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Epilogues are awesome. They're the closing shot of the movie. They're the last page of the book. They're the story that happens after the story. Epilogues give you this burst of insight - a baseline if you will - for how the story will continue under the new conditions. Over the next two weeks, we're looking at John's epilogue to the resurrection of Jesus. This week we get a glimpse of the Christ in our boat.
There is an overwhelming bunch of good news in this song. God has come to visit us; redeem us; and be the power of salvation for us. On and on the song goes like that exalting the grace and mercy of God toward his people. There is here, however, more than anything else an image of a new dad here - a dad who sings a lullaby to his children to hold them with his words. It is God telling you to just be held as you go through scares in life. Listen in.
This sermon is the capstone to a sermon series called called Complete Joy. In this sermon series based on the book of 1 John, we’ve let Jesus’ apostle John teach us what a joy-filled life with Jesus really looks like. It’s also worth mentioning that this sermon will not only conclude our work with 1 John, but will also serve as the capstone sermon for everything we’ve heard from John since the beginning of 2018. We’ve spent fourteen weeks of our year listening to John! This sermon is John's last word to us. It is a powerful word that places the resurrected and ascended Jesus firmly onto the throne of your heart.
I have found that the worst times of my life have always been the times when I’ve been in a place, but I haven’t really been there. Times when joy was surrounding me, but I felt heavy inside. Times when my coke was fizzing, but my heart was fizzling. Times when my eyes were seeing palmetto trees and waves, but my heart was only seeing emergencies and problems. And there I was by my lonesome. Just me. Wearing the weight of my world. Cut off from real life by the walls of my own dark spiritual castle. Impervious to the beauty around. Disconnected from the people next to me. There, but not really there for anyone. This is a sermon ending that life and breaking into the life that comes from the Spirit because of Jesus. Listen in.
This is a sermon about love. Just that. Well - sort of. It's also about being loved. Thus, you see the title. It's worth listening to because love is that big a deal. We all need it more than we need anything else.
Humans are created to love. That is our God-given design. That is what we were always meant to do. To love. Even social science has finally noticed that about us calling humanity existential sharks. Why? Even science has to come to see that humans are always trolling in their lives for the next thing to love. We follow our hearts and seek to fill them. It’s what we do. Our hearts will be filled. The only question is by what. John here makes sure our hearts are filled the only saving way. Listen in!