Gateway Church | February 14 | Preston Morrison

today is a good day to be in the presence of god and the truth is god is worthy of all of our praise he's worthy of our entire heart all of our love and he is here with us right now if you're joining online he is with you where you are so let's spend some time singing to him on worship and praise come on again with me [Music] i won't be shackled to the way i was but i'm gonna live like my chains are gone now my sin is [Music] hallelujah [Music] is [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] i am the righteousness of god [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] well that's the truth we gotta remember today say done all done [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is oh come on sing that out with me say come on let's give him some praise right now thank you jesus [Music] yes you're worthy of our praise god come on can we put our hands together this morning as we continue singing [Music] silence is the enemy that frees me a weapon that conquers all anxiety [Music] we see your name in the dark and it changes everything if we sing with all we are and we clean your victory [Music] the [Music] praise you [Music] for [Music] this is what living looks like this is what freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds like we praise you we praise you this is what living looks like this is what freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds like i'ma need you to sing that with me come on say this [Music] all this is [Music] fall [Music] god [Music] [Music] [Music] god yes we love you jesus we will bring you our praise amen how many of you know today that a life of praise means so much more than just singing words singing songs words on a screen a life of praise is a life of putting jesus above everything else in every single moment it's a daily choice an hourly choice that we make to show jesus how much we love him how much we value him how much he means to us and we're going to celebrate today with some friends who decided to take their next step in their walk with jesus by deciding to get baptized today with us here they decided that they want to live a life of praise putting jesus above everything else and so what we're going to do is we're going to continue singing right now songs of phrase songs of worship and as we see this baptism happen right now i want us to celebrate as they come out of the water the amazing work that jesus has done in their life [Applause] [Music] and then [Music] [Applause] [Music] man wrath of god has been on [Music] jesus as he stood accused beaten marked and scorned [Music] he took a crown of [Music] thorns [Music] me and now my soul cries out hallelujah for jesus [Music] over me now my soul cries out [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] then my jesus spilled now the curse of sin has no hold on me whom the sun sets free [Music] that's the truth today [Music] set free [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] see the stone is rolled away behold the empty [Music] hallelujah [Music] oh [Music] to thee [Music] oh what a wonderful cross [Music] where you gave your life so that i could live where you shed your blood [Music] so i could breathe again [Music] it's all because of jesus that we have our freedom that we have our freedom cause who the sun sets free they are free indeed as we are free indeed which we are free indeed because of you thank you jesus [Music] you take away every sin every stain because of your love for us [Music] right now we're gonna sing this truth again will you lift your hands with me as we declare the truth of the power of the blood of jesus in our lives sing it together say that now my dead is it is paid in full by the precious blood that my jesus spilled now the curse of sin has no hold on me whom the sun sets free always free say now my debts been paid [Music] thank you jesus now the curse of sin has no hold on me whom the son sets free o [Music] my salvation where [Music] and now my soul cries out hallelujah [Music] to thee [Music] oh you give life you are love you bring light to the darkness you give hope you restore every heart that is [Music] are love you bring light to the darkness you give hope you restore every heart is broken great are you lord [Music] it's your breath [Music] so [Music] you give life you are love you bring light to the darkness [Music] is [Music] it's your bread [Music] [Music] so we pour [Music] you all [Music] [Applause] that you are god you are god and all the earth will shout your prayers our hearts will cry these walls will sing gray are you lord we tell you with our lives [Music] oh come on let's fill this house we pray say all the earth [Music] hearts will cry these wounds they will [Music] seems [Music] come on every voice we say great are you lord lord god above it all right [Music] lord yes we love you jesus man it sounds like somebody came to sing this morning [Music] let's pray together heavenly father i thank you so much for this day god we thank you for the breath that's in our lungs god that we would not take it for granted [Music] father as we sing that you give hope and that you restore father everybody walks in this morning with something carrying something and it could be celebration and joys but it's also loss and sadness and grief and whatever else god that we walk in these doors with [Music] god we expect and we are desperate to hope that you meet us in this place that the words that come out of our mouths would ring true that you restore that you give hope god that we can walk in and despite what our circumstances are we can trust that you are for us that it is your goodness that draws us to you so god may we just live in a way that as we understand the depth of your love that we would respond in kind to being loved the way that you love us in jesus name and everybody said amen amen well good morning to everybody who's watching online right now everybody in the room just want to say you could be anywhere right now you could be out hiking you could be in bed you could be doing whatever you wanted but you chose to be with us right here right now in these moments and do not miss the moment so whatever has your attention whatever you may be thinking about i just want to encourage you be present here now be present in these moments because what's going to happen the rest of the service is going to be pretty powerful it could be really special for you so just set aside whatever happened this week set aside whatever you're worried about and let's just be present here my name is jeff daigle i'm a pastor here on staff we just moved here six months ago from north carolina thank you thank you i'm here all week any other east coasters in the room six of us great we're we're migrating in droves and we're gonna take no we're not at all actually there's like no one coming from north carolina um thank you california if you're from california we love you we're working on it we're in process okay uh no but listen here i say that because i i we know firsthand what it's like to show up new somewhere and so if you're new here if this is your first time maybe you've been coming for a couple of weeks let's just be honest when you walk into a new place it's just weird isn't it because you don't know who's friends people are talking you kind of feel left out you're not sure where to go where are the bathrooms there's little things that when you're new it just doesn't make sense and you're trying to figure it out but we want to do all that we can to help you connect and help you take your next step to determine if this is here for you because we want god's best for you so if you're new here and invite you take out your phone yes in church it's okay take your phone out and text the word path to the number ninety four thousand and once you do that you'll get a a couple of texts back don't worry won't blow up your phone too much but there's an option for you to respond that says yeah i'm new here what's next and if you hit that response then you'll get a link to a video from preston you can watch that later don't watch it during church it's kind of rude he's going to be up here anyway just listen to him there and watch the video later but there's also a chance that we want to invite you to coffee or tea or any beverage perhaps but we want to connect because that is what matters how can we help you take your next step but and if you're part of gateway you know this a big part of what we do is we love to connect with one another so every week we try and get past the shallow hey what's up how's it going we try to ask actually very intentional questions because we believe that good questions lead to good conversation and conversation leads to connection so we're gonna take a minute right now i'm gonna invite you to maybe meet someone that you didn't come with somebody you don't really know that well there's gonna be a question on the screen and i'm gonna invite you to ask them this question introduce yourself if you don't know them but let's take time to intentionally connect all right thanks so much for being here this morning [Music] so [Music] [Music] what's up how is everybody you doing well today happy valentine's day to everybody the day of love if you got a bible i want to turn to john chapter 17 let me just welcome everybody joining us online uh and i want to say something while everybody's turning to john 17 for those of you who are online and haven't gotten to see you in a while i just want you to hear from me i miss you and i love you and i'm not saying that because uh i'm trying to get you here next week i totally understand why you're presently at home worshiping and have some good reasons to be and i just wanted you to hear from me today that i love you so much and i can't wait to hug you and see you whenever i get to see you we miss you and we're still family even though we may not be in the same room at the same time i love you so much this weekend we're continuing our series entitled the real jesus and no if you're new here this is not how i sit every weekend you're like is this like a semi-italian restaurant no you'll understand by the end of the service you can probably figure it out already um this series on jesus has been a lot of fun and i was supposed to end it last week and we decided to extend it all the way through easter weekend where i'll talk about jesus our high priest but this weekend it may challenge some of you the title alone is gonna weird some of you out and let's just be real you know that's part of my favorite thing to do is just keep you on your heels a little bit but i don't i don't entitle messages to be a shock jock um i entitled messages hopefully by the leading of the holy spirit to uh begin a journey together in this time and so this weekend what we're talking about is of course jesus because the series is about jesus but it's a side of jesus that i think is all too often forgotten and or underestimated the title of this message is jesus the lover jesus the lover now some of you are already going that's weird jesus is not my lover okay the title isn't jesus your lover the title is jesus the lover and unfortunately so many of us misunderstand love that when we hear the term lover we think of erotic love we think of someone someone has sex with love for far too many of us is about lust and and sexual connection but i would say that erotic love is quite possibly the most shallow version of love love is so much bigger and so much better than just merely sexual or physical and i just wonder how often we look at jesus as a lover think of it this way my wife and i have lots of nicknames for each other some of them are appropriate for you to hear others are not well one of the appropriate ones for you to hear is lover we can be at the grocery store in aisle four trying to figure out what to make for family dinner and she'll say love her now she is not saying hey one whom i have sex with i wish she was it's valentine's day can i be real in the house of the lord i wish he was i didn't say rod glove was bad i just said it can get better than that she says love her and i call her lover she's not talking about me in the context of the one she has sex with she's saying hey one who loves me unlike anybody else i know hey one i love more than anyone else i know that's how lovers talk we call each other lover and let me just take the weird off of that if it's still weird to you lover means one who loves it is entirely appropriate to say of jesus he is jesus the lover if you're still weirded out by that and you think preston are you advocating an intimate relationship with jesus yes i am yes one of the most amazing things any father said to a son in scripture was what david said to solomon at the end of his life he said son get to know the god of your ancestors intimately whether you realize it or not no matter what you've done no matter where you've been the god of the universe wants to have an intimate relationship with you and it has nothing to do with eroticism but everything to do with affection this message uh this is my this is my thing i i've never preached this message before but this is my favorite subject we're covering my two favorite subjects on the earth god and his love if i could talk to you about anything it would be god and his love i say time and time again it doesn't matter to me how long you call this church home i have one goal for every one of you that whenever you leave that you are closer to him than you were when you first arrived that's what matters most to me as i was preparing for this message last week i didn't preach and so one of my favorite things to do on a week where i'm not preaching is i get to kind of feel like i'm ahead and so i started studying out a bunch of verses which is what i do usually on mondays and so back in the back here in my office i have a couple of boards and and so i had all these uh note cards on the board of all the verses i thought we were gonna cover and i came in on monday morning to really get into the meat of the message and i'm just standing there talking to the lord looking at all the scriptures just meditating on them and i literally felt the lord go nope nope nope pointed to romans eight nope i mean i had some really good verses up there and i felt like he said no to all of them i said okay well clearly there's a direction you want to go and i clearly don't know what direction that is and i just felt very simply in that moment he gave me three sweet points to understanding jesus as the lover and here's point number one jesus was loved of course he still is but before we can address the fact that jesus is a lover we have to have context that he first was loved it's not that we love him he loved us first we have to understand to understand jesus as the lover he was first loved now i'm going to read you matthew matthew chapter 3 verse 17 and this is a moment in christ's life after his baptism and many of us know this story and and there's a voice from heaven and we're going to read in just a minute that speaks from heaven over the sun but i want you to think about something i i don't know if any of you are parents i'm i'm a dad i've got three kids they all played youth sports and i learned something when i would go to their games about fifty percent of the time when you would ask another parent hey how's everything going or how's johnny doing often times at least fifty percent of the time parents inevitably would start bragging about their child like if you said hey how's it going with johnny oh you wouldn't believe what johnny did last week okay there's nothing inherently wrong with that now it can move over into pride but isn't that what love does love celebrates the accomplishments of the ones it loves like that's great that this is what daddies do that's what mommies do we celebrate the great things our kids do i want you to think about this i'm going to read this to you but out of all the things the father could have said of the son he could have bragged i mean we point at matthew 3 17 and and we we talk about it we call it you know the the public affirmation of divine sonship that jesus is the son and it definitely is that but out of all the things the father could have said of the son he could have said this is the one i've been talking about all these years he could have said this is the perfect one i want to read to you what the father actually said of the son matthew 3 17 and suddenly a voice came from heaven saying this is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased now this is a verse many of us have heard many times part of what concerns me the more we hear a verse is if we're not careful the more we hear a verse the more desensitized we become to said verse this is my beloved son can i help you understand literally what that means the father didn't say of the son for the first time on record in the new testament this is the one who has a perfect record this is the one who's won all the games before this is the one i've been talking about he didn't say any of that a voice came from heaven and this is literally what he was saying i love my son so much parents think of how incredible this is when was the last time that someone asked you how johnny was doing in baseball and your response was i love johnny so much for those of us who get wrapped up into the whole works predicament works in order to earn god's love the father doesn't start off talking about the record of the son the father starts off by talking about his love for the son and then he says in whom i'm well pleased which literally means i take such pleasure in him from him i get joy from him because i love him so much now some of us think that this was the first time the son ever heard the father say these kind of things about him to him or for him this was not the first time the son heard the father talk like this psalm 2 and isaiah 42 are actually where where this verse these words in matthew 3 17 come from they're a repeat something the father had already said of the son psalm 2 verse 7 the lord said to me you are my son today i've become your father isaiah 42 verse 1 speaking again of the messiah look at my servant whom i strengthen he's my chosen one who pleases me matthew 3 17 was not the first time the father heard the son heard the father talk about him like this it also wasn't the last time remember on the mount of transfiguration the son hears the exact same words from his father god says of jesus over jesus this is my beloved son i love my son so much oh and he brings me such pleasure such joy he makes me so happy because i love him so much i don't know if you've ever thought about it like this but this is the way my mind works i kind of want to know i want to be able to ask jesus when did you really start experiencing the love of the father like when did this first go down do you remember the first moment you ever experienced the love of the father for how long have you been experiencing this love from the father jesus i don't know if you know this there's an answer if you're in john chapter 17 jesus gives us the answer to this question john 17 verse 24 jesus says father i desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where i am i don't know if you know this but that's romantic talk that's how love talks father i want them who you have given me to be with me wherever i am that they may behold my glory which you have given me watch this next part for you the son says have loved me before the foundation of the world father you loved me before the foundation of the world do you know what that means that means if you asked the son for how long have you been experiencing the perfect love of the father here's what jesus would say to you in response before anything which is ever was i was loved by my father what before anything which ever which is right now ever was preston i was loved before all of that here's another way to say it the first love which ever existed was the father's love for the son here's the second point not only was jesus loved point number two jesus lived loved just because you are love doesn't mean you live loved we all know god loves us but do we actually believe it when you believe something you act as if it were so i know we say we believe it but do we actually do we live it here's another way to say point number two it's not just that jesus was loved jesus knew he was loved and there are some things we see in his life during his time in the earth when he was fully god fully man there are some things we see that help us understand jesus knew he was loved by the father and i just want to point a few of them out to you here's the first one jesus talked about his father's love for him often one of the ways you know jesus was loved and he knew he was loved by the father is he talked about the father's love all the time let me just show you a few instances john 3 verse 35. now this is john the baptist speaking but listen to what he says he says the father loves his son how did john the baptist know this see we think that john just showed up one day in in christ's 30s early 30s and while they came to know each other listen they met when they were in their mother's wombs and john scripture says lept in his mother's womb when jesus got close i'm pretty sure they were pretty close for the next 30 years and here's what that means in john 3 when john the baptist says listen the father loves the son why would he say that i think the reason he would say that is because he heard the son for three decades talk about how much the son was loved by his father i'll show it to you john 5 verse 20 jesus says for the father loves the son john 8 16 i am not alone the father who sent me is with me now you might read that and think oh yeah it's because it's jesus no this is what love does love doesn't leave love doesn't want to leave jesus says listen he never leaves me he's just that obsessed with me the father who sent me is with me john 8 29 jesus says and the one who sent me is with me he has not deserted me john 10 17 jesus says the father loves me john 11 41 father jesus says to the father father thank you for hearing me you always hear me this is how love talks john 15 9 and we're going to cover the rest of this verse at the end of the message jesus said as the father has loved me time and time again we see jesus in the gospels talking about the father's love for him this is one of the ways you know not just no you know the love of the father you talk about it all the time incidentally one of the ways you know you don't quite understand the love of god is when you talk sometimes it sounds more like hate than love i contend that if we all as followers of jesus christ understood the perfect unbridled obsessive love of the father we would all talk differently online that's not how love talks i'll let that one sit for a sec jesus talked about his father's love all the time why because he knew he was loved here's the second evidence we see in christ's life jesus never tested the love of god's bound the boundaries of god's love jesus never ever tested the boundaries of god's love there are two ways we can know this first way it doesn't exist jesus never tested the boundaries of god's love because the boundary doesn't exist well hold on just a minute preston i mean there's a line between god's love and then justice i mean his love has boundaries because he doesn't keep consequences listen i'm going to show you a verse that'll help you understand the heart of love and its limits psalm 107 verse 1 give thanks to the lord for he is good his faithful love endures until is that what he says his faithful love endures as long as right some of you are shaking your heads but do we actually believe that do we live it his faithful love endures another way to say it you can search for the boundary of god's love for all eternity you'll never find the end of it there's another way though that you can i believe know that jesus never tested the boundary of god's love he never sinned if you take notes on me to write this down and i want you to really think through this and and kind of just wrestle with it sit with it a little bit this week because it may be a little bit hard to hear and you may want to disagree with it at first and that's totally great shoot holes in it sin always tests the boundaries of love i know always is a strong statement to make but i feel like i can prove it and i can actually i feel like i can prove that you believe it i believe i can actually prove that you believe that sin always tests the boundaries of love think about it if you're a spouse when was the last time you ended a day laying in bed next to your spouse by confessing every single sin you committed that day not the ones you remember every one of the sins god actually saw now this is a lot longer than the ones you remember the ones i remember was the last time laying in bed you ended the day with hey can i just tell you something i i got angry today at you and you didn't even know it seven times i did this i did that i mean when was the last time you ended a day like that probably been a long time why because you're fully aware of what would happen if every night of your life you ended in bed with your spouse confessing every sin you committed that day if i did that with holly how many days would it take for her to finally be like why in god's name did i marry this fool like i knew he was bad but this is way worse than i thought there's a reason we don't confess all of our sins at the end of every day with the one we love because whether we realize it or not deep down we know sin tests the boundaries of love see we look at jesus and his perfection when he was fully god fully man on this earth for 33 years and and we go yeah but he was the son of god that's why he was perfect don't don't stay in the shallow go to touch deeper than that but what was his why now i'm not going to say i know the answer unequivocally but i'll submit an answer to you i think one of the biggest reasons jesus was perfect in his behavior is because he was perfect in his understanding of his father's love for him therefore he did not need to go looking for something he knew he already had if you think about that's all sin really is sin is for cert is searching for something you already have and just aren't fully aware of you think it's about this it's not about that sin is always about something deeper than this i think one of the biggest reasons jesus was perfect in his behavior is because his understanding of the father's love for him was flawless it was perfect here's the next evidence jesus wasn't bothered by the father's love for others jesus wasn't bothered by the father's love for others this is a biggie i think something we see in the church right now is what i would call an orphan spirit there's a lot of it running around and and this is the perfect time to talk about this if you weren't here last week go back and watch the message but last week rabbi matt rosenberg one of my great friends spoke and i know he at times might have said a few things that were challenging because i've heard this for a really long time for many many years there are some people when they hear the phrase chosen people when they hear the phrase god loves israel something just starts rising up in them and they they just want to respond and go but i'm chosen too or maybe even antagonize israel to an extent but listen the reason people flinch and get sideways about god's love for israel isn't because they don't understand israel it's because they don't understand love when god says of someone else i love them so much and it's not you it's never at your expense when god says he loves someone else it's never at your expense but if you have some orphan in you you're gonna be like wait a minute don't you love me too it's like hearing your father say that he loves your sister one of the ways you know you have a little bit of orphan spirit in you is if you respond by going what about me when your father says he loves your sister it's not at your expense when god says he loves someone other than you it's never at your expense in fact on the contrary it's always for your benefit watching how god loves someone else helps you more completely understand how god loves you this is the beauty of the divine love story between god and israel it was one of the reasons god chose israel knowing they would reject him from time to time run away from him look down upon him it's one of the reasons he chose them so that the whole world could get a front row seat to how he loves go read hosea this week i hear all the time what is the deal with hosea that's the most disgusting book in the bible or is it one of the most beautiful because when you read through hosea and all of the things that go sideways and all of the dirty and disgusting things that go down and yet the response is still but i still love you and god says i love israel it's not at my expense if i will take my front row seat to watch the divine love story between god and israel it causes me to sit back and go is this how you love and here's how god responds my man yes this is how i love this is how i love you president you've turned your back on me before you've tried to replace me you put other things ahead of me and i just want you to know even when my heart is hurt i still love you jesus wasn't bothered by the father's love for others let me show it to you john 17 if you're there verse 23 jesus says to the father i am in them and you are in me that's romantic talk right there that's intimate fellowship i am in them and you are in me may they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me okay why do you think there's such a war over unity in the family of god right now our unity is one of the ways the whole world will know the father sent the son it doesn't stop there there's some there's another evidence that the father sent the son may they experience such unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me jesus is letting us all know i know how my father feels about you and i want you to know not only am i not bothered by my father's unbridled love for you i love it he loves you the same way he loves me that's what jesus is saying right here here's the next evidence the last one we'll cover jesus let others experience his love one of the ways we know that jesus knew he was loved by the father is he let others experience his love you know you are you have received love and are walking in love when you let others experience your love if you're in john 17 flip back a couple of of chapters to john 13. i want to read for you and to you one of what could be described as one of the weirdest verses in the bible if not for sure in the new testament it's just a weird verse on the surface but remember what we talked about at the beginning of the series some of the most beautiful treasures are in some of the most deepest cave in the some of the most deep caves let me read this verse to you john 13 verse 23 now there was leaning on jesus bosom one of his disciples okay let's hit the pause button right there look can we be real can we not be fake is that a little bit weird does anyone think that that's kind of a little bit different okay you're being religious right now i'll prove it let me just speak to the men for a sec fellas see when was the last time in the middle of church that you felt compelled sitting next to one of your friends male friends where you felt compelled i mean be real we totally get like a picture of linus in this moment in john 13 right like if john was just he was he was a that's just kind of how we think about it or was he was he something totally different see we look at that and call it weird but what if it's not the verse goes on in verse 23 speaking of john now there was leaning on jesus bosom one of his disciples whom jesus loved to get full context here john is speaking about john and we make fun of john that's funny you called yourself the one whom jesus loved i don't know if you know this john has a nickname john the beloved and we kind of make fun of him because we're like yeah you called yourself that step back for a sec remember this is by the inspiration of the holy spirit what if it's not as funny as we've made it out to be what if it's a lot more intimate than we could ever understand john has another nickname john the revelator why do we call john john the revelator because he by the inspiration of the holy spirit wrote revelation but what if god calls john john the revelator for a different reason than we call john john the revelator i wonder if god calls him john the revelator because john clearly got a revelation of the love of god quite possibly more than anybody else in the new testament have you noticed how many of the verses i've read are from one particular book john incidentally fun little scripture fact john only mentioned the kingdom twice in his gospel the other gospel writers mentioned it over 100 times yet john mentions or refers to the love the father has for the son the love between the father and the son over 100 times maybe john got it and maybe when we read this verse now there was a disciple who was resting his head on jesus bosom what if that's not as weird as we make it sound let me just give you a possibility that it could be bigger than we think john chapter one one of the greatest runs in all of scripture on the messiah on jesus it's absolutely fantastic listen to one of the things the scripture says in john 1 18 no one has seen god at any time the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father what if jesus was letting john experience with him what the father has let jesus experience with him since before the beginning of things and what if when john refers to himself as the beloved what if it's not pride i get there's a little backstory but what if it's not pride out of all the things the father could have said of the son he said this is my beloved son i think we should all john is my favorite disciple i think we should all endeavor to live a little bit more like john i think he got it in his imperfections he got it i and beloved i am loved by god jesus knew he was loved and here's the third point and this is where you come in point number one jesus was loved point number two jesus live love point number three jesus loves you now i know because i've heard it said one great theologian was once asked what's the most important and powerful theological truth you've ever learned and he immediately answered jesus loves me this i know for the bible tells me so many of us learned that song at a very young age what concerns me about that is that if we're not careful we will take something that is sacred something that is uncommon and turn it into something that is all too common we'll turn it into or relegate it to a mere children's song jesus loves me isn't just a song it's the greatest truth that ever was jesus loves you if you're taking notes i want you to write a couple of one-liners down here's the first one jesus loves you as much as the father loves him jesus loves you as much as the father loves him preston you don't know what i've done so don't tell me that god loves me like that that jesus says don't tell me jesus loves me the way the father loves him no because jesus was perfect you don't know my trash okay listen the good news of the gospel is that it doesn't come down to what i have done the good news of the gospel of jesus christ is that it comes down to what he has done jesus loves you as much as the father loves him i'll show to you in scripture john 15 verse 9 jesus says i have loved you speaking of his disciples right there in front of him i have loved you even as or just as or in the same way as the father has loved me jesus loves you as much as the father loves sin here's the next one ladder i want you to write down god loves you just as much as he loves jesus god the one true god the god of israel the god of the universe loves you just as much as he loves jesus first john chapter 3 here's john again john the revelator talking about love first john 3 verse 1 john says behold what manner of love the father has bestowed placed upon us that we should be called children of god do you know what this means that one of the father's favorite ways to show his love for you is to call you the exact same thing he calls jesus i get it i mean i could look at jesus and be all excited and as as his father i could say some really great things about him but if i try to put myself in that same camp it gets a little more complicated for me it is difficult for my impossible i will say for my finite mind to understand infinitely eternal love that the father would look at me and call me the same thing he calls jesus that he would look at you as a follower of jesus christ and call you the same thing he calls jesus my child john says behold get a picture get a revelation grab on to what extravagant manner of love that this is that he would even call us his children god loves you the same way he loves jesus just as much as he loves jesus i want to put up a fairly lengthy one-liner it's not one line it's about six lines but it may be one of the most important one-liners i feel like i've ever gotten to this point in my life if i had to vote i would say by the end of my life this will be in my top ten and it's a little lengthy maybe take a picture of the tv maybe you write it down but i want you to really meditate on this which is the scriptural word for chew on until you're able to fully digest it let me read it to you jesus loves the father more than anyone ever has because the father loves jesus more than anyone ever will the father loves you more than anyone ever will because the father loves you just as much as he loves jesus because jesus loves the father more than anyone ever has and the father loves you more than anyone ever will jesus loves you the way the father loves him therefore you may confidently say and not just sing jesus loves obsessively eternally me you i want you to take out the communion elements that you received when we walked in while you're taking out the bread and don't eat it yet we're going to receive the elements together you may be watching this message online months after it originally aired today is valentine's day february the 14th the quote unquote day of love and one of the customary things that happens on this day is that two people in love usually go to a nice meal a nice dinner oftentimes it's one of the most extravagant meals of the whole year it's a celebration of love and so husbands will take out their wives wives will take out their husbands boyfriend will take out girlfriend everyone will take out boyfriend and they'll go and spend a nice chunk of money in part just to send the message i just want you to know i love you a lot a lot like more than denny's hey and if you go to denny's on valentine's day kudos just get two grand slams instead of one let thy love for the other be exceeded that's what we do on valentine's day we take the one we love out to a nice meal some of you have been wondering why i'm sitting at this table the whole message i don't normally do this [Music] simply to remind you that this meal you're about to receive [Music] is the most expensive meal in all of human history [Music] and every time you take communion no matter how many other people in the room [Music] i'm convinced the way jesus sees it as a table for two [Music] that night passover jesus sitting with his disciples after the meal took the bread the afi komen he broke it he pointed at it and he said this is my body [Music] something i didn't tell you two weeks ago if you were here and we took communion i told you the story of what a young man does in jewish culture into tradition when he wants to marry a young woman he takes a cup of wine to her proposes to her it's called the marriage cup and if she drinks from the cup they'll be married and he says to her if you drink this cup you will forever be mine and i will be yours but i didn't tell you the rest of the story because what happens after that in jewish tradition is that the young man goes back home the father of the young woman and the father of the young man gets together and establish a price to be paid for the bride it's called the bride price once the price is established if the young man is serious no matter how high the price he pays it the bridegroom that night at the table with those he loved took the bread and he said [Music] this is my body which is broken for you here's another way to say it price was established [Music] for me to love you forever price is my life and this is my body which i will gladly allow to be broken for you every time you eat this bread remember me let's take the bread one of the perks of this job is i don't have to drink from the same cup that you do like preston is that wine i don't know is it after the bread jesus took the cub the third cup of passover the cup after the meal called the cup of redemption and he said this this is my blood first corinthians 11 tells us [Music] jesus said this this blood of mine in acts the new covenant between god and man between god and those he loves my blood is what guarantees this new covenant [Music] jesus said this is my blood every time you drink from this cup don't get sidetracked by everything going on your life don't look at all the things that you can count that make you feel awesome because what you hold in your hand is a reminder that you can't count my love for you you know one of the reasons when i do a marriage i cry every time i talk about the bride price because as a daddy of one little girl i think it's one of the most ingenious things i've ever heard of [Music] i actually want to rip it off and do it with my daughter i want to set a price so high that every poser will run away so that one will wake up next to her for the rest of her life every morning and if there's a day where she wonders how lovable she is she can look in his direction and say out of all of the men in the history of this world there was one who was willing to pay what do you think this is jesus wanted you to wake up every morning for the rest of your life knowing how loved you are and the only way to do it was to pay what no one else was willing to pay and so he bled when everyone else fled if you drink from this cup you'll be mine forever and that will be yours jesus said every time you drink from this cup remember me let's take the cover [Music] that's good i should have more of that [Music] you just set the cup aside because we have a few more minutes i still haven't told you the rest of the story the rest of the betrothal process the young man who's in love with the young woman takes the marriage cup she drinks from the cup he goes and pays the bride price but in jewish culture there is an important next step the young man goes back to his father's house so he pays the bride price at the young woman's father's home he goes back to his father's home and he adds on an addition to his father's home where his future wife and he will live whether it takes him three months six months nine months 12 months no matter how long it takes to finish when he's done he goes to get her [Music] do you remember what jesus said in john 14. my opinion some of the most romantic words in all the bible jesus said in verse 1 of john 14 don't let your hearts be troubled trust in god and trust also in me there is more than enough room in my father's home if this were not so would i have told you that i'm going to prepare a place for you stop right there this means jesus had already said something about this to them this was not the first time jesus said talk to the disciples about going to prepare a place jesus said i'm going to prepare a place for you and there's more than enough room for you in my father's home now watch his romantic why in verse 3. the bridegroom says to the bride when everything is ready i promise i will come and give you and then here's his why let's come back and get you so that you will always be with me jesus says [Music] wherever i am [Music] he's preparing a place right now for his beloved bride he is coming back again so paul reminds us of in first corinthians 11 that every time we do this we announce christ's death until his return bridegroom is coming back when everything's ready and the reason he's coming back to get you [Music] so that you can be with him [Music] wherever he is forever i want you to bow your heads and close your eyes [Music] silence is one of the most powerful of the spiritual disciplines in my opinion [Music] simply because silence is quieting oneself to make room for another to speak [Music] i get it i know you've heard a lot of this since you were a baby but between you and me i'm not 100 sure you're completely convinced of it not because you're bad simply because his love is just that good so we're just gonna sit for a few moments he is in this place he prepared this table for two for you let's just quiet ourselves for a few moments holy spirit would you push back the voice of the accuser silence it in this moment god i pray the only voice that we can hear for these next few moments is yours [Music] [Music] [Music] would you stand i want to invite our altar ministry team to come forward after i dismiss if you want to pray with somebody for any reason at all we'll stay as long as you need us to if you've never experienced the love of god because you didn't think you were qualified to get in on it [Music] god wills that none should perish apart from his love it's his heart what jesus did in dying for you [Music] so that you could forever be with him wherever he is because he's so obsessed with you he never wants to let go of your hand [Music] i pray a blessing over you god thank you thank you thank you for every person here [Music] lord i pray that this week each and every one of them will get a greater revelation a clearer understanding of your ever-enduring love for them i pray when they wake up at least one morning this week they would catch you staring at them standing over your bed over their bed i pray lord at least one night this week as they fall asleep on their pillow in their bed they'd hear your voice whispering to them and the way which only love whatever talk god would you give them a greater understanding of the fact that everywhere they go you chase them you're not just with them you're their rear guard would you give them a revelation that every room they ever walk into you're already there waiting for their arrival [Music] oh that we would all as all god's people should understand the height the depth the breadth of the father's love for us and god may we so experience it that we would live it so that all the world would have a front row seat watching how you love and how we love you and response in christ mighty name amen amen thanks for being here this weekend if you need prayer stick around as long as you need if we haven't met we'd love to meet you out in the lobby thanks for being here this weekend thanks for hanging in a little bit longer than normal god bless you have an incredible week this week go be loved

Channel: Gateway Church

Views: 313

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Preston, Morrison, gateway, church, gateway church, scottsdale, tempe, gateway church sermons, church online, arizona church, scottsdale churches, tempe churches, phoenix churches, gateway people, gateway life, Preston Morrison, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert Morris, Pastor Preston Morrison, Preston Morrison sermons, church sermons, Jewishness of Jesus, Real Jesus, Christianity and Jewish, jesus the lover, the love of jesus, jesus is love, jesus is loved, what is love

Id: vrMvdHUMydo

Length: 94min 1sec (5641 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 14 2021