Love is...

SACRIFICE

Lay down a FORK .
Lay down a BUNT .
Lay down a LIFE .

ACTION

HOSPITALITY .
SERVICE to others.
MINISTERING to others.
MISSIONARY work.
Developing a RELATIONSHIP with the one who loves you!

OBEDIENCE

Check out this logic:

1. We will not OBEY Him if we don't BELIEVE and TRUST Him.



2. We will not BELIEVE and TRUST Him if we don't LOVE Him.



3. We cannot LOVE Him unless we KNOW Him.

So...

1. If you come to KNOW Him, you will LOVE Him.



2. If you LOVE Him, you will BELIEVE and TRUST Him.



3. If you BELIEVE and TRUST Him, you will OBEY Him.

Jay Knauer - HBCPN Elder

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:09

  I've got a question for you, a question that's been asked a lot down through the years to people probably just to themselves.

  00:10-00:12

  The question is, what is love?

  00:13-00:18

  And today we're going to talk about that because love is a very complicated word.

  00:20-00:27

  It's so complicated that the ancient Greeks, with some major contributions from guys like Plato and Aristotle.

  00:28-00:30

  Plato, Aristotle, or Socrates.

  00:31-00:51

  These guys actually had some major contributions into breaking down the word love into four different totally separate words in Greek, which is great. I'm gonna tell you what they are and I'm gonna spell them for you because I could not figure out how to spell them if I just looked at it or heard them. So the first one I want to tell you about is storge.

  00:51-00:54

  It's S-T-O -R -G-E.

  00:54-00:58

  Storge is like a family love. It's an affection of the family.

  00:58-01:04

  It describes the bond between father, mother, sister, and brother.

  01:05-01:08

  And that's storge love, okay?

  01:09-01:15

  Philia, or philos, P-H-I-L-I-A, is like a friendship.

  01:15-01:27

  It's regard, usually between equals, that requires some familiarity between the two, and it also includes great concepts like virtue and loyalty.

  01:27-01:28

  That's philia.

  01:30-01:35

  Philadelphia gets the name from philia, it's brotherly love.

  01:36-01:38

  Philadelphia's the city of brotherly love.

  01:38-01:50

  The third one is eros, and that is one that you may not know that term, but you're really familiar with eros, because we are bombarded with Eros messages.

  01:51-01:56

  Even driving down the highway, the freeway, look at a billboard, I bet it has some Eros on it.

  01:57-02:00

  All TV shows anymore have Eros in it.

  02:00-02:08

  Eros is romantic, it's intimate love, it includes sexual desire, and that's Eros.

  02:08-02:10

  Okay, so that's the third one.

  02:10-04:01

  The fourth one is agape, and that is the highest form of love that is unconditional love, it is selfless love, it is sacrificial love. It's the love that's higher than the other three. Okay? So that's what the Greeks came up with. And it's great for them because a lot of interpretation is done already for them when you use the right word. Storge, philia, eros, or agape. But in this country today, we just have the one word, love. So, to avoid misinterpretations of when the word love is used, it's imperative to accurately determine the context in which the word love is used. For example, if a stranger walked up to me and introduced himself and said, "Hi, I just met you and I love you." The concept of awkward would soon dominate my thinking, I'm sure, because I have no context. Like, where does this guy come from? Does this person mean like Eros love for me? Does this person mean like Philia love, Storge? I can't imagine Agape, I just met the guy. That would be really weird. So you need to have some context and understanding love is, the word love is a lot more challenging here in the United States than for example in Greece. So in our country we have just that one word. So having said that, in order to find out what love is, we got many sources that can help us to find the definition of love, which makes it even more complex than, you know, Greece. Greece has its four words to help you understand it. In America we have one word and then we have lots of different sources that can tell you what love is or give you a definition of what it is.

  04:02-04:39

  There are soap operas, there's movies, there's novels, there's friends, your associates, there's also the Hallmark Channel, and a host of others. There's that I ran into in the seventies, it was created back then in 1970s when I was this tall called "Love Is." "Love Is..." dot dot dot, like in quotes. You know, the cloud above the guy's head with her picture in it, so he is thinking of her and he's trying to pick out something for her and spend all his money.

  04:39-04:48

  Okay, that's what love is. November 1st had an example, "Love Is" when he licks the cotton candy off the tip of your nose.

  04:48-05:15

  Okay, that's what love is. Kind of cute, you know. And here's October 31st. Love is what brings generations together and it's a picture of grandma holding a little baby and the two parents standing behind the chair. So it was actually a picture of a storge love, family love. So that's kind of like some of the things that are out there. They're basically designed to tug on your heart strings.

  05:18-05:34

  The problem is that these sources like soap operas and movies and "Love Is" - all these sources that the world has out there for you - they're all very interesting, but most of them never give you a full idea of what love is.

  05:35-05:38

  In fact, some are downright inaccurate or even evil.

  05:39-05:43

  So my advice, if you're looking for the definition for love, just go to the Bible.

  05:44-05:50

  And like all the others, love is defined in the Bible by the person who created it.

  05:51-05:52

  By the one who created it.

  05:52-05:56

  And disciple John talks a lot about love.

  05:56-05:58

  He wrote a ton of stuff about love.

  05:58-06:02

  He is the disciple whom Jesus loved.

  06:04-06:07

  And he put that in his book.

  06:08-06:09

  That was important to him.

  06:10-06:56

  love is important to him as I think no one else in the Bible. So John wrote a lot about love. He wrote so much that we can't cover this all today, just so you know. So I just I tried. I looked and I said, "Okay, I'm going to talk about love." And it is all over the place. I would need six years to tell you about love. So I just took a small little piece of it, which is in 1 John. You can turn to that in your Bibles too. First John, we're going to base off this text in 1st John 3, 16 through 24, so you can turn there. And in this passage, John highlights three aspects of love. And the first is sacrifice.

  06:58-06:59

  There are levels of sacrifice.

  07:00-07:11

  I don't know if you know that, but you know there's the one that we talk about in church a lot, but there are three levels and it's basically determined by what motivates the sacrifice.

  07:12-07:21

  I have a friend at work, and we have this thing that happens every year right after winter is starting to end.

  07:22-07:26

  It's called the Great Weight Loss Race or something like that.

  07:28-07:30

  Anybody work for UPMC?

  07:31-07:33

  You know what I'm talking about, the Great Weight Race?

  07:33-07:42

  Well, I'm the leader of our little group, and we're five guys that all live in the north, and we call ourselves the knuckleheads of the north.

  07:42-07:44

  And we try to lose weight every year.

  07:44-07:50

  So one of the things that this one guy says to me, "Okay, Jay, it's time to lay down a fork.

  07:51-07:55

  Lay down a fork." What he's doing is he's laying down his fork.

  07:55-08:05

  What he means by that is he's going to give up that piece of cake over there that he could have, or that meal over there that he can have, those snacks, like right before he goes to bed, they could have.

  08:06-08:07

  It's time to lay down a fork.

  08:07-08:14

  He's sacrificing that meal or food or whatever because he likes it.

  08:15-08:18

  He has it, so that's a sacrifice on a certain level.

  08:19-08:20

  There's also another kind of sacrifice.

  08:21-08:24

  I know that there's a few baseball fans in the room.

  08:24-08:25

  Here's Ryan Stroop back there.

  08:25-08:27

  There's Matthew Nauer over there.

  08:28-08:44

  And I'm the biggest baseball fan I know, so I wanted to tell you about in baseball, it also has a sacrifice. It's usually when the ball comes in and you put your bat down and you sacrifice your at-bat because you're up there to get a hit to try to get a home run.

  08:45-08:55

  So you lay down a sacrifice, bunt, and you give up your at-bat. And it's for the team. It's to advance a runner from first to second or second to third or first and second to second and third.

  08:56-09:02

  So that's a kind of a sacrifice. You forfeit the chance to hit a home run.

  09:02-09:27

  So you lay down the fork, you forfeit that piece of cake, you lay down a bunt, you forfeit your chance to hit a home run, and there's another level of sacrifice and you can lay down a life and that's a forfeit your life. And that's what the greatest act of sacrifice in history is and that's what Jesus did for us. That sacrifice is the greatest act of love for God and man And it cannot be matched.

  09:27-09:28

  It won't be matched.

  09:29-09:29

  It's just incredible.

  09:30-09:31

  And we talk about that a lot.

  09:32-09:35

  And we are so thankful for Jesus for doing that for us.

  09:35-09:45

  But there's, I want to focus a little bit on a part of Jesus' sacrifice that we don't often focus on, and that's His sacrificial daily walk.

  09:46-09:51

  Jesus sacrificed, He dedicated His days to serving others.

  09:51-09:58

  In fact, Matthew 20, 28 says, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve." Are you familiar with that verse?

  09:59-10:01

  And that's what He did every single day.

  10:01-10:11

  Every single day He exhausted Himself preaching, healing, exercising unclean spirits, comforting people, teaching anyone who would come to Him.

  10:11-10:12

  He never married.

  10:13-10:14

  He never had His own family.

  10:15-10:40

  He sacrificed the opportunity to gain wealth and prestige, and popularity, success, all which he could have had. In fact, didn't the devil take him out into the desert for 40 days and he said, "You could have the world." I mean, he was tempted by the devil and he shunned it. So he sacrificed that opportunity in favor of loving and serving both us, man, and his father, God.

  10:41-10:50

  And there's another one, another guy from the Bible, Apostle Paul, he had all the prerequisites to be a big cheese in Jerusalem, didn't he?

  10:51-11:03

  He had ambition, he had passion, he had enthusiasm, he had a reputation, he had successes, he had education, he had social status, he had connections, he had authority.

  11:04-11:09

  But if you look back in Philippians 3, 7 through 11, I'm going to read that.

  11:10-11:12

  Actually, I'm going to read a little bit, part of 4.

  11:13-11:18

  He says, "If anyone thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.

  11:19-11:32

  Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard of the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

  11:33-11:52

  But whatever was to my prophet," so all those things that were going to make him a big cheese, He says this, "But whatever was to my prophet, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ." So he sacrificed, in fact later on he calls it rubbish, okay, it's garbage.

  11:53-12:00

  All that stuff that the world was going to give him, he shunned it away in favor of gaining Christ.

  12:01-12:02

  And we're all to do that too.

  12:02-12:14

  If you check out verse 16 of our text in 1 John, 1 John 3:16 says, "This is how we know what love is.

  12:15-12:26

  Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." Okay, so we're to sacrifice too.

  12:26-12:30

  Now, what does it mean to lay down our lives for our brothers?

  12:32-12:39

  Well, this is where sacrifice starts to transition into the next aspect of love on your outline there which is action.

  12:39-12:52

  This passage talks about sacrifice, this passage talks about action, and because sacrifice has many levels and Christ sacrificed His life on every level, we so must do that for our brothers.

  12:53-13:13

  There's a story, I know Jeff's in Thailand and I want to be sensitive to his wife and their kids, but there was a story that Ravi Zachariah told on his radio program a couple weeks ago about his best friend.

  13:14-13:18

  And his best friend in Bible college went on a missionary trip.

  13:19-13:34

  And during the missionary trip, he was doing a session, and at the end of the session, people were clapping, people had learned, they were appreciative, but somebody walked up and it was in a Muslim country, he walked up and just filled him full of bullets and he was dead.

  13:35-13:40

  That's an amazing sacrifice, but it also included action.

  13:40-13:42

  He was over there doing something.

  13:43-13:58

  So that's what John is talking about too here in verse 17 and 18, which say, "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how could the love of God be in him?

  13:59-14:09

  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth." I kind of saw a video a little bit ago that showed some of that.

  14:10-14:11

  That was a great video.

  14:11-14:15

  It really showed some action that small groups are taking here.

  14:16-14:22

  There's probably a thousand stories we could go into, but we've got to do something to help our brother in need.

  14:22-14:30

  If we have been blessed by God, we should be ready and willing to sacrifice to help serve a needy brother.

  14:31-14:41

  You know, at our small group, we had an amazing real-life story about someone who actually had some material possessions, plenty of them, and he saw a need in someone else's life.

  14:41-15:46

  life and he jumped right into it. The story goes like this, there was a little girl who is terminally ill, she's dying, and her father is an employee for this company and was paying for this the health care with his health insurance and apparently he was afraid he was going to lose his job because the girl was in a different city, a different state, and so he was with her but he had to go back to work. He didn't want to lose his job in order to keep his insurance which was paying for the care of his daughter. So he went back to New Jersey, right Steve? He went to New Jersey, so he was doing his job. One of his big bosses, not his immediate supervisor but a level above, heard about this guy and his daughter and he came down, he came right down to his desk and he said, "What are you doing here?" He said, "Well, I don't want to lose my health insurance. I've got all this care. I mean, my daughter requires machines and medicine that cost a fortune. I need that health insurance and if I get fired, I won't have it.

  15:48-16:04

  Long story short, the guy got a plane ticket for the guy to fly him back to the city where his daughter was so he could be with her. He paid for the ticket. He paid for all kinds of all kind of details and it came out to a fair amount of money.

  16:05-16:09

  And that's exactly what the Lord is asking us to do in this verse.

  16:09-16:16

  He says, "If you have possessions, use them to help your brother in need." That's a great example of that.

  16:17-16:20

  Just a tremendous example of sacrifice and action.

  16:21-16:29

  Now doing good deeds with the right motivation and the genuine love for God and man really changes lives, including your own.

  16:29-17:02

  we saw in that video. You know, some of these guys, their lives are changed, maybe a little bit, maybe a lot, for the good. I've listed a few examples of actions on your paper there that can be done in everyday life. I'm not sure what order they're in, but under action, one thing that I really don't have a gift for, but I thank God that some people do, and that is the first one, that's hospitality. Hospitality is seeing to others comfort, seeing others' well-being, and I'm just not good at those details.

  17:03-17:10

  Like, I'm walking around with this thing on my head, and people are looking at me and they're saying, oh, he must be talking today.

  17:10-17:11

  You know, I said, oh, wow.

  17:12-17:19

  And Debbie came over and said, OK, I've got water for you, and I've got mints for you.

  17:20-17:20

  Here's to you, Deb.

  17:21-17:21

  Thank you very much.

  17:22-17:23

  I mean, that's hospitality.

  17:23-17:28

  I mean, that actually-- I don't know if I could even talk if I didn't have this water right now.

  17:29-17:30

  My mouth would be so dry.

  17:30-17:32

  I really appreciate that hospitality.

  17:33-17:35

  The next one is service to others.

  17:36-17:37

  And that's what we saw in the video.

  17:37-17:41

  You know, going to a soup kitchen, maybe going to a place where people need help.

  17:42-17:43

  How about chores?

  17:43-17:45

  Doing your chores around the house.

  17:45-17:46

  Are there any teenagers here?

  17:47-17:51

  Oh, there's Matthew back there hiding under the seat.

  17:52-17:53

  Doing chores around the house.

  17:53-17:55

  That's service to others.

  17:55-17:58

  Man, people appreciate that.

  17:58-18:02

  You know, our small group went out to Deb's house and just did clean up.

  18:02-18:09

  We just cleaned up trees and chopped down trees, cleaned the place up, did some things around there.

  18:10-18:11

  These chores, and they were appreciated.

  18:12-18:13

  And that changes people's lives.

  18:14-18:18

  Deb knows that her small group did that because they love her.

  18:19-18:19

  Love changes.

  18:20-18:21

  Love changes your life.

  18:22-18:24

  Another one is ministry to others.

  18:25-18:53

  to others. A big one is hospital visits. Like I know that Audrey was in the hospital recently, I know that Jeff visited her, I know that a good friend, well actually a new friend of mine, I mean it's like I just met this guy and I love him. It's really weird. But Mark Bowden who is a sound guy, he's a professional sound guy, he's been coming recently, had heart surgery.

  18:53-18:57

  they found that he had a hole in his heart at age 50 or something like that.

  18:57-19:23

  He's older than that now, but he had surgery on Wednesday and I know that Darren has gone to see him and Matt, Muckle and I are going to see him in the next couple days and man is he appreciative of it. He's like, "Okay, settle down. Your tubes are gonna pop out of your chest. Settle down." I mean, he's got a temporary pacemaker in there. He was so excited to hear that someone was going to come visit him. He really appreciated that, Darren.

  19:23-19:24

  He told me that.

  19:25-19:47

  So ministering to others is big. It's letting people know that you care about them, that you love them, and that God cares about them. There's another part of it, and that's missionary work. We talked about Jeff being in Thailand right now. He is doing missionary work. He's teaching others how to preach, which is big.

  19:47-19:48

  I wish he'd teach me how to preach.

  19:50-19:57

  There's missionary trips that we, I'm sure you're all familiar with Moldova, our trip to Moldova and our trip to Romania, missionary work.

  19:58-20:04

  We do missionary work locally even, going to like local food banks and things like that.

  20:05-20:10

  Missionary work, spreading the love of God through missions is another one.

  20:11-20:14

  And the last one listed there is a big one.

  20:15-20:43

  In fact, if you can highlight that or underline it or put a star next to it, it plays a big part and the next aspect of love in this passage, developing a relationship with the one who loves you. Very, very important. So we have in this passage, love is, it's not licking the cotton candy off your nose or whatever, it's sacrifice, it's action, and it's obedience.

  20:44-20:45

  And that's the third one.

  20:46-20:56

  If we could read verse 19 through 20. Actually, there's a piece like to throw out to you because it doesn't really fit, but it's kind of good.

  20:58-21:11

  Verse 19 through 20 says in 1 John 3, it says, "This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us.

  21:12-21:17

  For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything." You know what that actually means?

  21:18-21:20

  And it's a very big encouragement to me.

  21:21-21:30

  John is saying here that actions truly done out of genuine love are evidence of belonging to the truth.

  21:31-21:36

  And that's a great comfort because when our hearts condemn us, what does that mean?

  21:36-21:45

  When our hearts condemn us, that's like when we feel guilty about something, when we've fallen short, when we've had shortcomings, when we've sinned, and we're feeling guilty about it.

  21:45-22:02

  be assured of our salvation because God knows our deeds of genuine love that we've done and they are evidence of our salvation and that we are still within God's truth and that we are still His, even though we fall short.

  22:02-22:04

  What a great comfort to that.

  22:04-22:15

  Because sometimes we do all these great, sometimes, we should talk about this a little bit, you do great acts of service, but you don't do them with genuine love in your heart.

  22:16-22:20

  You do them because it makes you feel good. I know people at work that do that.

  22:20-22:56

  There's one in particular, she does everything in sight. I mean, she is the social chairman. She brings in cookies and she gets all these events set up for team building and stuff like that, and she does everything for the team, and it makes her feel good. That's not what we're talking about. That's not what John's talking about here. He's talking about doing acts of service and hospitality out of love for Christ, just as overflow, because you just are so appreciative of what he's done for us. So, with that said, let's get into obedience.

  22:57-23:30

  Passage, "Love is sacrifice, love is action, love is obedience." Let's read 21 through 24. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. And this is His command, to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and to love one another as He commanded us. Those who obey His commands live in Him and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us.

  23:30-23:44

  We know it by the spirit he gave us the spirit that Jeff just been talking about in Acts. That's the Holy Spirit Now do you think God loves us when he says things like in the Old Testament when he says?

  23:45-24:03

  Do not steal When he says do not commit adultery Is anybody thinking I know people that have thought this actually they have thought that you know Oh God. He's he's just He's limiting us, you know, He's restricting us.

  24:03-24:08

  This is not commands of limitation and restriction.

  24:08-24:08

  What are they?

  24:10-24:10

  God knows.

  24:10-24:17

  It's a protective command because God knows that if you commit adultery, relational rupture occurs.

  24:18-24:23

  Hurt and guilt, bitterness, distrust all follow.

  24:23-24:28

  I mean, those are just byproducts of that sin of committing adultery.

  24:28-24:29

  What if you were stealing?

  24:30-24:31

  God says, "Do not steal." What if you steal?

  24:32-24:35

  God knows that if you steal, you might get caught.

  24:35-24:38

  If you're caught, you might be thrown into jail.

  24:39-24:40

  He knows that that's not good.

  24:41-24:43

  He knows that He wants to help you avoid that.

  24:44-24:45

  What if you don't get caught?

  24:46-24:52

  You could feel guilty and your heart might condemn you, as it says in John.

  24:52-24:54

  You might feel guilty for a long time.

  24:54-24:59

  You may never get over that, that you didn't come clean about that sin.

  25:00-25:05

  Even worse, what if, to me, what if you don't get caught but you don't have any guilt?

  25:07-25:18

  That could be the worst thing because that indicates that your heart is being hardened and that you're getting farther away from the possibility of even entertaining that Christ could be your Savior.

  25:19-25:20

  To me, that could be the worst thing.

  25:21-25:23

  And God, see God sees all this stuff.

  25:24-25:26

  We don't a lot of times.

  25:27-25:28

  So He wants the best for us.

  25:29-25:30

  And the best is Himself.

  25:31-25:34

  The best is what God has in mind for us.

  25:34-25:37

  He calls it abundant life in certain sections.

  25:37-25:38

  It has nothing to do with money.

  25:39-25:48

  Abundant life is being with Christ and being free from the results of sin, the collateral damage that occurs because of our sins.

  25:49-25:51

  He wants the best because He loves you.

  25:52-25:54

  So this is going to be real quick.

  25:54-25:56

  I want you to check out this logic.

  25:57-26:02

  Because God has given us commands that are designed to guide us towards life's best.

  26:03-26:04

  Check out this logic.

  26:05-26:18

  First one is, "We will not obey Him if we don't believe and trust Him." The second one is we will not believe Him if we don't love Him.

  26:19-26:24

  The third one is we cannot love Him unless we know Him.

  26:26-26:32

  So conversely, if you come to know Him, you will love Him.

  26:35-26:38

  If you love Him, you will believe and trust Him.

  26:41-26:44

  If you believe and trust Him, you will obey Him.

  26:46-26:51

  So obedience through love follows that kind of logic a lot of times.

  26:53-26:56

  Pastor Jeff knows what's best for his son Cade.

  26:57-26:57

  You think?

  26:58-26:58

  He knows.

  26:59-27:06

  He's told the story about his son Cade when he got behind a horse and it kicked him into Venango County.

  27:06-27:07

  I mean, it kicked him hard.

  27:08-27:12

  And he went flying through the air, and he saw his son flying through the air.

  27:12-27:14

  He actually saw it, right?

  27:14-27:17

  He's flying through the air, and he saw his son bounce.

  27:18-27:18

  Boom, boom, boom.

  27:19-27:30

  Like, "Well, I know exactly what that's like," sort of, because my wife has seen the same thing out our back door when the big six-footer back there was only two years old, my son Aaron.

  27:31-27:33

  He was on a swing set.

  27:33-27:53

  climbing up the ladder and he's standing on one of the rungs and he's reaching for the monkey bars. But he was two or three years old. He wasn't big enough. He couldn't reach it. His arm wasn't long enough. He just went right down and he went boom, boom, boom, bounced like three times. And so we know what that kind of fear is like.

  27:54-28:16

  But, you know, so actually Cade doesn't remember too much of that, right? So I would imagine if Cade visits a horse farm next week, after Jeff gets back, I'm going to just guess that Jeff is going to have some very clear, concise, and passionate instructions for Cade about where he should stand around a horse, don't you think?

  28:17-28:21

  And as we had for Aaron, you know, Aaron, don't climb that.

  28:22-28:23

  You're too small to climb that.

  28:24-28:25

  Don't do that until you get a bit older.

  28:26-28:30

  Because we know, the parents know what is in store, what can happen.

  28:31-28:34

  In fact, Jeff knows what has happened to Cade.

  28:34-28:40

  So he was like, I'm sure Jeff would have some very clear instruction for him.

  28:40-28:46

  Now do you think that Cade will complain about being limited or restricted by his father's rule?

  28:47-28:50

  No way, because Cade knows his father.

  28:51-28:52

  He knows his father.

  28:53-28:54

  He loves his father.

  28:54-28:57

  He trusts his father and he will obey his father.

  28:58-29:00

  That's kind of like the way it works.

  29:02-29:06

  Cade knows that the rule is instituted because his father loves him.

  29:07-29:11

  Now the same principles apply to us and our relationship with God.

  29:12-29:14

  We are the child and God is the father.

  29:15-29:28

  In fact, if you turn over one page to 1 John 5, you can see that verse 3 says, This is love for God to obey His commands.

  29:29-29:32

  Actually, if you're obedient, that's showing love.

  29:33-29:35

  God knows that, parents know that.

  29:36-29:40

  Because if their kids show obedience to them, they're showing them that they love them.

  29:41-29:43

  And that's biblical, as we just saw.

  29:44-29:58

  If you look back at your step, it says, "If you come to know Him," That is right under where it says "so." If you come to know Him, you will love Him.

  29:58-29:59

  That's where we stumble.

  30:00-30:04

  That's the part that we don't always get.

  30:05-30:06

  That's where we falter.

  30:07-30:16

  If we know Him, all the steps to obedience can't help but fall into place because we know Him, then we love Him, and that logic falls into place.

  30:16-30:18

  So how do we get to know Him?

  30:19-30:27

  And this is where I think we're going to wrap up, because I'm passionate about small groups.

  30:28-30:29

  I love my small group.

  30:30-30:31

  Small groups are fantastic.

  30:31-30:33

  I can't say enough about it.

  30:33-30:46

  That video, you know, I just almost had a tear coming out because, you know, that shows God's love and people know that and they'll want to get to know God.

  30:46-30:47

  So how do we get to know God?

  30:48-30:57

  A lot of small groups, in our small group, we are working on getting to know God, making disciples so that we can be obedient to God.

  30:58-30:58

  Because you know what?

  30:59-31:04

  When we're obedient to God, that's when we have the easiest.

  31:04-31:05

  We have it the easiest.

  31:06-31:06

  We don't have any guilt.

  31:08-31:16

  You know, God is really impressing upon us that love is sacrifice, action, and obedience.

  31:17-31:21

  And one last thing, where did the concept of love come from?

  31:21-31:32

  If you turn over to 1 John 4:7, it says, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God." That's where it comes from.

  31:32-31:34

  That's where the concept comes from, comes from God.

  31:35-31:36

  Why do we love?

  31:37-31:58

  over at 1 John 4, 19. It says, "We love because He first loved us." So, the point is, is that love is never generated by us. God loved us first, giving us the idea and the model for how to do it. And that is how to be obedient to God through loving actions and sacrifice.

  32:00-32:09

  So to wrap this up, actually in conclusion, according to this passage, when you see that, I don't know if you ever see that little "Love is" cartoon.

  32:09-32:12

  If you would see that and say, "Love is sacrifice.

  32:12-32:13

  Love is action.

  32:13-32:16

  Love is obedience." Let's pray.

  32:18-32:20

  Lord God, we have heard your word this morning.

  32:21-32:22

  We thank you for that.

  32:23-32:26

  What a tremendous blessing you have given us through this Bible.

  32:27-32:29

  This is how we can get to know you through this Bible.

  32:30-32:33

  If we get to know you, then we get to love you.

  32:33-32:38

  If we learn to love you, then all the steps to obedience fall into place.

  32:40-32:46

  We know that the rules that you have are not to keep us down, to keep us under your finger, to keep us controlled.

  32:47-32:56

  We know that the rules and the commands that you have are because you love us and you want the best for us.

  32:56-32:57

  You don't want to see us stumble.

  32:59-33:15

  Father Lord, I just pray that as we as a church learn to love one another more deeply and through small groups and through worship, Father, I just pray that your hand will be working with us, working on us.

  33:16-33:17

  We pray this in Jesus' name.

  33:17-33:18

  Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 1 John 3:16-24

1. How did this concept of love ever start? Would humans have ever come up with the idea of loving each other?
    

2. When you are truly motivated by love, describe how different it is performing tasks or acts of service than when motivated by more self-serving motives?
    

3. How would you respond to someone who says the Bible is just a book of "don'ts" meant to make us miserable?
    

4. What does the concept of sacrifice mean to you? In 1 John 3:16, it says "we should lay down our lives for our brothers." Are we really doing that? How do we do that?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another. Pray for Pastor Jeff while he is in Thailand teaching the pastors at the conference.

The Pieces of Peace

Guest Speaker - Daniel Thompson

The Cure for Fear: 1 John 4:18


The Replacement for Fear: PEACE

FEAR		REALITY IN CHRIST
PAST MISTAKES	(Rom 5:1)	JUSTIFIED BY FAITH
LACK OF BLESSINGS	(Rom 5:2a)	ACCESS INTO GRACE
FUTURE	(Rom 5:2b)	HOPE OF GLORY
STRUGGLES OF TODAY	(Rom 5:3-5)	PURPOSE IN SUFFERING
UNCERTAINTY	(Rom 5:6-11)	DEATH FOR AN ENEMY

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:00

  Good morning, everybody.

  00:01-00:05

  First of all, I want to thank Pastor Jeff and the elders of the church for asking me to speak.

  00:05-00:13

  You know, my parents and my siblings that are here know that public speaking is actually not what I'm genetically or conditionally trained to do.

  00:13-00:21

  Thankfully, though, God has seen fit otherwise to make me work with youth, which I've done over the past 10 years.

  00:21-00:27

  And one thing you learn from working with teens is that if you can talk in front of teens, you can pretty much talk in front of anybody.

  00:27-00:30

  You guys are way easier than their attention span.

  00:30-00:32

  So today we're going to be talking about the Book of Romans.

  00:33-00:36

  We're going to be talking about a passage out of the Book of Romans from chapter 5.

  00:36-00:38

  So why study the Book of Romans?

  00:38-00:39

  What's the big deal about Romans?

  00:40-00:43

  You know, it seems like a lot of people focus their attention on it.

  00:43-00:48

  It's the book that changed Martin Luther's whole course of direction of his theology and things like that.

  00:49-01:50

  Well, one of the quotes that I had found out there is Dr. Barnhouse, who is the original pastor of the radio program, the Bible Study Hour. He passed away in like the 60s, so I never actually heard him. But, he had a great quote here, "A scientist may say that mother's milk is the most perfect food known to man. And a scientist may give you the analysis showing all the chemical components. He may give you a list of all the vitamins in the milk and an estimate of the calories in each given quantity. But a baby will take that milk without the remotest knowledge of its content and will grow day by day. So it is, the profoundest truths of the Word of God. Some of us may be able to analyze it and some of us may not. But all of us do well to drink and to grow. The point is, there's a lot of complex stuff in Romans and you may not understand every aspect of it. There's people out there thankfully by God's grace that do understand more than any of us. But the idea is we should always grow every time we look at it. Every time we look at the Book of Romans we should walk away different than before.

  01:50-01:52

  And so that's what I'm hoping we will do today.

  01:53-01:58

  As Pastor Jeff mentioned, I am a teacher, but I hate teaching out of context.

  01:58-02:07

  And since I'm not permitted to speak to get all the way to Romans 5, I only get one Sunday to talk, I have to give you some context to get you to chapter five.

  02:08-02:14

  All right, so here's one sentence summaries of the preceding chapters to get you to chapter five.

  02:15-02:18

  Chapter one, God's wrath is coming on man, and here's why.

  02:19-02:20

  God lists the reasons.

  02:21-02:26

  Chapter two, God's people are no better because we should know better, and we do the same things.

  02:27-02:31

  Chapter three, because no one is righteous, God stepped in.

  02:33-02:39

  And chapter four, Abraham was justified by faith, not the law, and so are we.

  02:39-02:41

  That brings us up to chapter five.

  02:41-02:46

  But before we start chapter five, I wanna give you some insight into how my engineer brain works.

  02:46-02:50

  So I'm a mechanical engineer, I work for a Navy contractor out in Monroeville.

  02:51-02:55

  And probably obvious to most people about engineers is that we're dominated by logic.

  02:56-03:02

  Normally in a battle between feeling and logic, logic's gonna win as long as my brain is appropriately engaged.

  03:03-03:07

  But something that people may not know about engineers is engineers talk a lot about risk mitigation.

  03:08-03:09

  What's risk mitigation?

  03:09-03:16

  Risk mitigation is when you identify what the risks are to a proposed course of action, And then you mitigate them.

  03:16-03:20

  You try to either minimize the impact or the likelihood of those risks happening.

  03:21-03:29

  They talk about that in the business world as well, but I know as an engineer, I'm constantly having to defend my position of is this a bad thing or a good thing?

  03:29-03:31

  And how likely is that bad thing going to happen or not?

  03:32-03:34

  So today I'd like to talk about fear mitigation.

  03:35-03:42

  What fears are out there in life, some of them, and how can we make the impact or likelihood of that fear as small as possible?

  03:43-03:44

  So that's what we're gonna talk about today.

  03:45-03:48

  The Bible actually talks about a cure for fear.

  03:48-03:54

  And that cure for fear is found in a passage we're just gonna read here, 1 John 4, 18.

  03:54-04:09

  It says, "There is no fear in love, "but perfect love casts out fear, "for fear has to do with punishment, "and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." The theme that I want you to get there is perfect love drives out fear.

  04:09-04:12

  So love is the way we get rid of fear.

  04:13-04:23

  What I'd like to focus on today is how can we replace that, what can we replace that fear with, or at least keep it as small as possible so that that fear has no impact in our lives.

  04:24-04:29

  Based on the title of my sermon, you can probably guess that the replacement for that fear is peace.

  04:30-04:32

  And that's what our passage in Romans talks about.

  04:32-04:36

  So turn with me in Romans chapter five, verses one through 11.

  04:38-04:43

  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  04:43-04:51

  Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

  04:52-05:06

  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

  05:07-05:12

  For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

  05:12-05:18

  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

  05:19-05:22

  But God chose this love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

  05:23-05:30

  Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God?

  05:31-05:45

  For if while we were his enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we now have received reconciliation.

  05:46-05:47

  Let's pray.

  05:50-06:11

  Mighty God, I thank you for this opportunity and I pray that you would use it for your glory, Lord, and I pray that the distractions of my own stumblings and speaking and my own thought patterns, Lord God, that those would be removed. The distractions of the heat, the distractions of our own life, Lord God, would be removed and you would speak through me to reveal this text to our hearts, Lord God.

  06:12-06:17

  Make us understand the reality of what you have done for us and how it should change the way we live.

  06:18-06:20

  We praise you for this time and thank you that we've gathered here together.

  06:21-06:22

  All this we ask in your name.

  06:23-06:26

  So I think there's a lot of confusion out there about what peace is.

  06:26-07:06

  Is peace this, you know, anti-war, anti-God, free love movement of the '60s with that horrific sign that I despise? Did John Lennon have it right whenever he said, when all he was saying was give peace a chance? Or maybe peace is actually when all the UN representatives get together in a fancy room and leave with a peace which is actually just a Cold War like tension where missiles are aimed at each other but actually not fired. Or maybe peace is that feeling that you get when you've made a decision and your heart rate finally goes back to normal and you can sleep at night again. Or maybe you feel peace or at peace whenever you see doves flying in a sunrise or something goofy like that.

  07:07-07:13

  I can't help but think of the classic scene from that movie, Independence Day. It's a victim of my time.

  07:14-07:25

  When President Bill Pullman is in the bowels of Area 51 and he's down there talking to the alien that Will Smith had shot down in his dog fight, and the President asks him, Did you come in peace?

  07:26-07:28

  The alien says, "Peace!

  07:30-07:33

  No peace!" And then he threatens to kill them.

  07:33-07:36

  But that's my response to all these types of peace.

  07:37-07:37

  Peace?

  07:38-07:38

  No peace.

  07:38-07:40

  Those are not peace.

  07:40-07:41

  That's not what peace is all about.

  07:42-07:43

  Peace is not a feeling.

  07:44-07:47

  Dare I say, Jay, that peace is more than a feeling?

  07:47-07:51

  Peace is actually a state of reality for those of us who belong to Christ.

  07:52-08:01

  what God has done for us, through his Son, we can experience a true and lasting peace that is actually beyond our ability to understand, as it talks about elsewhere in the scripture.

  08:02-08:27

  Let's take a look at the text and see what peace is and how it mitigates or minimizes some of the fears that we encounter. So the first fear on your outline, past mistakes. Fear of the past can cripple a person, the realization that what has been done can't be undone, or the feeling that your crimes are beyond redemption or beyond forgiveness.

  08:28-08:35

  Sometimes you get that overwhelming guilt that weighs on your heart and just prevents you from being able to make any future decisions.

  08:36-08:37

  This fear must be dealt with.

  08:38-08:39

  Let's read verse 1 again.

  08:40-08:45

  Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  08:46-08:48

  Well, how does that deal with past mistakes?

  08:48-08:55

  Well, to be justified means to be declared not guilty, which means if we were declared not guilty, we were guilty.

  08:56-09:00

  And it's pretty easy to see the things that we've done wrong, many, many things that we've done wrong.

  09:00-09:03

  Just go through the 10 Commandments and see how well you do.

  09:04-09:14

  Bounce the 10 Commandments against Christ's clarification that the 10 Commandments are not purely external, but actually also internal, and we're downright awful at any kind of obedience towards God.

  09:16-09:17

  So we justified by faith.

  09:17-09:18

  Well, what's faith?

  09:18-09:24

  The writer of Hebrews describes faith as being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we cannot see.

  09:25-09:27

  None of us have witnessed the resurrection.

  09:28-09:31

  And likely, most of us have not physically seen the risen Christ.

  09:32-09:42

  But in faith, but faith in him is recognizing our own mistakes, admitting that we are sinners and are in desperate need of saving from the punishment that we deserve.

  09:43-09:49

  Faith is trusting that Christ is who he says he is He lived, died, and was raised in place of us.

  09:49-09:54

  If this is you, you can accept this reality that you are justified by faith.

  09:56-09:57

  Alright, so picture yourself in a courtroom.

  09:57-10:00

  You're the defendant and God's the judge.

  10:00-10:06

  All the evidence has been stacked up against you and you've nowhere to run and no excuse.

  10:07-10:11

  You're awaiting your sentencing and God declares you not guilty.

  10:12-10:13

  How is this so?

  10:14-10:16

  Your much deserved punishment will not be assigned to you.

  10:17-10:18

  Not only that, but this ruling is final.

  10:19-10:20

  It can't be undone.

  10:21-10:23

  Because of God's ruling, we now have peace.

  10:23-10:28

  Well, we have peace with God, obviously, because there's not going to be that punishment that we deserve.

  10:28-10:31

  He's not going to ever punish us for the crimes that we have committed.

  10:33-10:39

  Furthermore, we have peace internally because we can let go of all that guilt and that shame and move on from our past mistakes.

  10:40-10:43

  We've experienced His forgiveness, so we should be able to forgive ourselves.

  10:44-10:53

  And finally, we can begin a road of peace with others, either who have hurt us or who we have hurt, because we've seen the example of Christ's free offering of forgiveness.

  10:53-11:00

  And we should be able to model that and do that with others so that we can bridge a road of peace with them.

  11:02-11:08

  So if you are in Christ, do not fear past mistakes, because you have been justified by faith.

  11:09-11:12

  Alright, fear number two, lack of blessings.

  11:13-11:14

  Lack of blessings.

  11:14-11:22

  I bet most people wouldn't say that they fear lack of blessings, but most people live like it, because most people certainly worry about that situation to some degree.

  11:23-11:37

  Everything we watch on TV from the news to commercials makes us so discontent that we not only worry about what we will have tomorrow or what we need to have in the future, but we are blind to the blessings that we have right now.

  11:37-11:40

  The old is not desirable and we need the new.

  11:41-11:45

  We worry about where the money will come from or how God is going to provide for our family, even as Christians.

  11:47-11:49

  Let's read the first half of verse 2.

  11:50-11:55

  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into the grace in which we stand.

  11:57-12:04

  So the reality in Christ in the face of the fear of lack of blessings is that we have access into grace.

  12:05-12:11

  The other week when Mark preached, he brought up a distinction between grace and mercy that's relevant here as well.

  12:12-12:17

  As Mark pointed out, mercy is God not giving us something that we do deserve.

  12:18-12:19

  Mercy was received when we were justified.

  12:20-12:22

  We deserved punishment, but we don't get it.

  12:23-12:23

  That's mercy.

  12:24-12:26

  Grace is the opposite side of that coin.

  12:27-12:30

  Grace is God giving us something that we don't deserve.

  12:31-12:32

  We were declared not guilty, right?

  12:33-12:35

  So that could have been the end of the courtroom scene.

  12:35-12:43

  We could have gone home, left the room, and known that we were no longer guilty for our sins and we were no longer going to receive the punishment.

  12:44-12:45

  But God was not done.

  12:46-12:51

  He gets down from the judge's bench, he opens the door, and he invites us into his chambers.

  12:52-12:56

  He invites us to experience the blessing of having a relationship with him for the rest of our walk on earth.

  12:57-13:03

  The curtain of the temple has been torn and we can now boldly approach our God to ask him for the requests of our heart.

  13:03-13:06

  and we trust that he will provide exactly what we need.

  13:07-13:10

  The Bible says every good and perfect gift comes from him.

  13:11-13:13

  We can taste and see that the Lord is good.

  13:13-13:19

  All this is because Christ has done what he has done and we have now received access into grace.

  13:20-13:34

  So we experience a peace that comes from the idea of knowing that no matter what I have or what I don't have, I know that I have a greater treasure in my relationship with the creator of the universe than anything I could ever possess on my own efforts.

  13:35-13:42

  So, if you are in Christ, do not fear a lack of blessings because you have access into God's grace.

  13:44-13:46

  All right, fear number three, the future.

  13:48-13:50

  The fear of the unknown, what will happen tomorrow?

  13:51-13:54

  What if this happens or what if this doesn't happen?

  13:54-13:56

  Will things go according to plan?

  13:56-13:59

  These kind of questions literally keep people up at night.

  14:00-14:09

  We so greatly desire control of our own lives that we try to control our life by worrying about what may or may not happen in the future.

  14:10-14:17

  In fact, Christ even says, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?" There's the logic that works in my brain.

  14:18-14:23

  What does worrying actually do to increase your ability to control the future?

  14:23-14:26

  If anything, it actually shortens your life because of the stress.

  14:27-14:32

  Christ concludes, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

  14:32-14:37

  Each day has enough trouble of its own." Well, that's fine, but how do we stop this worry?

  14:38-14:40

  Let's read the second half of verse two.

  14:41-14:55

  "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." The reality in Christ, the way to stop fear is by recognizing, the way to stop fear of the future is by recognizing that we have hope in the glory of God.

  14:56-14:58

  God already has a future for us.

  14:58-15:02

  We've yet to experience this fully, but he has made the promises to us.

  15:02-15:06

  Christ is preparing a place for us, and he said he's gonna come back and take us to it.

  15:06-15:11

  God will reward us for faithful obedience, so we should continue to be obedient now.

  15:12-15:25

  This body that we live in is broken and only getting worse by decay as time goes on, but we hope in the promise that God will provide us with new bodies that will never see decay and will last forever, never breaking down.

  15:26-15:29

  Look, if you read the end of the book, you'll realize that we win.

  15:30-15:34

  The future is not something to fear, but something to rejoice about, as it says in the text.

  15:34-15:40

  This is not a blind and wishful hope that says, "Every day is the best day of my life." This doesn't give you that warm, fuzzy feeling.

  15:41-15:43

  This is a certainty of a reality that is to come.

  15:44-15:48

  Therefore, this reality that is to come, that is certain, should affect our reality right now.

  15:48-15:52

  The future for us in Christ is not only good, but beyond our imagination good.

  15:54-15:59

  If you are in Christ, do not fear the future, but rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

  16:01-16:04

  Fear number four, struggles of today.

  16:05-16:06

  Yeah, that's great.

  16:07-16:10

  Nice thoughts about the future, but what about what I'm dealing with today?

  16:11-16:13

  There are very real struggles going on right now.

  16:13-16:15

  How are we supposed to deal with them?

  16:15-16:17

  What kind of peace can I find right now?

  16:18-16:23

  If God is in control and he's got this great future ahead, why are things so messed up right now?

  16:23-16:26

  Who can ignore that kind of day-to-day reality?

  16:26-16:29

  Who can ignore the hardships that are going on in their life?

  16:30-16:32

  Let's read verses three through five.

  16:33-16:41

  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

  16:42-16:48

  And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

  16:49-16:55

  So, our peace comes from the reality that God has purpose in suffering.

  16:55-16:57

  God knows what he is doing.

  16:58-17:02

  And Paul actually outlines a plan for what God is doing through suffering.

  17:03-17:05

  Suffering produces endurance.

  17:06-17:10

  That's pretty obvious, I think, from the physical training side of things.

  17:11-17:21

  If you're training for any kind of race, I've never run a marathon, but I've run half marathons, you struggle through the training so that you have more endurance to be able to complete the race later on.

  17:22-17:25

  From that ability to persevere, we build character.

  17:26-17:28

  This is the process of God refining us.

  17:28-17:33

  God uses the struggles of our life to strip us of our pride and our selfishness.

  17:33-17:44

  We are chiseled down in a way that removes the undesirable qualities and leaves the things that God desires, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

  17:45-17:52

  When we see this new character shining more brightly in ourselves, We're then filled with hope for the future.

  17:53-18:02

  Not only that hope for the distant future of the glory of God, but we can face the next set of struggles with the idea and a better appreciation, God really is doing something.

  18:02-18:07

  I saw it in the last struggle, and so I know that God is gonna do something in the next struggle ahead.

  18:08-18:10

  God really does have a plan.

  18:11-18:14

  And as the Bible says, this hope does not put us to shame.

  18:15-18:17

  Or as the NIV says, this hope does not disappoint us.

  18:17-18:19

  We're never disappointed by trusting in God.

  18:21-18:29

  So, if you are in Christ, do not fear the struggles of today because God has great purpose in suffering.

  18:30-18:34

  So the last and final one is uncertainty.

  18:35-18:36

  Number five on your outline.

  18:37-18:42

  As I said, I'm an engineer and at my company, as engineers, we make recommendations to the government.

  18:43-19:12

  And without fail, the first question that the government going to ask you is, how certain are you of that? You think that material is going to work in there? You think you don't need to replace that pump? So you did an ultrasonic inspection on that pipe and you think the crack is only 10% through? Well, how do you know? How certain are you? What's your confidence level? That's always the question that the government's asking. So you might be sitting there saying the same thing to me. Well, how do I know that these pieces of peace are really as certain and really a reality as you say?

  19:13-19:39

  you've never experienced them or maybe you're just not sure that this hypothetical piece can stand up against the very real and present fear that is in your life. Well, I could tell you to just take it on faith. Just throw up your hands, check your brain at the door and just believe. But thankfully I don't have to. Paul anticipates this line of reasoning and he gives us an example. An example that tells us the certainty of the reality in Christ.

  19:40-19:42

  That example is death for an enemy.

  19:43-19:44

  Let's read verses 6 through 11.

  19:44-19:50

  I want to read that in the NIV because the ESV is choppy and I don't like it in this particular case.

  19:50-19:50

  Normally I do.

  19:51-19:56

  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

  19:57-20:03

  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

  20:03-20:05

  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.

  20:06-20:33

  we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if while we were God's enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

  20:35-20:40

  First of all, at the beginning of that it says, "at just the right time." How comforting is that?

  20:40-20:41

  God's timing is perfect.

  20:42-20:44

  There is no uncertainty for God.

  20:44-20:46

  So we might sit here and say, "We're not sure.

  20:47-20:49

  We're not sure about this." God is always certain.

  20:51-20:52

  But here's the example.

  20:53-20:55

  What are the words that describe our condition in this example?

  20:56-20:59

  We were weak or powerless as it says in the ESV.

  21:00-21:00

  Ungodly.

  21:01-21:01

  Sinners.

  21:02-21:03

  Enemies of God.

  21:05-21:06

  What does God do?

  21:06-21:07

  God steps in.

  21:07-21:08

  He acts.

  21:08-21:10

  What are the action words ascribed to God?

  21:11-21:17

  Christ died, shows his love for us, justified us, saved us, reconciled us.

  21:20-21:31

  Look, if God saved us while we were his enemies, don't you think that all the things that he promised to his people, people that he now calls sons and daughters, are going to come to happen?

  21:31-21:36

  Like, I can't imagine for a second letting Ellie die for anybody.

  21:37-21:40

  My best friends, you know, definitely not my worst enemies.

  21:41-21:50

  So I can't comprehend what God has done, but it certainly tells me that what he says he's going to do, he's going to do.

  21:51-21:58

  So if you are in Christ, do not fear uncertainty because Christ died for us while we were his enemies.

  21:59-22:00

  There's nothing more certain than that.

  22:01-22:13

  Now, the caveat in all of this, the clarifier that I hope that I made at every one of these fears that I want to highlight to you is that without Christ, none of this is a reality.

  22:14-22:22

  For anyone here or anyone that you know that does not have true faith in Jesus Christ as their only Lord and Savior, these fears are their reality.

  22:23-22:25

  You will pay for your past mistakes.

  22:26-22:28

  There will come a time when the blessings will stop.

  22:28-22:33

  The future for you is not only something to fear, but something to run for and avoid at all costs.

  22:34-22:40

  It's quite possible that without Christ there are no purposes for the struggles in your life that you now face.

  22:42-22:44

  If Christ was not raised for you, you are still God's enemy.

  22:45-22:46

  And what certainty do you have?

  22:47-22:48

  Well, I can tell you this.

  22:49-22:52

  It's certain that everyone will stand before God when they die.

  22:53-23:20

  It's certain that there are only two options, God's kingdom or hell, the only place where God is not. And it is certain that there is only one way to enter God's kingdom, a life purchased by the blood of Christ. If this is not you, I pray that the reality of these fears will motivate you to seek peace with God, a complete and forever peace that starts now and lasts for eternity. Don't stay in the spot. Don't let fear dominate your life.

  23:21-23:31

  Destroy these fears with what Christ has done. I pray that you would grab one of the elder or the prayer team members, or myself, or Pastor Jeff, talk about this.

  23:31-23:34

  Don't wait to receive God's peace.

  23:35-23:42

  Now, for those of us that are in Christ, live in the realities of these things that we've talked about.

  23:43-23:47

  There is real peace in knowing who God is and what he has done for you.

  23:48-23:53

  Don't let the feelings of fear dominate your life.

  23:53-23:54

  This is my appeal to you as an engineer.

  23:55-24:02

  Let the logic of the reality of Christ dominate you and don't let the fears have control. Let's pray.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Romans 5:1-11

1. In your own words, describe what peace from God is. It may also be helpful to describe what peace is not.
    

2. It has been said (but apparently not by Einstein) that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". In any case, insanity is definitely a loss of touch with reality. In what ways have you lost touch with the realities discussed in this portion of Romans 5? In light of these realities, what things do you need to do differently in order to expect different results for handling the fears in your life?
    

3. What fear (in the list from Sunday or any other fear) has any control in your life? Why is this so? What truth do you need to remind yourself of to have peace instead of this fear?
    

4. List some people in your life who you would be willing die for or at least risk death for. Assuming that none of your enemies were on that list, how much more grateful should we be for what Christ has done for us: dying for His enemies?
    

5. These fears, and many others (including completely irrational ones), are very much a reality for those that don't know Christ as their Savior and Lord. Describe how this motivates you to share the gospel with the lost. Provide examples of things you can say to explain true peace to those who do not have it.

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!

What Now?

Until Jesus Returns:

1. I serve out of Love (John 21:15-29)

Matthew 26:31-35 - Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." Peter answered him, "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away." Jesus said to him, "Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." Peter said to him, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!" And all the disciples said the same.




1 John 4:19 - We love because he first loved us.



2. I follow to the End (John 21:18-19)


3. I focus on Christ, not Others (John 21:20-23)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:53

  nurse takes you back and does the preliminary thing. She said, "I gotta check your blood pressure." So she puts the cuff on and checks the blood pressure. I like to read people's faces and tone of voice and all that. She was really concerned. She goes, "Your blood pressure is really high." high. And she wasn't like, "Eh, it's just a little high." It was like grave. "Your blood pressure is really high." So she left the room and I'm waiting for the doctor to come in. It seemed like an hour. I'm just sitting there going, "I've never had a problem with my blood pressure. I mean, is launching the church, is it the kids?

  00:54-00:55

  It isn't my wife.

  00:57-01:00

  No, say it's not your wife, Pastor John.

  01:01-01:08

  Yeah, you're right, it's not, surely it can't, but I'm sitting there the whole time with one thought in my head, I kept thinking, now what?

  01:10-01:10

  Now what?

  01:11-01:22

  Am I going to have to radically change my diet or my exercise routine.

  01:23-01:25

  I mean, I've been doing one sit-up a day.

  01:25-01:29

  I do half in the morning when I get up, and then the other half when I go to bed.

  01:32-01:34

  And I just kept sitting there thinking, now what?

  01:35-01:35

  Now what?

  01:36-01:37

  Well, the doctor comes in.

  01:39-01:42

  The first thing he says, man, you have blood pressure.

  01:44-01:45

  I'm like, yeah, I know.

  01:45-01:48

  And he said, I'm going to check it again.

  01:49-01:51

  So he checks it again.

  01:51-01:54

  And he just gets this big smirk on his face.

  01:54-01:56

  He goes, you're great.

  01:56-01:57

  And I'm like, huh?

  01:58-02:00

  He goes, your blood pressure's fine.

  02:00-02:01

  He goes, you're great.

  02:03-02:09

  And then he looked over on the counter, and he said, did she check your blood pressure with that cuff sitting over there?

  02:10-02:10

  And I said, yeah.

  02:11-02:26

  He goes, that's the cuff we use on like eight-year-old little She should have used that on you and it was like, oh, oh, like I was like For a period of time. I was sitting there going. Okay now what now what now what?

  02:27-02:34

  well That's what we've been talking about the last couple of weeks You know Easter was two weeks ago, right?

  02:35-02:47

  and We know the story Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. He rose from the dead to give us the gift of eternal life life and the question is now what?

  02:49-02:52

  Well last week we looked at what's next.

  02:53-02:56

  We sort of went into a flashback to John chapter 14.

  02:56-02:59

  Jesus said what's next is he's coming back.

  02:59-03:08

  And just as his first appearance included multiple events, so his second appearance will include multiple events.

  03:08-04:12

  It's sort of hard to cover everything in one message because the Bible says the church going to be raptured out and he's going to bring this national revival to the nation of Israel and there are a whole lot of events that are going to take place a thousand-year reign and a lot we can cover we go down the road but the point last week is just one thing really on God's calendar the next big event is the return of Jesus Christ that's what's next and the title of today's message is is, what now? What happens in the meantime? I'd like you to open your Bibles up to John chapter 21 because there has been no one in history that would have been more concerned about this question than Simon Peter, one of Jesus' disciples. He would have been more concerned about this question than anyone. We're going to be picking up in verse 15, Look at John 21, excuse me, verse 3.

  04:12-04:23

  Simon Peter said to them, see some of the other disciples there listed, "I'm going fishing." Now this is after the resurrection, after some of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ.

  04:24-04:24

  I love this.

  04:24-04:36

  Verse 3, "Simon Peter said to them, 'I'm going fishing.' They said to him, 'We will go with you.' And when I got into the boat that night, they caught nothing.

  04:38-04:39

  Isn't it interesting?

  04:39-04:43

  With everything that took place, think of life from Peter's perspective.

  04:43-04:51

  Jesus Christ arrested and beaten and crucified and we watched him die and we saw him buried and all hope is lost.

  04:53-05:12

  And three days later he shows back up and he's alive and we didn't quite get it all at first but he's alive and Peter's like, "Now what? Now what?" So like a lot of guys, what did he do?

  05:13-05:21

  I'm gone fishing. I'm not quite sure what to do. Obviously it was his vocation so it wasn't just like a hobby for him.

  05:21-05:26

  He just went back to what he knew. He went back to what he knew. I'm gone fishing.

  05:28-05:38

  While Jesus and John 21 shows up on the shore and miraculously provides a catch, we saw in verse 3 that they didn't catch anything until Jesus showed up and gave them instruction.

  05:38-05:40

  Jesus cooked breakfast for them.

  05:42-06:41

  And in these verses we're going to look at, Jesus was dealing with the elephant in the room, so to speak, as it pertains to Peter by basically asking him this question, "Are you committed?" Are you committed? In light of the resurrection, we too are people that cannot go about business as usual. It happens every Easter in churches across the world, particularly across the country, people show up, Jesus rose from the dead, and it's just back to business as usual. We can't do that. We serve a living Savior. We can't go back to just back to business. Christ has given us this job, and he's working in us and through us.

  06:42-06:53

  The question I'd like us to examine is, "How do I know that I'm committed?" We have our mission statement up here.

  06:53-06:56

  This is what our church is about, if you're visiting with us for the first time.

  06:57-06:58

  What kind of church are you?

  06:59-07:07

  Our mission is to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission, in the spirit of the Great Commandment.

  07:09-07:19

  And the great commission is to go into the world to make disciples, to baptize them, to teach them, to observe all that Jesus commanded.

  07:21-07:23

  It's by loving God and by loving people.

  07:24-07:37

  And the question is, whether you're a regular attender here or not, if you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, how committed are you to the mission?

  07:39-07:41

  Well, let's look at what Jesus said to Peter.

  07:44-07:45

  Until Jesus returns.

  07:47-07:48

  Yeah, you're asking what now?

  07:48-07:50

  And well, we know what the mission is.

  07:50-07:52

  So what does it mean to be committed?

  07:53-07:55

  Well, here it is, three things this morning.

  07:57-08:01

  Until Jesus returns, first of all, number one, I serve out of love.

  08:03-08:04

  Jot that down in your outline.

  08:04-08:06

  I serve out of love.

  08:09-08:10

  What do we do now?

  08:10-08:13

  Jesus rose from the dead and he said he's coming back. So what do we do in the meantime?

  08:14-08:18

  We serve out of love. Look at verses 15-17.

  08:19-09:30

  When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that love you "Do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep." So what do we do until Jesus returns?

  09:31-09:33

  Number one is I serve out of love.

  09:34-10:07

  Looking back at these verses, Jesus said to Peter, "Do you love me more than these?" The question is, "More than these what?" Some people say, "Well, Jesus was talking about the boats and the nets and all the fishing apparatus because Peter went fishing and Jesus was saying, "Do you love me more than your usual livelihood?" Some people say that what Jesus meant was, "Peter, do you love me more than you love the other disciples?

  10:07-10:21

  Do you love me more than you love these guys?" I think Jesus was saying, "Peter, do you love me more than they love me?" Here's why I think that. I put this on your outline.

  10:22-10:25

  Matthew 26, you know the story of Peter before the crucifixion.

  10:26-10:27

  Look at your outline.

  10:28-10:31

  An ultra tiny font. I believe this is size 0.8.

  10:32-10:37

  Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of me this night.

  10:38-10:42

  For it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

  10:43-10:53

  But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.'" Peter answered him, now do you realize how insulting this next statement is to the other guys?

  10:54-11:07

  "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away." Could you imagine being one of the other disciples and Peter stands up and he might, he will, yeah he will, he definitely will, and he will not make it.

  11:09-11:16

  I know you can't count on these other schlumps, but Jesus you can count on me for sure.

  11:18-11:37

  Well, Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows you will deny me three times." Peter said to him, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you." I think that's how he said it, right?

  11:37-12:25

  That sounds like Braveheart or something, but I don't think it was like yeah, you know, I'll stick by you I think Peter was up. Don't you just like yeah, that may be but I will go to the death with you Yeah All the and it says no disciples said the same you can imagine that scene They're like Nathaniel and you know Bartholomew, you know, yeah. Yeah me too. We'll die with you, too but Peter's always the one speaking up and Well, Jesus was right as is his custom Peter did deny knowing Jesus three times Right. So maybe that's why Jesus asked him three times and Gave him the charge three times. You know, it's not the text three times. Jesus said do you love them? Do you love them?

  12:27-13:38

  Now many of you have probably heard that in the original Greek in this passage There were two different words used for love You know, the Greek has several words for love two of the main ones agape is the Sacrificing love the your needs before mine kind of love. It's it's a love of the will that's agape and Valeo Was friendship love that's the kind of love you have for people you like like your buddies your friends. I like that guy It's a it's a strong kinship. That's a lot. Oh, that's where we get the name of the city The only thing I can think is Somebody that named that city had a sense of humor That's the only thing I can think of because listen if you're going to Philadelphia There's only one reason anybody should go to Philadelphia and that's to go to Harvest Bible Chapel, Philadelphia. Other than that Stop by, tell Mad Townsend I said hi and get out of there.

  13:41-13:44

  I think the tigress had something to do with my blood pressure.

  13:47-14:59

  Anyways That's friendship love. That's where we get the word Philadelphia and there were great cities like that like the one in the Bible And then there's the one on the other side of the state sorry Amanda Kaler It was from Philadelphia, but she's here now She's a convert right she's a convert Well, there are two different words for love used in this text and I've heard sermons and perhaps you have to you know Jesus actually said Peter do you have got me me Peter says, you know, I and Peter was saying I have a strong affinity for you and that's how it went the second time Peter do you love me with your will and he was like well I have a strong affinity for you and well the third time Jesus said do you philetho me? Do you have a strong affinity for me? Peter said you know all things you know I philetho you and I'm not sure how much merit there is to the The usages of different words here because John, all throughout the Gospel of John, uses those two words interchangeably.

  14:59-15:00

  He does.

  15:00-15:04

  You know, in John 3.16 he says that God loves the world with agape love.

  15:05-15:09

  In John 16.27 he says that God loves us with phileo love.

  15:10-15:15

  John 3.35 says that God loves Jesus with agape love.

  15:16-15:19

  John 5.20 says that God loves Jesus with phileo love.

  15:20-15:22

  The same with Christians loving each other.

  15:22-15:34

  You see, we're to agape each other, we're to phileo each other, and whatever the case, wherever you fall in that, here's one thing we know for sure from the text.

  15:37-15:38

  Peter got it the third time.

  15:40-15:44

  No matter what you believe about that, Peter got it the third time.

  15:45-15:47

  This is about getting to the heart of the matter.

  15:49-15:50

  Getting to the heart of the matter.

  15:51-15:54

  The issue is, do you love the Lord?

  15:58-16:01

  You can imagine what was going on in Peter's heart here.

  16:02-16:03

  Why do you keep asking?

  16:03-16:06

  You know I want to, but you know I failed you.

  16:08-16:09

  And what about you?

  16:10-16:38

  Imagine if Jesus physically came into this world church today and we had a meal together and afterwards and apparently Jesus did this in front of the other disciples I don't see anything in the text indicate otherwise but he just says right in front of everybody it's like Ken do you love me? What if he said that to you? How would you answer?

  16:39-17:15

  Do you love me? That's the question. How would you answer? I want you to notice what the work is each time as Peter answers. Jesus said, verse 15, "Feed my lambs. Verse 16, "Tend my sheep." Verse 17, "Feed my sheep." So notice what the work is.

  17:15-17:32

  It's taking care of the people of God. But what I want you to notice from this passage is that Jesus didn't just commission Peter. He didn't just show up and say, "Peter, look, I knew you blew it. Here's your job. Go feed my people." Where Where did he start with Peter?

  17:33-17:34

  He started in here.

  17:38-18:20

  Christ isn't interested in some mechanical "I'm doing it out of obligation, I'm doing it out of guilt." The first question he asked Peter is "Do you love me?" Peter said, "I do." And Jesus, meeting him where he was at, noticed Jesus didn't say, "Peter, when you get your act together, "then you can feed my sheep." Peter, when you go through the, you know, I got this 40 days of repentance workbook I want you to go through, and when you're done with that, then I want you to feed my sheep.

  18:21-18:23

  The issue was, do you love me?

  18:25-18:26

  That was the issue.

  18:29-18:29

  So two things here.

  18:30-18:34

  It's love for Jesus that makes me serve.

  18:36-18:38

  It's love for Jesus that makes me serve.

  18:40-18:44

  And if you're involved in any type of ministry, that's gotta be your story.

  18:46-18:50

  Again, we don't want people serving out of obligation.

  18:51-18:53

  Well, I do this kind of because nobody else would.

  18:54-18:57

  I've been in church committee meetings where people have said that.

  19:02-19:04

  I'll do it because nobody else will.

  19:05-19:08

  Obligation or guilt. Well, I probably should.

  19:11-19:15

  Service for Christ should come out of a love for Christ.

  19:15-19:16

  That was the issue.

  19:16-19:17

  Do you love me?

  19:21-19:23

  So it's love for Jesus that makes me serve.

  19:24-19:27

  But secondly, this isn't for fun, but I need you to think about it.

  19:28-19:31

  It's serving Jesus that is the result of love for Jesus.

  19:32-19:33

  Here's what I mean.

  19:33-19:36

  My love for Christ will not leave me passive.

  19:36-19:37

  It won't.

  19:37-19:38

  It will not.

  19:39-19:39

  It will not.

  19:41-19:43

  It will not leave me passive.

  19:46-19:49

  It was love for Christ that got me into ministry in the first place.

  19:49-19:54

  I was a little boy, you know, I say, "When I grow up, I want to be a preacher." That was at the bottom of my list.

  19:56-20:00

  But it was when I was 20 and I came to know the love of Christ.

  20:02-20:09

  I said, "I want to do whatever he wants me to do." And one day, landscaping at my mom's house, praying, the Lord called me into ministry.

  20:12-20:14

  We were doing some landscaping at our house.

  20:15-20:19

  Erin and I were outside and she was asking me how to do a couple of things.

  20:19-20:37

  I said, "Here's how you do this." And I got down, I was shown, I said, "Now the important thing to remember "when you're doing this is try not to pray "while you're doing it because God will drastically "change the course of your life if you do." So, obviously I was being facetious.

  20:42-20:49

  Serving Jesus as the result of our love for Jesus, When you love Christ, it does not leave you passive.

  20:50-20:55

  Last summer, Aaron and I and the boys went to Thousand Islands.

  20:56-21:08

  A friend has a cottage up there, and he says, "You can have it for a week, "like free vacation." So we went up, and one of the big attractions up there is Bolt Castle.

  21:10-21:12

  And everybody up there, you gotta go see Bolt Castle.

  21:12-21:14

  Anybody ever heard of Bolt Castle?

  21:15-21:16

  Okay, so some of you have.

  21:17-21:22

  Well, General George Bolt, this was like the turn of like 1800s to 1900s, turn of the century.

  21:24-21:36

  Okay, so for his wife, he bought an island and had the island shaped like a heart for his wife.

  21:37-21:39

  I know what you guys are thinking right now.

  21:39-21:41

  You met her like, "Jeff, just shut it now, okay?

  21:42-22:54

  "Jeff, shut your pie hole." listen to this this was back before like the car okay he had the island shaped like a heart and he said I'm going to build a not a house not a double wide not a tent a wigwam for his wife he built her a castle on this island he had shaped like a heart I'm gonna build her a castle and And they have little like boat tours you go over there and you can walk through this castle. Well It is Unbelievable It is Unbelievable, isn't it there you walk in this place and how many times I say I'm sure I was annoying Aaron We're walking through I said the same thing over and over This was built for one person This was built for one person. I mean we're talking room upon room upon room upon on libraries and the castle was, whatever you're thinking of in your mind right now about the size of the castle, I guarantee you it's 20 times bigger than that.

  22:55-22:57

  It took us all day just to walk through this thing.

  22:58-23:07

  Well, he started building it up, building it up, building it up, and obviously it was framed in at the top, but while he was building this castle, his wife died.

  23:10-23:10

  And he just stopped.

  23:12-23:13

  He just stopped.

  23:14-23:19

  So the interesting thing about this castle is the further up the steps you go, the less finished it is.

  23:19-23:26

  So when you get to the top, there's rooms that are nothing but concrete and sheet rock, just completely empty.

  23:27-23:33

  Go down two flights of stairs, there's grand pianos and libraries and nothing.

  23:33-23:42

  And the reason I'm sharing it with you is he didn't build that castle to earn her love.

  23:43-23:48

  Like, I think this chick is really hot, and maybe she'll go out with me if I build her a castle.

  23:49-23:50

  He wasn't trying to earn her love.

  23:52-23:56

  He built this because he what?

  23:57-23:58

  He loved her.

  24:02-24:08

  And it makes the "of love" that I got from my wife for our last anniversary look pretty lame.

  24:09-24:16

  But he loved her so much that he bought her an entire island and put a castle on it.

  24:18-24:19

  And so it is with Christ.

  24:20-24:24

  Our service for Christ isn't to earn love from him.

  24:24-24:26

  Like, "Hey Jesus, I'm down here preaching.

  24:26-24:30

  "Do you love me now?" He already loves me with an immeasurable love.

  24:33-24:39

  But my service with Christ is the overflow of my love for Him.

  24:43-24:46

  You see, there are lots of motivations I can offer.

  24:47-24:48

  You know, we're a new church plant.

  24:49-24:49

  We need lots of help.

  24:49-24:54

  We need talents and creativity and we need this and we need that.

  24:54-24:57

  I can give you a lot of motivation to get involved in the church.

  24:58-25:00

  There's only one motivation that's real.

  25:01-25:02

  We do his work because we love him.

  25:05-25:06

  We do it because we love him.

  25:08-25:13

  You're saying, well, the pastor, Jeff, you're saying I just need to try to love Jesus more, right?

  25:14-25:16

  I just try to love him more.

  25:16-25:17

  Now, you can't.

  25:19-25:23

  You don't have anything in you to try to muster it up like, you know, I'm going to try really hard to love God today.

  25:25-25:27

  You can't do it. So how do you do it?

  25:29-25:34

  How does your love for Him grow? Well 1 John 4, 19, I have this on your outline.

  25:35-26:31

  We love because He first loved us. So it's real simple, but it's real profound, but it's often difficult for us to understand. If you want to grow in your love for the Lord, and I imagine probably everybody in here, if I said you want to more everybody in here say I do you know how you do it you do it by focusing on his love for you that's how you do and how do you find out about his love for you well he wrote it all down for us in a book he's like here's how much I love you here's the story of my love for mankind for the nation of Israel for the church or whosoever will receive my son here's the story of my love and this as a description of the love of God.

  26:31-26:38

  But I would also encourage you in growing in your love for the Lord to really get plugged into worship music.

  26:41-26:44

  You know, when I was a kid, church was always a weird thing to me.

  26:44-26:49

  Like, okay, so why are a bunch of adults sitting around singing songs and then a guy gets up and talks at us forever?

  26:52-26:55

  Those songs aren't just like, well, that's kind of filler.

  26:57-27:03

  That's what we're going to be doing for eternity, is praising the one who is worthy.

  27:05-27:20

  And I would encourage you, don't let the half hour or so that we do it on a Sunday morning be the extent of your worship time, because you'll find that the more you spend time singing songs about the love of God, you're going to feel that swelling up in you.

  27:20-27:21

  You just will.

  27:22-27:26

  The more you focus on God loves me, He sent his son to die for me.

  27:27-27:28

  He loves me, he loves me, he loves me.

  27:29-27:32

  And you're gonna realize, you're gonna be loving him back.

  27:33-27:34

  That's how it grows.

  27:34-27:36

  We love because he first loved us.

  27:38-27:40

  So I serve out of what?

  27:43-27:45

  Until Jesus comes back, I serve out of what?

  27:46-27:48

  Well, a couple more.

  27:50-27:52

  Number two, I follow to the end.

  27:53-27:55

  I follow to the end, look at verses 18 and 19.

  27:59-28:14

  Truly, truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.

  28:15-28:19

  This he said to show by what kind of death he was going to glorify God.

  28:19-28:38

  And after saying this, he said to him, "Follow me." Jesus said to Peter, "When you were young, you lived on your terms." You know what's man's favorite expression?

  28:39-28:50

  No one tells me what to do. You know, I go into the public restroom and the paper towel dispenser says, "Use both hands to pull the towel." I one-hand that thing every time.

  28:54-29:03

  Why? Because nobody tells me what to do. That's the human motto, right? The sign says "Stay off the grass." Nobody tells me what to do.

  29:04-29:20

  Well, what Jesus was saying was, "You know what Peter, when you were young you lived on your terms. But when you are old, you will die, not on your terms." What did he mean by this statement?

  29:20-29:22

  Well, John clarified it for us.

  29:22-29:27

  He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to glorify God.

  29:30-29:34

  Tradition says that Peter was actually crucified upside down.

  29:35-29:42

  He didn't feel that he was worthy to be crucified in the same way that Jesus was, so he requested to be crucified upside down.

  29:44-29:46

  That's what Jesus was talking about here.

  29:47-29:50

  So, I followed to the end.

  29:52-29:55

  What question at this point do you think Peter was wrestling with?

  29:55-29:56

  Jesus said, "Do you love me?

  29:57-29:57

  Feed my sheep.

  29:57-29:58

  Do you love me?

  29:58-30:03

  Feed my sheep." What was the question you think was rolling around in Peter's mind?

  30:04-30:07

  It's probably the same question that would have been rolling around your mind and my mind.

  30:11-30:12

  Questions like this.

  30:13-30:14

  Am I the real deal?

  30:16-30:17

  You know, Jesus is here.

  30:17-30:20

  you're asking me if I love him and I'm questioning am I even the real deal?

  30:22-30:23

  Am I going to make it to the end?

  30:24-30:26

  Am I going to fail ultimately?

  30:26-30:35

  Peter might have been thinking, you know, I stood up and told Jesus I would die for him and then a little girl asks me if I'm like, if I like know him and I'm like I don't even know the guy.

  30:36-30:38

  I guess that shows me what I'm made of.

  30:39-30:43

  Am I going to, am I going to blow it again?

  30:44-30:50

  Am I going to ultimately fail in my relationship with Jesus Christ?

  30:53-30:59

  Well, Jesus by His grace gave Peter some insight.

  30:59-31:02

  He says you're ultimately not going to blow.

  31:03-31:05

  You're going to make it to the end, Peter.

  31:07-31:10

  You're going to glorify God to the end and in the end.

  31:12-31:12

  In your death.

  31:16-31:19

  Really, there are two fruits of authentic discipleship.

  31:19-31:23

  I can't see a person's heart, but there are two fruits of authentic discipleship.

  31:23-31:28

  And it's following Jesus, that's the desire to serve him out of love, we already talked about that.

  31:28-31:33

  But the other fruit of authentic discipleship is perseverance.

  31:38-32:04

  When you see somebody new come to the Lord newly and you wonder are they sincere, are they authentic, your answer is going to be time. Your answer is going to be time. We'll see. It's God's grace that gives us perseverance. The perseverance is a marker of true discipleship.

  32:06-32:11

  As I said earlier, you know, I sometimes try to make some semblance of staying in some type of shape.

  32:12-32:14

  Boy, that sounded serious, didn't it?

  32:15-32:18

  And so I'll go to the gym and I'll get on the treadmill.

  32:19-32:35

  Now, before I get on the treadmill, I have this picture in my mind that I'm Rocky Balboa, I am the tiger, and I'm going to get on that thing and I'm going to put it on the highest incline and I'm going to run 20 miles and my muscles are going to be rippling just like Apollo Creed running down the beach in Rocky, you know what I'm talking about?

  32:36-32:37

  That's going to be me!

  32:38-32:44

  So I get on that treadmill and turn it on, get the incline going.

  32:45-32:55

  Fifteen seconds later, I'm thinking, "You know, I'm not really a runner." A minute later, this stinks.

  32:57-33:00

  A minute and a half later, I really prefer lifting.

  33:02-33:04

  Two minutes later I think I'm in the shower at that point.

  33:06-33:09

  Starting is easy, right? Starting is easy.

  33:11-33:13

  Finishing is hard.

  33:13-33:18

  And just as you need God's grace to start the race, you need God's grace to finish it.

  33:22-33:24

  There might be some of you here this morning that are ready to bail.

  33:27-33:29

  There might be some people here this morning ready to bail.

  33:30-33:32

  Maybe you're ready to bail in the church.

  33:33-33:35

  Maybe you're ready to bail in your ministry.

  33:36-33:38

  Maybe there's a relationship you're ready to just bail on.

  33:45-33:46

  Maybe you're ready to bail on the Lord.

  33:50-33:54

  I just want to encourage you to say this prayer.

  33:56-33:57

  I don't mean write it down and recite it.

  33:58-33:59

  I mean from your heart, can you pray this?

  34:00-34:01

  Can you pray, I will not quit.

  34:02-34:05

  God, by your grace, by your power, I will not quit.

  34:07-34:10

  Despite the circumstances, I am not going to quit.

  34:11-34:14

  Despite the critics, I am not going to quit.

  34:15-34:18

  Despite how other people treat me, I am not going to quit.

  34:18-34:19

  Can you pray that?

  34:20-34:24

  Say, God, your grace got me into this and I know your grace is going to see me to the end.

  34:27-34:29

  I follow it at the end, it lasts to the day.

  34:32-34:35

  I focus on Christ, not others.

  34:36-34:38

  I focus on Christ, not others.

  34:38-34:39

  Look at verse 20.

  34:41-34:42

  Look at the end of verse 19.

  34:42-34:43

  Here it is again.

  34:45-34:54

  Jesus said to Peter, "Follow me." I wish it stopped.

  34:56-34:57

  Don't you just wish it ended on a high note?

  34:58-35:12

  Because the reason I call that a high note, when Peter was first introduced to Jesus in the early days of the ministry of Christ, what was one of the first things that Jesus said to Peter?

  35:14-35:20

  "Follow me." So this is sort of like, we're starting over.

  35:21-35:25

  I called you in the beginning, I'm calling you again, follow me.

  35:27-35:29

  I kind of wish the Gospel of John ended there.

  35:32-35:32

  Peter gets it.

  35:34-35:35

  He's back on track.

  35:36-35:37

  Well, look at verse 20.

  35:37-35:39

  He's so much like the rest of us.

  35:40-36:05

  Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, following them, the one who had been reclining at the table close to him and had said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you. When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?

  36:06-36:27

  You follow me." So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but if this is my will until I come, I'm sorry, if this is my will that he remain until I come, excuse me, what is that to you?

  36:29-36:44

  So Peter has the sincerity questioned, he's given a charge, he's told he's going to die glorifying God, so he does what probably many of us would do. Yeah, but what about this guy?

  36:45-36:50

  Peter's saying, "Let's get the spotlight off of me for a second. You know, what's John's deal?

  36:51-36:54

  Are you going to ask John any questions? You're going to ask John if he loves you?

  36:54-37:03

  What's he supposed to do? What's his life and death going to be like?" And we have such a tendency to do that, don't we?

  37:05-37:09

  To say, "Well, what about him?" We do it all the time.

  37:12-37:20

  Ladies, have you ever thought, I'm a much better wife than she is.

  37:22-37:25

  Why is it that her marriage seems stronger than mine?

  37:28-37:30

  Or maybe an employee says, you know, I work a lot harder than that guy.

  37:31-37:34

  It seems that he's getting all the raises, he's getting all the promotions.

  37:35-37:36

  What about him?

  37:37-37:38

  Or even as a church?

  37:39-37:43

  Well that church over there, they don't even bring their Bibles to church, you know that?

  37:45-37:46

  They don't even bring their Bibles.

  37:47-37:48

  They barely even mention the Bible.

  37:50-37:52

  Our ministry is a lot more biblical.

  37:53-37:54

  What about them?

  37:56-37:56

  What about them?

  37:58-37:59

  Her parents.

  38:04-38:06

  I am a much better parent than those people.

  38:07-38:13

  And their kids, their kids are like the Cleavers.

  38:15-38:19

  And our kids are like Beavis and Butthead.

  38:21-38:22

  What about them?

  38:22-38:24

  We just have that tendency, don't we?

  38:25-38:25

  What about them?

  38:27-38:27

  What about them?

  38:30-38:31

  Well, Jesus, so gracious.

  38:32-38:33

  So gracious.

  38:36-38:38

  But it is my will that he remain until I come.

  38:39-38:40

  What is that to you?

  38:40-38:43

  Do you know what Jesus was saying in the most gracious way possible?

  38:43-38:44

  What was he saying?

  38:45-38:45

  What was he saying?

  38:46-38:46

  Just shout it out.

  38:47-38:48

  Yes!

  38:48-38:51

  Mind your own business is what he was saying, right?

  38:51-38:52

  We have a saying in our house.

  38:52-38:53

  What is it, Aaron?

  38:54-38:54

  Not your business.

  38:55-38:56

  That's our saying.

  38:57-38:58

  How does that happen?

  38:58-39:12

  Well, like, you know, when Kate has the markers and he gets into the bills, Aaron's like, "Yeah, I'm going to get my own business." "Hey, give me those notes, aren't your business." Or, "The kids get something of ours "that they shouldn't have it, give me that, "that's not your business." So we have that saying.

  39:12-39:14

  Basically, that's what Jesus was saying to Peter.

  39:16-39:26

  'Cause Peter was just under, sweating it under the lights, he said, "What about John?" And Jesus was saying, "Look, Peter, "John is my business.

  39:28-39:30

  "Peter, you are my business.

  39:32-39:33

  Peter, John is not your business.

  39:33-39:37

  Okay, do we need to get a whiteboard and map this thing out for you?

  39:37-39:39

  John is not your business.

  39:39-39:40

  John is my business.

  39:43-39:45

  We're so guilty of that sometimes.

  39:45-39:46

  What about him?

  39:46-39:47

  What about him?

  39:47-39:49

  I'm a better Christian than him.

  39:49-39:50

  What?

  39:51-39:54

  Why does my life seem harder than this guy's?

  39:56-39:56

  Total slack.

  39:58-39:59

  What about him?

  40:00-40:02

  And you know the answer is still the same.

  40:04-40:23

  Jesus is saying, "Listen, I will deal with him, and I'm going to deal with you, too." You understand that in this walk, we each have, those of us who have been born again, we have a relationship with God.

  40:25-40:30

  And he's going to deal with each and every one of us on an individual basis.

  40:33-40:40

  And somehow we turn into children and say, "Well, because I only got half of a cookie, Tom should only get half of a cookie.

  40:40-40:45

  That's only fair." And Jesus says, "Jeff, Tom is not your business.

  40:46-40:47

  Tom is my business.

  40:47-40:51

  And if I give him a dozen cookies, that's my business.

  40:52-40:55

  Not yours, Jeff." You get that?

  40:56-40:58

  So he said it again, "You follow me.

  40:59-41:03

  You follow me." That really settles it, doesn't it?

  41:04-41:05

  You don't need to worry about the next guy.

  41:07-41:07

  God's got it covered.

  41:10-41:11

  So focus on your own walk.

  41:12-41:15

  Focus on Christ, not on others.

  41:15-41:19

  You're going to have that tendency to start looking around.

  41:22-41:24

  He's got his own plan for you.

  41:24-41:24

  He's got his own plan for you.

  41:24-41:27

  He's got his own plan for you Can you be content with that?

  41:29-41:38

  Because his plan for you is far more glorious than if somehow you had somebody else's plan.

  41:41-41:42

  It's individualized.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 21:15-23

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.