1 00:00:00,300 --> 00:00:03,420 This is a reading from first Peter 1:22 2 00:00:03,420 --> 00:00:06,423 - 2:3. 3 00:00:16,883 --> 00:00:17,250 Having 4 00:00:17,250 --> 00:00:20,270 purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, 5 00:00:20,270 --> 00:00:25,308 for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. 6 00:00:25,892 --> 00:00:29,212 Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, 7 00:00:29,429 --> 00:00:33,867 but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God. 8 00:00:34,501 --> 00:00:37,103 For all flesh is like grass, and all 9 00:00:37,103 --> 00:00:40,106 its glory, like the flower of grass, 10 00:00:40,256 --> 00:00:43,159 the grass withers and the flower falls. 11 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:45,712 But the word of the Lord remains forever. 12 00:00:45,712 --> 00:00:48,715 And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 13 00:00:49,199 --> 00:00:52,886 So put away all malice, and all deceit and hypocrisy 14 00:00:52,886 --> 00:00:56,756 and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants 15 00:00:56,990 --> 00:01:02,162 long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. 16 00:01:02,362 --> 00:01:05,148 If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 17 00:01:08,301 --> 00:01:09,169 Well, good morning and 18 00:01:09,169 --> 00:01:12,572 welcome to the weekend gathering of Christ Community Chapel. 19 00:01:12,589 --> 00:01:14,007 My name is Zach. 20 00:01:14,007 --> 00:01:19,129 I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm so glad we get to be part of your weekend. 21 00:01:19,462 --> 00:01:24,901 As we lean in now to our third week of our ten week sermon series. 22 00:01:24,918 --> 00:01:26,719 It's going to take us through the fall, 23 00:01:26,719 --> 00:01:29,722 right up until Christmas. 24 00:01:29,873 --> 00:01:34,711 We are looking at First Peter for those ten weeks for a pretty simple reason. 25 00:01:35,128 --> 00:01:40,433 The background of First Peter is that Peter is writing to a growing church 26 00:01:40,433 --> 00:01:46,289 in the midst of an antagonistic culture, and we think there are a lot of parallels 27 00:01:46,289 --> 00:01:51,744 between that church and this one, between that culture and this one. 28 00:01:51,895 --> 00:01:55,198 So we're looking at what God had to say to this particular church 29 00:01:55,198 --> 00:01:58,668 in this particular time in order to see if perhaps, maybe 30 00:01:58,668 --> 00:02:03,139 what he said to them can help us move forward as a church. 31 00:02:03,156 --> 00:02:08,027 If you have a Bible, would you open it up to first Peter chapter one? 32 00:02:08,044 --> 00:02:11,447 Totally okay to take out your phone or tablet and use that. 33 00:02:11,447 --> 00:02:15,768 And hey, if you're here this weekend and maybe new to church, new to the Bible, 34 00:02:16,136 --> 00:02:19,923 every time I reference a passage, it's going to be on the screen behind me. 35 00:02:19,923 --> 00:02:22,592 So don't feel any anxiety about that. 36 00:02:22,592 --> 00:02:26,396 But if you want to hold a Bible in your hands, there is one in the pew 37 00:02:26,396 --> 00:02:28,381 in front of you or in the back of his hall. 38 00:02:28,381 --> 00:02:30,466 It's the same one I use just for you. 39 00:02:30,466 --> 00:02:34,287 So we can tell you that today's reading is on page 953. 40 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:36,089 Thanks for coming this weekend. 41 00:02:36,089 --> 00:02:37,290 I bet it was a big step for you. 42 00:02:37,290 --> 00:02:39,259 I'm glad you took it. 43 00:02:39,259 --> 00:02:40,460 However you're getting 44 00:02:40,460 --> 00:02:44,631 to first Peter chapter one, let me hold out to you and outline. 45 00:02:44,631 --> 00:02:47,417 I'm going to use the guide. Our time together. 46 00:02:47,417 --> 00:02:48,618 Three points. 47 00:02:48,618 --> 00:02:49,519 Very simple. 48 00:02:49,519 --> 00:02:53,339 They go like this I want to talk about what we want, but 49 00:02:53,339 --> 00:02:56,359 do not have what God has 50 00:02:56,359 --> 00:02:59,762 and will share, and how sharing changes everything. 51 00:02:59,762 --> 00:03:03,833 Okay what we want but don't have what God has 52 00:03:03,833 --> 00:03:08,221 and we'll share and how sharing changes everything. 53 00:03:08,304 --> 00:03:09,689 All right, let's start with the first one. 54 00:03:09,689 --> 00:03:12,692 What we want but do not have. 55 00:03:13,293 --> 00:03:16,412 Two things are true of our world, 56 00:03:16,412 --> 00:03:19,766 of our culture that I find fascinating. 57 00:03:20,250 --> 00:03:24,237 I mean, on the one hand, there probably has never been a culture 58 00:03:24,737 --> 00:03:29,943 more infatuated with the idea of love than ours. 59 00:03:30,810 --> 00:03:33,029 I mean, we sing songs about it, 60 00:03:33,029 --> 00:03:37,734 make movies about it, write books about it, podcasts about it. 61 00:03:37,734 --> 00:03:41,938 Think about how much of the media you consume 62 00:03:41,938 --> 00:03:45,625 is connected in some way to love. 63 00:03:45,959 --> 00:03:48,745 I mean, I can make the argument that most of the movies we watch, 64 00:03:48,745 --> 00:03:52,765 most of the music we listen to is aiming at love. 65 00:03:52,765 --> 00:03:55,768 We love, love. 66 00:03:55,818 --> 00:03:59,122 We're almost to the Christmas season, which means at my house, 67 00:03:59,639 --> 00:04:02,091 Hallmark Channel will be all that is on, 68 00:04:03,593 --> 00:04:05,428 and all that they do 69 00:04:05,428 --> 00:04:09,949 is make movies about love, love and snow and small towns. 70 00:04:09,949 --> 00:04:12,418 But love, love, it's love. 71 00:04:12,418 --> 00:04:14,687 We love, love. 72 00:04:14,687 --> 00:04:17,874 There has never been a culture that loves love more than us. 73 00:04:17,874 --> 00:04:19,826 And yet, here's the second thing that is true. 74 00:04:19,826 --> 00:04:25,131 Literally no one would describe our culture as loving. 75 00:04:26,282 --> 00:04:27,750 Think about that. 76 00:04:27,750 --> 00:04:30,737 We are infatuated with love 77 00:04:31,587 --> 00:04:33,473 and literally no one. 78 00:04:33,473 --> 00:04:34,590 I mean no one. 79 00:04:34,590 --> 00:04:37,160 There wouldn't be a single person on the planet 80 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:40,280 who would look at American culture in 2025 and say, you know what? 81 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:43,099 They are loving? 82 00:04:43,099 --> 00:04:45,902 I mean, how many adjectives would I have to give you 83 00:04:45,902 --> 00:04:49,973 to describe our culture before you even think about love? 84 00:04:51,774 --> 00:04:53,609 We are not loving. 85 00:04:53,609 --> 00:04:55,712 We love, love. 86 00:04:55,712 --> 00:04:56,813 We're not any good at it. 87 00:04:58,247 --> 00:05:00,800 We love love. But 88 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:04,137 we really don't know how to get it. 89 00:05:04,787 --> 00:05:09,359 The the writer knows that that he's going to talk about that in this passage. 90 00:05:09,359 --> 00:05:11,311 There are two places I want you to see it. 91 00:05:11,311 --> 00:05:13,563 Look first at verse 22. 92 00:05:13,563 --> 00:05:14,847 The very first verse of our passage. 93 00:05:14,847 --> 00:05:17,066 Here's what he says. 94 00:05:17,066 --> 00:05:20,069 Having purified your souls 95 00:05:20,420 --> 00:05:23,373 by your obedience to the truth 96 00:05:23,373 --> 00:05:26,359 for a sincere brotherly love, 97 00:05:26,843 --> 00:05:30,747 love one another earnestly from a pure heart. 98 00:05:31,097 --> 00:05:34,200 Now, one of the things I'm trying to teach you as a Bible teacher 99 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:37,203 is that when the Bible tells you to do something, 100 00:05:37,253 --> 00:05:40,106 it's assuming I'm not doing it. 101 00:05:40,106 --> 00:05:41,507 Now, do you understand that? 102 00:05:41,507 --> 00:05:43,910 Like it's like telling your kids to clean their room? 103 00:05:43,910 --> 00:05:46,913 You don't say that because you assume the room is clean. 104 00:05:47,513 --> 00:05:49,165 You say that because you know it's not. 105 00:05:49,165 --> 00:05:54,237 So when the writer says, hey, I'm calling you to love from a sincere 106 00:05:54,387 --> 00:05:58,791 heart to love with a sincere kind of love. 107 00:05:59,308 --> 00:06:03,363 He's saying, we don't tend to do that, 108 00:06:04,347 --> 00:06:06,649 but the problem with our culture 109 00:06:06,649 --> 00:06:09,902 and love is that it's insincere. 110 00:06:10,853 --> 00:06:12,271 That's a hard thing to hear. 111 00:06:12,271 --> 00:06:13,139 A hard thing to say. 112 00:06:13,139 --> 00:06:16,075 I mean, when I was working on the sermon this week, I was thinking, you know what? 113 00:06:16,075 --> 00:06:20,546 I struggle with that because I do think most people wake up in the morning 114 00:06:20,780 --> 00:06:23,216 and they want to be loving. 115 00:06:23,216 --> 00:06:24,600 When we wake up in the morning, we think, man, 116 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,387 I want to be the best version of myself and I want to be kind. 117 00:06:27,387 --> 00:06:29,272 I want to be friendly. I want to be warm. 118 00:06:29,272 --> 00:06:30,506 I want to be loving. 119 00:06:30,506 --> 00:06:34,277 But what the writer is saying is that we might wake up that way. 120 00:06:34,377 --> 00:06:37,497 But more often than we'd like to admit, we go to bed thinking, 121 00:06:39,348 --> 00:06:41,751 I'll try again tomorrow 122 00:06:41,751 --> 00:06:44,570 because I wasn't as kind I wasn't as warm in, the writer says. 123 00:06:44,570 --> 00:06:47,607 That's because it's coming from an insincere place. 124 00:06:47,607 --> 00:06:50,359 Now, if you're like me and you struggle with that, maybe this will help. 125 00:06:50,359 --> 00:06:53,362 Look at what he says in chapter two, verse one, 126 00:06:53,513 --> 00:06:55,848 what we're going to have to do if we want to love. 127 00:06:55,848 --> 00:06:56,849 Here's what he says. 128 00:06:56,849 --> 00:06:59,852 So put away all malice 129 00:07:00,620 --> 00:07:02,755 and all deceit 130 00:07:02,755 --> 00:07:07,143 and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 131 00:07:07,143 --> 00:07:10,129 Know those are some words that describe American culture. 132 00:07:11,547 --> 00:07:12,632 Here's what he says. 133 00:07:12,632 --> 00:07:15,618 The way you know your love is insincere 134 00:07:15,718 --> 00:07:18,721 is because it isn't strong enough 135 00:07:19,622 --> 00:07:22,108 to love people that you don't 136 00:07:22,108 --> 00:07:25,111 naturally like. 137 00:07:25,128 --> 00:07:27,146 In other words, there are some people in your life 138 00:07:27,146 --> 00:07:29,515 that are kind of easy to love. 139 00:07:29,515 --> 00:07:32,518 But what the writer says is one of the ways, you know, our love is thin. 140 00:07:32,935 --> 00:07:35,488 It's weak, it's insubstantial, 141 00:07:35,488 --> 00:07:40,193 is that when we get angry, our love can't shout down our malice. 142 00:07:42,295 --> 00:07:45,298 It doesn't make us live with integrity. 143 00:07:45,331 --> 00:07:47,033 We're hypocritical. We're deceitful. 144 00:07:47,033 --> 00:07:48,351 It doesn't make us celebrate. 145 00:07:48,351 --> 00:07:50,102 Other people were envious. 146 00:07:50,102 --> 00:07:52,338 It doesn't make us speak well of other people. 147 00:07:52,338 --> 00:07:55,341 We slander them. 148 00:07:55,825 --> 00:07:59,729 So the writer is saying that the true test of sincerity 149 00:07:59,729 --> 00:08:03,182 and love is that it's stronger than your negative emotions. 150 00:08:03,182 --> 00:08:08,488 The true test of sincerity and love is that you can still give it to people 151 00:08:08,521 --> 00:08:12,408 that are difficult, because when you can't, what are you saying when you can't? 152 00:08:12,558 --> 00:08:18,231 Here's the reality we have a hard time loving people when they get difficult, 153 00:08:18,498 --> 00:08:21,450 and that's a problem because everybody gets difficult. 154 00:08:21,450 --> 00:08:24,086 We have a hard time loving people when they get difficult 155 00:08:24,086 --> 00:08:27,540 because the writer is saying is that fundamentally, 156 00:08:28,641 --> 00:08:31,644 we love ourselves. 157 00:08:32,662 --> 00:08:35,665 Think about this list malice. 158 00:08:35,698 --> 00:08:38,267 Hypocrisy, deceit, envy, slander. 159 00:08:38,267 --> 00:08:41,420 Every one of those is coming from a place of self-love. 160 00:08:41,420 --> 00:08:44,657 It's coming from either pride you've offended me 161 00:08:44,657 --> 00:08:48,177 and I'm angry, or it's coming from insecurity. 162 00:08:48,177 --> 00:08:50,897 I'm not sure you'll like me, so I'll lie to you. 163 00:08:53,432 --> 00:08:54,166 But pride 164 00:08:54,166 --> 00:08:57,169 is thinking up too much about yourself. 165 00:08:57,169 --> 00:08:59,672 Insecurity is thinking too little about yourself. 166 00:08:59,672 --> 00:09:02,658 You know what they have in common. 167 00:09:03,259 --> 00:09:05,361 You thinking about yourself. 168 00:09:05,361 --> 00:09:08,364 And the writer says the problem with love. 169 00:09:08,481 --> 00:09:11,150 The reason we love it but we can't have it. 170 00:09:11,150 --> 00:09:14,720 The reason we celebrate it, but we can't live it is because fun. 171 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:17,723 The mentally, we love ourselves. 172 00:09:20,243 --> 00:09:24,647 And when you force us to choose, we choose ourself over anyone else. 173 00:09:24,830 --> 00:09:26,415 Let me put it this way. 174 00:09:26,415 --> 00:09:29,068 I drive through my neighborhood a different times, and I see that 175 00:09:29,068 --> 00:09:32,939 some of my neighbors have yard signs in their in their in their yard. 176 00:09:33,172 --> 00:09:33,356 Yeah. 177 00:09:33,356 --> 00:09:36,709 Sometimes it's like, oh, this is the roofing company that's doing our roof. 178 00:09:36,709 --> 00:09:39,145 And sometimes, like, their kid plays soccer. 179 00:09:39,145 --> 00:09:43,382 And then sometimes it's like a political social message, hey, just fine. 180 00:09:43,399 --> 00:09:45,751 If you're in the yard sign game, less is more. Okay, 181 00:09:46,736 --> 00:09:49,589 I don't have time to read a paragraph. 182 00:09:49,589 --> 00:09:51,440 Okay. If I see a paragraph, I just. 183 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:54,443 I don't care what you believe. 184 00:09:54,627 --> 00:09:57,146 But there's a sign that I see in my neighborhood says a lot of things. 185 00:09:57,146 --> 00:09:58,731 And one of the big things on there is it says, 186 00:09:58,731 --> 00:10:01,734 in this house we believe love is love. 187 00:10:04,070 --> 00:10:07,073 But the writer says, is it? 188 00:10:07,590 --> 00:10:09,175 But is it? 189 00:10:09,175 --> 00:10:10,259 If you call it love? 190 00:10:10,259 --> 00:10:13,262 But it's full of malice. It's a love. 191 00:10:13,796 --> 00:10:13,980 Love. 192 00:10:13,980 --> 00:10:16,315 You call it love, but it's full of envy or hypocrisy. 193 00:10:16,315 --> 00:10:16,749 Or to. See. 194 00:10:16,749 --> 00:10:18,534 You see, we're so bad at love. 195 00:10:18,534 --> 00:10:21,537 I'm not sure what we call love. 196 00:10:22,622 --> 00:10:25,308 Is actually love. 197 00:10:25,308 --> 00:10:29,462 So begs the question, well, where do you go to get better at love? 198 00:10:29,462 --> 00:10:31,914 Well, I told you, my first point is what we want and what we don't have. 199 00:10:31,914 --> 00:10:33,115 Here's my second point. 200 00:10:33,115 --> 00:10:36,952 What God has and will share 201 00:10:37,436 --> 00:10:40,489 in God knows how to love. 202 00:10:41,507 --> 00:10:44,760 In fact, this is what the Bible says in first John chapter four verse eight. 203 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:46,712 I'm going to read it to you. Here's what it says. 204 00:10:46,712 --> 00:10:51,167 Anyone who does not love does not know God. 205 00:10:51,167 --> 00:10:54,987 Listen because God is love. 206 00:10:55,738 --> 00:10:58,457 Do you know what that means? God is love. 207 00:10:58,457 --> 00:10:59,208 There's a danger 208 00:10:59,208 --> 00:11:03,029 because what you might think he's saying is that if you look up in the dictionary 209 00:11:03,295 --> 00:11:06,349 and you find a definition for the word love, 210 00:11:06,982 --> 00:11:10,202 that then God does whatever that definition 211 00:11:10,202 --> 00:11:13,856 says, like God always has a high score on the scoreboard. 212 00:11:13,923 --> 00:11:15,591 If you evaluated God 213 00:11:15,591 --> 00:11:19,278 on the definition of love, he would always get a ten out of ten. 214 00:11:19,528 --> 00:11:20,880 That's not what he means. 215 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:25,101 He's not saying God does love or God achieves love. 216 00:11:25,101 --> 00:11:27,053 What he says is God is love. 217 00:11:27,053 --> 00:11:31,340 Meaning, if you want to know what is loving, look at what God does. 218 00:11:33,242 --> 00:11:36,062 If you want to know what is loving, look at what God says. 219 00:11:36,062 --> 00:11:37,997 If you want to know what is not loving, 220 00:11:37,997 --> 00:11:41,033 look at what God doesn't do and what God doesn't say. 221 00:11:41,033 --> 00:11:45,388 God is literally the embodiment of love. 222 00:11:46,939 --> 00:11:49,975 In fact, only Christianity can say this. 223 00:11:50,910 --> 00:11:54,063 And the reason for that is because the Christian understanding of God, 224 00:11:54,063 --> 00:11:58,067 the biblical understanding of God, the actual nature of God is that he's one. 225 00:11:58,067 --> 00:11:59,151 And yet three. 226 00:11:59,151 --> 00:12:01,320 I don't want to nerd out on this, and if you're here 227 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:02,988 and you're not a Christian, I don't want to confuse you. 228 00:12:02,988 --> 00:12:05,758 But Christianity believes. We believe, we teach. 229 00:12:05,758 --> 00:12:09,528 The Bible tells us that God is one and yet three 230 00:12:09,528 --> 00:12:13,649 father, son, and spirit, which means from eternity past. 231 00:12:13,649 --> 00:12:18,471 Because God has always existed before he even created the universe. 232 00:12:18,471 --> 00:12:19,555 Do you know what there was? 233 00:12:21,090 --> 00:12:22,675 Love. 234 00:12:22,675 --> 00:12:24,110 The father loved the son. 235 00:12:24,110 --> 00:12:25,461 The son loved the spirit. 236 00:12:25,461 --> 00:12:26,579 The spirit loved the father. 237 00:12:26,579 --> 00:12:29,064 Round and round we go. In fact, the Christian author C.S. 238 00:12:29,064 --> 00:12:31,283 Lewis called this the dance of God. 239 00:12:31,283 --> 00:12:32,668 That was in himself. 240 00:12:32,668 --> 00:12:34,670 He had love, he had relationship. 241 00:12:34,670 --> 00:12:37,823 Now this is important because it means that God 242 00:12:37,823 --> 00:12:42,378 is not fundamentally a God of power who created us. 243 00:12:43,262 --> 00:12:45,264 He is fundamentally a God of love. 244 00:12:45,264 --> 00:12:47,366 Everything he does comes out of that. 245 00:12:47,366 --> 00:12:49,769 He is love. 246 00:12:49,769 --> 00:12:54,356 But it isn't just that God is love, it's that he loves you. 247 00:12:55,524 --> 00:12:58,194 This is what the Bible says in Romans chapter five verse eight. 248 00:12:58,194 --> 00:12:59,094 Listen to this. 249 00:12:59,094 --> 00:13:03,949 It says, But God shows his love for us 250 00:13:04,250 --> 00:13:08,821 in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 251 00:13:08,821 --> 00:13:11,991 But God shows his love for us 252 00:13:12,208 --> 00:13:16,228 in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 253 00:13:16,228 --> 00:13:17,897 God is love. 254 00:13:17,897 --> 00:13:21,417 But that doesn't mean anything to me unless he loves me. 255 00:13:21,450 --> 00:13:26,422 Well, here's how God shows his love for me while I was at my worst, 256 00:13:27,473 --> 00:13:30,476 he loved me with his best. 257 00:13:30,693 --> 00:13:34,113 Now, this verse teaches us two things about God and about his love. 258 00:13:34,230 --> 00:13:35,931 It teaches us two things about ourselves. 259 00:13:35,931 --> 00:13:40,102 Here's the first thing you and I are not actually lovable. 260 00:13:43,856 --> 00:13:45,541 But God demonstrates 261 00:13:45,541 --> 00:13:50,880 his love toward us in this while we were yet sinners. 262 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:54,917 Now, you need to hear this because you've grown up in a culture of affirmation. 263 00:13:55,067 --> 00:13:59,121 You've grown up in a world that tells you you're beautiful, you're wonderful, 264 00:13:59,188 --> 00:14:01,457 you're smart. You can be anything you want to be. 265 00:14:01,457 --> 00:14:05,244 You can do anything you want to do that our culture says the way you love someone 266 00:14:05,327 --> 00:14:07,162 is you celebrate them. 267 00:14:07,162 --> 00:14:11,033 The problem with that is it's a treadmill you can never get off of. 268 00:14:12,618 --> 00:14:14,003 Let me explain what I mean. 269 00:14:14,003 --> 00:14:17,006 I met my wife, Amy, when I was 18 years old, 270 00:14:17,122 --> 00:14:19,892 and like most 18 year old guys, I thought I was pretty great. 271 00:14:22,428 --> 00:14:25,431 So if she had told me at the time, Zac, 272 00:14:25,431 --> 00:14:28,918 you are the most handsome man I have ever seen in my entire life. 273 00:14:29,418 --> 00:14:30,653 And so I love you. 274 00:14:30,653 --> 00:14:33,656 I would have said that makes total sense. 275 00:14:36,592 --> 00:14:38,244 If she had said to me, 276 00:14:38,244 --> 00:14:41,247 you are the smartest guy in the room 277 00:14:41,964 --> 00:14:46,252 and therefore I love you, I would have said we have a lot in common. 278 00:14:46,952 --> 00:14:49,555 But here's the problem though. 279 00:14:49,555 --> 00:14:52,558 I'm not 18 anymore. I'm 42 280 00:14:53,042 --> 00:14:53,692 and I'm not. 281 00:14:53,692 --> 00:14:58,347 The most handsome guy in the room, and I'm not the smartest guy in the room. 282 00:14:59,248 --> 00:15:02,518 And if that's the foundation of my wife's love for me, 283 00:15:03,836 --> 00:15:06,088 then I won't be able to sleep tonight. 284 00:15:06,088 --> 00:15:07,823 I'll have to figure out how to get more handsome 285 00:15:07,823 --> 00:15:09,858 and how to keep her from going into any rooms. 286 00:15:13,345 --> 00:15:14,363 Do you see? 287 00:15:14,363 --> 00:15:18,384 You think the idea that you're lovable is a good one? 288 00:15:18,384 --> 00:15:20,102 But it's a terrifying one. 289 00:15:20,102 --> 00:15:26,275 Because if love is based on your performance, you must keep performing. 290 00:15:26,425 --> 00:15:28,027 God says, listen, I got to tell. 291 00:15:28,027 --> 00:15:29,011 I got to break it to you. 292 00:15:29,011 --> 00:15:31,764 In a culture of affirmation, please hear me on this. 293 00:15:31,764 --> 00:15:35,634 God is saying, you're not as great as you think you are. 294 00:15:35,634 --> 00:15:36,619 And here's the problem. 295 00:15:36,619 --> 00:15:39,288 Our culture says, you're so great, you're so special. 296 00:15:39,288 --> 00:15:42,291 And what do we go to bed at night thinking, I'm really not. 297 00:15:43,559 --> 00:15:45,411 That's why even though we live in a culture of affirmation, 298 00:15:45,411 --> 00:15:46,128 when we're anxious and. 299 00:15:46,128 --> 00:15:49,198 Depressed than we've ever been, because people keep lying to us. 300 00:15:50,699 --> 00:15:54,269 But God says, you're really not as great as you think, and that resonates. 301 00:15:54,386 --> 00:15:56,572 But here's the second thing you're not lovable. 302 00:15:56,572 --> 00:15:57,723 But here's the second thing. 303 00:15:57,723 --> 00:16:00,326 But you can be completely. 304 00:16:00,326 --> 00:16:02,878 Loved in Jesus. 305 00:16:02,878 --> 00:16:05,431 But God demonstrates his own love towards us in this. 306 00:16:05,431 --> 00:16:08,751 While we were yet sinners, we were not brave. 307 00:16:08,751 --> 00:16:10,886 We were not smart. We were not good looking. 308 00:16:10,886 --> 00:16:12,171 We couldn't be anything. 309 00:16:12,171 --> 00:16:15,958 We've made a mess of the world while we were yet sinners. 310 00:16:15,958 --> 00:16:17,509 Christ died for us. 311 00:16:17,509 --> 00:16:19,128 The Bible says when we were at our worst, 312 00:16:19,128 --> 00:16:22,247 God came through the person Jesus, the God man. 313 00:16:22,247 --> 00:16:25,851 And he lived among us, and he lived a righteous, sinful life. 314 00:16:25,968 --> 00:16:29,121 And he went to the cross, and he became our sin. 315 00:16:29,121 --> 00:16:33,092 And he came up under the anger and judgment and wrath of God, 316 00:16:33,092 --> 00:16:34,560 which I deserved. 317 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:39,648 And it was poured out on him, so that his dying words were, it is finished. 318 00:16:39,648 --> 00:16:40,616 And he died. 319 00:16:40,616 --> 00:16:42,918 And three days later he rose from the dead. 320 00:16:42,918 --> 00:16:46,255 And he went on to ascend into heaven, where he's the King of heaven. 321 00:16:46,372 --> 00:16:51,093 And he says, Zach, if you will realize you're not lovable, 322 00:16:51,143 --> 00:16:55,080 then you can realize in me you can be love forever. 323 00:16:57,633 --> 00:16:58,217 And you see the. 324 00:16:58,217 --> 00:17:00,469 Good news. Of that, friends. 325 00:17:00,469 --> 00:17:04,940 Is it untether me from the pride and insecurity 326 00:17:04,940 --> 00:17:07,943 that are ruining me. 327 00:17:09,378 --> 00:17:10,646 Because if your pride 328 00:17:10,646 --> 00:17:13,649 and your anger are destroying your family. 329 00:17:13,799 --> 00:17:15,567 Then you need to hear this. 330 00:17:15,567 --> 00:17:19,038 You are not lovable. 331 00:17:20,606 --> 00:17:24,059 But if you're insecurity is making you disingenuous 332 00:17:24,243 --> 00:17:27,813 and envious, you need to hear this in Jesus. 333 00:17:28,047 --> 00:17:31,200 You can be completely loved. 334 00:17:31,316 --> 00:17:34,620 You see, the idea is that the experience 335 00:17:34,620 --> 00:17:37,623 of the genuine love of God. 336 00:17:38,791 --> 00:17:40,893 Changes us at our very course with the writer. 337 00:17:40,893 --> 00:17:42,978 Says in verse 23, look at this, and if you're here 338 00:17:42,978 --> 00:17:44,930 and you're not a Christian, maybe you've heard this phrase 339 00:17:44,930 --> 00:17:47,282 you never knew what it meant, but now you do it with me. 340 00:17:47,282 --> 00:17:52,171 At verse 23, since you have been born again, there 341 00:17:52,171 --> 00:17:56,275 it is not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, 342 00:17:56,391 --> 00:17:58,560 through the living and abiding Word of God. 343 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:02,331 What he's saying is that this idea that I'm not lovable, 344 00:18:02,331 --> 00:18:07,102 but I don't have to be this untethered from moral performance 345 00:18:07,286 --> 00:18:11,123 and from it, and from a disingenuous affirmation. 346 00:18:11,273 --> 00:18:16,378 And this experience of the genuine love of God in Jesus is a seed 347 00:18:16,378 --> 00:18:19,698 that gets planted in my head and in my heart, 348 00:18:19,798 --> 00:18:23,218 and it begins at my very core to change me. 349 00:18:23,218 --> 00:18:26,088 Who would you be if you weren't so proud? 350 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:31,376 Who would you be if you weren't so insecure? 351 00:18:31,376 --> 00:18:33,178 What would your family look like? 352 00:18:33,178 --> 00:18:35,097 What would our country look like? 353 00:18:35,097 --> 00:18:37,466 What would social media look like? 354 00:18:37,466 --> 00:18:40,702 It just be those videos of the little fruit babies eating themselves, 355 00:18:42,271 --> 00:18:44,723 because those are pretty cute. 356 00:18:44,723 --> 00:18:47,242 Do you hear me? 357 00:18:47,242 --> 00:18:49,428 The message of the Bible to you 358 00:18:49,428 --> 00:18:52,915 is be born again in Jesus. 359 00:18:53,632 --> 00:18:55,100 Stop believing your culture. 360 00:18:55,100 --> 00:18:58,020 You're not that great. But it's okay to say that. 361 00:18:58,020 --> 00:19:01,023 Because God loves you in Jesus. 362 00:19:01,590 --> 00:19:03,809 Have you had this experience? 363 00:19:03,809 --> 00:19:05,210 Sometimes people say to me, well, 364 00:19:05,210 --> 00:19:07,229 you know, how do I know if I've become a Christian? 365 00:19:07,229 --> 00:19:08,213 And it's pretty simple. 366 00:19:08,213 --> 00:19:11,216 The seed is in your head and in your heart. 367 00:19:11,550 --> 00:19:14,069 I'm not lovable, 368 00:19:14,069 --> 00:19:17,840 but in Jesus I'm completely loved. 369 00:19:18,624 --> 00:19:19,825 We're going to baptize today. 370 00:19:19,825 --> 00:19:20,993 Let me let me say this. 371 00:19:20,993 --> 00:19:23,245 I mean, I confess something about myself. It's kind of weird. 372 00:19:24,363 --> 00:19:24,746 I'm a. 373 00:19:24,746 --> 00:19:27,749 Compulsive shower. 374 00:19:27,950 --> 00:19:28,167 Okay. 375 00:19:28,167 --> 00:19:29,852 If you're a therapist, you can send me an email. 376 00:19:29,852 --> 00:19:31,353 Don't charge me. 377 00:19:31,353 --> 00:19:34,439 But you can tell me why I cannot abide the idea. 378 00:19:34,439 --> 00:19:36,708 That I am not clean. 379 00:19:36,708 --> 00:19:37,309 I hate it, I. 380 00:19:37,309 --> 00:19:39,328 Hate the idea that I smell and no one's. 381 00:19:39,328 --> 00:19:40,946 Tells me 382 00:19:40,946 --> 00:19:43,081 I'm weird. I know. 383 00:19:43,081 --> 00:19:47,486 And so when I get home from just about anything, I need to shower. 384 00:19:47,486 --> 00:19:51,306 And when I get out of the shower for like 15 seconds, I feel clean. 385 00:19:52,291 --> 00:19:54,476 The dirt of really all you people has 386 00:19:54,476 --> 00:19:57,479 washed off of me. 387 00:20:03,418 --> 00:20:05,270 You and I. 388 00:20:05,270 --> 00:20:08,273 Are steeped in a culture of broken love, 389 00:20:08,724 --> 00:20:11,577 of pride and insecurity. 390 00:20:11,577 --> 00:20:13,712 And to meet Jesus 391 00:20:13,712 --> 00:20:16,315 is to have all that be washed away. 392 00:20:16,315 --> 00:20:18,750 I want you to say maybe you've come with a friend or family member who's 393 00:20:18,750 --> 00:20:22,137 being baptized this week, and we baptized 31 people across all our services. 394 00:20:22,137 --> 00:20:23,388 Incredible. 395 00:20:23,388 --> 00:20:26,875 But let me tell you this you don't go in this tub to get clean. 396 00:20:28,860 --> 00:20:30,078 This is a tub. 397 00:20:30,078 --> 00:20:31,380 I don't know where we bought it. 398 00:20:31,380 --> 00:20:32,848 This is Akron City water. 399 00:20:32,848 --> 00:20:35,851 It doesn't make you clean. 400 00:20:37,653 --> 00:20:38,570 You go in this tub 401 00:20:38,570 --> 00:20:41,573 because you're saying I've been made clean 402 00:20:42,624 --> 00:20:45,060 by what Jesus has done. 403 00:20:45,060 --> 00:20:47,429 And if you're here and you're a friend or family member, 404 00:20:47,429 --> 00:20:51,800 the reason they wanted you here this weekend is that you might see 405 00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:54,803 this same thing is available to you. 406 00:20:55,821 --> 00:20:56,838 All right. That's my second point. 407 00:20:56,838 --> 00:20:57,956 Here's my third point. 408 00:20:57,956 --> 00:20:58,674 Not just what. 409 00:20:58,674 --> 00:21:01,376 We want, but don't have not just what God. Has. 410 00:21:01,376 --> 00:21:01,860 And we'll share. 411 00:21:01,860 --> 00:21:05,097 But here's the third point how sharing changes everything. 412 00:21:05,097 --> 00:21:06,348 If you're here and you're your Christian, 413 00:21:06,348 --> 00:21:09,234 lean in to this point, because here's what the writer says in verse. 414 00:21:09,234 --> 00:21:11,720 Two and verse three. It's not just an experience. 415 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:13,772 Look at what he says. He says this 416 00:21:14,723 --> 00:21:17,726 like newborn infants 417 00:21:18,060 --> 00:21:21,063 long for the pure spiritual milk, 418 00:21:21,596 --> 00:21:25,217 that by it you may grow up into salvation. 419 00:21:25,467 --> 00:21:29,037 If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 420 00:21:29,037 --> 00:21:32,040 You see, what he's saying is, don't just have it one time. 421 00:21:32,574 --> 00:21:35,577 If this kind of love is out there, 422 00:21:35,577 --> 00:21:38,997 then drink it all the time so that you grow up. 423 00:21:38,997 --> 00:21:41,400 He compares this to babies. Let me give you three steps. 424 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:44,786 As a Christian, you three things you should be leaning into in God's love. 425 00:21:44,786 --> 00:21:47,222 Here's the first one. Awareness. 426 00:21:47,222 --> 00:21:49,191 He compares us to babies. 427 00:21:49,191 --> 00:21:52,944 Babies cry when they want something because they don't know how to say it. 428 00:21:53,278 --> 00:21:54,930 Teenagers just complain. 429 00:21:54,930 --> 00:21:57,416 Babies cry 430 00:21:57,416 --> 00:21:58,250 when they cry. 431 00:21:58,250 --> 00:22:00,085 We have to know, oh, you're hungry. 432 00:22:00,085 --> 00:22:01,670 Let me feed you friends. 433 00:22:01,670 --> 00:22:03,171 Can I tell you something? 434 00:22:03,171 --> 00:22:05,691 Your your anxiety and depression. 435 00:22:05,691 --> 00:22:07,225 I'm not talking about clinical stuff. 436 00:22:07,225 --> 00:22:09,328 I'm not a psychologist. 437 00:22:09,328 --> 00:22:12,864 But your every day kind of anxiety, depression, 438 00:22:13,999 --> 00:22:16,435 your autopilot, your malaise. 439 00:22:16,435 --> 00:22:17,703 You know what that is? 440 00:22:17,703 --> 00:22:21,707 You're Netflix binging, you're overeating, you're over drinking. 441 00:22:21,707 --> 00:22:22,524 Do you know what that is? 442 00:22:22,524 --> 00:22:24,242 That is simply the cry. 443 00:22:24,242 --> 00:22:26,628 You don't know the words. Well, now you do. 444 00:22:26,628 --> 00:22:28,580 You're not hungry for more television. 445 00:22:28,580 --> 00:22:31,350 You're not hungry for more food. You're not hungry for more beard. 446 00:22:31,350 --> 00:22:32,667 You know what you're hungry for? 447 00:22:32,667 --> 00:22:35,670 To know that you are loved. 448 00:22:37,222 --> 00:22:39,141 That's why we read the Bible every day. 449 00:22:39,141 --> 00:22:41,610 It's not to check something off a list. 450 00:22:41,610 --> 00:22:42,444 We're like babies. 451 00:22:42,444 --> 00:22:43,462 We need the milk. 452 00:22:43,462 --> 00:22:46,231 I'm so proud. I'm so insecure. 453 00:22:46,231 --> 00:22:50,102 I'm in a culture of pride and a culture of insecurity. 454 00:22:50,185 --> 00:22:53,188 I don't even know what love is. 455 00:22:53,755 --> 00:22:56,575 So I have to drink, 456 00:22:56,575 --> 00:22:59,127 become aware. 457 00:22:59,127 --> 00:23:00,712 Here's the second one. 458 00:23:00,712 --> 00:23:02,581 Mature. 459 00:23:02,581 --> 00:23:03,331 Mature. 460 00:23:03,331 --> 00:23:05,000 He compares it to newborn babies. But. 461 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,586 But you don't want your 12 year old walk around with a bottle of milk. 462 00:23:08,687 --> 00:23:11,223 You start with the milk, but you grow friends. 463 00:23:11,223 --> 00:23:13,191 Can I tell you something true? 464 00:23:13,191 --> 00:23:16,611 Christian maturity is growth in love 465 00:23:17,662 --> 00:23:20,782 is the ability to love people free of pride, 466 00:23:20,849 --> 00:23:24,386 free of insecurities, the ability to love people who are difficult to love. 467 00:23:24,386 --> 00:23:25,404 I've grown up in the church. 468 00:23:25,404 --> 00:23:27,656 I've been in ministry for 20 years. 469 00:23:27,656 --> 00:23:31,443 I don't know when we bought into the I this idea, but it's pervasive 470 00:23:31,443 --> 00:23:32,010 in the church. 471 00:23:32,010 --> 00:23:36,448 We think Christian maturity is intellectual knowledge. 472 00:23:36,948 --> 00:23:39,951 We are not a college. 473 00:23:41,002 --> 00:23:43,255 That is not Christian maturity. 474 00:23:43,255 --> 00:23:45,624 In fact, you doubt me? Stick around church for a while. 475 00:23:45,624 --> 00:23:48,977 You'll find some of the earliest, meanest, nastiest 476 00:23:48,977 --> 00:23:51,980 people are in Bible study three times a week. 477 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:55,066 Oh, that's not a joke. 478 00:23:55,350 --> 00:23:58,103 Jesus said the entire Bible. 479 00:23:58,103 --> 00:24:01,106 Comes down to this love God with all your love your neighbor as yourself. 480 00:24:01,490 --> 00:24:03,658 If you're studying the Bible and you're not becoming. 481 00:24:03,658 --> 00:24:06,061 More loving, you're doing it wrong. 482 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:10,098 Period. 483 00:24:10,098 --> 00:24:13,101 Paul says in first Corinthians 13, if you grow in knowledge 484 00:24:13,135 --> 00:24:16,138 but you don't have love, you're a problem. 485 00:24:18,056 --> 00:24:21,409 Maturity is being set free from my pride. 486 00:24:21,510 --> 00:24:26,281 Set free from my insecurity to love, especially those 487 00:24:26,281 --> 00:24:29,267 I struggle to love. 488 00:24:30,051 --> 00:24:33,054 Here's the third thing contrast. 489 00:24:33,872 --> 00:24:35,157 Let me let me tell you this quick story. 490 00:24:35,157 --> 00:24:37,375 I'll end with this 491 00:24:37,375 --> 00:24:39,227 I spent the summer between my sophomore 492 00:24:39,227 --> 00:24:42,230 and junior year of high school in Southern Africa. 493 00:24:42,397 --> 00:24:45,917 We were backpacking from village to village telling people about Jesus, 494 00:24:46,134 --> 00:24:49,938 and for like a month and a half, I did not take a shower or a bath. 495 00:24:50,422 --> 00:24:50,822 You know what? 496 00:24:50,822 --> 00:24:53,808 If your therapist don't send me that email, I now know 497 00:24:54,442 --> 00:24:57,262 where my complex comes from. 498 00:24:57,262 --> 00:24:59,998 And I remember there being this day where we're walking. 499 00:24:59,998 --> 00:25:03,001 It's just like four of us and we pass this body of water 500 00:25:03,568 --> 00:25:06,738 and and a guy he points to and he goes, I have a bottle of soap in my backpack. 501 00:25:06,988 --> 00:25:08,306 You guys want to go in there and get clean? 502 00:25:08,306 --> 00:25:10,041 And we thought that sounded like a great idea. 503 00:25:10,041 --> 00:25:13,879 And it was after we did it, until we made it back to camp, 504 00:25:15,347 --> 00:25:16,164 because we got back to 505 00:25:16,164 --> 00:25:19,317 camp and it was full of people who hadn't been bathed for a month and a half, 506 00:25:19,951 --> 00:25:22,671 and they smelled awful, and they always had smelled awful. 507 00:25:22,671 --> 00:25:24,122 I just couldn't smell them because. 508 00:25:24,122 --> 00:25:25,824 I also smelled awful. 509 00:25:25,824 --> 00:25:28,860 And all of a sudden it was like sensory overload and I could not 510 00:25:28,860 --> 00:25:31,846 get dirty fast enough 511 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:33,481 with the Bible pictures. 512 00:25:33,481 --> 00:25:35,400 Is that is that picture in reverse? 513 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:37,102 Meaning this 514 00:25:37,102 --> 00:25:40,105 that has we 515 00:25:40,322 --> 00:25:42,657 through the spiritual disciplines 516 00:25:42,657 --> 00:25:47,612 began to be made clean from the dirty love of our culture. 517 00:25:48,930 --> 00:25:51,917 People will be saying to us, 518 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:55,403 where is the body of water you found 519 00:25:55,704 --> 00:25:57,839 and how do I get made clean? 520 00:25:57,839 --> 00:26:00,742 Listen, I love this church. 521 00:26:00,742 --> 00:26:03,745 I don't want to be known for great music, 522 00:26:04,279 --> 00:26:07,382 or great preaching, or great kids programs or fun. 523 00:26:08,066 --> 00:26:10,168 I want to have those things. I don't want to be known. 524 00:26:10,168 --> 00:26:11,419 You know what we want to be known for? 525 00:26:13,104 --> 00:26:16,107 A place of genuine love. 526 00:26:17,008 --> 00:26:19,878 And can I tell you something? 527 00:26:19,878 --> 00:26:22,881 I have work to do. 528 00:26:23,431 --> 00:26:25,800 You have work to do 529 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,286 for us to get there. 530 00:26:28,286 --> 00:26:31,289 But God has it. 531 00:26:31,556 --> 00:26:35,610 And through Jesus and the power of His Holy Spirit and the scriptures, 532 00:26:35,877 --> 00:26:40,498 he is willing to share, let me pray for us. 533 00:26:40,498 --> 00:26:41,483 Father God, 534 00:26:41,483 --> 00:26:45,120 thank you so much for your incredible love that doesn't have a scoreboard. 535 00:26:45,737 --> 00:26:48,890 Isn't looking for the best and the brightest, isn't telling us 536 00:26:48,890 --> 00:26:51,893 the things we know aren't true. 537 00:26:51,893 --> 00:26:55,880 I mean, if we're honest, we're so tired of people telling us how special we are. 538 00:26:56,781 --> 00:26:57,749 I'm a lot of things. 539 00:26:57,749 --> 00:27:00,752 Special is not one of them. 540 00:27:01,703 --> 00:27:05,957 Thank you that even though you're the one voice out there telling us we're not. 541 00:27:05,957 --> 00:27:08,510 Lovable, we're rebels were broken. 542 00:27:08,510 --> 00:27:09,210 We're flawed. 543 00:27:10,278 --> 00:27:11,896 You are also the one telling us 544 00:27:11,896 --> 00:27:15,000 we are completely loved in Jesus. 545 00:27:16,284 --> 00:27:19,020 May that love become real to us 546 00:27:19,020 --> 00:27:23,208 or stronger to us, depending on where we are in our story. 547 00:27:23,642 --> 00:27:25,210 In Jesus name we pray. Amen.