Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning to our online family. How we doing? Good, good, good. Well, my name's Jordan. I am the kids pastor here at Heights and I am super stoked to be with you guys this morning. To our families, our parents that headed over to H4 and you got there and you were ready to check in your kids, I apologize. We're having a family service. You should have gotten an email, all right? To the kids in the room, welcome.
This is a little bit different, but we're stoked you're in here. Got some little ones in the front that I recognize. Good to see you guys. How many more days until Christmas? Little kids, who, which one of you said, my high schooler's up here, three. Don't disguise like you're in kids ministry. I'm just kidding. Three more days, right? Yeah, we're getting excited. We're ramping up for Christmas. Well, like David said, we are in Advent.
We are wrapping up Advent this morning and Advent is our arrival, right? We are anticipating and celebrating the arrival of our son, Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, excuse me. And we've been talking about, we've had a conversation around this idea that God is happy to be with us so we can have. And week one, Pastor John talked about joy so that we can have joy, right? And joy, we experience joy in those face-to-face interactions. And then Pastor Todd talked about peace.
And then sometimes we're just missing peace, right? And then Jesus is the missing piece to our peace. And then hope, last week Pastor John talked about hope and then it's hope through a person and not an outcome. So this morning, I wanna talk to you guys about love and the idea that God is love and that God is happy to be with us because God is love. And now I am no love expert, right? I am not coming to you and I'm gonna share everything that I've done right in love.
It's actually just the opposite. When my wife and I were dating, I jacked it all up, right? I was like 25 years old, I didn't know what I wanted and I thought I knew what I wanted. I wanted to date somebody like myself and I found out that's probably a really bad idea. So those are your dating. Just be patient, right? Be open to what God has for you. But here's the reality is our relationship, because of me, we ended up dating on and off again, right?
And so my father-in-law who is actually here today came up with this cute little term as we walked in the door and he'd be like, oh, here's on again, off again, right? So we joke about it now, but man, we have been married for almost 15 years coming up this March. Yes, we celebrate that. And man, we have had our ups and downs, but God has been so good to us and it is more to do with my wife's patience with me and love towards me than anything and God working in through our relationship.
But we love love, right? We love to celebrate. We love to celebrate with other people that are excited about their story, to tell their story. When we hear a proposal, we're like, all right, yes, let me lean in and listen and figure out what happened, right? We wanna know about love. Most of us in here love a good love story. Some of us, the reality is, have been wounded by love. And so, but the reality is you are probably also hopeful for love or to find love again.
Many of you, like my family, have probably been watching Hallmark movies, right? Yes, trying to squeeze them in, right? Get that last Hallmark movie. Yesterday I was prepping for my message and the girls were all ready. I walk in and I was like, okay, I gotta spend some time on this, walk in and they're watching a Hallmark movie. And I was like, you know, I could probably take a couple minutes, maybe this could fit in for tomorrow.
And so I'm like, I'm gonna see what's happening here because usually I hate to be the spoiler here, but all Hallmark movies pretty much end the same way, right? And so I'm like, all right, we're gonna see, and the tension was this, right? The guy and the girl, they really couldn't stand each other but yet they had to work together. And so later on we were driving to lunch and I was like, hey girls, how did that movie end? And they were like, well, it ended in love. They loved each other, right?
And they got together and I was like, oh, see? And my favorite part about watching those movies is to watch my girls, right? We'll be sitting on the couch, watching this movie or a love story and it's that moment where the guy and the girl meet up, right, they've been overcoming obstacles and finally they get together and they're about to confess or profess their love to each other. And it's that moment where they're staring at each other's eyes and my daughters are like.
And I'm like, oh no, I'm in trouble. I got three girls and they're just like, they're all excited about love. I'm like, whoa, pump the brakes. We're not ready for that, right? You love dad and mom, that's about it. But we're designed to love, right? We love love and we love a good love story. And how awesome is it that every Sunday, every weekend we get to hear the greatest love story ever told. And not that we just get to hear about it, but that we get to, that we are the greatest love story.
So if you have your Bibles this morning or Bible apps, we'll be in 1 John chapter four, starting in verse seven. Let's go ahead and read that. Dear friends, let us love one another. For love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love.
Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you for this morning and thank you for this time that we have to open up your word and just hear from you. We just ask that you would prepare our hearts and our minds that you would just speak to us this morning.
That this idea of love and where it comes from and how we respond would be of you and from you. Lord, we thank you for this church. We thank you for just the way that you have loved us and shown your love towards us. We love you, we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, just to give you guys a little bit of context, John wrote this letter and this is also known to be the same John that wrote the Gospel of John or Revelation. And John is one of the last apostles known to be alive.
The rest of them died being martyred. And he's kind of older in his age, right? But he's still wanting to communicate the goodness of the Gospel to these people and making sure that the Gospel is being preached and accurate. And so he's writing these letters to these churches in the Asia Minor area hoping that they would be read in these churches because what's happening is there's people that are coming in and they're preaching a different Gospel.
They're preaching false, their teaching is false. And so he's trying to correct them and remind them of who their love should be towards and how to love one another. So their love was more for knowledge rather than God and for each other. And so we're gonna pick back up and I'm gonna go verse by verse through seven through 11. So 1 John 4, starting in verse seven. Dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
And so right off the bat, John is reminding them, right? That we need to love one another but also where love comes from. It wasn't this just idea that they came up with but it originated with God. He's created God, he's the genesis of God. It comes from him. His very being is God, is of love, excuse me. And so in 1 John 17, 24 says this.
Father, I want those you have given to me to be with me where I am and to see my glory and the glory you have given me because you love me before the creation of the world. And so we see that God loved Jesus even before creation began. Love was present between them. The father was loving the son and the son was loving the father and the spirit. And the second part of verse seven says, everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
This isn't to say that everybody who loves or who has been born is going to become a Christian. That's not what John's trying to communicate. What he's trying, there's plenty of people that we know of that are loving people in this world. And that doesn't mean they know God or love God. They do good things and they love but they don't know God or love God. What John is trying to communicate is that we need to be born again.
And we see this in John 3, 3 where he's talking to Nicodemus who was a religious leader at that time. And he's like, Jesus is explaining to them that they need to be reborn again. And Nicodemus is confused. He's like, wait, what? I need to like go back into my mother's womb and be born a second time? Like that sounds weird, right? That sounds even weird coming out of my mouth. But he's not talking about that. He's talking about our heart, our spiritual condition.
He says that now you need to receive the good news, right? The gospel. And that when you do that, your Holy Spirit is now lives and dwells in you and it's gonna give you new desires and a new heart and a new mind. And so he's reminding that you're gonna be washed with water and my spirit is going to live and dwell inside of you. And so that's what he's talking about in John 3, 3. And that's what it says. Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
Anyone not born again does not know God. Verse eight, whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. It's impossible to say that you know God but don't love because God is love. God's very nature is love. He is so closely linked to love that he is love. He embodies everything that love is. Now John's not saying that God is love, that is all he is. We know that God has many attributes and many characteristics.
We know that his love is holy, that it is set apart, that it is like a love that we have never seen before. His love is pure. It is not self-seeking. It is not self-seeking. It isn't sinful. It is a love that we've never known. Verse nine, this is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. And I was looking at the first part where it said that this is how God showed his love and I started thinking through that.
I'm like, all right. So I know that we love somebody, right? We wanna show them that we love them. I don't just wanna tell you, but I wanna show them. And when we were dating, my wife and I were dating, I was trying to think of a time when she first felt loved by me. So I started to think through, like we would share stories with our girls or share stories with our girls just the other night.
So cute, like we were sharing because we're talking about love and we're all around the table and they're just like leaning in, like just trying to eat. And they're so like enthralled with it. It just cracks me up. But right, we share these stories and they wanna know. And my wife shares this story often. And so I'm like, I think that's the moment. But I'm like, I better ask her though, because maybe what I'm thinking of how she felt like I first loved her was not.
And so I went to her and I was like, hey, babe. I'm like, so when was the first time that you knew or that I showed you and you're like, I think he loves me. And I was like, because here's what I thought. I thought it was that time where, we were texting back and forth and your family was going to dinner and my family was going to dinner. And it just so happened that we were ending up in the same parking lot, but different restaurants. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna make this little foil rose.
And I went and put it on her car. And I was like, this is so, she's gonna love it. Right? She's like, no. That was not when I felt love. She's like, I had butterflies. Like, oh, he's so cute. Right? And I was like, see, I told you guys, I'm gonna love this. But that wasn't love, right? That wasn't me showing love. And I was like, okay, so what was it?
And she was like, well, remember that time when we had our college retreat and we went up to the mountain and we were both leaders in our college ministry. And this was the second time that I had broken up with her. And her friends were very much like, you just need to not talk to that guy. Give him the cold shoulder. Don't give him the time of day, right? Don't even speak to him. And I was kind of hurt by that, rightfully so. And I'm like, I gotta just talk to her, right?
Like, I don't like this tension, right? Especially when we're serving in ministry together. And so I was like, I'm gonna go talk to her. So I mustered up the strength and the courage to go and talk to her and let her know just kind of how I felt. And so I was like, had tears in my eyes, I guess. I don't know if she tells a story like that, but. But I was real and I was honest. And I was honest and there was humility and there was vulnerability. And all those emotions were real.
And the way that I felt about her. Because even though I broke up with her two times, I really liked her. And that's why I was hurt. But there's a weightiness when we showed love, right? It means something and God sending Jesus meant something. There is a weightiness. The second part of verse nine, it says, he sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. God initiates his love. Usually when the person that has offended, right? Needs to go and make it right.
But God says, no, no, no. I love you so much so that I'm gonna send my one and only son into the world. To be with you, to love you, to show you what love is, but also to die with you, to be the perfect sacrifice. In Matthew 1, 23, it says, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son. They will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. God wanted to be with us so much that he sends his son. Christmas is a time to celebrate how God showed his love to us.
In John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever loves him or believes in him, excuse me, shall not perish but have eternal life. God is happy to be with us so we celebrate Christmas. Verse 10, this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We didn't love God first. Simply by his grace and his love towards us, right? We were in rebellion, so the Bible says that our hearts were set against him.
In Romans 5, 8, it says, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is a loving God to go, hey, I'm going to send my most loved possession, my Jesus, who I love, who I have spent eternity with, right? My son, I'm going to send him to you when your backs are towards me. Greatest love, act of love. And then it says that he sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
The atoning sacrifice means that Jesus paid it all, that he satisfied the wrath of God, that he was the payment that was needed to reconcile us back to God. And he steps in. And so I know sometimes we think, man, right? We think, I just jacked it up. Maybe where you could come here this morning and there's shame and there's guilt, I don't feel closely, I don't feel like God loves me, right? I feel like he's distant because of what I've done, so there's shame.
And I just need you to know that God is happy to be with you, even in your sin. Huh, what? Yeah. Romans 8.38, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus paid it all so we will never be separated from the love of God.
Verse 11, dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. And I'm gonna be honest with you guys, so this is kind of the so what, right? This is the response to the gospel. Basically, John just got done laying out the gospel. He is loved, the way that he loved us in sending Jesus the perfect payment for our sins, right? That he wanted to be with us, that he wanted to reconcile us to God through Jesus Christ. And it's kind of like the gospel is the love of God.
The gospel is how do we respond to that? And so John is saying, hey, so what? So since God loves you, love one another. Based on everything that we just talked about, how are we loving one another? And so for me, as I'm going through all this and as I'm getting ready to teach this, I'm thinking about it when I wake up in the morning, thinking about it when I go to bed at night, and this love one another piece is the only thing that keeps sticking out to me, right? I'm like, I know the gospel.
I've known the gospel for a while now. I can come to church. I can say that I love God. But that piece right there, you gotta love one another. And so when you start teaching and you're meditating on this and you're going through it, I wake up in the morning and I'm like, all right, how am I loving my wife? How am I loving my kids? How am I loving my family? How am I loving my community? So things like, right, we're so fixated on what we gotta do and the mission that we got.
When we start to go, all right, this is what I need to do. This is my response to the gospel. We begin to open up, and this isn't me patting myself on the back. This is God saying, hey, wake up. I have so much more for you and what you wanna do. So I hop in my truck and I go to Home Depot because men, you need stuff at Home Depot, right? All right, and I say, I had to get stuff for the house. And I'm like, I'm on a mission. I gotta get in, get out.
It's busy, it's Christmas time and people are everywhere, right? Sure enough, I jump out of my truck and there's an older gentleman by himself stacking block, and I just feel this, you're gonna love this guy. I was like, oh. I'm like, hey man, how you doing? You need help with your block, right? And so we're just here stacking block at Home Depot. It took about 10 minutes, right? Thank goodness he didn't need the whole stack. I don't know if I have time for that, right?
I didn't know how many you needed. How many do you need? All right, let's go. We just have the opportunity to lean into those when we start to think about. In John 13, 35, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.
Could you guys imagine, just imagine sitting in the room with the disciples and Jesus during this moment, and just to kind of give the rundown of Chapter 13 and John 13, there's Passover, and Jesus is washing their feet, the disciples' feet, and then he tells them, they're probably sitting around, and he's like, oh, by the way, yes, one of you in here is going to betray me. I'm like, whoa, this got intense, right?
And he's like, and then he tells them about the new commandment I give to you that you love God and that you love one another. Oh, and by the way, the world is gonna know that you are my disciples by the way you love one another. I'm like, whoa, hold up. Like, this got really intense really quick. First of all, somebody's gonna betray Jesus. I'd be walls up, right? But then think about who's sitting in the room.
You have Matthew, who's a tax collector, which is probably the worst job within the Jewish community. You have Peter, who's so strong-willed, impulsive, just kind of flies off the handle, doesn't says whatever he wants. Thomas, who's a skeptic. Simon, the zealot, who was an assassin. They had an assassin in their group. I know what some of you were thinking. This sounds very much like my Christmas family party. Yeah, yeah.
But here's the reality is God doesn't give us people in our circle that are easy to love sometimes. He says, hey, I just need you to love them. And the way that you love them, the world will know that you are my disciples. God is happy to be with us, so we should be happy to be with one another. I love that quote by Bob Goff. He wrote a book called Love Does. And it says, the kind of love that God created and demonstrated is a costly one because it involves sacrifice and presence.
It's a love that operates more like sign language than being spoken out, right? So we have the opportunity, right, to love the people in our circle. We're getting ready to ramp up for our family Christmas parties, right? No matter who's in that circle, we can love them wherever they're at. And sometimes it's us, right, leaning in and saying, okay, I'm gonna love. But sometimes it's God using somebody else to show us his love.
And as I was prepping for this message, it was Tuesday, we do message prep on Tuesday in our offices, and I just felt like, just overwhelmed, right? And I felt just the pressure and anxiety. And I was texting my wife and I'm like, hey babe, I'm like, can you just pray for me? I'm like, I'm just feeling like anxious about this.
And so I send that to her, and probably five minutes later, I get a text message from a buddy of mine back in California who was a church planner with us, and we planted him, he's still the pastor of that church. And he texts me out of the blue, and he's like, hey man, he goes, this is your guy, right, Bob Goff? And it was a podcast by him with an interview with Kerry Newhoff. And I was like, oh yeah, that's my guy, I love that guy. And I was like, do you have just a couple minutes to chat?
And he did, we chatted for 20 minutes, and I was sharing with him that I'm teaching this Sunday, and that I'm teaching on love, and he's like, oh man, you're perfect for that. And I was like, me? Really? He's like, oh yeah. He just took the time to point out evidence of the grace, right? That was an evidence of grace moment to just encourage me, and to love me, and God just using him and his obedience to that.
And it was just such a sweet moment, and I just felt like just the weight lifted off, right? We just have that opportunity to be that, right? Maybe we're going into Christmas, and the most loving thing that we can do is provide joy for somebody in those face-to-face moments. Maybe the most loving thing we can do is give peace and point somebody to that missing piece that they're missing, which is Jesus. Maybe we can love somebody by giving them hope in what seems like a hopeless situation.
We are the greatest love story ever told, and God is asking us to join him in that love story as we love one another. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you for this morning. We just thank you for your goodness and your kindness to us that we did not deserve. But it was your act of love that stepped in to our world and loved us in spite of us. Father, thank you that we can respond in a way that's appropriate. Father, that you want to live and dwell in us and among us.
Father, that you use people to be able to communicate your love and how you loved. I just pray, Lord, that we would be obedient to that, that we would learn how to do that. Father, as we prepare to go with family, or friends, and maybe there's somebody that we just, and it's just hard to live life with. Father, we just pray right now that you would give us grace, the same grace that we have been given, and we would love with the same love that we have been given.
Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you that you call us out of darkness and into light. Maybe celebrate this Christmas because you are happy to be with us. In Jesus' name, amen.