What Difference Does It Make? | Pastor Levi Lusko | 1 John 4:13-5:5 | Fresh Life Church

Did you know that Jesus was fun to be around? I think some of us have confused spirituality with being bored or constipated or both. We kind of have this idea, right? And that's why sometimes we're like surprised when church is good. We're like, "What in the heck?" But I happen to believe church shouldn't be endured.

It should be enjoyed. There should be no greater joy because we're the followers of Jesus who according to the book of Hebrews, this is chapter 1:9 and this is an Old Testament prophecy being rehighlighted again about Jesus, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.

This series we've called touching grass or touch grass and that's kind of a language from the world of grounding. They say if you have jet lag or you're just feeling tired that if you just take off your shoes and stand barefoot on grass, there's something that can happen where you just sort of feel recharged.

It makes sense. I mean, have you ever had static electricity in you and then you're so scared to touch a doororknob? Right? What I'm asking is, have you ever been on a trampoline? Right? What a terrible experience that is. And you just know this is in me and I need it's going to stay in me till I touch it and discharge it.

So, it does make sense that grounding or earthing would have a positive impact being outside. And it's also sort of a way when you say I need to touch grass that you're saying I've been online too much. I've been I've been reading too much about the the opinions of people.

I need to just get outside and touch a tree. I just need to get outside and watch the sunset. I think in these days where where so many of us have been anxiously scrolling and and toxic in in our way of we you know sort of doom scrolling that it's there's something so powerful about being outside.

I was outside a few nights ago watching the stars and fortunately we're at a place where there's little little moon right now. It's only 1% moon last night and the nights where there's not that beautiful nightlight in the sky gives us the chance and the opportunity to gaze on the stars in a better way.

The darker the night the brighter the light and somebody anybody with me on that. It's it's powerful and just watching the stars and just finding myself so much more at a place of peace. Right? You look down, it's easy to get distressed, but you look up. The Bible talks about lifting your eyes.

And not only is that better for your posture and better for your breathing, but it's really better for your soul. Touch grass. That's what we're talking about. And in the book of First John, we find not what we need to ground ourselves when we talk about like electricity.

We're grounding ourselves in truth, >> grounding ourselves in God's word. That's what First John is all about. And we're going to see today that God has something very powerful for us in these verses. We're beginning in chapter 4, verse 13. Before we try and unpack the truth, let's read it together.

John writes, "By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit." And we have seen and testify that the father has sent the son as savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God.

And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love. What a beautiful thought. And he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. Love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness. Someone say boldness. >> Boldness >> in the day of judgment.

Because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. What a promise. Because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar.

For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.

And everyone who loves him, who begott also loves him who is begotten of him. By this we know, that's a repeated phrase. Here's how we know. Here's how we know. That we love the children of God. When we love God and keep his commandments, for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.

And his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the son of God. If you're thankful for God's word, say amen today.

Title of my message, what difference does it make? >> What difference does it make? This is a question that we can ask a lot of different ways. We can ask this question. We usually turn to it in sarcasm. By the way, uh we can ask this question when we are trying to highlight the inadequacy of a gesture.

For example, you miss your flight and now you're not going to make it to your son's wedding, you know, and and the airline says, "We're so sorry. Here's a $5 voucher that can be used only at a hot dog restaurant and it's 9:00 in the morning. And you're saying, "What difference does it make?

Like this is not helping. This you did not make a difference in my pain. You did not help me. You did not help me. Help you. Help me. Help you. This is no help." You can say, "What difference does it make to sort of express your resignation to a fate, right?

Like let's say you just found out you were failing a class and they said, "But you should definitely do the assignment still. Like all the you're don't you totally fail. There's no way you can pass no matter what you do. you can't your work your way out of this hole, but please do keep doing these assignments.

And you're like, I'm not here to learn. I just want the grade. What difference would it make if I do this? If it doesn't make a difference, I'm not doing it, right? I'm not doing it because there's no difference it would make. So, we can express resignation with that question.

We also can point out uh to somebody that a hypothetical scenario that they're giving a lot of attention to is absolutely trivial and meaningless, right? Have you ever like overheard a discussion that you're like, what do you what are you talk like? Oh, I think could Batman and Wolverine, who would win?

You're like, what? Neither of them are real. What difference does it all this energy? What difference is this making? This is not real, people. Or you could use the question to sort of uh insinuate that someone is is overblowing their their concern over something that's small, right? Do you have you How many of you husband do you like this?

Is this one? And so this one like that look the same to me. I don't know what what do you want me to do? Just pick one right here. Yes, it Yes, it makes a huge difference. Right. This is right. This this what difference? Someone say, "What difference does it make?" >> Though we often turn to it in sarcasm, it's a good question, though.

It's a question that John is is highlighting, is bringing up for us. You see, the key to the book of First John is the the idea of how do you know if you're really saved? Which is a really important question because according to this book, right, and according to Jesus who rose from the dead, that's like why we should believe him, right?

Why should we listen to Jesus more than anybody else? Why should I not listen to you or to your yoga instructor or to your friend who has some opinions? Like here's why. He died and rose from the dead. I'm going with him. Anybody with me on that? Like if No, no, no.

Hold on. If you die and rise from the dead three days later, we will listen to you. Until such a time, we're going to go with Jesus. All right. That's that's just just so you know. So according to this book and to the words of Jesus, everybody is either going to heaven or hell. >> Therefore, it behooves us to ask the question, am I genuinely saved?

Right? I'm probably good, right? Wow. Let's not rush into things here, right? Because John, who was an apostle of Jesus, and at the point that he writes first John, he's the only living member of that club. He wrote the Gospel of John that we may believe in Jesus and have life in his name.

Okay? That's why John contains John 3:16. John 3:16 tells us how to be saved. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever would believe in him might not perish but have everlasting life. He wrote first John so we could use it as a acid test to discover whether we have actually done the first step and the only step to believe in Jesus.

So what first John is is is given so we could have assurance that that we actually have passed from death into life that we're actually headed to heaven and not just oh I had an emotional experience or or bad Mexican food or whatever it was and felt some kind of way but but actually am not.

It's the most important question you could ever ask. Am I genuinely a Christian? Because Jesus said that on judgment day, there are going to be people who assumed they were good on the basis of membership to a church or organization or part of a family of faith or my dad was a Christian, right?

Which is like saying because I'm a I'm in McDonald's, I must be a Big Mac, right? You don't become a Christian by going to a church. You you become a Christian by putting your faith in Jesus Christ. And if you've done that, you're going to want to go to church because to love Jesus is to love what he loves.

And Jesus loves the church and is building it actively in the world as God's plan A to change the world. God's plan A to save people using and deploying his followers, the church. But we don't become a Christian by going to church. We go to church if we become Christians.

Does that make sense? And so Jesus said there are going to be people who thought they were but weren't simply because they went to church or knew some verses or put a sticker on their car or you know wore a Christian t-shirt at some point. Right? He said there's even going to be pastors on judgment day who are headed to hell even though they spent their whole lives pointing to heaven.

Now here's the crazy part. You could preach a message someone else gets saved by that you yourself never believe. God's so good, he'll bless his word even if the person who's giving it out is not getting any of the benefit or impact of it. And if you think, how could that happen?

Well, in the Bible, God spoke through a donkey. And in this church, he does it every Sunday. So, it's a thing that happens still. And God can use you. Uh, so we all should be asking the question, am I saved? Do do I know? Because he used the phrase in the first verse, by this we know.

By this we know. By this we know. And it's a it's a little it's it's John being super sarcastic, too, and sassy. John's a little sassy. All right? Because there was this group of people causing trouble in Ephesus, and they're called the Gnostics. And the word Gnostic is just a Greek word for knowledge.

And it's the same word he uses. By this we know, and by using this word knowledge, he's sort of ribbing these Gnostics who said that they have secret knowledge. And you don't have to trust the gospel. And you don't just have to trust what John said and what Jesus said.

You can trust our secret knowledge. If you'll download our program for five easy payments of $29.95, you too can have this amazing, fabulous, you can have abs without doing sit-ups and you never have to change your diet. Right? If it sounds good to be too good to be true, ladies and gentlemen, right?

And these gnostics were bringing this heresy, these lies to the church and they were causing confusion among the Christians. So, so, so John is clearing it up and without ever directly addressing them, using the phrase by this we know, by this we can actually acknowledge and then pointing back to an old thing, not to some new fancy slick thing, he's addressing uh the issue that was going on.

By this we know, he says over and over again. So, if you want to genuinely know, if you have been born again, you should ask the question we started with, what difference does it make? If you've been saved, there will be a difference in your life. For example, a friend of mine runs a nonprofit and they recently just bought this brand new property and he has been inviting me to check it out and to see it and to to walk around.

So, a few of us went the other day to check it out. And right when we arrived, before he toured us through every nook and cranny of this beautiful property, he told us that the original owner was an awardwinning landscape architect. Like the, you know, absolute best of the best when it comes to doing landscaping and able to put you in a place and hide everything around you with line of sight principles and build hills where there weren't hills and just unbelievable stuff.

Now, now to hear that, my expectations were high. Imagine if I just walked through this place and it was totally a stinker when it came to the landscaping, right? I mean, imagine to walk around after hearing such high praise about it, how good the guy was. He he said the guy used it as his playground and his laboratory.

And he would he would come home and he would he would bring his kids and he would invite his his kids' friends over and he would teach them principles of landscaping that that only a few around the world know. And after hearing all this, right, imagine if we walked around.

It was basically just a a derelch field with tin cans and you know like rusted out cars and a toilet. I mean we it would be like wow this guy he should really you know not quit his day job or quit his day job. I Right. No but but it was exactly the opposite to walk around was fantastic.

And the way he had he had these these these meandering streams and and hills and and features the way it was lit. I mean and he really got me with the sauna. He had this enormous sauna like it was like going into a cave with a and it was like I was like well you need a cold plunge after a sauna.

There was a waterfall like of course he thought of the waterfall. I was like goes how do I you know get me one of these places and it it was unbelievable. No no no now no here's here's the thing because a master awardwinning landscape architect owned this place to walk around it was to see this.

You see, you could you could almost tell me without telling me, >> right? >> If you just would set people loose to walk around, they'd be going like, "Wait, who who did this?" Right? You see what I'm saying? The the calling card of someone who lived there is what they did with their touch while they had it. >> Stay with me.

If the God who created the universe, the God who we just found out is love lives in you. Someone say, "What difference does it make?" Could you expect that God who breathes out stars, who thought up the Grand Canyon, who knit you together in your mother's womb, who sent Jesus to die on the cross for you, and then raised him from the dead on the third day, that God of wonder, that God of love, that God who is so great, if he does live inside your heart, couldn't you expect that there would be a it would make on how you live.

That's John's big idea. Tell me without telling me. Show me. Right. The old poem puts it this way. What is the gospel according to you? >> Because your life might be the only gospel some people ever read. So what is the gospel according to you? And what John does, excuse me, in these verses is he's going to show five different highlight five different features like the meandering hill and the sauna and you know this burm over here and the way it's lit.

He's going to highlight five differences salvation will make in your life that if you are today a genuine believer, you should see these sorts of things in your life over time. Now, that doesn't mean that none of us are ever going to struggle with the opposite of these things.

And that doesn't mean that you get saved and the next day you're completely good. Because all of us are in process. All of us have failings. All of us have shortcomings. David, who was called a man after God's own heart. You look at one season of his life, one year of his life, and there's hypocrisy.

There's adultery. There's murder. You're going, "Dude, you're a mess. You're probably not a Christian." you know, he was just meandering on his way towards sanctification. There's there's Peter who's Jesus's most famous disciple, and he denies him on the most important night of his being, Jesus's followers. So, for all of us, it's going to be shortcomings and hang-ups.

But we should see as we look at our lives, evidence of these sorts of things being produced, this difference that Jesus is going to make. >> And the first, if you want to jot it down, is gladness. >> Gladness. It might surprise you, but according to the Old Testament, one of the biggest characteristics that was going to define Jesus to the nation when he arrived was gladness.

Gladness, joy, a delight deep down. Did you know that Jesus was fun to be around? I think some of us have confused spirituality with being bored or constipated or both. We kind of have this idea, right? And that's why sometimes we're like surprised when church is good. We're like, "What in the heck?"

But I happen to believe church shouldn't be endured. It should be enjoyed. There should be no greater joy because we're the followers of Jesus who according to the book of Hebrews, this is chapter 1:9 and this is an Old Testament prophecy being rehighlighted again about Jesus. Your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness >> more than your companions. >> More than your companions.

How can we know Jesus when he gets here? The book of Psalms says in Hebrews is referencing this prophecy. How can we know Jesus? He's more fun to be around than any other person. John Piper said based on this verse that Jesus was the happiest person who ever lived.

And of course he was. He lived in perfect communion with the father with no taint from sin, no taint from guilt, no feeling bad from having done or said the wrong thing yesterday. So many of our days are are are mixed or overshadowed by our mistakes and our shortcomings.

But Jesus was perfect. Jesus was totally righteous. He lived in unbroken fellowship with the father until he on the cross experienced separation from the father for you and for me. And the Bible says that to be in God's presence is fullness of joy and at his right hand pleasures ever more.

It's to bask under a waterfall of life and light and joy and ecstasy so intense that the only way that we can even understand the joys of heaven that wait for us is to think about it in terms of a honeymoon. That the first thing that happens is the honeymoon, the the marriage supper, the joy, the ecstasy, the thrill, the the absolute sense of pleasure.

Some people say that that that that today we are only capable of experiencing one of our appetites met fully at one time. You're totally intellectually stimulated, totally sexually being satisfied, totally emotionally feeling connected, totally physically feeling warm and safe, but that in heaven it'll be possible unlocked in our glorified bodies to experience rapture of every single sense simultaneously.

And that's some sense of what it's like to be in God's presence. Now listen, if the God who sent his son on this earth, who lived a life of perpetual gladness more than his companions lives in you, well, ladies and gentlemen, he will have tapped you into some bright shiny days even when you're walking through shadowy circumstances. >> So, one of the characteristics is going to be gladness.

And the difference between joy and just the happiness of this world is that happiness of this world is circumstantial. It can be given and taken away. Oh, I feel good. I'm driving a car. It's clean. Oh, now it's raining and my car has got spots on it. I'm sad.

I'm happy. I got ice cream. I'm sad the ice cream fell off my cone. Right? The happiness of this world can be given and can be taken away. But the joy, the delight deep down that comes when the Holy Spirit abides in you and you abide in him, that can't be given, that can't be taken away.

It's always with you. This is how Paul said, writing in a prison cell, I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Right? He said, I have the choice, the choice to rejoice. I delight in God. That God's presence can't be taken away from you. If anything, hard, difficult, bad, scary things only enhance it because it causes you to lean into him and he becomes near to a broken heart.

That's gladness. So, is your life characterized by that kind of a gladness? If there's no evidence of that, perhaps it's cause for concern. And if you see only little sporadic bits and and pieces of it, then might I encourage you to live with your eyes and thinking more on heaven and the treasures to come than just simply this life.

Because the more you think about what's yours in Jesus, that 10,000 years from now, you're more alive than you are today. >> It just puts into perspective all the little aches and pains of this life. >> Someone put it this way. If you were on the subway and had a $100 stolen from your pocket, how would you feel?

You're like pissed. What if that morning you had received an email, not from a deposed Nigerian prince, an email that could be checked out from Goldman Sachs that a long-lost uncle you didn't know about had just died and wired to your little Wells Fargo bank account was a billion dollars.

And then you got on the subway right after reading that email. I don't know why you would. I'm getting a helicopter. But then you realize $100 gets sold out of your pocket. Now, you're still not going to be happy because you're going to be a good steward, but it's going to put into perspective, >> come on, >> got a billion dollars.

He probably needed it more than me. You know, right? >> You have far more than a billion dollars in your account in Christ. >> What can man do to you? >> What can this life bring at you that's going to compare to that? This is how you're able to say, "My body might be dying, but on the inside, I'm being renewed every day."

Come on, devil. I dare you to try and get me. I dare you try to get me down. I got the oil of gladness on me more than my companion. I'm marked by heaven. I'm going to live with a joyful spirit. No, even if there's no grapes on the vines, even if there's no cattle in the stalls, even if everything's been taken from me.

Habach 3:18 says, "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation." And the more you get good at counting all the blessings, cuz that's I think sometimes we just count all the hardships. We count all the difficulties. We count all the people who betrayed us.

We count all the hard things. We count this happened and this happened. But if we get better at counting all of our blessings, if we get better at re rehearsing to ourselves how good God has been, how kind he has been, his gifts in creation, his gifts in friendship, his gifts that I I'm in a body that's working today.

I got I got some creaky parts just like you. But you know what? I got a body. I'm not in the hospital. I'm not in critical care. I'm grateful today. Are you grateful? That'll foster joy in your This is what David did when he said in Psalm 2026:3, "The Lord has done great things for me and we are glad."

The Lord has done great things. Has God been good to you? Has God been kind to you? Do you got like I do a smoking hot wife? Do you got kids who are awesome? Do you got a church that's fantastic? Do we got a country that we get to live in that's the greatest on this planet?

Come on. I'm grateful. God has done great things for us and we are glad. How about this? You're not headed to hell if you're in Christ. You're headed to heaven. He gave you that Holy Ghost. He gave You see what I'm saying? And when we start recounting gladness, right?

What what what would someone stay if they spent half an hour next to you and you never talked? What is your nonverbals? What is your groaning and grumpy sounds like? Right. Do is there just a sense that you're bummed out? Kids flocked to Jesus. Yeah, >> kids have a good sense of creepy >> kid have kids have a good sense of not fun, right? >> We go to dinner with different people.

The second or third time we talk about going to dinner with those people, right? The kids are like, "Yeah, you have a good time with that." Right? Then what are they saying? That's not fun. They're saying that person's not a joy to be around. Jesus, the kids wanted to be so much so that the disciples had to like try and curtail it and stop it and keep the kids back.

And Jesus is like, "Are you kidding me? I'd rather hang out with them than you." They're they're they're fun, right? They they that table the kids table is where I want to be. That's where Jesus is. And that's why we as a church want to be a youthled moon.

We want to fight to re we want to be at the kids table in Jesus' name. All right. I could preach the rest of this sermon about gladness. Uh cuz some of you need a revelation. Some of you need to tell your face that God's good. I'm preaching to some people right now.

You need to tell your face that you need to tell your face that you're saved. You need to tell your soul that you're saved. >> Oh, the Oh, the world's so bad. Really? I mean, there's hard stuff that happens, but we're going to heaven. What does it matter?

We're We got the We got the Holy SP. What does it matter? We got the joy. Joy, joy, joy. Do you? >> Because if it's not if it's not evident. What difference did it make on your life? >> Why are you so unfund to talk to, right? I'm just being true here.

If if if we have Jesus in our heart, there would be gladness in our lives. Number two, >> boldness. Oh, I'm ready to preach this right now. Like, I stole it. I'm going to get me behind the wheel and grand theft this situation. I'm telling you right now, okay?

Boldness is an important word. Boldness. Paul said, "If you're going to pray one thing for me," Paul said, "Pray for me that I might open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel." Why are 63,000 seats about to get filled up at an NFL stadium in Phoenix, Arizona?

Why is there going to be a televised? Why Why is Chris Tomlin and Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham and President Trump? What? Cuz there was a man who was bold for his faith. Come on. Charlie Kirk was outspoken and bold. He didn't care what you thought about. He was going to be bold for his savior.

He was going to stand up boldly and show love. He was going to stand up and be counted for the gospel. He was going to stand up and call it like he saw it. Regardless of what you thought about it, he said like Paul did, I want to open my mouth boldly for the gospel.

It's what's needed in our day is boldness. We need not I'm not talking about mean. I'm not talking about unloving. We'll get there. Finish the sermon before you start clipping me. All right. But I'm talking about boldness. Paul or John said here in our passage, he said, "By this we know, one of the characteristics of a life on fire for the Holy Spirit is going to be supernatural boldness."

You'll fear God more than you fear man. You know, Jesus said one day, "Don't fear people." And we're like, "Why? It's hard to know." He said, "All they can do is kill you." If I was one of his disciples, I would say, "That's what we're scared of." What?

He said, he said this, though. He said, "All they can do is kill your body. >> You should be really scared of God who can throw your body and your soul in hell." >> They said, "All right, you got our attention now. We're going to we're going to listen to what you have to say."

Boldness. John said, verse 17, "Love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Because as he is, so we are in this world. What is he saying? He's saying you're going to live realizing you're going to stand before God.

There's going to be boldness that's going to characterize your life. By this, we know we actually are in him. There's boldness in our lives. Acts 4:13. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived the people did that these were uneducated and untrained men. This is my life verse.

I got I got three semesters of Bible college and I barely got out of high school intact. All right. untrained, uneducated people. Peter and John didn't have fancy seminary degrees. Nothing wrong with a seminary degree. They didn't have higher doctoral, you know, degrees on the wall. These are fishermen.

John, Peter, these guys were just basic people, untrained, uneducated. And yet, look at this. They realized they had been with Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. They they could tell there's something different about you. It's not that you went to the Pharisee schools or you went to this rabbitical.

You didn't go to, you know, Rome and talk with Socrates. No, they said, "Oh my gosh, you've been with Jesus. How can we tell you've been with Jesus cuz you're bold?" >> The characteristic of someone who has been with Jesus is boldness. And do you know what boldness means in the in the Greek?

This is this is going to blow your mind. It means freedom to speak. >> Freedom >> to speak. >> You're not going to be scared to speak what God tells you to say. You're not going to be scared to talk about what you've seen in God's. You're not going to be Oh, the devil thought he could shut that voice up, putting a bullet in his neck.

I'm telling you, his voice is becoming louder in death than it was in life. This is the way. This is what Jesus does. I was thinking this week about the Protestant Reformation 1517, October 31st, Martin Luthering 95 thesis to the door of the the Vittenberg uh cathedral. this this moment that we think about is this this shot her around the world of the reformation and how people are coming to know Jesus and understand that the the Catholic Church was teaching lies and actually turning to faith and turning to scripture and and getting rid of the indulgences and getting rid of the the the the cast system that was existing and and all of the wickedness.

The church was reformed this massive period of spiritual renewal and revival. But I was thinking about the forerunners of the Reformation because a hundred years before that fateful moment with Luther unafraid to pound this this list into the door, there were people like Wickliffe >> and John Hus.

These two uh specific I kept thinking about all week with these events playing out with with Charlie Kirk and seeing what God's doing. I don't know one church, I don't know one pastor who hasn't said there has been a filling up of the church with spiritual interest, of people more hungry, of people asking bigger questions, of Bibles being read, of people listening to the gospel, asking difficult questions.

A hundred years before Luther, John Wickliffe, he dies, he had spent his whole life trying to put together an English Bible because the church was so corrupt. It kept the Bible in a language that people couldn't speak because then they could people couldn't figure out what the Bible actually said because if they did they would find out the priests were so corrupt and selling lies.

So they kept the Bible in a language people couldn't speak. So his goal was to give us a message translation basically to give us uh the Bible in vernacular that the common person could speak because the common person couldn't speak Latin. They only spoke English. And the church said we must not put it into the vulgar tongue of the people translation.

We will lose our power and privilege. And so Wikliffe dies and he's condemned as a heretic postumously. The church declares him a heretic. And so what do they do? They dig up his body, his corpse, and they burn it to defile it because the Christian tradition has always been the longstanding Christian tradition has been to treat the body as sacred, to treat the body as a seed sown to be resurrected.

It doesn't mean it's you you there's nothing wrong with with with cremation. There's you could get into all of that. Cremation does what in nature happens over the period of 100 years in 15 minutes. Okay? But but it's more it's more the mentality behind it. Tarnishing. They burned his body.

Tarnishing his body. Once it was burned, they took it down to the river and they scattered his ashes in the river like seed thinking they could do away with his writings. Do away with his work, his words. Well, same thing happened to a man named John Hus. John Hus did not live to die a natural death like Wikliffe did.

John Hus actually died a martyr's death. They took him and burnt him at the stake for his adhering to the teachings of Wickliffe and trying to bring reform, trying to bring renewal. So they took him out and literally the church tied him up and put wood all around him.

Gave him a chance to recant, gave him a chance to repent and he's a martyr. Now you go, "Well, this different today is political." Let me tell you, standing up against the Catholic Church in the late 15th century was very political and it was religious and we cannot separate these two things.

They're both happening all around us all the time. And so here's here's this moment where John Hus is told, recant and live and and don't and you know what he chose to do? He chose to sing a worship song as they lit the fire and he died that day and they took all of his ashes and they strew them.

They they cast them into another river, the Ry River. Now, there was a prophecy that he wrote husted in his jail cell before they brought him out for execution. And he said this. It was essentially this. You might be able to cook a goose today, but a hundred years from now, God is going to bring a swan that will not be silenced. >> Wow. >> And do you know what happened almost exactly 100 years after the death of John Hus?

Luther pounding the 95 thesis into the Vittenberg door. They cooked the goose, but the swan came that would not be silenced. And I I don't know, for whatever reason, I just kept thinking all week long about the ashes of Wickliffe and the ashes and the writings of Hus being cast into the river.

In Hus's case specifically, it was the Ryan River, which runs through six European nations. Jesus said, "Unless a seed dies and is buried, it remains alone. But if it dies and is buried, it brings forth much fruit." I believe in Jesus' name, the ashes of those men of God were swn into those rivers by their enemies to bring about the reform and the revival a 100 years later.

And I believe, and I'm praying with all my heart, and I dare you to pray with me as well, that what has happened in this last week, as awful as it is, that it would be a goose that has been cooked and a swan is coming. Come on.

But we're believing for young men and women. So for some for some swans to rise up that will not be silent. This is the power of boldness. May there be great boldness that would come upon your church, Lord. >> May there be a generation who doesn't care about the threat of being cancelled or or the threat of being cast aside or the threat of being killed that we would say, "What can man do to me?

I'm not going to be afraid of man who can only kill the body. I'm going to be afraid of God. I'm going to have fear of God. I'm going to trust in God. I'm going to do what God has called me to do. I'm going to speak the truth to my generations.

I'm going to stand up on my campus. I'm going to share the faith of Jesus with my neighborhood. I'm going to talk to people about the Jesus that saved my life. I'm praying for boldness. >> Hebrews 11:14 says of Abel killed by Cain. The only Old Testament illustration given in the entirety of First John.

I find it crazy that God ahead of time had us in this season in the book of First John that only has one Old Testament illustration in the whole book and it's about someone being killed, persecuted for their faith, slain for his righteous deeds. But Hebrews 11:14 says, "He being dead, Abel, still speaks." >> They may take our lives.

They will never silence our voices in Jesus Christ that rise up even from the grave. Come on. It's immortality we're talking about here. It's the power of boldness. Furthermore, Jesus said in Matthew 10:32, "Whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my father who is in heaven.

But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my father who is in heaven." to confess, to speak out that Jesus is the son of God, to be willing to be counted, to be willing to be numbered, to be willing to be outed as a Jesus person boldly without fear of the consequences, whatever they would be, is something that will flow downstream.

You want to tell me about a master architect who does landscaping in your life? Show me. Show me the hill. >> Show me the turf. Show me the trees. And Jesus, John is saying, will if he's in your heart, lead to boldness in your life. >> And may heaven help us, all of us, to grow in our boldness.

Amen. >> All right. Number three, holiness. >> Holiness. There has never been revival without repentance. There has never been spiritual renewal without confession of sins, >> without an awareness and a weight that would come upon us that we would long to live holy lives. Holy simply means different or other than.

And it's what you are if you're a Jesus person. We talk about saints, right? People will say, "Oh, you're a saint. You know, you're like a saint. I want to be like I'm no I'm no saint." Right? Look, look, look. A saint is what you become positionally when you put your faith in Jesus because he makes you on the inside righteous.

So it's not like are you a saint? Well, I'm trying. No, no. Either you a saint or you ain't is what it is, right? Either you're in Christ or you're not in Christ. And if you are in Christ, you are a saint in God's eyes. Thus, your goal should be incrementally over time to make your life on the outside match up to that life on the inside.

Thus holiness should matter to all of us. That we as we said love what he loves, hate what he hates. Verse two, by this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and keep his commandments, right? That you long for your life to line up with his word. >> That you long for your life to match up.

If I told you I had a debilitating macadamia allergy allergy and you served me a whole dish and everything had macadamia nuts in it, I would say, "Are you trying to kill me?" God has told us in his word what he loves and what he hates. And when our lives are full of things God has told us he's allergic to, can we really say, and if that doesn't phase us or bother us at all, can we really say we're we're children of God?

He says, "What difference does it make?" Now again, our motivation, he says, is love, not fear of punishment. That's a big distinction because he says, now this isn't to be a big fearful thing because perfect love casts out what? All fear. This isn't about punishment. It's about I don't want to make the one who died for me sad.

I don't want to bum him out. I want to live so that he's pleased. I want to live so that if this were the day and I were to die and stand before him, the first words that he's going to say is, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

I want what he does, what he sees and and how he feels when he comes back to not be be me doing something he told me he didn't like. So the question is, what is the known sin in your life you need to repent from? What is right now something that you're engaged in that you wouldn't want to be doing at the moment that Jesus Christ returns?

Not fear of punishment. It's respect and love. I love that he says God's commandments, verse three, are not burdensome. They're not burdensome. I heard this story. It's cute. It's one of those preacher stories which is code for it's not real, right? I don't know. Maybe it is. It was the days before school buses and a boy was walking down the road and he had a little boy on his back like a backpack and a car driver kind of to taunt him said that's a heavy burden and he called without even looking up the older boy called back it's not a burden it's my brother >> it's not a burden it's my brother I think sometimes people think about all these restrictive rules in this book we're not going to have any fun if we do all that stuff Cuz the fun is out there.

Like being hung over in your fourth divorce, right? All the fun's out there. Oh, all the fun in here. I'm There's some fun in here. There's some gladness in here. There's some joy in here. And when we get the revelation that God's not trying to keep us from fun, that's the devil trying to rebrand what God's doing. >> He's trying to keep us from consequences.

He's trying to push us towards our best interests. All of a sudden, we go, "Wait a minute. It's not a burden. is my brother. >> This isn't a burden. It's a blessing. >> This isn't a burden. It is a joy. It's a It's He's put He's trying to Father knows best, right?

He's trying to push me towards what's actually all along best for me. All of a sudden, it changes how we sees we see things because of love. >> There's this romantic verse in the Bible. This guy Jacob fell in love with this girl Rachel. and her dad was crafty and he knew that they would probably move away and he would lose the daughter and lose the son-in-law.

So, he said, "I'll let you have her hand in marriage, but you got to work for me seven years first." And the Bible says this, "Jacob worked for Rachel seven years, but it seemed as though it were only a few days to him because of the love that he had for her." >> Wow.

Also, I don't believe it, but it, you know, love will make you do crazy things, right? It change when you really love it changes how you it's not a burden to oh I go to oh I got to go to church you know keep the old man upstairs happy like I got like no it it changes your get to and from your got to into a get to when the love of Jesus gets into your heart >> right service and gifts and giving all of it turns from a a crushing responsibility I'm telling you there's no amount of money you could pay me on this earth to not give to God >> it's an honor to give to him do you understand what I'm saying I'm saying it changes is how you see everything to have the love of God in your heart.

A 100 pound weight on the moon would only feel like it's 16 >> because the higher you go, the lighter it becomes. The moon's only got one sixth gravity. So extrapolate that out over to the high heights of knowing God and walking with him over time. >> Wow. >> It transforms a duty into a delight. >> Come on. >> And a privilege. >> Beautiful. >> All right.

And I can I can I just do one more illustration on that? I'm just piling on today, right? I asked recently I asked one of the, you know, AI bots. I fitted a bunch of my sermon notes and it I said, "Give me some critiquing." And it said, "You use too many illustrations."

So, let me just use one more illustration. Spurgeon used to say that that Jesus always talked in a way that it ministered to people who didn't have fancy understanding of theology. And he said, "And it's a good thing because God came to build a flock of sheep, not a herd of giraffes."

So he put the truth on a low level that anyone could understand it. So that's what I'm always trying to do in my illustrations. I'm trying to take truth and and bring it in a way that can make sense to to not because I'm not a giraffe. I'm a sheet, right?

And I I think I'm not the only one. So I want to want to understand it. So I I I saw a spider on a wall this week. Um and like like you probably have done, I I took a picture of it to try and figure out what kind of spider it was.

You can Google it and figure out what kind of spider it was. It was a pretty intense spider. It it it was it was gnarly, right? And um and and yet I laughed so hard because here's the the the screen from chat GPT. It said it's a cricket.

Most likely a house cricket. And then I love the bottom paragraph. It's harmless, though they can be noisy at night if they start chirping indoors. Right? If you'd rather not have it inside, you could gently trap it with a cup or a piece of paper and release it.

Right? I mean, think about I know I don't know actually what kind of spider it was because the freaking chat GBT failed me. Uh, but what if it was a poisonous thing >> and the computer was saying, "It's good. It's just I mean, it's a little noisy, but go ahead and touch it." >> Die. >> When God says something that feels to you like he's trying to kill your joy, just believe the enemy is trying to tell you, "It's just a cricket.

Just keep touching it." >> And when God calls you to holiness, it's because he knows what you need to know. That's a venomous spider that's trying to kill you. help. >> Do you like my bonus illustration? All right. Number number four, kindness. >> We're almost done. I'm going to get you out of here to get some food.

Just get just give me one more minute. Kindness. Kindness. There's there's there's the ultimate test of whether your Christianity is real. Does it make you kind? Is there love is what I'm trying to say. Because the fruit of the spirit is >> love. love according to Galatians. Now the list goes on.

Joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. No, no, no. The fruit singular of the spirit is love. And many have said the rest of the words in the list of the fruits of the spirit are just adjectives to help you understand if there's love in your life or not. >> All of those different things are all characteristics of love.

And that of course is the idea here in First John. If there's Jesus in your heart and then he goes, "God is love." Don't you think there's going to be kindness and love coming out of your life? I was thinking about that meme that we use from time to time, the Willy Wonka one, the Gene Wilder one.

You know what I'm talking about. This one, the smug Gene Wilder one. I pictured this when I when I hear John going, "Now you say you're a Jesus person, but you're a jerk. [laughter] H right like condescending Charlie in the Chocolate Factory vibes time 1 million. You say you're a Jesus person, but you're you're everything I read that you're posting is just arrogant, belligerent, rude. >> You build bridges.

You don't build them. >> You you say things that you would never say to someone's face. You're a bully. Yet you follow someone who died to save the people who put him. God is love. God lives in you. You're an arrogant jerk. >> Wow. Really good. There was this story of a little little boy homeless during depression looking in a window at a department store where there were just row after row of shoes and he had no shoes on his feet.

And he was praying, "God, I pray you'd give me shoes." And a woman walked by and saw the little boy and said, "Come inside with me where it's warm." Took him in there. Bought socks for him. bought boots for him. But before they were put on, she asked, "Could you show me where the bathroom is?"

She washed his feet, put the socks on, put the shoes on him, and right before she said goodbye for him to leave, he looked up at her and said, "Ma'am, are you God's wife? Are you God's wife?" He could tell. She didn't need to tell him, "I'm a Christian." >> He assumed she was connected to God because what she was feeling was love.

This is the defining characteristic we should expect to see downstream in our lives. >> If God who is love lives in our hearts, Alexander the Great once at a battle saw one of his soldiers hanging back and not rushing ahead, not taking part in the charge. And he went up to him and he said, "What's your name, soldier?"

And the young man timidly said, "My name's Alexander, sir." And he said, "Get in the fight or change your name." He did not want his name disrespected in such a manner. Get in the fight or change your name. >> Might I humbly ask that if we're going to be Jesus people John is saying you might get in the fight and show the love to this world the world needs to see. >> Or change your name. >> Wow. >> This is the test.

And then number five is wholeness. wholeness, not lacking anything, not needing something, not not empty, looking to the world to to fill them. Because verse 17, look at this. This is sick. Because as he is, so are we in this world. Because do you realize the power, the bomb that detonates inside of you when you realize if you're positionally in Christ, if he has it, you have it.

One day Jesus's brother said, "Hey, if you're really a good Messiah, go show yourself off at the feast. What are you doing piddling around here in Galilee? Go to Jerusalem." Cuz they didn't believe in him. And you wouldn't believe in your brother either. Most of Jesus's siblings did not believe in him until the till after the resurrection to which at which point we could pile on them and go, "Oh, why didn't you believe?"

Let me ask you this. What would it take for you to believe one of your siblings is God incarnate? You're like at the very least a resurrection. And even then, you know, right? Exactly. So, they were giving him a hard time. Go to the Don't Don't Don't you want to get people?

And you know what? You know what the Bible says? He says he didn't do what they said because he knew all men and knew what was in man and didn't need anything from man. He didn't need their validation. He didn't need their validation. He didn't need their He had his father's love.

So he was good. If if if if we are in Christ and he has it, we have it. What I'm trying to say is we are enough. We're enough. Just as we are loved by God. If we understand as he is, so are we. That means I'm whole.

So many of our worst moments have come from us trying to do things to get things. Do things to be things. Do this, buy this, wear this, smoke this, drink this, go here to be something. I'm going to make something of myself. But if we are in Christ, just as he is, so are we.

And the more that dawns on us, the more we can settle down, the more we can stand. And we're going to go do things for Jesus. Praise God. We're going to be bold. We're going to show love. All the other stuff's true, but we're not doing it to be it.

We're doing it because we already got it and can never lose it. I'm whole. Are you whole? Are you good? Are you a soul at rest? Are you a soul at peace? Or is there still striving striving? I I wonder I'm I'm insecure. Do you do you like me?

Do you do you notice me? No. No. No. All of that goes away and quiets when we just realize that the father is beaming as he sees us beaming in Christ. Love the spirit of sunship. The Bible says the Holy Spirit who if he's in us, he's saying call him dad.

God heavenly. No dad. Oh, I hear that voice. I can hear that voice in a thousand other voices. And I will single in to my child's voice. Your father loves you like that. We love him because he first loves us. Some of us think I got to love him enough that he'll love me.

No. No. Wholeness comes from all I'm going to do to love you, Father, is because you love me so purely, so beautifully, so intimately, so perfectly. That that kind of love just will make your heart sing. All right, what have we learned today? We've learned today that we should be seeing these sorts of things in our hearts, these sorts of things in our lives if we're really saved.

One of my favorite movies is Monty Python and the Holy Grail. There's this scene where there's there's this impos Inquisition scene and they're trying to hang this or burn this witch cuz she's a witch. And they they're all saying things that would prove she's a witch. And one guy goes, "She turned me into a noot."

A noot. And everyone looks at him and he goes, "Oh, well, I got better." cuz he said he was a nude, but then they looked at him and there's no new. Look at the list again. Did Jesus turn you into a child of God? You shouldn't be, well, I got better.

Well, no. These should these should be things that are a part of your story. You don't do them to get them. You do them and produce them because you are something. When we were in Florida for the launch of my friend who was an astronaut who was heading to space, my son Lennox was just a little guy and he was so funny.

He when the rocket launched, it was night time so it was dark and the fire lit up the sky and he goes, "I could see it like a fire in the sky. I can see it with my own eyes. I could see it like a fire in the sky. see it with my own eyes.

Verse four, that's what John said. We've seen him. We've seen him and testify. I'm the last living apostle. We saw him. We saw him like fire in the sky. I saw him with my own eyes. John, who's 90, is not long for this world. He's looking at his life going, "He made a big difference in my life."

But don't take my word for it. See for yourself. Follow Jesus. Live for him. And watch what a difference it makes. So, thank you, Lord. We love you, Lord. I pray for your spirit of boldness and love to fall upon our church. confession where there is sin, repentance where it's needed, holy awe, and for some of us, God, just a a realization of our wholeness in Christ.

If the church I'm speaking to now, the church, the believed, the saved today, needed this, stand up in this, recognize deep calling on a deep. Could I just ask you to stand up to your feet right where you are, you're saying, "I want to be I want to be counted because I've decided to follow Christ.

I'm I'm not turning back. I'm following him. I'm following him today. Spirit, fill me. Give me strength. Open my eyes, God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. And if you're here and you've not trusted Christ for salvation, but you're ready to do so, could I ask that you would stand up as well?

Just stand up. Stand up. You're ready to say, "I'm ready to give my life to Jesus. I've not trusted him, but I'm going to I'm going to give my from this moment forward." You're watching online. You're right there in your living room. Stand up. Stand up. You're driving a car.

You You can't stand up. Just raise your hand up. Raise your hand up. But right there where you are, say this to God. Say, "Dear God, I can't fix myself, but I believe you can because of Jesus. Please come into my heart. I give you my life. Help me to follow you in Jesus name.

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