- Welcome this morning to Thanksgiving weekend. It's a weekend I know, there are a lot of us who get together with family. I get together with my family this last weekend, the last time I spoke here I showed you six granddaughters to the right. Well, we added a seventh, not a girl, but a boy. So I'm now papa to one grandson. Little Jamison, he was born to our son and his wife, Kiersten, about three months ago. So what a privilege to be a granddad, to be a papa to those little ones. Well, this morning we want to talk about things that are of great significance. And the question I wanna ask you this morning is what is in your heart this morning? What fills your heart? The Bible speaks of your heart over 1000 times. It's an important topic that the heart biblically speaking defines who you are at the very core, your inner person, your personality defines what you choose, what you desire. It defines the affections that you have and the memories that you have and the moral compass that you live by. All of that is encompassed within this concept of your heart. And so Jesus wants to know this morning, what's in your heart? We're told in first Samuel chapter 16 verse seven that the Lord looks on the heart. He sees my heart, he sees your hearts. In Psalm 139, King David said, Search me, O God, and know my heart, and try me and know my thoughts, my cares, the things that I'm thinking about and leaning into, know those things and reveal them to me. So this morning I'll invite you to turn your Bibles to Zephaniah, the Old Testament, Zephaniah, fourth book to the last in the Old Testament, page 790. Get out your notes, maybe grab a pen, page 790. Zephaniah chapter three verse seven. But before we get to that, I just wanna set the context for where we're going this morning. Roy introduced to us the fifth unspeakable or unsearchable, I always figure which one it is, truths that God gives to us. The fifth one about Christ's atonement for our sin. First Peter chapter two verse 24, Peter said that Jesus himself bore our sins, my sins, your sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by his wounds we are healed. And he spoke about that how the Lord Jesus made that atoning sacrifice on the cross for us. He satisfied the payment for our sin. Well, this morning I wanna consider the cross from a applicational perspective. What does it mean for you and your heart and your life where you work, where you play in your neighborhood, in your relationships, what does the cross mean for you? So let me ask you another question, when you see the cross, when you think of the cross of Christ, what happens right here? What do you think about? What do you feel? What response do you have? Well, the response that I pretty consistently get, especially in the last 12 years after some of the journey that I've shared before in the past of walking through some things that the Father took me through, depression and discouragement. For the last 12 years, pretty much when I see the cross, I see this, I see the fact that my heavenly Father, he infinitely and eternally loves and delights in me as his kid because of Jesus. That's what I see. I feel his love, I sense his love, I experience at the core level in my heart the reality that the Lord Jesus loves me infinitely and eternally and completely. Zephaniah 3:17, you got it there in your Bible. Zephaniah, the prophet says this, the Lord, your God, he is in your midst. Now he's speaking prophetically of the nation of Israel and the future, specifically of the nation of Judah. That will happen when the new covenant is ratified. Well, today the new covenant has happened, right. We're gonna celebrate that in a few moments in the Lord's supper. We're participants of the new covenant, so we can by, in a sense apply this statement that the Father says of Israel that will be true in the future. We can apply it to us today and he says that he is the mighty one who will save, who has saved. And the word, mighty one, there is a victorious warrior, he is a victorious warrior who has saved me and as one who have saved me, he rejoices over you or over me with gladness. He will quiet you by his love or with his love he will calm every storm. He will whisper in your heart that it's okay. It's good because I am good. He will quiet you with his love, in his love, by his love. And lastly, he will exalt over you with a loud singing. Our Father, he is loud and he is boisterous and he is exultant. The word there in the Hebrew is intense. Meaning it's like party hearty. The Father is toward you if you have trusted his son as your personal savior. He rejoices over you. And now the thing we're gonna look at this morning is, this concept of living loved. If you were to ask me, Kevin, how do you think Jesus lived his life of 33 years he lived on this earth? What phrase would you, what concept would you use to describe how he lived? I would immediately say this, Jesus Christ lived, loved, and because he lived the love, he loved much. He lived the love perfectly, and because he lived love from the Father's love, not for it, but from the Father's love and the intimate relationship through the Spirit, with the Father he received consistently and constantly that what he needed. And from the Father, he lived from the Father's love, and because he did that, he loved much. There's a God word element and then there is a human horizontal element, right. He lived love, therefore he loved much. That is exactly what the Father is inviting for us this morning, to live loved, to live from the Father's love, not for it, to live from Jesus' love, not for it. Well, there's two main ideas that I wanna lean into this morning, and the first one is this, living love changes me. It changes me. When I learn to live love from his love, his unconditional love, his unmerited love, I can't earn it, I can't pay him back for it, I don't deserve it, I'm not worthy of it, but I just receive it, and delight in it, and marvel in it. To the extent that I'm able by faith to live loved, I'm changed. From condemnation to the place of forgiveness, from a place of death to life, from a place of rejection to being accepted, from the place of being alone to be known by the Father. Now there are three simple truths in Scripture that help me understand this and lean into this concept of living love changes me. And the main thought is this, Jesus' love for you is real, it's tangible, it's effectual. It works, it makes a difference. And three of the big cornerstones of his love, the first is which is his incarnation, a big word that basically we celebrate at Christmas, the fact that God's eternal son took on human flesh, became a human being, so he became the God-man on our behalf. Christmas happens so that Easter could happen. Without Christmas there is no Easter, without Easter Christmas doesn't mean much other than the fact that God drew near to us. So the incarnation, Philippians chapter two versus five through eight, Apostle Paul says this, who, though he, the Son of God was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, or held onto, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, by being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, and being found in human form. We hear the Christmas story, right, we know the songs. What child is this who lay, right, on Mary's lap? And I won't sing it for you because that would really hurt your ears, right, but we hear the songs of Christmas, and yet sometimes we get inoculated by the amazingness of it, that God became man, the eternal son of God took on humanity, not on a temporary, not on a temporary assignment, for an eternal, from then on assignment. Did you know Jesus Christ right now is the God-man? He didn't lose his humanity, like okay, Father, I've become man for 33 years, did the thing and then I get to go back exactly the way it was before, right. Father says, no, forever, you are joining yourself with the human race, the creatures that are created in my image whom I have set my affections on. Forever, Son, you will be joined to humanity, the incarnation. Jesus did that for me, it's no small thing, no small rock that he moved. The second one is the word, propitiation, which touches specifically on the concept of the atonement, the word propitiation basically means a satisfaction or a satisfactory payment of and the removal of God's wrath against sin because God is just he said that if you sin you will die. The result of sinning is death, and the only payment for sin is death. And so Jesus came to the earth and he became the propitiatory sacrifice. He satisfied God's wrath against my sin and your sin on himself. And we'll see that in more clarity in just a moment in first John 4:10, John says, and this is love, not that we loved God. So that's important, but that's not where we start. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and he sent his Son to be the propitiation, the full satisfactory payment and the removal of God's wrath against my sin. Did you know that the Father only has, if you've trusted Christ as your Savior this morning, if you are in Christ, the Father has only goodwill towards you. Now he has goodwill towards non-Christians as well, those who haven't yet trusted Christ, I call them Christians to be. He has goodwill toward them too, but he also has wrath toward them because their sin is still against them. They are still owning the, and deserving the punishment for their own sin, but those of us who have trusted Christ, he took that punishment that we deserve upon himself, so that I now have only the Father's love and grace and mercy directed towards me, completely undeserving and unmerited, propitiation. Third word is the word, identification. Identification basically means that when you put your faith in Christ, the Father identifies you in the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus. You're identified in him, in all that he did for you 2000 plus years ago. You are united with Christ, you are identified in Christ so that everything that is true of him now is true of you because you're united in his death, but in resurrection. Paul says it this way in Galatians 2:20, one of my favorite memory verses. For I have been crucified with Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer, no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Not I, but Christ. You want a good mantra to live by. Not I, but Christ. Have you ever seen the statements, it's not about you, it's not about me, it's about him. Galatians 2:20 teaches that that powerful reality, I've been identified, I've been united with Christ, so that his life has become my life, I'm joined to all that he is right now. Well, as I choose to live love, as I choose to live love, as I choose to live loved by faith, two crazy things happened. He saves me and he restores me. He saves me first of all. It's kind of what we've been talking about. As I choose to put my trust in Jesus and him alone, all punishment for my sin is removed. I love first John chapter four versus 17 and 18. In that context, John, the apostle, talks about that perfect love removes fear because fear involves punishment for our sins, but when we come to faith in Christ that that, that punishment is removed, it's propitiated, it's paid for, so that I only now have the Father's grace and mercy toward me and in me and for me continuously, eternally. And so I have this opportunity of experiencing no fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Perfect love casts out fear. So when I'm fearful, and I do get fearful, I'm reminded that I am probably not leaning into the perfect love that the Father has for me. And often I have to repent to that, I have to say, Father, I am not now living loved very well. I am not now receiving your perspective and living from your perspective, I'm living from my perspective. That is fearful, it's dangerous, it's wrought with problems and issues, right. He saves me. The second thing that Jesus does when I choose to live by faith is he restores me. He restores me, he heals me, he binds up the brokenness in my heart. Anybody have heart wounds? Anybody have brokenness in their hearts? Anybody has some scars? Man, I do. When you walked in this morning, there was this x-ray machine that took x-rays of every heart that walked in. You wanna see them right now? Steve, you wanna hit that for me, please? Right. Man, my heart is a jungle of wounds and hurts, and it's a newness because of Christ, but hey, there is just a lot of stuff there. At times it's hard, at times it's cold, at times it's half, at times it's fainting, at times it's angry, at times, right, bitter. In fact, about five days ago, I was easily getting offended and I was acknowledging I was easily getting offended in my heart, the Spirit of God said, Kevin, why are you getting offended easily, it's because you're making it all about you. It's all about you. And when it's all about you, you're gonna get offended because people aren't you, and they're not gonna do it the way you want or you like, right. And while I was being offended, I was going like, that, there, there, problem, problem, problem, right. And as soon as the Spirit of God revealed to me what was in my heart, my heart just goes, oh, man, no, problem, boom, boom, boom. It was here, I was living from a place of self-centeredness, from self-sufficiency rather than that fullness of Christ love. So he restores. Ephesians three, 16 to 19, for time's sake we're not gonna turn there. It basically says this, Paul says, I get on my knees, I'm praying to the Father for just like one thing. I want Jesus' love to overwhelm your heart, to restore your heart, to bathe your heart, to remake your heart, to renew your heart, to heal your heart because the depth of his love, the breadth of his love, the width of his love, it's just like infinitely beyond fully understanding, but I'm praying that you'll comprehend and you'll understand it so that the fullness of God can fill your heart right now. That's what Paul prayed for. That's my translation of that, okay. It's amazing. Now a sidelight to that is the best way to have the Father's love change me and fill me is through the word of God, through the words of God. All right, second main thought this morning is living loved not only changes me and saves me and it's a real, but it empowers me, as I live love, it empowers me to love much, to love well. There's an outflow to this. Luke chapter seven verse 47, one of my favorite stories in the New Testament that Jesus did as he was at the house of a Pharisee, Simon, by name. And Simon was one of those self-righteous big dudes, it was all about him, and Jesus comes in and there's this woman who barges in on their party, who was the woman of the night and she comes to Jesus at his feet, falls at his feet, starts weeping and crying and confessing, acknowledging that he the Lord Jesus is great and glorious. And Jesus reaches down and he touches her. Simon in his heart said, man, Jesus, if you're really a Son of God, as you really say you are, you'd know this woman, she is a bad dude. Why are you showing her compassion and forgiveness and kindness? You should be scolding her and condemning her and correcting her, judging her, right. And Jesus turns to Simon who has been thinking all those things in his heart, he says, Simon, you see this woman. Yeah, I see her. Simon, while you have judged her, I have been forgiving her because though her sins are many, though her sins are many, they are forgiven because of her trust in me, her coming to me as Messiah. And because she's been forgiven much, she, what's the phrase, verse 47? She loves much. So this idea of living loved empowers me to love much comes from Luke 7:47. Jesus wants me to love much. Even as that woman who barged in uninvited, totally potentially from shame and guilt and she didn't give a riff about all that. She had to be with Jesus and she finds herself at Jesus' feet weeping and acknowledging and repenting and believing in him as the Messiah, the good one who would receive, not condemn, who would forgive, not cast aside. She loved him much because she knew that he forgave her much. So to me this works out in two different ways. I'll give you two images. Number one, Jesus' love empowers me to love much. And the image is this, second Corinthians chapter four verse seven, it talks about, we are jars of clay. Have you ever heard of singing group, Jars of Clay? Jars of Clay, right. Second Corinthians 4:7 is where they get the title of their band, right. And in that context Paul is talking about this, we had this treasure in earthen or jar vessels of clay, right. And this treasure is the intimate knowledge of Jesus living in us. And because of that infinite. Not infinite, that intimate knowledge, I wish it was infinite knowledge, some day it will be, but right now it's just intimate-ish, okay. This intimate-ish relationship with Jesus living in my heart, and when cool things are done, we all go, well, it's not the vessel, we praise what's in the vessel, right. And the thought is this, I can only give what I receive. I can only give what I receive. I can only give what I receive. I can only give what I receive. And so what Jesus fills me up with is agape love. First Corinthians 13, it's patience, it's agape, this unconditional is one way love is patient and it's kind. This weekend, has anyone needed a little patience and kindness with family gathered? A little bit, okay, I love my kids, I love their kids, I love my wife with their kids, but in all those relationships there were moments when I had to do this. Oh, Jesus, help me. Patience, patience. Oh, Lord Jesus, kindness, I need kindness right now. Kindness, kindness, you're kind. I just didn't have it, right. Here when we're speaking, I'm just a jar of clay, I'm just an earthen vessel, broken at that, right. And I leak all the time. And so I have to constantly be receiving from the Lord Jesus, right, because I can only give what I receive, and the definition of fullness is the spilling out, right. And the cool thing was, since I knew that this morning was on my plate, I was pretty consistent in doing that, and it was amazing. This is a much better Thanksgiving than the Thanksgiving in the past because I had an accountability of standing in front of all of you this morning and talking about this reality. Okay, you all wanna do better? Come up here one Sunday in a year and do your thing, I guarantee your spouse will love, your kids will love you, your coworkers will love you, right. The second thought is, the Holy Spirit empowers me to love much also. I need Jesus' love through the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been poured out into my heart, Romans 5:5 says. In the context of Romans five, Paul is talking about the suffering. And love surrenders in the context of suffering. It perseveres in the context of pain. He says, we rejoice in our suffering because we know that suffering produces endurance and endurance character, and character hope, and hope doesn't disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the person of the Holy Spirit who lives here. And so the garden hose is my image, so I'm a jar of clay and I'm a garden hose. I'm a garden hose. What does a garden hose do? It's a tool that conducts water from one place to another, right. From a place of infinite reserve like a water tower, right, to places where there is lacking water. That's why we drip it out, right. I'm a garden hose. The Father's infinite love is my bank, he is the water tower; and the person with the Holy Spirit as he lives through and in and with me, he has the ability to empower me to take that deep breath like, Lord, help me right now. I wanna throttle someone right now, help me not throttle someone right now. Right. He empowers me to love much. All right, we're gonna finish our time this morning. All right, we have 31 days until what? 31 days until?

- A new year.

- A new year. Anything else? 31 days until? A new decade, the 20s are coming. Do you all realize that? A new decade, the 20s. You might call them the roaring 20s, I'm gonna call them the glorious 20s, right. It's gonna be a decade of glory, right, not just a year of 2020, but 2021, right, a new decade is in front of us. So I just wanna invite all of us to in the next seven statements that Jesus made in the cross that display how he lived love well, and therefore loved much. Find one of these seven statements for you to practice is how many days does it take to practice something to become a habit, to become part of your life? What the answer is?

- 31.

- 31 days. Isn't that awesome? A new year, new decade, 31 days, here we go. All right, number one, Jesus started by saying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Jesus lived from that place of infinite love of his Father, of grace that he was enabled, empowered to forgive others freely, unconditionally, unmeritedly. These are the guys who were like driving the nails into his wrists and his feet. Forgive them, forgiving others, forgiving others. Maybe your habits is to that you need to, that the Father invites you, I said need to, I strike that. Erase that word. You get to. You have an opportunity to. I'm really trying to unlearn my duty language and bring in this opportunity language, right. I get to forgive others and to receive forgiveness and to ask for forgiveness. The second one, today you will be with me in paradise. So one of the guys dying on the cross with him who once hated him and now he is, remember me when you come in your kingdom. Jesus says, today you will be with me in paradise. So maybe the new habit is, you care for those who are lost, you care for the Christians to be. And you give yourself to want to share the good news as he gives you opportunity, as he gives opportunity, right. I can share the good news. Paul pray for that in Colossians four. The number three, Jesus looks at Mary, a woman, mom. John, take care of her. Woman, behold your son. John, take care of your mom. One of the last things Jesus took care of was his mom. Family matters, family first. Family matters, family matters. Family matters, maybe you're hurt this morning and you need to lean into that reality, my family matters. Through the years I've had people come to me and say, Kevin, it seems like you've make decisions about your life and ministry kind of based on your kids and your wife. And I could tell you stories about both, and I'd say, absolutely. I would much rather be a tool of saving grace to my kids than to a trillion people on this planet. Family first, family matters. If you're working too much, maybe you're ignored, whatever. I don't know whatever your story is, but maybe as the Father is inviting you in your heart to say, I want you to develop the habit of putting family first. Number four, the middle one, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The sin of the world is placed upon Jesus, at noon the sky darkens, the whole thing gets really eerie when the Father put the sin of the world on his Son and then poured out his wrath upon him probably for the next three hours, from noon till 3:00 p.m. And Jesus' response is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because he didn't know. No, he knew the answer. He knew that he was being the propitiatory sacrifice in that moment, and that's why he came and he agreed to that, not my will, but your will be done, his human nature revolted at it, not because of the suffering of the pain, though that's huge, not because of the rejection. Humanly speaking, that was huge, but because in that moment, the wrath of God, his God, the Father was put on him. Your worst day times a trillion, zillion times all the people and then the punishment from the righteous Father was put on him. And the Father turned his back, and that's when suffering started for Jesus. You've forsaken me. And I thought I could just get here as obedience matters. Obedience, he trusted and he loved and he obeyed. He did that because he obeyed the Father, he trusted in the Father, he loved the Father and he obeyed the Father. And so here is my mantra. Obedience is my responsibility, outcome is God's responsibility. He says, Kevin, I want you to obey me, I want you to follow me. You choose that, and leave to me the outcome of your obedience to me. Example, I pray for healing. He says, if you don't pray you don't get, so I need to pray, I need to lean into that. So I obey by praying or forgiving or whatever, right. Someone hurts me, so I need to forgive them and I need to approach them. The outcome they may or may not be repentance or I may or may not get the healing. The outcome is in his hands. Did you get that? A lot of times I stop doing this because this isn't happening the way I wanted to. Right, the outcome isn't happening the way I want. Therefore, I'm tempted to stop doing this hard thing of obedience. Obey, obey, I'll take care of the outcome. Constantly the spirit of God is speaking that to my heart. Kevin, just obey me, leave the outcome to me. Five, I first this one. I first suffering, do the hard thing. Do the hard thing. Pam and I have the privilege of spending time with other couples in marriage counseling, and one of the things that we're constantly saying to them from our own life story is, we constantly have to do the hard thing. Marriage is hard work. Being a parent of young kids, we have, all four of our kids have young kids, and I constantly say, Dan-O, parenting three little girls is just hard work. It is hardest work to do in all of your life. It's the hardest time for us. It's just hard, so do the hard things. What's the hard thing that Jesus is inviting you to do this morning? In your heart, what is the spirit of God saying? Uh, that's a hard thing, and we've talked about it, and we're kind of shying away from it because it's a hard thing. Will you trust me to do the hard thing? Number six, it is finished, it's finished, it's finished. Plans are finished well, plans are finished well. Jesus stayed in the cross, not like he had any place. Well, he could have gone somewhere actually. For three hours he endured to the end, and then he said, it's finished, it's done. What is the Father asking you to finish, well, in your life right now? Maybe you're tempted to get out of a marriage, maybe you're tempted to get out of a relationship, maybe you're tempted toward, I don't know, whatever, to bail on something. It's the Father inviting you to finish, to trust him to finish. Lastly, Father into your hands I commit my spirit, into your hands I commit my spirit. Two people are on their deathbed right now that I know of that I'm spending time weekly with. Actually one just died this last week and I had many conversations with her, and then also with this gentleman about this idea of going home, longing to be home, longing to be home. And I was texting the daughter of the one who died this last week and said, it's a cool thought, I'm sorry and so we have had tears and many conversations, but it's a cool thought, isn't it? That when your mom took that last breath, that next moment of experiential reality was for her, the glory of the Lord Jesus. Pretty awesome, huh. And if she knew that way back when, it might have been easier to go through the wind, right, until that point. The Father may be speaking to your 20-year-old heart this morning, don't wait till you're 80 or your 35-year-old heart, don't wait until you're 99 or when you get cancer. Too long to be home. If you're a believer in Jesus, if he lives in your heart, home is not here. We have a heavenly home, a citizen in heaven. Am I longing for that? For to me to live as Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21. Maybe that's the new habit that the Father wants for you.