Living Out God's Love in Our Actions

Here's what that is here to illustrate: our galaxy, the galaxy that we sit in, is a hundred thousand light years apart.

And the God who spoke that all into existence loves you, knows your name, has counted the hairs on your head, and has sent Jesus into this world to die for you. The God who, according to Colossians, is upholding everything in all of creation by His sheer presence. But that's nothing compared to the size of the known universe.

Can anyone in this room just guess quickly, if you weren't here last night you can't answer, if you were here last night, how large the known universe is? Anybody? Okay, good. I'm glad you guys, thanks for participating.

The—what? That's absolutely wrong, Cody. Um, thanks for taking that leap of faith; we just shot you down. All right, I'll tell you: the observable universe is 93 billion light years apart. Now, there's no way to comprehend that; it's incomprehensible. And yet, God is bigger than it all.

God is present at every single point of space and time in the universe right now, and He has been eternally present. And this is what John says: isn't it amazing that God has poured out His love so lavishly on us that we would be called children of God? John's going, I can't get over this. Like, the God who spoke the entire universe into existence and is sustaining it in His presence is known by you and knows you so well that He counts the hairs on your head.

Are you over the love of God? Because it's amazing, is what John says. This is astonishing that the creator of the universe would send His son to come to a creation that had rebelled against Him, the pinnacle of creation, and rebelled, and sent His son, His presence, to die for that creation. John goes, I can't get over this; this is astonishing, this is unbelievable, this is incomprehensible.

And so what John is going to say while you ask all of your questions: do not lose your love and amazement of Jesus. And that's what happens to so many of us in this world, because there's this reality when we walk into things that are not good for us, and we know it. We are choosing to trade the glory and the love of God for something that is going to consume us and take us over.

And John's going to go, that is a trade that is insane; don't do that. The ROI on that investment, it all it does is lose. Do not do this. Ask your questions, but stay in love with Jesus. Figure out what you're building and what you're doing; figure that out, but don't lose amazement for who God is. The God who created all things loves you and knows you.

And if you're in this room today—and we're going to get to this a little bit later, but I want to say it now—and you feel like there's no way the God of the universe could love me, you were created, you are here on purpose, you are not a mistake. The God of the universe knows you and knows everything that has happened in your life, and His love can be set upon you when we receive it by faith.

John goes, don't get over this, because what happens to us is for many of us, when we go into this moment of deconstruction and questioning and all these things, we begin to lose our amazement for who God is. And so what we end up doing is we start playing games, because what we know is like, well, I don't know if I'm in love and amazement with Jesus right now, but man, I sure do know how to behave when I'm around Church.

This is the second point of the message: John's going to say, don't play Church. Don't try to have your feet in both worlds, and don't try to appease people and be around people and do all these things. You can love them, you can serve them, you can invite them, but man, you don't have to change yourself and who you are as a child of God to be liked by them.