Jeff Miller

January 4, 2026

God Is Seeking Worshipers

All In On Spirit

Jeff Miller

January 4, 2026

God Is Seeking Worshipers

Introduction:

John 4:23

Psalm 138:1 - I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart...

Psalm 45:1 - My heart overflows with a pleasing theme…

Deuteronomy 6:5 - You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

3 Reasons I'm “All In on Spirit” in Worship (2 Samuel 6:12-23)

My worship is FOR THE LORD. (2 Sam 6:21a)
My worship is PERSONAL. (2 Sam 6:21b)

2 Samuel 12:20 – Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped.

Job 1:20 – Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.
My worship is a CHOICE. (2 Sam 6:22–23)

Psalm 146:2 – I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

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

00:42-00:48
Open up your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel 6.
00:50-00:52
While you're turning, let's just pause.
00:52-01:00
I'm going to ask if you would please pray for me to clearly and faithfully communicate God's Word.
01:00-01:09
At the same time, I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us from His Word today.
01:10-01:12
Just take a moment, please, we'll pray.
01:16-01:23
Father, I believe this is a message that the church needs to hear.
01:24-01:30
God, I believe this is a message this church, this is a message Harvest Bible Chapel needs to hear.
01:30-01:39
So I just ask God that You would please let Your Spirit move in the hearts of Your people.
01:39-01:43
This would be a time of self-examination.
01:46-01:54
And that You would continue Your work in us to make us the people that You've already pronounced us to be.
01:55-01:59
Thank You, Father, ahead of time for everything that You're going to do.
02:01-02:08
Because Your Word tells us that You always accomplish the purposes for which You send Your Word out.
02:09-02:10
We believe that.
02:14-02:16
In Jesus' name, Amen.
02:18-02:20
2 Samuel chapter 6.
02:20-02:20
Are you there?
02:22-02:27
I grew up attending a little Methodist church.
02:28-02:44
And worship in music time was sometimes, most of the time, how should we say, unenthusiastic.
02:46-02:51
But often it would sound like this.
02:53-03:08
If ever I loved thee Lord Jesus 'tis now ♪ And imagine that times like 70 or 80.
03:10-03:21
I remember one Sunday in particular, during the music time, the pastor actually stood up, and he goes, "Stop, stop, stop singing, stop singing.
03:23-03:32
I'm not going to let you ruin another one." I mean, unpack that statement.
03:34-03:47
I just remember the organist was like, like, "What do we do now?" And he's like, "Write into the sermon, like, I'm not going to let you ruin another one." We were shocked.
03:49-04:01
And you know, I didn't really get it then, but I get it now.
04:04-04:07
Like, what are we doing?
04:09-04:16
What are we doing when it's time to worship our almighty savior.
04:19-04:21
We come in 10 or 15 minutes late.
04:23-04:24
What are we doing?
04:26-04:31
What are we doing when it's time to express our love for God?
04:33-04:49
And we're just kind of looking around and kind of half singing the words What are we doing?
04:52-04:59
Can we really be content to call that worship?
05:00-05:01
Can we?
05:01-05:09
Can we be content to come in late and mouth a few words and sit down and be like, "Well, I worship today." Can we call that worship?
05:09-05:10
Really?
05:11-05:13
Let me ask you this.
05:15-05:22
Do you consider yourself to be a worshiper?
05:29-05:29
Do you?
05:32-05:34
Could we rightly call you a worshiper?
05:37-05:41
Or would you say, "Yeah, that's not really my thing.
05:42-05:47
Yeah, the music and worship thing, we're talking specifically about music.
05:47-05:49
Pastor Rich made that clear last week.
05:49-05:58
That's what this series is about." But are you like, "Well, this worship and music, it's not really my thing." Well, that's a problem because it's God's thing.
06:00-06:01
Okay, it's God's thing.
06:02-06:03
Like, well, how do you know?
06:03-06:05
Do you know what the second biggest book of the Bible is?
06:06-06:08
It's right smack in the middle.
06:09-06:10
The Psalms, you know what the Psalms are?
06:11-06:12
Israel's songbook.
06:15-06:17
Right in the center of the word of God.
06:18-06:24
Heaven is described as a place of worship, right?
06:24-06:30
And Jesus Christ himself said, God is seeking someone.
06:30-06:33
God is, God himself is looking for someone.
06:33-06:35
Who is God looking for?
06:36-06:38
Jesus tells us, here's who God's looking for.
06:38-06:54
John chapter four, verse 23, Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
06:55-07:02
For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him." You see that?
07:02-07:10
Again, this is a conversation Jesus was having with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.
07:12-07:17
And this statement, spirit and truth, spirit and truth.
07:18-07:25
Understand for the Jews, the Jews had the Scriptures.
07:25-07:27
They had the information.
07:28-07:29
But you know what they didn't have?
07:29-07:31
They didn't have heart in their worship.
07:32-07:32
I mean, read your Old Testament.
07:33-07:34
Their heart wasn't in it.
07:34-07:38
through the motions, they had the truth, but their heart was not in it.
07:39-07:43
You see, the Jews, they had the truth, but there was no spirit.
07:44-07:46
But the Samaritans, did you know this?
07:46-07:48
The Samaritans were passionate worshipers.
07:49-07:49
They were.
07:49-07:53
They were extravagant, passionate, emotional worshipers.
07:53-07:54
Well, there's a little problem.
07:56-08:03
They didn't believe in the scriptures, except for the Pentateuch, but the rest, they just did not believe.
08:04-08:14
So the Samaritans, like the woman Jesus was speaking to, they had spirit, but no truth.
08:16-08:21
And Jesus says to this woman, "Hey, God wants both.
08:23-08:25
Truth and spirit.
08:26-08:32
He wants both." And in our day, it's obvious, right?
08:32-08:36
We see either unbalanced extreme, don't we?
08:38-08:42
There are many churches that are like the Jews, truth without spirit.
08:43-08:58
You can go to many churches where there is a liturgy where they will recite creeds with no emotion at all behind it.
08:59-09:04
This is true, this is true, this is true, this is true, this is true.
09:07-09:08
Truth without spirit.
09:09-09:14
And you can go to other churches and you can find spirit without truth, right?
09:14-09:18
You can find people doing all kinds of bizarre things in churches.
09:18-09:23
They're babbling and they're barking and they're falling over.
09:23-09:29
and it's a lot of spirit, but there's no truth in their worship.
09:32-09:38
See, last week, Pastor Rich gave the message all in on truth, right?
09:38-09:43
And we learned you don't just worship God any old way you feel like it.
09:46-09:49
It has to be according to his truth.
09:50-09:52
Today, I'm gonna look at the other side of that.
09:52-09:56
all in on truth, yes, but today, all in on spirit.
09:56-10:03
And church, listen, we are equally dishonoring God when our hearts are not in worship.
10:07-10:09
So write this down at the top of your outline.
10:11-10:12
Emotion is expected.
10:13-10:14
Just write that down.
10:16-10:18
Emotion is expected.
10:21-10:30
For example, Psalm 138 verse one, I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart.
10:32-10:33
That's emotion.
10:34-10:40
Psalm 45 verse one says, my heart overflows with a pleasing theme.
10:40-10:43
That's where the emotion comes from, the heart.
10:43-10:50
My heart is so full of the goodness and love and gratitude towards God.
10:50-10:54
It's just overflowing that spirit.
10:57-11:03
And how about probably the most famous verse in the Old Testament to the Jews?
11:04-11:16
Deuteronomy 6, 5 says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." And do you know what that includes?
11:18-11:19
Your emotions.
11:20-11:22
That's why we worship in music.
11:23-11:29
Music allows us to love God with our emotions.
11:32-11:43
And there is no one better to learn from when it comes to worship than the man who wrote so many of the Psalms, King David.
11:45-11:53
Last week, Pastor Rich talked about David wanting to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.
11:53-11:54
Remember that?
11:54-11:56
If you didn't listen to the sermon, you need to get on the website.
11:56-11:59
Not now, later, but you need to catch up.
11:59-12:07
David wanted to bring the Ark to Jerusalem and they made a previous attempt and they decided to do it.
12:08-12:11
They were going to move the Ark like the pagans.
12:11-12:13
It was supposed to be carried on poles.
12:14-12:15
Hi.
12:16-12:18
But they're like, no, we'll put it on a new cart.
12:19-12:20
A new cart.
12:21-12:23
What do I gotta do to get you in this new cart today?
12:24-12:26
We're gonna take the ark in a new cart.
12:27-12:36
I remember one of the oxen stumbled and Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark and God dropped him dead.
12:39-12:48
All right, so David was like, Yeah, let's just part the ark here and back away.
12:50-12:57
And it was left at the house of a man named Obed-Edom for three months.
12:58-13:03
Now look at 2 Samuel 6, picking up in verse 12.
13:06-13:17
And it was told King David, the Lord has blessed the household of Obed -Edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God.
13:18-13:25
So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing.
13:27-13:34
And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal.
13:35-13:40
And David danced before the Lord with all his might.
13:42-13:44
And David was wearing a linen ephod.
13:45-13:47
So David and all the house of Israel brought up.
13:48-13:52
The ark of the Lord was shouting and with the sound of the horn.
13:55-14:09
As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord.
14:10-14:12
and she despised him in her heart.
14:15-14:24
And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it.
14:26-14:29
And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
14:30-14:52
And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, a cake of raisins to each one.
14:54-15:09
Then all the people departed, each to his house." Do you see in these verses, David worshiping in spirit?
15:10-15:10
Did you see that?
15:11-15:21
Verse 14 says that David danced before the Lord with all his might.
15:26-15:30
Tried to figure out what this actually might've looked like.
15:31-15:51
And some Hebrew scholars say this dance could be translated as, I thought this was funny, a violent effort of leaping or springing round in half circles to music.
15:54-15:58
Is there someone who would like to come and demonstrate what you think that might've looked like?
16:03-16:05
Well, I don't have my dancing shoes on.
16:10-16:14
I've so often wondered what that must have looked like.
16:15-16:33
I mean, you could imagine it wasn't just some half effort, like, "Oh, we got the Ark up here, yay!" I mean, it was like, it was raw emotion coming out.
16:37-16:42
I mean, have you ever been so overjoyed about something that you just can't hold it in?
16:42-16:43
Has that ever happened to you?
16:44-16:45
Of course it has.
16:45-16:46
It's happened to everybody.
16:47-16:48
I mean, think about it.
16:48-16:57
Do you ever, like, you didn't study that hard, but you still got that good grade you get the test back.
16:57-16:58
(mumbling)
16:58-16:59
It just comes out.
17:02-17:02
You know what I mean?
17:05-17:11
Or you get the memo from work, like, "Hey, you're getting that promotion.
17:12-17:18
"You're getting a raise," and you're like, "I got the raise, I got it, I got it, yeah!" Like, it just comes out.
17:19-17:20
You just can't hold it in.
17:20-17:21
You know what I'm talking about.
17:22-17:25
Or you go to your kid's soccer game,
17:25-17:26
(mumbling)
17:26-17:28
their hockey game and they get their first goal.
17:29-17:33
You're just like, whoa, you're like, you know what it is?
17:38-17:40
It's involuntary, right?
17:41-17:44
It's uninhibited and you didn't rehearse it.
17:44-17:49
You weren't like, well, if my kid gets a goal today, this is the dance step I'm going to do.
17:50-17:51
Like you didn't rehearse it.
17:55-17:56
You can't contain it.
18:00-18:02
When was the last time you felt that about the Lord?
18:05-18:17
Right now somebody's like, "Oh, oh, oh, Pastor Jeff, this sounds like you're getting a little too charismatic for my taste." Really?
18:20-18:27
In our culture, Specifically this church, we're pretty secure on the truth part.
18:28-18:31
I mean, Harvest Bible Chapel, Bible is our middle name.
18:32-18:32
Right?
18:33-18:36
We get the truth part here.
18:37-18:39
But church, we need the spirit part.
18:43-18:51
I mean, a church like ours, we would acknowledge that making it all about emotion is a problem, right?
18:53-18:55
You see videos online of churches that do that.
18:55-18:58
We kind of laugh at them, right?
18:59-19:02
Can we acknowledge an equal danger?
19:05-19:08
A danger that we are far more guilty of.
19:10-19:13
And that's just being emotionally detached in worship.
19:17-19:26
Well, church, there should be times during worship when you think of God's love for you and your heart just overflows with joy.
19:27-19:28
God loves me?
19:29-19:38
There should be times when you think of Jesus' death on the cross and your eyes well up with tears.
19:39-19:43
He went through that for my sin.
19:44-19:52
There should be times when you think of God's awesomeness and you just bow your head in reverence.
19:52-20:04
Say, "God is so awesome." Maybe there should be times that you dance, right?
20:06-20:15
For that to happen, you have to be just as serious about allowing your heart to be in it as you are about making sure that the words that you sing are biblical.
20:15-20:20
And by heart in it, I mean all in on Spirit.
20:22-20:25
I mean, we saw in the passage, we read David was.
20:26-20:29
David was all in on Spirit, right?
20:30-20:33
He danced with all his might, verse 14.
20:34-20:37
Verse 16 says he was leaping and dancing.
20:37-20:41
And you're like, well, what made him do that?
20:43-20:46
What made David act like that?
20:50-21:00
Well, we get our answer in his exchange with his wife, Macau.
21:01-21:03
I can't call her Michael, okay?
21:04-21:04
It's Macau.
21:09-21:13
Verse 16 says that his wife saw him dancing.
21:15-21:19
You see that your Bible says she despised him in her heart.
21:22-21:26
I don't think that was because David was a bad dancer.
21:28-21:34
Right, I don't think like David was out there doing the Macarena and she's like, oh, oh, I hate him.
21:35-21:37
He's doing the Macarena, oh, I hate him.
21:40-21:42
I don't think that's it at all.
21:45-21:46
Look at verse 20.
21:50-21:52
David returned to bless his household.
21:55-22:13
But Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his female servants as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself.
22:19-22:20
Honey, I'm home.
22:21-22:22
And she scolded him.
22:23-22:24
You see that?
22:25-22:26
She's like, what are you doing?
22:27-22:32
You're the king of Israel and you're out there acting like an idiot.
22:36-22:43
By the way, David wasn't dressed immodestly in case you're wondering if that was the issue.
22:43-22:45
It's not, that's not the issue.
22:46-22:56
The issue was David was dressed down like a priest, not dressed up like a king.
22:58-23:07
This might make Macau the first person in the history of congregational worship to criticize someone for the way that they're dressed.
23:10-23:18
But you know, Macau, she's in churches everywhere.
23:21-23:25
I think Macau also attends Harvest Bible Chapel.
23:29-23:31
You might be Macau, actually.
23:33-23:44
I mean, while worship is happening, Macau is a spectator, not a participant.
23:46-23:49
And she's looking down on those who are passionately worshipping.
23:51-23:51
Is that you?
23:54-23:58
Spectator, not a participant, but looking down on the people who are participating.
23:58-24:01
Is that you? Then you're Macau.
24:02-24:11
Is that you? Worship is happening and you're kind of standing there and you're like... Look at him over there raising his hands.
24:15-24:20
Look at her. Look at her. They're crying while she's singing.
24:20-24:31
grow up. Like, I can't believe how loud this guy is behind me. He's singing so loud.
24:31-24:36
Oh, you're Macau, okay? That's who you are.
24:38-25:30
You're like, well I'm not Macau. Okay, well maybe, maybe, maybe you're not Macau, but maybe you're somebody who instead reigns your worship in because you don't want Macau criticizing you. Maybe you're somebody's like, "Oh, I kind of am excited about Jesus and everything he is and everything he's done, but I don't want to like really show it because what's so-and-so gonna think? I mean what do people see me like with my hands raised? What are they gonna think about me? What if they see me expressing emotion? What are they gonna think about me? Who cares what Macau thinks. Well, David didn't and he tells her why. Giving us on your outline, once you write this down, three reasons I'm all in on spirit in worship.
25:31-25:40
This was David's attitude in Harvest Bible Chapel. I am sincerely hoping and praying, this is our attitude as well.
25:41-25:46
Three reasons I'm all in on spirit in worship.
25:46-25:50
Number one, my worship is for the Lord.
25:52-25:53
Look at verse 21.
25:54-26:05
Okay, so Michal just scolds David like, "Oh, look at you, your highness, acting like a fool." Look at David's response.
26:05-26:10
It says, "And David said to Michal, "It was before the Lord." Stop right there.
26:12-26:15
Let's not run past that phrase because that's really it, right?
26:15-26:31
David goes, "It was before the Lord." David says, "You didn't like my dancing." Oh, that's okay 'cause it wasn't for you.
26:34-26:35
It was for the Lord.
26:40-26:43
This is a no-brainer point, right?
26:44-26:48
But I also think this is the point that most people forget when it comes time to corporate worship.
26:49-26:54
When it comes time to worship the Lord of Music, I think this is the thing that most people forget.
26:54-26:56
It is for the Lord.
26:57-27:08
You see the words on the screen, the instruments, the worship leaders, my participation in a all of this. Who is this for anyways?
27:13-27:15
You see, we're not just singing about God.
27:16-27:21
We are here to sing to God.
27:24-27:28
And if you struggle with that, you know something that I do?
27:29-27:35
I imagine myself in the scene in Revelation chapters four and five.
27:35-27:43
I want you to read this later, maybe make a steady diet of reading it, but it's describing the worship that's happening in heaven.
27:43-27:57
And there are times during our music worship that I just try to imagine, because someday, someday I'm going to be there and I'm going to stand before the throne and I'm going to worship God in person.
28:01-28:02
And I think, you know what?
28:03-28:04
That's what this is now.
28:04-28:08
I'm not in heaven yet, but I'm still in the presence of God.
28:08-28:14
So I should be worshiping now the way I plan to worship then, there.
28:18-28:27
Surrounded by God's people, surrounded by God's angels, telling God how awesome he is, thanking God, praising God.
28:30-28:33
It's for, this is for the Lord, okay?
28:34-28:35
So all in on spirit.
28:36-28:37
It's for the Lord.
28:39-28:43
So that's David's first rebuttal to his wife.
28:43-28:53
He said, "My worship is for the Lord." Number two, write this down, "My worship is personal." Look again at verse 21.
28:53-29:07
David says, "It was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me as Prince over Israel, the people of the Lord.
29:12-29:18
And I will make myself, excuse me, I will make Mary before the Lord.
29:22-29:24
My worship is personal, did you see that?
29:24-29:29
David's like, Yeah, am I excited?
29:30-29:31
Yeah, I'm excited.
29:32-29:36
God promoted me, God appointed me, God has blessed me.
29:37-29:41
David's like, I'm just celebrating what God has done for me.
29:44-29:49
I have personal reasons to worship the Lord, Macau.
29:52-30:16
And listen, you are never gonna get there in on spirit, you're never going to get there until you take your worship from general to personal. We have way more reasons to worship the Lord than even King David did.
30:17-30:18
Do you realize that?
30:19-30:50
Just by where we live in history. We live on the other side of the cross of Jesus Christ. We live on the other side of the empty tomb. We live on the other side of hearing all of these glorious promises that Jesus spoke. David had none of that that we have in the New Testament under the New Covenant. We have way more reason than David to worship. But church, you've You've got to get from general to personal.
30:52-30:54
Your heart's never going to be in it until you do.
30:56-31:01
What I mean is you need to go from, Jesus died on the cross.
31:02-31:02
Yes, he did.
31:02-31:03
That's true.
31:03-31:09
He died on the cross, but you need to take that to, Jesus died on the cross for me.
31:12-31:14
He suffered and died for me.
31:18-31:26
General to personal, how about we sing, "Jesus forgives sins." That's true.
31:27-31:32
That was what the whole ordeal on the cross was about, the forgiveness of sins.
31:32-31:45
You need to move from "Jesus forgives sins" to "Jesus forgave my sin." "He forgave my sin." I'm such a dirtball and I don't deserve anything.
31:46-31:48
He forgave my sin.
31:53-31:56
We sing these songs about God's love.
31:56-31:59
Jesus loves his people and that's a true statement.
32:00-32:01
But you know what?
32:01-32:02
You go from general to personal.
32:03-32:09
If you are one of his people, then it goes not just Jesus loves people to Jesus.
32:09-32:10
Jesus loves me.
32:14-32:16
We sing about God's provision.
32:18-32:19
God is a provider.
32:19-32:21
God takes care of His people.
32:21-32:22
Yes, that's true.
32:24-32:25
Want to get your heart in it?
32:27-32:27
You've got to make it personal.
32:27-32:29
He's taken care of me.
32:30-32:33
God has always taken care of me.
32:38-32:39
You're gonna go from general to personal.
32:40-32:48
And I'm sure right now there's people sitting here, there's people watching this stream that are like, yeah, I hear that.
32:48-32:50
I hear that pastor Jeff, but I'm gonna be honest with you.
32:52-32:58
I'm not feeling it right now because I'm going through some stuff, right?
32:59-33:00
I hear you, I hear you.
33:00-33:01
I know my heart should be in it.
33:01-33:06
It's hard for my heart to be in it right now, Jeff, because I'm going through some stuff, all right?
33:06-33:17
I'm in a season in my life right now where I've been suffering with, maybe it's a health issue or the health issue of someone close to you or a job issue or whatever it is.
33:19-33:20
You're like, I'm just not feeling it.
33:20-33:24
I'm going through some stuff, man.
33:25-33:34
Listen, going through suffering is not an excuse to stop worshiping.
33:36-33:38
Let me give you a couple of examples.
33:40-33:52
2 Samuel 12 20 says, "Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes.
33:55-34:02
And he went into the house of the Lord and," say it, "worshipped." Yeah.
34:03-34:03
All right.
34:04-34:06
Now let's jump to Job 1.20.
34:08-34:22
It says, "Then Job arose and tore his robe "and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped." You know what those two passages have in common?
34:24-34:29
You're like, "Oh, I know, they both worshiped." Yes, but they have something else in common.
34:31-34:40
You know, in both of those passages, Both of these men worshiped after receiving the news that their child died.
34:45-34:52
In both cases, these men heard about their child's death and responded by worshiping.
34:57-35:01
Hear me, worship is emotion.
35:01-35:07
Yes, yes, yes, yes, but it's not just one emotion.
35:11-35:12
It's not just happiness.
35:14-35:22
In other words, we think worship has to flow from happiness.
35:22-35:24
It has to flow from joy.
35:24-35:29
It should, but it shouldn't only.
35:32-35:40
If you think worship can only come from a position of happiness, that is unbiblical and an immature view of worship.
35:43-35:50
Because worship is the joy of the Lord that transcends whatever is happening to me right now.
35:52-35:57
So listen, gosh, this could be a whole sermon series, but I gotta say this.
35:59-36:06
For those of you maybe who are suffering right now, and it's hard to feel it right now, you're like, what do I do?
36:06-36:07
What do I do?
36:07-36:13
I come in here and I'm supposed to have my emotion and worship when I'm going through this stuff.
36:13-36:14
How do I do that?
36:21-36:21
Here's how.
36:23-36:29
When you're suffering now, you need to lean on the past and the future.
36:33-36:36
I mean, have you ever read the Psalms?
36:39-36:46
There are so many Psalms that have this theme.
36:48-36:52
I'm suffering now, but I'm praising now.
36:53-36:54
Do you ever notice that?
36:55-36:58
I'm suffering, but I'm praising.
37:00-37:04
And if you study those Psalms, do you see why they're praising?
37:09-37:10
It's always the same thing.
37:12-37:20
I'm praising because of what you did for me in the past, Lord, and I'm praising you because of your promise of what you will do in the future.
37:23-37:27
Look, your present circumstances are always going to change.
37:30-37:32
But there are two things that will never change.
37:34-37:36
One is God's past goodness to you.
37:38-37:52
Even if you're having the worst day of your life right now, you can come in here and when the music hits, you can think of all that God has done for you to protect you and to provide you and to bring you to this place right now.
37:53-37:54
Thank you, God, for that.
37:56-37:57
I praise you for that.
38:02-38:07
And God, you have promised a glorious future for those who believe in Jesus Christ.
38:08-38:11
You have promised us that our best days are ahead of us.
38:11-38:17
You have promised us all the glory of your presence in eternity in heaven.
38:17-38:19
And God, I'm praising you for that.
38:19-38:27
I'm praising you that things will not always be as they are now, but they will be infinitely greater in glory.
38:30-38:41
So you see, whether it's past, future, either of those, let alone both of those, move me to be all in on spirit and worship.
38:43-38:44
Make it personal.
38:47-38:51
And finally, number three, my worship is a choice.
38:56-38:57
Why am I all in on spirit and worship?
38:58-38:59
Because my worship is a choice.
39:02-39:03
Look at verse 22.
39:05-39:13
David says, "I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes.
39:15-39:29
"But by the female servants of whom ye have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor." And Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death.
39:32-39:34
There's a phrase David used.
39:35-39:36
Oh, I think I counted three times.
39:37-39:38
He says it in verse 21.
39:39-39:55
"I will make Mary before the Lord." Verse 22, "I will," make myself yet more contemptible, "Again, I will be a base in your eyes." You see that?
39:56-39:58
David didn't say, "I might.
40:02-40:04
I'm thinking about getting my worship on.
40:09-40:11
Probably, likely." No, he says, "I will.
40:13-40:20
I will." When it comes to worshiping God with everything that's in me and dancing like that, that's what I'm going to do.
40:21-40:26
You're telling me, "Hey, why don't you turn it down?" I'm turning it up.
40:29-40:30
The choice is made.
40:31-40:31
Right?
40:31-40:37
Psalm 146 verse 2, "I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
40:37-40:48
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being." Sometimes, especially in the times of not feeling it, the declaration has to be made.
40:49-41:06
"I will." When you walk in the doors, you should see this time, congregation coming together, you should see this time as a reset.
41:10-41:19
That when you walk in here, my focus, my shift, my whole mindset is moving from the temporal to the eternal.
41:22-41:24
I refuse to hold back, I refuse to phone it in.
41:29-41:31
I choose to be all in on Spirit and worship.
41:38-41:52
You know, when you talk about worship, a lot of times people say, like skeptics, scoffers, say, "Why does God need worship?" Have you ever heard somebody say that?
41:53-42:06
Like, "Sounds like a bit of an ego trip, huh?" "God wants us to tell Him how great He is? What kind of a God is that?" "Why does God need our worship?" Have you ever heard somebody say that?
42:09-42:12
First of all, God doesn't need anything.
42:13-42:20
You realize He's not more God when we worship, and He's not less God when we hold our worship back.
42:21-42:22
He doesn't need anything.
42:26-42:27
But here's a fair question.
42:29-42:33
Why does God delight in worship?
42:42-42:46
Why does God delight in worship?
42:48-42:53
I read one author put it this way and I can't stop thinking about it ever since I read it.
42:55-42:56
Why does God delight in worship?
42:57-43:04
It's like a child saying to his mother, you are the best mom ever.
43:08-43:09
Mom's in the room.
43:14-43:16
Why do you love hearing that from your kids?
43:21-43:22
It's not an ego trip.
43:25-43:32
Excuse me, when your child says you're the best mom ever, you're not like, yeah, you know what?
43:34-43:35
Kinda am.
43:37-43:38
Moms don't say that.
43:39-43:40
So why do you like hearing it?
43:47-43:48
Here's why this moves mothers.
43:52-44:02
Because when that child says you are the best mom ever, that mother realizes you are acknowledging how much I love you.
44:07-44:11
That means the world to me, that you would acknowledge how much I love you.
44:11-44:13
And it's the same with God, church.
44:13-44:19
God delights in us acknowledging His love for us.
44:24-44:32
God delights in worship the way a mom delights, and you are the best mom ever.
44:34-44:37
As our worship team makes their way up front, I'm going to ask you to bow your heads for a moment.
44:43-44:48
You know, sometimes we do come in late and music is happening.
44:50-44:55
By the time we try to catch up, we've hit the last note.
44:57-44:58
We missed it.
45:01-45:03
We're not going to miss it today, church.
45:06-45:10
We're gonna pause our hearts right now and we're gonna prepare ourselves.
45:12-45:23
I want you right now, and I'm going to do the same, right now, we bow our heads and say, I am making the choice to worship.
45:27-45:28
Well, maybe I've had a rotten week.
45:31-45:32
God's always been so good to me.
45:33-45:35
He's given me glorious promises.
45:35-45:37
I'm making the choice right now.
45:37-45:42
When I, in just a minute, I'm gonna stand up and I am choosing to be all in on spirit.
45:46-45:51
With your heads bowed, can you say right now, you know what, I have personal reasons to worship.
45:53-46:02
I'm not here today to sing about what God has done for Pastor Jeff or what God has done for Bob Brown.
46:02-46:04
I'm not here to sing about that.
46:05-46:09
I'm here because God has been good to me personally.
46:13-46:26
And I'm going to stand and I'm going to sing and I'm going to give everything I have because this, I'm not singing for Ashley.
46:30-46:31
I'm not singing for Kelly.
46:33-46:34
I'm singing for God.
46:35-46:41
This is for Him, so I am all in on Spirit.
46:43-46:51
Now church, let's stand, and this is your opportunity to tell God what you think about Him.

Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Samuel 6:12-23

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your heart for worship (10 = on fire, 1 = dead)? What do you have to personally do to rate higher?
What personal reasons do you have, right now, for worshiping God?
How would you respond to someone saying, “I don’t see why God needs us to worship Him.”?

Breakout
Pray for one another to be ALL IN on SPIRIT during worship time.

Rich Sprunk

December 28, 2025

God Is Seeking Worshipers

All In On Truth

Rich Sprunk

December 28, 2025

God Is Seeking Worshipers

Introduction:

Hebrews 10:24-25

Acts 10:42, 1 Tim 4:1-2

1 Tim 4:13

1 Tim 2:1,8 , Col 4:2

Eph 5:19, Col 3:16

John 4:23-24

All In On Truth (1 Chronicles 13:3-14)

Good intentions and enthusiasm != TRUE WORSHIP.
It is PERILOUS to worship God CARELESSLY .
We worship God WHO IS WITH US.

John 14:16–18

1 Cor 3:16

1 Cor 6:19-20

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

00:43-00:45
Well, good morning, Harvest, and Happy New Year.
00:46-00:50
Open your Bibles, please, to 1 Chronicles, Chapter 13.
00:51-01:03
It'll be in the Old Testament, 1 Chronicles, Chapter 13, and if you want, you can put a little bookmark at Chapter 15 because we're going to be looking there briefly as well.
01:04-01:09
This morning, we're beginning a three-week series on worship.
01:09-01:15
Now there's of course many ways that we worship, prayer, preaching, proclaiming the gospel.
01:15-01:33
I think it's fair to say that for everyone who is a believer in Christ, whatever we do is worship. Everything we do should be for the glory of God. There are right ways and there are wrong ways to worship God. At Harvest, we follow something known as the regulative principle.
01:34-01:44
That simply means that if a type of worship is not permitted in Scripture, we don't do it. We don't get to worship God however we want to.
01:46-02:29
We must worship Him in the way that He commands. And you may wonder, "Why do we do the things we do here in worship every Sunday? What... who makes that up?" Well, it's not made up. We do what God's words what God's Word says to. So you'll notice that every Sunday we meet together, we preach God's Word, we read God's Word, we pray, and we sing. Now, while those are ways in which we are commanded to worship, this three-week series is going to focus particularly on worshiping through music and singing.
02:30-03:26
Our starting point for all three of these messages is John chapter 4 verses 23 and 24. "But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." So we see that from these verses, the right way to worship God is spirit and truth. In two weeks, Pastor Taylor is going to cover why worshiping in spirit and truth through music and song is so important. Next week, Pastor Jeff will take us through what it means to worship in spirit. And then this morning's message is about worshiping God in truth. So here's the point of this week's sermon.
03:27-04:38
The Lord God Almighty delights to be with us, but we must have regard for his holiness and worship him according to his commands. You see, when we worship God that way, when we worship God in truth, it means the words we sing to and about him are true. By singing true words about God, we're able to remember later what is true, and we learn sound doctrine. If you've ever memorized Scripture through singing or you've sung the old hymns that are just chock-full of biblical truth, you know what I mean. When we worship God in truth, the truth fills us with awe. We are moved emotionally, we're moved physically by the truth that we sing. Now at Harvest we don't use, you know, strobe lights, flashing lights, fog machines, loud music, and other tactics to manipulate you into thinking that you're worshiping just because you're experiencing one sensory overload after another. But if what we sing is true, then truth will fill us and flow out of us.
04:39-04:45
When we worship God in truth, we recognize that singing his praises is of of the utmost importance to Him.
04:46-04:48
He's worthy of our praises.
04:49-04:52
He's worthy of all our songs about Him.
04:52-04:54
He commands our praises.
04:55-04:56
He expects it.
04:56-04:59
The book of Psalms is proof of that.
05:00-05:07
We should therefore make every effort to worship Him the right way, because that pleases and glorifies Him.
05:08-05:09
Let's pray.
05:11-05:21
Oh, most gracious God, sovereign of the universe, God most high, you are awesome and mighty, and you are worthy of all praise.
05:22-05:24
You are worthy of all of our attention.
05:24-05:26
You are worthy of every thought.
05:27-05:35
You are worthy of every song we can sing, because Lord, you are holy and you dwell in the praises of your people.
05:37-05:43
I pray this morning that we would overflow in worshipful song, because we know the truth.
05:45-05:54
We know the truth of who Jesus Christ is, and what he has done for us, and that he is in us.
05:54-05:57
And it's in his great name we ask it, amen.
06:02-06:13
Now this morning's passage recounts when David wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant, the ark of God to Jerusalem to be near him.
06:14-06:21
The passage contrasts the wrong way to worship God with the right expression of awe and reverence for God Almighty.
06:23-06:26
Before we dive into this message, I need to give you some background.
06:26-06:29
We need to do a brief history lesson.
06:31-06:39
So you probably all know God chose and called the people of Israel out of Egypt so that he could be with them.
06:40-06:47
And the primary way that he demonstrated his presence with the people of Israel was through a movable tabernacle.
06:48-06:56
That's simply a large tent, and it was surrounded by a big fabric courtyard and poles.
06:57-06:59
But inside the tent, there were two separate places.
07:00-07:13
There was the holy place, and that was furnished with the Ark of Incense and a table in which bread was placed every week, and a lamp, a gold lamp to give light.
07:14-07:21
And then on the eastern side of this tent was basically a cube-shaped area.
07:21-07:23
It was about 15 by 15 by 15.
07:23-07:25
It was a perfect cube.
07:26-07:30
And that was the most holy place, the Holy of Holies.
07:30-07:33
And it contained the Ark of the Covenant.
07:34-10:20
In other places in scripture, it's called the Ark of God, the Ark of Testimony. Now in Exodus 25, God gave some very specific directions for the Ark's construction and its significance. It was a wooden box, it was about 45 inches long, 27 inches high, 27 inches wide, not that big. And then the wood was overlaid with gold and then on top was a solid gold lid. It was all hammered out of one piece of gold and there were two cherubim on the top. So this is just a very simple example of of what it might look like. We can't really speak in detail now about what the Ark looked like, but we have the description in Scripture. Now this lid with the cherubim was also called the mercy seat and it was significant for several reasons. One, the Lord was said to be enthroned above the cherubim. And two, the Lord spoke to Moses from between the cherubim. And then a third reason is on the annual day of atonement, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and he would sprinkle blood on the lid to atone for the people's sins. It's in this way that the Lord tabernacled or dwelled between the two cherubim on the lid of the ark. In this way, the Lord was present with his people. And the people knew God was with them because in the daytime there was a pillar of cloud over the tabernacle and at night it became a pillar of fire. And whenever that pillar moved up and forward, it was safe for the Levites, the priests, to go in, pack up the ark, pack up the tabernacle, and move it to wherever God was leading them. He took them wherever he wanted them to go. Now specific instructions about how the Ark was to be moved and by whom. Only the Levites, and of the Levites a clan called the Kohathites, were allowed to carry the holy things, including the Ark. Now this Ark was meant to be portable. It was carried on poles, passed through gold rings, that those rings were attached to the feet of the ark and in that way the ark was lifted up over the priests heads when they carried it so all the people could see the ark was with them. Now these poles were never supposed to be removed from the ark and before the ark was moved it was supposed to be hidden. They put a big goat skin over it and then they covered it with a blue cloth and then that's they would pick it up and and they would move it.
10:21-10:28
Now let's move ahead in time about 400 years to the end of the period of the judges in 1 Samuel.
10:30-10:31
At that time, there was a man named Eli.
10:32-10:33
He was the high priest.
10:35-10:41
And during this time, the Israelites fought a battle against their arch enemies, the Philistines, and they were defeated.
10:42-10:45
The Philistines walloped the Israelites.
10:46-10:47
And they're like, oh, what are we gonna do?
10:47-10:48
What are we gonna do?
10:48-11:43
know, let's go bring the Ark of the Testimony to us. Let's bring it into the camp with us, thinking this will bring us victory. And they were instead defeated in a very great slaughter. And Eli's two sons, they were killed and the Ark was captured by the Philistines and taken away. When Eli heard his sons were dead and the ark was captured, he fell backwards over on his chair and broke his neck and he died. This had to be a terribly bleak time for Israel. Their God, their God was captured. They had no priests, they had no prophets, and as yet they had no king. Their whole identity as a people has been overthrown in a day.
11:45-15:37
Now the Philistines they took the Ark to the city of Ashdod and they put it in the temple of their God named Dagon and the statue of Dagon fell face down in front of the Ark. So they picked him back up and set him up again. They come in the next day and this time the God Dagon has fallen over again but this time his head is busted off and his hands are broken off and something else happens. The Lord begins terrifying the people of Ashdod with plague and tumors and death. So the Philistines in Ashdod, they take the ark to Gath, another Philistine city, and the people there also suffered from plague and tumors and death. So they pick it up and they move it again to the city of Ekron and guess what happens? The people there experience plague, sickness, death, and they're like, "Okay, enough of this." Enough of this, they decide to return the ark to Israel after seven months of being afflicted by God. So the Philistines, they're like, "What do we do with this?" They put the ark on a brand new cart and they hitch it to two milking cows. And the cows, instead of trying to go back to be with their calves, their babies, they instead they go straight up to a place in Israel called Beth Shemesh. The Israelites at Beth Shemesh, they rejoiced to see the ark returned. But when some of the men of Beth Shemesh apparently looked into the ark, the Lord struck down 70 of them. So the people of Beth Shemesh asked the people in another town called Kiriath-Jerim, "Come and get the ark from us," which they did. So the men of Kiriath-Jerim brought the ark to the house of a man named Abinadab. They consecrated his son Eleazar to oversee and the Ark remained there, the Bible says, for some 20 years. Now after David becomes king, you know this is a period of time Saul was king, he is dead, Jonathan is dead, David has become king, he is now established in Jerusalem as his capital, and David's got this idea he wants to bring the Ark of God from Kiriath-Jerim to Jerusalem. So David gets all the commanders, all the priests, and the Levites together to get their concurrence with his idea. And now we pick up at our account in Chronicles chapter 13. "Then let us bring again the ark of our God to us," David says, "for we did not seek it in the days of Saul. All of all the people. So David assembled all Israel from the Nile of Egypt to Lebohemoth to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jerim. And David and all Israel went up to Bala, that is Kiriath-jerim, that belongs to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God which is called by the name of the Lord who sits enthroned above the cherubim. And they carried the ark of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzzah and Ahio were driving the cart, and David and all Israel were celebrating before God with all their might, with song and lyres and harps and tambourines and cymbals and trumpets." So this is quite a procession, quite a big celebration.
15:40-15:47
It brings us to our first point. Good intentions and enthusiasm don't equal true worship.
15:49-16:20
There are some huge red flags in this account. As king, actually David's a prince really because the Lord is still the true king. I know the Bible calls David King David. He's really a prince of the true king, but as King David wants God's presence near him. The Lord has established David in Jerusalem over Israel, and to have the Ark of the Covenant nearby would really cement the relationship between God and the house of David.
16:22-16:26
It was a shrewd religious and political move on David's part.
16:28-16:34
But notice in this account, David doesn't seek God's counsel about moving the ark.
16:35-17:41
David knew what he wanted, and he apparently expected God to bless this plan. It's a good thing, right? Bring the ark up to Jerusalem? I mean, after all, God had blessed David up to this point. So David just gathers counselors around him to agree with him, and they go off and they do just whatever it is they want to do. And you notice the phrase, "the thing was right in the eyes of all the people." If you're familiar with the book of Judges, you know there's flashing red lights and and warning sirens going off all over the place. The leaders of Israel may have all agreed, but if something is wrong, widespread agreement doesn't make it right. Not one of the priests or Levites seem to have suggested consulting the Lord or the Law of Moses before doing this thing. And then to move the Ark, what do they do? They put it on a cart. "Oh, but it was a new cart," you say. "Well, let's should please the Lord, right?
17:41-18:44
Look, Lord, Lord, Lord, look at this fancy set of wheels we got for you. Aren't you impressed finest cedar from Lebanon the problem is they're copying the Philistines rather than consulting God or the law of Moses so they got the large all loaded up they got a big procession almost 30,000 people can you imagine 30,000 people that's 12,000 more people than fit in PPG paints arena just just for perspective. 30,000 people with David and they're celebrating with all their might, they're singing and praising with lots of instruments, the lyres, the harps, castanets, cymbals, trumpets, they have every intention of worshiping the Lord and they're super enthused and this is just all quite a spectacle. It looks impressive, it sounds good, but they're more interested in putting on a show than worshiping God.
18:44-19:07
It was more about their worship experience. It was more about what David wanted than worshiping the Lord. It was more about what they perceived God would approve without confirming than it was about worshiping God as he commanded. And that's the core problem here. They're not worshiping the Lord the way he commanded.
19:08-19:33
They're not worshiping in truth. They don't even seem to have the slightest interest in truth. Where? Where was the counsel of the high priest and the Levites? Where was prayer in the simple request, "Lord, what do you want?" Where are the Kohathites and the Poles to carry the ark above the heads of the people?
19:33-20:41
Where is the reverence and the awe due to the Lord? Now, you can manufacture enthusiasm while singing. You know, that's why so many churches, they use the lights and the fog and the beautiful moving images and the sonic walls of ear-popping sounds and drums and squealing singers gesturing wildly. It looks worshipy, it sounds worshipy, it probably even feels worshipy. Therefore, I must be worshipping God. Have you ever heard people say, "Oh, worship today was great. I had a great worship experience." Have you ever said that? What was it that made it the worship great? The sonic boom or the truth of God? Did you sing songs about yourself or songs that praise God's character, mercy, grace, and love? Were you pleased with yourself or did you please your God by worshiping him in truth? Now some of you hearing this are probably congratulating yourself right now. That's right, Sprunk.
20:41-20:52
That's right. I agree with everything you've said. All that exuberance, it's all fake. It's all performance. I just don't see what all the fuss is about. Why?
20:52-20:57
That's why when there's singing going on, I just, I keep my cool. I keep my reserve.
20:58-22:14
Well good, if you're thinking along those lines, that's good because this next point is just for you. Because just as good intentions and enthusiasm don't equal true worship, it is perilous to worship God carelessly. Look at verse 9, "And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put out his hand to take hold of the ark, for the oxen stumbled, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah and he struck him down because he put his hand to the ark and he died there before God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah, and that place is called Peraz-Uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of God that day, and he said, "How can I bring the ark of God home to me?" So David did not take the ark home into the city of David, but took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. And the ark of God remained with the household of Obed-Edom and his house three months. And the Lord blessed the household of Obed-Edom and all that he had." We may be shocked that God struck down Uzzah for touching the ark.
22:15-22:21
I mean, can you imagine this procession of 30,000 people and boom, Uzzah's dead.
22:23-22:26
Well, that would take the wind out of the celebration, wouldn't it?
22:27-22:41
Try to think what that might have looked like. Well, if you were in Butler on July 20, July 18, 2024, and there was an assassination attempt, you probably know what it felt like.
22:42-22:47
If you saw Charlie Kirk murdered, that's what it was like.
22:51-22:55
But God struck us a down and but you may think well, what's the big deal?
22:57-22:58
Why did he do that?
22:59-25:18
They were worshiping Well, we've seen there were multiple things wrong with the way david and the israelites treated the ark of god Number one they copied the philistines. They're worshiping like pagans And pagans don't know the truth They treated the holy lord god most high the holy lord of israel shabbily they treated God like baggage in a wooden cart. They were careless and unconcerned whether their worship obeyed the truth or expressed the truth. And we know Israel had a history of careless, half-hearted worship. We saw that in the book of Judges, the people, after they were settled in the land, they became idolatrous and careless in their worship. They served other gods and they treated the ark as if it was some sort of good luck charm, a lucky rabbit's foot. They had no qualms about taking the ark from the Holy of Holies and carrying it around wherever they liked. "Take it down to the battle," they said. "God will fight for us," they said. "You got another thing coming," God said. And everything was lost because of their insolence. The Philistines, they thought they had completely defeated the Israelites. "We've captured Israel's God," they said. "We'll put him in the temple of our God Dagon and he'll worship our God," they said. "You've got another thing coming," God said. For their insolence, God busted up Dagon and afflicted the Philistines with sickness and death until they sent the ark back Israelite territory. And after the Ark returned to Israel's territory, the people of Beth Shemesh wanted to get a look at the most holy thing in the nation. They treated the Ark like a curiosity, as something that they were consecrated and qualified to look at. "Oh, God has returned to us," they said. "Let's "You've got another thing coming," God said.
25:19-25:23
And 70 men of Beth Shemesh were struck down for their insolence.
25:25-25:34
And then 20 years after the ark was moved to Kiriath-Jerim, David proposes to bring the ark to Jerusalem. "God's established me as king over Israel," he said.
25:37-25:44
"It's right in our own eyes to bring the ark to Jerusalem," they said. "Let's put it on a new cart like the Philistines did," they said.
25:44-25:49
"Let's worship and celebrate with all our might and loud instruments," they said.
25:51-26:35
"You got another thing coming," God said. And Uzzah was struck down for the people's insolence. You see, David and the priests and the Israelites treated God with contempt, and God said, "Enough!" And David was rightly afraid of God, but know he was also angry, but it was a self-pitying anger. David was angry because he didn't get his way. He was angry like Cain when God rejected Cain's act of self-centered worship. Angry like someone who knows he hasn't done his best, he hasn't done something right, but he wants approval anyway. But God is not mocked.
26:35-27:10
God was not going to allow David and the priests to disobey his commands and still claim that they were Worshiping him properly We should see that it is perilous to worship God carelessly David had to learn and although the text doesn't say perhaps he repented of his irreverent worship He was after all a man after God's own heart And when he heard that Obed-Edom was blessed by God, he realized it was possible to bring the ark to Jerusalem, but he had to do it the right way.
27:11-27:14
So turn ahead to 1 Chronicles chapter 15.
27:15-27:17
We're going to look at verses 11 through 15.
27:20-30:29
Then David summoned the priests, Zadok and Abiathar, and the Levites, Uriel, Esaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Abinadab, and said to them, "You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites. Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it, because you did not carry it the first time the Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not seek him according to the rule. So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, and the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. This time David does it the right way. The priests consecrate themselves. They prepare through sacrifice and washing and abstaining from anything that would make them ritually unclean. Each one got himself ready for worship. They follow the Lord's command when they carry the ark. They lift up the ark and they revere the Lord as holy in the sight of all the people. In short, they now worship according to the word of the Lord. And the Lord showed he he was pleased with their reverence by allowing David to finally bring the ark to Jerusalem. Likewise, when we worship the Lord in truth and according to his command, he is pleased. All right, so you've been listening intently to all of this, you've been maybe taking some notes, you understand good intentions and enthusiasm don't necessarily equal true worship. You recognize it's perilous to worship God carelessly. You may even be persuaded that you need to worship the Lord in truth. But how? How do we do this and what does that even look like? Well, we worship in truth when we worship God who is with us. When I was preparing this sermon, I recalled seeing a series of memes a few years ago that contrasted an event or thing that was brutal with another thing or event that was epic. So I asked some folks familiar with cutting-edge technology, cutting-edge social media, you know, like MySpace and Vine and Friendster, "Did you guys remember those memes?" And they're like, "No, we don't remember that at all." And I'm like, "Wow, aren't you people on Parler?" Well, anyway, anyway, I know, I know I did not imagine those memes that juxtaposed brutal and epic themes. Now, have you, have you ever encountered a brutal or brute fact that has set or altered your plans? Perhaps altered the trajectory of your life.
30:30-30:33
You know, brute facts are hard, unalterable truths.
30:34-30:38
An incurable illness, being laid off, a debilitating injury.
30:40-30:45
Now, not all brute facts are so dramatic, but we have to reckon with them.
30:45-30:47
We must adapt and come to terms with them.
30:49-30:53
When I was in 10th grade, I had the ambition to row in college.
30:55-30:59
And one day, the University of Washington's head coach visited our school.
31:00-31:06
And the University of Washington has one of the premier rowing programs, collegiate programs, in the country.
31:07-31:15
And their head coach came to our school after our men's heavyweight four won the American Schoolboy Championship.
31:16-31:20
Now, I wasn't in that boat, but I was pretty excited about this coach's visit.
31:21-31:25
And I was standing in the hallway, and he shook my hand.
31:26-31:26
Nice to meet you.
31:29-31:37
And the brute fact was brought home to me that his interest was in oarsmen who were 5 foot 10 and taller.
31:39-31:45
I had to face the brute fact that I was too short to row for any college program.
31:47-31:47
I still am.
31:50-31:56
Now that might seem like a silly example, but our lives are filled with inalterable facts.
31:57-31:59
They are the truths we must face.
31:59-32:03
Our intellectual and physical characteristics can only be changed so much.
32:04-32:11
Some of our earlier poor choices in life may have had consequences for the rest of our life.
32:12-32:18
Choices or decisions made by others may affect our careers, our health, our relationships.
32:19-32:26
All of us must face a variety of inconsequential to life-altering brutal facts.
32:27-32:53
But there is one glorious fact so enormous in its scope, so epic in its immeasurable proportions, that all the brute facts of our lives pale in comparison. There is an epic truth that ought to completely transform how we think, how we live, and yes, how we worship.
32:54-33:01
It is quite simply this. If you have trusted Jesus Christ for salvation, He abides in you.
33:02-33:36
Christ in you is your hope of glory. It's very simple. I repent, I believe in Jesus, and now I possess Jesus." Now recall from the introduction to this message that when God wanted to dwell with his chosen people, he did so through the Ark of the Covenant. That simple box containing two tablets of the law and placed in the most holy place was how God chose to tabernacle with and dwell with and be with his people.
33:39-34:39
John chapter 1 verse 14 tells us, "The word became flesh and dwelt among us." The word translated "dwelt" there is literally "tabernacled." Jesus tabernacled among us. Jesus was the most holy place, the holy of holies in the flesh walking among his people. The world's religious systems have nothing like this. We understand God is absolute power but yet he's personal. Islam has an absolute God in Allah but he is in no way personal to his people. Zeus and the variety of Greek and Roman gods, they were personal, they looked very human, but not a single one of them had absolute power.
34:42-35:50
Christianity is unique in the fact that the absolute sovereign of the universe humbly dwells with us in a personal way. There is no other religion, no other system that compares with, comes close to, the way of Christ. Now you might say, "Well, he's not tabernacling or dwelling with us now, is he?" I mean, even the most ardent followers of Christ can get a bit muddled in their thinking about Jesus' present location. I mean, I thought he ascended to heaven, he's at the right hand of God the Father. Well, he did. He is there. But if you stop there, you may tend to think that Jesus is far away from us. You might think he's like, well, he's like a regional supervisor in a big corporation. He's given us a list of commands to follow, we got to check off our list and make sure we're good.
35:52-36:16
And you know he checks in occasionally to see how we're doing and you know he approves or critiques our performance. We have weekly meetings, right, every Sunday we have weekly meetings, we get a message from headquarters, we have a musical pep rally, and then we get on with our week. Well if you think in any way like that You are mistaken.
36:18-36:21
Jesus is not limited by time or space or location.
36:23-36:32
When you think that way about worshiping Jesus, you neglect this great truth from John chapter 14, verses 16 through 18.
36:34-36:42
Jesus told his disciples, "I will ask the Father, "and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.
36:43-36:49
"Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.
36:50-37:12
You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." So where is Jesus? Yes, at the right hand of the Father, and present in everyone who believes in him through the Holy Spirit.
37:13-37:16
1 Corinthians reinforces this truth.
37:17-37:21
Look at verse 16 in chapter three.
37:21-37:27
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?
37:28-37:30
And then chapter six, verses 19 and 20.
37:31-37:37
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
37:38-37:39
You are not your own.
37:39-38:13
you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body." The Greek word translated as temple in these verses is naos, N-A-O-S, naos, and it refers to the most holy place, the holy of holies, where the ark was kept. You see, beloved, we are living, breathing, portable tabernacles, holy places in whom Christ abides. And the law is now written on our hearts instead of stone tablets.
38:13-39:09
We must embrace this truth and worship in it and out of it and through it. The spirit of Christ in you ought to be calling out to the Father and worshiping him in truth. This awesome, glorious, almighty, omnipotent creator and master of the heavens and earth humbly dwells with you and makes you his friend. Jesus promises to abide in us and he calls us to come and abide in him. What is your response? Maybe you're hearing this truth for the first time and you're overjoyed by this jaw-dropping reality and you're ready to praise him in song right now. Or maybe you've just considered this in passing but you think that Holy Spirit stuff isn't that for the charismatics?
39:11-40:56
And I don't feel, I don't feel the Spirit of God dwelling in me. It's not about feeling the Spirit of God indwelling all believers is presented as a statement of fact it is true of all believers look again at first Corinthians chapter 6 19 and 20 do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you not outside of you we don't have to ask him to come and visit us in this place we don't have to ask him to fall on us or anything like that he is always with us in us you're not your own you were bought with a price so glorify God in your body this is not some charismatic mumbo-jumbo you don't need a second baptism you don't need an infilling of the Holy Spirit because when you heard the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation and you believed in Jesus, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. You have all the fullness of Christ in you right now. You have all of him that you could ever need. All of us together being built up into a holy temple have all the fullness of Christ in us. Everything that is his is ours already. You don't need more of him. He simply wants more of you. Every day he calls you to abide more deeply in him.
40:58-41:09
Here's the problem. Some, maybe many of you, don't live in this truth and you don't worship out of it. Maybe it's because you're just learning about it.
41:11-43:19
Maybe it's because you don't understand the scope of this epic truth yet. But it would be really, really bad if you understood this truth and up to this point in time you've been careless about it. You know, it's okay if I'm habitually late to worship? I don't feel like singing anyway," you say. You hang out in the kitchen area and you chit-chat with friends because fellowship is more important than singing, you say. When you are present, your hands are in your pockets, your arms are crossed, you won't open your mouth to sing. God knows I can't sing, he doesn't expect it, you say. It's my choice whether I sing, even if commands it, you say. You, you may have another thing coming. You treat God shabbily and carelessly. You don't value or appreciate the truth that He dwells in you. Instead, you act like He's remote and disinterested. Instead of deep calling out to deep, you quench the Spirit and you insolently behave in a way that's right in your own eyes. With such worship, God is not pleased, and you are testing his patience. Repent. Repent right now and every day this week for treating the Lord Jesus Christ with contempt. Repent and earnestly seek his face. Here is your assignment this week. Read and reread John 14, verses 15 through 23, and then get flat on your face and ask him to reveal both in your heart and your mind the truth that he dwells with you. Ask him to help you to live and praise out of the truth that you are his tabernacle. He delights to dwell with you, and he delights to hear you sing his praises.
43:20-43:26
Now the worship team is going to come back up and help us to worship the Lord in truth.
43:27-43:50
Singing his praise is of the utmost importance to him. Right now, you have the opportunity to praise the Lord in truth. Right now, make every effort to get yourself to the throne of grace with your brothers and sisters and glorify your Father and your Savior in truth.
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Because if you didn't know it before today, you do now.
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You were redeemed to worship and glorify him.
43:59-44:05
It is your purpose and privilege to worship God who is with us.
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Our closing prayer this morning is from Psalm 98.
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Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.
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His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
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The Lord has made known his salvation.
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He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
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He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.
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All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
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Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
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Break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
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Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn, make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.
44:55-44:55
Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Chronicles 13:3-14

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What is at stake in God’s command to worship Him in truth? See, for example, another account of careless and irreverent worship in Leviticus 10:1-3.
Why are good intentions and enthusiasm insufficient for worshiping God in truth? Are they better, about the same, or worse than dead, emotionless, and unresponsive “worship?”
Before this message, what was your understanding of verses describing Christ
abiding in you? (John 14:16-18, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19-20)
How should the fact that Christ abides in us inspire or change the way we
worship?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

December 24, 2025

Want for Christmas?

I Want to Be Like God

Jeff Miller

December 24, 2025

Want for Christmas?

Introduction:

Psalm 115:8 – Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

Ephesians 5:1 – Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Hebrews 10:28 - Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

John 8:1-11

I Want to Be Like God (John 1:14–18)

Grace without TRUTH = Not like Jesus.
Truth without GRACE = Not like Jesus.
GRACE and TRUTH = Like Jesus.

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

00:37-00:39
Turn in your Bibles to John chapter one.
00:41-00:50
And while you're turning there, just gonna ask, we pause for a second, and I would ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word.
00:51-00:58
And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is God is telling us here tonight, this passage, all right?
00:58-00:58
Let's pray.
01:01-01:02
Father, we thank you for your word.
01:04-01:20
And it's easy tonight to get so caught up in, I guess the decorations and the sentimentality and all of that, but God, this is really no different than what we normally do.
01:21-01:26
We come to worship you, come to know you, come to hear from your word.
01:27-01:32
I just ask, Father, that your spirit be at work with your word today in a profound way.
01:34-01:36
Make us into the people that you've called us to be.
01:37-01:39
We pray in Jesus' name.
01:39-01:43
And all of God's people said, amen.
01:46-01:51
You become like that which you worship.
01:53-01:54
It's a true statement.
01:55-01:57
You become like that which you worship.
01:59-02:02
You know, it's really obvious in children.
02:03-02:19
I mean, just looking back at my life, if you would have found me in the late '70s, early '80s, I would have been walking around with torn pants and a torn shirt because I was the Incredible Hulk.
02:20-02:21
Remember that show, "Leuphorigno"?
02:22-02:22
That was me.
02:23-02:23
(growls)
02:26-02:34
Oh, then you go forward just a couple of years and I would have been running around the house with a sword fighting Skeletor.
02:35-02:39
By the power of Grayskull, I was He-Man, right?
02:40-02:44
And then you go forward a few more years, early '90s.
02:46-02:47
Grunge.
02:49-02:57
Ironically, I once again had ripped pants on and the flannel shirt, the mop hair.
02:59-03:04
And you can laugh and make fun of me all you want, but I know some of you got hammer pants in your closet.
03:07-03:14
Some of you ladies back then had a Debbie Gibson haircut because you become like that what you worship.
03:18-03:20
It wasn't even my idea.
03:20-03:21
Actually, the Bible says this.
03:22-03:30
Psalm 115 verse eight says, regarding idols, says, "Those who make them become like them.
03:31-03:37
So to all who trust in them, you become like that which you worship." And then we come to church.
03:40-03:42
We come to church and the truth is still the same.
03:44-03:56
Because Ephesians 5, one says, "Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children." Like, well, how do we imitate God?
04:00-04:01
by worshiping Him.
04:01-04:02
That's how.
04:04-04:05
It starts with worshiping Him.
04:07-04:16
You're like, okay, all right, but how in the world, even worshiping Him, how can I imitate God?
04:18-04:23
And you know, I think that's one of the most awesome things about the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
04:24-04:40
What we're celebrating at Christmas, God became a man, And I think that's one of the most awesome things, one of the most glorious things, is that we get to see what God's holiness and love looks like in a human on this planet interacting with other humans.
04:41-04:44
It's not conceptual, we've seen it.
04:48-04:50
Yeah, the Christmas story, it's a familiar story, right?
04:53-04:57
You know, you got the manger and the shepherds and the light.
05:00-05:03
But that's Matthew and Luke's version.
05:04-05:12
Matthew and Luke in your Bible give the historical version, but we're looking at John this year, and John gives the theological version.
05:14-05:21
That God became something He's never been without ceasing to be what He's always been.
05:24-05:26
It's the miracle of Christmas.
05:26-05:32
God entered the world through childbirth, becoming a real human being while remaining God.
05:36-05:37
So what do you want for Christmas?
05:39-05:45
We started this series, we said, "I want to know God." The only way you can know God is through Jesus.
05:45-05:47
Jesus is the revelation of God.
05:47-05:50
He is the living word of God, right?
05:50-06:00
And on Sunday, Pastor Taylor gave a message, "I wanna belong to God." The only way you belong to God also is through Jesus Christ.
06:01-06:11
It's through Jesus, through his death and his resurrection, that our sins can be forgiven, that we can have the promise of eternal life, that we can be adopted children of God.
06:12-06:18
Tonight, I wanna be like God.
06:20-06:20
What do you want for Christmas?
06:23-06:25
Really, all I want is to be like God.
06:30-06:34
This section we're looking at talks about the glory of Jesus Christ.
06:34-06:39
Those who received him get to know how glorious our God is.
06:41-06:43
And when we worship him, we do become like him.
06:44-06:48
So look at verse 14, John chapter one.
06:49-07:04
It says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Mark that, grace and truth, full of grace and truth.
07:04-07:15
Verse 15, "John bore witness about Him and cried out, this was He of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me because He was before me.
07:17-07:28
"From his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace." I love that last phrase, grace upon grace.
07:30-07:34
It's just waves and waves and waves of grace.
07:35-07:35
That's Jesus.
07:36-07:37
He's not stingy with his grace.
07:40-07:45
And he tells us in verse 16 that we've received from his fullness.
07:47-07:49
We've received from the fullness of grace.
07:49-07:50
You know what that means?
07:52-08:01
We're always in, if you belong to Jesus, you're always in the waves and waves of his grace.
08:01-08:06
Meaning, I can't say, well, I came to Christ in 1995.
08:07-08:08
Boy, you should have seen me back then.
08:09-08:11
I really needed his grace back then.
08:13-08:16
I need his grace just as much today as I did then.
08:18-08:25
And if I live tomorrow, I'm going to need His grace just as much tomorrow as I do today and as I did then.
08:29-08:30
But that's the good news.
08:31-08:37
He says, "Grace upon grace upon grace," that if you're in Christ, you're always in it.
08:38-08:39
He just keeps on giving it to us.
08:40-08:41
On your best day, you're in His grace.
08:42-08:43
On your worst day, you're in His grace.
08:46-08:50
Look at verse 17, he says, "For the law was given through Moses.
08:50-08:58
Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." There it is again, grace and truth, grace and truth.
08:58-09:00
But the law though, he mentions the law.
09:02-09:03
The law came through Moses.
09:03-09:07
There was no grace in the law.
09:09-09:12
Like you read your old testaments, there's only judgment.
09:12-09:14
You break the law, you're guilty.
09:14-09:17
In fact, the New Testament talks about that in Hebrews chapter 10.
09:18-09:24
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy in the evidence of two or three witnesses.
09:27-09:29
There's no mercy, just guilt.
09:30-09:31
That's what the law does.
09:31-09:32
The law kills.
09:33-09:35
The law only shows you that you are a sinner.
09:39-09:45
Yet through Jesus comes, Did you see it again?
09:46-09:46
Grace and truth.
09:48-09:54
He's showing us that there's a stark contrast to the law with what came in Jesus Christ.
09:57-09:59
Verse 18 kind of sums up the whole passage.
10:01-10:03
Really sums up everything that we're celebrating at Christmas.
10:04-10:05
Here it is.
10:05-10:07
No one has ever seen God.
10:09-10:17
The only God who was at the Father's side, "He has made him known." God the Son has made God known.
10:18-10:26
John is saying we saw everything that is God, we saw that in Jesus Christ.
10:31-10:32
So what's he like?
10:35-10:41
What has God shown us of his character in Jesus Christ?
10:42-10:43
I mean, what's he like?
10:45-10:50
Well you notice in this passage, he said it in verse 14 and he said it in verse 17.
10:51-10:57
If you were to say, "All right, describe God in two words," he does.
10:58-11:18
He says, "Here's what God is like, two words, grace and truth." Those two words exemplified who Jesus Christ is, who is the perfect expression of who God is.
11:20-11:21
Grace and truth.
11:23-11:25
I want to talk about grace and truth for a few minutes.
11:27-11:28
What is grace?
11:28-11:31
Well, grace is compassion.
11:31-11:32
It's mercy.
11:34-11:35
Grace is kindness and patience.
11:38-11:39
Grace is forgiveness.
11:41-11:42
Read your Bibles.
11:42-11:48
Jesus always manifests just a tender, loving grace.
11:51-11:54
So He's full of grace, but it also says He's full of truth.
11:55-11:56
Truth.
11:57-11:59
Jesus always spoke the truth.
12:00-12:00
Read your Bibles.
12:01-12:03
Jesus always upheld the authority of God's word.
12:07-12:09
Jesus never told half truths.
12:10-12:12
Jesus never minimized the truth.
12:12-12:15
Jesus never downplayed scripture, contradicted the Old Testament.
12:16-12:18
Jesus never sugarcoated it.
12:18-12:19
He never watered it down.
12:19-12:24
And he never, not once ever did he apologize for what the Bible says.
12:28-12:29
I wanna be like God.
12:31-12:46
And when we look at this character of Jesus, it is astounding, full of grace and truth, simultaneously full.
12:48-12:56
And we could have this temptation to just kind of step back and admire that, like, wow, isn't that awesome?
12:56-12:59
Isn't that an awesome representation of God?
12:59-13:09
But you know, and we should do that, yes, but the Bible doesn't tell us that we should just admire the character of Jesus.
13:11-13:16
The Bible tells us that Jesus' character isn't something just to impress us.
13:19-13:23
Bible says that we should imitate his character.
13:25-13:29
I mean, so many times, right, We are called to imitate Jesus.
13:30-13:35
Matthew 11, Jesus says, "Learn from me." John 13, he was washing the disciples' grimy feet.
13:36-13:54
And Jesus said, "I'm doing this to show you an example that you should do the same." Philippians 2, Paul says, "Have this mind, which is yours in Christ Jesus." 1 Peter 2.21 that Pastor Rich just read says that Jesus is an example and we should follow in his steps.
13:57-14:11
And then we turn to John 1 here, and it says, verse 16, "From his fullness, we have all received." That we don't worship a distant God.
14:13-14:19
We worship a God, according to this, who is to be received.
14:21-14:26
You see, I can stand up here, and I could talk for hours about grace and truth.
14:26-14:28
Don't worry, I know it's Christmas, I'm not going to.
14:28-14:29
But I could.
14:31-14:37
But unless you've received Jesus Christ, this isn't gonna matter.
14:38-14:48
Because the Bible tells us that when we truly receive him, God puts his spirit in us so that we are able to imitate his character.
14:51-14:53
So that we can truly be his image bearers.
14:56-15:07
So Jesus was full of grace and truth, perfectly full of both, a hundred percent grace and a hundred percent truth.
15:08-15:11
And this is the profound thing.
15:11-15:13
Jesus was never one or the other.
15:17-15:20
Never lopsided, never compromising one over the other.
15:20-15:52
one at the expense of another, John makes it clear. He says, "This is what God is like, Jesus Christ." And if there are two words that sum up the kind of God we worship, it's grace and truth. And we have to get that because if we're to worship God and therefore imitate If we're to represent God to the world, we have to imitate grace and truth as displayed by Jesus.
15:54-15:57
So you know what our problem is.
16:00-16:07
Our problem is we are not perfectly full of grace and truth.
16:07-16:15
and the reality is each of us have a tendency to lean more towards one than the other.
16:17-16:23
Some of you are more grace people, and some of you are more truth people.
16:30-16:42
And I just want to show you tonight that you can't be content to lean in one direction because that's not like Jesus at all.
16:45-16:46
Like, well, can you give me an example?
16:46-16:48
Yeah, there is an example I wanna show you.
16:48-16:52
Look at John 8, just turn over in your Bibles a few pages.
16:52-17:07
I want you to see, we're just gonna read this and reference this, but if there's one story from Jesus' life that demonstrates this full of grace and full of truth at the same time character.
17:07-17:11
If there's one story that would show that, it's this one.
17:12-17:21
John 8, it says, "They went each to his own house, "but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
17:22-17:25
"Early in the morning, He came again to the temple.
17:26-17:29
"All the people came to Him, "and He sat down and taught them.
17:29-17:35
"The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman "who had been caught in adultery.
17:36-17:42
"And placing her in the midst, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught "in the act of adultery.
17:43-17:49
"Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
17:49-17:57
"What do you say?" This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.
18:00-18:03
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
18:06-18:21
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." And once more, he bent down and wrote on the ground.
18:23-18:26
But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones.
18:26-18:31
And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
18:31-18:34
Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they?
18:34-18:47
Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, look at this, Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you.
18:49-19:04
Go and from now on, sin no more." So, if you have an outline and you're taking notes, which we always encourage you to do, I want you to jot a couple things down here.
19:05-19:06
I want to be like God.
19:07-19:11
Number one, grace without truth is not like Jesus.
19:12-19:17
Grace without truth, that's not like Jesus.
19:21-19:25
Grace without truth is weak enabling.
19:34-19:35
Never holding people accountable.
19:37-19:39
You ignore the transformation power of the Holy Spirit.
19:39-19:56
You disregard the truth that God says in His Word that we are called to righteousness and holy living, and people who lean more towards grace care more about being liked than they care about what's right and wrong.
19:58-20:04
But I want you to see in this account in John chapter 8, Jesus wasn't just grace.
20:06-20:10
He didn't say to the woman, "I affirm you.
20:12-20:13
You do you, ma'am.
20:13-20:17
"Look, don't worry about what the Bible says.
20:18-20:29
I mean, they're quoting the law of Moses and that was a long time ago and that's not really for us." And I affirm you, ma'am, he didn't say that.
20:30-20:31
He wasn't just grace.
20:32-20:34
You see, Jesus brought truth into it.
20:34-20:40
Jesus says, "Go, and from now on sin no more." What Jesus said was, "Look, adultery dishonors God.
20:40-20:42
Hey, stop living like that, okay?
20:43-20:44
Stop living like that.
20:48-20:59
And church, when we are content to overlook sin, when we're content to avoid the hard conversations, when we're ready to affirm people in their sin, that's not like Jesus.
21:06-21:10
Right now the truth people are like, "Yeah, give it to 'em.
21:10-21:16
"Give it to the grace people." Hang on, truth people, because truth without grace is not like Jesus either.
21:21-21:22
Look, I know the truth people.
21:23-21:25
We've been around some truth people, haven't we, Aaron?
21:26-21:38
Right now the truth people are like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." How in the world could it be?
21:41-21:44
I thought Harvest Bible Chapel, I thought Bible was your middle name.
21:44-21:46
Like truth is all that matters, right?
21:47-21:49
Truth, it's truth that matters.
21:50-21:56
How in the world could you have truth without grace?
21:59-22:01
We realized in John 1:17, he told us.
22:02-22:07
Look at it again, John 1:17, "For the law was given through Moses." Do you know what that is?
22:07-22:08
Do you know what the law is?
22:10-22:12
It's truth without grace.
22:17-22:20
So let me ask you, was the law truth?
22:21-22:25
This is a shouted out verbal reply question.
22:25-22:27
Was the law truth?
22:28-22:29
Yes, it was.
22:29-22:31
It is, not was, it is.
22:32-22:34
The law is truth.
22:34-22:39
100% every letter of God's law in the Old Testament is true.
22:40-22:42
But there was no grace in the law.
22:42-22:43
We referenced this earlier.
22:43-22:45
This is how the law works.
22:46-22:47
Oh, you broke the law, you're guilty.
22:48-22:49
Now it's time for your punishment.
22:49-22:51
Next, that's how the law worked.
22:55-23:04
And truth without grace leads to cold, detached transactions with other people.
23:06-23:08
That's truth without grace.
23:08-23:09
You messed up.
23:09-23:09
You're done.
23:10-23:10
You're done.
23:14-23:15
It leads to harsh judgment.
23:18-23:20
Truth without grace leaves no room for mistakes.
23:22-23:23
There's no second chances.
23:23-23:25
There's no invitation to repent.
23:25-23:28
There's no encouragement to turn it around.
23:28-23:37
Listen, people who lean more towards truth than grace usually care more about their conviction, than they care about actual people.
23:37-23:38
And that is a problem.
23:42-23:49
But you see in this John eight account with the woman caught in adultery, do you notice Jesus wasn't just truth with her?
23:49-23:49
Do you notice that?
23:52-23:55
I mean, Jesus didn't say to the woman, they bring the woman before him.
23:55-24:00
Jesus didn't say, "Hey lady, you know what the law says.
24:00-24:18
You're guilty, there's nothing to discuss." He showed her grace when He says, "Neither do I condemn you, nor will you live differently." That's grace.
24:20-24:30
And church, when we condemn people, when we are one striking you're out, when we refuse to allow people the opportunity to change, that's not like Jesus.
24:34-24:38
So we imperfect people tend to fall on one side or the other.
24:39-24:46
So now that you've heard, I just wanna ask you just for fun, which way do you lean?
24:47-24:52
Show of hands, how many of you would say that you're more grace people?
24:52-24:54
Put your hands up if you're more of a grace person.
24:55-24:55
All right?
24:59-25:54
Now raise your hand if you're more of a truth person. I have a note written from the first service. When I asked you the truth people were they were a lot more bold to put their hands up than the grace people. I think there's something to that. That'll be a sermon for Easter. Anyways, grace people, look, I love you, but you typically care more about the relationship than any sin issue, and that's not good. And truth people, you care more about upholding God's Word than loving someone in the relationship, And that's not complete either.
25:57-26:03
And you know, I've been thinking about this a lot the last couple of weeks, while you do what you do at work, this is what I do at work.
26:04-26:09
I was thinking so much like, what is it that causes people to lean one way or the other?
26:13-26:21
And I was thinking about that like, whether you sit down with a grace person or you sit down with a truth person, either way.
26:21-26:31
But I was just thinking like, if you set them down and said, "What makes you lean in the direction that you lean?" What would they say?
26:35-26:36
And then it hit me.
26:38-26:39
Do you know what it is?
26:39-26:40
And I am sure of this.
26:43-26:44
They think they're being loving.
26:45-26:46
I mean, think about it.
26:47-26:48
You sit down with the grace person.
26:49-26:50
Why do you lean more towards grace?
26:51-26:52
because it's love.
26:52-26:56
I'm loving, that's why my heart is so full of love.
26:56-26:57
I'm so full of love.
26:57-27:03
That's why, and you can't just discard the relationship just because of something the Bible says.
27:04-27:07
I'm just so full of love, deep in my heart of heart of hearts.
27:07-27:08
I'm so full of love.
27:09-27:11
That's why I'm more of a grace person.
27:12-27:19
But then, you know, if you sat down with the truth person and said, "Why do you lean more towards the truth?" Do you know what they'd say?
27:20-27:25
It's love, because what is more loving than giving people the word of our Lord?
27:26-27:31
I mean, come on, Pastor Jeff, you're a pastor, you know this, the most loving thing you can do is tell somebody the truth, right?
27:31-27:32
So that's what I do.
27:33-27:34
I don't mince words, I tell them the truth.
27:34-27:36
That's how I show love, that's how I love them.
27:37-27:38
There's nothing more loving than that.
27:38-27:41
I'm more truth because that's the loving thing to do.
27:50-27:59
There's a huge mistake in that line of thinking, isn't there?
28:00-28:07
It's a mistake to think that grace is love, because it's not.
28:09-28:13
And it's a mistake to think that truth is love, because it's not.
28:14-28:15
You know what is love?
28:18-28:19
God is love.
28:21-28:34
And as a man, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, showed true love by being full of grace and truth both.
28:39-28:41
Well, that's number three.
28:44-28:45
What do you want for Christmas?
28:45-28:45
I want to be like God.
28:46-28:47
Well, grace and truth is like Jesus.
28:50-28:54
And see, that's the point of the story of the woman caught in adultery.
28:54-28:57
Jesus showed her grace and truth at the same time.
28:58-29:00
Grace, He forgave her.
29:00-29:03
He says, "Neither do I condemn you." That's grace.
29:03-29:04
at the same time.
29:05-29:06
Jesus said, "Your lifestyle is wrong.
29:07-29:10
"Go and sin no more." Jesus gave both.
29:10-29:20
He says, "I forgive you, now let's do better." Church, we need to learn this.
29:25-29:33
We need to be people who represent Jesus accurately, full of grace and truth.
29:33-29:46
I'm not a group of people that enable in the name of love, not a group of people who condemn in the name of upholding the Word.
29:48-29:56
We need to be a people who demonstrate acceptance and accountability at the same time.
29:58-30:12
As John Piper put it, people who say, "I love you, but this is wrong." Parents, you've got to get that with your kids.
30:15-30:19
Some of you parents need to sit down with your kids and say, "Look, I love you.
30:19-30:26
I accept you, and nothing will ever change that, but this habit you have is wrong, and you need to stop this.
30:27-30:30
and I'm going to help you stop this because I love you.
30:30-30:30
Do you see that?
30:30-30:32
That's grace and truth both.
30:34-30:38
Some of you have family or friends that are stuck in a sinful lifestyle.
30:38-30:39
Maybe it's an addiction.
30:40-30:50
Maybe they're in an unbiblical relationship regarding marriage and sexuality, and you need to sit down and say, "Look, I care about you, but what you're doing is dishonoring the Lord.
30:50-30:52
Come on, let's get on a better path here.
30:53-31:01
Let's get on track." And for some of you, maybe it's even in church, maybe it's in your small group.
31:02-31:08
Somebody flagrantly in sin and you're like, "I don't know what to do here, "I don't know how to handle them." Here's how you handle them.
31:08-31:28
You pull them aside and you sit down with them and you say, "Look, what you're doing is wrong, "but I'm going to do everything that I can "to help you get on track because I care about you so much." You see, it's grace that refuses to beat people down, but it's truth that refuses to overlook sin.
31:31-31:32
So what do you want for Christmas?
31:35-31:36
I wanna imitate God.
31:40-31:51
And the only way to imitate God, to demonstrate a love for God's word and a love for God's people, is being like Jesus.
31:54-32:03
according to the Bible is full of grace and truth.
32:05-32:16
Our worship team would make their way back up and our candle lighters would come forward.
32:19-32:28
We're going to close our service By singing to candlelight.
32:30-32:35
Why on Christmas Eve do we sing by candlelight?
32:39-32:41
Because it's pretty, right?
32:42-32:43
It's so pretty.
32:46-32:56
And it's a tradition, but this year, there's another reason that we're doing this.
32:58-33:06
This year, thank you, Ashley, this year, it's also an illustration.
33:09-33:18
In anticipation of this service, you know, I was looking at the order of service and thinking about this moment actually right now.
33:19-33:21
And I was thinking about this flame.
33:24-33:26
I thought, you know, what is that flame?
33:27-33:31
But two things perfectly.
33:33-33:41
The flame is light and heat, right?
33:44-33:46
You can see the light, you'll just have to trust me on the heat.
33:46-33:50
I mean, you can try it out if you like, but it's hot.
33:53-33:57
But you see that flame, it's not one or the other.
33:59-34:00
It's light and heat.
34:01-34:05
And it can't be one or the other.
34:05-34:10
If you're gonna have the flame, you're going to have light and heat both.
34:10-35:02
You could say it is full of both aspects, light and heat. And as we sing, I just want you to look down at that flame and recognize how perfectly full it is of both light and heat. And then as you sing, I want you to think about grace and truth. Because like the flame imitating Jesus, you are to be full both at the same time. We want to thank you for coming out and worshiping our Lord, and it is my prayer that your worship is genuine, because then your imitation of Him will also be genuine.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 1:14-18

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Define “glory” (John 1:14). What did John actually see when he says “we have seen His glory”?
Do you tend to lean more towards “grace” or “truth” when dealing with someone’s sin? Why? What do you need to do to be “full of grace and truth” like Jesus?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Taylor Brown

December 21, 2025

Want for Christmas?

I Want to Belong to God

Taylor Brown

December 21, 2025

Want for Christmas?

Introduction:

I Want to Belong to Jesus… (John 1:4–13)

Because He gives me an UNBEATABLE HOPE. (John 1:4–5)
Because He gives me a MEANINGFUL MISSION. (John 1:6–8)

Isaiah 40:3 – A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

John 3:30 – He must increase, but I must decrease.
Because He gives me a SPOT IN HIS FAMILY THAT I CANNOT EARN. (John 1:9–13)

John 3:19–20 – And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

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

00:43-00:50
Well as you turn to John chapter one, I wanna ask you the same exact question that you just heard in the video.
00:51-00:56
I wanna ask you a question that Pastor Jeff brought to your attention last week in his message.
00:56-01:01
It's probably a question that you're tired of hearing and asking this holiday season.
01:02-01:05
What do you want for Christmas?
01:06-01:14
With Christmas being so close, you have asked and heard the answer I've answered that question many times over the past several weeks.
01:15-01:22
And the questions you've, the answers you've heard and the answers you've given include an Awala water bottle.
01:22-01:23
Isn't that popular?
01:23-01:24
Is that still popular?
01:24-01:25
I don't really know.
01:25-01:26
A red light therapy mask.
01:26-01:27
Anybody want that?
01:28-01:29
That's popular on Instagram, isn't it?
01:30-01:32
A massive Lego set.
01:32-01:34
A Nintendo Switch 2.
01:34-01:35
New AirPods.
01:36-01:41
A smart ring, which I guess is kind of like but a ring on your finger, I don't really know.
01:42-01:43
Or fancy golf clubs.
01:44-01:50
But there are many things that you want for Christmas that you cannot write down on a wish list.
01:51-01:56
There are many things you want for Christmas that cannot be bought or wrapped.
01:57-01:58
Maybe you want that big promotion.
02:00-02:04
Maybe you want that bonus this year that you aren't sure is coming.
02:05-02:10
Maybe you want healing in your own body or in the body of a loved one.
02:11-02:11
Here's a big one.
02:12-02:16
Maybe you want to feel like you belong.
02:17-02:20
You want to not be rejected.
02:21-02:25
That is a desire that every single person in this room shares.
02:26-02:32
It's a desire that starts when you're young and it continues on for the rest of your life.
02:33-02:41
As a kid and then a teenager, Every single one of us was desperate to fit in and have a group of friends to belong to.
02:43-02:50
Rejection is painful, and it leaves lasting memories, especially when you're a kid.
02:51-02:56
You know, growing up, my friends and I used to have a sleepover almost every single Friday night.
02:57-03:02
And during 11th grade, there was a month-long stretch where there was no sleepovers.
03:03-03:03
And I was really confused.
03:04-03:06
I didn't know why this routine had been broken.
03:07-03:13
So one day at the lunch table, I said to my friends, hey guys, we haven't had a sleepover in a while, do you guys wanna come to my house this Sunday?
03:14-03:19
And whenever I said that, everyone at the table erupted in uncontrollable laughter.
03:20-03:23
And I was, again, just very, very confused.
03:24-03:27
After they were all done and calmed down, I said, what's so funny?
03:28-03:37
They then proceeded to tell me that they thought it would be hilarious to not invite me to sleepovers for a while, to see how long it would take me to notice and say something.
03:39-03:43
I missed a whole month of sleepovers with my friends.
03:44-03:48
And to be honest, in that moment, externally, I tried to laugh it off.
03:49-03:51
I tried to act like it wasn't a big deal.
03:52-03:54
But internally, I felt rejected.
03:56-03:58
I felt like I didn't belong.
04:00-04:01
You ever felt that way before?
04:04-04:05
A friend stopped talking to you?
04:07-04:11
A family member cut off communication for seemingly no reason?
04:13-04:17
A boyfriend or girlfriend ended the relationship without warning?
04:19-04:24
Your spouse chose to give up on the marriage and leave?
04:26-04:28
You have felt rejected before.
04:29-04:32
You have felt like you don't belong.
04:35-04:36
Do you feel that way right now?
04:37-04:42
Maybe you couldn't care less about what gifts you're gonna get under the Christmas tree this year.
04:43-04:47
Maybe you don't want anything from Amazon or the mall.
04:47-04:51
More than anything this year, you just want to experience that sense of belonging.
04:52-05:00
You want to know that there are people who love you, who care about you, and will never let go of you no matter what you do.
05:03-05:09
I can't guarantee you that sense of belonging with your family and with your friends this Christmas.
05:10-05:11
I wish I could, but I can't.
05:12-05:19
But I can guarantee there is someone infinitely greater who will give you that sense of belonging.
05:19-05:28
I can guarantee there is someone who will not reject you, who will not turn away from you if you truly turn to him, and that person is Jesus Christ.
05:30-05:32
There is no one better to belong to.
05:33-05:36
There is no one better to be loved by.
05:37-05:42
There is no one with a tighter grip in all of existence than him.
05:43-05:58
I want you to walk out of this service this morning if you're a believer with a greater sense of confidence that you were loved by Jesus Christ, that you are safe and secure in his steady hands.
05:58-06:00
There is no better gift than that.
06:02-06:10
And if you're not a Christian this morning, I want you to know that the invitation has been extended to belong to Christ.
06:11-06:13
He commands you to follow him.
06:14-06:21
He invites you to enjoy his acceptance and not fear others' rejection.
06:22-06:29
More than anything, I want all of you in this room to wanna belong to Jesus this Christmas.
06:31-06:34
So before we continue any further, let's go to the Lord and ask for his help.
06:35-06:41
Please pray for me that I will faithfully represent God's word and I will pray for you that you will faithfully receive it.
06:43-06:55
Father, we come to you and we bring all of our pain to you, all of our fears, all of our deepest, darkest worries that we're afraid to admit to other people.
06:58-07:11
Lord, in this room, I'm sure there's many, many stories of rejection, many, many stories of feeling like we don't belong, and I'm sure if we brought everybody up on stage to share how they feel that there wouldn't be a dry eye in the house today.
07:14-07:21
Lord, we ask that you bring the comfort that only you can, that you would challenge us, you would tear us down that you can build us back up again.
07:24-07:27
And Lord, I do ask for myself, Lord, your word is perfect, but I am not.
07:29-07:37
I do not feel up to the task of proclaiming such a glorious passage, but Lord, give me your strength, give me your wisdom.
07:37-07:44
I pray for everyone in this room that you would give them the faith to receive your word today.
07:46-07:49
I pray that you would seek and save the lost.
07:50-07:55
And for the rest of us, Lord, we would walk out of this room with a greater sense of confidence in who we belong to.
07:57-07:59
We ask all this in Jesus' mighty name, amen.
08:01-08:07
Well, as a quick refresher, let's reread the verses that Pastor Jeff covered last week.
08:07-08:11
This will set the table and help us to understand the context of our passage this morning.
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So John chapter one, verses one through three.
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"In the beginning was the word, "and the word was with God, and the word was God." He was in the beginning with God.
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All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
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These verses are all about who Jesus is.
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He is the word of God who created all things.
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Without Jesus, this universe would not exist.
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This world would not exist.
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You would not exist.
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Jesus is the source and sustainer of everything that you can see and everything that you cannot see.
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Jesus isn't just the word of God.
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John says that he is God himself.
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Verses one through three focus on who Jesus is, while verses four through 13 focus on what Jesus gives.
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If you properly understand who Jesus is and what Jesus gives, you will want to belong to him.
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You will want to belong to him because no one can compare to who Jesus is and nothing can compare to what Jesus gives.
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So our outline for this morning, I want to belong to Jesus.
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I want to belong to Jesus, first reason, because he gives me an unbeatable hope.
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Because he gives me an unbeatable hope.
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Let's read chapter one, verse four.
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In him, in Jesus was life, and the life was the light of men.
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Life was and is found in Jesus and him alone.
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As we already discussed, Jesus made all things.
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He is the source of all life on earth.
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He is the cause of everything.
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But He's not just the cause of physical life.
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He is the only supplier of eternal life as well.
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There is no other viable option to turn to or to search for besides Jesus.
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But that doesn't stop us from trying, does it?
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Billions have tried and billions have failed and trying to find true life apart from Jesus.
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And you and I have tried our hand at this pointless search as well.
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Trying to find life in our jobs, in our finances, in our status, our stuff, and even our families.
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Life cannot be found in your job.
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You realize that one day you will have to retire.
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You may get let go from that job.
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One day that job will belong to someone else.
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Your life is not found in how much money you have.
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Let me ask you a question.
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How much of the money in your various accounts will you be able to take with you when you die?
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[CAT MEOWS]
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Do we not know the answer?
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Not a single dime.
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Life is not found in your status and popularity.
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There will always be someone bigger and better than you.
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In 150 or 200 years, how many people on this planet will be thinking about you?
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The most likely answer is not a single soul.
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Life is not even found in your family.
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As great as your spouse, your kids, your relatives might be, they cannot meet the deepest needs of your soul.
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Can your spouse forgive you of your sins?
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Can your kids give you that unbeatable hope that you're looking for?
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No.
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Can your family guarantee your eternity?
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No.
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All of those needs can only be met by Jesus Christ who is the only source of life.
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And John goes on to say that this life was the light of men.
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sounds pretty cool, right?
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But what does that actually mean?
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The life was the light of men.
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I'm no scientist, but let me give you a quick pop quiz in astronomy.
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What do all the planets in the solar system orbit around?
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You're all really tired this morning.
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What is it again?
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All right, very, very good.
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Could we survive without the sun?
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What does the sun do for us?
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is the major source of life, because it is the major source of light and heat on this planet.
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Without the sun shining as it does, we would all freeze to death.
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Without the sun shining as it does, we would not be able to see anything.
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We would be lost in the darkness.
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Without the light of Christ shining as it does, we would not be able to see and understand the truth.
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Without the light of Christ shining as it does, we would not know how to be saved.
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We would not know how to have a relationship, a friendship with God.
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Without the light of Christ shining as it does, we would be hopeless and lost in the darkness of our sin.
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Without the light of Christ shining as it does, none of us would have any spiritual life.
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Who is the light of the sun offered to?
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The 8.3 billion people on this planet, who is the light of the Son of God offered to?
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Same exact answer, the 8.3 billion people on this planet.
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But as we'll see in a few minutes, many choose to hide from his light, and by doing so, they miss out on the life that he offers.
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But that does not stop Jesus from shining his light, which we see in verse five, read that with me.
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The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
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The word overcome in this verse can also be translated as comprehended or understood.
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And many scholars believe that John picked this word for a very specific reason.
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He chose this word because it has a double meaning.
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Each of these words make sense in context and are flip sides of one another.
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So let's cover one side of the coin first.
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Let's cover the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
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You know, I walk my dog Murdoch almost every single night at 10 p.m. after the family is asleep.
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And my wife hates this plan because she thinks I'm gonna get pancaked by a car.
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It hasn't happened yet, so please just pray for me that this trend continues and I'm able to be safe.
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But there is this one house in my neighborhood that fascinates me.
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This house has a lamppost in the front yard that shines brightly for about 10 to 20 seconds, then it just shuts off.
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And it comes back on a few seconds later.
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And it happens every single night for the past year.
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And this may sound strange to you, but I think about that lamppost almost every single day.
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Every single time I exit the house to go take Murdoch on this walk, I wonder is tonight gonna be the night when that light is extinguished.
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Is tonight the night when darkness will overcome that person's yard?
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'Cause there's something wrong with that lamppost.
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There's something wrong with the bulb.
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There's something wrong with the wiring.
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It's just a matter of time.
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I don't have much faith in that lamppost.
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I don't think you would have much faith in that lamppost if you took a field trip to my neighborhood and drove past it.
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But do you know who you should have total and complete faith in?
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Do you know whose light you should never wonder or worry about being extinguished?
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Jesus Christ.
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The light of his glory never flickers.
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The light of his gracious love never turns off.
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He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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No matter how dark this world gets, no matter how bleak your life looks, Jesus Christ is shining just as brightly as he always has.
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Sin, injustice, and evil cannot lower the intensity of who he is and what he has done.
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Nothing and no one can turn the dimmer switch down on the light of the world.
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Let's flip over to the other side of the coin.
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The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not understood it.
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You know, Satan and his demons are crafty.
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I'll give them that.
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They are intelligent.
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But at the same time, these evil forces are complete morons in comparison to the all-knowing, all-wise God of the universe.
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The devil and his demons are fighting a losing battle because they cannot figure out a way to extinguish the light of Christ.
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They're like a bunch of roided up bodybuilders trying to push over a mountain with their bare hands.
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It's just not gonna happen.
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Their attempts to snuff out the light only fan it into flame even more.
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The harder they try, the harder they fail.
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No matter what they do, Jesus keeps forgiving more and more people.
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No matter what they try, the church keeps getting built up.
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No matter what scheme they hatch, the kingdom of God keeps advancing.
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Satan and his workers have already been defeated by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
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They know that eternal judgment awaits them.
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Are they gonna go quietly without a fight until Jesus returns?
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No, they are kicking and screaming like bratty children.
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And I know that their kicking and screaming causes a lot of pain and hardship to every single person in this room.
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But they cannot change the ending that God has already written.
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The light will win because the darkness cannot overcome it or understand it.
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That is certain.
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That is a fact.
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Maybe you've been a believer for months, for years, and maybe even for decades.
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And you know the truths of verses four and five intellectually.
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You have a very hard time believing these truths emotionally and experientially.
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You're in a tough season right now and you feel like the darkness is winning.
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You feel like the light is losing.
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You feel like the darkness understands how to overcome the light just fine.
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You feel like you cannot have victory over that sin pattern in your life.
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You feel like there is more sin in you There is mercy in Christ.
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You feel helpless, you feel hopeless.
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If that's how you feel right now, my heart goes out to you.
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'Cause I've been there before.
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And I'm sure I'll be there again.
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If that's how you feel, I wanna challenge you to stop looking at you.
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Stop looking at your circumstances.
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Fix your eyes on Jesus.
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Focus your attention on what He has given to you.
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Root your confidence in the new and everlasting life that has been given to you.
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Ask the Holy Spirit to re-energize you with the light you see when you open up the pages of this book during your daily quiet time.
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You understand your hope is not found in you.
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You understand that your hope is not even found in your circumstances changing.
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Your hope is found in belonging to Christ.
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When you belong to Christ, you are given an unbeatable hope from an unbeatable savior.
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I want to belong to Jesus because he gives me an unbeatable hope.
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I want to belong to Jesus because he gives me a meaningful mission.
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That's the second reason on your outline, because he gives me a meaningful mission.
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In verses four through five, John talks about the message of the light.
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In verses six through eight, John talks about the messenger of the light.
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Let's read these verses together.
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There is a man sent from God whose name was John.
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He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.
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was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
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So be clear, John is referencing a totally different John here.
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That's kind of confusing.
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What John is he talking about?
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John the Baptist.
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Why couldn't it have had a different name?
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Why couldn't it have been like Bill the Baptist or Barron the Baptist or whatever?
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Why did it have to be John?
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Well, don't worry, we'll make it work.
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We'll deal with it.
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John the Baptist was sent by God as a messenger to prepare the way for the promised Messiah and Savior who is prophesied about all throughout the Old Testament.
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And John was prophesied of in the Old Testament as well.
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Isaiah 40, verse three, a voice cries, "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.
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"Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Malachi 3, 1, "Behold, I send my messenger, "and he will prepare the way before me." John the Baptist came to roll out the red carpet for the coming king.
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He didn't come so that others would believe in him and believe in his greatness.
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He came so that others might believe in Christ through him.
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And John the Baptist's followers once came to him to give him the news that a lot of people were following Jesus.
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He was getting more popular.
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And his disciples were even baptizing people, which is kind of like John's main thing.
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It's his name, right, John the Baptist.
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Like, John, don't you realize that all this is happening?
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Jesus is getting more popular than you.
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Did this frustrate John?
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Was he jealous?
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Not at all, he was actually really, really excited because he was successfully carrying out the meaningful mission that God had entrusted to him.
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Here's the response he gives his disciples.
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He says, "He, Jesus, must increase, "but I must decrease." That was the slogan of John's life in ministry.
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That should be the slogan of your life in ministry as well.
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He must increase, but I must decrease.
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You realize you're not the point of anything.
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Jesus is.
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John the Baptist wasn't the point of anything either.
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Jesus was his mission was to point everyone to Christ to bear witness to his light And I know what some of you serious students of the Bible may be thinking right now you're internally objecting a bit Hold on a minute pastor Taylor. You're saying that Jesus is the light and John the Baptist wasn't but later on in this gospel didn't Jesus say that John was like a lamp that was shining and And doesn't Jesus tell us that all Christians are the light of the world?
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How does this all make sense?
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Well, yeah, Jesus does say that in Matthew 5.14 and in John 5.35.
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To help answer those great questions, let me slip on my lab coat again and give you another pop quiz in astronomy.
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When you look up in the night sky and you see the moon shining bright, does that moon actually have any light of its own?
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Where does its light come from?
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The sun, the light of the moon is shared and reflected.
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It's the same for John and it's the same for you and me.
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We have a shared and reflected light that is given to us by Jesus Christ.
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All throughout John chapter one, verses four through 13, the Greek word phos is used in reference to Christ and phos is the essence of light.
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In John 5.35, the Greek word luknos is used to describe John.
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A luknos is a portable lamp.
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Jesus is the light, while John is the lamp that displays the light.
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A candle cannot shine on its own.
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It needs to be given the light of a flame.
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A lamp in your house cannot shine on its own.
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It needs to be given the light of a bulb.
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Jesus Christ is the sun, and you are the moon.
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Jesus Christ is the flame, you are the candle.
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Jesus Christ is the bulb and you are the lamp.
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You are here on this earth to display his light to everyone.
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To shine his light in the darkness.
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To bear witness about his light because you have none of your own.
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And I know what some of you are thinking at this point.
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Okay Taylor, I know I need to buckle down, I need to share the gospel, I need to make disciples, I need to shine his light everywhere I go, I'll do that as soon as the holidays are over.
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Whenever Christmas is in the rear view mirror, I'll get right on that.
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No you won't.
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And you're thinking, where's your Christmas cheer, Pastor Taylor, what do you mean no I won't?
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I mean you won't.
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If you will not bear witness to the light of Christ today, what makes you think you'll do it tomorrow?
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If you are unwilling to bear witness to the light of Christ at the end of 2025, what makes you think you'll be willing to do it at the start of 2026?
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Do you understand that Christmas is the perfect time to bear witness to the light of Christ?
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This is the time when you're around people you're not usually around.
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This time of season's all about joy, but most people are miserable.
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Most people are looking for something that they cannot find because they're looking in the wrong place.
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Right now is the perfect time to bear witness to the light.
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Grab a bunch of the Christmas Eve invite cards at the back table and hand them out as if you were given $100 for each one you handed out.
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I'm not gonna give you $100, but the rewards you get in heaven for that will be infinitely greater.
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Grab one of those invites, put it in an envelope, put money in that envelope, put a personal note in that envelope and give it to your mailman tomorrow.
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Take it upon yourself to read scripture at your family get-together this week, and talk about why you're even celebrating Christmas, why Jesus came in the first place.
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Stop putting off that gospel conversation with that unsaved family member at Christmas.
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Finally, do it.
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Invite that unbeliever who has no family in the area to your Christmas dinner.
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Buy them a Bible.
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Write a note in that Bible and give it to them.
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I keep going and going and going.
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There are so many ways to bear witness to the light of Christ this week.
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Don't make excuses for why you can't.
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Don't point to your calendar and say you're too busy.
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This is the reason why you're here, isn't it?
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To bear witness to the light.
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If anything, it's other things get in the way of the most important thing on your calendar.
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Don't justify your fear and laziness by saying, you don't wanna stir the pot this Christmas, you just wanna have a calm Christmas.
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Shouldn't you care more about sharing the peace of Christ with your family and friends?
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When you belong to Christ, you recognize that you've been given a meaningful mission.
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When you belong to Christ, you value your calling way more than your comfort.
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When you belong to Christ, you make disciples, you don't make excuses.
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When you belong to Christ, you bear witness to his light because the darkness is everywhere that you go.
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I wanna belong to Jesus because he gives me an unbeatable hope.
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I wanna belong to Jesus because he gives me a meaningful mission.
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I want to belong to Jesus, final reason, because he gives me a spot in his family that I cannot earn.
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Because he gives me a spot in his family that I cannot earn.
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We've talked about the message of the light and the messenger of the light.
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Now we're gonna wrap up by talking about the two responses to the message of the light.
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The first response is in verses nine through 11.
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The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
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He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
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He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.
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As I said earlier, the light of the Son of God is offered to everyone.
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Anyone is welcome to step into the light.
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Anyone is welcome to receive the life of Christ and be forever changed.
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but most choose to step out of the light rather than into it.
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Most choose to reject the life of Christ that is offered.
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And this is proven by verse 11.
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He came to his own people and his own people did not receive him.
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And this verse has two different focuses.
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When you zoom out, John is talking about mankind.
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Statistically and biblically, there are way more non-Christians than Christians.
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There are way more people who reject Christ than receive him.
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Can we all agree on that basic fact of life?
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But if you zoom in, John is talking about Israel.
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Many of Jesus' fellow Jews rejected him, hated him, called for his crucifixion.
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Many of the Jews rejected the message of Christ when it was shared by the apostles.
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Even to this day, many Jewish people refuse to accept that Jesus is the light.
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That's not always gonna be the case.
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Paul does say in Romans that one day all Israel will be saved.
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Don't have time to talk about that right now as Pastor Jeff often says, buy me some Pantera bread or Chick-fil-A and we'll talk about it across the street sometime.
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Here's an important question.
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Why do most people reject Jesus?
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Why do most people not receive the light of Christ?
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John gives us a very simple yet sad answer.
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Later on in this gospel in chapter three, verses 19 through 20, he writes, "And this is the judgment.
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"The light has come into the world, "and people love the darkness rather than the light, "because their works were evil.
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"For everyone who does wicked things hates the light "and does not come to the light, "lest his works should be exposed." Have you ever been sleeping or laying in a dark room and suddenly someone turns the lights on?
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Are you overjoyed by this?
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Are you really excited by this?
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What's your natural human response?
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What do you do?
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You close your eyes, you cover your face with your hands and your blanket, you yell, "Turn that light out!" That is the natural human response, physically and spiritually.
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It is far more comfortable to lay in the darkness than be in the light.
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It's simpler to be oblivious and not see yourself for who you really are.
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It's effortless to do nothing about your greatest problem, which is your sinful nature.
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It's easy to lash out at those who try to pull you into the light.
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That is why most people do not receive Jesus.
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They'd rather lay in the darkness.
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They love their sin more than him.
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That's the first response to the message of the light.
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John says there's only one other response, and that's in verses 12 to 13, the best part of this entire passage.
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But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
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The first and wrong way to respond to Jesus is rejection.
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The second and right way to respond to Jesus is receiving and believing.
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You reach out to receive the gift of eternal life by believing in the name of Jesus Christ.
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We say that all the time, but what does it mean to believe in the name of Jesus.
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Well, a name represents all of who a person is and all that a person does.
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When you believe in the name of Jesus Christ, you are believing that he is who the Bible says that he is.
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That he has done all the Bible says he has done.
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You wholeheartedly believe that he is the word of God who created all things.
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You have faith that he is the light of the world.
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He is your only source of hope.
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You trust that he is the Savior who died on the cross for your sins, who took the punishment that you deserve.
34:50-34:58
You submit to the reality that he is the Lord of your life, who has the divine right to tell you what to think, say, and do.
34:59-35:08
When you receive Jesus and believe in his name, John says that you are given the right to become a child of God.
35:11-35:18
There are only two children in this entire world who have the right to claim that they are my kids.
35:20-35:25
I love all the kids in this church, but I love two of those kids the most.
35:26-35:30
Only two of those kids have a legal right to say that I am their father.
35:31-35:35
Only Samuel and Emmie Brown have that legal right.
35:37-35:38
What's the evidence of this?
35:39-35:45
Well, Kate and I have their birth certificates at home as proof that those kids belong to us.
35:46-35:54
And when you belong to Christ, your spiritual birth certificate is signed and sealed by his own blood.
35:55-36:00
You are given the right to claim God as your father and Jesus as your big brother.
36:01-36:07
You have given the right to declare that you belong to the greatest family imaginable.
36:10-36:11
Can you earn this right?
36:14-36:16
Can you work your way into the family of God?
36:18-36:20
Not according to John at the end of verse 13.
36:21-36:37
He says, "Who were born not of blood, "nor the will of the flesh, "nor the will of man, but of God." You are not given the right to become a child of God because you're a good person who does nice things for other people.
36:37-36:44
You are not given the right to become a child of God because your parents are great Christians and raised you in the church.
36:45-36:50
You are not given the right to become a child of God because you come to church every once in a while.
36:50-36:53
You pray regularly and do community service projects.
36:53-37:00
You are not given the right to become a child of God because of your track record and your good works.
37:00-37:07
You are given the right to become a child of God because of the gracious work of God in Christ.
37:07-37:08
That's it.
37:09-37:11
That's the only source.
37:15-37:16
How do you respond to Jesus?
37:18-37:22
Do you reject him or do you receive him?
37:24-37:34
Do you believe in His name, His work, and His reputation, or do you believe in your name, your works, and your reputation?
37:36-37:42
One response leads to eternal destruction, while the other leads to eternal life.
37:42-37:50
One response leads to everything being taken away from you, and the other leads to everything being given to you.
37:52-37:58
Please don't leave this room without considering who Jesus is and what he is offering you.
38:00-38:03
Everything hinges on your response to him.
38:08-38:09
What do you want for Christmas?
38:11-38:12
Do you wanna belong to the world?
38:14-38:15
Or do you wanna belong to Jesus?
38:18-38:26
Do you wanna settle for the flickering hopes of this sinful culture, or do you want the unbeatable hope of an unbeatable savior?
38:27-38:30
Do you want to lead a meaningless existence?
38:31-38:36
Or do you want to carry out the meaningful mission of pointing others to the point of life?
38:38-38:42
Do you want to be a child of the devil who absolutely hates you?
38:43-38:47
Or do you want to be a child of God who unconditionally loves you?
38:49-38:53
If you have not yet believed and received Jesus, now is your chance.
38:53-38:54
Now is your opportunity.
38:55-38:59
You don't know if you're getting another opportunity past this one, so don't waste it.
39:01-39:05
The life of Christ is being offered to you right now.
39:06-39:07
Don't slap the gift away.
39:09-39:11
The light of Christ is shining in this moment.
39:12-39:15
Do not step back into the darkness once again.
39:17-39:18
Now is your time.
39:19-39:20
Now is your chance.
39:21-39:22
You're alive right now.
39:23-39:24
You're not guaranteed tomorrow.
39:28-39:28
Life is hard.
39:30-39:33
Discouragement and disappointments are all around us.
39:34-39:37
It's so easy to lose track of what's important in the darkness.
39:38-39:46
And we need the light of biblical reminders to let us know what is true, what is real, and what is right.
39:48-39:52
This ring I wear on my left hand is a symbol that I belong to my wife.
39:53-39:59
I'm taken, I'm not looking for anybody else to give me that feeling, right, to belong to.
40:01-40:08
The Lord's Supper is a powerful symbol that you belong to Christ and no one else.
40:08-40:13
You're spoken for by the Son of God and you're not looking for anyone else to give your life meaning.
40:13-40:17
You're not looking to anything else to give your life meaning.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 1:4-13

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Who or what do you often set your hopes on? Why can’t these people and things satisfy you as Jesus can?
What excuses are holding you back from bearing witness to the light? How will you bear witness to the light this week and next?
How does Jesus give us the right to become children of God? Why can’t this right be deserved or earned?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

December 14, 2025

Want for Christmas?

I Want to Know God

Jeff Miller

December 14, 2025

Want for Christmas?

Introduction:

John 17:3 – And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 1:18 – No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

I Want to Know God (John 1:1–3):

The REALITY: Jesus is GOD.

Colossians 2:9 – For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

Zechariah 12:10 – And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced…

Acts 20:28 – Pay careful attention to yourselves... to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Hebrews 1:2 – But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
The RESPONSE: FAITH in Jesus.

Hebrews 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

How Can I Grow in Knowing Jesus?
1. CONFESS with your mouth.
  
  Romans 10:9 – If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
2. HEAR the Word.
  
  Romans 10:17 – So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
3. KEEP His commandments.
  
  John 15:10 – If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

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

00:41-00:42
Stegosaurus.
00:45-00:47
Nobody asks, so I'm just going to tell you.
00:49-00:50
Game show host.
00:52-00:52
And gray.
00:54-00:57
Oh, oh, and what I want for Christmas.
01:02-01:04
I just want to know God.
01:09-01:18
Did you ever ask for something like for Christmas or whatever and somebody got you the generic version?
01:18-01:20
Has that ever happened to anybody else?
01:20-01:24
Show of hands, you wanted something and you got the generic version?
01:26-01:27
That happened to me when I was a kid.
01:28-01:33
When I was a kid, they came out with this wacky thing.
01:33-01:34
It was called a pogo ball.
01:35-01:37
How many people, show of hands, remember the pogo balls?
01:38-01:47
Okay, a few of you, one person in the first service did, or about half of the first service's attendants, remembers what a pogo ball was.
01:47-01:52
If you don't know, just imagine like a snowman with the head cut off.
01:52-01:54
It was that kind of shape, right?
01:56-02:05
And it had this hard plastic like ring that went in between these two like balls, right?
02:05-02:07
That were kind of fused together.
02:07-02:14
And you were supposed to like stand on the plastic disc and squeeze your feet on the top ball.
02:15-02:19
And then you would bounce on the pogo ball.
02:19-02:27
And the pogo ball would let you jump almost as high as you could jump if you weren't on a pogo ball.
02:31-02:33
But it was the hot item the one year.
02:34-02:36
And I wanted a pogo ball.
02:37-02:39
You know what my parents got me?
02:41-02:42
The Saturn ball.
02:46-02:51
Pogo balls, generic cousin, the Saturn ball.
02:55-03:03
And not only was it actually not fun to use, but my family was making fun of me when I did use it.
03:03-03:08
When I would jump on it, they'd be like, Here we go on our Saturn ball, our Saturn ball, our Saturn ball.
03:09-03:10
And that really hurt my feelings.
03:11-03:17
So the Saturn ball got thrown into a closet and it's probably still there until today.
03:19-03:28
But look, I know we've had this conversation before, but there's just some things you can't go generic, right?
03:28-03:38
Like ketchup, Pop-Tarts, Oreos, the generic's not the same.
03:41-03:44
Don't try to tell me that it is because you're just lying to yourself.
03:47-03:55
But nothing has been made more generic than God.
03:57-04:03
We live in a culture that is okay with the generic concept of God.
04:05-04:10
But when you get specific, people get squirrely about that.
04:12-04:20
You're like, when people say, "God bless America, "God bless America." Yeah, you can ask, "Well, which God?
04:22-04:42
"Do you mean the God of the Bible, "the one who created us, the one who judges sin, "the one who commands us to repent and believe, "the one who calls us to live our lives "according to his wisdom?" And it's like, "Oh no, not that God." But we're just okay with the generic concept.
04:42-04:48
But you see, the problem with that line of thinking is God isn't a generic concept.
04:50-04:54
In fact, God's not a concept at all.
04:56-04:57
God is a person.
05:00-05:26
God is a specific person. And as we enter into the Christmas season, you know, we know the Christmas story from Matthew and from Luke, right? We know that version of the Christmas story well with the census and Bethlehem and Mary and Joseph and angels and shepherds and mangers and the star and the magi and...
05:26-05:34
Well, Matthew and Luke sort of tell the story of the incarnation like looking over people's shoulders, right?
05:34-05:39
But we're going to be looking at the gospel of John because his Christmas story is a little different.
05:40-05:44
In John's Christmas story, we are looking over God's shoulder.
05:47-05:49
That's really the theme of the whole book of John.
05:51-06:08
We studied this some years back, but the theme of John is this, the God of the universe has revealed Himself by coming into this world as a man to not just save you, but to have a relationship with you.
06:10-06:15
The God wants you to know Him.
06:20-06:23
In fact, this is what Jesus Christ was praying.
06:24-06:43
John 17.3, Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." Eternal life.
06:45-06:53
more important than eternal life because you are either going to live forever with God or you're going to die forever apart from God.
06:56-06:57
So what do you want for Christmas?
07:02-07:04
Top of your list should be eternal life.
07:06-07:10
And according to Jesus, that comes from knowing Him, from knowing God.
07:11-07:21
And I do have to remind you that knowing about God is not the same as actually knowing God.
07:21-07:29
You realize those are two completely different concepts, knowing about God and knowing God, not the same.
07:30-07:31
Think of it this way.
07:31-07:46
Imagine a young man comes to church, a single man, and he's been coming here for a while when all of a sudden one day he notices there is a beautiful young single woman.
07:48-07:56
And he's like, "I don't think I met her, but who is that?" But he gets his friend, he's like, "Hey, find out who that girl is." Right?
07:56-08:02
And his friend comes back with the information and he says, "Oh, you asked about that girl.
08:03-08:03
Here's what I know.
08:04-08:06
She loves missions, right?
08:06-08:08
And she loves working with children.
08:09-08:15
She enjoys traveling and get this, she's a big Steelers fan.
08:18-08:20
But she also loves rom-coms.
08:23-08:37
Now, if this friend goes back to the dude and gives this report on what this woman is like, do you think this man would be like, all right, now that I have the information about her, I am satisfied, thank you.
08:38-08:38
That is all.
08:41-08:42
Is that the end of the story?
08:44-08:51
No, you see, now that he knows about her, that makes him all the more want to know her personally.
08:52-08:55
You see, that's how it is with God.
08:55-08:57
That's how it is with Jesus Christ.
08:58-09:05
The more you know about Him, the more you want to know Him personally.
09:08-09:10
The fact should lead you to the relationship.
09:12-09:14
Well, how do I know God personally?
09:14-09:20
Well, John 1:18 tells us that no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side.
09:21-09:22
He has made him known.
09:23-09:32
And folks, this is a fundamental truth, that the only way that we can know God is he has to make himself known.
09:33-09:42
And that's what we celebrate every Christmas, that God has made Himself known because He did it in the most personal way possible.
09:42-09:45
He showed up and introduced Himself.
09:47-09:53
So look at John 1, picking up in verse 1.
09:53-09:55
We're just gonna look at the first three verses today.
09:55-10:04
And this might feel more like a Bible study than a sermon, but these are important truths that we gotta wrestle down here.
10:05-10:16
John 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He was in the beginning with God.
10:19-10:26
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
10:31-10:39
Notice that John, in introducing our Lord, He's using this word, word, a lot.
10:39-10:42
Why does he use the word, word?
10:44-10:53
Well, he doesn't really explain that, but I promise you that the audience that he wrote to in the first century would have known exactly what he was talking about.
10:54-10:59
'Cause John primarily would have been writing to the Greeks and the Jews.
11:00-11:20
And the word, word in the Greek is logos, and to the Greeks that Logos was like this impersonal force, this impersonal energy source, because the Greek philosophers were like, look, all of this had to come from somewhere.
11:21-11:23
You know, the world didn't happen by accident.
11:24-11:32
There has to be some force out there that it's behind the structure of the earth and all logic and reason.
11:32-11:39
And they had this idea, it was an impersonal force, and they called it the word, the logos.
11:41-11:47
And see, so John is writing to the Greeks, and he goes, "Hey, you guys talk about the logos, right?
11:48-11:49
"Did you know the logos is a person?
11:51-11:53
"It's not a thing, it's a person.
11:54-12:11
"It's a person that was with God, "it's a person that was God, "and it's a person," according to John 1:14, that became flesh and dwelt among us." So that's how the Greeks would have heard this.
12:11-12:13
You know how the Jews would have heard this?
12:14-12:15
I mean, probably you don't have to guess, right?
12:16-12:24
When the Jews would have heard the word "word," what would they have thought of?
12:26-12:30
They immediately would have thought of the law and the prophets, what we call the Old Testament.
12:31-12:35
You see, you go through the Old Testament over and over and over.
12:35-12:46
The word of the Lord came to the word of the Lord came to the word of the Lord came to that all of the law and the prophets, it's it's known as the word of God.
12:48-12:51
So the Jews would have picked up on this concept immediately.
12:52-12:55
Oh, you know what the purpose of words is?
12:57-12:58
Words are to communicate something.
12:59-13:10
Words are to be deliberately chosen and used to convey information to another person.
13:12-13:14
That's what John is saying to the Jews.
13:15-13:16
The Word became flesh.
13:18-13:22
Jesus Christ is God's communication to man.
13:26-13:27
a living, breathing word.
13:29-13:37
So, God isn't some impersonal force.
13:39-13:41
God's not a generic concept.
13:43-13:48
According to God's word, He is a person.
13:49-13:56
And He has revealed who exactly He is in Jesus.
13:58-13:59
Let's just pause for a second.
13:59-14:06
I'm going to ask that you would pray for me as we do this little study together that I would accurately represent God's Word.
14:07-14:17
Let me pray for you to have a heart open to receive this absolutely essential truth that God is teaching us today.
14:17-14:17
So let's pray.
14:22-14:43
Father in heaven, we live in a culture that is fine to think of you in general terms, but to call you a person, a father, the sovereign of the universe, it's tough for some people to grasp.
14:43-15:00
And I just pray, Father, today, especially over these next few minutes, that we would really have our hearts and minds open to what it is that Your Word wants to teach us about the way that You've revealed Yourself through Your Son. It's in Jesus' name that we pray.
15:01-15:01
Amen.
15:03-15:12
So on your outline, I want you to write some things down. I want to know God. Here's where it starts, number one, the reality.
15:13-15:14
This is the reality.
15:15-15:16
Jesus is God.
15:19-15:20
Jesus is God.
15:21-15:22
Let's look at these verses here.
15:22-15:23
Look at verse one again.
15:23-15:34
He says, "In the beginning was the Word, "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In the beginning, does that sound familiar at all?
15:35-15:37
That phrase, in the beginning, where have we heard that?
15:39-15:40
Genesis 1, 1, right?
15:40-15:42
That's how the whole Bible starts.
15:43-15:46
And John is starting in the same place.
15:46-15:55
John is saying, by saying in the beginning, John is saying before anything was created, the Word existed.
15:57-16:00
The Word, and notice he says two things about the Word.
16:02-16:06
First of all, the Word was with God.
16:08-16:11
And secondly, the word was God.
16:14-16:17
First of all, let's talk about the word was God.
16:18-16:23
This claim is nothing less than Jesus Christ is almighty God.
16:23-16:26
This is all through the New Testament, all right?
16:26-16:38
If we were to just do a Bible study today, looking at the verses of the New Testament that talk about Jesus being God, we would be here long after the snow melted, okay?
16:38-16:43
But the New Testament is so full of this truth.
16:43-17:00
Like for example, Colossians 2.9 says, "For in Him, in Jesus, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." Most concise statement of Jesus' deity is probably right here in John 1.14.
17:00-17:08
It says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
17:09-17:17
The Word became flesh and dwelt, dwelt, that word dwelt in the Greek is the word tabernacled.
17:17-17:21
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
17:23-17:24
You heard of the tabernacle?
17:25-17:41
In the Old Testament, it was this portable structure that as Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, God told Moses to build this structure and it had this tent with the holy place and the holy of holies.
17:41-17:47
And this was the place where God's unique presence dwelt among his people.
17:49-18:08
So when John says the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, if you were in the Old Testament times, if you lived with Old Testament Israel He said, "Hey, can you point to the place "where God's unique presence lives on the earth?" You would point to the building, the tabernacle.
18:09-18:21
You would say, "Yeah, God's unique presence "on earth is right there." Fast forward to 2025, right now, if I were to say, "Can you point to the place "where God's unique presence dwells on earth?" Where would you point?
18:23-18:24
It's right here, right?
18:24-18:29
Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
18:29-18:32
temple was just the permanent version of the tabernacle.
18:32-18:33
This is where God lives.
18:33-18:35
This is God's unique presence here.
18:36-18:52
So what John is saying in John 1:14 is for about 33 years of earth's history, when you would ask, "Where is God's unique presence on the earth?" You'd point to a man, and that man's name is Jesus Christ.
18:52-18:54
You would point to him and say, "Right there.
18:54-18:59
That man is the unique presence of God on the earth.
18:59-19:00
This is where he is.
19:03-19:03
All right?
19:04-19:07
Jesus is not an exalted angel.
19:08-19:12
Jesus is not some special enlightened human.
19:14-19:19
According to this verse, Jesus is the God.
19:21-19:25
And every false religion denies this, by the way.
19:27-19:45
And I can just tell you personally, you would be shocked at how many times I've had to have this conversation with people over the course of my ministry, but people who actually say, "Jesus never said He was God." You heard that argument?
19:46-19:48
"Jesus never said it." What the argument is this.
19:49-19:51
That's something the church kind of came up with.
19:52-20:21
You know, we kind of, like some religions like us, we sort of hitched that idea onto Jesus, but Jesus himself, they say, "Oh, if you study the words of Jesus, he never said he was God." Well, do you remember back in Exodus chapter three, God called Moses through the burning bush.
20:22-20:25
You know, you're gonna lead my people out of Egypt.
20:25-20:26
You're gonna lead them to the promised land.
20:27-20:33
And do you remember Moses says to God, "Well, what if Israel asks who sent me?
20:34-20:42
What if Israel is like, what is his name?" Do you remember in that moment, God told Moses what his name is.
20:43-20:43
You remember?
20:44-20:50
God told Moses his name is I Am, who I am.
20:53-20:54
That's God's name.
20:56-20:57
His name is I Am.
20:59-21:00
I love that.
21:01-21:10
God didn't say to Moses, "My name is I Was." Like Moses, like, "What's your name?" And God's like, "Moses, I Was.
21:12-21:15
"Oh Moses, you should have seen me back in high school.
21:16-21:20
"Oh Moses, I was so good looking "and I was such a good athlete.
21:21-21:26
"Back in the day Moses, back in the day "I was really something." No, he's not the I was.
21:27-21:31
But nor did God tell Moses that he's the I will be.
21:33-21:33
Right?
21:34-21:52
Like Moses is like, "What's your name?" And God's like, "Well Moses, you tell the Israelites, "I might not be nothing special now, but I'm taking my vitamins and I'm drinking my milk and I'm doing my palates and I'm jumping on my pogo ball and someday, someday I'm going to be something great.
21:53-22:00
I will be. God's not the I was and He's not the I will be. God is, He is I am.
22:01-22:08
From eternity past, He is infinite, majestic holiness. He is the I am.
22:08-22:14
and in eternity future, He will still be infinite, majestic holiness.
22:15-22:16
He is the I Am.
22:19-22:21
You're like, well, what does that have to do with Jesus?
22:24-22:28
Because Jesus repeatedly claimed that He is the I Am.
22:29-22:32
It's all through the Gospel of John, what, like seven times.
22:33-22:34
I am the bread of life.
22:34-22:36
I am the light of the world.
22:36-22:38
I am the way and the truth and the life.
22:38-22:40
I am the good shepherd.
22:40-22:45
I am the door." All through Jesus made this claim.
22:45-23:04
John chapter 8, Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am." John chapter 10, Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." And in that moment, the Jews picked up stones, they were going to kill him for saying that.
23:04-23:07
And Jesus says, "I did a lot of good works.
23:07-23:10
For which of them are you going to stone me?" And they said, "Oh, no.
23:11-23:17
You're making yourself out to be God the way you're talking." You see, they knew exactly what He was saying.
23:19-23:35
They knew exactly what He meant when He said, "I and the Father are one." Oh, and by the way, not only does the Bible say that Jesus is God, did you know that the The Bible also says that God is Jesus.
23:37-23:40
Here's what I mean, look at Zechariah 12, 10.
23:40-23:43
This is before the incarnation, the Christmas story.
23:43-23:46
This is before the baby in the manger story.
23:46-23:47
This is Old Testament.
23:48-23:48
Look at what God says.
23:49-24:04
God says, "And I will pour out on the house of David "and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, "a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, "so that when they look on me, "On him whom they have pierced." Do you see how God identifies himself?
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He identifies himself as the one who was pierced, and who was the one that was pierced?
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It's Jesus Christ on the cross.
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Do you see that?
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Do a little word study there.
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That's exactly what he's saying.
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They will look on the one whom they've stabbed, right?
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It's also in the New Testament.
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God is Jesus.
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Look at Acts 20, for example.
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Paul says to the Ephesian elders, "Pay careful attention to yourselves to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood." Who bought the church with His blood?
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He says God.
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You're like, "I thought it was Jesus that shed His blood." Paul's saying that as Jesus shed His blood, that was God obtaining the church with His own blood.
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So Jesus is God, yes, and the Bible also says that God is Jesus.
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The Word was God, but the Bible also says here that the Word was with God.
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The Word was with God.
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In case you missed it, in case you didn't quite catch it in verse one, verse two, he just says the exact same thing.
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He was in the beginning with God.
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So somehow Jesus is God, but being with God, somehow he is distinct from the Father.
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Yeah, like if I said to you, Yeah, yesterday I was with my buddy, Nathaniel, and I was my buddy, Nathaniel.
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You would say, were you and Nathaniel smoking something?
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Like what was going on there?
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That doesn't make sense, does it?
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How can you be with somebody and be somebody at the same time?
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But that's exactly what the Bible says about Jesus and his relationship with God.
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He's not only God, but He's also with God.
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And people want that explained all the time.
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We get, Pastor Taylor had that, well, a couple weeks ago, the little children's back there had like a Q&A thing with him.
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And wasn't that one of the questions they were asking about the Trinity?
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And look, do you wanna know about the Trinity?
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Here's the reality.
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Nobody can figure that out.
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That's the truth.
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You can't do it.
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Because from the moment you were born, you've only ever known two things in your life.
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Your whole life, you've only ever known two things.
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And that's time and space.
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You can't fathom an existence outside of time and space.
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This is where we are.
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And now we have a God who lives and exists and rules outside of time and space.
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God is not bound by time and space.
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And somehow we think that we're going to be able to explain everything about Him.
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Here's what I know.
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The Word was with God and the Word was God.
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The Bible says God exists.
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He's one God, but He exists as three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
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Jesus is eternal, but distinct, and you don't have to explain it to believe it, okay?
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I can't explain to you how my car works, but I believe that it does when I get in and drive it.
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All right, look at verse three.
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He says, "All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made." Okay, this is just theology 101.
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It's all through the Old Testament.
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God is creator.
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And John here is saying Jesus is God, he's with God, and then John takes another step and says Jesus is creator, he made all things.
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And somehow, again, the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all involved in creation at the same time.
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You're like, can you explain that?
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I just told you I could not explain that.
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But somehow God the Father created through God the Son, and the Genesis tells us that the Spirit of God hovered above the waters.
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All three members of the Trinity were involved.
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And somehow Jesus is the agent of creation.
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The Bible says in Hebrews 1:2 that, "In these last days, God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." Through whom he created the world.
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That's all John's saying here in verse 3.
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Every living thing gets life from something else.
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A tree, your dog, a woodpecker, you.
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You got life from something else.
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The only person who has never received life from someone else is God Himself.
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That's what John's saying.
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Since Jesus already existed before creation, and because Jesus didn't get His life from something else, then He must be God.
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Those are the biblical facts about Jesus.
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And listen, even if you're sitting here today or listening to the podcast later or whatever, even if you don't agree with that, can we take an honest look at what the Bible says and stop trying to twist it?
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"Oh, it doesn't really say that." The Bible overwhelmingly says that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
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That's the truth that you have to reckon with.
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He is God.
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So if you want to know God, number two, the response.
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The response.
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You want to know God?
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The response is faith in Jesus.
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The reality is Jesus is God.
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The response is we have to have faith in Jesus.
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You see, God took the initiative.
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God did His part in revealing Himself as Jesus, so the question is, "What's my part in knowing Him?" It's faith.
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Faith is the only way to know God.
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Oh, and speaking of generic, not only do people use the name of God in a generic sense, but you'll find that people use the concept of faith in a generic sense.
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There is a true biblical sense and definition of faith, but we live in a culture that just throws that word "faith" around all the time and uses it in all kinds of ways.
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Here's what I mean.
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Some people use faith like it means wishful thinking.
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Faith is just wishful thinking.
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Like, "Well, I just kind of have faith "that everything's gonna work out." Like, what does that even mean?
31:58-32:01
For some people, they think faith is just the way of the ignorant.
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Like, "Well, you believe in science, "or you believe in faith, rather.
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"I believe in science, and they're condescending.
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You're just some backwoods redneck.
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You're ignorant.
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I believe in science, but you have your little fairy tale faith.
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And still other people look at faith as some kind of ambiguous spirituality.
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You hear people say, "I'm a person of faith." Do you know who else is a person of faith?
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Literally everybody.
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Everybody believes in something.
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What is your faith in?
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Because you can have faith in the wrong thing.
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So listen, my friends, God is not a generic concept, and neither is faith.
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Faith is a specific disposition towards a specific person.
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That's why Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith, impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God," that's the knowing God piece, "whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him." It starts with obviously an acknowledgment of His existence, but it doesn't stop there.
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You have to seek Him.
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You have a responsibility.
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took the initiative, he revealed himself in Jesus, what is my responsibility in this relationship?
33:44-34:08
Or how can I grow in knowing Jesus? I want you to jot these three things down. How can I grow in knowing Jesus? Letter A, you have to confess with your mouth. Romans 10.9 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
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And you are not going to grow in your relationship with Him if you don't have one to begin with.
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So have you made that confession?
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Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins, that He rose from the dead to give you eternal life?
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Do you believe that?
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People have this idea that, "Well, we're all children of God in the creative sense, yes, but not in the adoptive sense." Yes, we do all have a relationship with Jesus.
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The question is, do you have a good relationship with Him or a bad relationship with Him?
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You have to confess with your mouth.
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It has to start there, letter B.
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You have to hear the Word.
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You have to hear the Word.
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Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ." The only way your faith grows is through the Word of God.
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Because this is the only truly reliable source of information about Jesus because this is the source of information that was given to us by God.
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You have to be in the Word if you're going to know Jesus.
35:46-35:50
Any relationship involves time and communication.
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And some people, they spend no time in His Word, no time praying His Word, and reading and studying and meditating, and they spend no time at all in the Word, and then they wonder why they feel so distant.
36:14-36:16
Relationships grow when time is spent together.
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You need to prioritize spending time and praying the Word of God.
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And finally, letter C, "Keep His commandments." Keep His commandments.
36:35-36:49
Jesus says in John 15.10, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." That's how you abide.
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It's through obedience.
36:53-37:08
Now listen, if you're a Christian and you're in sin, sin is not going to end your relationship with Jesus, but you're obviously going to feel distant from God if you have unrepentant sin.
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Any area of disobedience in your life that you refuse to deal with, you're gonna feel distant, and that's not on God, that's on you.
37:17-37:18
God hasn't gone anywhere.
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You have.
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So what is it in your life right now that you're like, I know, I know that this is what God wants me to stop doing or maybe something God wants you to start doing, but you know exactly what it is.
37:37-37:39
You need to turn from that sin.
37:39-37:50
You need to obey whatever Jesus is calling you to, and you're going to enjoy the freedom that repentance brings in your walk with Christ.
37:54-37:57
This is what keeps people from coming to Christ in the first place, by the way.
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Jesus will take you just as you are, but he won't leave you that way.
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Jesus wants to transform you.
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He wants to change you.
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And some people just don't want to be changed.
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Keep His commandments.
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The Word became flesh.
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God became a man.
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Our worship team will come back up.
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You know, I came to Christ when I was 20.
38:46-39:01
And it's an amazing thing to grow up in a church as a kid, and all those days, all those years sitting in the church, how little I really understood.
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But when I was led to Christ, this whole new world, right?
39:09-39:17
And I remember I was trying to understand, and I had this Bible that my parents got me.
39:17-39:24
You know, some Bibles have the little story inserts, little devotional things, like kind of built into the Bible.
39:25-39:30
Well, this Bible had those, and it had this story in it.
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And the story goes something like this.
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There was this farmer and his wife, it was Christmas Eve, and the farmer's wife was going to church.
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And she asked her husband if he wanted to go with her.
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He goes, "No, I don't get that church stuff.
39:55-39:57
"It doesn't, that makes no sense to me.
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"I'm not interested at all, but you go have fun." Well, she went to church, and while he was home, he saw that there were birds trying to get into his barn.
40:14-40:17
This really bad deep freeze came over, kind of like what happened here.
40:18-40:23
And these birds were trying to get in the barn, seeking shelter from the cold.
40:23-40:29
The farmer says, "Well, I can help those birds." So he goes, "I'll just go out and open the door and let them in the barn.
40:29-40:31
And when he went out there, you know what birds do, right?
40:31-40:33
They just kind of scattered everywhere.
40:34-40:46
The farmer's like, "Well, that sure didn't help anything." So he thought, "Well, maybe if I just leave breadcrumbs, "I can like guide them in there somehow." Didn't work.
40:47-40:54
No matter what the farmer did, he couldn't get the birds into the barn to get shelter.
40:56-41:08
And as the story goes, I don't think it's a true story, but as the story goes, he stood and looked out the kitchen window and he saw the birds back flying around the outside of the barn, not able to get in.
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And the farmer thought to himself, "Those birds are going to die.
41:16-41:26
And as badly as I want to save them, I don't know how I can get them in the barn." But then the farmer had a thought.
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The farmer thought, "You know, if I could become a bird for like five minutes, I could approach them, they wouldn't be scared of me, I could speak their language, and I could and show them the way that they could be saved.
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And right when he had the thought, the story goes, off in the distance he heard the church's bells ringing.
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And that's when it connected.
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It's a dumb story.
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Admittedly, what I've got to tell you as a young Christian, When I read that, that's what made everything click for me.
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Yes, that's the purpose of the incarnation.
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That God became one of us to save us.
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So what do you want for Christmas?
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I wanna know God.
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Not the generic knockoff, but the real person.
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Because knowing God is eternal life.
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We're going to have our elders and members of our prayer team up front here.
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And in just a moment, Ashley's going to sing a song over you to have a good old-fashioned altar call.
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You can stay in your seat, you can pray right where you are.
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But I want you to know there's people that are up here that would love to pray with you and for you.
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So as Ashley sings over you, we're going to invite you to come.
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Maybe there's somebody here that today you're like, "You know what?
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"I don't really know God, I know about Him, but I don't really have a relationship with Him.
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Today's the day.
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Today's the day that you can go from knowing about God to knowing God.
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So please come.
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Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for the way that You have demonstrated Your holiness and love by taking on flesh and blood.
44:25-44:30
Father, I pray against all of the distractions.
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It's that time of year that there's more to do than we have time to do.
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And there's so many things We're just vying for our attention.
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Father, I pray that we would take a real close examination at the person of Jesus Christ and examine our own hearts.
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Are we truly walking with Him?
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Do we truly have a relationship with Him that we're spending time together and knowing and growing?
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Or are we just churchgoers?
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Father I thank You.
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You've revealed Your heart.
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You want us to know You.
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You've done everything.
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And have just simply called us to receive what You have accomplished.
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Father, thank You.
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We praise You and ask that You would continue to manifest Your goodness and presence in us by the power of Your Spirit through the wisdom of Your Word.
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We praise You in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read John 1:1-3

What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think the deity of Jesus is denied by so many cults? Why is that such a common point of contention?
How would you explain the Trinity to a 7 year old?
Define “faith”. Why do you think faith is the God-ordained way of knowing Him?
What’s your favorite dinosaur?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

All In On Spirit

Introduction:

3 Reasons I'm “All In on Spirit” in Worship (2 Samuel 6:12-23)

All In On Truth

Introduction:

All In On Truth (1 Chronicles 13:3-14)

I Want to Be Like God

Introduction:

I Want to Be Like God (John 1:14–18)

I Want to Belong to God

Introduction:

I Want to Belong to Jesus… (John 1:4–13)

I Want to Know God

Introduction:

I Want to Know God (John 1:1–3):

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

3 Reasons I'm “All In on Spirit” in Worship (2 Samuel 6:12-23)

Audio Transcript

Introduction:

All In On Truth (1 Chronicles 13:3-14)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

I Want to Be Like God (John 1:14–18)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

I Want to Belong to Jesus… (John 1:4–13)

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Introduction:

I Want to Know God (John 1:1–3):

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT