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Advent | The Love of God · Bayside Davis Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bayside Davis Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to our current teaching series, Ephesians.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I would like to propose to you that the story of Christmas is a story of love.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Augustine wrote, way back in the day, the single desire that dominated my search for delight was simply to love and to be loved.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And isn't that true for all of us?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: For all of history, there's been a primary longing in every human heart.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're five or you're 55, or you're in between, or you're a little older.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: The primary longing of every human heart is to love, to be loved, and to be fully known and still loved at the same time.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the beautiful thing about Scripture is that God is highlighted in all of his perfections and character.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the highlights of God's nature is this.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, 1 John chapter 4, verse 8 and 16, God is love.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if you think about that part of the nature of God and you think about the nature of me or you, God completely, entirely, and thoroughly knows every single one of us.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And knowing us better than any person knows us, knowing us better than we know ourselves, God still loves us.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is a remarkable reality that is beautifully illustrated in the book of Isaiah, chapter 54, verse 10, if you would turn there with me.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 54, verse 10.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Tim Keller, the great theologian and writer, said, to be loved but not known is comforting but superficial.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: To be known and not loved is our greatest fear.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to what Isaiah wrote thousands of years ago, and this is right after the most famous chapter, I would say, in the entire Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 53, about the suffering of Jesus.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And notice what comes after that beautiful chapter of the suffering of Jesus, Isaiah 54 verse 10.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord who has compassion on you.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 54 comes after the most famous chapter in the entire Old Testament.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah 54 is picturing Israel who had wandered for years and years away from God.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, I don't want God, I don't want to follow him, I don't want to worship him, I'm not gonna put him at the center of my life.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, they were exiled.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this is years and years later, and in Isaiah 54, God tells a story of how Israel would be restored back to him.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And there are three points of emphasis in this chapter, really, that tell the story, that paint the picture of what God is about to do with his people.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: The first point of emphasis in this chapter focuses on Israel.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And in the first nine verses, Israel is pictured as a barren woman, a widow, and a divorced one who felt rejected and alone.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's Israel.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And don't think that this is because they're in a hard situation on their own.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's because they chose this.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something that happened to them, it's something that they chose for themselves.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: They were alienated from the presence and blessings of God through their own human rebellion, as many of us know in our stories.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: The second part of this context or story that God is going to tell in Isaiah chapter 54 is that not only is Israel pictured, but God is pictured.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Israel is pictured as barren, a widow, a divorced one.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: They had rejected God, walked away from their love and their covenant with God.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: But God is pictured as their redeemer and faithful husband who will call them back to a relationship with himself.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: They had said, We don't want you, God, and God all the while is faithful and waiting.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And all that God is about to do, as is pictured in chapter 54, verse 10, is rooted in, notice, his unfailing love.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third part of the storyline of chapter 54 is that God makes a promise.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know when you make a promise to somebody?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Our promise is not always unshakable, but God's promises are unshakable.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And his promise is a promise of peace.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, they've been wandering away from God for a long, long time.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: They had been separated from God.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: God was this faithful redeemer and husband, and God would, through his own faithfulness, restore that relationship.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful chapter.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the pinnacle of the storyline of this chapter is in verse 10, where God says three things about the motivation, the heart behind what he's about to do.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And all three of these things deal with his love for rebellious, wandering, unfaithful Israel, his people.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Notice each of these aspects of his love that are brought to the surface in verse 10.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, if you're a note taker, write this down.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not a note taker, maybe you write it down anyways.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, God's unrelenting love, verse 10.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet notice in your NIV Bible it says, My unfailing love for you will not be shaken.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just want you to focus on this phrase, my unfailing love for you.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: The term unfailing love is one word in Hebrew, it's kesed.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this term is used 246 times in the Old Testament.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And when we read it, we, you know, in our culture we think of love, and it's just really shallow often our definition and understanding of love.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: But this term love used 246 times in the Old Testament is pregnant with meaning.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: It means loyal love or unrelenting love.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's a reliability in the nature of God, there's a loyalty in the nature of God.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: One writer says, however fickle and unreliable humans may be in their relationship to God, he is nothing of the sort.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: But can be counted on in every situation and at all times to be completely faithful to his promises for his people.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Can I encourage you this morning?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: God will always be faithful to his promises to you.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: He has an unrelenting loyalty and love for us, his people.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can think of this as like God's unrelenting love toward his people is even in our own rebellion and wandering and doing things that are contrary to the nature of God, God is running after us.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: God is pursuing us in his unrelenting love.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is a declaration of God's love for Israel.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: In their wandering, in their rebellion, in their sinfulness, God is running after his people, Israel.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Even in exile, they had chosen to trust the Assyrians more than they trusted God.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, God is loyal in his love toward Israel.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: God is faithful even when you're not faithful.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: God is unrelenting in his love toward Israel, even when they were wandering as far away from him as possible.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is the story of Scripture.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is the story of Christmas.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: That God is a God of unrelenting pursuit in love for us.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the first story in the Bible?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great story.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Kids, this is story time.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve, God created.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they're there in utter perfection.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: They never had a bad thought, they never did anything wrong, they never disobeyed anybody.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're there in perfection.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that be awesome to experience that?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great story, kids.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And as they're there in perfection, Satan comes along and he's slithering like a snake and he says, Do you really trust what God said?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is God's word really trustworthy?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think God is holding out?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is temptation.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Temptation is always.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really trust God?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really believe that God is good and right and everything that he said is good and right for you?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And they decided to listen to Satan more than they listened to God.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they did what God said not to do.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: There was a tree.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know if it was an apple tree.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know if it was an apricot tree.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: The apricots go on trees, I think so.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know if it's an orange tree or a lemon tree or a lime tree or any of those trees.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: We just know it's a tree.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it had fruit on it.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And God said, You shall not eat from this tree.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: When you eat of it, you will surely die.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Kids, that sounds like a that sounds like a serious warning.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what they did?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: They said, We trust that God is holding out on us that there's something better that God has not given us.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they took from the fruit of the tree and they ate it.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And they realized for the first time in human history, in their life, that they had done something wrong and were separated from God.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: What did God do?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: God didn't go, shame on you, you've done wrong, I can't believe you've done this.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: God pursued them.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of chapter three, God covers them.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: That is the first picture of forgiveness and atonement in the entire Bible.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And ever since that story, the story of Abraham, chapter, uh, Genesis chapter 12, Abraham sitting there in Ur of the Chaldeans.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's a pagan, rich, he's popular, he's known, but he didn't know God.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's a pagan, just like I was.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was a pagan.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: That means I didn't know Jesus and I was living a contrary lifestyle.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And God was after him, and God spoke to him one day.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Rescued his life, changed his family, and changed generations because God was after Abraham.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Remember Israel in the Exodus, they're in Egypt, and they're building all these great buildings, pyramids in Egypt.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're building all this stuff in Egypt and they're in slavery and they're oppressed.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And God looked down on them and had compassion and he wanted to redeem them.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And God was after the redemption of his people and they were set free from Egypt.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Over and over.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: I could go through the entire Bible story, but you don't have the time right now.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: God has run after his people, and the greatest example of that, listen to this, kids, this is the best story in the Bible.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus became a little child.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, Wesley, what's that story all about?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus became a kid like me, what's that story all about?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: The story of Christmas is a story of God running after you.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: He could have stayed in heaven.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: He could have said, Oh, I like it way better in heaven.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go to a place that is broken and suffering, and people are doing wrong, and there's sickness and all this other stuff.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: He could have stayed in heaven, but he said, I'm willing to leave heaven because I am relentless in love for you.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: You remember what Bernice just read?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody turn with me to Philippians chapter 2.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: In Philippians chapter 2, what Bernice just read is essentially that story.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where in verses 1 through 8, we read about the back conversation that the Father and Son had in heaven of why Jesus was going to come to this earth and what he was going to do by becoming a baby.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is a picture, a story of God's pursuit of us in love.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And notice what he does.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, a couple things to write down.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what he does.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, Jesus came in humility.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: He says, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, which, if you read the previous verses, he says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, in humility, value others above yourself.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, when Jesus left heaven, he came in humility.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Everything Jesus did was the opposite of selfish ambition and conceit.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: He came to us in the humility of a human birth.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Who would have thought that the God of heaven, the God who created everything that we see and study, and we can't even plummet the depths of the wisdom of the creation of God, that he would have come in the form of a baby.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: That is the story of humility.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Second, verse 6, notice what else Jesus did.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not count a quality with God, something to be used to his own advantage, verse 6.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, Wesley, what does that mean?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: He was in the very nature of God.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is what it means.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not consider his heavenly state.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's up in heaven, it's perfect, he fully is robed in his glory.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't consider his heavenly state something to be held on to, but he left his heavenly state to become like one of us, to save us.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Man, if I was in heaven for all of eternity, I wouldn't be like, hey, I'm leaving this place to come to this place to become like one of you in order to save you.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: But the reason I wouldn't do that is I'm not God.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And for all of human history, God has been after us.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's been after you.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Third, verse 7, Jesus made himself nothing.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: He made himself nothing.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, what does that mean?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: He emptied himself.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's the original idea.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: This does not mean that Jesus emptied himself of his deity or certain divine attributes in his incarnation.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: The context is focused on a change of appearance, not a change of substance.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let me explain that to you.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is in heaven, robed in his glory and brilliance as the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he left that glorious appearance, and he became like me and you.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think most of us would leave our heavenly position to take on an unimportant position of a servant.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of John puts it this way: John 1.14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we beheld his glory.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: The glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: You could still see that he was God.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Even though he was in human form, even though he developed like a kid develops in that normal development of life, he never sinned, unlike all of us as kids.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: He never did wrong.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Never got angry with his siblings or his parents like us as kids.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was perfect.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: He was the only perfect human being.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he did all of that because he has an unrelenting pursuit of you and I.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Notice verse 7.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: He took on the nature of a servant.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Mark 10, 45, Jesus said, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a God, you would come down, and you know, you know, in those old Egyptian movies and stuff, they they like hoist you up, and you don't ride like in a car, you don't ride in a chariot.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: You ride with people holding you and walking.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't like, carry me around, worship me, like serve me.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was like, I came to serve you, 1045, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't come to be served by you, human beings, broken, wandering, flawed, imperfect.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: I came to serve you because this is my relentless pursuit in love of you.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, verse 8, Jesus humbled himself by dying on the cross.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus emptied himself of his heavenly form.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus humbled himself by becoming a servant.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus surrendered himself to die on a cross as a humble, self-giving sacrifice for imperfect human beings.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: What a story.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is the greatest story in humanity.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is the story that John tells in John 3, 16 and 17.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world, the imperfect, flawed people in the world, that he gave his one and only son.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: That whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish but have everlasting life.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Then John explains, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that awesome?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Kids, isn't that awesome?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Grown-ups, isn't that awesome?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, I love the kids running around here, so they're fine parents.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is real life.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Kids, you can have fun, fun, fun.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is God's unrelenting love for you.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice two more quick things in that Isaiah passage.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 54, verse 10.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, God's unrelenting love for you.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, God's unshaken love for you.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: He says, though the mountains be shaken, have you been in an earthquake?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the hills uprooted or removed.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Shaken as the idea of being removed or going away.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: It pictures a seismic change or an instability in the world.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you understand this.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're in California.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: You've been shaken a few times in California.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I remember my first earthquake.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was just in grade school, just a little kid.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Picture little Wesley sitting on his couch with my mom and my sister.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: We had two couches, they were blue.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then we had a big window, two bedroom house, maybe three bedrooms.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was tiny though, like a thousand square feet.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was packed.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: And there was Huge glass window right by one of the couches.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting on this couch.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: My mom, my sister are sitting on this couch, and all of a sudden we're sitting there and we're watching a show, a TV show.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: We used to watch those on a TV, not a flat screen, not a computer, not an iPad, not a phone, but a TV, one of those, like it has dimension to it.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we're watching this TV show.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: It might have been like Friday night, remember it's like TGI Friday or whatever.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is way back in the day for some of you.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're watching this TV show, and all of a sudden, I thought the I thought the dryer just went crazy.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: I thought the dryer was shaking the house, but then I realized it's not the driver because the windows were almost shattering.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: They were like moving, and I was like, oh my goodness, this is what they call an earthquake.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I froze.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone froze.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: We had no idea.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a pretty large earthquake.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they say though, the largest earthquake to come in the United States will happen in Oregon.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a great news that we're all in California.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: They are anticipating a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in like the middle part of Oregon near the coast, Eugene, where I used to live, and it's gonna result, listen to this, in a tsunami of up to 100 feet in height.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank the Lord we're in California.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thank the Lord I no longer live in the middle of Oregon.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, what a picture.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: What a picture.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, listen, back with me.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Come back with me.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: What a picture of the instability of life.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever experienced not an earthquake, but a life quake?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Where all of a sudden you're living life, and all of a sudden your life is shaken to the core, and everything from that moment on feels completely unstable.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: There are events that unexpectedly enter into our life that shake us to the core.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: The loss of a family member, postpartum depression, betrayal, the loss of a job, heartbreak.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I want you to know that even when life shakes you, even when life shakes me, it is so vital to understand that God's love for you and me cannot be shaken.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he says to Isaiah.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what Isaiah says to the people of God, that his love is unchanging.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: His love is constant.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: His love does not change based on the circumstances of life that may shake us.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's not changing based on human achievement or failure.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: God's love is our stability in a world that can often be shaken.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Can you remember that in this Christmas season?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: That God's love for you is your stability in a world that can often be shaken.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is what the psalmist said in Psalm 33, verse 22, where the Psalm said, May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Romans declared at the end of that great chapter in verses 38 and 39, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, neither any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, listen, listen, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing in all of our existence can separate you from the unchanging, constant, stable love of God for you.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, notice the third aspect of his love in verse 10.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: God's compassionate love for you.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says at the end.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about his covenant of peace, that there's going to be a restoration and peace.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last words, don't ever miss the last words.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Says the Lord, notice who has compassion on you.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: You might think that God is mad at you.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: You might think that God's going to strike you or judge you.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: You might think that God is mean, angry because of things you've done in your life.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not God.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: God is compassionate towards you.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Racham, to love deeply.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: The idea of compassion is to love deeply in Hebrew.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the story of the prodigal son, where you've got this father and he loves his two kids.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: One of the kids is like a religious boy, and one of the kids is like a rebellious boy.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the rebellious son, he says, God, give me all that I am due when you die.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna leave your house and I don't ever want to see you again.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he takes what's due to him at the death of his father, and he leaves, and he goes and does everything that is contrary to what his father taught him.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he realizes life in my dad's house was so much better than life doing my own thing.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he comes to his senses.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he wanders back home in utter humility, recognizing that his dad might reject him or judge him.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And what does he find?
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: He finds that his dad is celebrating in deep love and compassion for him when he comes back home.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's really important to know that when you're wandering away from God, God saw that you were lost.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: And God saw that you were able to change your situation.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you might be wandering through life, and I'm I was wandering through life blinded by my own sin and rebellion toward him, and God saw that we were unable to change our situation.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: There was nothing we could do to make our way back from back to God, so he made his way to us.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of that story, the prodigal son, it says that the father rejoiced over his son because he was lost and now he is found.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Have you been found by God?
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Have you come to your senses and made the realization that the God of heaven and earth loves you and has been pursuing you all your life, and today is the day to believe in Jesus Christ?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: G.K.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Chesterson, that great writer, said the way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how God loves us.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: People may wonder why God sent his son to earth.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: People may wonder the motive behind the incarnation of Jesus, that he became like one of us.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the motive behind it is that God is a God of compassionate love.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: He saw us in our condition, he saw us at our worst.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: He knew that we could do nothing to problem solve our situation.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so he sends his son.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually his son dies on a cross to forgive our sin and to make us right with God because of God's compassionate love for you and I.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to this, and this is the last I'm gonna say.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: I promise.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Tim Keller, one of his greatest quotes, he said this.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel is this.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared to believe.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yet at the same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared to hope.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know that love today?
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know that forgiveness?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know that this is not just a season of trees and presents and gifts and meals and family and fun and lights?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: All of that's great.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: But this is a season for you to personally know the love of God in your life.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: For God did not send his son to condemn the world, but God sent his son to save you and I in his unrelenting pursuit because he loves you.