The Wonder Of His Love V, The Wonder Of His Love

If you'd like to look along in those notes, you just might want to jot down four words that are going to describe what I'm talking about tonight. You know, it's interesting that beginning tomorrow, I expect, and then for the next six weeks or so, millions of Americans are going to be glued to their TV sets worshiping America's other major religion. What is that? Yeah, football. All right, no question about that. How we love our football. We've got all the bowls coming, you know, the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, and so on. Then the NFL playoffs begin. And it's a great time for the fans, and I'll certainly be amongst those who are watching and supporting our Steelers. But if you look carefully during any of the games, in the end zone, following the extra pointer field goal, it's very likely, if you look carefully, you're going to see a banner exactly like this one hanging against one of the walls in the stadiums around America. How many of you have seen that banner, huh? Yeah, it's all over the country. And just in case you miss it, there's somebody there usually wearing this. Don't worry, I'm not putting this on, not even for this service. I'll do it for the 11 o'clock service. Why does somebody commit so much of their resource and time to hang this banner on stadiums around America? Well, when interviewed, this gentleman said, God sent him on a mission. God sent him on a mission. And others have taken up the mission, as you might imagine, because these banners appear all over the country on the same Sunday. But these people believe that if folks just get a glimpse of John 3.16, that something's going to trigger in their mind, something's going to get down in their spirit, something might change their life. Now, some people are going to look at that. And I'm here to tell you that over 50% of Americans today don't know what that means. We're becoming biblically illiterate. A much higher percentage than that don't understand what it means. Some will look at it and say, oh, praise God, I would never do something like that. But I'm glad someone else is. And there might be just a few who say, wow, I wish I could be the one at the Rose Bowl hanging my banner down. But I want to share for just a few moments tonight, as we conclude this wonderful evening, on John 3.16. And I'm sure there's not just a couple of you wondering, well, gee, Jay, isn't there something a little more fresh you could come up with? I mean, John 3.16, I mean, we all kind of know what that's about. And here's what I want to say to that. Friends, Almighty God has always had a way in my life of taking the simple, common, familiar things and making the most profound statements with them. And I believe He does this because it's His own stated intent to confound the wise. And may I say, as I do this message for the third time tonight, particularly this service where we're mainly adults here, most of the kids have already been here, we need to ask God to protect us from our own pride. Because it's in the very simple things that God often speaks. It's in the very familiar things that He gets our attention. A while back, I was traveling in a neighborhood near my home, and I kind of went through a stop sign. You ever done that? And I've kind of done this a lot of times at that stop sign and never had any trouble. Well, this particular time, I was stopped by a traffic officer. And he very politely came over, and he said, did you see that sign back there, sir? And I said, well, yes, I did. He said, can you read what it says? I said, yes, obviously, he was having a bad day. I said, stop. He said, why didn't you stop? I said, well, officer, it's, you know, I mean, I go through all the time. It's not even an intersection. It's just kind of to slow people down. He said, that's right. He said, let me see your driver's license and your registration. I handed it to him. He said, North Way Christian. Are you the pastor of that church over there, that big? Yes, I am. He said, you're in trouble, aren't you? I said, yes, I am. And God got my attention with something very familiar. Let me just share this with you. Four things very quickly. First of all, John 3.16, for God so loved the world. The first thing God wants us to see is his deity. Write it in there, his deity. God exists. And friends, if you're here tonight and you're not so sure about that or you've convinced yourself there is no God, may I say to you politely and yet with all authority of scripture, you're just kidding yourself. You're exchanging the truth that you know about God for a convenient lie. Romans 1 says that God left his clues about himself all over the universe. There is order. There is design. There's intricacy that is not explainable any other way except by the fact that a creator was behind this magnificent place we call the earth. I like to say to people sometimes, just use another analogy. When you step out here tonight and get into your automobile, how did that automobile get there? I don't mean driven to that spot. How did it come into being? Two options I can think of. One, an explosion in a metal factory. Or possibly number two, someone with an intelligent design put it on paper and someone else created it with their hands and made that automobile. Maybe you don't have a particularly good one so you think it was some kind of an idiot that worked on yours, but that's beside the point. The point is that there was a design behind it. And God said throughout the world, my fingerprints are everywhere. My snowflakes, each one I've created and designed uniquely. But equally valid to all that is the witness in your heart that God exists because there's not a person hearing me tonight that hasn't at some time, perhaps alone in the middle night on your bed, awakened with the thought, I'm here. Pay attention. I'm speaking. Is there anyone here who's had a close brush with death? Maybe a near accident or calamity when you've walked away and said, wow, that was close. God must have been smiling at me. And friends, he was. God lives and he loves. There is a God and he's very close to us. The Bible says he loves the whole world, not just the environment, not the planet, not the stuff, but the people of the whole world. And that love began the moment you were conceived and will follow you throughout your life on into eternity until you choose one day. What your ultimate destiny will be. He loves you passionately as a bridegroom loves his bride. He's a God of great love. And the one thing I've discovered that amazed me about God when I really got to know him, more than any other characteristic, was this infinite, ongoing, unbelievably unconditional love that he has for me and for all who come to him. The second thing that John 3, 16 tells me is that God sent or gave his only son, the Deliverer. You see, people are made in the image of God. We're told that. We know that. We know there's something more to us. With all due respect to animal and plant lovers, friends, we're different than the rest of the world. And yet we know that from the beginning, we start on a path where somehow we're headed out in this direction and then we get off the path and we have some follow-ups and mistakes and we begin to stack up this moral deficit in our life. And despite the drone of the anthropological theorists who tell us that we're just evolving into some higher life form, friends, we are not getting better as life goes on. Things are not improving in terms of the nature of us. You're made in the image of God. You're not just some kind of bigger, newer, improved ape of 10 million years ago. We are beings with unique intelligence and creative ability and will. We have the power to do things the rest of creation doesn't even conceive of. We have the ability to relate to God like nothing or no one else. But we're also, if we're honest, realizing that even though we have all these abilities, we're not staying on track. And in fact, if we're really honest, we'd say that every once in a while, we stumble and fall or do what we call the Bible, or what the Bible calls, rather, sin. We act independent of God's will. We ignore His plan, His purpose. We often hurt or crush others in the process. And we do this knowingly and repeatedly in our lives, on and on and on. You ever wonder if there was a referee for life like there is in the NFL? If your little referee angel was following you around and every time you sinned, what if that little angel threw a flag like, whoops, there's a lustful thought for you. Whoops, oh, there he is, coveting his neighbor's wife again, you know? Oh, there he is, there's a gesture he wanted to show but decided not to, huh? Oh, there's somebody he didn't love. Now, wouldn't that be something? How many of you have some of these flags thrown? Even tonight when you're getting in the car yelling at your wife, huh? Do you have a problem like I do that I stumble and I fall and I don't always do what I want to do or what God wants me to do? The Bible calls that sin. And in fact, as I look back at my life, these flags started flying mighty early in my life. How about yours? In fact, how many of those of you with kids here tonight would verify that they're nothing more than cute, huggable, adorable little sinners that you're raising, huh? And they just keep refining their skill in sinning as they get older. And friends, it doesn't stop just because you get mature. In fact, let me just ask a question, a little show of hands here. How many of you sitting here tonight have shaded the truth a little bit in just the last month or so, huh? Let me see your hand. Yeah, most all of us. But if your hand isn't up, you're doing it right now, aren't you? We all do. We all do. We sin. And just look at our world. I'm not being a pessimist. I'm being a realist when I say things are not going real well. Every time we seem to make progress in one area of behavior, another area pops up. You know, kind of like that thing at Chuck E. Cheese where you whack one head and the other one pops up? And so the crime rate goes down a little bit, but the drug use goes way up. And the AIDS rate falls down, but the illegitimate pregnancy rate pops way up. Friends, there have been more violent deaths in the 20th century than in all the wars of recorded history prior to this. We are not evolving into something better. And we don't need to look all around the world. We can look just in our own newspapers and read about the dumpster babies, as I call them, every week another one, here in Pittsburgh, let alone the rest of the country. And so we need an answer. We need some way to change the trajectory of our lives, because if we don't, if we continue on in our sin, if we go throughout our lives piling up this moral deficit, we will die, and the Bible says very clearly, we will die under the wrath of Almighty God. And most Americans don't even understand that concept. But God will have no choice but to uphold His holy character by pronouncing judgment upon our sin and declaring us unfit to spend eternity in His presence. And we will be banished from the presence of God, the Bible says, not just for a week, not just for a month or year or a decade or a millennia in purgatory, but forever and ever separated from God. That's the plight in which we find ourselves. We will, John 3, 16 says, perish. The word perish doesn't mean to be annihilated. There are many people who say, well, you know, when I die, I just expect my candle will go out and I'll cease to exist. And dear one, may I plead with you tonight to investigate that. There's no evidence for that. In fact, the evidence is that there is a life after this one and that all of this life is just a preparation for the one to come. To perish means not that you'll cease to exist, but that you will be separated forever from the presence of the God of glory and love. Banished to a place created for the devil and his angels that the Bible calls Gehenna or hell. Someone's got to be thinking, gee, why bring this subject up on Christmas Eve? Let's talk about love and joy and peace and good stuff. But friend, I bring it up because you're an adult and because the only reason why God sent his son was that we would not perish, but have eternal life. We need to hear this message because whether or not you'd like to understand it, whether or not you want to face it, the wheels of divine justice are already in motion. And there will come a day in every one of our lives where we will stand before a holy God and give an account for every action, every thought, every deed of our lives. And God will bring down his gavel and he will execute justice because his character demands that his holiness be preserved forever. And even though he loves you, God will not compromise his holiness. You know, you may not like the American justice system, but once it gets going, it comes to a conclusion. I mean, we will know about the Johnny Gammage case and the OJ case and now, you know, Newt Gingrich or whoever else. Verdicts will be given out. And friends, there will come a day that a verdict will come down on your life in the eyes of almighty God and on mine. And may I say in all humility, the Bible tells us in advance what the verdict will be. Guilty. Guilty of sin. So the question is, how can we be set free from this plague that's upon the human race? Well, the third point of John 3.16 is that God sent his only son and we must believe in him. We must enter into a dynamic of faith. And let me just describe this very quickly. You see, people say, well, I believe in God. But that's not what this is saying. I believe in God just kind of means I have an intellectual assent that God exists. The idea of whosoever believes is the idea of whosoever puts the full weight of their trust in him. Or let me use a different picture. It means whosoever puts Christ in the center of their life, he or she will not perish but have eternal life. You see, there are many of us today who have God somewhere in the circumference of our lives. But on the throne in the middle of our lives is something or someone else. It might be that husband or wife that you adore. It might be those children you live for. It might be that career that's got you in its clutches. But it might even be you, friend, yourself. God says if there's anything other than Jesus Christ, then you've got the wrong thing on the throne of your life. But somehow this, you see, this whole matter of believing that someone else can deliver me, that's hard for us in America. We want to think that somehow we can climb our way into a better existence, that somehow if we just try a little harder, if we clean up our act just a little bit, if we avoid the big sins like murder and rape and abuse and drug dealing and liberal politics, if we steer clear of all of those, that one day we'll be pronounced okay. We'll hear God say okay. Why? Because we believe He's merciful, and He is merciful. My son Jonathan was learning to drive, and one late afternoon he had to borrow my car to run out to Evan City to see a friend. And I said that was fine. On the way back, he was driving from Evan City into Mars on that two-lane highway there, and apparently he was exceeding the speed limit. Now, it's going to sound like my whole family is a bunch of criminal drivers, but it's not that bad. He got pulled over. He was very, very downcast when he told me this story. He said, Dad, I mean, it went from 45 to 25 like that, and I just didn't see it. And I said, I understand, sir. I've been there, done that. And he said, well, what can I do? And you see, the officer pulled him over, and he said to him, he said, Son, you're racking up a big moral deficit right here. I want you to know that. And he said, Jonathan told him, I didn't know about this, officer. He said, well, tell the judge. And Jonathan said, well, Dad, should I go see the judge? And I said, well, you know, give it a shot. I mean, maybe he or she will listen to you. And I thought, didn't have much of a chance. Then I thought, well, maybe the officer won't show up. Well, sure enough, his day in court came, and sure enough, that officer was there because he knew he had him. Boom, end of story. And Jonathan stands up and presents his case, and he says to the magistrate, he says, I didn't see the change of speed limit. I was driving a car that had never been in before, and it was as thick as I hadn't learned before, and I was on a road that I hadn't been on before. It was all new to me, and I'm sitting there thinking, happened to be a female. I said, she's going to hang him out to dry and read him the riot act. But to our total amazement, she interrupted the story and said, well, you know, I remember when I was learning to drive, how hard it was to keep everything in your mind, and especially a stick. And that was a strange road, and you haven't been there before, and it's not that big a deal. It's okay. Oh, the officer fell off backwards in his seat. Jonathan just, God, he walked up, and he said, oh, this is great. And we celebrated. Now, friends, was that justice or mercy? It was mercy. I said, John, the next time, it'll be justice. I promise you. And friends, God is merciful. He wants to give you forgiveness. He wants to open your life to his plan. But hear me tonight. He's a God of justice. And he sent Jesus on the cross to pay the price for my sin and for yours. My final word to you tonight is, if you believe, if you put him in the center of your life, if you don't hide your head in the sand until next Christmas, but you face the reality of spiritual truth, and you say, I've got to come to terms with some things in my life, you can pull from all the resources of your background and say, God, show me what it is you want me to do, and ask Christ to come into your life, and you'll, number four, find your destiny, your destiny in God. You won't perish, the Bible says, but have eternal life. How can I describe in one minute what eternal life is? It's more than just forever and ever. Friends, it's the quality of life where we share it alongside an eternal God who we'll never be able to fully comprehend, but only find ourselves getting closer and closer and closer to his glory. You see, you receive from him a gift, a gift of eternal life. You're brought from death to life, from darkness to light, from spiritual alienation to spiritual adoption into the family of God. And it all begins when you get it, when you take John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. And so that's it. And when you see this tomorrow and the next day and every Sunday and every ballgame, ask yourself, who's in the center of my life? Who's calling the shots? Who do I believe in for my eternal destiny? Because that's what Christmas really is all about. Let's stand. O God, tonight indeed has been a night of miracles, Lord. And as we conclude in prayer tonight, I want to pray for the men and women, young people that you've brought into this service, Lord. And friends, may I say in the midst of this prayer, with our heads bowed, please, that not one of you has arrived here tonight by accident. You may have come because someone put some heat on you. You may have come because you just wanted to go to church on Christmas Eve, but God wanted you here to hear this message, to see this presentation, that you might know how much he loves you. But if you're really honest tonight, you know that Christ is not in the center of your life. Something or someone else is. And I have the privilege tonight of offering you God's plan of being reconciled to the Father. And the way you do that is by acknowledging your need, by repentance and turning to Christ. And you do that just beginning, in the beginning, by praying an honest prayer and asking Christ to come into your life and begin to change you. If you want to know eternal life, if you want to know that your moral deficit has been covered, would you pray this prayer tonight and invite Christ to make the change in you? Right where you stand, pray this prayer after me. Heavenly Father, just whisper the words to him. Heavenly Father, I do want to know you. I recognize my condition. I am in sin. God, I ask you to forgive me. I receive Jesus Christ tonight and ask him to be at the center of my life. In your name I pray. Friends with heads bowed, if you prayed that prayer for the first time, and I sense in this service there are also some people who've prayed that prayer in times past, but you've wandered far off and you've put something else back on the throne of your life. And the Lord is saying to you tonight, come back. Let me be where I'm supposed to be, in the center of your life. Would you give me the privilege of agreeing with you that tonight you opened your life to Jesus Christ? The Bible says when two or more of us agree on earth is touching anything, it will be done for us by our Father in heaven. Please don't look around or move around. Let's give the courtesy of privacy to everyone here. But if you prayed that prayer, if that's the desire of your heart, with heads bowed, I'm going to ask you to lift your head and let our eyes meet. And when my eyes meet yours, that'll be a signal, a sign saying, I've received Christ tonight. I want him in the center of my life. If that's true for you tonight, all around the room, heads are bowed, lift your head right now and put your hand up at the same time so I can see you. I won't embarrass you. Just hold up. Yes, just hold it up high. God bless you, miss. I agree with you in the front row. Are there others? Sir, I see you. Thank you very much. Don't be embarrassed. I agree with you. In the name of Christ. Who else is there? Hold your hand up high. Look this way. Yes. Thank you. I agree with this. In the name of Christ, receive eternal life tonight. Let him step right in the center. Don't be afraid. He's got a plan for you. Yes. Who else? Just lift your hand up high. Anyone else today? Yes. Thank you. Opening to Christ at the center of your life. If I miss your eyes, just wave at me. One more moment. I'll look around. Anyone else? Okay, honey. Thank you. I agree with you. In the name of Christ. Is that your mom with you there? God bless you. I agree with you. Thank you. Yes. And I see your hand, too. Right behind. Yes. A young man. Thank you so much. All right. Anyone else? Thank you, Father. Anyone else tonight? Who is that person that's here? That this last year has been the most difficult year of your life, and you have wandered far from God's plan, and tonight the Lord has touched your heart to say, come home. Give up that fleeting pleasure that you've been in and be restored in your relationship. Please, no one looking around. Who is that? You've been drifting far. This has been a difficult year for you. God's saying to you tonight, come home. Let me just see your hand real quickly. I know someone's out there. Yes. God bless you. Thank you, ma'am. I agree with you. The Lord's perfect love receives you and forgives you now. Thank you for sharing that. Look up, please, everyone. Thank you for just giving me that privilege. In just a moment, we're going to sing Silent Night. The seven or eight or nine of you who look this way, Pastor John Size is here again for the third time tonight. John's right in the middle of the auditorium by the doors. When we dismiss in a moment, don't be in a hurry. Stop over at the Visitor Welcome Center on the left side, and John will be there, and he'll have a packet of information about what it means to know Christ. It looks like this. Just pick one up from John. He'll be there to give this to you. He's got a tape and a little booklet, and it'll help you get back on track with the Lord. All right? Most important, tell someone what you did tonight and join us for worship. Start that walk with me. Let's sing together now Silent Night, Holy Night. Get your candles. If you have a little child holding it, please be sure they hold it upright so they don't get burned, and let's worship the Lord together. Michael. Silent Night Sleep in heavenly peace Silent night Shepherds quake at the sight Glories stream from heaven Heav'nly hosts adore Christ the Savior is born Lift your candles as you sing. Silent night Holy night Son of God Love's pure light Radiant beams From Thy holy face With the dawn of redeeming grace Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth I'd like you to turn to someone that you care about and tell them just tonight how much you care about them, how much you love them. Turn to one of your friends, your spouse, your loved one. Tell them you love them tonight. All right. We can extinguish their candles carefully. If you'll hold them upright, please, and as you're departing, the ushers will have boxes for you. I want to encourage you to drive safely on your way home and have a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year. Thank you so much for sharing this time with us. God bless you. You're dismissed.