The Village Church Sunday Service - 8/9/2020 - Matt Chandler - John 20:30-31

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning church welcome to tvc at home my name is julie wilding and i serve our church as the director of next gen ministries we're so glad that you're with us this morning and if this is your first time with us or if perhaps you want to find out more about what's happening at the village church we would love and invite you to text the word belong to 56549 we would love to hear from you we would love to answer your questions so go ahead and text belong to 56549 well church this is a big weekend in the life of our next gen ministries as we kick off our fall programming starting today just about an hour ago in our parking lot we were able to celebrate the milestone of children graduating from kindergarten going to first grade and children graduating from fifth grade going to sixth grade and we did that with a really beautiful drive-by event where kids could come and get some donuts and see their next-gen ministers and grab a gift from us as they promote from one ministry to the next it was just a really sweet time speaking of promotion this sunday even though we are not together is promotion sunday so all of our school age children are promoting up to the next grade as of today also this morning our kids village in little village just dropped some new videos on our tvc kids page that will be premiering every single sunday morning at 9 30. we would love for you to check out our kids village and little village specific content on these videos speaking of our tvc kids page i would love for you to go there and check out the great resources that we have we've got videos and music and coloring sheets and activities and sermon notes and everything that you need and to have some family discipleship time with your family also in the way of resources we're really excited in kids village in little village to roll out to you this fall three resources in particular the first is our kids bible journal where kids are going to be able to learn how to study god's word on their own the second is a brand new album that we have dropping for kids which i'm so excited about they'll get to learn books of the bible by song the 40 events of scripture and even a fun bible wrap and then the last is we've got our 40 events of scripture cards for families so families all of those three things the journal the album and the scripture cards we are going to have those for you at a drive-through event coming later this fall so stay tuned for those events and then for our middle school and high school we are also kicking off programming for them beginning after labor day where they will be concentrating on meeting in virtual small groups and so in middle school we're particularly excited as we study through the story of scripture this fall and in middle school we'll be following along with the psalms bible study there's so much to be excited about in nextgen if you're a parent or a caregiver we sent you a newsletter on friday which details all of the wonderful things we're doing this fall and we hope that you will check it out church lastly as we transition into our worship service i just wanted to spend a moment and pray for our school year i know that many of our kids are starting as soon as tomorrow with school and i know that there's just a lot of uncertainty and anxiety maybe you're feeling really excited that something's going to finally change or maybe you're feeling really really nervous about what's to come so i just wanted us to spend a few moments together praying for our kids for our educators and for our parents i know that this is an unlikely place to find comfort but recently i've been reading a lot in the book of ecclesiastes and one thing that has really struck out to me is god's sovereignty that no matter what is going on we can trust god that he is ruling and reigning over everything that he has made and he is trustworthy i can trust him you can trust him we can trust him and so i want us to pray together that we would that we would trust god in these uncertain times and these uncertain days let's put our hope and our trust in the right place let's put it in our god so pray with me perhaps as you pray along you'll even think of some people that you know by name educators administrators parents students and you can even take a moment to pray for them even as i pray so let's pray together church father i thank you so much for new mercies this morning i thank you that we woke up today that you woke us up today i thank you that your word says that i can cast my cares on you my anxieties on you because you care for me and oh father that is true for all believers you care for us we can cast our anxieties upon you because you care for us so god i do lay before you today our parents and our caregivers our teachers our school administrators our school board members and our students this year feels just different and it is different and there's just so much that we're not sure what to expect and so god we we ask that you would give us grace as we seek to make wise decisions i pray for our students that you would give them grace as they're learning perhaps a new environment god i pray that you would give our teachers grace that you would give them health i pray for our administrators as they make impossible decisions that you would be with them god i pray that you would eliminate fear and condemnation and comparison and things that seek to rob our joy keep our hearts and our minds focused on what is true and what is lovely and what is beautiful and father i thank you that for the believer you are our steady and firm foundation may we trust you may we be reminded that you are ruling and reigning over all that you have made god you're so good and we give you all the praise and all the glory do your name in christ's name amen church would you sing with us amen let's lift our voices together remember what our god is like [Music] [Music] safe within his promise against his pride in adoration [Music] safe within his thrones [Music] oh [Music] until [Music] his father's heart was born [Music] is [Music] can see [Music] oh [Music] until [Music] [Music] yes leave this church it was [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] it won't be your love will be true [Music] [Applause] for all he's done for all that he is is faithfulness our worship is what we lift up we trust you we trust you we thank you [Music] we thank you [Music] how far you carried [Music] you are faithful faithful to the look to christ our reminder that that's true the one that won't be moved the one who's stable the one who's trustworthy the plan we can count on and lean into so look to him let's focus our eyes on him center our hearts on him as we sing believe my hope is built [Music] i dare not trust sweet [Music] my hope is [Music] christ alone church sing us out [Music] made strong in the savior's love and through [Music] whatever may come we look to him when darkness seems to hide his race [Music] [Music] christ the lord [Music] is the lord he's [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] look to your future he believers come with trumpet sound oh may i they in him be found dressed in his right just miss a long flawless father stand before it's the future that awaits us that's the foundation that will not be shaken that is the one thing that we can trust in and count on that won't let us down so one more time let's center ourselves on that we're a people of hope because of what christ has done for us we can declare that we're weak but there is one who is strong in our place and he's coming again so church one more time let's believe that remind ourselves of what's coming for us he shall come with trumpet sound oh may i think in him dressed in his right justness alone for this stand before christ alone [Music] in christ [Music] the court is stoned now the weak made strong in the savior's life and through this storm he is lord he's the lord it's jesus we put our trust in you in and we know that we won't be let down in doing that you are good you're kind you're gentle you step down from from majesty on high and and entered into our suffering and our pain in order to end it in order to bring restoration one day when you return again and so we thank you for that future we thank you for that hope that overshadows anything that we currently face so we don't ignore the things that are in our lives now but we lay them before you and we trust you with them and we ask for more and more strength to trust you with them so spirit i pray that you'd encourage hearts that are that are downtrodden that you would lift up eyes to see our father and to see our king and to be reminded of the future that's in store for us to be settled and just to trust and to keep our eyes on you to watch you thank you for being good thank you for being merciful to us providing what we need and pray all this in jesus name [Music] amen [Music] [Music] hey tbc i'm chloe thomas and i'm blake thomas and today's scripture is out of john chapter 20 verses 30 and 31. now jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these are written so that you may believe that jesus is the christ the son of god and that by believing you may have life in his name well it's so good to be back with you finally uh we took a little bit of time off me and my family did uh over the last few weeks just kind of rest orient ourselves for what a certain uh to be an unprecedented kind of fall uh and so good to be back with you good to be standing up while i'm doing this i know i said i wanted to sit until we gathered again but then after some time off i was like you know bad idea i need to stand for something physically bad happens to me and so so grateful that you're here listen wherever i've gone uh in my time off wherever i saw you whether that was uh online or uh at a restaurant or at walmart or over at target or wherever we were mask up uh you all ask me the same question the question was some variation some version of this when will we finally gather again uh and so i want to answer that question for you right here it is i'm going to give you the honest answers as honest as i can be with you as soon as we possibly can here here's my promise to you that there isn't an elder or a staff member that's okay with where we've been with not being able to gather uh in a way that is safe and and makes us able uh to worship jesus together uh and so just so you know on every uh agenda uh at exec at the pastor at elder we're discussing we're discussing when can we open a couple of things i would like for you to consider as we're working through some of that this week in multiple meetings number one we could use your prayers uh there are a lot of variables here some that you know some that you do not know uh that go into that decision it's not simply oh this church is so we can't each church is unique and how it's built in the services that it uses and and whether or not covert is blown through a certain aspect of their staff rendering that an impossibility and so i want you to pray pray for wisdom as we meet pray that god would protect our staff pray that god would protect our people that would be the first thing just pray for us we want together however much you want to gather i can assure you me being up here by myself talking to a couple of machines isn't my idea like i want to feel you in the room with me like sing voices lifted high to jesus with me in this room i want that i'm hungry for it you're hungry for it we're going to try to get it done but there are variables that we have to take into consideration for your safety and the safety of others that we are going to take into consideration pray for us secondly please be gracious another church's opening does not mean that we are lazy or do not want to open or are overly passive uh you if you've been here with me and my 18 year old there ain't much about me that screams passivity uh and so i can promise you we're not trying to be passive we're trying to actually aggressive move the aggressively move the ball forward there are just variables that that are beyond our control that we're asking god to work and move in and maybe one day after all this is said and done we can drink a cup of coffee together and i can share some of that with you uh and so by the grace of god will you pray with us and will you continue to be gracious for us there isn't a minister on this staff that isn't longing to see you to hug you to be in the lobby to minister and pray after to greet and welcome and celebrate the presence of jesus among his gathered people and so pray with us please and then continue to be gracious you're doing an exceptional job of that now we're going to jump back into the gospel of john but before we do that i wanted to do this real quick all right so so look right at me i know you're in your living room so everybody dial in just just look right up here you are eight months into 2020. now normally we wouldn't take an eight-month break and celebrate it but here like you're eight months and you're still here right like you've made it you have been supported by the spirit of god you have endured you have not been perfect you have blown it you have done some things that maybe you're ashamed of but here you are struck but still here weary but still gathering so here's what we're going to do just real quickly we're going to celebrate with one another we're going to encourage one another that eight months in we're still standing by the grace of god and so give somebody a high five right now i don't if you're by yourself you just self-high-five yourself right so let's go everybody just celebrate for a second you're eight months in and you're still here right maybe you lost a job maybe uh you're so anxious and frustrated and angry but here you're still here you're still we just sung to jesus we're hanging in there we're being sustained by the grace of god i'm proud of you right mom and dad uh educator you've made some really hard decisions and i want you to hear me say this look right at me you didn't make the wrong one you didn't make the wrong one you decided i'm going to send my kid to school great if you said well no i'm a little too i'm going to just do on home uh i'm just going to homeschool this year praise god well i can't do home school i will hurt this kid we're going to do some variation of the two praise it you didn't make the wrong call you just made a call and i'm proud of you i'm also proud that you have never stopped across six months now do you have not stopped loving god and loving people the sheer volume of stories of people who have come to know christ of idols that have been stripped away out of the hearts of people as we moved from event-based christianity to christianity in our neighborhood you have been faithful maybe you're sitting in your living room right now and you're going man i don't you don't know me you ain't seeing what i mean i ain't been faithful you're tuning in right now sister brother you're tuning like you're hanging in there you've come back wanting to sing the word of god and hear the word of god and in some way even though dimly and faintly you're like i want the presence of god in my life you've done exceptionally well as false stuff is kicking off man i've just been geeked out at all of the stuff i'm hearing like many of you right now are with your home group in a living room watching this live stream you've gathered in these small pockets we didn't organize it you chose to do it and man that's exciting to me that you're like you know what we're going to gather i know we can't big gather but let's small gather and let's sit under the word of god and let's encourage one another let's brunch it up and and celebrate jesus together and so i've been super and then i want you to hear this we opened up class fall class registration uh seven days ago over 2 000 men and women have signed up for our bible study classes this fall like that's a reason to celebrate over 2 000 people now let me just with that said let me just let gotta i can't some things on camera don't worry i wanna i wanna press just a little bit uh the numbers right now uh very much are in favor of women joining bible study classes uh like i think the last count i saw which was tuesday maybe it got better was 24 to 1 which means for every 24 women we have in bible study we have one man men look right at me that ought not be so man just look right it ought not be so brothers so i'm making you need to hop online sign up for either men's bible study or christian story or christian belief you've got to find someplace to feed your soul with the word of god so so i want to encourage you like over 2 000 people locally over a thousand locally and then over a thousand more that are as far away as japan or canada or australia are jumping on to study the book of psalms with us to study christian story with us to study christian theology with us to get in and be trained in doctrine and life with us and so these are reasons to celebrate like god is at work in the mess that was not a tagline for happy seasons that was a tagline for this exact moment god is doing things he's accomplishing things whether we can see it in a gathered room or not god will not be slowed down by such small things or such big things as a virus and so with all i just wanted you to hear me say those things before we got to i'm proud of you gosh i love being your pastor you've made me love it all the more in this mess watching you navigate it watching you learn on the fly watching you own your faith all the more watching you take hold of rhythms that you wanted to establish to continue to grow in your relationship with jesus christ and man i couldn't be more proud of you now in 2019 we started working through the gospel of john in fact we covered john 1 through 6 in 16 weeks so so that one through six in 16 weeks and then we paused because there were some things that we believed we needed to address about the long-term vision of our church so we pressed pause and i told you we were going to come back to it and i heard all sorts of snarky comments about how well you never came back to luke which is not true uh and so here we are back in john and over the next 10 weeks we are going to cover john 7 through john 21 uh and if you're if you're doing the math in your head and you're going hey matt you you took 16 weeks to do chapters one through six and now you're telling us seven through 21 you're doing in 10 yes and that's going to require uh you to put on a different kind of lens as we walk through the gospel of john what i mean by that is if you remember when we were walking through the book of exodus and there were times that we would take two or three chapters at a time pull an anchor text out and then show how the context supported that main point you'll see us do that quite a bit over the next 10 weeks i wish we could take it more slow which we could hang out in john for the next three years but i want to in october spend a couple of weeks on the election i just feel like it's going to be good and right for us to let the word of god bear its weight on this moment in human history um and i know many of you already are a little anxious about what that might mean but i probably we're just going to let the book drive it's going to let the book set the ground for us so we're going to dive in uh in in late october right the week before two weeks before and the week after the election we're just gonna look at what the word of god says about a people the people of god being citizens of heaven in a given local government and participating as citizens whose loyalty ultimately isn't to their country but to the kingdom more on that in a few months so the gospel of john if you have your bibles you can go ahead and turn to john chapter 20. we're just going to look at one verse and then we'll do a flyover of those 16 weeks we did in the fall of 19. now the gospel of john looks and feels different than the other three gospels matthew mark and luke are called the synoptic gospels and they share similar timelines similar stories they they almost read identically in multiple places well the gospel of john is set from a different perspective it's written in a different way it doesn't follow the same chronological order and it has some of the more beautiful stories about the life of jesus john is he's arranged things he's happy about this number seven which biblically is like the perfect number uh so there are seven miracles showing jesus's divinity there are seven i am statements and by the way we've preached through those i am statements it'd be a good idea for you to circle back if you want and listen to those i am statements because i won't be able to kind of dial down into that statement like i was able to do back in 19. there's the raising of lazarus from the dead the woman at the well one of my favorite passages in all of scripture john chapter 4 there's nicodemus coming to jesus and saying we know that you're from god because nobody can do these things you're doing if they're not from god tell me how do i get into the kingdom and many of you that have watched uh the show the chosen saw nicodemus and jesus interacting that's from the gospel of john we see the washing of the disciples feet we see the high priestly prayer of jesus all of these are in the gospel of john but let me tell you why i'm most excited to dive back in in this moment to the gospel of john john allows us to see and marvel at jesus fully human fully divine and when you and i set our eyes set our hearts on jesus the author and the perfecter of our faith according to the book of hebrews instead of our circumstances instead of our frustrations our bedrock turns to joy and peace rather than frustration and anxiety and if there's anything you need right now there's anything i need right now if there's anything we need right now is for the unknown aspects of our future the frustrations of our current moment to be melted away by gazing upon the beauty of jesus christ our savior and so that's what we're going to do over the next 10 weeks now the purpose of the book of john it's really like like you don't have to grab a giant theological journal or a commentary because john just comes out and says it this is why i'm writing this down and so if you have your bibles let's look together this is john chapter 20. we'll look in verse 30. now jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book so jesus did a lot of other things that just weren't written in this book surely at some level this is common sense he lived three years so so the gospels don't kind of hold every little thing that happened in three years so anything that's not written down is kind of conjecture but but what we have written down we have written down for a specific purpose and here's the purpose that you and i are holding the gospel of john in our hands right now look at verse 31 but these are written so that you may believe that jesus is the christ the son of god and that by believing listen to this that you may have life in his name so there's my outline there it is that that john has been given to us the gospel of john has been given to us so that you might believe in three things one that jesus is the christ two that he is the son of god and the three in believing that you might have life in his name that one's gonna be huge that's like a pillar of mine but more on that when we get there let's start with the first phrase jesus is the christ the claim here is that jesus is the savior of the world look right at me not of good people not have put together people not even of the people that you would think but rather he's the savior of the world we see this if you remember back in chapter one starting in verse 12 here's what he said but to all who did receive him who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of god listen to this who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of god so god jesus is the christ the savior of the world that those who would believe in his name would become listen to this children of god so that god becomes our father our loving kind father our um supporter our provider the lover of our souls and how did this happen this is great not by bloodline just because your parents were christians don't make you a christian not not by the will of man you didn't white knuckle yourself into the kingdom of god if you are a child of god that has been a gift a free gift of god's grace lavished upon you you see this throughout the first part of john look at who he chooses as his disciples like if you ever just wanted to do a study that would encourage your own soul in regards to how god sees you and delights in you and loves you just study who he picked as disciples like i've said this before like most of this crew would not pass like our hr policies to come on staff at the village church right you can't be as violent as peter as doubting as thomas as passive is right you you just can't be what these disciples are and work here and yet these are the guys that jesus is picking and if you follow the story like they rarely get it right so think about that who is jesus crazy about who does jesus say save who does he bring into his confidence not the best not the perfect not those who have all their stuff together it's almost the opposite it's like if you're broken confused lonely longing i'm you're my people you're my guy like we see this there in chapter four we see this at the womb at the well when jesus sees a samaritan woman whose life's a wreck it's the middle of the afternoon she's come to the well nobody comes to the well in the middle of the afternoon it's scorching hot she's filled with shame with self-hate she's had five husbands and the man that she was currently living with at this time was not her husband and so what does jesus do this is a samaritan this is a woman the this is a woman who's had five husband and it's currently exchanging sex for rent what does jesus do jesus this is the first person that jesus says i am the messiah too he hadn't even told his disciples yet but this is the woman and so maybe you've got a background maybe you've got a present reality where you feel dirty and far from god and like you could never measure up look right at me well that means you're jesus is kind of people like it's you he wants to go hey come this way and he does surgery on this woman's soul he says woman go get your husband i don't have a husband she said i know you don't have a husband and and then he touches that place will you bring that to me will you bring that shame to me will you bring yourself hate to me will you bring your anger to me it's like these things that we want to hide from jesus those are the very things jesus like hey will you bring that here will you bring that here he's the savior of the world like here's here's what also this means and i've got to hurry i hate when i'm gone for a while and then i'm gonna get back i'm like oh um if jesus is the savior of the world please just dial in right now i think this is for us if jesus is savior of the world that means no other savior is actually going to work so one of the things if we'll pay attention that's being exposed right now is things in normal season things when everything's going right that we go to as our savior have been exposed as being no savior at all so our response to those being exposed can be anger captioning not let me give you two big available um i know where we live i know the opportunities we have in this community and i one of the big idols in this area is the idol of comfort like when we walked through core idols years ago and we wrote out what was the most common idol in our church and we brought them up laid them at the foot of the cross and we looked through those i mean there's 90 comfort i worship the idol of comfort i want to be comfortable i don't want to be stressed out i want comfort comfort comfort well what's happened in this season is that all the ways that we tried to find comfort have evaporated have you got to the end of netflix yet have you exhausted that are you now desperate to find to figure out how you might find comfort uh have you started drinking maybe a little too much have you started to kind of numb out in other ways because you can't get it well here's what's happening you're finding that comfort makes a crummy god that although you've gone to worship comfort you have found her lacking you know why because jesus is the savior of the world second place around here is control it's not comfort it's control if you have not at some level had part of your heart exposed by not being able to control the things that you're used to being able to control then i need you to teach me right like what is this season done well it's showing us that we really aren't as in control as we thought we were like anybody have a trip canceled anybody had a celebration they were geeked out about anybody was eager for this eager for that and it just slipped through your fingers then you remember the sadness that maybe turned into anger that maybe turned into resentment everywhere goes people like i'm over it and i'm like well i mean yeah i'm over it but we're not over it but we're over it right so what's happening is things that we have gone to for comfort things that we have gone to and we have worshiped have been exposed as being no god at all why because jesus is the savior of the world and and that's what if you will go to jesus and say i want the comfort that only you can bring you have said come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and i will give you rest give me rest i am weary i have heavy laden you will find rest from jesus that transcends the circumstances of life and gosh just that you're tuned in this morning lets me know that you're serious about clinging to him so continue to do so i want to remind you that you're not the one holding on he is holding on to you you are his which brings me to the second point the second point is jesus is the son of god now this is huge because it means that you and i are not following some philosophy of life or some morality we're following the second person of the trinity jesus christ man is the son of god second person of the trinity has always been will always be the creator of all things we read about this in chapter one starting in verse one in the beginning was the word the greek word there logos it was how the greeks talked about the ultimate point of the universe so in the beginning was the logos the word jesus and the word was with god and the word was god and he was in the beginning with god and all things were made through him and without him was not anything made and it was made and so this is jesus the savior of the world how that's how is that possible because he's the son of god because he's co-eternal with the father he has always been he will always be and he has created everything and we see this as we walk through the gospel of john we see him turn water into wine that's not a parlor trick he does that because he's the son of god he made water all the molecules that make up water he made wine much to the baptist chagrin with all that goes into that so he can just tell water to be wine and it obeys why not because he's a magician because he's the son of god we watch him heal the official son in chapter four he doesn't even go to the official son the official son runs up to him and says my son is sick i've got word that he's gonna die will you please come and jesus says why do you guys always need a miracle and a sign and he says please my son will die jesus moves with compassion says your son is well the father believed it turned and headed towards home and and before he even got home another servant met him this is a phenomenal story and said your son has been made well the fever left his body said when did that happen happened and the servant said about the seventh hour which was the exact time that the official was talking to jesus how is that possible was that luck was that maybe that's our western plausibility structure man jesus really lucked out on that one but it wasn't luck he's the son of god only the son of god from a distance can say i rebuke you illness and have it leave this little boy we see this again in a crippled man of 38 years in chapter 5. 38 years on a mat unable to move and jesus just says hey do you want to be healed what a great question do you actually want to be healed is your identity so wrapped up in your sickness that you don't want to be healed or do you want to be healed the man makes an excuse well you know nobody will help me go down when an angel stirs up the water people get in there before i can get in so don't even answer jesus questions but that doesn't stop jesus from saying take up your mat and walk who does that jesus does that why because he's a musician magician no because he's the son of god he has always been he will always be he he is the king sovereign over everything that exists he and he alone says to demon says to diseases says to the natural order you will do my will and they do his will we could keep going here but i need to hurry he walks on water in chapter 6 and he feeds 5 000 people more than likely 12 15 000 people with a kid's lunch so contextualizing this text he takes a lunchable from some kid's little basket the tuna fish one and he opens it up and and he feeds like 15 000 people so that they were like all these lunchables left when they were done who does that jesus does that and here's what i want you to hear me say to you do you know who's on your side today do you know who sees you today do you know who keeps track of every tear of every hurt of every loss of every frustration of every bit of anger you know who sees it you know as your back you know who's there jesus the son of god we do not worship and follow some passive can't do anything about the brokenness in the world god we serve god at work in the mess he sees you he's with you you have not been abandoned now here's the last one and this is like a pillar for me the last phrase says that we that you may have life in his name so life in his name is speaking to this idea of union with christ or what we've called in other series withness so that you and i might have life in jesus not life outside of jesus but life inside of jesus now what i mean by my pillars is there are three pillars that the lord's made clear to me over the years that are just part of who i am the first is biblically serious like long like i love the word i want to preach the word of god proclaim the god of the bible the second one would be spiritually alive there's life in jesus and i so desperately want you to have it i don't want you to know about him i don't want you to just have principles i don't even want you to kind of master the high arts of doctrine i want you to see and savor and love and have life in jesus it's not that those other things aren't important it's that those things feed life in jesus or you're doing them wrong or you're doing them wrong so look at did we see this in john 1 4 through 5 in him was life and the life was the light of men the light shines on in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it now if there was ever a season for you and i to go there's life in jesus and there's life in jesus that darkness cannot overcome now now maybe you're close to feeling overcome maybe you're just about to tap out maybe you just don't know how much longer you can do this and i'm not just talking covet i'm not just talking about all that i'm just talking in the deeper parts of your heart i want to bring your attention and maybe even reframe something and i'm going to come back to this later on in john because i think it's a it's a change that we all need to make and i need to teach around it okay here here's what we see happening jesus has all the arrayed all the armament of darkness against him satan himself faced against him fractured broken world because of sin aimed against him secular powers rome aimed against him religious powers sadducees pharisees aimed against him even his own disciple betrayed him unto death and jesus is crucified on the cross and we rightly gaze upon that as the wrath absorbing sin lifting sacrifice of jesus on our behalf and yet what needs to be celebrated as much if not even more than the cross of jesus christ is the resurrection of jesus christ right so how does jesus triumph over sin over satan over secular powers over religious powers over floundering faltering failing disciples with the resurrection well what's the good news of the gospel yes that your sins are forgiven but all the more that you have life in his name the christian life is not just blew it again let me ask for forgiveness blew it again ask for forgiveness blew it again let me ask for forgiveness we will need the ongoing ethic of confession and repentance but christ has come so that you might have life so that you might be made alive in him so that the indwelling power of the holy spirit and union with christ would lead to life and life to the full he says this says this to nicodemus in chapter 3 1-3 now there was a man of the pharisees named nicodemus a ruler of the jews and this man came to jesus by night and said to him rabbi we know that you are a teacher come from god for no one can do these signs you do unless god is with him and jesus answered him truly truly i say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of god look right at me we see at the woman of well he's off in her streams of living water bubbling out from her soul in chapter six the people wanted bread just give us something to eat and what does jesus say i am the bread of life you don't need bread you need me i'm the bread of life over and over and over we see this jesus is after the transformation of souls not behavioral modification as long as the lenses on your life are perpetually i'm a terrible person there this i can't believe that god would ever even love me or use me and you don't start to embrace that christ has come that you might have life and the resurrection means that you've been given a new heart you've been given a new heart by the spirit of god to awaken you to the beauty of the kingdom of god and you've been empowered to walk into doesn't mean we're not going to have to fight sin if anything it means you're in a fight that's bigger than you can fathom it's time we start fighting back a little bit right this is what we see there's life in his name and he wants you to have that life i'm gonna end the sermon today with a simple quote from friedrich bruner he says this come into union with the word who made you and you will come to life you came from him please come back to him you were made for him the result of this reunion will be more than human existence look at me it will be human life two questions as i end the the first question would simply be this what right now like let's boil it down what right now is distracting you from looking to jesus the christ the son of god so if you think about maybe maybe the distraction is well man my my spouse has lost their job or i've lost my job or maybe the maybe the frustration is i don't i hate the way we're doing school i need i need a break here maybe the frustration is oh we had all these plans and these plans have been ruined maybe the frustration is just like i've been in the house with these people i'm learning i don't care for them maybe i don't know i don't know what the but but here's what i'm going to ask you to do i want you to name that and then i want this week as you think about that to stop yourself and instead turn and fix your eyes on jesus right this is the point of the gospel of john that you might believe that jesus is the son of god that he is the christ and that in him you might have life well if your whole focus your whole concentration is about how bad this is or how bad this stinks or what you wish over here here's what i'm asking whatever that thing is that's taunting you right now whatever that thing is right now that's pestering you right now stealing your joy robbing you of life when you think about it this week i want you to pay attention and then when it pops into your head i want you to go nope but i want you to turn and face jesus you can do that by reading the gospel of john you can do that but just awkward wonky prayers of just like jesus i don't wanna i wanna think about you jesus i wanna marvel at your goodness i wanna celebrate your life i wanna rejoice in who you are and i want you to fight this week why because jesus is the christ he's the son of god and in him in your believing there is life in his name he sees you he loves you let's pray father i thank you for the opportunity even as we've gathered maybe just as a family unit maybe just a as a single man or a single woman maybe just um with with friends in a different space we just come to you and we ask you lift up our heads turn our eyes turn our hearts back to you god with all the things that are frustrating us right now making us angry right now stealing our joy right now i just pray in the name of jesus spirit of the living god that you would help us see it this week at the first little inkling of the thought that we would see it we would see it as being from hell and that we'd make war against it we'd make war by worshiping you turning our eyes to gaze upon you and marveling at your beauty and grace jesus we love you help us you are at the center of all you are the point of it all help us it's for your beautiful name i pray amen let's respond in singing [Music] when the road is long you're my portion never failing for me only jesus [Music] but you [Music] foreign [Music] you're [Music] every moment and then forever for me only jesus declare this pray this if me only jesus [Music] you the riches of this world could never satisfy [Music] for me for me only jesus for me for me only jesus for me for me only jesus family we set our eyes on the one who fulfills the one who is a solid place to stand who won't let us down who's good who's kind he's merciful to us to center our attention on the one who's good focus on him ask for that you jesus [Music] [Music] the riches of this world could never satisfy [Music] [Music] foreign for me for me only jesus for me for me oh jesus for me for me i want to satisfy [Music] jesus for me for me oh jesus we're going to end our time together today in a good right celebration of the forgiveness of our sins of our union with jesus christ of the life we have in his name and so if you've got the elements there let's prepare our hearts the the bible says that we come uh with a heart that is honest before the lord that we don't presume upon the lord but we just come as we are wherever we are in this moment whether uh we feel far from the lord or we know where we we've had a terrible week but we come to this table because it's the invitation to come and be with him to be in his presence to receive the life that is found in his name and so if you have the elements i'll give you just a moment to prepare and then we'll celebrate together the bible says that on the night that jesus was arrested that he took bread and he broke it saying this is my body broken for you do this in remembrance of me at the end of the meal he took the cup and he blessed it and said as long as we gather in his name which is what we've just done i know it's digital i know it's not ideal but we've just gathered in the name of jesus we should do this and remember and so again remembering is a rhythm now that reconnects us uh with what is true what is the real story in the world which is that jesus is the christ the son of god and there's life in his name let's remember amen a couple of questions that we'll just put up on the screen for you to consider as we close out our time together today now the first is one of the things i ask in my conclusion what what is it uh that's been distracting you um from looking to jesus the christ the son of god so what do you need to name it don't be ambiguous don't uh lack no no what is the thing that's in your mind instead of him being in your mind so let's name it this is the thing that's robbing me from life in his name and then i want you to commit this week just this one thing that when that comes into your mind it comes into your heart comes up fear anxiety anger when it comes up you're going to see it you're going to make war against it that you're going to be a violent man or a violent woman not against flesh and blood but against spirits and powers and principalities in your own flesh and so where you think that week where it pops up in your head i want you to immediately go no and and turn your attention to jesus the christ the son of god and enjoy the life that's in his name god bless you i love you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 88min 5sec (5285 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2020