WEBVTT 00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:04.780 You know, we started ABC in 2008 as a Bible study. 00:00:05.180 --> 00:00:12.440 And God has just been so faithful to us as we've seen our church continue to grow every year that we've existed, to the point now we're looking to build a new a 00:00:12.440 --> 00:00:14.440 new facility on Main Street. 00:00:15.280 --> 00:00:22.400 And we when we first moved here, we got involved in church planting and we found out there was an organization that had been planting churches here since the 1950s. 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:25.630 It's an organization called Biblical Ministries Worldwide. 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:30.780 Stacy and I are a part of that organization encouraging church planters throughout that state. 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:35.790 And today we have the privilege of having with us Andrew and Sarah Bonnell and Sarah, I don't know. 00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:37.520 I know where Andrew's at, but oh, there you are. 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:38.280 There's Sarah. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:40.360 Sarah is sitting back here in this direction. 00:00:40.400 --> 00:00:42.370 So we have the opportunity to encourage them while they're here today. 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:45.740 I asked Andrew if he'd be willing to come share with us. 00:00:46.020 --> 00:00:49.170 I always feel bad when I ask people to speak because I'm like, you got to do three services. 00:00:50.060 --> 00:00:53.880 You know, we kind of pack ourselves in and so we do the best we can where we are. 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:59.660 It gets a little a little tiring by the end, but Andrew and Sarah lead biblical ministries worldwide. 00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:07.240 They have over 600 missionaries around the world in 70 plus countries, and it's my privilege to be able to introduce 00:01:07.240 --> 00:01:10.980 to you the President of Biblical Ministries Worldwide, Andrew Bunnell. 00:01:11.020 --> 00:01:13.220 Would you come up this morning and share a message with us? 00:01:13.220 --> 00:01:16.570 Would you guys give them a round of applause and just welcome him to the stage? 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:30.370 It's good to see you this morning. 00:01:31.160 --> 00:01:31.870 It's good to be in Utah. 00:01:34.850 --> 00:01:36.050 What did you do with the snow? 00:01:41.940 --> 00:01:43.720 Well, hopefully it'll be back next year. 00:01:43.800 --> 00:01:51.540 I was my wife shared an article with me that there's a whole group of great minds 00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:58.660 of the historic state here that are working to refill the great salt lake, the Great 00:01:58.660 --> 00:02:02.120 Salt Lake between now and the Winter Olympics. 00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:04.170 So be hoping that happens. 00:02:05.160 --> 00:02:12.360 And I do remember coming out when I was a kid and seeing it and it's interesting how much 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:18.400 the valley has grown and how little lake there is compared to what I remember as a child. 00:02:18.420 --> 00:02:25.340 So it's hopefully that happens and we don't lose the that incredible what is it? 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:27.800 Best snow on earth that we need that. 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:31.290 So anyway, prayers for that to happen. 00:02:33.180 --> 00:02:40.440 You know, it's interesting, I, I speak at churches that I'm not the pastor of with some 00:02:40.880 --> 00:02:41.240 frequency. 00:02:43.140 --> 00:02:50.360 And I think there's often a perception that when you have a guest speaker, it's kind of like a politician when 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:54.840 they're running for office, you have your stump speech and you just give the same talk everywhere. 00:02:55.660 --> 00:03:00.860 There is some truth to it because you have a message you want to communicate. 00:03:02.440 --> 00:03:06.400 But the hard part for me is I was a pastor for a number of years. 00:03:06.920 --> 00:03:12.860 And so I always balance that message that I'm asked to give or asked to communicate. 00:03:13.760 --> 00:03:18.370 Because we talk about mission, we talk about what it is to reach the nations. 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:22.940 But I also balance that with, I want to speak to you. 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:26.460 I want to speak to the room in front of me this morning. 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:34.980 And the disadvantage is I don't know you and I'm just kind of feeling what I'm seeing 00:03:34.980 --> 00:03:37.440 and, first crowd, second crowd. 00:03:37.440 --> 00:03:38.850 There'll be a third crowd later today. 00:03:40.940 --> 00:03:42.010 So I want to try to get that right. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:52.160 And so as I prepared and developed the message, what I, what I've come to and what I 00:03:52.160 --> 00:03:59.200 come to again and again is that You can't really go wrong with 00:03:59.200 --> 00:04:06.200 the love of God, the love of God, because this 00:04:06.200 --> 00:04:09.620 is the thing that brings us here. 00:04:10.340 --> 00:04:12.390 This is the thing that brings us together. 00:04:13.320 --> 00:04:17.160 So with that said, I'd like you to turn, if you would, to Titus chapter two. 00:04:18.040 --> 00:04:21.060 And the you see the title behind me. 00:04:21.200 --> 00:04:22.500 Redeeming love. 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:24.660 Redeeming love. 00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:34.400 Titus chapter two, verse 11, Titus chapter two, verse 00:04:34.400 --> 00:04:35.000 11. 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:42.540 And of course, in this letter we see Paul writing to Titus, his child 00:04:42.540 --> 00:04:50.440 or his son, if you will, in the faith from an older apostle to a younger man, telling 00:04:50.440 --> 00:04:55.220 him, this Is the most important thing. 00:04:56.420 --> 00:04:57.970 This is what it's all about. 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:01.780 Titus chapter two and verse 11. 00:05:03.620 --> 00:05:04.260 So we'll read. 00:05:04.400 --> 00:05:10.220 Now the Bible says, for the grace of God has appeared. 00:05:11.420 --> 00:05:13.340 Well, we could pause right there, couldn't we? 00:05:14.760 --> 00:05:20.000 The grace of God has appeared. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.520 What an extraordinary phrase. 00:05:25.880 --> 00:05:27.770 God's grace appeared. 00:05:27.960 --> 00:05:29.320 You can see it. 00:05:32.580 --> 00:05:36.160 Bringing salvation for all people. 00:05:37.340 --> 00:05:39.080 That's also a wonderful phrase. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:49.860 Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present 00:05:49.860 --> 00:05:57.100 age, Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and 00:05:57.100 --> 00:06:02.180 Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. 00:06:03.080 --> 00:06:10.200 Notice this to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a 00:06:10.200 --> 00:06:16.280 people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works. 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:18.100 Declare these things. 00:06:18.940 --> 00:06:20.920 Exhort and rebuke with all authority. 00:06:21.760 --> 00:06:27.140 Let no one disregard you, young man. 00:06:27.380 --> 00:06:31.260 Paul is saying, this is what matters. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:36.260 Don't let anybody stop you from sharing this. 00:06:38.780 --> 00:06:45.860 You go back to verse 11 and you read that the grace of God has appeared, and that is like a lightning bolt out of 00:06:45.860 --> 00:06:46.500 the sky. 00:06:47.660 --> 00:06:48.740 It's here. 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:51.500 The grace of God is here. 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:57.920 And there's something about this grace, this transforming. 00:06:58.400 --> 00:07:01.520 Extraordinary grace that has appeared. 00:07:01.540 --> 00:07:04.320 It brings salvation for all people. 00:07:07.500 --> 00:07:09.380 Salvation for all people. 00:07:12.440 --> 00:07:19.520 And when you think about the power in that message, it means that there is something in this that 00:07:19.520 --> 00:07:27.640 we need to understand and know very well 00:07:28.260 --> 00:07:28.660 indeed. 00:07:31.960 --> 00:07:39.060 God loves the world, and I think sometimes we forget 00:07:39.060 --> 00:07:45.200 what that actually means, because we think of the world as a really big place. 00:07:46.420 --> 00:07:47.260 God loves the world. 00:07:47.860 --> 00:07:48.440 Isn't that good? 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:50.460 Would you know? 00:07:50.460 --> 00:07:55.520 What's even better is that God loves you. 00:07:57.660 --> 00:08:04.340 God loves you, and God loves me. 00:08:07.820 --> 00:08:14.300 And his love is very different than the kind of love that we mostly think about. 00:08:15.460 --> 00:08:20.460 God's love for you and for me understands who we are. 00:08:22.420 --> 00:08:26.580 And it is a completely different sort of love than the love we think about. 00:08:27.200 --> 00:08:28.620 We're going to talk about that this morning. 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:37.380 In this verse, we see that this love brings God to a 00:08:37.380 --> 00:08:41.760 place that he gave His Son, Jesus Christ. 00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:44.960 The Lord Jesus Christ. 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:50.730 The Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords. 00:08:52.720 --> 00:09:00.220 The only begotten Son of God, he gave him to redeem us. 00:09:02.760 --> 00:09:09.160 So to know who Jesus is and what Jesus is and the authority of Jesus Christ. 00:09:09.500 --> 00:09:16.680 To know that Jesus was given to redeem us means that God has 00:09:16.680 --> 00:09:17.780 a redeeming love. 00:09:19.140 --> 00:09:21.640 God has a redeeming kind of love. 00:09:25.460 --> 00:09:26.380 The love of God. 00:09:29.020 --> 00:09:36.920 The songwriter wrote, is greater far than tongue or pen could 00:09:36.920 --> 00:09:38.040 ever tell. 00:09:39.460 --> 00:09:46.060 It goes beyond the highest star and it reaches to the lowest hell. 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:52.480 The love of God is something you can't escape. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:55.920 It goes everywhere. 00:09:56.640 --> 00:09:57.590 It gets into everything. 00:09:59.540 --> 00:10:00.520 And it's there for you. 00:10:03.060 --> 00:10:04.200 What is redeeming love? 00:10:04.820 --> 00:10:07.500 What does it mean to have a redeeming kind of love? 00:10:07.680 --> 00:10:10.680 Well, to understand that, we need to understand the word redemption, don't we? 00:10:10.680 --> 00:10:14.720 What is to redeem something or the idea of redemption. 00:10:15.780 --> 00:10:16.960 Now, I grew up. 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.430 I'm a I'm a sixth generation Texan. 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:22.590 I won't do the Texan thing today, I promise you. 00:10:23.100 --> 00:10:23.840 I know they all. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:31.000 They come up here into Colorado every year and try to take over the States with their, skiing and their hiking and all 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:32.170 of the things that they do. 00:10:32.860 --> 00:10:34.020 I'm sorry about that. 00:10:34.020 --> 00:10:35.770 Some of us are still nice people. 00:10:39.480 --> 00:10:42.350 Most of them are transplants, but we have to claim them. 00:10:44.780 --> 00:10:48.480 But what I grew up in, the Bible Belt, we call it, you know. 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:51.620 And I heard all of these words my whole life. 00:10:51.620 --> 00:10:54.010 Redemption was one of those words. 00:10:54.420 --> 00:10:55.570 As a song redeemed. 00:10:55.700 --> 00:10:57.100 How I love to proclaim it. 00:10:57.100 --> 00:10:58.840 Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:01.720 Redeemed through his infinite mercy. 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:02.780 His child. 00:11:02.780 --> 00:11:04.760 And forever I am. 00:11:05.940 --> 00:11:09.090 You know, we could have that with a guitar and a plinky plonk. 00:11:09.140 --> 00:11:12.190 Country Western style, a piano player and all that. 00:11:12.280 --> 00:11:17.320 And I think we were probably more into the tune and the toe tapping than we were the actual song, you know? 00:11:17.640 --> 00:11:18.920 But we heard these words. 00:11:20.620 --> 00:11:23.040 But it was many, many years later. 00:11:24.380 --> 00:11:26.140 I was living in London. 00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:28.970 Our family spent 19 years overseas. 00:11:29.260 --> 00:11:35.460 Half of those in London, England, and I was pastor of a church in London for nearly ten years. 00:11:35.460 --> 00:11:42.660 And I was sitting in my living room there in England with my boys, 00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:45.580 and we were watching a show that maybe some of you watched. 00:11:45.580 --> 00:11:49.080 It started, I think, in the early 2000 and went on for quite some time. 00:11:49.380 --> 00:11:50.900 Probably it's in reruns. 00:11:50.900 --> 00:11:54.280 It may still be going, but the show was called Wheeler Dealer. 00:11:55.380 --> 00:11:56.620 Some of you may have seen it. 00:11:56.620 --> 00:12:04.200 There's a few heads nodding, but Wheeler Dealer was a show about taking old cars and 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:10.570 bringing them back to life like classics, but basically they turned into rust buckets. 00:12:12.020 --> 00:12:19.320 And the show was about these British guys who would get these old models and 00:12:19.320 --> 00:12:20.760 restore them completely. 00:12:22.850 --> 00:12:24.900 And I didn't really watch the show. 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:28.240 I'm not really a guy who fixes up cars. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:29.100 That's not my thing. 00:12:29.100 --> 00:12:31.780 I grew up with my grandfather or the ranch. 00:12:31.880 --> 00:12:37.840 I, I didn't do cars, but for some reason one of my boys was into it and we watched it. 00:12:37.940 --> 00:12:44.960 And that show, they were restoring a 54 Chevy pickup that they'd found somewhere in 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:45.610 the States. 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:51.440 Well, that caught me because, I like a good pickup. 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:59.760 And I watched that thing, and I watched the love and the care that they put into that. 00:13:00.880 --> 00:13:06.340 I watched how they completely renovated inside and out. 00:13:07.880 --> 00:13:15.240 And it wasn't just that you watch this old hunk of metal start coming back to life, to its original 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:16.180 glory. 00:13:16.400 --> 00:13:23.240 It's that what we got at the end of that show, and it's amazing what they can do in 45 minutes with commercial breaks, isn't it? 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:24.540 It was such a quick thing. 00:13:26.520 --> 00:13:33.700 That thing was better than it was the day it came off the showroom floor in 1954. 00:13:33.700 --> 00:13:34.500 Why? 00:13:34.820 --> 00:13:39.520 Because over 6070 years, technology had come a long way. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:45.290 It was the same, but it was better. 00:13:45.320 --> 00:13:52.400 It was basically brand new, but in a way that it had ever, never been new 00:13:52.400 --> 00:13:53.160 before. 00:13:55.100 --> 00:14:02.640 And it was that I realized that day what it means when it says God redeems us. 00:14:02.820 --> 00:14:08.420 It's not just that he buys us back in an old, broken, ruined condition. 00:14:08.620 --> 00:14:14.040 It's that the redeeming love of God completely changes the inside and the out. 00:14:14.280 --> 00:14:18.880 And we're left a brand new creation. 00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:26.540 It might look something like the best version of the old model, but it's a completely different thing now. 00:14:27.780 --> 00:14:34.830 And the reason it's different is that the love of God gets in the inside. 00:14:35.880 --> 00:14:40.220 And when the love of God is on the inside, it absolutely changes. 00:14:44.620 --> 00:14:44.720 Everything. 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:47.860 Everything. 00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:53.890 That's a revolution. 00:14:56.940 --> 00:14:57.580 That's a revolution. 00:14:59.940 --> 00:15:01.780 That's not religion. 00:15:03.640 --> 00:15:05.900 That's not a bunch of things that you do. 00:15:10.220 --> 00:15:11.720 You can't really. 00:15:12.020 --> 00:15:13.360 And I can't really. 00:15:14.200 --> 00:15:16.940 We can't really fix ourselves up. 00:15:20.800 --> 00:15:28.140 So the love of God comes out of time and space, and 00:15:28.140 --> 00:15:34.020 it comes to us through Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. 00:15:34.980 --> 00:15:38.760 And in that moment, suspended between heaven and earth. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:45.610 Something happens that changes everything. 00:15:47.880 --> 00:15:51.480 2000 years ago, everything changed. 00:15:54.900 --> 00:16:01.160 You see, mankind likes to live by rules. 00:16:05.320 --> 00:16:07.760 You know, I studied world religions. 00:16:08.020 --> 00:16:09.060 It's something extraordinary. 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:11.000 I've traveled with Pastor Nathaniel said. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:12.680 We have 70 countries around the world. 00:16:12.680 --> 00:16:18.880 It's really interesting when you go globally and you see one thing all mankind has in common. 00:16:19.100 --> 00:16:23.080 Humans love to create a system of rules. 00:16:24.760 --> 00:16:28.440 And we set these rules up and then we live by them. 00:16:28.780 --> 00:16:30.850 Except we don't, because we're all hypocrites. 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:32.700 But we say we do. 00:16:33.500 --> 00:16:36.320 And at some point we decide we don't want those rules anymore. 00:16:36.380 --> 00:16:37.390 So we get new ones. 00:16:37.940 --> 00:16:39.610 And then we create a new set of rules. 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:44.540 And then we live by those until somebody gives an invisible signal and says, these are the new rules. 00:16:45.800 --> 00:16:46.980 And then we live by those. 00:16:49.140 --> 00:16:52.370 And you can call that society, you can call that politics. 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:55.380 You can call that religion whatever you want to call it. 00:16:55.520 --> 00:17:03.360 It's a man made thing to try to regulate ourselves in a way that 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:04.460 makes everything work. 00:17:08.900 --> 00:17:11.839 That's not going to get us to God. 00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:20.640 But we as humans have been telling ourselves that lie from the beginning of time itself. 00:17:21.079 --> 00:17:27.670 And the problem is we're fundamentally disconnected from who God is and what God is. 00:17:31.240 --> 00:17:32.580 God has a different kind of love. 00:17:35.740 --> 00:17:37.000 God has a different kind of love. 00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:43.480 We throw the word love around a lot. 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:51.760 And we don't really understand what God's love is all about. 00:17:53.700 --> 00:17:56.340 So here's what we're going to do this morning. 00:17:57.600 --> 00:18:02.020 We're going to look at three three ways to think about the redeeming love of God. 00:18:03.260 --> 00:18:11.740 We're going to see how those three ways maybe change our understanding, just a little bit of 00:18:11.740 --> 00:18:15.840 who God is, what God is, and what God's love is for us. 00:18:18.220 --> 00:18:23.260 You see, you can look at that TV show that I watched, Wheeler Dealer. 00:18:23.260 --> 00:18:29.740 You can look at that 54 Chevy, and you can see a picture of humanity without the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:18:30.820 --> 00:18:37.970 Redemption is a word of love that goes back to the dawn of time itself. 00:18:39.460 --> 00:18:46.500 The first thing I want you to look at about this love of God is that this love is an unbelievable kind 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:47.140 of love. 00:18:47.880 --> 00:18:49.720 It is unbelievable. 00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:52.680 Unbelievable. 00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:53.340 Unbelievable. 00:18:54.340 --> 00:18:55.880 You say, Andrew, that's very simple. 00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:57.000 It is. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:18:58.560 But it's more than that. 00:18:59.460 --> 00:19:00.780 Believable love. 00:19:00.780 --> 00:19:02.080 Unbelievable love. 00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:09.500 Can I say that if God's love wasn't unbelievable, it wouldn't be worthy 00:19:09.500 --> 00:19:11.060 of God? 00:19:13.960 --> 00:19:21.140 If we could make God's love make sense, then we would understand that 00:19:21.140 --> 00:19:22.570 it's made of men. 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:27.720 But thank God, God's love is unbelievable. 00:19:28.020 --> 00:19:30.470 Look with me, if you will, at Romans chapter five. 00:19:34.120 --> 00:19:40.480 If you go over to Romans five and you look at this kind of love, we understand it immediately different. 00:19:44.120 --> 00:19:48.280 Romans five six says, for while we were still weak. 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:58.560 While we were still weak at the right time, Christ died 00:19:58.560 --> 00:20:00.440 for the ungodly. 00:20:02.500 --> 00:20:10.040 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one 00:20:10.040 --> 00:20:12.260 would dare even to die. 00:20:13.060 --> 00:20:20.080 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still 00:20:20.080 --> 00:20:27.200 sinners, Christ died for us, while 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:31.460 we were still weak. 00:20:31.780 --> 00:20:38.780 So Paul the apostle is writing here and he's making a point that's really important 00:20:38.780 --> 00:20:39.240 to get. 00:20:42.500 --> 00:20:49.740 We create legends and songs and poems and stories about heroes that 00:20:49.740 --> 00:20:53.780 sacrificed themselves there for others. 00:20:54.900 --> 00:21:02.640 You see this in a war hero in battle who wins the Medal of Honor because they sacrificed themselves. 00:21:05.120 --> 00:21:06.180 For their fellow man. 00:21:07.780 --> 00:21:15.020 You might see a husband who would die for a wife or a wife for the husband or the parents for children, or a very close friend 00:21:15.020 --> 00:21:16.640 for another close friend. 00:21:18.320 --> 00:21:24.420 But it's so rare indeed that you would just die for a stranger. 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:31.900 You know, when you see those stories and you hear about someone who just rushes into harm's 00:21:31.900 --> 00:21:35.770 way for to save a crowd of people that they don't even know. 00:21:36.620 --> 00:21:39.360 Like, wow, that person was a hero. 00:21:42.060 --> 00:21:46.280 But Paul goes further and he says, look, he says, look. 00:21:48.760 --> 00:21:50.380 It's not just that. 00:21:50.420 --> 00:21:50.980 It's that. 00:21:53.600 --> 00:21:54.740 These aren't nice people. 00:21:56.820 --> 00:22:04.080 This is saying, I'll sacrifice myself not just a righteous person 00:22:04.080 --> 00:22:09.350 or a good person, but someone I know is neither of those things. 00:22:13.560 --> 00:22:22.440 It's the godly for the ungodly, the 00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:25.920 godly for the ungodly. 00:22:28.820 --> 00:22:36.620 It's finding the worst and the best and the best, sacrificing for the worst so 00:22:36.620 --> 00:22:38.600 that the worst can be lifted up. 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:44.380 That's not what we do. 00:22:46.100 --> 00:22:46.980 Have you noticed that? 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:48.080 Have you looked around society? 00:22:48.600 --> 00:22:50.470 Have you looked around our political system? 00:22:50.780 --> 00:22:51.780 Have you looked around? 00:22:51.780 --> 00:22:54.150 What's happening in our culture and in our world? 00:22:54.380 --> 00:22:55.420 What do we see? 00:22:55.700 --> 00:22:56.540 We see. 00:22:57.000 --> 00:22:58.480 You're not like me. 00:22:59.340 --> 00:23:00.520 I don't like you. 00:23:01.840 --> 00:23:02.990 That's the way humans operate. 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:11.420 If you read the history of the world and it doesn't matter where you read it, what country, what people there 00:23:11.420 --> 00:23:12.720 is always. 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:13.800 We're like this. 00:23:14.060 --> 00:23:15.370 Our way is better. 00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:19.590 Our way is better. 00:23:20.660 --> 00:23:26.500 And since you're not like me in whatever thing, we're probably going to go to war over each other's land. 00:23:27.560 --> 00:23:32.800 And we're going to get your land and make you like us, or you won't be around anymore. 00:23:33.800 --> 00:23:35.140 And you see it throughout history. 00:23:35.980 --> 00:23:37.500 Empire after empire. 00:23:37.500 --> 00:23:38.980 Country after country. 00:23:41.840 --> 00:23:43.080 That's why I promised you. 00:23:43.080 --> 00:23:45.960 I'm not going to get into the superiority of Texas this morning. 00:23:46.360 --> 00:23:48.400 It's obnoxious. 00:23:48.600 --> 00:23:51.830 Thankfully, I'm a Christian, so I can rise above all that stuff. 00:23:52.420 --> 00:23:55.430 Unless you're from Oklahoma, in which case we can meet out here and fight later. 00:23:57.920 --> 00:23:58.880 You see what I mean? 00:23:59.020 --> 00:24:00.140 It's what we do. 00:24:00.220 --> 00:24:00.980 We do it. 00:24:01.020 --> 00:24:01.360 We. 00:24:01.380 --> 00:24:03.130 And it even bleeds into our sports. 00:24:04.220 --> 00:24:06.660 Do you realize on Sundays in the fall. 00:24:06.820 --> 00:24:12.720 Saturdays in the fall, we break ourselves down into swag and gear. 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:17.980 And when our team wins, we have some weird, subtle sense of superiority. 00:24:18.300 --> 00:24:19.980 Thank God we beat those guys. 00:24:19.980 --> 00:24:21.080 We don't like them. 00:24:23.100 --> 00:24:28.580 Half my organizational leadership have some strange Thai background of Philadelphia. 00:24:28.760 --> 00:24:29.760 So pray for me. 00:24:29.760 --> 00:24:34.330 I have to deal with a bunch of Eagles fans all fall like, what's wrong with you people? 00:24:36.060 --> 00:24:37.160 We do that. 00:24:37.760 --> 00:24:40.100 We do that in the sports arena. 00:24:40.320 --> 00:24:41.700 We do that in our culture. 00:24:41.820 --> 00:24:42.880 We do that in our food. 00:24:43.300 --> 00:24:46.230 We it's just it's just a little better. 00:24:46.900 --> 00:24:47.980 It's just a little better. 00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:57.700 When you bring this into the sphere or the arena of the divine and you realize that the truly 00:24:57.700 --> 00:25:03.950 superior, the truly better, not some arbitrary human thing. 00:25:04.100 --> 00:25:04.380 Listen. 00:25:05.260 --> 00:25:05.720 Put it out. 00:25:05.800 --> 00:25:06.400 Give it to you. 00:25:06.420 --> 00:25:13.810 Recently, I had to go out of the country for a wedding, and I had to go because I was the officiant. 00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:15.880 That's kind of important to show up. 00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:17.460 It was very honored. 00:25:17.460 --> 00:25:18.730 Some very dear friends and. 00:25:19.240 --> 00:25:26.970 But it was in Mexico, and I've been to Mexico a number of times for mission work, 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:28.020 that sort of thing. 00:25:28.140 --> 00:25:28.760 This is. 00:25:28.760 --> 00:25:35.660 Honestly, I'd never been to Mexico for nice resort Mexico in the way that worked. 00:25:35.740 --> 00:25:36.080 And. 00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:40.400 So I was with a bunch of gringos, in Mexico. 00:25:40.560 --> 00:25:40.720 And. 00:25:40.940 --> 00:25:42.960 And the interesting thing is. 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:49.500 Being a, where I came from and grew up, I grew up with a lot of what we call. 00:25:49.620 --> 00:25:50.420 You know, street Mexican. 00:25:50.840 --> 00:25:55.520 I learned to speak a lot of Spanish as a child, just kind of interacting with friends. 00:25:55.520 --> 00:25:58.640 And we had on the street where I lived, Mrs. 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:04.720 Rodriguez, who came over the Rio Grande when she was a child, probably in the 20s or 30s. 00:26:04.740 --> 00:26:11.800 And I was friends with her grandchildren and we would play in the street and all the kids and she would have fresh 00:26:11.800 --> 00:26:16.240 hot tamales you know, on the, on her screen porch. 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:18.580 And we, when we were hungry, we could play all day. 00:26:18.620 --> 00:26:22.950 That was back in the days when parents would kick their kids out, in the morning. 00:26:23.140 --> 00:26:26.300 During the summer and not let them back in till dinner time. 00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:32.500 And I was probably the last generation of people who didn't have one of these things, and we had to take it all outside. 00:26:33.120 --> 00:26:38.240 And so we could run over to her porch or her back screen porch and get hot tamales. 00:26:38.360 --> 00:26:39.820 Well, here I am down in Mexico. 00:26:41.340 --> 00:26:44.740 And, I have lost a lot of my Spanish now. 00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:47.900 And I've learned another language. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:48.680 Living in Russia. 00:26:48.680 --> 00:26:51.400 I learned Russian and lived in Europe for all these years. 00:26:51.400 --> 00:26:52.240 So I've lost all that. 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:55.630 But what I haven't lost is I haven't lost my food Spanish. 00:26:56.520 --> 00:27:02.440 And so I'm talking with the taxi driver and we're kind of I'm using some Google Translate and a few words I still have. 00:27:02.460 --> 00:27:04.380 And he finally says, and I understood. 00:27:04.420 --> 00:27:05.680 He says, it's funny. 00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:09.440 He says, you don't you don't know Spanish, but you do know all about the food words. 00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:11.160 And I said, yes, I have all the food words. 00:27:11.980 --> 00:27:19.320 So I'm with some folks and we had a, we had a meal after the, after the wedding the next 00:27:19.320 --> 00:27:22.580 night with just some of the friends and the family who stayed around. 00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:29.780 And I, I I asked for, I asked the waiter and I said, look, I, he says, well, 00:27:29.820 --> 00:27:30.770 you don't want this. 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:33.220 He said, that's really spicy. 00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:37.540 He said, I'm going to warn you about this pepper sauce. 00:27:37.580 --> 00:27:45.480 He said, it's probably I said, look, I told him where I came from and I said, I said, we're the same in 00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:45.980 Spanish. 00:27:47.280 --> 00:27:49.840 I said, he said, bring me, bring it to me. 00:27:49.840 --> 00:27:52.120 And he brought, he brought it to me and I loved it. 00:27:52.120 --> 00:27:52.470 It was great. 00:27:52.840 --> 00:27:54.160 And we, gave him a big hug. 00:27:54.260 --> 00:28:01.680 He gave me a big hug and then he comped me some extra food just because he was so proud that I had eaten it and done well and not passed out, and 00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:03.130 it was one of those things. 00:28:03.620 --> 00:28:10.720 And it's interesting how when you, when you cross over one of those human divides, even down to 00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:15.070 something like a pepper sauce, it like brings people together. 00:28:15.120 --> 00:28:19.350 You like my stuff and I like your stuff. 00:28:21.460 --> 00:28:28.700 We want to feel that when you get over to God's world and you look 00:28:28.700 --> 00:28:35.860 and see who and what God is, and you see that he's fundamentally different than we are, 00:28:37.300 --> 00:28:42.720 and his stuff, his things are totally different than ours. 00:28:46.040 --> 00:28:47.610 And yet, God loves us. 00:28:48.520 --> 00:28:56.980 We have nothing to offer God, and yet God offers us everything. 00:28:59.960 --> 00:29:01.900 It's an unbelievable kind of love. 00:29:03.680 --> 00:29:04.340 Quickly. 00:29:05.040 --> 00:29:08.140 Number two, it's an undeniable kind of love. 00:29:09.220 --> 00:29:12.220 Romans five eight says that we are still sinners. 00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:14.300 Christ died for us. 00:29:14.300 --> 00:29:21.940 How can you deny the love of someone who was killed on Calvary's cross. 00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:25.180 For you and for me. 00:29:29.260 --> 00:29:32.880 The word love is often used casually to gain something. 00:29:34.360 --> 00:29:36.700 We even use it so casually. 00:29:36.740 --> 00:29:39.940 We'll say something like, I love mint chocolate ice cream. 00:29:43.100 --> 00:29:44.760 That's not love. 00:29:46.300 --> 00:29:53.100 That's something else that we do in our quest to express something in ourselves. 00:29:55.880 --> 00:29:56.740 But this is different. 00:29:58.840 --> 00:30:00.130 This is an unbelievable love. 00:30:00.360 --> 00:30:01.950 This is an undeniable love. 00:30:04.760 --> 00:30:06.440 But it's also an unlimited love. 00:30:08.100 --> 00:30:15.240 In John chapter three, in verse 16, we read the verse that is probably the first verse that most people 00:30:15.240 --> 00:30:18.900 memorize are here the most recognized verse in all the Bible. 00:30:19.320 --> 00:30:26.460 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in 00:30:26.460 --> 00:30:31.320 him should not perish but have eternal life. 00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:38.740 For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world 00:30:38.740 --> 00:30:40.210 might be saved through him. 00:30:40.740 --> 00:30:47.740 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed 00:30:47.740 --> 00:30:51.560 in the name of the only Son of God. 00:30:51.860 --> 00:30:54.940 This love reaches down to the lowest sinner. 00:30:55.160 --> 00:30:57.620 Let me say something about this to you. 00:30:57.760 --> 00:30:59.470 When does this love begin? 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:08.900 It begins in the first page of the Bible, when a dark and watery and formless planet is 00:31:08.900 --> 00:31:11.440 touched by the Spirit of God. 00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:19.520 There are only Two words that we see repeatedly again and again in different ways in the Bible about what 00:31:19.520 --> 00:31:22.380 God is in sense of substance. 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:25.780 We see that God is love and that God is light. 00:31:26.420 --> 00:31:30.760 And in the darkness of time God spoke. 00:31:31.220 --> 00:31:38.220 God's spirit moved on the water and said, let there be light, and there was 00:31:38.220 --> 00:31:39.520 light. 00:31:41.300 --> 00:31:46.760 And in that light the God that is love. 00:31:49.520 --> 00:31:56.680 Spread all across this world, and all people have the very image of 00:31:56.680 --> 00:31:57.840 God in them. 00:31:57.900 --> 00:32:02.720 We call it the Imago day, a fancy phrase that means God's image. 00:32:04.740 --> 00:32:11.750 So when John says that we are condemned because we have not believed in the name of the Son of God, 00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:13.650 I'd put it to you like this. 00:32:15.860 --> 00:32:23.000 If God is love itself, that means anyone who does 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:25.640 not have God does not have love. 00:32:28.320 --> 00:32:33.760 And so the condemnation, the judgment comes from not having love. 00:32:33.760 --> 00:32:35.820 God is the source of love. 00:32:35.880 --> 00:32:38.920 There is no love apart from God. 00:32:40.060 --> 00:32:48.060 That thing that binds us together, that light, that energy from God that flows through all humanity, 00:32:49.840 --> 00:32:51.560 is a redeeming love. 00:32:51.760 --> 00:32:55.600 Because God is love. 00:32:56.020 --> 00:32:57.960 How could God love me? 00:33:00.180 --> 00:33:05.760 God cannot not love you because God is love. 00:33:07.180 --> 00:33:08.760 God so loved the world. 00:33:08.760 --> 00:33:13.420 He loved the world in this way that he gave Jesus because God is love. 00:33:14.580 --> 00:33:19.700 You say, well, I'm the most wretched person, but God loves you. 00:33:21.260 --> 00:33:25.200 Well, I'm the most hypocritical, righteous Pharisee in the room. 00:33:25.340 --> 00:33:26.000 God loves you. 00:33:27.580 --> 00:33:31.380 God loves because God is love. 00:33:31.760 --> 00:33:38.920 To reunite with God is to be immediately redeemed and restored, because that is the 00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:40.800 business that God is in. 00:33:41.020 --> 00:33:43.640 Because that is who and what God is. 00:33:44.140 --> 00:33:47.780 God cannot be apart from who God is. 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:52.940 God must love because God is love. 00:33:53.660 --> 00:33:57.960 God is love. 00:34:00.040 --> 00:34:01.280 So of course God loves you. 00:34:02.780 --> 00:34:04.000 Of course God loves me. 00:34:04.740 --> 00:34:06.440 Of course God loves the world. 00:34:08.380 --> 00:34:15.420 So the more you know God, the more you love God and the 00:34:15.420 --> 00:34:19.739 more you love the people that God loves. 00:34:20.300 --> 00:34:22.210 And here's where it gets really hard for us. 00:34:23.880 --> 00:34:28.909 You remember the little Sunday School song, Jesus loves the little children of the world. 00:34:29.380 --> 00:34:30.860 Red and yellow, black and white. 00:34:30.860 --> 00:34:32.239 They are precious in his sight. 00:34:33.540 --> 00:34:40.780 Do you realize how much in history red and yellow, black and white have been hating on each other in various ways? 00:34:42.239 --> 00:34:44.239 Do you realize there's no God in that? 00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:53.120 You realize that God is love, and the love that saves you from your darkest moments is the love that loves everybody 00:34:53.120 --> 00:34:54.560 in this world. 00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:01.100 This theme flows through the entire Bible. 00:35:02.360 --> 00:35:09.380 We see a picture in revelation of people who are loved by God called from every 00:35:09.380 --> 00:35:14.200 nation, every tribe, every tongue, everywhere. 00:35:18.380 --> 00:35:19.880 We sing about it too, don't we? 00:35:21.240 --> 00:35:27.240 When I lived in England one day I was able to go to the home of a man named William Cooper. 00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:29.350 It looks like Cowper. 00:35:29.460 --> 00:35:30.200 But they said Cooper. 00:35:32.580 --> 00:35:34.520 He wrote one of the great hymns of the faith. 00:35:36.220 --> 00:35:39.660 There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. 00:35:42.280 --> 00:35:49.520 He struggled with Great Depression, great fear, torture, stress, 00:35:49.520 --> 00:35:51.120 pain in his life. 00:35:54.080 --> 00:36:00.940 But in his weakness, God was made strong again and again as William Cooper wrote great hymns. 00:36:01.460 --> 00:36:08.460 But I think his greatest words were penned in the fourth verse of there is a fountain, And in that fourth verse 00:36:08.460 --> 00:36:10.200 is my challenge for you this morning. 00:36:11.300 --> 00:36:13.280 What is the theme of your life? 00:36:14.640 --> 00:36:19.460 Is your life in tune with the theme of God? 00:36:20.220 --> 00:36:22.180 You see, the fourth verse goes like this. 00:36:23.180 --> 00:36:27.040 Ever since, by faith I saw the stream. 00:36:27.040 --> 00:36:29.060 Thy flowing wounds supply. 00:36:29.940 --> 00:36:35.220 Redeeming love has been my theme. 00:36:36.220 --> 00:36:40.740 And shall be till I die. 00:36:42.200 --> 00:36:49.260 If God is all about love for you, for everyone, what are you 00:36:49.260 --> 00:36:49.660 about? 00:36:50.320 --> 00:36:51.630 What is the theme of your life?