> 00:09:39,000 I mean, apostle. 175 00:09:39,042 --> 00:09:44,458 He spent 3 years with Jesus, sat at the Last Supper with Jesus. 176 00:09:44,500 --> 00:09:47,125 He was personal friends with Judas. 177 00:09:47,167 --> 00:09:50,417 John knows betrayal, John knows hurt, John knows pain, 178 00:09:50,500 --> 00:09:52,125 John knows relational conflict. 179 00:09:52,167 --> 00:09:55,000 He stood at the cross, Jesus dying before him, 180 00:09:55,042 --> 00:09:57,708 charging him to care for his mother. 181 00:09:57,792 --> 00:09:59,833 Exiled out to of the Island of Patmos, 182 00:09:59,917 --> 00:10:02,167 writes Revelation, writes the Gospel of John. 183 00:10:02,250 --> 00:10:04,167 I mean, like, John's got a resume, right? 184 00:10:04,250 --> 00:10:06,292 The dude's lived some life. 185 00:10:06,333 --> 00:10:11,125 What's he going to say nearing the end to those he loved. 186 00:10:11,167 --> 00:10:14,042 Often times, preachers quote Baxter and they say, 187 00:10:14,125 --> 00:10:19,375 "Preach every sermon as if it was your last, 188 00:10:19,458 --> 00:10:22,833 a dying man to dying men and women." 189 00:10:22,875 --> 00:10:25,500 And there's a sense in which John's preaching 190 00:10:25,583 --> 00:10:27,167 that kind of sermon here. 191 00:10:27,250 --> 00:10:29,333 Probably his last hurrah, not sure how much longer 192 00:10:29,417 --> 00:10:30,833 he's going to be here. 193 00:10:30,917 --> 00:10:32,833 What's he going to say in that moment, 194 00:10:32,917 --> 00:10:34,667 with crystal-like clarity nearing the end 195 00:10:34,750 --> 00:10:37,292 to those he loves? 196 00:10:37,333 --> 00:10:40,667 Are you leaning in yet? 197 00:10:40,750 --> 00:10:47,667 Chapter 2, verse 1, "My little children." 198 00:10:49,333 --> 00:10:52,000 Is that just kind of... [sighing] 199 00:10:52,042 --> 00:10:54,542 That's the effect it's supposed to have on your soul. 200 00:10:54,625 --> 00:10:56,333 This isn't school yard marm. 201 00:10:56,417 --> 00:10:58,125 This isn't, you know, junior high principals. 202 00:10:58,167 --> 00:10:59,542 This isn't philosophical professor. 203 00:10:59,625 --> 00:11:01,667 This isn't track coach screaming at you. 204 00:11:01,708 --> 00:11:06,458 This is loving, gentle, tender, affectionate Apostle John 205 00:11:06,500 --> 00:11:08,667 for his spiritual children. 206 00:11:08,708 --> 00:11:12,208 He has a tender, father-like love for them, 207 00:11:12,292 --> 00:11:14,500 meaning whatever comes after this, 208 00:11:14,542 --> 00:11:17,500 no matter how harsh it might sound or how--I mean, 209 00:11:17,542 --> 00:11:20,500 he's going to draw some lines in the sand here for us. 210 00:11:20,583 --> 00:11:23,958 It's coming from a place of deep, fatherly affection, 211 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,167 so don't lose sight of the, "My dear children," 212 00:11:26,250 --> 00:11:27,958 when we get later in the text. 213 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:29,708 "My dear children." 214 00:11:29,792 --> 00:11:31,417 Side note for parents. 215 00:11:31,500 --> 00:11:33,875 It's free of charge this morning. 216 00:11:33,958 --> 00:11:35,417 Should we correct our children? 217 00:11:35,500 --> 00:11:37,083 Should we teach our children? 218 00:11:37,167 --> 00:11:39,417 Should we discipline our children? 219 00:11:39,500 --> 00:11:43,750 Absolutely, but to do any of those things disconnected from 220 00:11:43,833 --> 00:11:48,000 a deep and abiding love for them that they feel will be to bear 221 00:11:48,042 --> 00:11:51,417 the fruit of bitterness in their life and they'll probably reject 222 00:11:51,500 --> 00:11:52,833 what you're teaching. 223 00:11:52,875 --> 00:11:55,000 If they don't feel how much you love them, 224 00:11:55,042 --> 00:11:58,792 they won't love or care about what you're teaching them. 225 00:11:58,833 --> 00:12:01,167 And so John's coming with a fatherly affection. 226 00:12:01,250 --> 00:12:04,917 He's saying, "My dear children, I have much invested in you. 227 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:08,333 "I want the best for you, so whatever I'm going to say now 228 00:12:08,417 --> 00:12:11,750 is for your good because I love you." 229 00:12:11,833 --> 00:12:18,417 And he says this, "I am writing these things to you 230 00:12:18,500 --> 00:12:25,500 so that you may not sin." 231 00:12:27,667 --> 00:12:30,667 Preachers are always looking for the point of the text, you know? 232 00:12:30,708 --> 00:12:33,042 What's the point of the text? 233 00:12:33,125 --> 00:12:36,750 Well, I think the point of the text, according to John, 234 00:12:36,833 --> 00:12:41,083 is that he's writing these things that they may not sin. 235 00:12:41,167 --> 00:12:43,083 Pretty clear. 236 00:12:43,167 --> 00:12:45,833 Not a lot of rocket science going on here. 237 00:12:45,875 --> 00:12:48,250 "I love you like a father and I'm writing this 238 00:12:48,333 --> 00:12:49,667 that you may not sin." 239 00:12:49,708 --> 00:12:54,375 Now, why would he write that? 240 00:12:54,458 --> 00:12:56,375 Of all the encouraging things he could say, 241 00:12:56,458 --> 00:13:00,167 why would he put it in the negative like that? 242 00:13:00,208 --> 00:13:02,667 That's why he writes this, 243 00:13:02,708 --> 00:13:06,333 because nobody John was writing to, 244 00:13:06,375 --> 00:13:12,000 nobody in this room, takes sin seriously enough. 245 00:13:14,333 --> 00:13:18,000 Nobody in this room takes their own personal sin 246 00:13:18,083 --> 00:13:21,167 seriously enough. 247 00:13:21,250 --> 00:13:24,167 You say, "Well, what is sin, Josh?" 248 00:13:24,250 --> 00:13:25,583 Thank you for asking. 249 00:13:25,667 --> 00:13:27,667 Let me help you out. 250 00:13:27,750 --> 00:13:33,500 Sin often gets categorized or classified as doing wrong things 251 00:13:33,583 --> 00:13:36,000 or not doing right things. 252 00:13:36,083 --> 00:13:37,833 That's how our kids think of it. 253 00:13:37,875 --> 00:13:39,833 That's how we often define it for them. 254 00:13:39,875 --> 00:13:41,333 That's how we feel about it. 255 00:13:41,375 --> 00:13:44,708 So, if I want to stop sinning, I need to stop doing bad things. 256 00:13:44,792 --> 00:13:48,042 However, that's not what sin is. 257 00:13:48,125 --> 00:13:51,458 That's actually the result of the true sin. 258 00:13:51,500 --> 00:13:53,708 The true sin, or the sin underneath the sin, 259 00:13:53,792 --> 00:13:57,792 is not that you do wrong things. 260 00:13:57,833 --> 00:14:03,833 Rather, sin is that you want wrong things. 261 00:14:03,917 --> 00:14:08,917 You've never done anything in your life that you did not want 262 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:12,542 to do, ever, ever once. 263 00:14:12,625 --> 00:14:18,250 Meaning, when we sin by doing wrong things or when we sin 264 00:14:18,333 --> 00:14:21,833 by not doing right things, we're sinning ultimately 265 00:14:21,875 --> 00:14:26,833 because we don't want to do what's right and we, rather, 266 00:14:26,875 --> 00:14:28,542 want to do what's wrong. 267 00:14:28,625 --> 00:14:33,333 Meaning, if we're going to get at this sin issue, 268 00:14:33,417 --> 00:14:36,458 we have to address not the behavior of sin, 269 00:14:36,500 --> 00:14:40,167 but the wanter underneath the sin. 270 00:14:40,250 --> 00:14:42,250 Tracking? 271 00:14:42,333 --> 00:14:47,333 John is going after not behavior, but heart. 272 00:14:47,375 --> 00:14:50,000 Not actions, but worship. 273 00:14:50,042 --> 00:14:54,000 Not words, necessarily, but desires and orientations 274 00:14:54,042 --> 00:14:55,625 of the heart. 275 00:14:55,667 --> 00:14:57,833 Therefore when Paul says, "My dear children, 276 00:14:57,875 --> 00:15:00,250 I'm writing to you that you may not sin," 277 00:15:00,333 --> 00:15:02,917 he's going right to the very core of the issue. 278 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:04,667 Nothing could be more fundamental than what 279 00:15:04,750 --> 00:15:07,458 John's addressing here. 280 00:15:07,500 --> 00:15:11,083 He's addressing the issue of worship, 281 00:15:11,167 --> 00:15:14,667 because sin ultimately is idolatry. 282 00:15:14,750 --> 00:15:17,500 In fact, it's an interesting note to strike and it really 283 00:15:17,583 --> 00:15:20,250 stands out in the book because he's going along talking about 284 00:15:20,333 --> 00:15:23,083 love, and he's contrasting love and hate, and light and dark, 285 00:15:23,167 --> 00:15:25,000 and truth and lies. 286 00:15:25,083 --> 00:15:29,167 And he's kind of got this circular writing pattern. 287 00:15:29,250 --> 00:15:32,000 He's not, you know, linear like Paul, like, boom, boom, boom, 288 00:15:32,042 --> 00:15:33,417 boom, boom, therefore, so that. 289 00:15:33,500 --> 00:15:35,917 He just kind of comes back to the same thing, 290 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:37,333 saying it a different way. 291 00:15:37,375 --> 00:15:40,042 And then he gets to the very end of the book, 292 00:15:40,125 --> 00:15:42,792 and I hope I don't rip off someone else's awesome sermon 293 00:15:42,833 --> 00:15:44,792 here, but I'm going to--I'm in the pulpit, 294 00:15:44,833 --> 00:15:47,500 so I can do whatever I want, I guess, right now. 295 00:15:47,583 --> 00:15:50,708 And chapter 5, he gets to the very end and he ends with 296 00:15:50,792 --> 00:15:52,708 this sentence, "Little children, keep yourself from idols." 297 00:15:52,792 --> 00:15:55,292 It's like this weird--like, where'd that come from? 298 00:15:55,333 --> 00:15:58,125 "I'm writing that you may not sin, 299 00:15:58,167 --> 00:16:03,500 so keep yourself from idols," or "Worship Jesus." 300 00:16:03,583 --> 00:16:06,583 "The explosive power of a new affection," Chalmers wrote. 301 00:16:06,667 --> 00:16:09,333 If you are going to dislodge from the heart 302 00:16:09,417 --> 00:16:11,542 love for wrong things, 303 00:16:11,625 --> 00:16:15,458 it will create a vacuum which the heart will fill. 304 00:16:15,500 --> 00:16:17,458 Therefore, if you are to fight fire, 305 00:16:17,500 --> 00:16:19,458 you must use a hotter fire. 306 00:16:19,500 --> 00:16:21,833 If you're to fight desires for wrong things, 307 00:16:21,917 --> 00:16:24,208 you must replace it with desires for better things. 308 00:16:24,292 --> 00:16:27,500 Therefore, to not sin and worship wrong things, 309 00:16:27,542 --> 00:16:31,000 it must be fought with cultivating a deeper hunger 310 00:16:31,042 --> 00:16:34,667 for something more beautiful and more satisfying than what 311 00:16:34,708 --> 00:16:39,000 you're currently settling for. 312 00:16:39,042 --> 00:16:44,833 Another John, John Owens, wrote about sin, 313 00:16:44,875 --> 00:16:49,792 "Be killing sin or sin will be killing you." 314 00:16:49,833 --> 00:16:52,542 There is no middle ground. 315 00:16:52,625 --> 00:16:54,000 There's no third option. 316 00:16:54,083 --> 00:16:56,208 There are two options when it comes to sin. 317 00:16:56,292 --> 00:16:58,708 Either you will be warring against it and actively making 318 00:16:58,792 --> 00:17:01,792 war upon it or it will be actively making war upon you. 319 00:17:01,833 --> 00:17:04,917 Either you will be killing it or it will be killing you. 320 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:10,875 No middle ground, no third option, no third way. 321 00:17:10,958 --> 00:17:15,542 My closest friend, Pastor Adam, a fellow elder with me at 322 00:17:15,625 --> 00:17:18,292 Grace City Church here this morning with me, 323 00:17:18,333 --> 00:17:20,292 often talks about sin this way. 324 00:17:20,333 --> 00:17:21,958 I find it so helpful. 325 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:26,167 We view sin so oftentimes like a jellyfish in the water that we 326 00:17:26,208 --> 00:17:29,667 can swim around, and look at, and ooh, and aah, and tentacles. 327 00:17:29,708 --> 00:17:32,667 And we know it's poisonous, and we poke it with a stick, 328 00:17:32,708 --> 00:17:35,333 and every once in awhile we get too close and pew! 329 00:17:35,375 --> 00:17:36,708 Ahh, whoo! 330 00:17:36,792 --> 00:17:38,458 You know, rub it off and everything. 331 00:17:38,500 --> 00:17:39,833 Like, "That was crazy!" 332 00:17:39,917 --> 00:17:42,333 Thinking the whole time we're in control of this moment, 333 00:17:42,417 --> 00:17:45,542 and in fact are able to actually enjoy it from a distance. 334 00:17:45,625 --> 00:17:51,750 That's not the biblical picture of sin. 335 00:17:51,833 --> 00:17:56,292 The biblical teaching on sin is that sin is not a jellyfish. 336 00:17:56,333 --> 00:18:01,667 Rather, sin is like a shark, and you're in the water, 337 00:18:01,750 --> 00:18:03,917 and you're bleeding. 338 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:08,125 It can smell you a mile away. 339 00:18:08,167 --> 00:18:10,792 It can find you in dark, murky waters, 340 00:18:10,833 --> 00:18:17,708 and it means to have you, and not in the biblical, loving way. 341 00:18:17,792 --> 00:18:23,250 I mean, it wants to tear you to shreds. 342 00:18:23,333 --> 00:18:27,583 Therefore, there is only one posture to take towards sin, 343 00:18:27,667 --> 00:18:30,750 and that is war. 344 00:18:30,833 --> 00:18:33,875 That's what John's saying here. 345 00:18:33,958 --> 00:18:37,667 "My little children, I'm writing to you that you may not sin." 346 00:18:37,708 --> 00:18:39,708 Interesting to note in chapter 1, 347 00:18:39,792 --> 00:18:42,167 he also gave a purpose clause. 348 00:18:42,250 --> 00:18:45,542 Verse 4, "I'm writing these things so that all of our joy 349 00:18:45,625 --> 00:18:47,125 may be complete." 350 00:18:47,167 --> 00:18:48,792 Two purpose clauses or one? 351 00:18:48,833 --> 00:18:50,833 Two statements of one in the same thing, 352 00:18:50,917 --> 00:18:54,167 because for your joy to be complete you must move away from 353 00:18:54,250 --> 00:19:01,250 sin because sin robs joy, even as it offers the promises of it, 354 00:19:01,333 --> 00:19:04,333 because sin is deceptive. 355 00:19:04,417 --> 00:19:08,500 So, John's writing here and he's giving us his fatherly purpose. 356 00:19:08,542 --> 00:19:12,083 He's writing that we might not sin. 357 00:19:12,167 --> 00:19:14,375 However, there's a problem here. 358 00:19:14,458 --> 00:19:18,458 Namely, you're going to keep sinning, right? 359 00:19:18,500 --> 00:19:24,917 We know the desire's for a sinless life, 360 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:28,125 but until Christ returns, that will not be our reality. 361 00:19:28,167 --> 00:19:29,708 However, there is hope. 362 00:19:29,792 --> 00:19:32,750 We get to the second movement now, John's gospel promise. 363 00:19:32,833 --> 00:19:35,667 So, John's fatherly purpose. 364 00:19:35,750 --> 00:19:38,625 "I'm writing because I love you, that you might not sin." 365 00:19:38,667 --> 00:19:42,000 John gives us now a gospel promise. 366 00:19:42,042 --> 00:19:46,500 Verse 1, "But if anyone does sin, we have--" 367 00:19:46,542 --> 00:19:48,708 and I'm going to set this up for you 368 00:19:48,792 --> 00:19:50,125 because first service missed it. 369 00:19:50,167 --> 00:19:52,625 You're going to get a chance to clap, cheer, amen, 370 00:19:52,667 --> 00:19:54,125 do whatever you want here, okay? 371 00:19:54,167 --> 00:19:57,125 Because what I'm going to read next should draw that out, okay? 372 00:19:57,167 --> 00:19:58,833 So I'm just setting you up here. 373 00:19:58,917 --> 00:20:00,292 Can we do this? Okay. 374 00:20:00,333 --> 00:20:01,875 This is tee-ball right here. 375 00:20:01,958 --> 00:20:04,167 Just, here we go. 376 00:20:04,208 --> 00:20:06,167 "But if anyone does sin." 377 00:20:06,208 --> 00:20:09,167 I'm not sure if anybody in this room falls in that category, 378 00:20:09,208 --> 00:20:15,000 but if there are one or two of you, "We have an advocate." 379 00:20:15,042 --> 00:20:17,833 [congregation cheering] 380 00:20:17,875 --> 00:20:20,208 You're tracking. Okay, good. 381 00:20:20,292 --> 00:20:22,833 "We have an advocate with the Father, 382 00:20:22,917 --> 00:20:27,000 Jesus Christ the righteous one." 383 00:20:27,083 --> 00:20:31,667 Yeah! 384 00:20:31,708 --> 00:20:35,000 "He is the propitiation for our sins, 385 00:20:35,042 --> 00:20:39,417 "and not for ours only but also for the sins 386 00:20:39,500 --> 00:20:45,000 of the whole world." 387 00:20:45,083 --> 00:20:47,792 Are you catching John's global heart here? 388 00:20:47,833 --> 00:20:50,667 I mean, he's focused on them individually as children, 389 00:20:50,750 --> 00:20:53,042 and then pulls out and he's talking about 390 00:20:53,125 --> 00:20:55,167 the whole world, yo. 391 00:20:55,208 --> 00:20:59,250 He's got a big heart. It's a big-hearted text. 392 00:20:59,333 --> 00:21:02,000 Why do saints sin? 393 00:21:02,083 --> 00:21:06,667 Because we're fallen in our nature. 394 00:21:06,750 --> 00:21:10,792 We've been made new in Christ but still war with sin. 395 00:21:10,833 --> 00:21:13,500 The difference is this. 396 00:21:13,583 --> 00:21:17,917 In Christ, when we sin, we don't delight in it 397 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:21,000 and savor it succulent. 398 00:21:21,083 --> 00:21:24,042 We hate it. 399 00:21:24,125 --> 00:21:28,250 When we sin, we don't boast about it, brag about it. 400 00:21:28,333 --> 00:21:30,500 It breaks our heart. 401 00:21:30,583 --> 00:21:32,708 We're not like, "Yeah, you should have seen me 402 00:21:32,792 --> 00:21:35,500 last week, man! Whoo!" 403 00:21:35,583 --> 00:21:40,125 We're not braggadocious about the enormity of our sin. 404 00:21:40,167 --> 00:21:43,458 When we sin, it breaks our heart. 405 00:21:43,500 --> 00:21:46,542 So I just want to encourage you this morning, John's not saying, 406 00:21:46,625 --> 00:21:49,542 "If you're in Christ, you won't sin." 407 00:21:49,625 --> 00:21:52,000 Some of you are like, "Oh man, I'm screwed then." 408 00:21:52,042 --> 00:21:56,458 No, no, you can be in Christ and still sin. 409 00:21:56,500 --> 00:21:59,208 The question is, do you hate it? 410 00:21:59,292 --> 00:22:02,208 Do you deplore that you sin? 411 00:22:02,292 --> 00:22:05,917 And if you do, then be comforted, church. 412 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,250 You're in Christ. You're in Christ. 413 00:22:08,333 --> 00:22:10,917 The mark of the believer is not that they never sin, 414 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,125 but that they hate their sin when they do 415 00:22:13,167 --> 00:22:17,958 and are increasingly growing in a quickness of reflex that 416 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,208 moves to confession of sin and repentance before 417 00:22:20,292 --> 00:22:23,000 the cross because they have nothing to lose. 418 00:22:23,083 --> 00:22:26,000 I have nothing to lose in walking and living in the light. 419 00:22:26,083 --> 00:22:28,583 The only thing I can lose is keeping the darkness 420 00:22:28,667 --> 00:22:30,417 and that it might fester, and grow, 421 00:22:30,500 --> 00:22:33,292 and cause me more pain and suffering. 422 00:22:33,333 --> 00:22:37,792 Christ already lost everything so we have nothing to lose. 423 00:22:37,833 --> 00:22:40,458 Spurgeon said it like this, "For the Christian after he 424 00:22:40,500 --> 00:22:43,125 "has sinned, however sweet it may have been in his mouth, 425 00:22:43,167 --> 00:22:47,542 it quickly becomes bitterness in his bowels." 426 00:22:47,625 --> 00:22:49,583 Three components of John's gospel promise. 427 00:22:49,667 --> 00:22:53,833 The first is the atonement component. 428 00:22:53,917 --> 00:22:57,292 Before you can understand Jesus as your advocate, 429 00:22:57,333 --> 00:23:01,792 you must understand Jesus as your atonement. 430 00:23:01,833 --> 00:23:06,667 He is the propitiation for our sins. 431 00:23:06,750 --> 00:23:08,125 Big, theological word. 432 00:23:08,167 --> 00:23:09,500 What does it mean? 433 00:23:09,583 --> 00:23:12,958 Propitiation simply means the removing, the absorbing, 434 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:15,583 the receiving of wrath. 435 00:23:15,667 --> 00:23:19,250 We are right here at the heart of Christianity. 436 00:23:19,333 --> 00:23:22,583 We are right here at the guts of what it means to know 437 00:23:22,667 --> 00:23:24,625 and follow Jesus. 438 00:23:24,667 --> 00:23:28,000 Penal substitutionary atonement. 439 00:23:28,042 --> 00:23:30,375 Penal meaning punitive, 440 00:23:30,458 --> 00:23:32,458 substitutionary meaning in the place of, 441 00:23:32,500 --> 00:23:35,333 atonement meaning receiving something in my body 442 00:23:35,417 --> 00:23:37,333 from which the other should have received, 443 00:23:37,417 --> 00:23:39,042 but I'm doing it in their place. 444 00:23:39,125 --> 00:23:40,542 Now they are atoned for it. 445 00:23:40,625 --> 00:23:42,042 The debt has been paid. 446 00:23:42,125 --> 00:23:44,833 The wage that they incurred has been covered. 447 00:23:44,917 --> 00:23:51,333 Spurgeon said it like this, "What the sun is to the heavens, 448 00:23:51,417 --> 00:23:55,000 the doctrine of vicarious substitution is to theology." 449 00:23:55,042 --> 00:23:58,625 Atonement is the brain and spinal cord of Christianity. 450 00:23:58,667 --> 00:24:01,833 Take away the cleansing blood, and what is left? 451 00:24:01,875 --> 00:24:03,500 The guilty. 452 00:24:03,542 --> 00:24:05,417 Deny the substitutionary work of Jesus, 453 00:24:05,500 --> 00:24:07,333 and you have denied the gospel, 454 00:24:07,417 --> 00:24:13,042 and you have cut the throat of Christianity. 455 00:24:15,958 --> 00:24:22,708 Jesus' propitionary work on the cross rises to our 456 00:24:22,792 --> 00:24:29,167 conscience level the passion of God for justice, 457 00:24:29,250 --> 00:24:31,667 the passion of God for his holiness, 458 00:24:31,750 --> 00:24:38,667 the passion of God to uphold his rightness, his righteousness. 459 00:24:38,750 --> 00:24:43,625 Have you ever been vexed by the problem 460 00:24:43,667 --> 00:24:48,000 of God forgiving sinners? 461 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:53,542 There are a lot of things to be confused about 462 00:24:53,625 --> 00:24:54,958 in our world today. 463 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:57,458 There are a lot of problems to be stumped by. 464 00:24:57,500 --> 00:24:59,667 There are a lot of things to wrestle through. 465 00:24:59,708 --> 00:25:01,208 However, there is one problem that, 466 00:25:01,292 --> 00:25:03,708 if you have not wrestled with and been stumped by, 467 00:25:03,792 --> 00:25:06,000 you have not been paying attention, 468 00:25:06,083 --> 00:25:11,583 and it is how can a loving, yet just, righteous, 469 00:25:11,667 --> 00:25:14,667 holy God forgive sinners? 470 00:25:14,708 --> 00:25:18,667 Because the Bible, in Proverbs, says that it's an abomination 471 00:25:18,750 --> 00:25:22,083 to justify the wicked, and God does it every day. 472 00:25:22,167 --> 00:25:27,000 We've got a problem on our hands here, 473 00:25:27,042 --> 00:25:33,542 unless there could be a way for God to be both 474 00:25:33,625 --> 00:25:38,375 the just and the merciful. 475 00:25:42,542 --> 00:25:45,083 There's this wrong notion floating around the church here 476 00:25:45,167 --> 00:25:47,500 at some places. 477 00:25:47,583 --> 00:25:50,750 It goes like this, "Well, God can forgive me 478 00:25:50,833 --> 00:25:52,875 because he loves me." 479 00:25:52,958 --> 00:25:58,042 And it's said in this sort of flippant, cliche, sentimental, 480 00:25:58,125 --> 00:26:02,542 cross-less tone, as if to say, "I mean, let's just face it. 481 00:26:02,625 --> 00:26:04,542 "I mean, I've got some rough edges, 482 00:26:04,625 --> 00:26:08,667 "but I think for the most part God's up in heaven going, 483 00:26:08,750 --> 00:26:11,833 "'Dang, glad they're on my team.' 484 00:26:11,875 --> 00:26:13,292 "I mean, what's not to love? 485 00:26:13,333 --> 00:26:18,917 I mean, seriously, look at this hunk of burning love." 486 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:22,375 As if it was easy for God to love you 487 00:26:22,458 --> 00:26:24,042 because you're so loveable. 488 00:26:24,125 --> 00:26:25,458 And so forgive, sure. 489 00:26:25,500 --> 00:26:27,958 Hey, we'll just kind of wipe that off the slate, 490 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:33,542 sweep it under the rug, no big deal, wink wink. 491 00:26:33,625 --> 00:26:36,167 That's not how you've been loved by God. 492 00:26:36,208 --> 00:26:40,667 You don't want to serve a God who winks at injustice, 493 00:26:40,708 --> 00:26:43,792 do you? 494 00:26:43,833 --> 00:26:47,750 So how can you serve a God who's just to everyone else 495 00:26:47,833 --> 00:26:50,792 and merciful to you? 496 00:26:50,833 --> 00:26:55,542 Oswald Chambers put it like this, 497 00:26:55,625 --> 00:26:58,125 "Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin. 498 00:26:58,167 --> 00:27:00,917 "Oh, we know the experience of being disturbed because 499 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,833 "we've done a few wrong things and it makes us feel bad, 500 00:27:03,875 --> 00:27:06,042 "but true conviction by the Holy Spirit 501 00:27:06,125 --> 00:27:10,000 "blots out every other relationship on earth 502 00:27:10,083 --> 00:27:13,542 "and makes us aware of one thing only. 503 00:27:13,625 --> 00:27:20,333 "'Against you and you alone have I sinned,' Psalm 51:4. 504 00:27:20,417 --> 00:27:24,000 "When a person is convicted of sin in this way, 505 00:27:24,042 --> 00:27:26,542 "he knows with every bit of his conscience that God 506 00:27:26,625 --> 00:27:29,292 "would not dare forgive him. 507 00:27:29,333 --> 00:27:31,875 "If God did forgive him, then this person would have 508 00:27:31,958 --> 00:27:33,750 a stronger sense of justice than God." 509 00:27:33,833 --> 00:27:35,917 You tracking with what he's saying? 510 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:41,000 I don't want God to just pass over Hitler's sin. 511 00:27:41,083 --> 00:27:44,875 I want somebody to pay if there's justice in the universe. 512 00:27:44,958 --> 00:27:47,208 Now you got a problem. 513 00:27:47,292 --> 00:27:51,917 What's God going to do when it comes to you? 514 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:57,333 God does forgive, but it costs the breaking of his heart 515 00:27:57,375 --> 00:27:59,958 with grief in the death of Jesus Christ 516 00:28:00,083 --> 00:28:02,208 to enable him to do so. 517 00:28:02,292 --> 00:28:06,208 The great miracle of the grace of God is that he forgives sin, 518 00:28:06,292 --> 00:28:08,500 and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone 519 00:28:08,542 --> 00:28:09,875 that enables the divine nature 520 00:28:09,958 --> 00:28:14,667 to forgive and to remain true to itself while doing so. 521 00:28:14,750 --> 00:28:18,333 It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us 522 00:28:18,375 --> 00:28:20,500 because he is love. 523 00:28:20,583 --> 00:28:22,542 Once we have been convicted of sin, 524 00:28:22,625 --> 00:28:24,167 we will never say that again. 525 00:28:24,208 --> 00:28:30,000 The love of God means this alone, Calvary and nothing less. 526 00:28:30,083 --> 00:28:34,000 The love of God is spelled out on the cross and nowhere else. 527 00:28:34,083 --> 00:28:37,208 The only basis for which God can forgive me is 528 00:28:37,292 --> 00:28:39,083 the cross of Christ. 529 00:28:39,167 --> 00:28:42,667 It is there that his conscience is satisfied. 530 00:28:42,750 --> 00:28:45,042 It is there that he simultaneously 531 00:28:45,125 --> 00:28:49,083 becomes both the just and the justifier, 532 00:28:49,167 --> 00:28:52,083 proving that he does not sweep your sin, 533 00:28:52,167 --> 00:28:55,167 your cosmic rebellion under the rug. 534 00:28:55,208 --> 00:28:58,083 He kills it, he pours out wrath on it, 535 00:28:58,167 --> 00:29:04,625 and it's called Jesus Christ crucified. 536 00:29:04,667 --> 00:29:06,750 Atonement. 537 00:29:06,833 --> 00:29:12,542 Second piece of John's gospel promise, advocacy. 538 00:29:12,625 --> 00:29:14,292 Other religions say, "Obey. 539 00:29:14,333 --> 00:29:17,167 If you sin, you're sunk." 540 00:29:17,250 --> 00:29:22,542 Christianity says, "Obey, and if you sin, you have an advocate." 541 00:29:22,625 --> 00:29:26,208 Do you know what it means to have an advocate? 542 00:29:26,292 --> 00:29:30,500 It means Jesus stands before the Father as our defense attorney 543 00:29:30,583 --> 00:29:35,583 and speaks on behalf of you, the accused, to God the Judge. 544 00:29:35,667 --> 00:29:38,250 If you're charged with something-- 545 00:29:38,333 --> 00:29:41,792 a little pastoral honesty here. 546 00:29:41,833 --> 00:29:45,500 My worst nightmare is to be falsely accused 547 00:29:45,583 --> 00:29:47,667 and thrown in prison. 548 00:29:47,708 --> 00:29:51,667 That's my worst nightmare. 549 00:29:51,708 --> 00:29:53,875 And I've often thought--I was in law enforcement for 550 00:29:53,958 --> 00:29:55,708 several years, 6 years to be exact, 551 00:29:55,792 --> 00:29:59,000 and defense attorneys and law enforcement officers, 552 00:29:59,042 --> 00:30:00,750 that's a relationship right there, right? 553 00:30:00,833 --> 00:30:02,167 Not so much. 554 00:30:02,208 --> 00:30:04,667 We do the hard work of putting them in jail, 555 00:30:04,708 --> 00:30:07,167 they do the hard work of getting the guilty off. 556 00:30:07,208 --> 00:30:08,542 That's how it's characterized, right? 557 00:30:08,625 --> 00:30:10,292 It's like, what's the deal with that? 558 00:30:10,333 --> 00:30:12,500 Now, I'm sure there's lots of godly defense attorneys, 559 00:30:12,542 --> 00:30:14,000 maybe in this room right now. 560 00:30:14,042 --> 00:30:16,833 Jesus loves you. 561 00:30:16,917 --> 00:30:19,625 I don't have to, he does, we're good, okay. 562 00:30:19,667 --> 00:30:22,292 We're tracking, right? Okay, we're good. 563 00:30:22,333 --> 00:30:24,500 Stick to your notes, Josh. Stick to your notes. 564 00:30:24,542 --> 00:30:27,208 Okay. 565 00:30:27,292 --> 00:30:29,917 When you're charged with something and you stand before 566 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,917 the judge, do you know what you look like to the judge? 567 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:34,917 You look like whatever that defense attorney 568 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,125 makes you look like. 569 00:30:37,167 --> 00:30:39,375 If he's a stumbling schmuck, guess what? 570 00:30:39,458 --> 00:30:42,500 You're a stumbling schmuck. 571 00:30:42,583 --> 00:30:46,333 If he's wise and articulate, you appear wise and articulate 572 00:30:46,375 --> 00:30:49,833 because you're lost into your advocate. 573 00:30:49,875 --> 00:30:55,125 Your destiny is in the hands of your advocate. 574 00:30:55,167 --> 00:30:59,167 Here's how Jesus differs as the divine advocate over 575 00:30:59,250 --> 00:31:04,500 against many human advocates on the earth. 576 00:31:04,542 --> 00:31:08,208 It's crazy how I never understood the penal system as 577 00:31:08,292 --> 00:31:12,250 displaying the powerful work of the gospel until I understood 578 00:31:12,333 --> 00:31:15,667 Jesus' advocacy and actually came to love defense attorneys 579 00:31:15,708 --> 00:31:18,042 a lot more. 580 00:31:18,125 --> 00:31:20,000 Defense attorneys frequently deny the allegations brought 581 00:31:20,083 --> 00:31:22,417 against their clients, but Christ admits the charges 582 00:31:22,500 --> 00:31:24,333 against his clients. 583 00:31:24,417 --> 00:31:27,708 Defense attorneys, if they admit the charge, 584 00:31:27,792 --> 00:31:29,875 frequently seek to justify it: plea of ignorance, 585 00:31:29,958 --> 00:31:31,667 accidents, self defense. 586 00:31:31,750 --> 00:31:33,125 Christ does none of those. 587 00:31:33,167 --> 00:31:35,083 He makes no excuses. 588 00:31:35,167 --> 00:31:37,125 Defense attorneys attempt to influence the minds of 589 00:31:37,167 --> 00:31:38,542 the adjudicating parties. 590 00:31:38,625 --> 00:31:42,292 Christ seeks to influence not the judge, but the accused, 591 00:31:42,333 --> 00:31:46,333 because the judge's mind will not be changed. 592 00:31:46,375 --> 00:31:49,667 Defense attorneys try to prove to the judge that their client 593 00:31:49,750 --> 00:31:51,167 is not guilty. 594 00:31:51,250 --> 00:31:55,167 Christ agrees with the judge the schmuck's guilty, okay? 595 00:31:55,250 --> 00:31:56,667 So at this point, you're like, 596 00:31:56,708 --> 00:31:58,833 "What kind of defense attorney is this? 597 00:31:58,917 --> 00:32:03,167 How is he helping me right now?" 598 00:32:03,250 --> 00:32:07,417 You cannot understand the advocacy of Christ 599 00:32:07,500 --> 00:32:10,958 until you understand the atoning work of Christ. 600 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,083 I used to think--I used to picture Jesus' advocating work 601 00:32:14,167 --> 00:32:18,083 like this: he's up in heaven and he's pleading for mercy. 602 00:32:18,167 --> 00:32:22,167 He's asking God to give Josh a pass again. 603 00:32:22,250 --> 00:32:25,083 "Josh blew it. What else is new? 604 00:32:25,167 --> 00:32:27,500 "I'm so sorry. I'm really working with him. 605 00:32:27,542 --> 00:32:30,833 "He's trying hard on Tuesdays and Fridays to follow you. 606 00:32:30,875 --> 00:32:33,542 "Rest of the days, hit and miss. 607 00:32:33,625 --> 00:32:35,083 "Stick with him. 608 00:32:35,167 --> 00:32:37,083 "Let's not kick him off the team yet. 609 00:32:37,167 --> 00:32:38,500 One more day." 610 00:32:38,542 --> 00:32:41,208 And I used to think, like, "Will Jesus ever get tired 611 00:32:41,292 --> 00:32:42,625 "of making excuses for me? 612 00:32:42,667 --> 00:32:44,625 Will Jesus ever get tired of defending me?" 613 00:32:44,667 --> 00:32:47,417 until I realized Jesus isn't making excuses for me. 614 00:32:47,500 --> 00:32:50,750 Jesus, in his advocacy for me, isn't defending me. 615 00:32:50,833 --> 00:32:55,208 Jesus is walking to the Judge's table and saying, 616 00:32:55,292 --> 00:33:01,333 "On the basis of my atoning work, let him go free." 617 00:33:01,417 --> 00:33:06,583 He's walking to the table, and his advocacy is opening 618 00:33:06,667 --> 00:33:10,042 the propitiation portfolio and going, 619 00:33:10,125 --> 00:33:12,250 "Okay, I've got some pictures here. 620 00:33:12,333 --> 00:33:16,208 "I'd like to enter into evidence this picture of these thorns 621 00:33:16,292 --> 00:33:18,958 "here that got made into a crown, 622 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:23,333 "these pictures here of a lashing of my back, 623 00:33:23,417 --> 00:33:27,167 "picture here of being mocked, and spitten on, 624 00:33:27,250 --> 00:33:30,833 "and monkey trial, pictures here of some nails, 625 00:33:30,917 --> 00:33:34,417 my hands and feet, a bloody cross." 626 00:33:34,500 --> 00:33:39,458 See what he's doing? 627 00:33:39,500 --> 00:33:42,958 He's appealing not to the mercy of God for your forgiveness, 628 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:47,625 he's appealing to the justice of God for your forgiveness. 629 00:33:47,667 --> 00:33:50,500 If we confess our sins, "He is faithful," 630 00:33:50,542 --> 00:33:53,250 and merciful, kind, patient, what? 631 00:33:53,333 --> 00:33:57,958 "He's faithful and," say it, "just to forgive us our sins," 632 00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,333 just a few verses earlier. 633 00:33:59,417 --> 00:34:01,250 Why? 634 00:34:01,333 --> 00:34:06,000 Because when Jesus says, "God, you're just, you're righteous, 635 00:34:06,042 --> 00:34:08,833 "you're holy, you do nothing that is wrong, 636 00:34:08,875 --> 00:34:11,625 "and they have placed their faith in me. 637 00:34:11,667 --> 00:34:14,500 "I absorb your wrath on their behalf. 638 00:34:14,542 --> 00:34:16,583 "Therefore, you cannot punish them, 639 00:34:16,667 --> 00:34:19,833 "because a righteous judge cannot issue two punishments 640 00:34:19,875 --> 00:34:23,458 "for one offense. 641 00:34:23,500 --> 00:34:29,458 "So God, be forgiving to them, be merciful to them 642 00:34:29,500 --> 00:34:32,958 because their wage has been paid in me." 643 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,167 That's how Jesus advocates for us. 644 00:34:35,208 --> 00:34:39,750 Oh man! 645 00:34:39,833 --> 00:34:45,958 Can you feel the solidity of that defense? 646 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:51,292 Can you feel the rock solid, impenetrable, 647 00:34:51,333 --> 00:34:54,625 air tight nature of that defense for you? 648 00:34:54,667 --> 00:34:56,792 Oh man! 649 00:34:56,833 --> 00:35:02,250 And so you can know that in Christ, 650 00:35:02,333 --> 00:35:07,792 God the Father will always and only be for you, 651 00:35:07,833 --> 00:35:10,708 never against you. 652 00:35:10,792 --> 00:35:14,333 In Christ, Mars Hill Church, 653 00:35:14,375 --> 00:35:18,167 you can know that whatever you face, 654 00:35:18,250 --> 00:35:23,167 your marriage, your job, your kids, whatever you face, 655 00:35:23,250 --> 00:35:27,208 it is not judgment against you, it is not hatred from God 656 00:35:27,292 --> 00:35:31,667 against you, it is his loving hand of discipline 657 00:35:31,750 --> 00:35:34,583 as a father upon a son. 658 00:35:34,667 --> 00:35:36,042 It's his. 659 00:35:36,125 --> 00:35:37,458 And then he loves. 660 00:35:37,500 --> 00:35:41,167 That should give you great confidence to wake up tomorrow 661 00:35:41,208 --> 00:35:46,000 and go into the day facing whatever may come. 662 00:35:46,042 --> 00:35:51,500 We have an advocate because we have a propitiator 663 00:35:51,542 --> 00:35:54,375 who purchased our atonement. 664 00:35:54,458 --> 00:35:58,333 The third piece of John's gospel promise is anyone. 665 00:35:58,375 --> 00:36:01,833 We have the atoner, we have the advocate, 666 00:36:01,917 --> 00:36:04,042 and we have the offered anyone. 667 00:36:04,125 --> 00:36:07,083 Many people say that, "Oh, this is a text meaning and teaching 668 00:36:07,167 --> 00:36:10,208 "that Jesus' sins covered the whole world, 669 00:36:10,292 --> 00:36:13,958 "meaning no one dies, goes to hell, everyone wins in the end. 670 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:16,333 "No losers, all winners, everyone gets a blue ribbon. 671 00:36:16,417 --> 00:36:17,917 "Whoo, thanks for playing! 672 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:19,375 You're awesome because you participated," 673 00:36:19,458 --> 00:36:21,625 and that whole thing, right? 674 00:36:21,667 --> 00:36:24,542 My son started his first soccer team this year, 7 years old, 675 00:36:24,625 --> 00:36:27,750 and I went with a conviction that if they gave a blue ribbon 676 00:36:27,833 --> 00:36:32,542 just for participating, we would firmly reject it. 677 00:36:32,625 --> 00:36:34,042 No! 678 00:36:34,125 --> 00:36:36,542 Give a blue ribbon when he does something worth getting 679 00:36:36,625 --> 00:36:38,250 a blue ribbon for. 680 00:36:38,333 --> 00:36:40,583 Some people say, "Well, this text means that God 681 00:36:40,667 --> 00:36:42,000 "forgives everybody! 682 00:36:42,042 --> 00:36:43,500 Whoo!" 683 00:36:43,542 --> 00:36:45,667 Disconnected from their disposition to him, 684 00:36:45,708 --> 00:36:48,208 their love for him, their belief, their faith in him. 685 00:36:48,292 --> 00:36:50,875 Just live like the devil, do whatever you want to do, 686 00:36:50,958 --> 00:36:55,625 callously indifferent to God, die, then forgiven. 687 00:36:55,667 --> 00:36:58,500 The reason that's an absurd interpretation of this text is 688 00:36:58,542 --> 00:37:02,042 because John does not teach that in the totality of his writing, 689 00:37:02,125 --> 00:37:04,042 either in the gospel nor in this letter. 690 00:37:04,125 --> 00:37:07,042 In fact, you're going to spend the rest of the letter helping 691 00:37:07,125 --> 00:37:09,792 discern whether or not you're in Christ or out of Christ, 692 00:37:09,833 --> 00:37:12,500 which would not make sense to do so if he thought, 693 00:37:12,583 --> 00:37:15,250 "In the end everyone will be in Christ, so who cares?" 694 00:37:15,333 --> 00:37:19,167 This text is not teaching universalism, 695 00:37:19,208 --> 00:37:25,375 but rather it's teaching the universal reach of the gospel. 696 00:37:25,458 --> 00:37:29,417 Meaning the gospel is not nationalistic, 697 00:37:29,500 --> 00:37:33,125 it's not specific to time, place, culture, country, 698 00:37:33,167 --> 00:37:35,875 land, socioeconomic status. 699 00:37:35,958 --> 00:37:40,708 The gospel is universal in its reach, universal in its offer. 700 00:37:40,792 --> 00:37:43,458 All who hear may come. 701 00:37:43,500 --> 00:37:47,500 And there is no other offer like that in the world. 702 00:37:47,542 --> 00:37:51,167 So in John unpacking the universal offer of the gospel, 703 00:37:51,208 --> 00:37:56,042 he is also narrowing it as the exclusive offer for salvation. 704 00:37:56,125 --> 00:37:59,833 He said so in his gospel the self--his gospel 705 00:37:59,875 --> 00:38:01,292 according to Jesus. 706 00:38:01,333 --> 00:38:03,292 "I'm the way, the truth, and the life. 707 00:38:03,333 --> 00:38:06,042 "No one can come to the Father except through the door 708 00:38:06,125 --> 00:38:11,333 of my atoning work to their faith in me," Jesus said. 709 00:38:11,375 --> 00:38:13,000 So this isn't teaching universalism, 710 00:38:13,083 --> 00:38:15,458 teaching the universal offer, and power, 711 00:38:15,500 --> 00:38:20,208 and reach of the gospel. 712 00:38:20,292 --> 00:38:22,750 First movement, John's loving purpose. 713 00:38:22,833 --> 00:38:25,667 Second movement, John's gospel promise. 714 00:38:25,750 --> 00:38:30,500 Last movement, John's loving assurance. 715 00:38:30,542 --> 00:38:32,208 John's loving assurance. 716 00:38:32,292 --> 00:38:34,208 This is a wonderful claim. 717 00:38:34,292 --> 00:38:37,708 John's going to tell us here that it is possible to know that 718 00:38:37,792 --> 00:38:44,708 you know that you know in your knower that God is for you. 719 00:38:44,792 --> 00:38:47,875 Anybody need to know that this morning? 720 00:38:47,958 --> 00:38:49,542 I know! 721 00:38:49,625 --> 00:38:52,667 You ever wake up--we got one sister, okay. 722 00:38:52,750 --> 00:38:55,750 I'm working on the rest of them. 723 00:38:55,833 --> 00:39:01,417 You ever wake up just wondering, "Am I in? 724 00:39:01,500 --> 00:39:06,000 Did he see what I did yesterday?" 725 00:39:06,042 --> 00:39:09,167 And there is an instability that comes into the church 726 00:39:09,208 --> 00:39:11,792 when there is not gospel assurance. 727 00:39:11,833 --> 00:39:15,292 This doctrine of assurance was given not to placate guilty 728 00:39:15,333 --> 00:39:19,042 consciences, but to comfort those who would be plagued 729 00:39:19,125 --> 00:39:24,333 by a guilty conscience that Jesus wiped clean. 730 00:39:24,417 --> 00:39:27,167 So John's saying there is a way for you to know, 731 00:39:27,208 --> 00:39:29,750 test yourselves. 732 00:39:29,833 --> 00:39:33,667 Spurgeon said, "If any man may not be sure he is in Christ, 733 00:39:33,750 --> 00:39:37,708 "he ought not to be easy one moment until he is so. 734 00:39:37,792 --> 00:39:39,750 "Dear friends, without the fullest confidence as to 735 00:39:39,833 --> 00:39:43,667 "your safe condition, you have no right to be at ease, 736 00:39:43,708 --> 00:39:46,500 "and I pray you may never be so. 737 00:39:46,583 --> 00:39:50,583 "This is a matter too important to be left undecided upon. 738 00:39:50,667 --> 00:39:53,167 "Full assurance is not essential to your salvation, 739 00:39:53,208 --> 00:39:56,917 "but it is essential to your satisfaction in your salvation. 740 00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:59,833 "May you get it. May you get it at once. 741 00:39:59,917 --> 00:40:03,667 At any rate, may you never be satisfied to live without it." 742 00:40:03,708 --> 00:40:06,000 And John wants you, Mars Hill, 743 00:40:06,042 --> 00:40:09,000 to be sure of God's love for you. 744 00:40:09,042 --> 00:40:11,042 And if you're here and not in Christ, 745 00:40:11,125 --> 00:40:16,667 this comforting word will be heard by you as a warning word 746 00:40:16,750 --> 00:40:21,875 by which God's draws you to himself. 747 00:40:21,958 --> 00:40:25,875 Two tests he gives us, the first is a behavioral test. 748 00:40:25,958 --> 00:40:29,583 Look at verse 3, "And by this we know that we have come to know 749 00:40:29,667 --> 00:40:33,208 "Jesus, if we keep his commandments. 750 00:40:33,292 --> 00:40:37,833 "Whoever says 'I know him' but does not keep his commandments 751 00:40:37,917 --> 00:40:41,000 is a liar." 752 00:40:41,083 --> 00:40:43,250 Not a buffoon, not poorly taught, 753 00:40:43,333 --> 00:40:45,625 not misdirected but well intentioned. 754 00:40:45,667 --> 00:40:48,875 "He is a liar and the truth is not in him." 755 00:40:48,958 --> 00:40:53,125 This is loving, affectionate, Pastor Father John bringing 756 00:40:53,167 --> 00:40:55,875 a pretty hard word here because he loves them. 757 00:40:55,958 --> 00:40:58,542 Verse 5, "But whoever keeps his word, 758 00:40:58,625 --> 00:41:02,167 "in him truly the love of God is perfected. 759 00:41:02,250 --> 00:41:04,333 By this we may be sure." 760 00:41:04,375 --> 00:41:06,458 We may be sure. 761 00:41:06,500 --> 00:41:10,500 By this, Mars Hill, "You may be sure that we are in him: whoever 762 00:41:10,542 --> 00:41:14,042 "says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way 763 00:41:14,125 --> 00:41:16,083 in which Jesus walked." 764 00:41:16,167 --> 00:41:20,917 Meaning there is an objective, external test to whether or not 765 00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:25,042 you're in Christ and it's called the fruit of your life. 766 00:41:25,125 --> 00:41:28,958 Are your actions and words coming out of your heart 767 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:33,500 reflecting that of one who is in Christ? 768 00:41:33,583 --> 00:41:38,083 Are you increasingly becoming less irritable, less fearful, 769 00:41:38,167 --> 00:41:41,000 less afraid, less selfish? 770 00:41:41,042 --> 00:41:43,833 Are you growing in compassion, self-control? 771 00:41:43,875 --> 00:41:47,458 If you don't see yourself walking more and more like Jesus 772 00:41:47,500 --> 00:41:50,125 over time, you're kidding yourself. 773 00:41:50,167 --> 00:41:52,917 And you can't always see it, which means you need community. 774 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,125 You need people around you who love you, 775 00:41:55,167 --> 00:42:00,417 who are anchored enough in their own identity in Jesus to speak 776 00:42:00,500 --> 00:42:05,000 hard words to you when you're just out in the pawpaw patch. 777 00:42:05,042 --> 00:42:09,000 Husbands, if I were to ask you how you're doing as a husband, 778 00:42:09,042 --> 00:42:11,167 who's the one person that doesn't get to answer 779 00:42:11,250 --> 00:42:14,750 that question? 780 00:42:14,833 --> 00:42:16,750 You, right? 781 00:42:16,833 --> 00:42:19,417 If I said, "Hey, how are you doing as a husband?" 782 00:42:19,500 --> 00:42:21,917 the first thing you should say is, "I don't know, 783 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:23,500 let's ask my wife." 784 00:42:23,542 --> 00:42:25,833 Wise man, good job. 785 00:42:25,917 --> 00:42:27,833 Because you have blind spots, men, 786 00:42:27,875 --> 00:42:31,375 that you by nature and definition of blind spots-- 787 00:42:31,458 --> 00:42:36,333 I know it's really rocket science here--cannot see. 788 00:42:36,417 --> 00:42:39,500 All of us have those. 789 00:42:39,542 --> 00:42:43,833 Without community, children, marriage partner, friends, 790 00:42:43,917 --> 00:42:47,083 Community Groups, we will walk through life ignorant 791 00:42:47,167 --> 00:42:49,500 of our bad fruit. 792 00:42:49,583 --> 00:42:53,167 This fruit and tree thing, it's like someone saying, 793 00:42:53,250 --> 00:42:55,500 "I'm a Georgia peach tree, man, I mean, 794 00:42:55,542 --> 00:42:57,833 all the way down to the roots," 795 00:42:57,917 --> 00:43:02,333 and all that tree grows is crabapples. 796 00:43:02,375 --> 00:43:05,458 It's like, "Look bro, I don't know how to break it to you. 797 00:43:05,500 --> 00:43:08,667 "I'm looking around here and I'm trying to tell myself that 798 00:43:08,708 --> 00:43:10,083 "you're a Georgia peach tree. 799 00:43:10,167 --> 00:43:12,583 "Bro, all I see is a lot of crabapples. 800 00:43:12,667 --> 00:43:18,167 I'm going with crabapple tree." 801 00:43:18,208 --> 00:43:23,792 Fruit will grow according to the nature of the tree. 802 00:43:24,958 --> 00:43:26,917 "So, look at your life," John says. 803 00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:28,667 Look at your character. Is it growing? 804 00:43:28,708 --> 00:43:30,042 Is it changing? 805 00:43:30,125 --> 00:43:32,500 Is it morphing more into Christ-likeness? 806 00:43:32,542 --> 00:43:36,500 Is there an increase in desire for godliness over time or is 807 00:43:36,542 --> 00:43:39,333 there an increased indifference toward godliness 808 00:43:39,375 --> 00:43:41,083 and an increase in selfishness. 809 00:43:41,167 --> 00:43:42,583 Acid test. 810 00:43:42,667 --> 00:43:45,167 Second test number two that John gives us here is 811 00:43:45,250 --> 00:43:48,125 the relational test. 812 00:43:48,167 --> 00:43:53,792 I'll never forget driving down the 405 with my dad. 813 00:43:53,833 --> 00:43:56,750 I was 6 maybe at the time. 814 00:43:56,833 --> 00:43:58,333 My brother was 4. 815 00:43:58,375 --> 00:44:01,125 I was sitting in the backseat of a little, teeny, dinky, 816 00:44:01,167 --> 00:44:05,125 Datsun--'72--or a '79 Datsun pickup king cab. 817 00:44:05,167 --> 00:44:08,667 And we're flying down 405 about 45 miles an hour. 818 00:44:08,708 --> 00:44:13,000 And we're driving down the road, and we pass--there's a hospital 819 00:44:13,042 --> 00:44:15,167 off 405 in Bellevue. 820 00:44:15,250 --> 00:44:16,833 It's--help me. Overlake, thank you. 821 00:44:16,917 --> 00:44:18,833 We're driving by Overlake and my mom says, 822 00:44:18,917 --> 00:44:20,958 "Hey, there's where your brother Carey was born." 823 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:26,000 And I go, "Booooo!" 824 00:44:26,042 --> 00:44:27,625 I go just like that, right? 825 00:44:27,667 --> 00:44:29,667 Right? 826 00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:36,917 [imitates tires screeching] 827 00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:39,000 My dad dynamites the brakes, 828 00:44:39,083 --> 00:44:44,500 pulls to the left of the road, and now we're in a moment. 829 00:44:44,542 --> 00:44:45,958 We're in a moment. 830 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:47,458 This is a Cosby parenting moment. 831 00:44:47,500 --> 00:44:50,458 "I brought you into this world, I will take you out," right? 832 00:44:50,500 --> 00:44:51,833 We're there, right? 833 00:44:51,917 --> 00:44:54,583 I mean, that's where we are now, my dad and I, 834 00:44:54,667 --> 00:44:58,083 and I realize he has just put our family at great risk to life 835 00:44:58,167 --> 00:45:01,667 and limb by pulling off the side of a busy freeway as cars streak 836 00:45:01,708 --> 00:45:05,042 past our vehicle, which means there must be something he deems 837 00:45:05,125 --> 00:45:07,792 is more important than our safety for him to communicate 838 00:45:07,833 --> 00:45:09,167 to me in this moment. 839 00:45:09,250 --> 00:45:11,250 So, I'm all ears at this point, right? 840 00:45:11,333 --> 00:45:13,000 I'm like, "You got my attention, Dad. 841 00:45:13,042 --> 00:45:14,375 "Bring it to me, Pops. 842 00:45:14,458 --> 00:45:16,417 I'm here." 843 00:45:16,500 --> 00:45:17,917 Over, turns around, 844 00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:20,625 and from a father to a son, 845 00:45:20,667 --> 00:45:23,917 traffic whizzing by, eyes blazing, 846 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:29,333 "You never speak like that again 847 00:45:29,375 --> 00:45:32,000 "towards your brother. 848 00:45:32,083 --> 00:45:35,417 "He's family. He's McPherson. 849 00:45:35,500 --> 00:45:38,083 "He's on our team. We only encourage. 850 00:45:38,167 --> 00:45:40,250 "We only love. We only build up. 851 00:45:40,333 --> 00:45:42,250 "We only root. We don't tear down. 852 00:45:42,333 --> 00:45:44,250 "We don't mock. We don't make fun of. 853 00:45:44,333 --> 00:45:45,750 "We don't undermine. We don't snicker. 854 00:45:45,833 --> 00:45:47,167 "We don't behind the back. 855 00:45:47,208 --> 00:45:51,417 "We are a team. We're family. 856 00:45:51,500 --> 00:45:56,708 Don't ever let that happen again." 857 00:45:56,792 --> 00:45:59,208 I remember that moment. 858 00:45:59,292 --> 00:46:02,167 I can feel that moment right now as I'm telling this story. 859 00:46:02,250 --> 00:46:05,167 I can't hear the words I-405 without going, "Whew. 860 00:46:05,250 --> 00:46:07,667 "Need to call Carey and tell him I love him, 861 00:46:07,750 --> 00:46:13,625 just to make sure dad knows we're good." 862 00:46:13,667 --> 00:46:17,292 There's some of that in this text. 863 00:46:17,333 --> 00:46:19,958 There's some of that in the papa father heart of John 864 00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:24,042 going, "Man, love each other, you guys." 865 00:46:24,125 --> 00:46:25,542 Love each other, you guys. 866 00:46:25,625 --> 00:46:29,625 That's the acid test of your gospel Christianity. 867 00:46:29,667 --> 00:46:32,667 Not how much you can rattle off the top of your head, 868 00:46:32,750 --> 00:46:35,792 or verses you can point to, or memorizations you can spit out, 869 00:46:35,833 --> 00:46:38,542 or books you were--do you love one another? 870 00:46:38,625 --> 00:46:40,083 Look at verse 7. 871 00:46:40,167 --> 00:46:42,000 "Beloved, I'm writing you no new commandment, 872 00:46:42,083 --> 00:46:44,917 "but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. 873 00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:47,375 "The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 874 00:46:47,458 --> 00:46:50,542 "At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing 875 00:46:50,625 --> 00:46:53,375 "to you, which is true in him and in you, 876 00:46:53,458 --> 00:46:57,792 "because the darkness is passing away and the true light 877 00:46:57,833 --> 00:46:59,500 is already shining." 878 00:46:59,583 --> 00:47:02,125 Hear that word, Christian. 879 00:47:02,167 --> 00:47:05,583 Because of Jesus, the darkness is already in process of being 880 00:47:05,667 --> 00:47:07,833 conquered and being moved away. 881 00:47:07,875 --> 00:47:14,000 You have all sorts of reasons for hope this morning. 882 00:47:14,042 --> 00:47:16,667 Now what's this new commandment? 883 00:47:16,708 --> 00:47:19,708 Well, I'm going to cheat because a good preacher never preaches 884 00:47:19,792 --> 00:47:22,667 a text in front of him to the detriment of the pastor 885 00:47:22,750 --> 00:47:25,375 to follow him, but I can go to the gospel 886 00:47:25,458 --> 00:47:29,292 and cheat a little here with chapter 13. 887 00:47:29,333 --> 00:47:30,875 What's his new commandment? 888 00:47:30,958 --> 00:47:33,625 From the words of Jesus himself, "Little children," Jesus says, 889 00:47:33,667 --> 00:47:39,958 "a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. 890 00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:42,083 "Just as you have been loved by me, 891 00:47:42,167 --> 00:47:44,333 "you also are to love one another. 892 00:47:44,375 --> 00:47:47,667 "By this, all people will know that you are my disciples 893 00:47:47,750 --> 00:47:52,500 if you have love for one another." 894 00:47:52,542 --> 00:47:56,500 The acid test of your Christianity is not your 895 00:47:56,583 --> 00:47:59,083 theological prowess, but your affection 896 00:47:59,167 --> 00:48:04,250 for brothers and sisters in Christ. 897 00:48:04,333 --> 00:48:09,792 We lose this, church, we lose everything. 898 00:48:09,833 --> 00:48:13,458 We lose everything. 899 00:48:13,500 --> 00:48:16,833 You don't have to have a great website to be a great church. 900 00:48:16,875 --> 00:48:19,750 I say that to the consolation of myself. 901 00:48:19,833 --> 00:48:23,708 Don't look up GraceCityChurch.com. 902 00:48:23,792 --> 00:48:30,333 You need great love to be a great church. 903 00:48:30,375 --> 00:48:32,458 What does it mean to walk in darkness? 904 00:48:32,500 --> 00:48:35,917 Verse 9, "Whoever says he is in the light but hates his brother 905 00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:37,875 "is still in the darkness. 906 00:48:37,958 --> 00:48:40,125 "Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, 907 00:48:40,167 --> 00:48:42,542 "and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 908 00:48:42,625 --> 00:48:45,125 "But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness 909 00:48:45,167 --> 00:48:48,667 "and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, 910 00:48:48,750 --> 00:48:51,125 because the darkness has blinded his eyes." 911 00:48:51,167 --> 00:48:54,833 Contrasting light and darkness connected to your hatred or love 912 00:48:54,917 --> 00:48:56,792 for your brothers and sisters in Christ. 913 00:48:56,833 --> 00:49:01,583 What does it mean to hate a brother or a sister in Christ? 914 00:49:01,667 --> 00:49:04,083 Three ways to define hate. 915 00:49:04,167 --> 00:49:06,875 Hate can be trying to harm someone, like murder them. 916 00:49:06,958 --> 00:49:08,458 Which I think we're all 917 00:49:08,500 --> 00:49:10,083 pretty much in agreement that's wrong? 918 00:49:10,167 --> 00:49:12,083 Just give me a nod of the head. 919 00:49:12,167 --> 00:49:13,583 We're good? Awesome. 920 00:49:13,667 --> 00:49:15,000 Second definition of hate, 921 00:49:15,042 --> 00:49:17,500 wishing or wanting harm to come to someone. 922 00:49:17,583 --> 00:49:22,167 Third definition of hate, probably the most insidious. 923 00:49:22,208 --> 00:49:24,375 There's trying to harm, there's wishing to harm, 924 00:49:24,458 --> 00:49:27,875 and then there's just cool, cold hard indifference 925 00:49:27,958 --> 00:49:30,000 to whether or not harm comes to them. 926 00:49:30,083 --> 00:49:33,500 Whatever, I could care less. 927 00:49:33,583 --> 00:49:37,708 That's hatred. That's hatred. 928 00:49:37,792 --> 00:49:42,500 John would say you're walking in darkness and not in the light of 929 00:49:42,583 --> 00:49:46,833 the love of Christ if you wish a brother or sister ill will, 930 00:49:46,917 --> 00:49:50,000 if you want to see a brother or sister pay for their sin, 931 00:49:50,083 --> 00:49:52,667 if you keep detailed records of wrong and always look for 932 00:49:52,750 --> 00:49:55,667 an opportunity to bring it out and hang it over their head, 933 00:49:55,750 --> 00:49:57,667 if you regularly assume the worst, 934 00:49:57,750 --> 00:50:00,250 if you regularly see someone else's sin but remain 935 00:50:00,333 --> 00:50:03,333 simultaneously blind to your own eyes. 936 00:50:03,375 --> 00:50:04,833 Who's experts at this? 937 00:50:04,875 --> 00:50:06,417 Your children. 938 00:50:06,500 --> 00:50:07,958 At least mine are. 939 00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:09,667 I've got 4: 9, 7, 4, 2. 940 00:50:09,750 --> 00:50:12,000 Guess what we hear a lot in our home? 941 00:50:12,083 --> 00:50:15,167 "Dad, Dad, Dad, Amelia, blank, blank, blank, blank, 942 00:50:15,250 --> 00:50:16,667 "Ella Mae blank, blank, blank. 943 00:50:16,708 --> 00:50:18,833 You wouldn't believe what Gideon blank, blank, blank," right? 944 00:50:18,875 --> 00:50:21,333 In that moment, I'm not concerned about just one child, 945 00:50:21,375 --> 00:50:22,708 the perpetrator. 946 00:50:22,792 --> 00:50:25,167 I'm worried about the state of my two children's hearts, 947 00:50:25,208 --> 00:50:27,667 what's in the heart of the violator and what's in 948 00:50:27,708 --> 00:50:29,833 the heart of the one reporting the violation, 949 00:50:29,917 --> 00:50:34,750 needing to make sure that the violator gets taken out. 950 00:50:34,833 --> 00:50:37,875 I don't want to bring justice to one and simultaneously cultivate 951 00:50:37,958 --> 00:50:40,833 self-righteousness in the other. 952 00:50:40,917 --> 00:50:44,125 So, good parents pay attention to both the violator and the one 953 00:50:44,167 --> 00:50:49,208 who feels the need to wave the flag for the violation. 954 00:50:49,292 --> 00:50:52,833 You are not quick to confess your sin or repent of it, 955 00:50:52,875 --> 00:50:56,750 but instead blame, minimize, shift, justify. 956 00:50:56,833 --> 00:50:59,083 You're not quick to forgive others, 957 00:50:59,167 --> 00:51:01,292 you nurse and carry grudges. 958 00:51:01,333 --> 00:51:04,542 You find delight and glee in others' struggle and pain. 959 00:51:04,625 --> 00:51:06,417 If someone else's sin is exposed, 960 00:51:06,500 --> 00:51:08,083 you feel more self-righteous about yourself. 961 00:51:08,167 --> 00:51:09,500 You're vindictive. 962 00:51:09,542 --> 00:51:11,500 You always need to set the record straight. 963 00:51:11,542 --> 00:51:13,667 You're always working hard to protect your own reputation 964 00:51:13,750 --> 00:51:15,875 and you are easily and quickly filled with self-pity, 965 00:51:15,958 --> 00:51:17,292 which Chambers says is demonic. 966 00:51:17,333 --> 00:51:19,500 Self-pity is demonic for the Christian because the Christian 967 00:51:19,542 --> 00:51:21,667 in Christ has everything, all the treasures in heaven, 968 00:51:21,750 --> 00:51:23,875 the inheritance of God the Father given to him. 969 00:51:23,958 --> 00:51:26,583 Simultaneously saying, "Woe is me," 970 00:51:26,667 --> 00:51:29,083 means there is a massive disconnect between our reality 971 00:51:29,167 --> 00:51:31,833 in Christ and what we're currently experiencing. 972 00:51:31,917 --> 00:51:36,625 There should be no self-pity in the Christian life. 973 00:51:36,667 --> 00:51:39,833 So what does it mean to walk in the light? 974 00:51:39,875 --> 00:51:41,833 I'll just encourage you to do this. 975 00:51:41,875 --> 00:51:43,667 I know about three of you will. 976 00:51:43,750 --> 00:51:48,333 Go read Romans 12:9 today, 9 through 21, 977 00:51:48,417 --> 00:51:51,708 and let your heart be washed with Paul's exhortation 978 00:51:51,792 --> 00:51:56,208 of how to love brothers and sisters in Christ. 979 00:51:56,292 --> 00:51:58,833 Why would John emphasize loving our brothers over loving those 980 00:51:58,875 --> 00:52:00,333 in the world? 981 00:52:00,417 --> 00:52:02,792 Here's why. 982 00:52:02,833 --> 00:52:04,792 Isn't loving the lost important? 983 00:52:04,833 --> 00:52:06,333 Isn't loving the world important? 984 00:52:06,375 --> 00:52:09,000 Isn't loving those out there that don't yet know Christ, 985 00:52:09,042 --> 00:52:10,375 isn't that the big deal? 986 00:52:10,458 --> 00:52:12,375 Isn't that the big idea of the Bible? 987 00:52:12,458 --> 00:52:13,875 Yes, that's important. 988 00:52:13,958 --> 00:52:17,708 However, John ignores that crowd and zeros his exhortations in on 989 00:52:17,792 --> 00:52:24,708 this crowd because he's saying if you are unable to love 990 00:52:24,792 --> 00:52:29,000 the people in here, you will be unable to genuinely love 991 00:52:29,083 --> 00:52:31,833 the people out there. 992 00:52:31,875 --> 00:52:34,750 If you don't have a genuine and ever-increasing love 993 00:52:34,833 --> 00:52:37,375 for the brothers and sisters in Christ around you, 994 00:52:37,458 --> 00:52:40,875 you will have no gospel credibility when you go to love 995 00:52:40,958 --> 00:52:42,833 those outside the family of God. 996 00:52:42,917 --> 00:52:46,667 In fact, if all they see out there is you bickering in here, 997 00:52:46,750 --> 00:52:49,333 why would they want to come in? 998 00:52:49,375 --> 00:52:51,500 You say, "Well, some people are hard to love." 999 00:52:51,583 --> 00:52:55,958 Yeah, so are you. 1000 00:52:56,000 --> 00:52:59,333 Don't quickly forget where you were when God found you 1001 00:52:59,417 --> 00:53:02,167 in Christ. 1002 00:53:02,208 --> 00:53:05,667 So this issue of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ 1003 00:53:05,750 --> 00:53:10,458 has a missional credibility component because Jesus said, 1004 00:53:10,500 --> 00:53:14,167 "They'll know you're my disciples distinctly by your 1005 00:53:14,208 --> 00:53:18,917 love for one another, even when it's hard to love each other," 1006 00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:23,500 which is probably most of the time in the church. 1007 00:53:23,583 --> 00:53:25,917 Because when you love easily lovable people, 1008 00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:27,833 not much gospel witness comes from that. 1009 00:53:27,875 --> 00:53:29,875 But when you love those who are hard, 1010 00:53:29,958 --> 00:53:33,667 there's all sorts of gospel witness in that. 1011 00:53:33,708 --> 00:53:36,042 This is why we live in community, 1012 00:53:36,125 --> 00:53:38,833 because biblical mission does not look like us living 1013 00:53:38,917 --> 00:53:41,875 isolated, independent lives, free from stickiness or 1014 00:53:41,958 --> 00:53:44,667 conflict, standing on street corners screaming that people 1015 00:53:44,750 --> 00:53:46,500 are going to hell. 1016 00:53:46,583 --> 00:53:50,417 Biblical mission looks like us living together in community, 1017 00:53:50,500 --> 00:53:54,167 sinning, repenting, confessing, applying the gospel to 1018 00:53:54,250 --> 00:53:57,833 each other, and then inviting the lost world in to see 1019 00:53:57,875 --> 00:54:03,000 how we do that, because that's supernatural. 1020 00:54:03,042 --> 00:54:05,458 That's why your elders are wise in organizing you 1021 00:54:05,500 --> 00:54:06,833 in Community Groups, 1022 00:54:06,917 --> 00:54:09,167 because they're forcing you into relationships 1023 00:54:09,250 --> 00:54:11,500 that you might not otherwise naturally have, 1024 00:54:11,542 --> 00:54:14,792 that will boil to the surface your idolatry, your sin, 1025 00:54:14,833 --> 00:54:17,208 in which you can then have the gospel applied to, 1026 00:54:17,292 --> 00:54:19,958 praise the Lord, that you would have never seen had you 1027 00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:23,125 isolated yourself away from God's community. 1028 00:54:23,167 --> 00:54:24,583 I'm in a Gospel Community myself, 1029 00:54:24,667 --> 00:54:27,917 and it's a sticky mess most of the time, and it's glorious. 1030 00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:29,500 We tell our Gospel Community leaders, 1031 00:54:29,583 --> 00:54:32,000 when stuff hits the fan in your Community Group, 1032 00:54:32,042 --> 00:54:33,500 that's good news! 1033 00:54:33,583 --> 00:54:36,500 And they don't believe me yet, but I keep telling them that. 1034 00:54:36,583 --> 00:54:39,000 Because in that moment that person's waving the red flag, 1035 00:54:39,083 --> 00:54:40,500 "I don't believe the gospel here. 1036 00:54:40,583 --> 00:54:41,917 "I need Jesus here. 1037 00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:44,917 "Please, somebody come preach to me the gospel and help me see 1038 00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:47,667 "what I'm not believing to be true about God the Father, 1039 00:54:47,708 --> 00:54:49,042 "and Christ the Son, 1040 00:54:49,125 --> 00:54:52,042 and who I am because of the work they've done for me," 1041 00:54:52,125 --> 00:54:54,000 because all sin is rooted in unbelief, right? 1042 00:54:54,083 --> 00:54:59,333 Oh, community is the glorious training room for applying 1043 00:54:59,417 --> 00:55:00,833 and believing the gospel. 1044 00:55:00,917 --> 00:55:03,500 Lastly, land the plane. 1045 00:55:03,583 --> 00:55:06,000 How do you love those who are hard to love 1046 00:55:06,083 --> 00:55:08,917 or even hate you back? 1047 00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:14,125 This is rubber meets the road, right? 1048 00:55:14,167 --> 00:55:19,583 You remember, Christian, the next time you're struggling with 1049 00:55:19,667 --> 00:55:24,333 loving someone, a brother, a sister in Christ, 1050 00:55:24,417 --> 00:55:27,333 God has already forgiven the sin 1051 00:55:27,375 --> 00:55:32,333 that you currently want to hold against them. 1052 00:55:32,417 --> 00:55:37,250 You remember, Christian, that their advocate is your advocate. 1053 00:55:37,333 --> 00:55:39,833 You remember, Christian, when you're attempting to love 1054 00:55:39,917 --> 00:55:43,833 someone difficult, that you apart from Christ were difficult 1055 00:55:43,917 --> 00:55:45,500 yourself to love. 1056 00:55:45,583 --> 00:55:48,667 You've never met a more lovable person than yourself when God 1057 00:55:48,750 --> 00:55:50,958 found you apart from Christ. 1058 00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:53,917 Therefore, John's saying if you are in Christ, 1059 00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:58,000 you have the ability to tap into a power source that's 1060 00:55:58,083 --> 00:56:02,792 supernatural in your ability to bend it outward and love those 1061 00:56:02,833 --> 00:56:04,292 who are unlovable. 1062 00:56:04,333 --> 00:56:07,667 You can love as if this is a new command now because Jesus 1063 00:56:07,750 --> 00:56:10,833 has come and raised the bar so completely that when he said, 1064 00:56:10,875 --> 00:56:13,167 "Love others," in the Old Testament, 1065 00:56:13,208 --> 00:56:15,583 it's completely different than what it means now for you 1066 00:56:15,667 --> 00:56:18,917 to love others because of what Jesus has done for you. 1067 00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:24,208 The atoner, the advocate offered to anyone is here. 1068 00:56:24,292 --> 00:56:28,542 Because you can't remember the gospel and hold a grudge 1069 00:56:28,625 --> 00:56:30,125 at the same time. 1070 00:56:30,167 --> 00:56:32,500 They're mutually exclusive. 1071 00:56:32,542 --> 00:56:34,917 Only one can fill your heart. 1072 00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:38,917 If a grudge is there, you can't be remembering that Jesus paid 1073 00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:42,458 for the grudges you hold on the cross. 1074 00:56:42,500 --> 00:56:44,833 But if Jesus and the atoning work of his sacrifice 1075 00:56:44,917 --> 00:56:47,333 on the cross is there in your heart, welling over, 1076 00:56:47,375 --> 00:56:49,792 there is no room for grudge, no room for bitterness, 1077 00:56:49,833 --> 00:56:51,792 no room for envy, no room for selfishness, 1078 00:56:51,833 --> 00:56:54,500 no room for jealousy, no room for whatever else is trying 1079 00:56:54,583 --> 00:56:56,667 to get in there, because it's full of gospel. 1080 00:56:56,750 --> 00:56:59,625 And then you begin supernaturally walking like 1081 00:56:59,667 --> 00:57:01,833 Jesus walked. 1082 00:57:01,875 --> 00:57:05,500 How could you wish others ill when you yourself 1083 00:57:05,542 --> 00:57:07,042 have been exonerated? 1084 00:57:07,125 --> 00:57:09,792 There should be an almost giddy glee rippling 1085 00:57:09,833 --> 00:57:12,458 through this church. 1086 00:57:12,500 --> 00:57:14,750 Never should there be an attitude in the church 1087 00:57:14,833 --> 00:57:17,333 that's accusatory saying, "Hey, how did you get in here? 1088 00:57:17,417 --> 00:57:19,875 Seriously?" 1089 00:57:19,958 --> 00:57:22,000 Rather, there should be reflective, 1090 00:57:22,042 --> 00:57:26,167 "How did I get in here?" 1091 00:57:26,250 --> 00:57:30,500 that grows to a collective, "How did we get in here? 1092 00:57:30,583 --> 00:57:34,250 This is crazy!" 1093 00:57:34,333 --> 00:57:39,167 Then and only then will the table be set for true love 1094 00:57:39,208 --> 00:57:41,167 to be expressed and experienced 1095 00:57:41,250 --> 00:57:44,958 in the church because the gospel of Jesus Christ 1096 00:57:45,000 --> 00:57:49,458 gives you the supernatural ability to love the unlovable. 1097 00:57:49,500 --> 00:57:52,667 In fact, I would go so far as to say God intentionally brings 1098 00:57:52,708 --> 00:57:55,833 unlovable people into your life as a means of grace by which it 1099 00:57:55,917 --> 00:57:59,958 forces you to dig out the well of grace that God has poured out 1100 00:58:00,083 --> 00:58:02,625 on you, that you might begin discovering how much you 1101 00:58:02,667 --> 00:58:07,292 actually have in Christ, otherwise you'd forget. 1102 00:58:07,333 --> 00:58:12,625 The acid test of a gospel people is their love for brothers 1103 00:58:12,667 --> 00:58:15,833 and sisters in Christ. 1104 00:58:15,917 --> 00:58:18,417 I'll end with this short story. 1105 00:58:18,500 --> 00:58:21,375 Four children, my oldest, Ella Mae, nine years old, 1106 00:58:21,458 --> 00:58:22,875 born with spina bifida. 1107 00:58:22,958 --> 00:58:24,333 Paralyzed from the waist down. 1108 00:58:24,417 --> 00:58:26,833 Shunt in her brain keeping her alive as we speak. 1109 00:58:26,917 --> 00:58:28,250 Thousands of implications physically, 1110 00:58:28,333 --> 00:58:32,000 emotionally in her life, of which you have loved us well, 1111 00:58:32,042 --> 00:58:35,667 given us many gifts along the way. 1112 00:58:35,708 --> 00:58:37,167 Levi, healthy. 1113 00:58:37,208 --> 00:58:38,542 Amelia, healthy. 1114 00:58:38,625 --> 00:58:40,667 Gideon, born 2 years ago, spina bifida. 1115 00:58:40,750 --> 00:58:42,750 Not hereditary, lightning hitting twice. 1116 00:58:42,833 --> 00:58:45,167 That's my family story and it radically shapes 1117 00:58:45,208 --> 00:58:48,667 the narrative we live in. 1118 00:58:48,750 --> 00:58:52,333 For 9 years, my daughter has been forced to see only how 1119 00:58:52,417 --> 00:58:55,000 she's different, only what she can't do and what she 1120 00:58:55,083 --> 00:58:57,000 can't participate in, and where she can't go, 1121 00:58:57,083 --> 00:58:58,750 and who she can't hang out with. 1122 00:58:58,833 --> 00:59:01,833 Her limitations shape her life. 1123 00:59:01,875 --> 00:59:04,500 And this might seem small for you, but for a parent, 1124 00:59:04,542 --> 00:59:05,875 this was huge. 1125 00:59:05,958 --> 00:59:07,875 My daughter had never ridden a bike. 1126 00:59:07,958 --> 00:59:10,083 And you probably never even thought about that 1127 00:59:10,167 --> 00:59:11,500 with your kid. 1128 00:59:11,542 --> 00:59:14,208 I wouldn't have thought about it until they can't do it, 1129 00:59:14,292 --> 00:59:17,417 and then it's like, "Oh man, why can't my daughter ride a bike?" 1130 00:59:17,500 --> 00:59:19,250 "How come my legs don't work, dad?" 1131 00:59:19,333 --> 00:59:23,458 We found a bike that would work for her, use the arms. 1132 00:59:23,500 --> 00:59:24,833 We're going to buy it. 1133 00:59:24,917 --> 00:59:26,417 Went to purchase it online. 1134 00:59:26,500 --> 00:59:30,958 The price tag for this bike that could unleash my daughter's 1135 00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:35,958 freedom, $7.3 billion. 1136 00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:37,333 I mean, roughly there. 1137 00:59:37,417 --> 00:59:39,042 I'm exaggerating a little bit. 1138 00:59:39,125 --> 00:59:41,042 Might as well have been to us, right? 1139 00:59:41,125 --> 00:59:44,042 I mean, like, what do you they make the thing out of, 1140 00:59:44,125 --> 00:59:45,458 diamonds and gold? 1141 00:59:45,500 --> 00:59:46,958 You know man, come on, seriously. 1142 00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:49,167 And so we're like, "Well, we can't do it," 1143 00:59:49,208 --> 00:59:51,333 and we decide we're going to dip into savings. 1144 00:59:51,417 --> 00:59:54,083 We're going to hive off a huge portion of our savings 1145 00:59:54,167 --> 00:59:56,583 and we're going to get this done for our daughter. 1146 00:59:56,667 --> 00:59:59,583 Go down to the store, order it, 2 months to make it, 1147 00:59:59,667 --> 01:00:01,583 and the night before we go get it, 1148 01:00:01,667 --> 01:00:03,333 Ella Mae comes to our room, 11:30. 1149 01:00:03,375 --> 01:00:05,333 "Mom, Dad, I can't sleep. I'm so excited. 1150 01:00:05,375 --> 01:00:07,042 "I'm going to ride a bike tomorrow. 1151 01:00:07,125 --> 01:00:10,250 Will I really get to feel the wind in my hair?" she says. 1152 01:00:10,333 --> 01:00:11,667 She's 9. 1153 01:00:11,708 --> 01:00:14,333 "What if it doesn't work? What if I can't do it? 1154 01:00:14,375 --> 01:00:17,833 "Will I get to ride with my friends at the park if it works? 1155 01:00:17,875 --> 01:00:20,333 I don't want to eat anything, Dad, I'm so nervous." 1156 01:00:20,375 --> 01:00:22,167 "It's okay, babe. Go back to bed. 1157 01:00:22,208 --> 01:00:23,667 "We'll have an emotional, sentimental moment 1158 01:00:23,708 --> 01:00:25,042 "in the morning. 1159 01:00:25,125 --> 01:00:26,542 Right now, I'm trying to sleep." 1160 01:00:26,625 --> 01:00:28,542 Wakes up early, 6 o'clock in the morning. 1161 01:00:28,625 --> 01:00:30,292 Can't wait, can't wait, can't eat, nervous, 1162 01:00:30,333 --> 01:00:31,667 butterflies in her stomach. 1163 01:00:31,750 --> 01:00:34,667 We go to the store, rolls the bike out, there it is. 1164 01:00:34,750 --> 01:00:36,875 She gets on it and we strap her on. 1165 01:00:36,958 --> 01:00:38,292 "Okay babe, try the pedals." 1166 01:00:38,333 --> 01:00:40,958 And she takes off across the parking lot 1167 01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:42,500 about 100 miles an hour, 1168 01:00:42,542 --> 01:00:46,167 the whole time yelling as she goes, "I'm free! 1169 01:00:46,250 --> 01:00:51,333 I'm free!" 1170 01:00:51,417 --> 01:00:55,167 She's circling the parking lot about 73 times doing 1171 01:00:55,208 --> 01:00:56,875 110 miles an hour around the corners. 1172 01:00:56,958 --> 01:00:58,375 I mean, she's just like, 1173 01:00:58,458 --> 01:01:01,750 [imitating cars zooming around a track] 1174 01:01:01,833 --> 01:01:03,375 And she rolls in here... 1175 01:01:03,458 --> 01:01:04,875 We go, "How is it, babe?" 1176 01:01:04,958 --> 01:01:07,083 She's like, "I love it, Dad. I feel free. 1177 01:01:07,167 --> 01:01:08,500 "When I'm on this bike, 1178 01:01:08,542 --> 01:01:14,292 it's like I totally forgot I had spina bifida, Dad." 1179 01:01:14,333 --> 01:01:17,792 We go to pay the bill, "No need for that. 1180 01:01:17,833 --> 01:01:20,500 No bill." 1181 01:01:20,583 --> 01:01:22,708 "What do you mean no bill?" 1182 01:01:22,792 --> 01:01:24,833 "It's been paid." 1183 01:01:24,875 --> 01:01:26,833 "What?" 1184 01:01:26,875 --> 01:01:28,292 I go up to Ella Mae. 1185 01:01:28,333 --> 01:01:30,792 I go, "Ella Mae, you're not going to believe this, 1186 01:01:30,833 --> 01:01:32,167 "sweetie pie. 1187 01:01:32,250 --> 01:01:35,125 Someone paid for your bike." 1188 01:01:35,167 --> 01:01:39,625 She goes, "Oh, you mean it's free?" 1189 01:01:39,667 --> 01:01:41,417 I got down on my knees 1190 01:01:41,500 --> 01:01:43,417 because I wasn't going to miss this moment. 1191 01:01:43,500 --> 01:01:46,833 I said, "No babe, it's not free. 1192 01:01:46,917 --> 01:01:52,167 It was costly, but it's free to us." 1193 01:01:52,208 --> 01:01:59,167 She goes, no joke, "Oh, like substitutionary atonement?" 1194 01:01:59,208 --> 01:02:06,208 I mean, like, pow! 1195 01:02:06,292 --> 01:02:09,667 I said, "That's right, babe. 1196 01:02:09,708 --> 01:02:13,458 It was free to us, but it wasn't cheap." 1197 01:02:13,500 --> 01:02:16,708 And when you find it hard to love--you got names and faces in 1198 01:02:16,792 --> 01:02:19,417 your mind right now: brother, sister, aunt, uncle, friend, 1199 01:02:19,500 --> 01:02:21,500 Community Group member, spouse. 1200 01:02:21,583 --> 01:02:25,292 When you find it hard to love, you get on the gospel bike. 1201 01:02:25,333 --> 01:02:28,708 Oh man, because when you're on the gospel bike, you're free. 1202 01:02:28,792 --> 01:02:32,125 It's like, "I forget I have spina bifida, Dad!" 1203 01:02:32,167 --> 01:02:34,125 And when you're on the gospel bike, 1204 01:02:34,167 --> 01:02:38,000 the bike that came at great cost to purchase by the Son, 1205 01:02:38,083 --> 01:02:41,000 given to you freely, it gives you a whole new perspective on 1206 01:02:41,083 --> 01:02:44,208 life and it gives you a power to draw from that enables you 1207 01:02:44,292 --> 01:02:50,000 to love in a way that makes Jesus look good. 1208 01:02:50,083 --> 01:02:52,583 Because the distinct mark of a gospel people, 1209 01:02:52,667 --> 01:02:57,792 of a gospel church, isn't their theological prowess. 1210 01:02:57,833 --> 01:03:02,917 It's their love for one another. 1211 01:03:03,000 --> 01:03:06,250 Father, would you drive this truth deep into our hearts, 1212 01:03:06,333 --> 01:03:07,833 even now. 1213 01:03:07,875 --> 01:03:10,958 Would you be here with us, bringing hope, bringing light, 1214 01:03:11,000 --> 01:03:12,583 bringing life. 1215 01:03:12,667 --> 01:03:17,000 We have a propitiator, we have an advocate, 1216 01:03:17,083 --> 01:03:24,000 therefore we have reason for hope and we have access to power 1217 01:03:24,083 --> 01:03:29,625 to draw from, from which we can love even the most unlovable, 1218 01:03:29,667 --> 01:03:33,042 like we were. 1219 01:03:33,125 --> 01:03:35,875 Father, when we find it hard to love, 1220 01:03:35,958 --> 01:03:41,333 would you remind us of the cross and the free gift of grace that 1221 01:03:41,417 --> 01:03:45,917 came at great cost to you, that when we were unlovable, 1222 01:03:46,000 --> 01:03:48,708 you loved us in order to make us lovely. 1223 01:03:48,792 --> 01:03:54,500 And then may we draw from that power source to love in a way 1224 01:03:54,542 --> 01:04:00,583 that can only be described as supernatural and Christ-like. 1225 01:04:00,667 --> 01:04:03,750 For the glory of Jesus' name we pray these things, amen. 1226 01:04:06,000 --> 01:04:07,333 Pastor Sutton Turner here. 1227 01:04:07,375 --> 01:04:08,667 The sermon just finished 1228 01:04:08,750 --> 01:04:11,625 and you can still play a role at Mars Hill church. 1229 01:04:11,667 --> 01:04:15,625 Whether you're part of one of our local Mars Hill churches, 1230 01:04:15,667 --> 01:04:19,000 or part of our global Mars Hill community, 1231 01:04:19,042 --> 01:04:22,667 if you value this sermon, please consider making a donation 1232 01:04:22,750 --> 01:04:27,250 by visiting marshill.com/give. 1233 01:04:27,333 --> 01:04:30,333 Sermons like this are recorded and streamed for free 1234 01:04:30,417 --> 01:04:33,500 to anyone interested in learning more about Jesus 1235 01:04:33,542 --> 01:04:35,167 and living their faith. 1236 01:04:35,208 --> 01:04:38,500 And I'd like to ask you to support making that happen 1237 01:04:38,542 --> 01:04:42,000 by making a gift, even a small one, to Mars Hill, 1238 01:04:42,083 --> 01:04:46,250 you will help a global family of brothers and sisters in Christ 1239 01:04:46,333 --> 01:04:51,458 that download sermons like this one over 10 million times. 1240 01:04:51,500 --> 01:04:55,500 Your gift also helps plant churches, equip evangelists, 1241 01:04:55,583 --> 01:05:00,125 distribute bibles and study materials all over the world. 1242 01:05:00,167 --> 01:05:03,000 Let's see more materials translated, 1243 01:05:03,042 --> 01:05:06,083 more pastors sent out, more churches planted, 1244 01:05:06,167 --> 01:05:08,500 and more people saved by Jesus Christ.