What Is Heaven? (Revelation 21:1-8)

VIDEO

 What Is Heaven? (Revelation 21:1-8)

GIST: Heaven is God’s transformative grace fully realized: His people in His presence experiencing His love forever.

Welcome back to our study in Revelation. After taking December off to focus our hearts on Jesus’ incarnation, we’re picking up with, well, the end of our study… of the end ☺️. Throughout this journey together (and it has been a journey), we’ve seen that Revelation was never meant to be a mystery to solve but rather a revealing of Jesus to us. It gives us a picture of who He is and how He will work in a broken world until He returns to judge sin, destroy death, and redeem His people. We’ve watched this unfold in a series of images circling back through the same “kinds” of events over and over…until chapter 20 where Jesus’ return was depicted for the final time showing Him victorious over everything. Now, we’re in the last two chapters and what do we see? Heaven. 

So much of these final chapters flows around a driving message: Jesus is coming back, and it will be wonderful for those who have accepted His rescue and Hell for those who have chosen to run from Him. Nonetheless, I just want to walk through what we see specifically in the first eight verses of chapter 21 this morning. Before I say anything else, let’s just look at that→

“1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." 5 And He who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also He said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be His God and He will be My son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."”

A lot of this imagery is probably very familiar to many of us. However, let’s not forget we’re still in the same book we’ve been studying for over a year together. These images are John putting what he saw into the words he knew. We have to be careful not to lose the message by trying to make the pictures work with our understanding of how things should be. I know we all want to know what Heaven is going to look like, and what our bodies will look like, and what we’ll spend our time doing. However, that’s not the kind of picture we get. Instead, we’re told more impactful truths like this (and here’s our gist☺️)→ Heaven is God’s transformative grace fully realized: His people in His presence experiencing His love forever. Let’s break that down.

I. Heaven

New? Ok, before we get into the message portion, I do want to at least address the elephant in the room. Maybe you’re asking this question. Maybe you’ve never thought about it. However, since I imagine someone is, we need to talk about it for a second. This passage, which we’re reading on New Years Day by the way ☺️, starts by saying John saw a new heaven and a new earth.  “1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”

So, what does that mean? Full disclosure: I don’t completely know, and I don’t think anyone with integrity will say they do. There’s been lots of speculation. The prevailing thoughts are that either the world will be completely destroyed and then remade, or the world will just be cleaned up, or (something between the two—and this is where I fall right now) something inbetween—the world will be completely transformed or redeemed. This seems consistent with the message of Scripture and other passages like 2 Peter 3:6-7 where Peter compares Jesus’ return and final judgment to the flood. “6 Through these the world of that time perished when it was flooded. 7 By the same word, the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” (CSB). What happened then? Was the world completely destroyed and then remade? Not really, but it was completely changed. For that reason, I would say it seems like the same kind of thing is going to happen. Heaven will be earth completely transformed: made new, made perfect. Later, we’re going to see Garden of Eden imagery—which is helpful. I’ve said this as often as I can in this study, but we have to fight the sterile white room image of Heaven. Heaven will be vibrant and alive in a way the best parts of this fallen-creation only hint at! 

It will be the world with no sea. Not necessarily because there won’t be vast bodies of water in Heaven, or Jesus had enough of it the first time ☺️, but because the sea symbolized chaos and destruction in the ancient world. Heaven will be a clear absence of that! The old way of sin has passed away. Life is new. 

Ok, so that’s the elephant. Here’s the meat. Heaven, whatever it will “look like”, will be→ 

II. Grace Fully Realized

 “2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

Here we’re coming back to two pictures used throughout this letter to describe God’s people: His Bride and His City. Both of these are used to represent→

His People in His Presence. The Church is depicted as the Bride of Christ. Why? Because He loves us. Because He took Hell in our place to present us blameless before Himself that we might be with Him forever. Because only the intensity of a strong marriage relationship even comes close to the level of love Jesus has for us (and it’s just a shadow of His love!). What about the city? Specifically, we’re called Jerusalem, the Holy City, the place where God met with His people. If we had any question about what this means, God’s voices thunders it home for us→ “3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.”” Heaven is being with Jesus. It is the ultimate place of safety and belonging…because we’re with Him! If that doesn’t excite us, then we’re probably not really looking forward to the reality of Heaven, and we probably need to look at the state of our relationship with Him now.

Heaven is His people in His presence→

Experiecing His Love. I don’t think we need much commentary on these verses: “4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Being in the presence of Jesus is the end of all suffering! Why? Because the God of the universe will personally wipe away every tear! We’ve seen this before in Revelation (Chapter 7), and it gets me every time. I have been around a lot of hurting over the past few weeks. In fact, I tend to be around heart ache most of the time. The thought of Jesus taking away pain and death, the thought of no reason for morning and final tears being wiped away… This is love! 

All the hurting will be taken away because, as Brett Davis put it, Jesus came burning away all that isn’t love! Look at where these verses go next. In fact, we’ll look at this as our→ 

TAKEAWAYS

(But don’t get too excited…because these are kind of like points this morning ☺️.)

“5 And He who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also He said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be His God and He will be My son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."”

1. This is true. The God of the universe, the one reigning on His sovereign throne, says: “Trust Me! I’m the Alpha and Omega.” Life is from Him and for Him, and He’s offering life withoutpayment for all who conquer. That conquering, as we’ve seen throughout this letter, is all about clinging to the conqueror. Those whohave been rescued receive etneral life without payment…because Jesus has already paid!

2. We can look forward to a day when His love is all we see. Again, I love how Brett Davis defines the wrath of God: His righteousness burning away all that isn’t love. Life will be defined by Jesus alone. There will be no brokenness here.

3. So…how does this impact your prayers? I know that might seem like an out of place question, but this really struck me, actually while thinking about these verses in the shower… ☺️. When Jesus taught us to pray, He said to ask: “Your kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Think about what this means in light of all we’ve seen about Heaven so far. How is His will done in Heaven? 

This would be praying that God be seen and known as sovereign. When we pray, we should ask for His control to be known and trusted. 

This would also be praying that souls would be saved. Heaven is full of those rescued by His grace because “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9). He isn’t back yet because He’s still saving people! 

This would be praying that God burn away all that isn’t love. Is it ok to pray for pain to go away? That’s what it will be like in Heaven. This should give us strength to ask Him to be who we know He is. It should also give us confidence that He only ever acts according to His nature, so even the things we don’t understand can’t be outside of His loving sovereignty.

4. So…how does this impact your life? “7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be His God and He will be My son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” What defines you? If you’re defined by sin, you’re running headlong away from grace and toward the Hell you’re choosing. If you’re defined by His rescue and His conquering of sin in your life, you’re heading toward Heaven. No, you won’t be perfect. But where is you heart? Are you striving to live for Him because you know you’re loved and love Him?

Are We Known By His Love? (John 13:34-35)

VIDEO

Are We Known By His Love? (John 13:34-35)

GIST: We’re expected to love like Jesus and be recognized because of His love.

This morning, we were going to wrap up our Summer in Psalms before transitioning back to Homecoming next week and then jumping back into Revelation the week after that. However, another verse has been echoing in my heart all week. In fact, I ended up outlining two sermons for this week and didn’t decide until yesterday which one we were going to actually dig into this morning. I guess that means I have an outline ready for May when we get back to our Summer in Psalms because today we’re going to take a few minutes to walk through John 13:34-35. Let’s read that, and then I’ll tell you why these verses have been stuck in my heart this week.

“34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

Last week, I felt such an outpouring of God’s love from you guys, and this verse kept coming to mind. I know sometimes I’m not great at expressing gratitude as much as my heart wants to, so before I go any further I really want to say: thank you. Thank you for loving Jesus and loving my family more than we deserve. 

That being said, loving like Jesus should be the norm in churches, right? We’ve just spent two weeks walking through a psalm that gave us a picture of what our lives should look like if we are living in God’s presence—and reflecting the love of Jesus is 100% part of that picture. Unfortunately, we all know love isn’t always the first word people think of when they think about churches. In fact, I had a student ask me this week if I thought churches were cults ☺️. Apparently, that’s what an adult in her life told her churches were. There are other words: greedy, grumpy, petty, exclusive, hateful, discriminating… We could keep going. Some of these are the product of deliberate misrepresentation. Some, though, come from churches not carrying the love of Jesus like we should. So, let’s take a few minutes this morning, and I really will try to keep this to a few, to talk about… love. Here’s our gist: We’re expected to love like Jesus and be recognized because of His love. Let’s dive in! 

I. We’re Expected To Love Like Jesus

“34 A new commandment I give to you that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

A New Standard. Jesus had just been telling his disciples He’d be leaving soon—as in going to Heaven after rising from the dead…not going on a trip. If you’re familiar with the New Testament, any time Jesus brought this up, it wasn’t received super well by the disciples. Understandably, they didn’t want Him to go. In this section, He tells them, “I’m leaving, and I’m leaving you…a new commandment”. Now, this idea of loving each other isn’t new in the sense that it wasn’t expected in the Bible until this point. It’s new in its application because the standard has been clarified. We’re not just called to love. We’re called to love like Jesus. We’re going to camp out there for a bit, so I’ll come back to it. First, let’s recognize this is→ 

A Commandment. This isn’t a suggestion. It’s an expectation. Christians are supposed to love each other as Jesus loves us. Which should immediately lead us to ask, so→  

How Does He Love? Well, the short answer is… perfectly ☺️. We won’t. However, He has set the standard for us, and we should strive after it. When I think of passages that describe the love of Jesus, several come to mine. I think of the beautiful passages like John 15:13 and Romans 5:8 that describe His sacrificial love, His love that took on Hell for us and rose victorious over sin in our place: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13); “... God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

The depths of God’s love are so deep, we could flip through passages all day to talk about it. However, probably the most condensed picture of the love of God is given to us by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13—the classic wedding passage. And even though I love (no pun intended, but appreciated nonetheless) reading this passage at weddings, it’s not describing romantic love between a couple, but the transformative love of Jesus in our lives. I’m going to read verses 1-8a because the first few verses in that chapter are just too beautiful not to read, but we’re just going to break down the list Paul gives us. 

“1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends…” (1 Corinthians 13:1-8a) 

Ok, so how does Paul describe the kind of love meant to define us? That love→ 

Is Patient. Does that immediately convict you as much as it does me? I actually think about patience all the time. Maybe it’s because my Dad always jokes about not asking people to pray he have patience ☺️. But I also think it’s because every time I think about patience I feel like I need to apologize to my kids. See, in most settings, I’m a pretty patient guy. I teach high schoolers all day, and I’m a pastor ☺️… and it still takes a lot to get me riled up. Unless… it’s with my own family. As a church, we’re a family too, and I think sometimes we’re least patient with those we’re closest too. I get it, but I also know that’s not how God defines love. Likewise, love→ 

Is Kind. Patience is a way of showing kindness…so is just not being a jerk to people ☺️. Love looks to treat other people the way we would want to be treated. It→ 

Does Not Envy. It’s not full of jealousy. It doesn’t get upset when other people get things we want or get recognition when we feel we deserve it or have the lives we thought we would. Love isn’t about us. It→ 

Does Not Boast. The next two words are connected. The idea behind this word is connected to bragging. Fluffing up ourselves. Trying to get the praise of others. Love won’t do this because it→ 

Isn’t Arrogant. It isn’t self-focused. It’s hard to be focused on ourselves if we’re trying to model the self-sacrificing love of Jesus! Oh, and love→

Isn’t Rude. Our world is. We all can be. That shouldn’t define us. The NASB translates this as “does not act unbecomingly”. Being rude is lacking compassion. Now, that doesn’t mean you’ll always agree with everyone. You won’t. You don’t have to. In fact, when it comes to people living in ways that dishonor God, you shouldn’t. However, even when disagreeing, love should never be mean. 

Does Not Insist On Its Own Way. Again, because love isn’t all about us. We’ll have opinions. We’ll stand for what we believe is right. But we should never just bulldoze our way through life with a “my way or the highway” mentality.

Isn’t Irritable. Ouch. Let me just be honest. When I wake up, I’m pretty irritable. It takes a bit of time to get this motor going. Because of that, I know I’m more likely to be on edge in those moments. I don’t like that feeling, so I have to try (though not always successfully) to fight against it. How miserable would it be to be irritated all the time. Life is too short to let things constantly bother you.

Isn’t Resentful. Love doesn’t hold grudges. Forgiveness is hard because it costs us something. It means we are suffering when someone else did wrong. Because of that, we don’t usually forgive well. We want to hold on to that hurt because we feel justified in doing so. However, when Jesus forgives us, He casts our sin as far as the east is from the west and remembers it no more. 

Doesn’t Rejoice At Wrongdoing. Love doesn’t get excited by sinful stuff or the downfall of others. Love isn’t a gossip and doesn’t get all pumped up about the bad things happening around us. Yeah… that one probably hurts too.

Rejoices With The Truth. Love does get pumped up by Jesus stuff. Seeing God work in the lives of other people. Watching His movement…even if it’s happening somewhere else with someone else, should bring us joy and cause us to rejoice. This might be a side-rant, but I think it’s worth saying. As Christians, we can’t look at other churches as competition. We can’t be jealous if we see them growing or exciting things happening there. I saw it put like this before, and I LOVE this. We’re part of the same family; we’re not rival gangs!

Bears All Things. This phrase can mean to bear as to put up with, it can also mean to cover of hold up like a protective shield. 

Believes All Things. Not literally. Love isn’t gullible ☺️. But it assumes good intentions. It also→

Hopes All Things. That means it looks forward to future good instead of dwelling on present pain! Love also→

Endures All Things. It stands strong…even in the storms of life…because→ 

Love Never Ends. True love isn’t something that comes and goes. It’s eternal. 

And this is what we’re commanded to do… ☺️→ 

II. And Be Recognized Because Of His Love

“35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

That first part was long, so let me try to break this down quickly. 

1. You are supposed to be known by His love.

2. That means the love of Jesus is something all people will see. It isn’t something you keep hidden outside of your “church time”.

3. And it’s something people will notice. Loving like this is radically different from what comes naturally to our sinful hearts.

4. We will be recognized as followers of Jesus IF we love each other as He loves us. Are people surprised when they find out your a Christian? Better yet, if you were using this as your gauge, and you really took seriously this call to love, and you looked at how you’ve been living, would you recognize yourself as a follower of Jesus?

Ok, let’s hit three quick→ 

TAKEAWAYS

1. Know the love of Jesus. Make it your life’s pursuit to know Him more. We can love like He loves if we don’t know how He loves. We can’t love like He loves, if we haven’t been rescued by His love. If you are reading this and do not know Jesus as your Savior, PLEASE, talk to Him right now. You don’t need magic words. You just need to believe Jesus is your God who really came and really died and really took Hell in your place and really rose again to save you—and ask Him to do that. He promises He will. Then→ 

2. Focus on the love of Jesus. I know I’ve quoted this song I’m about to quote like a bazillion times and made this statement a bazillion times…but it’s so true. Even this week, I was reminded that too often we see brokenness so much more clearly than His love. When God is active and moving and changing lives, our excitement and focus are drawn for a moment—but when there are complaints or frustrations or any other “new or rehashed negativity” we’re magnetically drawn to it. It fixates us! Instead: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus/ Look full in His wonderful face/ And the things of earth will grow strangely dim/ In the light of His glory and grace.” And→ 

3. Spread the love of Jesus. This is how we show the world we’re His.

[J

PONDERING... Live, Laugh, Love, Leap (Graduation 2018)

Live, Laugh, Love, Leap (Graduation 2018)

GIST: Live for something greater than yourself, laugh a lot, love the truth, and leap outside your comfort zone.

Let me just start by saying thank you for giving me this opportunity. You guys have truly been a special class, and the few rushed moments we have on that last day to say our goodbyes never feels like a enough time to really put into words how much you have been appreciated and how much you will be missed.

I’ve been told by several of you to “keep this short”, so I’ll do my best to honor that request :). Really, as I was thinking about what to say to you guys today, there were a few points that kept coming into my head, and I realized if I summarize each point with one word it would actually be so cliche and cheesy that you might even remember it: Live, Laugh, Love...and I’m also throwing in a fourth one, Leap, but I’ll come back to that in a second. So basically, every time you go into Hobby Lobby, or the Dollar Store, or maybe your grandma’s bathroom, chances are high you’ll see these three words and be reminded of what we talked about today. Which, now that I think of it, it might be strange if you’re thinking about this in your grandma’s bathroom😀... but anyway, I’m supposed to keep this short, so let’s break these down.

I. Live… for something greater than yourself.

These words will probably be familiar to many of you, Proverbs 16:18, “18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Destruction. That’s a big deal. As in pride will destroy you! It’s so true, too. We live in a world that pushes pride. Everywhere you turn you’re being told you can be and do whatever you want and not to let anything stand in the way of that. Here’s the deal: there really is so much each of you can do. And, man, I know you guys are going to do awesome things. Chase excellence, but don’t become a slave to vanity. Pride taints everything, but a humble heart accomplishes more because it’s not seeking glory. You guys are awesome, but life is about more than you. You want to live life to its fullest? Then don't let selfish ambition get in the way of that. Jesus Himself said He came not to be served, but to serve! We should do likewise.

II. Laugh… a lot.

I can be fairly confident that anytime I go to “give advice”, God is going to make sure I’m taking it, as well. I needed reminded of this this week. As I faced an onslaught of essays to grade on Monday--I was pretty grumpy. I even had to go apologize to some people for getting a little bit snippy--and you guys think of me as a pretty happy guy! But, let’s face it, grumpy is easy. Being negative is easy. In fact, it’s become so accepted that it’s almost expected. Belittle everything and you won’t have to worry about being ridiculed yourself. How sad is that?

Now, I know life won’t always be easy. In fact, there are probably harder times ahead of you than there are behind. How do you face that with joy? See point one😀. Despite my essay-induced grumpiness, most of the time I’m pretty upbeat. Some of you, over the years, have even asked me why. It’s because my hope is built on a foundation that is unshaken by the things of this world. You can live for yourself, but you'll probably let yourself down.  If you let the things of this world define who you are, then when these things fall apart, you’ll come crashing down with them. However, when your hope is in something more than yourself, it doesn't matter what happens in this world.

Life is too short for drama. Life is too short not to love it! Be joyful... because there's stuff worth being joyful about. Be happy...because you’re still alive! Laugh...because it's fun! Smile...because you're blessed! Rejoice...because there is so much to be thankful for.

III. Love… the truth.

Now, I have to throw this qualifier out there really quickly, because I don’t want you to think I’m loosening my stance on PDA. Not that kind of love! I’m talking about loving the truth. That won’t be easy either.

About 2,000 years ago when Paul was writing a letter to the church in Philippi, he gave these instructions, “8...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).  Here at Farmington, we value character. Because of this, you’ve heard us talk about integrity a lot. But integrity just means remaining true to whatever is at the core. If the core is messed up, integrity is meaningless. So, develop a character that is worthy of your integrity. Much in life is fleeting. You won't be in these specific places with these specific opportunities & challenges forever. Intelligence, relationships, hardships, victories, position, popularity...it all comes and goes. But character, who you are at the very core...who you are no matter who is or isn't watching you, that's going to last. And it’s a life-time development kind of thing. It’s a struggle. But it’s worth it. Whatever is true, and pure, and excellent--think about these things. Be transformed by these things. Love, these things. Then you’ll be people who love the truth and truly love. Don’t wait until you’ve gotten through your early twenties and “sown your wild oats”. That’s ridiculous! Eat oats. Develop character. Love the truth.

IV. Leap… out of your comfort zone.

I also had to follow this up with a qualifier pretty quickly because I didn’t want you to take this as a “do parkour” point. That might ruin my whole “wise decisions” rep. What I mean is, don't be afraid to mess up. Don't be afraid to leave what is comfortable to do what is right. In fact, living a life that is for others rather than yourself, laughing with joy in the face of great hardship, and loving the truth of an upright character won’t be comfortable. But don't be afraid.

To close today, I’m going to put this into practice. When Dr. Hostetler told me I had been nominated to speak, for whatever crazy reason, doing this was the first thing that came to my mind--and it is completely out of my comfort zone...and completely insane. But I’m going to live for something greater than myself here and give you all a chance to laugh at me as I make a fool of myself...because I love you guys. (See how I snuck those points in there!) When you were sophomores, my first and only “hit single” came out on “the youtube”… the plagiarism song. And several of you would proceed to beg me to play it in class, but I refused because… quite honestly… I was terrified. So to make up for those moments of cowardice, I’ve rewritten a condensed version of this for the occasion, and rather than play it in front of 30 students at a time, I’m going to put myself forward for the public ridicule of several thousand :D.

SONG “Graduation is Sad”

Have a great life and make wise decisions. Merry Christmas.

PONDERING... Love, Reveal, Indwell (John 14:21-24)

John 14:21-24 ESV - "21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" 23 Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me."

GIST: Those who love do, and God loves them, reveals Himself to them, and dwells within them.

I need to hear this. We spoke a few weeks ago about those who love God keeping His commands...thus knowing them. Here we see a continuation of this thought. Who will see the work and movement and presence of God? Those who love and serve Him. If we're not seeing God work in our lives, what are we we failing to do?

1. Love

Write down a list of what it means to be loved. Now consider the difference it makes in a day to know you will see someone who loves you at the end of the day. No matter how bad the day has been, there is hope because you know they will care and comfort. On the other hand, good days are better because of the same reason.

Now, think of the person or people who you feel love you, and show that love, most. God's love is infinitely greater than that love. That is the love that Jesus speaks of when He says, " 23 ...If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him..." Just take a few minutes to consider what that means.

2. Reveal

"...and we will come to him..."

We refers to the trinity (see previous lessons). God will come to those who love and serve Him. He will show Himself. We will see the Holy Spirit at work illuminating scripture, calling sinners to reprentence, reviving the Church...etc. We will "...grow in the grace

and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). Are you experiencing this? I know there are more times than not that my answer t this question would be no. That's a problem. This is what Jesus intends for those who love and serve. Pray that God reveal Himself to you, and reveal what sin might be stopping you from seeing His movement in your life. Don't expect mystical movements with flashing lights. Pray for a desire to see God. Pray to see His glory. He'll show you.

3. Indwell

"...and make our home with him..."

Going back to the first illustration in point one, consider now what difference it makes to go through the day (good or bad) with someone who loves you. It changes everything! You're not having to worry about what other people say or think because the one who loves you is there. 

God promises to live within us. We are His temple. Oh, how that should change everything!

PONDERING... How can we glorify God?

This is part of a catechism study we're doing on Sunday mornings.

How can we glorify God?

We glorify God by enjoying Him, loving Him, trusting Him, and by obeying His will, commands, and law.

1 John 1:3-4 ESV - "3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete."

Ephesians 2:19-21 ESV - "19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord."

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV - "16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

Deuteronomy 11:1 ESV - "1 "You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always."

BREAKDOWN

Glorify?

We addressed this a few weeks ago. It means to make much of, to exalt, to praise.

Enjoy?

We talked about this, too. Loosely, to enjoy is to genuinely desire to do or be with.

Love?

A strong passion and intense caring for someone or something, extending even to the point of self-sacrifice for the betterment of the respective “love-recipient”; devotion to.

Trust?

"To place confidence in; to rely on" (Webster, 1828).

Obey?

"To comply with the commands, orders or instructions of a superior, or with the requirements of law, moral, political or municipal; to do that which is commanded or required, or to forbear doing that which is prohibited."

Will?

"That faculty of the mind by which we determine either to do or forbear an action" (Webster, 1828).

Commands?

"...the mandate uttered; order given" (Webster, 1828).

Laws?

"A rule, particularly an established or permanent rule, prescribed by the supreme power of a state to its subjects, for regulating their actions, particularly their social actions. Laws are imperative or mandatory, commanding what shall be done; prohibitory, restraining from what is to be forborn; or permissive, declaring what may be done without incurring a penalty. The laws which enjoin the duties of piety and morality, are prescribed by God and found in the Scriptures" (Webster, 1828).

His?

God. The object of our glory, enjoyment, love, trust, and obedience, and the source of the will, commands, and laws that mark our obedience.

SUMMARY

We praise God when we enjoy, love, trust and obey Him. Our life should be spent doing these. 

• What gives us pleasure? God and the things of God.
• By what are all our affections governed, and under what are all our affections subjected? Our love for God.
• Why can we live joyous and victorious in both times of rejoicing and times of sorrow? We trust in God.
• How do we determine our actions in this life? We obey God's will, commands, and laws as laid out in Scripture.

Ponder, pray, and propagate your perceptions.

Upchurch