You Have No Idea

the topic today you know there are some subjects of such large scale and such large scope that we really can't ever fully hope to understand them and grasp them academically we can we can come to terms with them sort of a intellectually and academically but to truly grasp it in your bones to grasp it in your blood is truly in the realm of the impossible for instance the sermonette was about cosmology when it comes to the universe you know you can study star charts and you can take a look at how the galaxies are dispersed in the universe and you can take a look at their coordinates and our measurements and charts of star brightness and look at number of light-years this and percentages of hydrogen that you can look at all these things you can come to understand the many of the laws of physics that govern the objects in our universe and you can come to a certain intellectual grasp of the cosmos but we all know that's different when if you've had the blessing of being out on a beautiful dark starry night with no lights from a nearby town to interfere when the moon isn't present shining in the sky and you look up at the stars and there are so many truly beyond count and you see the Milky Way and you recognizes you're trying to soak it in that you don't get the half of it you don't get the tenth of it you don't get the hundredth of it because it is so fast and something so great and so far beyond you and yet the attempt to try does ennoble us the attempt to try to grasp the whole of it even though we know we're doomed to fail from the beginning does move us forward in some way it's like the difference between having say map of the Pacific Ocean and then actually standing on the shore and experiencing it you know you can look at the map you can understand the the coastlines and where the inlets are and what the major ports are you can study about the tides you can study about the flow of the different underwater streams and such you can take a look at the different life forms that live in the Pacific Ocean but it's not like standing on the shore and seeing the waves hit the rocks and hearing the roar of that power and that strength and feeling the spray on your face and then recognizing I don't know the whole of it it's so much bigger than I am it's so much faster than I am I can intellectually recognize it but I can't truly know it in my bones fully I can't truly know it in my blood fully well there's many aspects concerning our creator the eternal God they're just like that because he is the eternal he is the great one he is the everliving one he's the one that we strain and struggle to fully grasp and while we can intellectually recognize some things we recognize that in this life on this side of the veil there are some things we will never know fully until we're on the other side into actually experiencing the very same life that he experiences now and it's my desire to talk about one of those topics today if you'll turn to Ephesians chapter 3 I'd like to read a passage that Paul wrote to the church and Ephesus and that sort of sets the stage for what I want to try to do Ephesians chapter 3 and there are many things like this there's many different topics of such a scope and scale I'm going to narrow my focus to one in particular in Ephesians chapter 3 we'll start in verse 14 fusions 3 we'll start in verse 14 we read here Paul saying for this reason I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through the his spirit and the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God that last verse encapsulate sort of the the paradox of what we want to talk about today he says there that if you want to be filled with the fullness of God than it is vital that you seek to know the love of Christ this love that God has towards us which was exemplified in him and yet it says to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge there would be this kind of eternal seeking and growing and yet it is so full it is so rich that on this side of the veil we will never comprehend it fully we will never have a fullness of a comprehension there are always be room to grow always be room to understand it more fully and more completely that's really the heart of the purpose of my sermon today it's sort of a two-fold purpose first I want to help all of us understand more fully God's love for us it seems like a fluffy kind of statement I want you to know God loves you you know he loves you you know it seems really fluffy but part of that's because we've been poisoned by a world that has turned it into something fluffy that has turned it into just kind of a Hallmark card kind of God when he is so much greater and his love is so much richer and more full than that without it we don't comprehend how much he longs to bring his kingdom to this world without we don't comprehend how much he looks forward to completing what he is doing and each and every one of us and so I want to try to contribute towards that to help us not just understand it intellectually but to actually stand on the shore a bit from what he tells us about that and then in the time that's remaining afterwards I want us to comprehend this isn't simply some sort of academic exercise but the more we do come to grow an understanding of God's love the more it impacts our relationship to him our relationship to Jesus Christ in our relationship to each other there's an irony in it it's sort of like the universe you know you can take someone who hasn't really thought about it much or hasn't been educated much then kind of go out maybe then see the Stars and say man there's a lot of those and I see them all you know there they are I've got it you know I understand the whole shebang there's space and it's black and there's points of light and they're white and you know I got it and yet the more educated you get about it the more you look into it actually the more you come to understand about the cosmos the irony is the more you realize I will never in this life grasp the whole of it so to some wonderful sort of extent the purpose of the sermon is kind of self defeating the more we come to understand the love God has for us and what that means and what it implies the more will also come for him at in this life we truly have no idea of the limits for it and won't until we're on the other side with him in the life that he has now so that's the purpose of the sermon today and the title of the sermon is you have no idea you have no idea actually my sister I discovered I have a sister in Louisville Kentucky who was born before I was a whole adoption story there she texted me today and said so are you given a sermon today which coincidentally I was and she said so what is it and I said what it's called you have no idea I said I tell you what it's about but I have no idea anyway so I mess were there a little bit before we get into the subject in that direction I actually feel it's profitable for us to spend some time talking about some misconception I want to take a look at some false ideas about God's love first we don't always say them we don't always describe them in these words but unless you're remarkably different from I am and many of you are you're better-looking and taller and all the rest unless we're remarkably different as human beings they do worm their way into our thoughts I know they've wormed their way into mine from time to time in terms of my feelings and my thoughts and my reactions to what God is doing so let me dispel some false ideas first the first one God's love for you isn't merely the corporate or collective kind of you when we say that God loves you he actually just loves you you know so as we said we know we know you know God has a plan for you God is working to save you and we can think of that is the corporate sense and actually we're kind of avoiding some of the mistakes that some people in the world tend to have when they think that thought they don't think in the corporate sense that you can just be alone in your home and that's all that's really necessary you can avoid meeting with other Christians you can avoid getting together and actually still develop a relationship towards God that's not the way he designed it the corporate sense of you me as the church is very important but I remember someone saying something way back in the Worldwide Church of God it was a minister had gotten up it was kind of early because it really made me think and the point he made was that you know if you were the only person who sinned and Christ had to die for just you he would do that that he would do that then when we say and what the scripture tells us that God loves you it really doesn't just mean you you sitting in your chair you wearing your clothes the person that looks out at the mirror at you that he actually does love you there's a verse that that makes me think and I've appreciated its translation into New King James turn to Psalm 33 Psalm 33 and we'll start in Psalm 33 in verse 13 we read here in Psalm 33 and verse 13 the eternal looks from heaven he sees all the sons of men from the place of his dwelling he looks on all the inhabitants of the earth we tend not to have a problem with that we think of God looking on the world from heaven and seeing our congregation and seeing the church seeing what's going on in the Middle East and it's the next verse that made me think he says in verse 14 sorry verse 15 he fashions their hearts individually he considers all their works now other translations translated differently and they're not off that's part of the thing about Hebrew and Greek is it can be so rich it's often hard to really encapsulate what it's saying in a few English words it's not a it's not a one-to-one kind of function for the calculus geeks out there he fashions their hearts individually other translations get across the sense it's that he fashions all of them not missing a one that he's involved with the fashioning of each of us the fact is God loves you your individual development your day matters to him and so sometimes we can think of that only in the corporate sense he needs us to know he thinks of it individually as well another misconception we want to make sure we address the beginning God doesn't love you out of mere obligation or because he must God doesn't love you he doesn't love me out of mere obligation or because he must it's kind of important there's something I often talk about in a premarital counseling it's a good thing I'm not trying to knock it it's just that when it comes to subjects like this like love that are so rich and full that sometimes you can cover one asset of the gym and and then accidentally de-emphasize other facets and you know different people talked about about Paul died think Paul was all about faith James was all about works instead of realizing they were talking about multiple facets of the same thing and one of the comments that I'll make and in counseling for relationship counseling or as we get into premarital counseling is that love is a choice you know you choose to love because believe me when you're married there's days you don't feel like loving that's just the way it is you know you even in the best of marriages which by the way that's mine you know y'all are y'all are led no more than second but cuz we're number one but even in the best of our strains are you looking at me kind of funny even the best of marriages there are those days when you have to remind yourself okay I'm choosing to love right now you know this is the 17th demand this week he's made for a sandwich you know and he can't get up and make his own sandwich but I'm gonna choose I'm gonna choose to love and that's a true statement it's not love isn't just at the whim of our feelings at the time and yet at the same time it certainly is more than that as well right it's so much more I know when my wife and I counseled for our marriage with the minister we want to get married so we're account to the minister and one of the first things he asked us was so why do you guys want to get married and I bet I give you my word it was not a prepared speech I really didn't go in thinking well I got to convince this guy you know that where I was just going through while you know I you know I we've known each other for a while we're best friends I really feel like you know she makes me a better Christian you know so there's a good example I'm back for that he's listening page he goes on and finally when you know me you know whenever he gets an opportunity to say something he says what and you love each other right oh yeah oh yeah you know we do yeah we do we do we do love each other you know there was definitely that and sometimes with God we can think well you know Kay yes God loves me I understand that he loves me because he has to and if he had opportunity there's probably times he choose not to he'd say you know what I'm so frustrated with this person I just I'll keep loving them but only because I have to only because I said in my word that I would and that's not the way it is I think we'll see that as we go through other parts of the sermon but it's not the case he doesn't love us out of mere obligation or requirement and then finally the last misperception that I'd like to address is that he doesn't love us just when we're good now this can be twisted and has been twisted by some in the past to say stupid things things that I am grateful I'm here talking in front of a congregation of the Church of God where we understand that those things are false but let me not take it for granted let me make sure that I do explain and we'll talk in more detail a bit later but just because we love someone doesn't mean it doesn't make a difference to us whether they're obedient or not when it comes to children for instance love is there an excuse to just disobey and do whatever we want actually turn to proverbs proverbs chapter 3 since we should be fairly close from where we are but I'll mention that in Hebrews chapter 12 the Apostle Paul quotes this passage he paraphrases it to a certain extent but he quotes from proverbs chapter 3 and verse 12 proverbs 3 and verse 12 it says here for whom the eternal loves he corrects just as a father the son in whom he delights sometimes we can think that God is trying to correct us or work in our life and allow difficult things to somehow make us in a condition where he can love us and that's not actually what this passage says it says he corrects the sons he loves even the correction is is born out of that love he doesn't love us just because or when we're good it's an unconditional love it's an unconditional love now we have a sermon in our collection from mr. Ames number 510 unconditional love given some time back I wrote it down 2008 unconditional love and I'm gonna sit down we're gonna play that sermon right now no actually I would like to read from dr. Jeffrey Falls booklet on successful parenting there's a couple of pastors in particular one of the things that he says in that booklet is that some may not believe in any corporal punishment whatsoever speaking of parents thinking that they have their children's well-being at heart but they fail to understand human nature and what is truly best for children unconditional love and learned obedience with applied correction both of those things both of them are necessary one without the other when it comes to being a parent and we're out of balance and if we don't grow in a grasp of God's unconditional love we risk simply seeing him as one of these kind of authoritarian parents who's doing nothing but correcting us and is it invested himself fact he also says elsewhere in the booklet in previous decades many parents relied primarily on restrictive Authority and on punishments for disobedience little encouragement or unconditional love was given and parents with this approach became unloving authoritarians both elements are necessary and we have to recognize God loves us unconditionally not just when we're good there's a country song that's not exactly right but I'm her the first time I heard it and listened to it it was after I was baptized I was driving around in my beautiful 4-door metallic blue Chevy 1972 Nova I missed that car very much and I remember writing in town and some of you know the song you know let me tell you secret about a Father's love I won't sing it for you because you all asked me to stop if I did start singing it for you but in bad things George Strait I think it was George Strait and one of the things he says is that a Father's love isn't just every now and then it's it's a love without end there's not boundaries to it and I remember in my car thinking about that and thinking about the fact that I've been forgiven at baptism and I remember as I was rearing my own sons when they would misbehave which is hard for some of you to believe but believe me it happens it could be happening right now actually you know as far as I know but it does happen that I remember as I would interact with them and it would come down to some kind of discipline or punishment whether it was a grounding or you know leaving you know someone didn't get to go to something they wanted to do there was a couple of things I wanted them to know both of them examples of of love one is I wanted them to understand that they were being punished not because it was a mao a malicious act that we just I'm angry and so I want to punish you but that I love them too much not to discipline them I love them too much not to allow them to continue to grow up and not feel that what they've done is something that's going to harm them in the future and there's children that's hard to understand when we're young in fact some of you children now probably thinking I've heard that speech a hundred times please you know as you're giving me you're giving me flashbacks I never said there's gonna hurt you more than it's gonna hurt me because there wasn't gonna but I did say that I did point out that you know not every time but I did want to make sure they understood that what we were doing was because I loved him too much and I could say that from experience as a high school teacher because I knew students who would be failing or who would be misbehaving who would be out of line who would be rebellious and I knew their parents were not ignorant ignorant of it in a lot of those cases and new parents who were doing absolutely nothing and the the kids seem like they're having a ball and you realize all they're doing is building in their life everything they're going to regret in the future and I can see that from the perspective as an adult and in perspective they did not have and you had the other students that you know mom and dad were getting down on them you know because they had to see you know and was making them come in for for extra help and for tutoring and I try to highlight to them I said don't hold that against your mom and dad I don't know all the details you were family life but be grateful you have a mom or dad who cares enough to make you do this because I see too many tragic cases where that's not the case so I needed them to know that but also afterwards and I saw a biblical model for this and mr. egwin would highlight this I know in Dallas and his sermons that even if you look at God's correction when he talks about correction to Israel he talks about the punishments to come he would also talk about a restoration he would talk about it wasn't just to punish use cuz he longed to have that relationship and he wanted Israel to know that he loved them and it was important to me in punishment especially when they were feeling bad you know whenever the chastising has been successful because there is a there's a change in spirit there's a desire in a child for the relationship to be good again and sometimes they can feel guilty and they can feel down and I never wanted them in that moment to feel somehow that they were too low for me to love or they were sue they were somehow it had been so bad that my love was on shaky ground for them and I had this sort of ritual I had this question I would ask and I would ask does daddy love you only when you're good or does he love you all the time and then they would respond all the time please don't punish me anymore no they they generally wouldn't do that if they did I knew that I'd messed up but they would say he loves me all the time it was vital to me that they understood that and it's vital that we don't have that misunderstanding about God's unconditional love he doesn't just love us when we're good he loves us all the time so those things said those misunderstandings out of the way let's dive into the rest you know we're told by Jesus Christ in the Gospels he says this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent that's in John 17 verse 3 this eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent if you would turn to 1st John chapter 4 with that in mind because if we aspire to eternal life and I do believe everybody here does I know that I do then Jesus Christ makes it plain here that involves knowing God now that could be a whole nother sermon because there's multiple aspects to what do we do how do we come to do that I want to focus on one in particular something we have to come to terms with if knowing God is a part of coming into eternal life if understanding God in some way is a part of coming into eternal life then that is going to include grappling with this fact in 1st John and chapter 4 first John and chapter 4 and verse 8 the Apostle John says very simply he who does not love does not know God for god is love God is love now we do have to understand love correctly to understand that but the same time take the time to soak in what kind of statement that is to be able to say those three words God is love that's not normal for something to be so much a part of our character and being and who we are did that can be said of us you know for instance I I really like math you know we've lot of us know that we talked something somebody have a math idea and you'll send it to me on Facebook or something you know I like math but I don't think anybody would actually say oh you know he loves me so much Wally Smith is math right list I hope not you know that would be really really unusual we were at volleyball practice the other night a couple nights ago was there and our not a couple nights with a few practices and I was watching a member of our congregation mr. mr. Derek Lee and I thought he's pretty good at playing volleyball put the pressure on him now everybody's gonna be watching watching you mr. Lee play volley but it was it was really pretty good why some warmed up but I wouldn't actually say Derrek Lee is volleyball right I mean I wouldn't say that nobody hurt your feelings out there I was volleyball you know that doesn't consume him so much that defines in some way who he is right and yet the Bible tells us God is love it is something so central so fundamental so integral to who he is and what he is and what he does and what he chooses and how he thinks that the Bible can say God is love and it's not an exaggeration it's something fundamentally true how can we even comprehend what it is for a being to have that kind of outward concern for others outward focus on others to understand that it can be such a defining characteristic that you can make such a statement honestly it seems a little hopeless again harkening back to the verse that we started with how do we even begin to know some thing that passes knowledge marks what Paul said in Ephesians to come to know that love the love of Christ which actually passes knowledge it's like what you see so often so my favorite verses in the Old Testament where David says things like you know it's too high I can't attain it how do we begin that process then where we have a lot of help one we do have God's Spirit all right we have access to that spirit it is able to help us grow in directions and magnitudes we would not be able to grow in otherwise we share that with God the Father and Jesus Christ themselves so we are able to access that we have God's law of love which does put God's mind and character in love and everyday sort of terms and allows us to understand what does that look like with our hands and with our feet with our mouths God's law serves that purpose in fact we have that as an aid we have that as a help and God also helps us with the most perfect example he could ever provide we're already in first John let's read just a little bit further from where we left off first John chapter 4 again and verse 9 we read in this the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him we're told here the love of God was manifested toward us in his sending his son to continue in verse 10 in this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins God sent His Son to act in the world to teach in the world and part of that should be to help us understand God's love to be a manifestation of that he's the one that when were baptized we want to live in us to help us to comprehend it more fully there's a reason God often points us to the love of Christ as an example one of my favorite passages on this matter is in Romans chapter 8 if you turn to Romans chapter 8 as are they in my favorite passage we're got to be careful sometimes we ministers do that by the time the sermon is over we've listed eight or nine favorite passages but this really is in terms of this particular topic one of my favorites Romans chapter 8 and we'll just start in verse 31 the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8 and verse 31 what then shall we say to these things if God is for us who can be against us he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things how is that supposed to manifest in some way God's love to us I mean you know giving his son like that well let me say that I probably didn't understand that as well as I do after becoming a father you know I remember before I was a father you know I'd like to think I was kind of a nice guy I like to think that I was you know pretty loving and you know the height of things I consider what you know self-sacrifice and yet when you have children and see them suffer it's really something very different I remember the first time one of them had a ear infection and we thought it was an infection wasn't sure at the time but ah he was just crying and in pain he was so little and it's not like words consoled you know you get to be that point in paying where the words just aren't rational right yeah they're not registering and I remember you know praying for him in that regard and am I saying this is because I'm something special if you've been a parent you've been in that place frankly if you've been in the church you've probably been in that place for others regardless of whether you're a parent and overtime certainly well b-but I've prayed for that that that if he would put that on me instead you know just to see my son in such agony and say you know just put that on me you know just whatever just please don't let him continue in this he doesn't understand you know he's just a child and just pleading with God and I remember learning from that that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ it wasn't just Jesus Christ's actions and choices what a difficult day that must have been for his father as well and what a price it was for them to pay together and Paul points us to that price to say he loved you enough for them to go through this we continue in the passage he says in verse 33 who shall bring a charge against God's elect and people do it every day he says it is God who justifies who is he who condemns it is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword why does he list these things because there's times we feel we're in those places we feel we're under the sword we are in peril we are in nakedness we are in famine and he's reminding us when you're in those times it doesn't mean you're separated from that love it is unconditional it is still there and then identifying with those because he himself had been through these things he says in verse 36 as it is written for your sake we are killed all day long were accounted as sheep for the slaughter yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him loved us for I am persuaded he says that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord he gives us that example and intends us to learn from that and we read these kinds of superlatives pour it on to it by the Apostle Paul we do recognize this is not something we will ever truly fully understand in this life and yet every additional glance we can get of it we find revolutionizes our understanding and moves us closer to him and further along and everything he's trying to achieve in us now please understand I do feel the necessity to say this because the world twists such ideas of God's love and the things that are perversions and things that are wrong and I don't want anyone ever making that mistake because of anything I've said you know first John chapter 5 tells us this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments its first John five and verse three God's low someone remembered it I heard that in memory verse a good job first John chapter five verse three this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments God's love cannot ever be truly separated from his law and Commandments if God is love and it is God's law then it's a law of love it's actually simple if you think about it from the perspective of a parent our children may think sometimes we just make up rules arbitrarily because we enjoy controlling the lives of other and manipulating them like evil puppets you know they may think that and maybe sometimes we do and we need to stop but regardless there are so many things we tell them why because we love them and just because we love them when I love my kids hey you need to take the garbage out but since I love you you don't do it if you don't want to you know really cuz I love you and so you don't gotta take the garbage job you don't want to but I'm gonna tell you take the garbage job you can ignore that if you want this isn't make any sense at all you know I take the garbage out take the garbage out it's still a command the fact that I love them doesn't change the fact that I've commanded them and why it's not because it's arbitrary there's a lot of things we learn in our chores we want people to participate in the life of the family to learn to be industrious I also don't like taking the garbage out you know I do admit at least on this level there's a part of that as well but then think of it also this way because we love our children doesn't their obedience mean more to us I mean I might hear a tale of a child here and they're not really obeying their parents when I was a high school teacher I saw it in action I got to enjoy the disobedience of many children on a daily basis and I might come by home to my wife and talk about it but it's different with my kids I care more I care more doesn't that make sense of God as well doesn't it make sense to say that if he loves us it's not that our obedience means less to him someone who says that either hasn't read their Bible or has no idea what it's like dad children our obedience means all the more and yet at the same time the balance of that is to understand that he doesn't love us because we obey it means something to him he wants us to obey and there will be people going into the lake of fire for their refusal to obey and submit to God but there's a reason why it tells us in Ezekiel that God doesn't get any pleasure from the death of the wicked in Ezekiel 33 because those people going into the lake of fire he loves them too I loves them too you know why do you love your children then why do we love our children why is it that when even we get to those places and sometimes in some families where a child has been so rebellious you've had to send them away they're having to live someplace else in their rebellion I've known families like that my wife and I even talked about the possibility when we one day had children some are still young and have a chance you know maybe you know you'll do that it happens and why do those parents even after that do they just write them off and say well you know it's just good thing I can make more why is it they're still praying for those children day after day why is it they love them they love them because of who they are and because they're theirs you know children say you're sitting at a playground your kids are little and they're swinging and sliding and doing whatever it's a crowded playground maybe it's the first spring day after a long winter and it seems like everyone has decided to go to the park and I've never been there on one of those days like there's a line around the corner like there's a Star Wars movie in town and everybody wants to be in the park and so you're sitting on a bench and there's a mass of kids it's not that you don't love all those kids in some way right I mean if a little kid next to you was walking by and fell on the ground and scraped his knee on a rock and was bleeding and calling out for his mom and it wasn't yours you wouldn't go ooh boy it looks rough but we're kids it's not mine though I don't care you know no maybe some of you would we need to talk or counsel with mr. McNair or mr. DeSimone however a lot of us would say oh I'm so sorry you know let's find your mommy right let's find your daddy and you might take them around it's not that you don't love them but it is different when it's your kids when you look at that mass of faces and you're sitting there on that bench and you're scanning the crowd and it's not that the other faces aren't cute and it's not they're not wonderful but you're scanning them all looking for yours not because you know they're being good they may not you might finally find that boy he's biting some other kid you know it happens right but you're scanning because they're them and they're yours and you love them and in that sea of faces you scan and there's one that one's mine and there's the other one over on the swing and there's that one looks like he's having a bad day I'll keep an eye on that one and there's the other one out of a sea of 500 faces those means something to you different than the others do God loves us because we're his God loves you because you're his and because you're you turn to Jeremiah chapter 29 I remember this passage is teaching me a lot in Jeremiah 29 Jeremiah 29 and understand as we read this Jeremiah is talking to as God is using Jeremiah to talk to a rebellious Israel you know though these verses will mean something to Israel in the future when they are in captivity and they go through these and it's going to feel like they are at the pinnacle of God's hate and detestation that God must truly abhor us and they'll connect that with the things they've done and in the midst of all of that what does God say in Jeremiah 29 and verse 11 Jeremiah 29 verse 11 he says for I know the thoughts that I think toward you says the eternal thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope he didn't say I know the thoughts that I will think toward you as soon as all this has passed and you and I are good again I know the thoughts I will think right now I'm just too disgusted he says I know the thoughts I think this is not what I hope for you I hope for something so much better and so much more beautiful I hope for you a future and something glorious no one has hopes for you or your future or mine that are greater than what God meditates on day by day you know it's interesting actually turn at Jeremiah 32 since we're fairly close and before we read a particular verse I want to remind you of something said in Deuteronomy it's a very famous passage of Deuteronomy the Shema and Deuteronomy you can note it look it up later check up on me you know don't don't take my word for it write beuter on me it's in dorami chapter 6 and verse 5 where we read there in Deuteronomy 6 verse 5 you shall love the eternal your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength and that seems so extreme right how greedy of God how full of himself that he expects every thing from us all of our soul and all of our strength who does he think he is you might ask all of our soul and all of our heart all of our strength in Jeremiah chapter 32 we read in verse 41 God's saying yes I will rejoice over them to do them good speaking of Israel and I will assuredly plant them in this land verse 41 with all my heart and with all my soul yes God wants everything of us but part of that is because we already have everything of his he is asking of us no more than he already had that we already have from him all his heart and all his soul his everything is already devoted to us he's asking that we learn to do the same you know what's interesting mething we know from 2nd Peter Peter says there that you know a thousand days with God sorry a thousand years with God it's like a day sorry a thousand get this straight a day won't take time to turn there something's going to mess it up for the next 15 minutes God says that Peter says that for us you know we can go through a thousand years for God it's like a day on the other hand a day with us could be like a thousand years with God there's this really kind of fascinating thought you know the scale sort of goes both ways and it's a it kind of helps to understand among a lot of different things that God's relationship to time you know it's different and if you take a look at that you think of it as one day with us being like a thousand years to God I called the zoom in factor for God you can boil it down you can boil it down for instance to say what does that mean well a thousand years would be like 365 thousand days right approximately it snuck into the fractions so so one day for us could be like three hundred and sixty-five thousand for God now with that said I will confess that I do think each day I spend at least about a minute thinking of each of my children great dad I know you know hopefully it's more than that but just give me that there's give me that and maybe his father we need to ask yourself if we do at least spend a good solid sixty seconds on each of our kids but let me give me that that at least each day I at least spend a minute thinking about them what they're going through what they're what's going on in their lives talking with them spending time with him at least a minute but if you use that scale one day being like three hearings sixty-five thousand days for God then one minute for us would be like nine months for God now some of you already want to check me in you're gonna try phone out your calculator all I ask you is don't do it right now but in time with the sermon do it later if I'm wrong let me know and I'll apologize it'll be scandalous I know but if I spent at least a minute each day think of that just just meditate on that imagine thinking about your children for nine straight months no sleep no eating no interruption but having that kind of mind and love for them that you can devote that much to them because we ask ourselves sometimes well how can God spend so much time thinking about me I mean how can God spend so much time thinking about you I need to be reminded he's God he's gone and the minute I would spend thinking about my kids is nothing compared to the time that he has spent and the effort and energy he has spent thinking about you there's an important truth in Luke chapter 12 Jesus Christ wanting to encourage us in Luke chapter 12 Luke chapter 12 we're reminded here of passage we often read in Matthew a truth we read there in Matthew sorry Luke 12 and verse 31 we're told but seek the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you no no if you're like me but sometimes I get frustrated with myself in seeking the kingdom of God I know that I lose my focus I know that I don't I'm not always I'll always have it as a priority or not and I can start to focus well man I bet God's really disappointed in me and I have to remember that it's not just a matter that I want to be in the kingdom of God it's what we read also in the very next verse in verse 32 where we're told do not fear little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom it is a truth of all of us here that none of us want God's kingdom for ourselves more than he wants it for you it is a truth that no one is spending more effort in wanting and trying to be a part of the kingdom of God then God is spending on getting you there because he longs to have you there there is no one that spends more time on this planet thinking about you than God spends thinking about you there is no one who has more hopes and dreams for you than God has for you there is no one who spends more effort more energy thinking about you and your future than he spends and there's no one who longs to have you in that Kingdom or to have you there with him for eternity where he can hold your face in his hands and look in your eyes and say you are mine forever if you turn to Matthew chapter 7 in trying to grasp God's love for us God gives us permission to consider elements of this creation one of my favorite words we've ever published in the tomorrow's real magazine is Theo morphic mentioned that too I was actually talking about to mr. Wakefield before I knew he was the one who wrote the article that use it I was totally not kissing up to mr. Wakefield I had no idea oh I wrote that one himself on the head or anything but this universe is a Pheo morphic universe that is God has shaped and created things in this world to teach us about him marriage between husband and wife is a picture of Christ and the church it's not that that's not an analogy we made up we're not trying to force some human analogy on God it's the opposite of that God crafted marriage wanting to teach us something about himself it's not that we're forcing the analogy of the family on God as some told us 20-30 years ago and we're lying and not reading their Bibles is that God crafted the family to teach us something about him that's not we're not anthropomorphizing God he has made this a Pheo morphic universe it is meant to teach us about him and we learn things like that here in Matthew chapter 7 or at least see them used in Matthew 7 Jesus Christ teaches us about our Father using human fathers he says in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 9 are what man is there among you who if his son asks for bread we'll give him a stone now let me highlight this real quickly it doesn't mean God just wants to satisfy all your wishes I mean how many how many what man among your is you when your son says I want to eat candy every day breakfast lunch and dinner and while I'm asleep I want you to feed it to me candy getting what what father is there says that's a good idea son I'm totally going to do that part of why he's saying this part of the lesson we should take is whenever it doesn't seem like God is answering our prayers what we want one of the things we can keep in mind is this it's not because he's a bad father it's not because he's a bad father like he says again verse 9 again or what man is there among you who if his son asks for bread we'll give him a stone or if he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent who of us would do that he says in verse 11 if you then being evil he just means here carnal pulled by the temptations of the flesh he says that you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father who's in heaven give good things to those who ask him part of building the radiant faith that dr. Meredith wants this church to have his understanding this fundamental truth is that He loves us like a father loves us and you know he gives us permission here to reflect on our fathers which sometimes isn't helpful to reflect on our own fatherhood if we're men and our fathers which also sometimes isn't as helpful as it should be I know I can reflect on my work as a father and my track record isn't perfect I know it's gonna be a shock to my children and my wife but but it's not you know in every role that we fill in this world we do make our mistakes I know I've made my share there's times when I have simply given a command not because it was the right thing but because I was just grumpy or because I was upset I know I haven't always done the right thing and we can review that track record and sometimes project those things onto God and that's not what he's saying do really when we review our track record we do find those moments that we transcend a little bit when we did get a picture of the kind of fatherly devotion he's talking about here I do think of one time in my life we were still in Missouri and I I want to say it was a Friday night I can't remember for sure I know it was in the evening it was late because I would stay up late I would that's why I think it was a Friday night because I felt like I was probably working on a sermon and everybody else is in bed the way the hole was you'd have to pass the boy the door of the two older boys before you got to our bedroom and then on the other side of that would have been the the bedroom for the two younger ones they shared rooms and they were all they were still fairly young and I remembered lost time to go to bed I'm exhausted you know it's it's good it's in the can I'm ready for services tomorrow I'm walking down the hall and you know you just look in just check their lights are off the whole light was on so the light in their room was simply spilling into the room from the hall and stopped at the first door to check in on the older two and they were asleep my kids are asleep just uh you know it wasn't it wasn't glamorous as in particularly the one he would kind of weirdest things it's been kind of spin around like a helicopter blade so I don't even remember necessarily what configuration they were in at the time all I remember was that I couldn't stop looking just seeing these two boys there and it's not they were particularly handsome it's not that they were just you know wonderful and they weren't you know kneeling in prayer with their Bibles in front of them they're probably drooling and whatever and all that mess but what I knew was that they were mine and that God had blessed me with them and they weren't do it like I said they were just a nerd they were just laying there and yet the minutes passed and I couldn't tear myself away the bed was right there it was the next room and I couldn't tear myself away until eventually I did I remember thinking well if they wake up and see me in the hall that is gonna freak them out right you know it's what is that you know in the light some stalker you know someone broke in so I remember I did I did move but you know even though my door was the next one if I went a little past that there was the other two and I did and went a little past and did the same thing over again why because they're perfect children know y'all have been known him long enough now you know they're not but they were my children and I so loved them God gives us permission to learn from those times because as moving as they can be for us personally they are the thinnest faintest shadow of the love of your father who also cannot turn himself away when he says I will never leave you or abandon you it's not because he can't and because he just somehow is obligated to stay it's because he's the father who just can't bear to turn himself away you know when we come to understand this even in slight increases it does transform everything it transforms everything time would fail us and I will not do that here what I hope to spur in you is for you to leave here and think about those things how does recognizing that unconditional love that God has for me how does it transform everything let me start the process just a bit understanding how much God loves you transforms your own love for God in fact it's it's virtually a requirement to work on one for the other turn to first John chapter 4 first John Chapter four first John chapter four and it's a simple verse it's a short verse well there's a lot of meaning packed into it first John chapter 4 and verse 19 we read here first John 4 verse 19 we love him because he first loved us there's a reason the holy days start with Passover without Passover the rest of the holy days are pointless it's not that they can be thrown away they all mean something but everything about them means something and their order means something and where does everything start not with us repenting it starts with what he chose to do for us the because there is important we love him because he first loved us I can't fathom a single person here at least of all the people that I know that would say you know I love God enough I love him so much I could probably tone it down a little bit you know loving God and focusing on him and wanting to submit to his will it's um I've kind of max love you know just max love guy I don't know anyone here who would think that how many here do not want to grow don't raise your hand I do not want to grow in their love for God then actually comprehending all the more his love for you as a key to that because it says we love him because he first loved us it transforms other things it transforms how we understand our trials understanding in whatever way you can grow and understanding God's love for you transforms how we understand our trials and how we experience them I'm gonna save some time by not going into that in detail because I know dr. Scott when they'll covered that recently in this congregation I heard about it and said why was a sermon I was gonna give talking about I actually had a whole planned I had the same lyrics and everything it's just some think god-realized ok Smith's gonna ruin it I'm gonna have a dr. Scott when they'll do it because I don't want I want Smith given that one and I heard so many positive things about that when you comprehend how much God loves you it does transform your trials to know that it's not just something he's allowing you to go through it's something he's going through with you I remember example from my one of my sons I won't say which one the name Brian's wish monofin but anyway it was that it was my oldest son I'll say and he was still really little it really wasn't verbal yet he was just a toddler in fact it was before the second boy had been born so we were still living on the alright I can't recall we're still in the first upper-level apartment I was there was the second floor and right outside of our door were steps and it always made me nervous about you know the kid the kid really at that point going down the steps and really you're a little munchkin and these were hard steps I mean they you know it it could be rough right and I remember once we had to go and the door was open and Jonathan was right there at the door I saw him right there before I was there there in his little diaper in his little tiny you know tiny shirts are you Jonathan talking about the many way there he was standing there with the steps and you know that's a real trial for a child you don't have to go down the steps they could be scary they can be intimidating but what got me is he was standing at the open doorway just a little toddler that he was with his hand out ready for me to take it and take him down it wasn't that he expected me to make the stairs disappear oh you know once the dads here I'll make these stairs disappear and I won't have this trial anymore but he knew he wouldn't be going down them alone when you comprehend even in small increments more and more God's love for you it does transform everything consider how it transforms our understanding of God's law people ridicule us for thinking that somehow God actually wants us to obey his law with a ridicule apparent for wanting their children to obey their commands and their instructions you know actually even though it's in Psalm 19 and verse 7 please write that actually kind of like it in what we sing into him in him 14 so I'm gonna say something but I like reading it from the hymnal that we have him 14 it's the I think it's him 14 it's the heavens God's glory do declare and in the arrangement there the line that we sing together is the law of God is a perfect law for it converts the soul is God asking us to keep his law commanding us to keep his law just because he likes watch it a bunch of people have to do things maybe they don't want or to not do things they really want to do theirs because he is working in us to craft himself and he loves us too much not to tell us to do those things these things that he crafts for our good and not for his you know God and understanding that He loves us transforms our relationship with each other when you understand in any degree how much God loves you you long to have that kind of love in you as well towards other people and more than that when you see your brother across the room who may be irritating to you who may be offensive to you who for some reason won't grab a breath man what's wrong you know with this guy whatever it is when you recognize how much God truly loves you then you open your mind to recognize how much God truly how can we hold a grudge against our brother we recognize how much he means to God how can we hold some record of wrongdoing against our sister when we can comprehend even the smallest amount of that in comprehensive the love that God has for her and again just hoping to get you started I'll just cover one more thing when we come to understand God's love for us and any degree at all it transforms our understanding of forgiveness you know there's a sermon and I couldn't find a record of it and I think it was from the global days it was some time back dr. Meredith gave it that we are the Church of the forgiving and I remember where I was and where I was sitting when I saw that video and it changed something in me it flipped a few switches that that that weren't in place you know there's actually a song since the the other song got used up in the other sermon there's another one that actually Phil West some of you know mr. Phil West Minister up north he's saying with some others at the feast it was a song titled you are I am and there's this line in it for instance that says I've been the one held down and chains beneath the weight of all my shame I've been the one to believe that where I am you cannot reach but I really related to that because there's times when I know I can feel that way there's times when you're examining yourself and you see something in yourself maybe it's something new or maybe it's something you've struggled with for some time and you question how can God forgive that how am I going to get past that and God gives us something to help us understand that it's the last passage we'll turn to return to Luke 15 Luke 15 and we have the parable of the prodigal son and I won't read the entire parable many of us are familiar with it if you are not familiar with it you should read it but essentially there was a wealthy man who had sons one of them decided you know I don't want to wait until you're dead old man to have my inheritance I want my part now and the father gives him his part and he goes out of lives this terrible life he hate was able to buy a lot of friends do all the stuff he's doing he's a wealthy guy but when the money runs out the friends run out and he finds himself essentially sitting in a pigpen it's just craving after the garbage they're able to eat because he is so hungry and so starved and we jump in the middle of that in Luke 15 and verse 6 sorry 16 Luke 15 and verse 16 we read him talking to himself it speaks of him here in verse 16 it says and he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate and no one gave him anything but when he came to himself he said how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough to spare and I perish with hunger you know the Bible actually says in Romans 2:4 it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance he remembered what was available with his father that he didn't have away from him so kind of a no-brainer at this point he says in verse 18 I will arise and go to my father and say to him father I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired servants he crafts this speech he's going to tell to his dad to his father in the hopes that his father will forgive him says in verse 20 he arose and came to his father but notice what it doesn't say what you're not going to read is that when the Sun finally came the father looked at him in a stern fashion and allowed him to go on and on about how unworthy he was and then finally with kind of a grimace on his face sort of nodded to a door to let him go and think about his crime some more he did know he had done wrong he was coming back but he didn't even make it to the house before the father acted they said again verse 20 and he arose and came to his father but when he was still a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him just the sight that his son was coming back was enough to move the father to run to him and to fall on him in compassion and to hold him and kiss his neck so grateful my son that had been dead was alive again it says in verse 21 that's before the son has even gotten out his speech before he even started these prepared words and it says in verse 21 the son said to him father I've sinned against heaven and in your sight I'm no longer worthy to be called your son and before it can even go through the rest or he can finish the speech what is the father react he says verse 22 but the father said to his servants bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand sandals on his feet and bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found the joy the father had and I remember reading that with a perspective I mean often these verses we read lots of times right and then something happens and makes this thing differently and I know in the house that we left in Missouri I all have our places to pray I'm still kind of figuring out in the new house if sometimes I could I like kind of like the office it works I can lock the door and close the shade you know and I can pray there but at least in the house of Missouri I had my place in my office towards the very end of my office was our brown fold-out couch that we use for guests ourselves even sometimes we had a lot of people in the house and it was in my office and I could go there and as far away from everybody and that was my kneeling place there by the brown couch and I could I can cry out loud if I needed to and it was good and it was it was there as my space and there's times when we feel that we've messed up so much and like David talks about our sin weighing on us and I've been there you've been there if you've reflected on it and there's times I've stood in that room and that brown couch looked like it could have been in the next state it looked so far away and so difficult to reach and I had to remember not that God just that God long for me to be there and not just that he was there at the couch waiting for me to arrive but like the prodigal son even at a distance he had fallen on my neck had kissed me and was bringing me to the couch to restore that relationship when we strive to grasp the love God holds for us I understand from the beginning will fail it is too big it is too great it is too deep and it is too broad but we grow in the striving and in that striving we give Him freedom to build in us his own character his own mind and his own love so that a coming day after the return of Jesus Christ we can be to others what he has been to us that example of perfect and beautiful love you

Channel: Living Church of God

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Length: 76min 11sec (4571 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 05 2016