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Title of this message today is Time is running out. If you have a Bible, we're going to be in First John, chapter two. We do say to every location, church, online, thanks for being with us. It's an honor to have you joining in. Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music. However you are with us, we're honored to have you as well. Those of you at every location. We've been in a series. First John has been our guide. We've called it Touch Grass. We have four more messages. We're at the halfway point of, of the series this week, and I was thinking as I was reading the text, preparing for this message, how often as a parent, specifically around the time that we as a family need to get into the vehicle, I have had to say to my family, we don't have time for this, right? I don't know why everybody thinks like the time we're supposed to get in the car is the time to start a science project. Like, we don't do experiments or I've had to say, why do you have no clothing on? We don't have time for this. You can't be naked right now. We need to go, right? Or we don't have time for this, I have to say, because you've just begun the process of making a friendship bracelet, which you can't now let go of because then there will be beads all over the entire kitchen, which has happened. Right? I need a snack. I need to go number two. Right? These are the things you think about 30 minutes before we need to leave, right? These are the things you think about an hour before the time that we actually need. Need to leave, right? Is not the time that you have to do all those various things. That's. That's what you have to think about, which is why I've just decided to endorse lying. You have to lie to your family, right? The time that you actually need to leave is not the time you talk about leaving. Because if that's the time you actually going to be leaving, then no one, there's no hope of it. But if we lie to the family, then when we get in the car late, we actually might have a shot of getting out the door on time. This is the one and only time in church I'm going to endorse lying. As a parent, it's when you have children and specifically a lot of little girls running around, okay. That just exist in a. In a alternate universe led by the Queen Mother herself, right? Just herding cats. That's been my life the last 20 years. Right there is in First John, chapter two. The flavor of that, of the urgency of time is running out. And, and what, what John's going to do for us today. He's going to give us the secret of the cheat cod, to hope, to motivation, to purity and to confidence. And it's all going to be through his reminding us that the king is coming back to the world that he created, that he died for, and that he is going to rule and reign from forever. First John, chapter two, it says, you'll notice we're going to read two verses from chapter two, then jump right into chapter three. And that's because most scholars, most commentaries agree that these verses actually include or should be included in the train of thought as we begin chapter three. The verses and the chapter divisions were added for help and for clarity and for our ability to navigate our way through the Bible, but they're not inspired. And so sometimes, unfortunately, like in this case, things can get stranded or they can get orphaned off of a thought that's actually the main trunk. And they did their best to just kind of give us some, some divisions. Right? But, but in this case, it was, it was unfortunate where they, where they stranded the thought. Because what he says in verse 28 is definitely included. As he rounds the corner into the third chapter, John says, and now little children abide in him that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. The world doesn't know what to do with us. We're not of the world anymore. We're of Him. It doesn't know him, so how can it know us? How can it love us? Jesus said, of course the world's going to hate you. The world hated me and crucified me. And you're following someone who got crucified. Beloved, he says, now we are children of God. Now we are children of God. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, when his coming comes, because it's coming, time is running out. Every sand that drops down the hourglass of time brings us closer to it. But when he is revealed, when that last sand drops, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone say, everyone who has this hope, because not everybody has this hope. But everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself. Just as capital H, he is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. And you know that. He was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. Whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him. And he cannot sin because he's been born of God. In this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. And so, God, we ask that as we now consider your word, which is high, we esteem it, we honor it, we tremble before it. God, we're not going to flippantly. Oh, well, what do we think? We want to acknowledge God, what we've just read is your eternal word. And so now, in this moment, God, this precious gift of the present, as we have the opportunity and the honor to think about your word, to let it frame how we view the world, we pray that your Holy Spirit would do what only you can do, that you would bring us to life through your word. From grace to grace, from glory to glory. God, where there is weakness, would you bring strength? Where there is sorrow, would you bring hope and comfort? God, where there's complacency, would you agitate us? Where there's a need for revelation, for vision, would you speak to us clearly and God, where there is a lack of hope, would you, through a relationship with your Son, bring people to life in Christ so they could have hope in you? We pray in Jesus name and we all said together. Amen. Now, of course, the context is so important to remember what's going on. John, who's something like 90 years old, who's perhaps the last living person to eat with Jesus, to walk with Jesus, who now has the chance and honor to testify of Jesus resurrection. I mean, you think about the things John saw. He was there. He was there when Jesus multiplied the fish and the loaves, he was there. When Jesus walked on water, he was there when Jesus raised John Jairus's daughter from the dead, from when he. When he called Lazarus out of the grave, he was there leaning on Jesus's breast at the Last Supper. He was there Easter Sunday when, when Jesus had risen and the angel said, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen like he said he would. He was there, we know, at the cross, the only apostle we know for sure that was at the cross. He was there when Jesus said, it is finished, and breathed his last. And he watched Jesus ascend to heaven, promising he would come back. And he writes this epistle, the book of First John, to a church that he for a season pastored before he eventually was experiencing the effects of the persecution that broke out in the Roman Empire as Christianity was spreading like wildfire across the empire. And he ended up, we know, exiled, banished on Patmos, where he would experience Jesus again, the risen Jesus, the king Jesus who's coming in. He would, he would witness him there and be given what would eventually find its way in our Bible as the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. But in between these moments, the church that he pastored in and around Ephesus was experiencing false teaching. And people who are straying from the truth. They used to be among us. He said, these are people who are making up lies about Jesus, who we used to sit in front of, we used to serve beside. We used to be in fresh life groups with them, but now they've, they've gone out from us, but they're no longer of us, or they, he said, would have continued with us. They now are making up their own truth and mixing in myths and, oh, what did Eckhart Tolle say? And we're pulling in this from mysticism. We're pulling this from something our yoga teacher said. They're pulling in all this, this, this other feels good, sounds good, ish stuff. And they're, they're making the, the truth a lie by blending the truth with the lie. And they're changing and they're perverting. And some of the things they were saying involved the incarnation and what happened or didn't happen when God filled up Mary's womb. What did or didn't happen when God came to, to visit this world? And so we have to remember to read what he's saying through that lens. This is an agitated, pissed off pastor who's, who's bummed out that the people in the church were now confused. And so when he writes some of the intense stuff that we're in, some of this stuff, you're like, that is, oh, no, maybe I'm not saved, right? Remember what he's he wants that reaction. He wants that. He's, he's, he's, he's trying to cut through. This is a wake up call. This isn't pleasant. This isn't nice. This isn't the Philippians getting the. You guys are amazing. You're going to make it. There's just joy in the Lord. Joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Sweet joy, joy, right? Because the Church of Philippi was crushing it. So they get this letter and it's like, you guys are awesome. Just keep going. You guys are good, you know. Oh, Yodia and Syntychia are fighting. Okay, so there's two women in the church fighting. Like you're like, are you kidding me? That's all the Church of Philippi was going through at Corinth. People be sleeping with their mothers in law, right? So the book, they got very intense, very different. He's trying to wake them up, right? And so we have to remember when we read the books of the Bible, the cultural moment, the context in which they were written to, to help us understand the meaning for them in our day. And so that's what John is doing. That's what he's dealing with. That's what he's talking about. And even as he would kind of. And he loves to go back and forth, right? Because we've said it's more like a song. And so he's riffing over here and, and it's a major chord, but then it's a minor chord. These things work together. So even some of the stuff he says today feels like at odds with stuff he said before. But we have to remember the balanced work, the whole totality of what he's saying and think about it in terms of what the church was dealing with that caused him to pick up his pen in that moment. But really what he's trying to get across is a sense of urgency that the church, like I would say to my, my kids when they're, they're, they're messing around when we need to be already driving down the road to the next thing. He's saying, we don't have time for this. We don't have time for you to be messing around with all this. This falls. We don't have time for this. Because first take away truth. If you want to jot it down of six, Jesus is coming back. He says, he goes, guys, like, do you realize he's coming back? We are going to see him. His appearance, he calls it in verse 28. His coming, he calls it in verse 28. And what that means is that First John lines up with the teaching that is all across the entirety of the Bible that tells us that King Jesus is going to come again. He came the first time and he's going to return. So we call it the Second Coming. In fact, Jesus promised to come. This is so cool. Under oath, right? Because he was sworn in before the Jewish sanhedrin in Matthew 26. And while at his own trial that ended up with him going to the cross, he said, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Now that is just one of the 1845 prophecies concerning the return of Christ that is included in this book. It's so abundant that in the New Testament's 260 chapters. Let me rewind that in case you missed it. In the New Testament, that was a bad rewind sound. In the New Testament 260 chapters, the return of Jesus is mentioned 318 times. Now, emphasis reveals importance. When we find something mentioned a lot, it's because it's very important. And Jesus himself personally referred to his return to this Earth 21 different distinct times. And so many of the parables that Jesus told were about a reckoning, were about a final judgment, were about a sorting out of sheep from goat, wheat from tare, foolish servants versus wise servants. So it's all over the Bible. And the greatest argument I could give you to make a case for why I believe and why I think you should believe that Jesus Christ is going to come again is this. He came the first time. Nobody believed, nobody was waiting, right? He came to his own and his own, by and large, received him not. They should have been waiting. They should have been prepared. Why? Because all through the Old Testament, going all the way back to Genesis 3, God said he's going to come the first time. He's going to come. He's going to come. He's going to come. They should have known he was going to come. And guess what Christmas is when he came. So why should we believe the Apocalypse? Why should we believe and not go, oh, the sky is falling, and oh, you know all, all that because he said he was going to come and came. And there are five times as many prophecies about the Second Coming as there are the first. So you don't think he's going to come? You don't think he's going to return? Well, that's what the devil wants you to think. What Jesus wants you to think is, is what he said in John 14, I go leaving to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you. Look at it, look at it, look at it. I will come again. When I come again, I will receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may be also. You see, Jesus in his second coming is going to have multiple different moments, multiple different phases. He refers to a couple of them here. Just like the first coming was not a single event. It was a 33 year long period with lots of different things. There was Christ who was young, Christ in Egypt, Christ in Nazareth, Christ being rejected, making a home base in Capernaum. There was, there was Christ assembling his team. There was Christ preaching. There was Christ hiding himself, right? Sneaky Jesus hiding from people. Jesus passing through the midst of crowds. Jesus refusing to be taken by the the mob and made into a king. Jesus formally announcing himself as, as the King, as the Messiah, allowing himself to be lauded, allowing himself to be proclaimed. Hosanna. Hosanna, right. The King of the Jews, because he sat on the donkey fulfilling yet another prophecy that the king would sit in a donkey and be paraded and trumpeted into the city. So there's lots of different aspects to his first coming. Agreed. This is how we make sense of the second coming, which is not one single event, but multiple different phases. First he comes for his church. That's what we refer to as the rapture of the church, where he comes for us. That's what he said in John 14. If I go, I come back and I receive you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. Right. So he's not coming for the world in that sense. He's coming for his church. He's coming for his own. And then he comes again. And when he comes again, he comes with his church. Jude says he comes back to this earth with ten thousands and thousands of his saints. So he comes for his church, receives us to where he is currently that where he is we may be also. And then eventually when he returns to this earth, he comes back with us. And whether we died and that's how we got there, or we were living the lucky generation who will not taste death. For the Bible says there is a generation that will be changed without tasting death. Death. And if God's willing to take requests, I'd love to be in that number, right? To get to be with him without ever having to go through the valley of the shadow of death. So he comes for his church. He comes with his church. And then there's a period called the Kingdom. The Bible refers to it so many different times as a thousand year period that he reigns on the earth through his church before ushing in, ushering in what is the final state, the eternal state, where he dwells with his church, he dwells with his people. And the Bible refers all, all of these different phases uniquely all under the banner of the second coming. But the bottom line is, and what John wants the people that he's writing to to see and to hear is he's coming. He's coming. And we do not want to be filled with shame when he returns. He, Jesus is coming back. Secondly, we are going forward. We are going forward. This is what I mean. I kept thinking about the visual from the Little Mermaid. Remember the film the Little Mermaid? I'm talking about the cartoon, one that marked the early 90s. I'm thinking about that moment when King Triton is reduced to the shriveled little worm. And he's sad and his crown is too big and he's just sitting there on the ground, right? Can't lift his royal Triton fork thing. What do they call that thing? Trident. Yeah. Makes sense. Adds up. Totally tracks. But when Ursula, who's all big and nasty, gets stabbed with a ship, right, Everybody kind of whirlwinds back into what they should be all along. And that visual of all these little worms, all these little urchins who all bought the lie and believed the lie that Ursula was going to help them. The moment she was stabbed, the moment. Moment death pierced her, the whirlwind brought the. The worms back to their full splendor, their. Their full glory, their. Their full vitality. The reason we all feel the exact same way when we see that is because we know that's exactly what the Bible says and what the earth longs for to take place. And what will happen to us as well on the outside, even as at the new birth. That reality has already taken place for us spiritually on the inside. We are going forward. What does that mean? We are going to see Jesus and we are going to be like Jesus. Praise God. We don't stay here in these wormy conditions forever. That we get to whirlwind into glory, whirlwind into hope, world spiral up into our full size and stature. And we're not going to groan anymore. We're not going to long anymore. We're not going to ache anymore. We're not going to have tears to shed anymore. We're looking forward. We're longing forward. We're living forward to that day of Christ's reign. We are going to see him revealed, the text said, and we are going to be like him, for we shall see him as. As he is. Philippians 3, 21 says, in that moment he will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able. Someone say he is able even to subdue all things to himself. What that verse is saying is kind of like what happens when you go to the telephone store to buy a new mobile phone and you're looking at them and they're all anchored to the wall. Like, what are they so worried that we're gonna do with these phones? The moment you walk out of the store, they're all bricks anyway. But they're all just on this very small leash, right? So you have to pretend that you're living with this phone only. You can't move very much, Right. Is this the kind of thing I want? No, no, Let me chug it out a little bit here, right? And when you say, I want that phone, they don't just come snip the thing and off you go. It's just a display model. It's just to show you what you could have in your hands if you pick that one. And she said, I want this one. Okay. I want it to be just like the features that I got to play with there on the small leash right there at the. Oh, yes, this is it, right? I choose you. What do they do? The guy goes into the back and he comes out with the same one. That's exactly hopefully like the one that you picked. You got to see the display model. And so now what comes out of the box is the same, only now it's yours. Like that one, the text that we just read and what first John says is we get to see Jesus and we will be like Jesus, not like Jesus, pre grave, like Jesus post grave, where he couldn't die anymore, where he had conquered death but now could still eat because he's still in a physical body. There's just no brokenness anymore. He's glorious now, you see, he could walk through walls now he could appear, he could vanish. He was never to die again. He already tasted. So what I'm trying to say is when we come out of the box, when we come out of the casket, when we come out of the grave, we're going to have a body just like Jesus's resurrection body. He's going to transform our lowly body to be conformed. It's going to be the same as that display. He's the display, him all. He's the prototype. He's the first son of many sons and daughters that he will raise to glory. Your body, Johnny Cash said it. Well, ain't no grave holding this body down. I'm telling you, I'm coming out of that grave. You're coming out of that grave to live forever. And there won't be arthritis or arteriosclerosis. There won't be any of the OCS or there won't be any of the OCDs. There won't be any of the problems with premenopause perimenopause. There won't be menstrual cramps, There won't be achy knees. There won't be a need for a hip replacement. There's not going to be diabetes, there's not going to be asthma, there's not going to be cancer. We're not going to be dealing with any of those things. The former things will have passed away. Now, don't think you're going to be a ghost floating around like Casper. Don't think you're going to be looking for your cloud and looking for your harp. And we're going to see, be able to see through you, because you're going to be opaque. No, you're going to have a physical body. Jesus said, touch me. Ghosts don't have bones. Ghosts don't have flesh. Feel me. See me, watch me. I dare you. Give me some honeycomb. I'll. I'll eat it up. Give me a whole bowl of the stuff, I'll eat the. The. He. The Bible says they gave him some fish. They gave him a honeycomb. They had to watch him eat to make sure he had a body. Still. He was embodied, and so will you be. Which is why all this stuff that the Gnostics were peddling in John's day made him so angry. Because they said Jesus didn't really have a body. He was just a phantom. What does it matter? Hey, here's why it matters. Because if he didn't take on a body, you don't have hope for what happens with yours. But because Jesus took on a body, I can stand at my daughter's grave with hope, facing the future with confidence, with earnest expectation, with an anchor for the soul. And so can you. I'm teaching you how to grieve with hope. I'm teaching you how to face hard things, holding onto a good God. His body matters. Truth matters. Doctrine matters. It doesn't. Don't, don't Believe it when they tell you it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you're sincere, you can be sincere and be sincerely wrong. So anybody who says Jesus didn't come in a body, this is not someone you want to listen to. That's the spirit of Antichrist that thinks they're a Burger King. Have it your way. We don't get to have it our way. We get to have it his way or no way. Right? It's what the King says, not what we want. That is the truth. So we are going forward. Jesus is coming back. Job said it before Christ ever even came. Look how much truth there is in job, chapter 19. For I know that my redeemer, capital R, lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth. That's the future state of Christ's reign, living with him. Him living among us. And. And he says this after my skin is destroyed. So he's talking about ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Now this I know. In my flesh, I get to see God. So how do you reconcile. Your body dissolves ash to ash and dust to dust. But now you're going to get to see him with your own eyes, with your own flesh. He's talking about the resurrection of the dead. He's talking about us coming out of that grave with new versions. He's talking about the guy coming from the back of the store. And you get one, and you get one, and. And you get one. Jesus said, anybody who hears the Son of Man will come out of the grave and will get to live again. This is the truth, this is the hope. This is the gospel. In my flesh, I will see God, whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another. Oh, how my heart yearns within me. Jesus is coming back. We are are going forward. And there is motivation and anticipation. Okay, that's the third takeaway. Truth. There is great motivation to be gleaned from anticipation, meaning yearning for, longing for setting your mind, setting your affection, seeing your citizenship as being a part of heaven, not this current world system. Seeing yourself here to do work, here to be on mission, here to enjoy God's blessings, but not to be defined by this world. That's idolatry. And it creeps in. Not making your decisions based on the bottom line, but on the eternal bottom line. What are you gonna say about us? Oh, he's gonna say when we stand before him, you live for money. Wah, wah, wah, right? You live for pleasure. You live for your ego. You live to be a people pleaser. You lived for what? The validation of your peers you live for. Ranking and benchmarking on social media. What a thing to have be the revelation when you stand before him and you get to find out whether your life on this earth for Jesus was wood, hay, stubble, or gold, silver and precious stones. We shall be rewarded or the lack of reward as Jesus. People that should motivate us. And not out of terror or fear, but love. Jenny was out of town for a few days this week, and I can't tell you how many times I had to think to myself, on the last day, I'm going to make the bed. On the last day, on the last day, on the last day, I'm making the bed. I don't have a problem getting into an unmade bed. But she didn't like it, so it was on my radar, not out of fear. I was like, well, she'll hit me if I don't. No, no, no. I love what my beloved loves. I love what my beloved loves. Do you. Do you love what your beloved loves? Is he fairer to you than 10,000 others? If you don't hate sin, you don't understand Jesus if you don't love righteousness. That's what he's saying here. You don't get. Put him on the cross. He agonized in the garden because he didn't want to go. He bled out and breathed his last. And if the thing that put that on him, that put him through that is trivial to you and me. If we're blase, if we're cavalier, everyone's perfect. Then you don't love what your beloved loves and hate what your beloved hates. To think of him returning at any moment and the sky splitting and him coming and us in that current moment, sinning and the sadness that we would. Right. Like, it wouldn't be like, oh, I can't. It would just be that we would feel. He says that when he comes, we may have courage, confidence, and not shame. To think of Christ coming tomorrow and him finding you in the act of adultery, in the act of a lie, in the act of cruelty, in the act of whatever it would be. And just the sadness, the pang of sadness you would feel with that thought. That's what he's saying. Remember, he's coming so we can be filled with courage and it will help us to make decisions. Would I want to be doing this thing? And let's not even just. Just limit it to the return of Jesus. Let's talk about dying in the act of sinning. Awkward, but happens all the Time. And let's not be so silly as to think that if the final sin, right, this notion of last rites, I got to make sure and confess that one thing, the blood of Jesus Christ is effective to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Right? So I'm not talking about getting to heaven or not getting heaven. I'm just talking about the awkward entrance. Well, how'd you get here? Well, it's a funny story. So, got drunk, drove into a tree. Oh, well, right. You see, that's not how we want. Don't go out like a sucker. Don't go out like a chump. Come on, let's. Let's have mastery by the spirit of God, the power of God, the word of God, over these sins that are entangling us. Let's stand strong in our walk with Jesus that when we stand before him, we're proud of what we did with what he gave us. That's what I'm talking about here. That's what John's talking about here. He's not. He's not talking about buying your way to heaven because you did more good things than bad things. He's talking about the power of love to capture the rebel heart. He's talking about being so smitten and overcome by the love of Jesus that it would constrain you to want to mortify the deeds of the flesh in every single day. And even though it's hard, right, that you love what your beloved loves, that's the motivation of anticipation. And that's honestly, quite frankly, really just true. In any vacation, you look forward to things, and by def. Then it becomes easy to get ready for them. You look forward to certain things, and it's easy, it's not hard work to prepare for a trip you're excited about. So why does the devil want us to not think about heaven? Because he knows that we won't prepare for it if we're not thinking about it and getting ready for it. If we don't see our lives as getting ready to take our place in God's kingdom where we will rule and reign forever, then of course we're just going to live for this world because we're not setting our hearts on what's to come. But the Bible says it's not your past that should mark you, but your future. Where you're going, where you're heading to. And it also will put, this is not our sermon, but it will put into perspective any pain you do face in the present. For Paul said in Romans 8:18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time not even worthy to be compared with the glory that should be revealed in us. How could I complain about the aches and pains and the sufferings that I deal with that relatively compared to future glory are just a trifle. Now, you have to be realist. He's not belittling your suffering. He's acknowledging there's hard things we face. But when you compare it to forever in God's presence, how can it possibly even be compared? And that's really just the idea. We will see him, right? We will see him. You'll notice he doesn't go. There's streets of gold, there's eagles everywhere. You know, right? He says, we'll see him. We will see him. Psalm 17:15. As for me, I will see your face in righteousness, and I will be satisfied with when I awaken your likeness. We're going to see him. And all the other things are going to just be ripple effects of all that. Romans 8 talks about how much the created world can't wait for us to be made right. Because if we're the king Triton worm, the world knows that when we get our hard reset and our new model, it gets one too. Now, this world's great. I hope you have some great Labor Day plans. I hope you go on a hike. I hope you go camping. I hope you get out on water. All the things you. But just know there's, there's, there's. There's a limitation. This is why this whole. Well, I just go worship in nature. I just go like we. Be careful. Because what you can become is I just go worship nature. Because I love to worship in nature, too, but I don't worship nature. And I also know the limitations currently in this broken, cursed world of what nature can do, because you can enjoy a hike one day, and the next day that same hike killed somebody. So the limitations to what is currently possible, which is why all of us feel. Have you ever noticed it? There's a certain sense the more beautiful the thing you see, the more pronounced it can become, that there's a disappointment to some beautiful things. And you, you set your sights on it, and you were excited about it and you traveled and you sacrificed and you, you trained and you walked on the uphill treadmill with a backpack full of things to get ready for it. But then when you finally did it, it wasn't quite what. What you hoped it would be. There was something about it. And you couldn't even just wait to brag that you had done it. But there was something, if you're honest about the experience, that was a little empty. CS Lewis talks about how that feeling is just a simple picture of what's lacking in the world today. When sin entered, there was something that got pulled away of our ability to take in the beautiful things. He actually Let me just read to you an excerpt. This is from the Weight of Glory, he says, for if we take the imagery of scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the morning star and cause us to put on the splendor of the sun, we won't just be looking at photos of the sun, because if we look at it now, it burns our retina out. We will actually get to take on in some way the splendor of the sun. Then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present, we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and the purity of mourning, but they cannot make us, do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendors we see. And I think that's what we feel when we see it. We just know there's some way that we could and should interact with it. We're not capable of. Currently, we cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Someday, God willing, we shall get in. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which nature is only the first sketch. There is some sense in which the more we motivate ourselves through this sensual imagery of what the creation will be like when we are seeing him and like him. Some theologians have postulated that currently we are only able to have one appetite satisfied at a time. Whether it's the mental fascination with the novel idea, or the sexual pleasure, or the enraptured bliss of the marriage bed, or the relational joy of friendship, or the spiritual joy of time and God's presence, we can only really encounter one appetite, being full of rapture at one time. But it's possible that what the Bible knows is that it's coming for you, is the technicolor ability in God's presence, of every single ability or sense you have, and even ones you don't even know you have, because those things have been locked off like Spider Man's first suit when he was in the training wheels protocol. Then all of a sudden, God unlocks it all and you're like, holy something. Holy, holy, holy something. I didn't even know there was joy like this. I didn't even know there was pleasure possible like this. All because of Jesus. Number four. We're excited, but we got four more weeks. We got more to say, but he's just going to keep spiraling through some of these things. And we just are picking a few of the notes and, and noticing that they're awesome. Number four. There can't be confidence without family resemblance. Did you notice that he essentially laid out for us a little bit of a spiritual paternity test, how to know if your daddy's actually your daddy or if the UPS driver is your daddy. That's what he sort of gave us here when he said that some people got the devil as their daddy and some people have been born again and now have God as their dad. Daddy. And how can we figure it out? How do we know who's my father? Is the devil my father? Or is Jesus, through Jesus God my father? And you're like, well, no, no, I'm, I'm, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. I'm not a Jesus person, but I certainly am not a follower of the devil. No, the Bible says it's those categories. Okay, you can, you can throw the Bible away, but let's not pretend it says something it doesn't. The Bible says you are either a follower of God through his son Jesus, or whatever mask it wears, your allegiance is actually to the current ruler of this world. Verse 9. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. Now, of course, we remember that he already laid out for us, if anyone does sin, we have confession only to make. And the blood of Jesus cleanses us. And we also know that he said that if anybody says they don't sin, they're a liar and the truth is not in them. Because one of the things the Gnostics were saying is you can achieve a place of nirvana, of sinless perfection, if you try hard enough, you can get to a place where you don't sin anymore. And they were also some of them teaching because of dualism and this notion that Jesus didn't take on a body, that your body doesn't matter, only your heart does. So sin all you want. God knows your heart's in the right place. And so remember, he's splashing water on the face of all that and going, if you're living like that, you're actually of your father, the devil. Because you're not actually understanding the truth of God's teaching about the severity of sin, but also how sin can be forgiven. And so what he's saying is, if you say you're of your father, but you're still living in continual sin or pretending that you never sin, you're not like him, you're not of him. The message translation puts it this way in verse nine. People conceived and brought into life by God don't actually make a practice of sin. How could they? God's seed got deeply buried within them, making them who they are. It's not in the nature of the God begotten to practice and parade sin and to continue to live in sin with just this thought of, I'll flippantly ask him for forgiveness later. Easter's coming. I'll for sure get right with God and the man upstairs when. When I get to my next Easter, right? He's like, hey, wow, the results are back. And your father is not God living life. That's not how God thinks about sin. That's not how God. And if you're following him, your thinking about sin is informed by him, not by your own fleshly craven desires for ego, libido and dinero, right? And so he gives us the ability to know by looking at our lives. Who's our dad? I was texting Jenny. I said. I said she was out of town. I said, jenny, do you have any photos that, like, show me and Lennox like, looking alike? And she just said, like, all of them. She's like, every, like, here. And she just sent me. She said, she, yeah, this is you and Minnie you. And I was like, oh. And then she sent this one and it's me and mini me. And then she sent this one and it's me and mini me. And then she sent this one and then she. We actually are kind of standing low key the same. She sent this one and then she sent this one and then she's. Okay, he's studying me. He was. But the point is, you go, yeah, I understand who your father is because there's a family resemblance here. What is your resemblance to godlike? Like, now, if you think I, I need to do some things in order to be like him, so I could be. That's not how adoption works, right? You don't do enough to resemble your father. And then one day he's like, okay, you did it. I'm going to adopt you, right? No, no. When you're related, the Bible says at adoption, spiritually speaking, a new birth happens. And his seed, his DNA, I know that that's pretty intense. Literally, it's where we get our word sperm from. Everything's contained within there that can unfold and roll out. Why was it so important for Chris Pratt to figure out, is it velociraptor? Is it T. Rex? What's going. What did they put in this? What seed did they put in this thing? Because it was responsible for what came out of this thing. So all you have to do is look at your life to know if there's new birth. Now, you don't say, well, if I get enough of these things in my life, maybe I'll get to be a son. It's the other way around. You go to him for new birth, and then as a result of that new life. But the test remains. If I don't see anything in my life, chances are that new birth didn't happen. Because how can we say he changed my life if my life didn't change? So for those who say, yeah, I believe in Jesus and stuff, but my life is a life of constant habitual practice sin with no flinching, with no sorrow, with no tears in your eyes, that you hate sin. But conversely, if you do sin all the time, and you're you, but you hate it and you're struggling against that and you want prayer for it, that should actually reassure you, not discourage you, because that shows your allegiance is to him. And you can't just keep doing it with impunity. You hate it and you want to grow in it. And I'll tell you what to do if that's you in a moment. But there can't be confidence without family resemblance. Number five, pro tip. It's impossible to worship and to sin at the same time. So if you're like, I just need to sin less, then that's not how it works. The works of the flesh are what happens while you're not worshiping, while you're not. The word John will use is abiding with Jesus, doing life in the Spirit, living this practicing of the presence of God when you are constantly. Well, let's let John speak for himself. Living deeply. That's 1 John 3:6 in the message translation. Living deeply in Christ. You're not going to make a practice of sin because you're going to be busy doing something. If I keep my stomach full of chicken breast I. I'm much less likely to pull through Taco Bell. You see what I'm saying, right? No one who's living deeply in Christ has an appetite for those other things because it's impossible to worship and sin at the same time. So don't sin less, walk in the Spirit more. Don't try and stop sinning. Try and live a life exalting God and bringing him glory and worshiping in the Spirit and being aware of how he's trying to lead you and encourage you and who he wants to bless through you. Right. Lastly, if you are in the place today where you're going, wow, I want to do those things. It's hard. I'm struggling. I'm entrenched in these things. They're habitual. It's hard for me. Right. But you hate it. And let me tell you, the power to overcome is found in this last one. Oh, man, this one's a zinger. Ready? We are children of the King oh, wow, oh wow oh, wow, oh, wow. We are children of the King. I'm looking at my life, and it's not perfect. It's not a lot. It's not even what it's going to be for sure, but I'm seeing some family resemblance. I just felt that love. I just. I just did something I never would have done before. I just overcame in an area that always held me back. Man. A little victory, it might be like you have to praise the smallest thing. You know, it's like you said this cuss word. Not that cuss word. Okay, well, let's celebrate the small things. You know, it's like we just downgraded our cuss word from PG from R to PG 13. Praise God. We're going to get there, right? Baby steps. Fine, but we're babies. So celebrate the baby steps and then say to yourself, look, I see resemblance. I see change. I see growth. Say, we are children of God. I am a child of God. That's the power of verse one. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called children of God. Do you realize he didn't say that if we do enough, we could be called children of God. The gavel came down, the adoption was finalized. And spiritually, God's the only one who can can adopt you, but then implant the seed inside of you at the same time that the spirit of Christ, the Word of Christ, begins to infiltrate. He declared it so. So in your lowest moments, you're not saying, well, I did this, and that didn't create no, no, no. I'm a child of God. He called me a child of God. We. That we should be called the children of God, that he loved us so much. And when you're struggling and when you're failing and when you're floundering, John's message is, become what you already are. Do you see that? Become what you already are. You're a child of God. That's not changing. So now become what you are. One pastor said it this way. It was so perfect. He said, in our world, we say, practice makes perfect. But God says perfect makes practice. That at salvation we were declared perfect. So now we practice so that we can become what we already are in his sight. You're not needing to level up enough. One day God goes, all right, I choose you as my child. That's not what good fathers do. That's not what good mothers do. I told you a couple times. Jenny was out of town for a few days this week. She felt like God wanted her to go visit our firstborn who's at college. And so even though it was last minute, you know it's gonna be short. We cashed in some miles and we loaded her up on an airplane, and we risked three days of malnutrition for my children. And she went and she sent this video back of. This has only been a month since we saw her last. But look at this video of my daughter seeing her mom. Yay. Oh, she almost took her out right there. Oh, and there goes the phone. Here it comes. Three, two, one. Phone's touching grass. Okay, there it is. It's only been a month and yet watch that. Watch the joy. Watch this video one more time. Just watch it. Watch the joy when she saw it for the first time. Yay. And if we go to the Slo Mo Ultra freeze replay still image. Look at. Look at this. That's. That's a child. That's a child. That's a child jumping into the arms of her parent. And that is how God sees you. That's how he sees you. I looked at porn again. He sees you like that. You went back to that old boyfriend. You said you wouldn't go back, but you got lonely. Last Friday, he. How he sees you with all your hangups, with all your flaws, with how self obsessed you are, with how much you worry, with how toxic you can be. And that's how he sees you. And he wants you to throw your backpack down on the ground and let him love you. Behold what manner of love the father has given to us that we get to be called children of God. And when we get that revelation that he just wants us in his arms, he wants us with him now because one day we'll be with him and we'll be like him and we'll never have to struggle again. We actually get to honor him now by our fight and our hatred of sin today. That that could bring him glory, that could bring him honor, that we show him we love him this much. We love him enough to struggle towards him. We love him enough to keep running in his arms and keep throwing those backpacks down and getting rid of every weight and every sin and every hindrance that we are beloved children of the king. Charles Spurgeon said, when I stand at God's right hand amid the lamps of eternal brightness, and when these fingers move with the vigor across the golden strings, and when this voice is filled with the immortal songs, I shall not be one bit more a child of God than I am right now. So I asked you this question. Are you. Are you a child of God? That's the big question. And you say, ah, I hope. Maybe. I think. Think about that. If you saw Olivia and you said, are you a child of Jenny, would she say, I hope? I don't know. I didn't text her much last week. I'm not doing very good right now. Are you a child of Jenny and Levi? Are you a child of the king? Either you are or you aren't. Yoda said it best. There is no try, right? We are or we are not. But God, he loves you in Jesus and sees you as fairer than 10,000 others. His heart leaps every time he thinks about you. And what about when you're held up, kidnapped almost by sin? He will. Liam, niece, in that situation, I don't care how much. You should have known better, right? There is no length he will go to. There did not go to. There was no wall he won't kick down. There is nobody that he will not take out to get to you and get you back into his arms. And so, Father, we love you and we thank you and we pray this picture will long stay with us of your love. And I pray there would be joy on our face that we would, when you return for us, look like Olivia looked like to see Jenny across the plaza, that we will be at last, at last, at last. And may we get there by abiding with you today. If you would say, I needed this. I needed to have my picture reframed of God the Father and my struggle against sin and my orientation towards heaven. And this earth if you would just say, God, I need you and I needed this today. Just raise up a hand, raise up a hand all across the church, church. I'm committing to live forever. I'm committing to live for your love. I'm committing to let go of these things that I've been clinging to. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord, for your love. You can put your hands down. I want to now invite anybody who you would say, I'm not a child of God. Today I realize that I'm not a child of God, but I want to be. I want that life in me, that word in me, that seed of God in me because of what Jesus did. So I need to be born again if that's you I'm describing. I'm going to pray a prayer and I want you to pray with me to God. I'm ask the church to say it with us as our way of saying we're no better than you. We just got here first and we accept you into our family, brothers and sisters of the King. If that's you I'm describing and you need to turn to God and be saved from hell and from wrath and from yourself, say this, make it your prayer all across the church and church online. Dear God, I know I'm a sinner. I can't fix myself. But I thank you that you can. Because of Jesus, his blood, his death, his life. Thank you for resurrection power. Thank you for hope. Thank you for new life. I give you mine in Jesus name.