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Thank you. And can we thank those who led us today and just who lead us? So grateful. I don't know how your day has started, but my day started much better than it did yesterday. Yesterday I was in this room, sitting right over there. The missionary speaker for the week was up speaking, which meant that I was up next. And I reached down to take a sip of my coffee and the lid had not been tightened as one would hope. And as I leaned it toward me, the whole thing went down my front. So I'm sitting there in a blue shirt going like, okay, this is an issue. So I run up to Matthew and I go, how much time do I have? And he goes, ah, you got nine or ten minutes. I said, see ya. Ran around, changed shirts, came back in in a white shirt. So that was my wardrobe change yesterday. And if he had said, you got about 90 seconds, I think that would have been better, just to come up and say, good morning. I spilled. So here we go. So glad we get to share this time together. And opening talks around this topic here. It's just called Life. Life and where we find it. And what I want to do is I want to start with a conversation that I had last winter immediately following a church service where a woman named Laura came up to me and started me to started telling me her story. And so there's an image just here, the mountains of Montana. And Laura was raised in rural Michigan, some church in her background, but really never understood anything. And bailed on church in her early high school years. I think maybe in middle school. Like age 13 was the last time she had any kind of religious connection. And on graduating from high school, she moved to California where she said she worked hard and played hard. And then age 37, she finds herself moving from the crazy Southern California pace to like Bozeman, Montana area. And she said that she went there because of the natural beauty. So 37 years old, no real God, background or spiritual pulse that she could identify. And she walks out on the balcony of her little place and. And she's looking toward the Rocky Mountains and something happened in her. It was a welling up of deep gratitude, just this sense of beauty and fullness. And here I am, and this is my new home. And I get to look at this. And she's looking at the Rocky Mountains when it hit her like a sledgehammer that she had no one to thank. And so what she did is Laura started sending off messages out into the universe to whatever was out there, thanking distant relatives that had passed away, thanking a guardian angel, if she had such a thing, and thanking God, if such a being existed. So there we stood in the back of my church. She's telling me, 37 years old, absolutely captured by the beauty of God and realizing that she had no one to thank. If you want to isolate today's conversation about life and whoever you find it to a sentence, it's this. There is someone to thank, there's someone to thank, and there's someone that wants to be known. So conversation about life. Jesus is introduced in John's Gospel in this way. John writes these words. John just says, in him, that's green, man. There we go. That's not. In him was life. It's like, right out of the gate, like inches into the Gospel of John, one of the Jesus biographies on John. In him was life. Now, life is this riff that works its way through John's Gospel, other in a different way than Matthew, Mark and Luke. And so it just keeps coming up, so right out of the gate. In him was life. But then we have these other expressions that will appear. I am the bread of life. What we looked at yesterday from John chapter six. Then he goes, I have come that you might have life and have it to the full. John 10. The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy. I've come to be the life giver and give you life to the full. At a funeral, his dear friend Lazarus, he says to sister Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. John 14. It's like the Last Supper. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And then here in John chapter one, in him was life. So if you were with us yesterday morning, we said, life. What are we even talking about here? So if you were with us yesterday morning, we just had the word life. And then we surrounded it by these other words, the sense of belonging, this sense of wholeness, connection, home, beauty, tranquility. And we could have doubled that number of words. And I believe this is what it meant to be fully human at the beginning of time, before sin entered into the world. Connection with other people, unencumbered by fights, in homes and in companies. This sense of home, this sense of uninterrupted beauty, tranquility, peace. And I believe it was lost at an event called the Fall that has affected everything. But we know that something's wrong with every argument with a teenager, with every disquieting event with an aging parent, whatever tumult at work, in an occupation. We know it's not supposed to be like this. It's like we have this memory of Things being together, of what rightness should feel like. That allows us to go, it ain't supposed to be like this. It's not supposed to go down like this. You're supposed to be able to work without this kind of drama. Relationship shouldn't come and go with the speed that they do because they're falling out. We have a sense, it's like a memory of life and we lost it. And Jesus talks about, I have come so that you may get it back. I'd love for two things to happen in our conversation today. And they both have to do with movement. The first is I would like to see. I'd like you to experience moving a little bit closer to Jesus as the life giver. It's movement toward the other movement. And is. I would like you to sense in your spirit a desire to move away from the God substitutes that we tend to cram our lives with, with the hopes that we will be whole. If we can only get that so from John 1. Today we're gonna have a three part conversation. Part one of the conversation I just call the giver. Part one of the conversation is the giver. And this is the critical. Now we jumped in at that thing. In him was life. But if you go to the first words of John's gospel, John opens it this way by saying, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word, what was God in the beginning? At the beginning of time? In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God. And John is using this term, the Word, to describe Jesus. So in the beginning, Jesus was, was the Word, he was with God, and he was God. By the way, those first words in the beginning. Anybody who read that in the first century when it was written, who had like a Jewish background, would know that those three words are not just the first three words of John's gospel. Those in the beginning are also the first three words of what? The first three words of the Bible, the first three words of Genesis. And so what John is doing here is he's doing something very intentional with the coming of Jesus. It's like we had the first creation with the coming of Jesus, his coming of the new creation. In the beginning and in the beginning. And so we have Genesis begin this way. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If you're numb to those words, let me dumb it down. In the beginning, God made stuff, real stuff, tangible stuff, stuff that could be seen, stuff that could be observed, stuff that could be enjoyed. In the beginning, God made stuff and so there's this. It almost feels like the movement of a song with a repeated chorus in Genesis 1 where it says, and God said, and God said, and God said and God said and God speaks and stuff comes into being. God speaks. And we have flourishing vineyards, and not just flourishing vineyards, but orchards and fruit trees. God speaks. God speaks. And not only we have the frenetic beating of the wings of a hummingbird, we also have migrants, geese that fly in formation, and we have plunging pelotons. God speaks and things come into being. In the beginning, God made stuff. Not only do we enjoy ocean waves, we enjoy inland lakes and rushing mountain streams. The system that God created. We're surrounded by this beauty. In the beginning, God created made stuff. Not only towering trees, but also shade trees and pine trees and fruit trees. In the beginning, God made stuff. He speaks and things come in to being. And because God is good and because he loves you very much, he speaks. And we get coffee beans. I'm just saying give thanks to the Lord above. And I don't think my take on this is I don't think our world was accidental. And I don't think you're accidental meaning human life, human beings. I believe there was a designer that was involved in the process. And I believe that creation is when God went public with his generosity. It's like, I want you to see me, I want you to know I'm good. I want you to know I'm creative, and I want you to know that I'm wildly generous. Long before the cross, God went public with his generosity through the things that he made. Now there's this book I picked up some time ago and worked through. It's called seven reasons to consider. It's seven reasons to wreak Consider Christianity. It's written by an Australian author. Dude's name is Ben Shaw. He was wrapping it up as he had brain cancer and died shortly after the publication of the book. And Australia secularized faster than America has. And so in Australia, being a pastor there, speaking to a wildly post Christian audience. And so it's like seven reasons you want to reconsider. You want to take another look? These are seven reasons to give Christianity another look. Chapter three is called Because Christianity is about life to the full. So I love what Ben wrote here. So just indulge me. As I read for a minute, he says, most of my friends. He's talking to your unbelieving friends. Most of my friends enjoy fine wine, holidays in Europe, and going to gigs to see their favorite bands. They love sitting on beaches Watching sunsets or having a meal at their favorite restaurants. In their minds, God has no interest in these things. God has no interest in films, beaches, cooking, modern music or a good Cabernet sauvignon. He's just into spiritual things like being boring. And the only things on his playlist are old hymns and organ music. But then he talks about that verse, the very first words of the Bible. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He says, think about that for a moment. Christianity states from the opening line that God made the world, the planet that we love and enjoy. The verse isn't just an introduction to the Bible. It's an introduction to God. It tells us that he's into stuff, that he is behind the very things that we get a kick out of. God created tropical beaches, coral reefs, alpine meadows and snow fields where we can ski from stars to butterflies, from Everest to the Great Barrier Reef, from the Grand Canyon to the French Alps. God made and gave all this to us. I love that. And I believe he was saying something about himself. It's like, I want you to know me. Even before you hear the gospel story about Jesus, just look around at the beauty. And if you're willing to believe that it's not all accidental, that there might be a designer behind it, just know that I'm good, know that there's someone to thank. Now, there's a Christian doctrine called the Trinity. That God is three and that God is one. Here at Golech, I would like to explain that someday when I understand it. But it's the threeness of God and it's the oneness of God. God existing in one person. But as help me here, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now, in that John, one thing that in him was life. Which one of those three is credited with the creation of the trees, the vineyards, the rushing streams and the soaring mountains? Genesis one. All of them. This is, you know, God created. The spirit was, you know, moving upon the face of the waters. And God said. But John credits Jesus, God the Son, as the creative force. And it looks like this. John 1:3. I think it is through him, through him, Jesus, the Word. All things were made. Without him, nothing was made that was made. You think, wait a second, he hadn't been born yet. The technical term for this is the those of you who are copious note takers, the pre incarnate Christian, meaning Jesus existing before Joseph and Mary travel to Bethlehem, before Jesus is laid in a manger, before shepherds come and worship his birth. That Jesus existed before that. You want a mind bender? Here. The Creator of the universe enters the very planet he had made as a baby to a low income family. The God of creation enters the planet he formed, and with the incarnation, John 1:14, here in him was life, and that life was life to all mankind. Then John 1:14, that same chapter, and the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. That Word, that creative force, that designer, that Creator made his dwelling among us. And then with the incarnation, Jesus, he's touchable, he's seeable. The Creator is approachable and killable. Think about it this way. The one, the one who from his vast infinite mind designed the tree, ends up suspended on a cross made from one. The one who designed saliva glands so that we could enjoy our food and swallow gets spit on. And the one who said, I am the water of life on the Christ yelled on the cross, yelled, I'm thirsty. And the one who existed in the community of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and made us for community. Of his 12 disciples, those closest to him, one betrays him. And the 11 ran in his darkest hour. If you happen to be traveling through a season of life right now, where you've just been body slammed by some events, hold to that reality that our Creator, gracious God, entered the planet he made and exposed himself to every darkness that we will ever experience, physical and emotional. He went first. God did not create because he was lonely or bored. I think he created because he wanted to share his fullness with us. And in that we have part two of the conversation, which is the invitation. The invitation. Our focus is in John chapter one and the way that John introduces Jesus. But if you go back to the Psalms, the songbook of Israel in the Old Testament, it's interesting how often you will find the generosity of God not just in the big cataclysmic events like the rescue from Egypt under Moses leadership and the crossing of the Red Sea, but also the crops that grow, that give food to families. And God is worshiped for that. A couple examples of the many. My favorite by the way, is we're not going to look at Psalm 65, but Psalm 104 also touches something in us. He, the Creator God of Israel. He makes grass grow for the cattle and plants for people to cultivate, Bringing forth. Bringing forth what? Bringing for food from the earth. Well, like what? Wine that gladdens the human hearts, oil that makes their face shine, and bread that sustains their heart. Notice something there? It's not this isn't just about a food connection. This is about a God connection. This isn't just about the food. It's not just about the food that keeps you alive. It says, and bread that sustains their hearts. It doesn't say, sustains their stomachs. Wine that gladdens human hearts. Oil that makes the face shine as you dip bread in olive oil. And it's like something comes alive when I taste of the good ingredients that God has. The rain falls and the crops grow, and we ate yesterday, today and tomorrow. So it's no wonder that the psalm begins with these words right here. Praise the Lord, my soul. Praise the Lord, my soul. And it goes down and then it says, okay, let's name a few things. Plants for people to cultivate. The grass grows for the cattle, Wine, oil and bread. Another example is Psalm 136 that begins, Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever. And that's that. Psalm 136 is the one that keeps having that refrain. It's like antiphonal, you know, his love endures forever. His love endures forever. His love endures forever. And you go through the beginning of Psalm 136 and these big cataclysmic events like the Exodus and like the crossing of the Red Sea. And then you get to the very end and you hit this. He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever. As you depart this place and either go back to a cottage to enjoy lunch or, or you go to the dining facility to enjoy a feast, can you receive that as an expression of your loving heavenly father? For you, in addition to the kindness of Goal Lake and their culinary services here, something is not just a food thing. It's supposed to be a God thing. So this next statement here just want you to say it out loudly. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. Ready? Ready. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. And we're talking food here. We're talking about Jesus said, give us this day our daily bread. And when he does, we give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. Now, I'm not just here talking about the beautifully layered lasagna. I'm talking here also about that pack of ramen noodles. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. Not only that wonderful salmon grilled out back, but also that filet o fish sandwich handed in the bag through the drive thru window. Can I get an amen? It's not just going to an Indian restaurant and enjoying chicken masala. These are the chicken tenders that you eat with your grandkids and with your children. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. And this naturally brings us to a conversation about my wife's cheesy potatoes. Okay, there we go. Now you say, oh, those are Chris's cheesy potatoes. Oh, no, no, no, no. Hers are much better. There we go. Now, some of our grandkids are with us this week. We have six at the time and one granddaughter, Cooper. She's 10. She loves grandma's cheesy potatoes. And so there is this predictable request, almost a demand when we have some family, like, big family dinner when the whole mob of us are there, you know, Christmas, Thanksgiving types type thing. We said, grandma, are you going to make your cheesy potatoes? It's predictable. Listen, Cooper is a picky eater. I mean, she'll have a plate of food and it's like she picks around it. I go, how do you even stay alive? You know? But grandma's cheesy potatoes, it's like big heaping spoonfuls. And then she wants to be the one that takes the leftovers home. Grandma's cheesy. Grandma, are you going to make your cheesy potatoes? Are you going to make your cheesy potatoes? My hope is that she carries this memory way into adulthood. But my hope isn't that she remembers the potatoes. My hope is that she remembers her grandma, her grandma's kindness, her grandma's affection, her grandma's love as expressed through this cheesy goodness. We're going to be gone someday. And if she remembers the potatoes and she forgets her grandma, something has gone badly wrong. You know where this is headed, don't you? Conversation number three. The competition. The competition. I would like to suggest that one of the greatest competitors for my affection for God is the gifts of God. What competes with God? Well, sin. Yeah, of course, that's the right goal, like answer. But what if it's his gifts and I begin to value the gift? I begin to want the gift more than I want him. I remember the potatoes and I forget Grandma, I value the gift and I forget the giver behind the gift. So just this little mantra here, this statement, it just says, the gift, the gift. The gift should draw me to the giver, not replace the giver. That is this sermon in a sentence. The gift, whatever that gift is, should draw me to the giver and not replace the giver. So this occurs a lot in our Bible, but one of my favorites is correspondence between preachers. The apostle Paul, the older pastor, is writing a younger pastor that he mentored. Dude's name is Timothy. And Timothy's got massive responsibilities because after starting a Jesus community in Ephesus, which was like the fourth largest city in the Roman world, Paul deploys Timothy to pastor that group while he travels. And so Timothy's got this major responsibility in Ephesus. And in First Timothy, chapter six, Paul coaches Timothy on how to coach the wealthy within the congregation of Ephesus. Not everybody was poor. And so you get into First Timothy, chapter six, and like verse 17, Paul says, command those who are rich, you think, well, that's probably billionaires. No, if you choose from among several pair of shoes which one you want to wear, if you choose which coat you desire, if you throw out leftovers ever, you're in this. You're in this wealth category. So I want you to check this out with me. 1 Timothy, chapter 6, where Paul writes this. Coach the rich, the wealthy, not to be arrogant. Line two, ready. Read line two out loud with me. Can you whisper it? Ready? Nor to put their hope in wealth, which is, like, so uncertain. Think housing collapse of 2008. But read line four with me ready to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our. What last words critical for our. Enjoy. Enjoy this. Enjoy this. Enjoy an incredible week at Gull Lake. Enjoy money that you've socked away into a retirement account. Enjoy a vehicle that starts reliably. And you might remember days where you drove cars with sketchy reliability. You had devotions every day in your automobile. Oh, if you're out there, oh, Lord, please praise God from whom all blessings flow. You know I love that. Enjoy this. Enjoy this. Enjoy that chicken Caesar salad. Enjoy that ability to go. Enjoy your capacity to go someplace warm in the winter. Enjoy this. Just don't put your hope in it. So when it says, command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant and not to put their hope in their wealth, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with these things, to enjoy that single verse right there, correspondence between two pastors isolates my greatest challenge in relationship to my stuff, how to enjoy it and not put my hope in it. What are we talking about here? That very easily the gift can replace the giver. And the gift is supposed to draw me toward the giver, not replace the giver. So by gifts, what do you mean by gifts, like money? Okay, here's a list. Radically impartial list. Athleticism. Think Just, you were just born with this crazy sports ability, athleticism, wit. You're just funny. Physical beauty, as we measure physical beauty savings that you build up over time, the influence that you have with other people, we go on and on with this, but these are gifts. It is the most normal thing in the world to begin to enjoy the gift and not recognize the giver. It happens by gravitational pull. I love Tim Keller's definition of an idol in his book Counterfeit Gods. Tim wrote, an idol is anything we look at and in our heart of hearts go, if I have that, then I will have worth, then I will have value, then life will be worth living. And my question about idolatry is, what happens to be your that right now? If I have athleticism, if I have athletic talent, I go, man, don't put your stick. You are one acl tear away from your life collapsing. If that's where your hope is wit, are you using that to degrade or demean other people? Because humor can be used to take shots at the other group, right? Beauty, as we measure it, it does tend to fade over time. If that's where you're finding your life. Does your life disappear as beauty as we happen to measure it recedes, influence. You may find that as you age, you are not necessarily as relevant as you much were. Do you have to cling to that relevance? In these ways, the gifts replace the giver. I can't emphasize enough that it is the most natural thing in the world for a Christian to allow this to happen. It happens by gravitational pull. An idol is often a good thing that we turn into the ultimate thing. God gives the gift of work and we turn it into workaholism that suffocates other areas of life. God gives you a child and you link your self esteem and your worth to the behavior of that child. And at 2 months old, that might be a good idea. At age 12, you're going to question that a great kid might be a miserable God or at least an unreliable God. You say, well, but these are Jeff, these are work kids. They're good things. I know an idol is when we take a good thing and we make it an ultimate thing. Saving money, providing for my family, having money in an emergency fund, it's a good thing. Do I make it the ultimate thing? It can be any person, it can be an object, and yes, it can be ministry success. I'm doing this for Jesus, really. Always. It's a good thing. We turn it into an ultimate thing. So what do we do? What do we Do. So the three words that we looked at yesterday morning, and we're going to look at them again, it's just identify, expose, and replace. It's like, is there an idol in your life? I think it's probably better to ask, what two or three lobby for my attention at any given time? What person, what object, what financial status, what, you know, significance in the lives of others. So just identify what they are, all right? And this can take some work. A little hint here. The people who live and work with you probably know. So identify number two. Expose. Just go, you're not going to do it for me. You're a wonderful child. You're going to be a miserable God. Expose it. Listen, I want to enjoy this. I just don't want to put my hope. And so you expose it. You ain't gonna do it for me. You ain't gonna do it for me. My life is such a cavernous pit of need that ain't gonna. If the last three raises didn't somehow get me there in significance and value, it's unlikely that the next two will. So you expose it, and number three is you replace it. You can't simply remove an idol. You have to replace an idol. So on those occasions when I'm thoughtful and I'm insightful and I realize that an idol is whispering in my ear, a God replacement, a gift, hey, I'll do it for you. Because of me, you are significant and you are secure and you are valuable. Often when I detect that, I have a little mantra that I repeat to myself, and it's this, get ready for deep theological heaviness. Here I go. Dude, you need to hang out with Jesus more. If Jesus isn't interesting to you, he doesn't have a chance in standing up against wealth, your next home renovation, your next party, your next promotion, the next person if you don't find him interesting. And so it's almost like, I gotta go. If I'm gonna replace the counterfeit God with the genuine thing, I need to find Jesus more interesting than another $10,000 in the bank. And I need to find Jesus more interesting than another thousand Instagram followers. And I need to find Jesus more interesting than my child behaving in aisle three of a grocery store. I just need to find him more interesting. So some time ago, I started a list in my little blue notebook, and the list was called 20 Reasons to Like Jesus. But then I just kept going and it just overran 20. So let me just share with you some of the reasons. I wrote down reasons to Like Jesus. I like Jesus because he cried at a funeral. And I like Jesus because he made wine at a wedding. I like Jesus because he utilized long meals as a setting for deep conversation. And at one of those meals, the Last Supper, he removed his coat and he washed his disciples feet. It's the night before his death. I like Jesus because he was raised to life following a brutal, humiliating, shameful death, bringing us hope that life can flow following horrendous pain and ruinous shame. I like Jesus because after the resurrection he grilled fish over hot coals beside a lake, making breakfast for his disciples. And I like Jesus because following that breakfast, he gave Peter a second chance after a well publicized failure. All those happen to be in John's gospel where Jesus is presented as the source of life, the bread of life, the water of life, the resurrection and life. And the one who said, I have come that you might have life and have it to the full. The goal of my conversation today is to move a little bit closer to this Jesus and really be intrigued and fascinated by him. And that in our moments of sobriety would draw us away from the cheap substitutes that we keep piling our hopes on. Back to Montana. There's Laura out on her balcony, heart overwhelming with gratitude, no spiritual pulse that she could detect. And she says, I stood there overflowing with gratitude and realized I had no one to thank and started shooting off prayers into the universe to dead relatives and a guardian angel and to God if he happened to be out there. I think in that moment on the balcony, I think she cracked the door of her heart open a little bit and God walked through it. Because what happened is that two weeks later these random Christians started showing up in her life. And one of them was just very thoughtful, faithful and intentional as sharing their faith. She opened the Bible given to her by her grandparents when she was nine years old, still had it and she had not read it since she was 13. Nine months after that moment where she lifted her face and said, there's no one to thank. I'm thankful but there's no one to thank. She went out of that condo, went out into the snow in the darkness and knelt down and opened her life to Christ. She asked for forgiveness, she asked for restoration. And one day at a time, God began to change her and to restore her and transform her. He is the God of creation and he is also the God of redemption. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. He surrounds us with his goodness and he came to fill us like nothing else can and ever will. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. All things were made through Him. Without him, nothing was made that was made. In him was life. That life was light to all mankind. And the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness didn't comprehend it. And this Word became flesh and lived among us. John says, we saw his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. Gracious God, help us come to youo. We need you'd. We need you'd to come to youo. Day after day after day after day after day. Help us to remember your as the bread and of the source of the life we crave. In the name of Jesus, who came for us. Amen. It.