Good morning, church.

Church. I'm hot, so I'm turning the air up. I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry. Hey, I want to welcome you this morning. I want to welcome you if you're watching us online. We still have a lot of our folks that are watching from home, and I completely understand that. Please continue to be safe. Please continue to be wise in where we go and where we place our hands. Wash your hands, folks. Just wash your hands, right?

If you're here visiting with us, there's some visitor cards located in the chairs in front of you. Just grab one and fill it out and place it in one of the churches up front. There's one in the back as well, too.

We'd just like to get some information just to touch base with you and just connect to see if there's any way we can love on you and serve you as well, too.

But before we dismiss the kids, we want to also remind you about the Skylark baby bottles that are in the back of the church right back there.

Please remember to grab one on your way out today. They've all been sanitized and all that good stuff, or you can take care of it online as well, too.

This helps Skylark to be able to provide cares and needs for a lot of the unwed mothers in the community that are having children, being able to provide diapers and cribs and food and even counseling as well, too, for some of these young girls, young ladies that are in some very traumatic situations.

So the baby bottles are back there, and it's also online as well, too. We're going to collect them for the end of this month as well, too.

So you get them filled up with changed coins. Chuck Westcott asked me last week if we could put bills in it. I said, yes.

He goes, you mean like water bill and insurance bill? I said, no, it's the wrong bill, Chuck, but you're on the right page, and that's Chuck Humor for you right there.

So at this time, we want to go ahead and dismiss. Was there any other thing I needed to touch base on?

I want to go ahead and dismiss the kids if you guys will follow Mr. Taylor out the back there.

If you want to keep your kids in the service here, and I understand that as well, too, there are some coloring things back there for you.

So no, Chuck, not for you, just the children. Help yourself as well as far as that goes as well.

So for the rest of us, let's grab our Bibles and turn to the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John.

I think this is message four into what's going to be a long series because we are undertaking the study of the Gospel of John.

It took us over two years to get through Genesis as we marched through Genesis and saw Jesus Christ in Genesis.

And we did take a few breaks in there in between, but today we get into, in our series, Faith to Believe,

because, again, I'm going to remind you a lot that we believe that by going through this study of the Gospel of John,

this Gospel will increase your faith.

And all of us could use a little bit of a boost in our faith from time to time.

We could use an extra dosage of faith in our lives.

And we believe that this will take place as we study the Gospel of John.

And today we get to a point in the message where we're going to see that today's title is,

Jesus is matchless.

He is absolutely matchless.

Jesus is unique.

There's no one like Him.

And John's going to spell this out for us.

I read several years back that there was a Gallup poll, and the Gallup organization did a poll.

And in their polling, they said that 81% of Christians claimed, 81% of Americans claimed to be Christians.

And I think that the operative word in that is claims to be.

Because if you probe a little deeper, and the question that they gave in the poll was,

what do you think of Jesus, or who do you think Jesus is?

70% of them said that He was not just another man.

Okay, that seems a little ambiguous, you know, that He's just not another man.

And so He wasn't just another man, so it makes Him just a little bit special or a little bit different.

Okay, 42% stated that He was, Jesus was God among men.

27% said that He was, Jesus was only a human, but He was divinely called.

And 9% said that He was divine, and He embodied the best of all of humanity.

So here's Jesus.

He's a little bit different.

He's a little atypical, and He embodies the best of the human characteristics, and thus that makes Him divine.

So it's very clear to us that the majority of people that claim to be Christians don't view Jesus as maybe you and I really should view who Jesus is.

And so even John the Apostle, when we get into the book of John, when he wrote this book,

he knew that Jesus was...

study this morning, and it tells us, it gets a little more clearer, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now when Jesus was on this earth, when Jesus comes to this earth, we call that the incarnation. The incarnation. God becoming man, okay? And so, and the world didn't expect for it to happen that way. First of all, they weren't expecting God to show up in human form, alright? And second, the people who were expecting Him, the Jewish people,

they didn't expect that when the Messiah came, it wouldn't be God. That wasn't their expectation. That the Messiah would come and He would be a ruler and knock out their greatest opposition, and that would be Rome. Okay? That's what they were leaning on. And so they weren't expecting this either. But God has come down to help us in our greatest time of need. And it impressed John. It's easy to see that Jesus really did impress John.

And I say that because in chapter 1 alone, John employs 22 different names or titles for Jesus. In chapter 1 alone. He calls Him Jesus. He calls Him Christ. He calls Him the Lord. He calls Him the Word. He calls Him God. He calls Him the Light. He calls Him Life. He calls Him the True Light. On and on and on.

But 22 different names and titles John gives them in chapter 1 alone. There was an evangelist 100 years ago. His name was Billy Sunday. And he wrote this. He said that there are 265 different names in the Bible for the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I suppose it's because He was infinitely beyond all that any one name could ever express.

Yes. And I think John would say, Amen!

John would jump up and down.

But today, today we're going to get in verses 14 through 18.

And just as a reminder, this is all still part of the introduction into the Gospel of John.

Really verses 1 through 18 is a synopsis of the entire Gospel. 1 through 18.

And it's really one message. We've just divided it up into three because I like to take my time.

So there you go. But what John's doing is he's summarizing the whole book in those first 18 verses.

And really verses 14 through 18 is kind of an encapsulated look of all of verses 1 through 18.

It's kind of the capstone of the whole summary, if you will.

And what John wants to make clear to us this morning is that Jesus is matchless.

Jesus is unique. And He wants you to know how unique He is.

And I think that that's probably the best term that we could use in describing Him in this paragraph that we're going to take on today.

And so John uses a word that helps us.

Because in verse 14, he uses the word, the only, or only begotten.

And you're thinking to yourself, well, you're really poor in math, Curtis, because that's two words.

But actually, it's one word in the Greek. It's monogenes.

Monogenes. And it means one and only, or only begotten, or the only unique one.

Okay? And it appears in verse 14, but again in verse 18, when it says,

No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side.

He has made Him known.

Now, John is the only one in all of Scripture that uses that term, the only, or only begotten, monogenes.

There's no one like Jesus.

That's what John is trying to say.

John wants us to know how matchless He is, how unique Jesus is.

And so he begins in the study that we're going to look at today.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory,

as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness about Him and cried out,

This was He of whom I said,

He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.

For from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side.

He has made Him known.

So in verse 14, basically it says that the first way that Jesus is matchless is that He's matchless, number one, in His nativity.

He's matchless in His nativity, okay?

In the way that He was born.

It's fascinating that 2000, that...

textless in his nativity the it tells us that the word became flesh and you think about it

christmas time is the best time of year for kids okay they think of presents they think of the

lights they think of the the bearded guy with the red suit all this other fun stuff and then for

teenagers they love christmas time because they get to get out of school they get to sleep in

later and maybe get some new apple products you know that's what christmas means to them

and for adults it means something different i mean family and friends we have special time

with them and then um we get to um we get to overcharge our credit cards that's what christmas

means for some of the adults and then we we end up buying these certain gifts for people that we

hope they haven't eaten too much food during the holidays and we insult them with the size of that

we bought them right and and uh that's what that's what christmas means but if you're a believer

christmas is usually taken off the information given to us in matthew and luke okay and for christmas

christmas christmas means uh shepherds and wise men and the manger and mary and joseph and all that but

john tells us the story behind the story this is what john gives us john basically in verse 14

tells us about christmas without even mentioning bethlehem or mentioning the shepherds or the wise men or

mary or joseph he gives us the real behind the scenes information he gives us christmas not

historically but theologically that's what john's doing he's giving us christmas theologically it's

the kind of stuff that if you were on the hillside with the angels you wouldn't know this stuff unless

god brought a revelation into your life if you were at the at the manger and you're peeking over at the

baby in the crib you wouldn't know this stuff unless john gave you his testimony and so what john does

is he gives us the answer to the question what child is this he gives us the answer to that and

this is what he says again in verse 14 the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen

his glory glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth so here's john sort of peering

over the shoulder of the wise men and the shepherds and the crib and he says the baby's the word the baby

is the word and that's the declaration he makes now again in by way of just brief recap we talked

about this a few weeks ago but the term the word it seems really odd to us okay if i brought up a

good friend of mine i say hey i want you to meet my friend the word you would look at me like you

you were kind of weird okay but again to the jewish and and the uh and the greek audience they would

know exactly what they what was meant by that it was it was well understood because the greeks

believed in the word and they called it the logos the logos and there were because they had an

understanding that there's some reason why the universe has so much order to it there's so some

reason why there's so much intelligent in in the design there's some reason why the sun rises and

sets every day and the seasons come and go and all this and so to explain it they explained it with

the term logos and so john comes along and he says you need to understand something the greeks you need

to understand that the logos is found in the person of christ he was the word he was with god he was

god and now he has become flesh and again to the jewish people they would understand that word as well too

they talked about the word of god all the time and the word of god was the source of all that god did and

who god was in the old testament it says and the word of god spoke and everything that he did he

created with his word and the old testament you read it says and the word of the lord came to so and so

and the word of the lord came to the prophets and so the jewish people understood that that's how god

moved in and through people was through his word and so so they were all about the word and so to the

jewish audience john is saying the word is christ he's the final word he's the final word and that's

why i love i don't know if i put this on the slides or not but that's why i love how the writer of

hebrews addresses the jewish audience um when he says long ago at many times and in many ways god spoke

to our fathers by the prophets but in these days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the

arrow of all things through whom all

gets the last word god always gets the last word and the last and final word is jesus christ and

so he uses that term but notice what it says in john it says that the word what that the word was

was created that the word was born no it said the word be the word became flesh it's the interesting

construction in the sentence here john wants us to know that the idea isn't that god created jesus

out of nothing like he created everything else okay but that the word christ was already existing

and then he became flesh he became flesh in the beginning was the word the word was with god

then the word um the word was god and now the word became a man it's a very simple statement but it's

a very profound truth okay in fact i think it's probably the most profound truth is statement

in all of history i mean think about it for a second the infinity became finite

in this statement the invisible now became visible in this one statement he's making okay eternity is

now squeezed into time okay the supernatural is now confined by the natural or if you prefer god moved

into our neighborhood for 33 years and decided he was going to hang out with us and the word became

flesh it became flesh it became flesh in the opening scene of uh camelot king arthur is seen standing

out in a field and he's not dressed like a king he's dressed in these this peasant garb okay and nobody

recognized him because he does he's not dressed like a king and in fact guinevere the first time she

meets king arthur doesn't know that he's the king over camelot and all this stuff because he what he's wearing

doesn't reveal his status it doesn't reveal his status and so the way jesus came did not reveal

apparently to the eyes who were dealing with him who he was but john saw it john saw it this is one of

the great imponderables of the scripture okay how it is that the word just became flesh i mean it's hard

to wrap your mind around it i remember one time i was like well i'm going to figure this whole thing out

i'm going to figure out really how the word became flesh and i drank a whole bunch of coffee that day

and i was going to just really push in deep on this thing and i blew a gasket okay i just blew a gasket

and some of you are wondering well that explains what's happened to you pastor curtis you know

but but i i you with the greatest minds and i'm not one of them can't figure this thing out you can't

really put a tag on it a.t robertson one probably the greatest greek scholar of the 20th century

he uh he said this that this is beyond the power of interpretation this is just a simple statement

that you take based upon evidence i mean that's why paul says to timothy without controversy

great is the mystery of godliness that god was manifested in the flesh

you know question how could how could and why would god ever become a person why would god ever want to

do that i want you to hold that thought we'll get to get to that in just a little bit

but for now i want you to see in verse 14 here's john he's basking in it and he says we have seen his

glory or we have beheld his glory now that word seen or beheld is theomaya the greek word is theomaya

and we get our word theater from it okay and in the theater you sit in the theater and you gaze in

one direction for two three hours okay and you're gazing in one direction and it means to study

intently to gaze upon and he even connotes scientific research okay and there's john saying we looked we

gazed intently this is the word of life and we have seen his glory now at some point we don't know when

but who jesus was really dawned upon john and he really connected the dots you know at first john

sees jesus and he says wow he's doing some cool stuff you know we're going to follow him and all

this but it's at some point in time time goes on the thought has to enter his mind oh my goodness

that's god eating fish that's god eating the fish that he made you know maybe i'm the only one that

thinks that way but that that's and john had to come up with the the to ask

who needed some messianic figurehead to follow no you have to understand what the new testament says about these guys thomas was a pessimist peter was a pragmatist simon the zealot was a terrorist okay and they're all in the same team hanging out with jesus for three and a half years and their lives were totally transformed by what they saw by what they gazed upon by what was revealed the glory of god was revealed to them and it makes me ask a question that i have to ask

i bring it up and i bring it up to myself well you know what before i get into that let me just address this i'm not going to spend a lot of time on this but i get the question a lot when you get to understand who jesus is people ask a question say

pastor curtis what did jesus look like you know you ever have people they i really want to understand what he what he looks a lot of people wonder this and here's the interesting thing

as much as john and the other apostles really gazed at him studied him and spent time with him and hung out with him they never told us what he looked like there's never there's not a physical description of jesus in the gospels of what he looked like

now if you look at the western depictions of christ he's he's sort of tall he's slender he's got long blonde hair and he's got piercing blue eyes

okay now i'm telling you if that's really what jesus looked like they would have written about that in the gospels because that's so totally different from anybody else who's living at that point in time

he would have looked so different from everybody else but the scriptures we understand that he's that uh it tells us that that there shouldn't be

there was no beauty about him that you would be enamored and if you look at this at the uh the dna testing and and everything else we know that most most jewish men during that point in time were about five foot one in height

the average guy okay and he probably had dark skin he probably had dark eyes and he had a beard because that was that was part of jewish tradition but he probably had short curly hair

so there you go there's your description of jesus but the point the the matter the matter of it of it all

is what you need to know is it it's not important what he looked like it's not important if it was important

they would have told us what's important is is what he did and who he was that's the important aspect

and so we we need to know that mentioning christmas a minute ago the greatest christmas gift

that you could ever receive is not some shiny package with a bow on it on the tree the greatest gift

was god and the package of skin that came to this earth he was matchless in his nativity the word

became flesh the second thing i want you to see in this passage is that he was matchless in his supremacy

verse 15 is going to bear this out for us anytime in the gospel of john where it mentions the name john

he's speaking about john the baptist john never addresses himself in the gospel of john yeah when

he refers to himself he refers to himself only as the disciple whom jesus loved he never brings his name

out to the forefront but he talks about john the baptist but as we read this so far the whole point

of john's writing uh the gospel in john one is is how uh how uniquely supreme jesus christ is right

because in the beginning was the word the word was with god the word was god yeah i mean he made

everything he's the source of all life he's the source of all light and so john is exalting him from

the get-go and now he now john the writer brings in john the baptist as a witness that jesus christ is not

only matchless in his nativity but he's matchless in his supremacy i mean john the baptist had a following

he had a strong following he was quite popular he was a fire uh fiery just

confrontive preacher and a lot of people had interest on in him some even thought that he was

the messiah and still he said i'm not that when he said i'm not the messiah they still had a large

group of people that continued to follow him and in fact in luke it says that the multitudes followed

him and in mark the the gospel of mark tells us that all of judea and samaria came

out to hear him john the baptist that's quite a following all right and in fact john the baptist

was so popular that when jesus died and and and rose again and the gospel spread throughout the

uh the earth there were already john the baptist followers in ephesus when paul goes in in acts chapter

you

i'm john the baptist is saying i'm not supreme he is he is supreme verse 15 bears this out john bore witness about him and cried out this is the one of whom i said he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me now what does that mean that means that john was born before jesus he's about six months older than jesus is and he started his he started his ministry before and john's saying i know i was born before him i know i started my ministry before him

but this jesus is but this jesus is god he existed uh from eternity from eternity and that's the statement that he's making here he is supreme and in that mindset let me give you a little mind bender here this morning jesus is the only person who ever existed before he was born you ever think about that the only person who's ever existed before he was born and jesus is going to say that he's going to say

say that to the jewish people who are going to confront him on one occasion remember um when jesus uh they confront him and they said are you greater than our father abraham and you remember what jesus says jesus says before abraham was i am before abraham was i am and you might be thinking well you know that's terrible english you're right it's terrible english but it's great theology it is absolutely great theology before abraham was i am and the jews knew

exactly what jesus knew exactly what jesus was saying because they picked up what stones to kill him they picked up stones to kill him because they said that was blasphemy and they said you being a man are making yourself out to be god bingo we have a winner somebody's putting the pieces together without realizing it you are claiming to be god and that's what john the baptist is saying he is before me he existed long before i ever came

um as great a preacher as i am in judea he is greater than i am he is supreme and so you know that that kind of begs a question this morning you know is he supreme in your life is he truly supreme in your life i mean you hear you hear you have john the baptist he's a notable guy he's famous during all the time during this period of time and john says it's not about me it's all about him it's all about him

he was before me he was before me he is the one who is supreme you know and so we who claim jesus christ who claim to be followers of jesus christ is he is he really truly supreme to us or is he just somebody that we pay homage to once a week or maybe just twice a year or is he really supreme in your life in my life is jesus really supreme he deserves that honor he deserves that honor

also jesus is matchless in his generosity his generosity verse 16

for from from his fullness we all have we all have received grace upon grace

he really likes this word he's used it four times already in the paragraph he mentions grace but

grace and truth come through jesus christ and uh in verse 16 i'll admit it's a it's a difficult verse to

translate because of the word fullness um and here's why it's difficult because john uses um never uses that

word uh in all of his writings um pleromatos pleromatos is the greek word he never uses that word except for

right here paul loves the term paul uses it a lot it's one of his favorite words as a matter of fact

that john only uses it here and i believe that what john is basically saying it what he means is that

jesus christ is the unique channel of god's blessing to us and it's based upon grace

jesus christ is the unique channel of god's blessing to us and it's based upon grace

not not not what we deserve but it's based upon grace now it says now we all receive grace in this

passage and from from his fullness it says we all have received grace everybody receives what is called

common grace

grace

grace

good times that's that's common grace common grace God gives that to all but once we say I believe in Jesus Christ and we come to him by faith we enjoy something else that's covenant grace and in covenant grace you you only get salvation you get the Holy Spirit you get peace and you get heaven to boot okay but all of that is in covenant grace now listen

listen carefully this morning every single resource that we need to live the Christian life is given to us when we come to Jesus Christ when we come to Christ we receive we get that covenant grace every single resource that we need to live out that life is given to us in 2nd Peter 1 it says that his divine power has granted to all of us to us all things that pertain to life

and godliness and godliness all things you see so everything you will ever need to please him to live for him to live victoriously is yours in Christ you you receive that when you come to Christ and you might be thinking oh but I failed along the way Pastor Curtis I have failed you know what that's right that's why right after grace it says what grace upon grace grace upon grace and you know what that means that means grace on top of grace on top of grace on top of grace on top of grace on top of grace

It means that when graceosters leave more comes when grace goes out the window more comes

It's like the ocean when you go out to the ocean you see the waves they come in the waves coming it breaks and it goes up to the shore and then it rescinds back

And what comes in next another wave wave comes in it breaks over and it and it and it goes up to the shore and it rescinds you come back in three days

What's happening at the ocean it's still breaking waves you send your grandchildren your great-grandchildren out to the ocean what's it still doing

It's still breaking waves and rescinding

Breaking waves and rescinding

And that's what he's doing again and again

He's saying that God's grace is exhaustible

It's inexhaustible

Excuse me, it's inexhaustible

And that's the whole point

From his fullness we all have received

He is so generous

Grace upon grace

And some of you might say, well Curtis

You don't know my problems

You know what, I don't know your problems

But I know that Jesus Christ has no problems

And he's given us everything that we need

Some of you have fallen in love

Too much with your problems

And you know why

You continue to go down a path of sin

And why you continue to choose sin

You love it

And then you come to me and say

I don't know why, I'll tell you why you do it

You wanted to

You wanted to

Did you know, I knew, I knew

Well why

Okay

Okay

You know what

And you might be thinking

Well

Brother Curtis

You don't know what I've been through

You know what

You're right

But I know what he's been through

And what he's been through

Enables you to have all of his promises

What he has endured

Enables you to have

All of you

All of his promises

So no matter how bad you are

How filthy you are

How hopeless you are

Listen

Grace can handle you

God's grace can handle you

God's grace is enough

And there's a great text in Romans 5

That says

When sin abounds

Grace overflows

For those of us who are in Christ

When sin abounds

Grace overflows

Literally

That means when sin reaches

The high water mark

Guess what

Grace comes in on top of that

Mind blowing

I mean

And he continues

He continues that thought

In verse 17

For the law was given through Moses

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ

And you see what he's doing there

Is he's drawing the line

Between the old covenant of the law

Under Moses

And the new covenant under grace

Under Jesus Christ

The law did come by Moses

But grace and truth

Came through Christ

The law just convicted sinners

Of their inability to keep

God's perfect standard

People looked at the law

And they said

Man I've blown it

I did that too

I did that too

There's a whole bunch of

Thou shalt nots in there

And I die

Thou shalt not it all day long

Well, you know, I'm not really a sinner, you know, I've done that I've done that well, then you're a sinner

But no, no, it's no no no no no no once it only takes one sinner, okay to under the law that you deserve death

Now my words that that's the scripture the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ

Let me just kind of just sum up the difference here. I don't want to get too off topic, but this is important under the law

Under the law of God demanded righteousness from man

Under the law God demanded righteousness from man under grace

God gives righteousness to man in Christ

Huge difference one God demands it the second God gives it. I mean Romans will say it's declared to you

It's right that righteousness is imputed to you

You didn't you didn't earn it you got it through my son

I'm giving you that under the law righteousness is based upon good works yours

Under grace righteousness is based upon a good work his

And so his his good work on the cross is enough under the law blessings accompany obedience

But under grace blessings now flow freely as gifts as it says here grace upon grace

Grace grace upon grace you will not find another religious religious belief system in all the world that has this kind of grace

Built into a grace upon grace tremendous truths here

But here's the bottom line of these two verses and it's really profound and I need you to understand this before we move on

Please pay attention. This is very profound. You need to lock in on this this morning. Listen

God loves you a whole lot in the Greek

It means a whole lot

He loves you a whole lot

Grace upon grace

man

I'm telling you there's some days I I don't know how I can I'm going to get through how I'm going to correct without

Grace upon grace

There are some days. I wish I had a yo-yo at the end of my tongue. I could take that right back

grace

upon grace

Now that grace card doesn't give you the give you the grace to do whatever you want to do

But there's a there's a new want to being birthed inside of you moment by moment

To live for the lord and to do things differently and to be a man a woman of faith that makes a difference for his kingdom

safe

You know

I used to

I used to love hearing billy graham preach and if you ever listen to billy graham's

Messages you could almost put it on your watch when he would say during his message

He'd be given a message and he'd say and I want you to know that god loves you

And then he'd give a few more truths a few more truth. I remember god loves you memory. Yeah, I remember god

He would say that over and over again

Man, this guy really wants you to know that god and that's true. God loves you

Billy graham wanted you to understand that the scriptures want you to understand that

John wants you to understand that the jesus christ came and he loves you so much

He's extended grace upon grace. So the only one really beating you up in this whole spiritual realm is yourself

Because who are you measuring up to

Me

Seriously

You're a winner already

If if i'm your bar

But if christ is our bar, that's so unattainable, but you know what helps us grace upon grace

upon grace

And then this also

Shows us that jesus is matchless in his clarity and what I mean by that is that if you want to see god clearly

You look at jesus

You look at jesus

He jesus came to make god

Clear

To make him clear to us

Verse 18 says that no one has ever seen god the only god

Who's at the father's side. He has made him known

Now I got to tell you a little bit about a translation issue your version may say

Uh may have the word son in there. Okay, and some of the better and newer translations render

You're going to

the only God who's at the father's side he has made him known the word was with God okay and and he has declared him it's a very powerful statement that Jesus Christ who is God begotten in human flesh came to make God perfectly clear to the world came to make him clear to the world now what does it mean when he says that no one has ever seen God it means that no one is that nobody's ever seen God nobody's ever seen

God in his in his pure essence his pure essence now um I know um I know that Moses uh had had a vision of God if you will but um but no one has ever seen God in his full uh undiminished glory uh Moses wanted to see God in his full glory and God said you can't handle it it will kill you if you saw me and there are people who who saw theophanies and had visions but no one has ever seen God in his fullness but the only God the only God

God the Son who is with God and he has declared him and he has made him known and that word the word that's used right there to made him known it it means explained it's where we get our word exegesis from it's where we get our word exegesis and it means that he broke it apart he came and explained and he lived it out and he reflected he reflected it so that when Jesus came people could go that's what God looks like wow

I was wondering what God looks like okay he moved into our neighborhood and we beheld his glory he moved down the street and we saw his glory we saw his glory we know what he's like without Jesus Christ God would still be fuzzy would still be unclear God would still be distant to us and unknowable but Jesus came in a way that men could understand God that's the reason for Bethlehem that's the reason for the man

that's the reason for Christmas is to make God clear in a package so that we could understand him he became like us he became like us now I ask you a question in the very beginning why would God ever become a person you know what's up with this whole incarnation thing and I want to just explain this in closing

you and I live in the natural world we are bound by the natural world okay our boundaries are the time and space continuum we don't live outside of that the time and space continuum that's supernatural that's where God is you ain't there okay and we're confined by it and you may want to get out of this time and space continuum but you can't go into a phone booth and turn into Superman and bust out into the supernatural into a different time and space continuum okay

you have a human nature time and space you're bound by it okay and though there are times I want to you know I want to escape the natural and I want to get in touch with God in a deeper way I understand that but every once in a while you'll have somebody come along and they'll say well if you'll just read the Quran five times five and pray five times a day towards Mecca then you'll punch a hole in that box

and you'll understand the supernatural my friend and you'll understand the supernatural

my friend and somebody else will say no no no that's not true

what you need to do is you've got to read the Bhagavad Gita and when you read the Bhagavad Gita

then that's going to really punch a hole in that box and you'll understand the supernatural

no no no no no no that's not really what you do what you have to do is you have to meditate on these crystals

very deep for a long period of time and when you do that that's going to punch a hole in the box and you'll understand

Man, you're in the supernatural.

But you know what?

You can't punch a hole in that box.

The only solution is that God had to crawl inside the box.

God had to crawl inside the box.

And man, did He.

He blasted our natural world.

And when the Word became flesh,

and we checked Him out,

we beheld His glory, okay?

And the Word was...

He was the only Son of God

full of grace and truth.

Full of grace and truth.

So He brought the supernatural into the natural world.

And that's why Jesus could say,

if you have seen Me,

you have seen the Father.

Because we have the same nature.

We have the same nature.

I remember years ago getting a really weird Christmas card. It was kind of shocking when I first got it. Because the card, on the front of the card, it had all these pictures of these world dictators on the Christmas card. Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Stalin, on and on, and all these guys. I was like, wow, this is really weird. And opened it up and had, like, you know, this is really weird.

It's got a little bit more explanation. And in the card, it said, history is filled with men who would be God, but only one God who would be man. You know, it's such a powerful statement. And there are people who puff themselves up and think that they, they're all that in a bag of chips. But there's one God who humbled himself and became a man. And that's why C.S. Lewis said that God, or the Son of God, became a man.

That men and women, that men and women might become sons and daughters of God. And that's the truth. And that's the truth. And that's the truth that can't be divorced from grace because he's full of what? Grace and truth. He's full of grace and truth. It's mentioned twice. Grace and truth. And so here's the deal about grace, this generous, unmerited favor.

God gives you grace when you believe the truth. God gives you that covenant grace when you believe the truth. If you don't believe the truth, you won't enjoy covenant grace. You'll have air to breathe. You'll have life. You might even have some good times. You might have good friends. Yeah. All those things.

But covenant grace comes when you believe the truth. And when you believe truth, grace becomes part of that experience. When you believe that covenant, that covenant grace allows you to fully understand what it means when it says that you have a peace that truly does pass all understanding.

That you have a peace that you have a peace that you have a peace that you have a peace that just the world can't explain. How can you be joyful in the midst of this trial, in the midst of this situation?

And I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, this day and time, if there's ever a time for the church to rise up and have grace upon grace in the midst of all the language and everything that's going on, and see people, see people as real people.

People are not comments. People are not statistics. People are not an interruption in your life. People are create, all people are created in the image of God. The Imago Dei has value.

And I know some people. And I know some people are hurting. Some people are mad. Some people are angry. Some people are just distant. Some people are just done. I get all that.

But how about if we treated everything with a little bit more of the fullness that he has bestowed upon us of grace upon grace upon grace?

I don't know what it's like to walk in your shoes every day, Matthew, and deal with the things that you deal with in life.

I don't know what it's like to walk in your shoes, Kevin, and deal with the things that you deal with in your life.

I don't know what it's like to be a young black man, Q, and to deal with the things that you deal with. I don't know.

and so it would be wrong

and very presumptuous of me

to just have an across the board

comment, stance

I'm going to get the worship team up here

because I'm going to go into another sermon here

on something that we don't need to go into

but I think it would be

we could wrap our hearts and minds

around the understanding

that if God has bestowed upon us

a grace that is unmerited

unwarranted

and never ending

I think we got a little left over

that we can pour out

for those around us

we can be gracious

because he was first so gracious to us

amen

amen

and because Jesus Christ

is the truth

the way and the life

he has made it plain to us

we can't separate the truth from that grace

you canarse

and we don't want to

show the truth from that

God

and that's

Jesus

and that's the way and the life

therefore

just a few weeks ago God doesn't have any grandchildren his he has no grandchildren you come to faith because there has been an arresting in your heart you there's something that's clicked in your heart and the Holy Spirit has captured you realize I have been living for myself for way too long and I have been making decisions and I have been making very poor decisions and I keep coming back and I keep wondering why do I keep going to this dirty

I keep going to this dirty well when I know when I know the water is stagnant and I know it's making me sick there's a new well his name is Jesus and he says I'm telling you you come and you drink from the water that I have you will never thirst again I will quench that thirst in you if you're watching today online and you've been confused about all that it's really simple

Jesus says all who come to me all who come to me all who come to me I will welcome them I will welcome them you turn from where you were come to me I will welcome you I will give you life I will give you life he'll say in John 10 I've come that you may have life I'm having an abundance overflowing an overflowing life that resembles the grace that he gives us it's overflowing

let's be instruments of grace let's be instruments of grace as we walk under the power of the Holy Spirit knowing that the Lord God what was that truth I told you you need to hold on to God loves you a lot loves you a lot look at some of your faces I wonder if you know that you know that God loves you a lot Mallory you know he loves you a lot yes you do

Rachel you know Rachel you know God loves you a lot amen when I think about how much God loves me I move to tears because see I know what's behind these two little beady eyes that look out here I know the sickness in this man and how what I would be apart from God and the fact that he loves me that much to give me a beautiful family

he loves you a lot

so today on Father's Day you who are here who are who are fathers here's your here's your uh or maybe one day might be fathers how's that every man in here how's that every young man even okay there you go

because it starts with it's it you're right I'm gonna get to the third circle

here's your assignment

just today just today whatever you do I don't care where you go eat um this is Father's Day so we get I get to

we get to do what we want for Father's Day right so what am I doing I'm taking the kids to summer waves

I thought it was Father's Day like holy cow I need to buy on the golf course and read

what the heck I asked you what you wanted to do and you would not tell me is that the Holy Spirit

three times yeah that's my it's my Holy Spirit wherever you go wherever you go I'm gonna do it

today it's summer waves I'm gonna find three people some way or another I'm not gonna be weird

I'm not gonna be whatever I'm gonna let him know I don't know if he knows

and the Lord loves you a lot

you are special the Lord loves you

it may be the very the very word that somebody needs to hear

maybe it needs to be said to somebody that's sitting close to you

it's a sweet reminder God is good amen amen let's stand up

raise amen father we just thank you that you are a good good father and there is none like you

Lord God we thank you for your word that is live is living is active Lord God we thank you for how

it penetrates our hearts and it changes us from the inside out that living word we thank you Lord

that you are the way the truth and the life and there is none besides you we give thanks and praise today

in the name of