How Do I Know God Loves Me? | Ben Stuart

But I remember thinking, I wish there was some way to get into that little mind what's exploding in this father's heart. You wouldn't even understand it though. You don't even speak English yet. And I'm just like, I just wish there was some way for her to know how much your father loves you.

And God did one of those little things where he kind of moves and goes, "Hey, man. You think you're a better father to her than I am to you. You think you have a greater love to capacity to love your child than I have to love you." And I had to repent of an unbiblically low view of the love of God.

And let me tell you something, friend. For some of you, that will be the p most powerful thing you do this year. He's aware of your shortcomings. He's seen the shakes and he chooses you. That's what he does. Fresh life. Man, what a joy to be here with you all.

This is such a gift. Yeah. You can go ahead and have a seat. And uh let me say this as we jump in. There are many reasons why the stewards love the luscos. I'll say one. Um when my wife Donna lost her dad uh after he passed, we were at a lunch table and the wolves and the luscos sat down.

Uh we had no idea God was appointing this moment for us to get to sit at the feet of people who've mastered grieving with hope. It was such a gift to us in a time of need. And then Washington DC, I'm happy to report Jesus is on the move in DC.

I don't know if you feel that up here, but it's amazing. Uh, twothirds of our church are under 30. I don't know if you know that. It's a young town. I don't know if that encourages or terrifies you that DC is run by 20-year-olds, but it is. And God's on the move amongst them.

I asked Pastor Levi to come speak during CO. So, he only got to see eight of them sparsed out uh in an EDM club nested between uh a strip club and uh where the weed is grown uh in DC. And so, the least fun time to visit. no museums, no fun, no joy.

And one of the most difficult pastoral moments of my life, your pastor showed up. And so, uh, we have just seen the lust go show up, uh, in our life in so many ways. I always said, I want to show up for you. And then I said no like six times, which was terrible.

And I I'm not going to defend it, but I'm so happy to be here now. And it's awesome. Um, to see the faces and to see the people that the people you care about care about is really a joy. So, I'm just so thrilled to be here and excited about what the Lord has for us.

So, if you got a copy of these scriptures, we're going to be in 1 John chapter 4. Uh, and here's what I want to do. I want to read uh the whole passage to kind of load it into our minds. Uh, we'll pray uh and then talk about it.

So, 1 John chapter 4. I'm going to start in verse 7. So, if you have a copy of scriptures, you can follow along. Uh, if you don't, uh, just listen because I'm about to read it. So 1 John 4:7 uh says this, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him." Amen. In this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one's ever seen God. But if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit.

And we have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he and God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because as he is so also are we in this world. There's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. And so, Father, we just ask for your grace now to help us understand what that means. So, Lord, quicken our minds so we would understand it.

But Lord, I pray you would move in our hearts so that we would be affected by it. so that we would think differently about you and about us ourselves as a result of these few minutes with your word and we would live different. And I can't generate that.

A church can't, but you can. And so I just want to ask you family, wherever you are today, would you take a minute and pray and ask him if you're willing just say, "God, please teach me today. And then if you would please pray for me that the Lord would use me and I'd be helpful to you.

Well, Father, we love you and we trust you. Use this time and we pray that in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I was a youth pastor right out of college and I used to love to take my students repelling uh with this outfitter that had the guides, had the gears, so they would take us out to some cliff somewhere and we'd spend the day sending children off the side of a cliff.

But before we would do it, uh, he would always circle us up and give us the speech. And it would always go the same way. He would get there and say, "I've been sending children off the side of mountains for 25 years. I've never lost a man. I've trained every one of these guides.

None of them have seen a child plummet to their death. None of you will die today on our watch. Do you believe this?" And the kids would all be like, "We know. We know." Cuz they'd heard him before. But undaunted by their lack of enthusiasm, he would move on to the equipment.

This robe could hold a Volkswagen. It will not fray or snap as it carries you down the side of the mountain. This carabiner will not bend, snap, or break. Regardless of what the movie Cliffhanger starring Sylvester Sloan suggests, it can hold all of us simultaneously. No one will die today because of a failure of equipment.

Do you believe this? And they would all say, "We know. We know. We know." And yet then when it came time to repel, and you know this up there in Montana, you don't climb down the mountain. You clip in and you lean all the way back on that deer. about half of my students every year would freak out and it was usually the guys and I don't know why that is like if they just weren't paying attention during the instructions or if it was the fact that the guide was cute and so when the girls got up he'd go ahead and lean back and they're like okay and they would go I don't know but these guys would get there and they would go wait no wait like something's wrong and you go what what is it is is the is the road frame is is the carabiner snapping is is the instructor are drunk and they would act like something was wrong and they would prolong the worst part of the experience and they weren't having any fun.

They certainly weren't free to enjoy the day and it was fascinating to watch them because you'd say, "Hey, five minutes ago you said you knew you would be okay." And yet when it comes time to trust it, your actions betray what you really believe. Now, why do I mention that?

Because I don't know if you caught this. In the letter of First John, the word love is used 46 times, 21 in the passage I just read. So if you want to know what this sermon is about ahead of time, I'll just tell you. You are loved. And for those who are in Christ, the most beautiful being in existence cherishes you.

He knows your name. And I would guess most of you would say, I know you crossed the country to tell us that Jesus loves me. This I know. And yet John says we have come to know and to believe the love God has for us. And then he gives us two characteristics indicative of those who know they're loved by God.

He says number one, there's a fearlessness to them. You see it in verse 18. There's no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We know that. We know and believe we're loved by God when our lives are characterized by fearlessness.

The people who know God loves them aren't anxious. They're not worried about much. They have a beautiful confidence as they move about in the world. U statistics show this about kids who grow up in loving two parent homes. They engage the world with more curiosity and confidence. There's a courageousness released when you know you're cared about.

Now, you're not doomed if you didn't come from a family like that. And yet, the truth remains. Those who know and believe they're loved are characterized by a fearlessness. We're not an anxious people. And because of that, we're marked by a freedom to love others. You see that in a lot of different places, but in verse 7, he said it, "Beloved, let us love one another."

And then he has the word for, which often the word for indicates reason, the reason for the command. But notice what he does in verse in verse seven. He says, "Beloved, let us love one another." And then when he gives the reason, he doesn't say, "Love one another so that God will bless you."

Or, "Love one another or else God will be really mad." He doesn't point downstream. He says, "Beloved, love one another." Why, John? Because love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. He points upstream. Love one another. Why? Because the beloved love, love embraced becomes love extended.

It's the most natural thing. When you know God loves you, you don't walk into rooms like this with the tyranny of self-absorption, desperately trying to get other people to fill a vacancy in you. You know you're filled up with the love of God. So when you walk in, you're liberated to care about others, to be genuinely concerned for others.

And so he says, "Do you know you're loved by God? And do you believe it?" I would guess many of you, if I asked you that, did you know God loved you? You would say yes. You'd get it right on a quiz. Does God love you? True or false?

True. But if I said, okay, then is your life characterized by a fearlessness and a freedom to love others? You would say, well, we don't want to own that. So, we know it. But our actions betray what we really believe. And here's what's real. We are an anxious people.

And because of that, we're not a free people. We're fearful. Uh, I remember for me when I was in seminary, they gave us this test and it wasn't for a grade. It was a test to see if you were crazy or not. It was like a psyche vow before school.

And I remember when they gave it to us, uh, the questions were so bizarre. Like one of them was like, let's say you're counseling a divorced woman late at night in her home and you accidentally begin to make out. Do you a tell no one, B keep it going but on the side?

And I was like, wait, what? I was like, I reject the premise. Like I would never be in her home at night. or they'd be like, "Should we a legalize all drugs or b you're a bigot?" And you're like, "Wait, what?" And so I just thought, "This test is so strange."

And I remember they're like, "After you take it, a counselor is going to call you to tell you about yourself." And I was like, "Oh, is he?" And so before he calls me, I'm already underwhelmed by what this man's about to say. And so he picks up the phone, I'm not taking notes.

He's like, "Let me tell you about you." And I was like, "All right, man." And he says, "According to your test, you have a low belief in sovereignty of God." And I started laughing. I was like, "I don't think so." I said, ' Listen to my sermons, bro.

I think he works all things according to the council of his will. And he says, I'm not talking theologically. He says, "Let me guess. You probably work crazy hours, long hours, because at the end of the day, you think no one's showing up for you, no one cares, and you're on your own."

And I was silent because he was right. So, I know it. But do you believe it? And the truth is for many of us, we want so badly to be a success or maybe more specifically be perceived as a success. I need a certain clientele of people to notice me, care about me, say to me that I matter.

Why do we crime and scrape for attention, be it online or elsewhere? Why do we claw for these things? Cuz I want to be appreciated. I want to be valued. I want to be loved. Because we don't think we are. And because of that fearfulness, we're not free to care about other people.

We become drains instead of fountains. When I show up in a room like this, I desperately try to use people. We're not free. And it can be either a self-absorbed arrogance or a self-deprecating condemnation. But either way, it's selfish and we're not free to care about others. And the tragedy of that is the world is in desperate need of selfless love.

So, I remember I had a friend years ago do one of those crazy unsafe deals where you go scuba diving after like a 30-minute course, right? Uh, and so she was training in this little course out in the Caribbean, and they pair you up with a buddy. And so they put her with like this middle-aged man, and they both had their own scuba gear, but you'd go with a buddy so you could, you know, point at fish to each other.

And uh, and if there was some kind of problem, they gave you hand signals to do, and then you would both sort of slowly make your way to the top. And so she's down there with him, pointing fish, and then at some point uh, his gear stops working.

Oxygen quits flowing. And so in that moment of panic, he grabs her and begins to shake her. And she's like, "What? This is not the hand gest." She's trying to understand what's happening. And then in that moment, he just grabs the aspirator out of her mouth, puts it in his, and then attempts to climb her like a ladder to get to the surface, which if you understand water, that's not how that works.

So he's just drowning her. And so she's trying to understand it. Finally, she just starts punching him in the rift to try to get him to let go. In a moment of panic, he just races to the top. They both get a squeeze, get the bends, get sick.

And so needless to say, they're not swim buddies anymore, or any kind of buddies for that matter. And you go, why? Well, when they had a source, they could be a source. But scarcity leads to desperation. And desperation leads to exploitation. And for many of you, that's why your dating lives are chaos, right?

Because it's a drain rather than a fountain. But if I have a source, I can be a source. And we need to know we're loved by God so we can love a world that desperately needs it. And I say that and I thought some of you are like, "Yeah, okay.

I want that. I want to feel loved. I want to wake up every day believing that heaven smiles on me. I want to be less stressed. I want to be liberated to care about others because I'm not wrecked by my own insecurities. I want to feel loved." How do you feel it?

Well, let me say this. The fire of love burns on the fuel of truth. Uh subjective affections burn on the fuel of objective truth. So if you want to feel loved, it begins by knowing that you are. But how do you know you're loved? How do you know love exists?

Anywhere. Take it out of theology for a second. It's just anywhere. You can't see it. Can't hold it. Got something for you? What? Little cup of love. Got it for you. Doesn't work that way. How do you know love exists between two people? Some of you may say, "Man, love is like the wind.

You can't see it, but you feel the effects of it." And you'd be right. Think about your favorite books or favorite movies. When an author or a director wants to show you that love exists between one character or another, what do they show you that convinces you he really loves her?

I would submit to you, it's one of three things. Number one is that love initiates. Love moves towards the beloved. When I was a college minister, I used to tell my college students this all the time. You will never see a moment when a college guy realizes he loves a girl.

Not just that she's cute or has some potential, but like I love you. I want to cash out of singleness and marry you. When he's sitting on the couch and that dawn on him, I love her. This is the one. You will never see him hit that realization and go, I love her.

No. When it lands on him, he will arise. is he will go to his beloved because that's what love does. Love moves. It initiates texts. It initiates emails. It sends letters. It sends flowers. It sends the vibe. How you doing, baby? Love moves towards the beloved princess bride.

Buttercup says, "I know my Wesley will come for me." How does she know? Cuz it's to a wolf. You think this happens every day? When the beloved is over there, the lover cannot sit still because love moves, love initiates, love sends and it sacrifices. It gives itself for the sake of the beloved.

So Jack will freeze to death as the Titanic sinks to keep Rose alive on that door. Rose. And every guy who watched that movie was like, I'm pretty sure there's room on that door for Rose would just scooch. No. Uhuh. Had to die. frozen. Anna will step in front of that falling sword, right?

Which is a grizzly thing to do. Why did she do it? Cuz only that sacrificial act of true love can thaw her sister's frozen heart. Bruno Mars, we'll catch a grenade for you. We'll step in front of a train for you. Think about how grizzly those lyrics are.

Why would he say that? Why would you sing that? Because he knows that. We know that true love will surrender its body to the flames for the beloved. Love sacrifices and love stays. It stays. We do this in our uh wedding ceremonies. When someone wants to declare they'll love the other, what do they say?

I promise to love you for better or for worse. sickness and in health for richer or poorer. I'm uniting myself with you. And if that makes life better, great. But if it takes a real sharp turn downward, I'm staying. I'm not going anywhere. We say that in our most sacred of ceremonies.

Why? Because everyone in the room knows if they're going to say that, I know. And I believe love exists because love stays when everyone else walks out. and movies and books over and over again show you these things. Why? So that you know love exists. Why am I telling you this verse 9?

In this the love of God was made manifest among us. That word manifest in the word in Greek the language this was originally written in the root of it is the word light. He says in this something happened. We saw something and it shined a light on the reality that heaven smiles on us.

God cares about us. We saw something illuminated in our midst that proved to us God cares. What was it, John? That God sent his only son into the world. Love sends. That God did not just send a text. He didn't just send a postcard. He didn't just send prophets.

He sent his best. He sent his son. You don't get a better emissary than that. No greater prize could descend. And look at why he sent him. He sent his son that we might live through him. Love sends so we can live. Christianity is not us approximating our lives to the teaching of some religious leader.

It's people who got the message. God loves us and he sent his son who's the messenger and the message so I can live with him. Bound together with him in a life-giving way. That's what God's offering. That's what's on the table. I say yes to that. How do you know God loves you?

Exhibit A is the space-time arrival of Jesus Christ on this planet because love sends. Yes. So, I've got a friend that um they adopted this little girl from India. And I remember we were talking about it and he said, you know, um they're telling us that a moment's going to come where she will will realize we're not our biological parents.

And they say, "You got to make a decision. Are you going to tell them the truth or not about where she came from?" And I said, "What are you going to do?" He said, "We're going to tell the truth." And the truth is that she was abandoned. very vulnerable, very dangerous place to be abandoned, malnourished, starving to death, uncared for.

And she was placed in a home and they saw her and said, "We want to bring her home." And he said, "There's going to come a moment where she asks and we're going to we're going to tell her all that." And they said, "They told us the risk of that is that she'll take those words and make them her core identity.

I was the abandoned one. I was the unloved one. They left me in a dangerous place. They left me vulnerable and alone in a scary world. This is uh this is who I am. I said, 'What are you going to do? He said, we're going to tell her that's all true, but that's just the first part of the story.

Your mom and I, we we came for you. We crossed oceans for you. We spent money and did all this paperwork. We came into the midst. We descended into the place you were and drew you out and we put our name on you and we brought you home and we put you a room in that home and we will love you.

You will be our daughter forever and forever and all we have is yours. So that's the rest of the story. You're loved. How do you know? Cuz we showed up for you, right? Uh there was a movie years ago called Taken starring Liam Niss. Do you recall this movie?

Did very well among junior high kids. It confused people that why an aging Liam Niss was a hit with kids. And uh if you've not seen the movie, a young girl decides to disobey her parents, which is terrible. It's the worst part of the movie. And she goes to Europe unshaperoned, gets captured and trafficked, and Liam Niss, her dad, finds out about it.

Now, what's he going to do? Does he go like, "Oh, well, I got a couple other kids around here. Lost one." No. He says, "I got a particular set of skills." And he employs those skills to get his girl back. Now, if that story were true, I can imagine there would be a day where one day that little girl is laying in bed and and asks the question a lot of young women ask, "Does anyone care about me?

Does anyone care about what I'm feeling? Does anyone care about my life?" And I thought, "What would I say to that girl?" And I'd say, "Watch the movie. Look what your dad did. Look what he did to those people. He went to some dangerous places and did some crazy things to get you back."

Cuz that's what love does. And so when you're tempted to feel no one cares about you, look at what Jesus Christ did when he descended into our story. Love sins and love sacrifices. Verse 10. And this is love. Not that we loved God, but he loved us. And he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

I love that verse because God jumps over two boundaries to get to us. The first is our indifference. He loved you when you didn't love him back. And the second is in that word propitiation, which is a big word we don't often use, but it's talking about God's wrath against sin.

God loves this world and he loves his people and he hates the distortion that sin has wrought and God had to do something about it. And propitiation's temple imagery from the Old Testament that God gave his people these symbols that were meant to display artistically what we all know intrinsically, namely that there's something wrong with us and we can't fix it.

Uh Yale has an infant cognition center and it's pretty fascinating. A couple years ago they discovered morality in babies preverbal less than six months old as early as 3 months old. They said there is a morality woven into the hearts of these babies. You can go Google it, read the articles.

It's fascinating the way they did some of these tests. They would basically do these morality plays with puppets in front of these little babies and then offer them the puppets. And they said, "The crazy thing is almost 100% of them when they were offered the the good puppet, the one they watched share and be nice to people, they would smile, they would laugh, they would hug it.

When they saw the puppet that was mean and would hit others and steal, and then that was offered to them, they would cry. They would recoil. They would hit it like they instinctively knew it must be judged." And they said, "This is amazing." It was almost 100%. Preverbal babies have this morality woven into their hearts.

It's an amazing discovery. But then they were asked, "That's crazy that right and wrong, good and bad, beautiful and ugly, woven into the hearts of humanity, if we all know it, then why do we all choose to do broken and sad things?" And they said, "I don't know.

It's not part of the experiment." But you and I know that when we broke faith with our creator, something broke in us. Uh we were talking about going to Italy and uh my wife and I went there years ago and we were in this little Italian town and we sat at this uh table next to a table full of yepies in a technical sense.

They were young urban professional uh women uh from London and they were there to hang out in Italy. And so we're at our table. They're at theirs and they realize we're not from Italy. They're not either. What have you visited? What have you visited? What did you like?

What did you like? Haha. And so we start moving our tables together. They're texting their friends. We're going to be late to the club. Hey, we're going to be late. Hey, forget you guys. We're hanging with some cool people. And so we ended up like closing out this restaurant.

The owner comes out. His son starts singing us the song he wrote. It was really a fun night. It was wild. And yet about an hour plus into the conversation, they asked me what I do for a living, which I like to hold that back. Not cuz I'm scared of it, because it can be a conversation killer.

And so we just waited until they liked us. And then they were like, "What do you do for a living?" And I said, "I teach the Bible to young people." And you could see the shock on their face. Surprise. didn't see that coming cuz they were confused like wait and uh I remember one of them said why and her friend hit her like don't say that I was like no it's fine she goes can I be honest I've never read this in my life I said sure you can be honest and then they realized oh we got like free play we could ask a religious guy stuff and one of them goes well then I have a question why do religious people kill people terrorist had just blown himself up in the tube said it could have been me on my way to work why do religious people kill people and I said well I don't kill people I said but if you Look through human history, every religion and worldview can be twisted and turned violent.

There's Hindu terrorists, Buddhist ones. I said there's all kinds of and and that doesn't tell you whether one's right or wrong or better or worse. I'm just telling you every human philosophy can be twisted and turned violent. So I what I think we can understand is in the common denominator there's something deeply wrong with us.

And they didn't disagree because no one ever does. And one of them goes, "Right, like the good I want to do, I don't do it. And the evil I don't want to do, I keep doing that." And she had no idea. She was quoting Romans. And she's like, "How do we fix it?

How do we fix us?" And what we get presented in the Bible is what Alexander Solsen said, "If only there were evil people. Some were insidiously committing evil deeds and all that were necessary was to separate them and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.

It's in us. And so in the Old Testament, in the center of the nation of Israel was the city of Jerusalem. In the center of Jerusalem was a temple. In the center of the temple was the Holy of Holies. This is a picture where God dwelt. And in the center of the Holy of Holies was a box that contained the holiness of God carved into stone, the law.

No one could obey that law. So no one could be on that room. And the picture was our sin has separated us from God. And yet once a year they would take an innocent lamb and they would kill it and take its blood and put it on the lid of that box.

And the picture and it was just a picture. It was artistic was this blood of an innocent one will cover my violation of this law. So when God looks down, he doesn't see my violation of his law. He sees someone paid my debt. so we can have a relationship with God again.

And the lid on that box had a name. It was called the Hillisterion, the mercy seat. I will meet you there. In verb form, that word is propitiation. What was pictured in the Old Testament was displayed by Christ, the propitiation for our sin by his blood. He said, "I will meet you at the seat of mercy."

Why? Because if your sin is an obstruction, I will pay for it. If it's a debt you can't pay, put it on me. If you can't live a perfect life, I will in yourstead. If you deserve to die because of sin, I will take it. How do you know you're loved?

Because love sacrifices for the beloved. So, I had a friend, my roommate right out of college, um, dated this girl, fell in love with her, wanted to get married, but this buddy of mine was like the most financially responsible human being I'd ever met in my life. like he he uh kept every receipt, had spreadsheets.

At 22 years old, I'd walk in his room and he'd have like a green visor on, a little abacus. Like, I'm like, "What are you doing? Like, this is insane. It's too much." The man loved his credit score. Meant a lot to him. Uh, turns out this girl he wants to marry, through some very unwise decisions in college, had run up an enormous amount of credit card debt.

So he knew if I want her, I get this and it will devastate my credit score. And I was his only roommate. I got a front row seat to watch him consider the cost. And I remember him making the decision. I want her. First wedding I ever cried at because I knew what it was costing him.

But nobody else did. He didn't get up there and go like, "Well, this is real expensive, guys." He was up there beaming, "I will pay the debt cuz I want you." That is love. Love sends and love sacrifices. If you want to know you're loved, look at the cross.

Look what he did for you. He didn't have a home. He left prestige. He took on all of our sin on that cross to be our propitiation to move our sin so we could know the God who made us again. How do you know you're loved? Because love sends and love sacrifices.

There's no more that he could do. The latest NA USS naval warship is called the USS Michael Mansour, named after Navy Seal Michael Mansour, who in 2006 was charged with his troops to clear insurgents out of Rammani. And on mission, a grenade was lobbed in the midst of Michael and his men.

And without hesitation, Michael Mansour dove on that grenade, absorbed the blast, cost his life, saved his men's life. Our nation gave the Medal of Honor to Michael, the highest medal of that can be offered by our country because greater love has no man than this. Then he laid down his life for friends.

And when it was given to Michael's family, the president said on stage, "Death came from Mikey's friends that day." And Mikey said, "No, you can't have them. I will go in there. Let me ask you a question. Do you think Michael's friends wonder if he loved them or not?

I think they know he did because they watched him. You're loved. How do you know that? Look at the cross. Look what he did. Look what he joyfully went through to bring you home. Love sacrifices and love stays. Verse 13. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he's given us of his spirit.

I'm going to take my very spirit and he's going to abide in you. The word abide in Greek means stay right here. Love stays. Second wedding I ever cried at. Two out of two. Uh there's a couple I met and they were the most attractive human beings I've ever seen in my life.

I don't think that's too strong to say. Uh he was a professional tennis player. Uh she was a model or should have been. I'm not entirely clear on that. But they were so attractive that it would end conversations in the room. Like you'd be talking to some people, they walk in be like, "Anyway, so I says to him, they were so attractive they would make me self-conscious."

Like I'd be talking to him like, "Hey guys, why do I wear this shirt? It's so frumpy and stupid." And I'm like, "I don't even think like that." So I'm like, "What am I doing?" But they would never put that on me. They were just gorgeous people. And they were also really nice and so they were just easy to cheer for.

And so when I got invited to their wedding, I'm like, "Wedding of the century. This is amazing." And was so excited to go. And as they were prepping for their wedding one day, she woke up uh and her hands were shaking and she couldn't get him to stop and she got diagnosed and she had MS and it was aggressive.

And within a few months, she was not able to lift her hands to comb her own hair. So she told him, "You didn't sign up for this. You don't have to do this." And he said, "No, I want you." When they got to the wedding and it came time to say in sickness and health, she choked up.

She couldn't do it because she knew what it would cost him. He did not. He looked her right in the eye and said, "I promise to love you in sickness and in health." I cried that day because that's what love does. It stays. It says, "I'm right here."

So, friend, in case you didn't see it, let me just make it clear. The father sent his son. The son sacrificed his life and the spirit stays. The entire triune God mobilized to send you a message today. You are loved. Do you see it? Because when you do, let me tell you something.

It liberates you from the tyranny of self-absorption so you can love other people. This is where the lie must be fought. What was the lie of the enemy in the garden? That God doesn't care for you and doesn't look out for you. That's the devil speaking that over you.

If you hate me, if you decide I want to destroy Ben Stewart, that's one of my goals this year. Let me tell you what you would do. You would look into the eyes of my little girl and say, "Man, you're such a hassle to your dad. You're such a drain."

And yeah, he loves you cuz your dad's real nice, but you're just such a pain. It would be so much easier if you left. Go find acceptance somewhere else. Go eek out an existence somewhere else, but leave him alone. He doesn't want you. Do you see it? You say that to me, you unleash fury in my heart to speak to my child that way.

You need to understand something. That's what the enemy is doing to you. And so make war on that lie. My God's not like that. Uh and so for me, just to be honest, uh I think this is a safe place to say it. I used to hate the song uh How He Loves Us.

I don't know if that's fair to say. And uh and I never understood why. Like I finally started to question like why do I not like that song? Like is it the lyrics? Like I'm not a tree. Is it the Doppler effect way we sing it? how we love.

I'm like, "No, it's not that either." I'm like, "Then what's the deal?" And I realized it had nothing to do with the song. It had to do with me that someone from a divorced home with addiction in the story. I just didn't believe it. They make you sing it over and over again, and it starts to sound like an insult.

And then we had our first kid. And I remember uh I would take like the 2 a.m. shift to hold my baby girl. And I remember one day holding her and feeling this um sharp pain in my chest like it was caving in. I was like, "Oh my gosh."

And I was like, "What is this?" I was like, "It's love for you." And I instantly felt the limits of language. I was like, "This is such an insane feeling." And like no no poem would summarize it. No song would be like that's about it. To say I die for you is even too little.

And I was like, "There's no way to say it." I was like, "It's amazing cuz you've offered me nothing. You don't pitch in around here. You don't clean up after yourself. You don't compliment my sermons. You're nothing but noise and need. But I remember thinking, I wish there was some way to get into that little mind what's exploding in this father's heart.

You wouldn't even understand it though. You don't even speak English yet. And I'm just like, I just wish there was some way for her to know how much your father loves you. And God did one of those little things where he kind of moves and goes, "Hey man, you think you're a better father to her than I am to you.

You think you have a greater love to capacity to love your child than I have to love you. And I had to repent of an unbiblically low view of the love of God. And let me tell you something, friend. For some of you, that will be the p most powerful thing you do this year.

He's aware of your shortcomings. He's seen the shakes and he chooses you. That's what he does. And so you make war on the lie and say, "I know that he loves me. I know my father cares about me and those who have that love in them are a fountain, not a drain.

Last story, um years ago in Dallas, a friend of mine and I after church said, "Uh, hey, we've got tickets to NASCAR. Do you want to go?" And I'd never been to NASCAR races. And I'm like, "Yeah, sure." And so we get in the car. It's me and a buddy and and this guy and his fiance.

And she was the one with the tickets. I said, "How many tickets do we have?" And uh she said, "Uh, like 200." I was like, "What?" There's four of us. and she was like, "Yeah, it was like a corporate thing that fell through and so they just handed me all the tickets day off."

And we were in the car. We're like, "No way. Let's sell them. We're going to get rich off these NASCAR people." And we were all really excited. And then she was like, "No, freely. We've been given freely. We must give." And and it sounded Bobby and we were like, "Oh man, like it's probably right."

And so we get there and we show up and like there's this long line to get in like from the front gate all the way through the trailer park and into the distance. And we were like, and everyone looks stressed, like there's not enough tickets for all these NASCAR people.

And like everyone's anxious. So we walk up and I'll never forget she's got this little bundle of tickets. And she walks up to someone and says, "How many people you get?" And he was like, "Four." She just goes, "Hands to." And you can see he's like, "What?" Like what is this a coupon?

Like get out of here. But they got nothing but time. I mean the line's way up there. So he just gives a ticket to a kid. Like I don't know. Go see what this crazy lady gave us. Kid shows up at the gate. They scan the ticket. let him in.

And you see the kid look at his dad like, "Bye. I'm going to NASCAR." And off he goes. And suddenly all this skepticism turns to disbelief. They're like, "Wait, what? Like how? What? Why would you? How did you what?" And then they go in and you see all the other people start to realize like, "What's something's going on?"

And and no one ever like attacked us, but they started to surround us because we How many you got? Four. One, two, three, four. Boom. How many you got? Six. And you see people like, "Oh man, I love NASCAR so much. name my son Dale and like just just wanted to be in the orbit of us and instantly all thoughts of profit went out the window.

We were having such a good time handing all these people tickets. And then when we ran out, we were like, "All right, like bye. Go have fun at NASCAR, it didn't even cross our mind. It was a block of tickets." So when we walked in NASCAR, turned the corner, like everyone we had let in was like in the same section.

They're like, "Ah." We like, "Ah." And so we just had a blast with all these people we brought in. Question. How could we be so generous? Because we already had tickets. We knew we were good. And those who have a source can be a source. And look at the difference.

Think about how many people could get in. God so loved the world. My wife loves to emphasize this. So he didn't just love the world. He so loved it that he gave his son that whoever believes in him wouldn't perish but have life. God so loved you. And when you understand that and say, "I'm good."

Then you walk into the room as a fountain and not a drain and say, "Y'all come in. Come be a part of this. Come see this." The triune God is mobilized to set you free. That's where we're living, folks. That's where life is at. So, Father, we thank you for your grace that the message of the gospel is not clean yourself up and fix yourself.

Some of us, Lord, have been trying hard for your approval. Some of us hate you because we think you hated us first. Patrick Horn says addiction is an intimacy disorder. It flows from feeling unlovable and unloved. And I know there's some people here that have gone to so many sad and broken places to numb the pain because they feel so unloved and unwanted.

I just pray you would break some lies today. You would shatter some deceptions. You would lower some walls. I pray there could be some people today who really know it and believe it. The father loves me. He sent his son. The son loves me. He sacrificed his life for sinners like me.

The spirit of God came blowing into this world to stay with me. I say yes. And friend, if you've never said yes to the offer of grace in Jesus, today's your day, man. Just tell me yes. Let him change you from the inside out. And for those of us who know him, it's so easy to slip back into old patterns.

I want to ask you believers not to make him any promises today, but tell them, "Lord, help me believe it and receive it. Help me go to bed tonight knowing I'm loved and find that in that realization I have the resources to love those around me. And for the skeptic, if you're uncertain, just keep coming back.

They talk about Jesus a lot here. It's a good place to come with your questions. But Lord, before we slip out of these rooms and on to the next thing, would you give us a moment to confess to you some sin you know anyway to cast our fears upon you because you care for us like Peter says.

Lord, may we sit honestly and receive the love of the father for his child today. Help us God believe it and receive it in Jesus name. ((music playing))