Love Defined | Week 7

Know, since what Ben was just talking about is kind of a perfect setup for what we're gonna be talking about today is this last part of the Love Defined series. We're gonna be looking at this letter, three John.

And we've been going through first, second, and third John and looking at how love's defined, and and Jesus is the definition of love. And we've been... And we've talking about that. And and and today, the the letter is he's writing not to a church, he's writing to a guy named Gaius, and he's commending them for being someone who's welcoming. It's funny because last week, second John, he went after church to say, let's be careful what you're welcoming in because you're welcoming in false teachers. You're welcoming in issues. Be careful. This time he commends someone at another church that he's gonna go visit. He's good job for being welcoming. And what he meant by welcoming is not just being friendly, but actually partnering

and making room.

Making room for the mission. But ultimately it comes down to making room for the name as he just read, that scripture he read. And what does that look like? And I wanted to add one more story because what I wanna share with you is exactly what he's commending him for. Because it's kinda like it's our modern version. We as a people are doing the same thing that he's commending this man for doing in his church. And what I wanna show you is one of our church plants that we've worked... We work with, Nando. I don't know if you know... Remember Nando. He was here. He did a residency with us, and then he planted out in Buckeye. He's been going for eight months.

And he made a video just to share what's going on and to and to and to thank us for for for partnering with him. So let's watch it.

Hey, Rock Point. Pastor Nando here from Social Church and I just wanna share with you how good God has been these eight months since we've launched. We've seen over a 100 people give their life to Christ. We've seen 85 people go public with their faith through baptism and we're averaging 620 people in attendance each

Sunday. We actually just added a third service a month ago. So in addition to our English service and our Spanish service, we have a bilingual service so we can serve our English speaking community and our Spanish speaking community together.

And all of this happens because of you. Thank you for being such a kingdom minded church. Thank you for your generosity. Gracias. We can't thank you enough. We are an extension of you here on the West Valley, so receive a big hug from all of us and we hope to see you soon. Thank you Rock Point. Amen. I

gotta follow-up with him because I don't even understand how his third service works. So he has English, Spanish, and then a smash burger version, Spanglish.

And and and so... But I'm proud of them. It's awesome. And we get to be a part of that, guys. And like like Ben said, if you if you if you give here, if you serve here, you're part of that.

You're a partner with that because that's what it's about. And so in three John, that's kind of a good setup to kind of the context of what John is writing. And if you don't know anything about the Bible, this is John. He wrote the Gospel of John. He is the last surviving disciple that literally walked of the original 12 that walked with Jesus.

And he's helped start these churches. And he's... This this this letter is another one of like two John. It's a text message saying, hey, I'll come. Talked about something, encouraged him and says, We'll talk more when I get there. But what he's really doing is he wrote to college because he says, in other words, he is showing us this final thing of love defined is love

makes room for the name. Love makes room for the name. The name of Christ as it says in verse seven. And what that means is hey, when we make room for the name, it's we've put Jesus in our life. Jesus is first. And when we make room for him because he made room for us, it's not we don't do this so he'll love us.

We make room in our lives because he already made room for us. And when we do that, we actually will respond in love. We will respond to God's love. We will live out this love, and we will make room in our lives in the places we will we will we will put Jesus in the place it should be. We will allow him into the spaces.

We will allow it to be and organized around that. In other words, we will do what he keeps saying. We will love God back, and in loving God back, we will obey. We will get on... And in obeying, we will love others, which is the mission. We will point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. It's not you do this, get your act together so God will love you. It's supposed to be an automatic outpouring

of really knowing God, of really seeing God. And so what I wanna do is go through these verses five through 11. Ben already read five through eight. I'm gonna start at nine through 11 because I wanna start with the negative because he writes to encourage Gaius,

and that's what he says in five through eight. And and and and then he's saying, Good job for making room. But then he he then goes on to say, But don't worry about this guy named Diatrophes.

And I I had to look up how to pronounce it. I thought it would be Diatrafis, but it's Diatraface. So I remember it, Diatra, in your face. This guy who was in the church, he believed in Jesus. He was part of the... Somehow a leader in the church that Gaius is a part of. But he believed in Jesus,

but he just wouldn't believe Jesus. And so he had the right theology about who he was, but he wouldn't make room for Jesus' life. He he was a control freak. He was... He would he would take room.

And so that's what I wanna start with. The simple two two points aside. If we're gonna make room for the name, it means we gotta stop. Don't take room, but make room. And that's it. It's really so easy, even a caveman can understand.

And and so in... So he talks about not taking room in verse nine. I wanna start there and what... And explain what that means here and what it means for us. He says, I wrote in verse nine to the church by Diotrephes, who loves to be first.

Now that loves to be first. Like sounds like he likes to win. It's literally talking about taking up a place. He likes to be in that place. He likes to be there. He likes to... And so because he likes that place,

he takes that room. He won't make room. He won't allow for other people to be in that room. He's he's getting in the way. And and and and so what it says, because he explains. He goes, who loves first place will have nothing to do with us. John himself. The apostle John.

So he's in this church. He says he believes in Jesus. He's like, I don't want John around here. And then he says, so if I come, I will throat punch him. He does. He says, I will call attention to what he is doing. He's just more polite than Paul. And he says, Gossiping maliciously about us.

Not satisfied with So he says, he comes and he goes, he doesn't like that John is teaching this stuff. Be welcoming. We need to be going out there. We need to be making room for others. We need to be partnering and all these things. He's like, no, John's terrible. He's mad at what they're called to do.

And so instead of addressing his issue with Jesus, he's ripping on John. He says,

Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. I will not partner in doing ministry. I'm not gonna love these others. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. He runs people out of the church that want to be involved and serve and share the gospel and all of that.

So he says, Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. So he says, Don't be like him. Don't be a diatrophace. He says, Don't take room that's not yours. And he says, When people do that,

he says, It's because they haven't seen God. So he's talking about someone in the church that actually believes theologically and doctrinally who Jesus is. But he's in the way. Because he he... It means he hasn't seen God.

And and what what that's trying to... What that reminds you of in John's writing, it it evokes back for me to the story of Job.

The story of Job. And and and the story, if you don't know that story in the Old Testament, Job was a guy that was faithful to God. He believed in God. And then all of a sudden,

Satan who's the accuser, he likes to accuse, and he's like, Oh, that guy only follows you because you've made his life so easy. He's rich. He's thought everything's gone well. And so he goes, No, that's not true. Go ahead. Take stuff for you. You can't kill him, but you can mess with his life. Go ahead.

And his life goes bad. And he has these spiritual friends come to him and say, You know what the problem is? God's... This is punishment. You've sinned. God's punishing you. And you just need to own up to that. He goes, I haven't sinned. I did my sacrifice. I've done this. This is not... He actually refuses

to throw... To say God's being unfair or whatever coming after me. He says, that's not true. And then his wife actually comes to him at one point and says, yeah, I don't think it's about your sin, but I think God's being a jerk. So she goes, You should just curse God and die.

That's really good. His real problem was, it sounds like he needed marriage counseling. But he gets that point and he stays faithful. And then in the end, the one thing he does hold onto is he goes, I will not throw God out of the bus. He's not doing this to me because of this. There's a reason.

And he owes me an explanation. That's the thing he held onto. He wouldn't sin, but he felt like God needed to tell him why. Like God has some explaining to do. And so then God shows up and talks to him. And God says, Hey,

who darkens counsel with words without knowledge? That's the old King James, right? I just like the way it says it. It's who darkens counsel with words without knowledge? Very Shakespearean. It says, Who's the idiot that's asking questions about things they know nothing about?

But he's not mean. He speaks in the truth and love. And what he shares with them is he starts to say... He reveals something to him, but he doesn't answer his question. Because he answers what... He gives him an answer that he needs, not the answer that he wants.

He says, If I just told you what happened, you'd be still just as confused. He revealed himself to Job. And for chapter after chapter, he goes, Let me ask you some questions. I'm gonna answer your question by asking you some questions. Were you there when I made the hippopotamus?

Were you there when I made this? Were you there when I designed the Arizona Cardinals to break Bill Bush's heart year after year after year?

He even... I love the one that's actually true. He's like, Are you the one that can tell every lightning bolt where it should go? He's basically revealed himself and he showed him creation. And John got the point because he saw God. I mean, not Job. He was like, You're right. It doesn't matter why all that happened

because I know the one who's in charge. And he took the time to reveal. And so Job 40 two:five, right at the end, it's one of my favorite verses in all scripture. When he says, Before I had heard about you, but now I have seen you.

People that have actually seen God through His word, seen God in life, and understand how much He does love us and who He actually is, it's called the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom, it says in the Bible. And then you hear fear. That doesn't mean God's not mean He doesn't want you to be afraid like mean afraid. It means I so respect, I've seen Him so clearly that I can respond like, You know what? I am the idiot that was asking questions I didn't understand because you are wonderful, you are awesome, you are bigger than me. I don't need to worry about that.

When you have the fear of the Lord, you stop fearing everything else. And he's saying, has not seen God clearly. There is something wrong with the way he sees. And so the problem is most of us struggle with making room in our life for Jesus where he wants room to be. And I get it. I'm with you on this.

I don't think or like, thought he was in church. He thought he was being faithful. Most of us think, Hey, I do love Lord, I do. But there's things that we're just afraid of because God calls us to crazy things. And we can be afraid. And if... So it's not this... None of this. None of this is about love defined as make

room so he'll make room for you. It's exactly opposite of that. You need to see how he made room for you and then respond to that. That's what he's saying. They haven't seen God. Do you see God?

In other words, he's trying to tell them that being a Christian, being a part of the body of Christ... Because just being... Nobody's just individually, I'm a Christian, that wanders the world. We are called to be a part of a body. And so if I'm gonna be a part of a church, the thing that what

diatribeface is doing that we have to face is the same concept as this. We have got to remember that being a part of the body of Christ and the church is for us. It is. It's very much for us. But it's not about us. That's different. He made it about him. When you make it about you instead of just something for you,

you'll refuse to make room for people, for where God wants to work, for where God wants us to go, instead of having it for us but not about us. Let me... Here... Give me an example. I'll I'll use this illustration. Anybody heard of the, you know, the the Miracle on Ice, the nineteen eighty US Olympic hockey team?

I'll tell the rest of you that, you know, I I normally like sports illustrations, but in this case, I'll talk about hockey.

I got booze and all the other stuff because we have Canadians in the room. The Canadians are like, Sorry?

No, I like hockey. Disney made a movie, Miracle, years ago. Kurt Russell played the head coach, Kerb, I forgot his last name. But

what the problem was is back then, you know, you couldn't have pros in the Olympics, but the The Soviet Union had found a a workaround on that when it came to, their hockey team. They were all basically pros. They just didn't play in a professional league.

They just got fully funded and supported to just do hockey around. Matter of fact, they were so good that in pre games leading up to the Olympics, they played the NHL all star team and and smoked them.

That's how good they were. And then we knew they're gonna have to play. And the United States team was a bunch of college kids from all over the country. They were very talented hockey players. But in pre Olympic games, they got beat a few times by teams they should have beat.

And so they didn't look as good. And so they actually kinda show this in a scene in the movie where the coach realized what the problem was. And this was what he said. He goes, How do I get all these great talented players from all over the country to be one team?

And so he saw how they were playing, and he got them out on the ice and made them do sprints until they were throwing up. Until finally one of them breaks. He goes, who do you play for? He goes, USA. And they all said USA. He goes, good, we're done. And then he said one last thing.

What he needed him to realize, and he just said it out right, he goes, what you guys need to realize is the name on the front of your jersey is a lot more important than the name on your back of your jersey. Now if you don't understand how jerseys work, the name on the front was USA. The name on the back was your name.

Now did that mean you're worthless? No. Did that not mean that being on the team was for you? It was for you. Matter of fact, the coach made the roster spot and picked you to be on, invited you to be on the team. So it is for you, very much so. But what you gotta forget is the name on the front is what you're playing for. The name on the front is what it's about. The name on the front. So you put yourself aside. Yes, I get to be a part of the win. Yes, I get to play the position. Yes, I get to do all this. But it's not... It's for me, but it's not about me.

That's what diatrophace is doing. And I believe that's what many of us struggle with in this room right now. We have our jersey on backwards. Yes, I believe in Jesus, but he's in the backseat. I'm living for this name. So when this name suggests I do something

going that. We're we're because we gotta make do room. To Gotta make room for it. Where is my name taking space that Jesus wants to use? Because don't be the diatrophes. He says instead of don't take room,

make room. Now we go back to verse five. Let me read five through eight again. I'm gonna say this is how he shows how, what it's all about. Verse five.

Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they're strangers to you. They have told the church about your love.

You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. It was for the sake of the name. That's where I got the big idea. The sake of the name. That name is Jesus that they went out. They understood, and you do too, that the front of your jersey says Jesus. And you know that.

And he goes, we ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we we work together for the truth. So he says, and that's not just about in this thing. He's talking about in the whole church. We work together. Hospitality is more than just being nice and saying hi. It's literally

working together and partnering together and welcoming in and making room and inviting it in and knowing I'm a part of this. And then he says, so we can partner together. That word for partner there where we get the word synergy. It's where we get the word synergy. So what he's really saying is this.

We make room for people with what we have as partners synergy with Jesus first. That's what love is. When he says, If you love me because I've loved you, you'll love me back, you'll obey what I do. And he says, Love others, do this. That's what he's saying. We like to say, On mission, but mission doesn't sound as personal.

But he says that's what our goal is. That's what the church is called to be. We don't just sit together. Synergy. We work together towards a common goal. That was the problem with the Olympic hockey team. They skated together as individuals. They needed to skate together as a team for the goal.

And that's what he's calling us to, to make room with Jesus first. To make room with Jesus first. But the problem is it's hard. It's hard. Because if I'm gonna make room, I can't just add. You you you you gotta actually make room. You gotta clean some stuff out.

And and and and and and and so you gotta clean out. Like, here's how I think about it. And I think a lot of you can relate this. When I was a kid,

my my parents would make me clean my room every Saturday before I can do anything else. Now we're supposed to pick it up all week, but you know, it just gets cluttered so then they go and clean it.

And the issue for me was I would go in there and I hated it because I just wanted to be outside. All my friends were already outside. I'm like, they don't have to clean their rooms apparently. And and so then I just wanted to go do mo... I wanted to be happy. I wanted to go do happy things.

And so I would run-in there and like five minutes later, clean. And my dad would walk in and it was. It looked perfect. My room looked great. And then he's like, yeah, but it only took me five minutes? He goes, hey, let's look in the closet. And then I turned into Gandalf. Thou shall not pass.

And saying like, you don't wanna go in there. And he's like, get out of the way, son. And he'd open the door and like a stage three landslide would come over him and bury him. It was like... Because he knew what... He goes, There's no way this looks that way in five minutes.

And and what I did is all week, I would... That's how I kept it uncluttered all week. When I ain't gotta straighten it up straighten it Straighten it up for me was I just threw things in the closet.

I'm done playing. Put all your toys away. Alright. I did. You did? You already put them away? That's because I just threw them in the closet.

And and so the closet... And and and I would throw trash in the closet. I would be like... So my dad's sitting there. He's like, what's going on? He's like, see, either... He goes, You gotta put everything away. He goes, There's no room. There's no room. And he goes, No, there is room.

And he gave me two simple principles on how you clean a closet. And many of you, kids, listen. Some of you parents, listen. There's two things you do because you get overwhelmed. When you look at all the mess, you get overwhelmed. Goes, yeah, you're overwhelmed. This is all you do. You make two piles.

That's trash. It doesn't belong here in the first place. That needs to be reorganized and put back in his place. That's it. That's how you clean a closet. My dad was smart. He was able to...

You know, and it was like, so. Then my my... He would leave and just say, You can do it. And my mom was nice, so he'd come in, I'll help you do it. That's... My mom's like, Holy Spirit. He's like God the Father. And then my mom's like, all right. I'm there for you. Come on. You think that's trash? And like like... Because he's sitting there going like trash? What do mean? He's like, there's an empty pizza box in my closet. You know? Stuff like that. That doesn't belong there in the first place. So then all a sudden you do that and you start figuring out. You get it cleaned out. But at the time, you know, you're thinking, I'm so upset because I can hear everyone playing outside.

I can hear them. One time I heard outside, where's Billy? He has to clean out his closet. And everyone's like, like, I'm getting mocked.

And I was so mad until all of a sudden I figured out that sale. All of sudden, okay, that's trash. That's trash. I said, put everything back. And not only did everything fit fine, I had plenty of room. I had plenty of room. There was room for more stuff in my closet.

And here's the weird thing. Every time I would try to get away without cleaning the closet, even if I did and I went out, I knew that it was hanging over my head. I knew my room looked fine, but I knew my life was not organized. It stresses you out because every time I had to get something out of my closet,

it was a lot more work. I couldn't find stuff as easy. It was a pain. Toys would get lost or broken. I I I... So even as a kid, I remember that one time when I finally figured this out, I'm like, why do I have such an awesome feeling looking at my room with my closet all organized?

You ever done that? You get everything that's like, wow. That felt different than just straightening up, throwing everything in the closet, and sneaking outside to get it wasn't as fun. Now even going outside had more joy to it because it was organized. It's the same spiritually. Many

of us are so afraid that we just cram stuff in our closet, and then we hear make room, and we look in our messy life, and we're like, we have a mess in there. Yeah, because we have clutter. There's stuff in our life that shouldn't be. We need to throw it out.

And then we need to take the stuff that is in our life and put it in its right place. Put it on the right shelf, and use it how it's supposed to be used and place it where it should be. And when we do that, because God already loved us, that's when we get a peace that transcends all understanding.

It's different than happiness. Living, fixing yourself up, coming to church and acting a certain way, being nice and forcing yourself to do stuff in the seen part of your life, the actual living part of your life, while ignoring and cramming everything in your closet is pursuing happiness.

Pursuing that holiness that God died to give us actually gives us peace, joy, contentment. It's not about performing for God, it's about letting him give us the thing we really want and need.

And that's why I wanna say, if God wanted me to make room here, why didn't he give me more of? Why didn't he give me more space financially? More space with time. More space. You don't need more space. We just need to organize it. And he's not trying to take something from you. He's trying to give something to us.

So real quick, what do I mean by that? I made a list of some things like, where do I need Jesus to be first? Where do I... What? To clean out my closet. Where are some things I probably need to make room for? Well, here it is. For Jesus to be first. You want him on the front of your jersey? Make room in your home.

That's what I mean. It's like, hey, do you clean up, come in here and you look the part, but then when you go home, it's like you... We come in here and act like, I I believe in Jesus. And then go home and don't believe Him the rest of the week. It's like what's trash that needs to be thrown out?

What things in your home need to be put on the right shelf? And what do I need to organize in my life for that? Make room in my schedule. And and that's in your time. Like, do I make room for the brothers, for community, for ministry, for service?

Do I do I do I make it, or is is it filled with all this clutter of everything else?

Because everyone says, I don't have enough time. If we don't have enough time to have these things on our schedule that God says, These are good for you, this is love, that means you're spending time on stuff you don't need to be spending time to. God's not gonna give you twenty six hours a day.

And most of us are trying to go beyond that anyways. We don't get enough sleep. And it's because we need to organize the closet. Make room with the resources. That's obvious. Make room in my relationships. Do I actually

do I actually ever tell anyone that I am a Christian or go to church? Do I share story with people? Do I pray for people in my life and invite them to church? Do I do I make the gospel the goal?

And do I make room in this church for more people to meet Jesus? Serving in this church. Giving in this church. Giving here. Tithing. That makes room. Literally. Literally. If if if everyone in the room actually tithed, we'd already have all the extra seats. We would literally have more room.

But you know how you have made room like a lot of people have? I've asked. We've been trying to get a thousand people to switch to Saturday nights

just recently, and I made a push for it. We had a little over 300 already do it. It's been awesome. And I just want you to let you guys know, because if you look around, you say, I see seats. This room is too full already. A room will consistently not stay above 70% full. It's kinda like when you go to movies,

you will occasionally go to a brand new movie you love and you'll stand in line early and it'll be crowded because you're excited. I just really wanna see this movie. But if it was like that every time you went to a movie, you wouldn't go to movies.

As we actually like it, it used to be 80%. But since COVID, most rooms will not consistently stay over 70% full. This room's already 85% full. It's already too big to grow. We've had 300 people move. In the same time that we have 300 people move, like I said before, we've had almost 400 people now come to Christ.

And most of those were on the weekend, on Sundays. So when I'm asking us to move, I get it. If you serve in the first service or the next service... This is the middle service, right? I lost track of what time it is. This is your service. I'm not asking you.

If if you're here because you have friends that don't know the Lord that you've invited and this is the only time they can come, come. But if there is any other reason, maybe you work, this is the only... I get it. But I'm asking you, for the sake of others, go to Saturday night and you will lead someone to Jesus.

And that is love. That is love. Because it happened. Every time it happens, 300 move. I guarantee if 300... If 200 people in this room switch to Saturday nights, y'all will have led 200 people to Jesus. I promise. And that's what it means. Make room in the space. And a lot of... They did. People have done it.

So this is what it means, but make room. But here's the problem. It's fearful because if I don't clean out the closet and organize it, this seems like I just said, Take your life, take the chaos, and I want you to add this and throw this in the closet too. It won't work that way. And you're afraid,

and this is where it comes down, do you believe in Jesus or do you believe Jesus? If I made room for resources to tithe, yes. It scares you because most of us in this room are already living beyond our income anyways. It makes no sense.

Having God on your side with 90% will go way further than what you're doing with 100% by yourself.

I promise you that. I promise you that. And same with our time. Same with that. This is not do it or God doesn't like you. This is make room because he already made room for you.

And and so what... Where do I need to go in that? Make room. Make room. And and why? What I already said. Because Jesus already made room for us. John himself in his gospel, in chapter 13, he described how much Jesus loves us and he came to serve us. He came, and even though he's God,

when he came in his life, he didn't make it about him. He made it about us. He made it about loving us. In in in in John 13, he describes how Jesus, Lord of all, got a towel out and got down on His knees and washed their feet.

And then in John 14, he describes how Jesus says, You know what? In my father's house are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you. He literally went to prepare a place for us.

And then in Philippians two, he talks about how he humbled himself. Even though he was God and equal with God, he didn't claim it. He came and became a man and humbled himself all the way to dying the death of a criminal on our behalf. And over and over and over the Bible says, His is the name above every name.

And and we'll sing that. We're gonna sing a song about that before. And here's the funny thing. Are we being hypocritical when we sing name above all names? When we really know our name is above His name. And how we know our name is above His name is when I say I believe in Him,

but there's something in my life that I just won't believe Him on. Because that means I'm not I'm afraid. I get it. And that's where the joy is. He's commending guys because he got it. He goes, I get it. We're afraid. But we don't make room so Jesus will make room for us. We make room because he already did.

That's the whole point. And you know what? It's a simple point. And sometimes it sounds repetitive. But like I said last week, guys, sometimes we overcomplicate our Christianity. We think growth is finding out some deeper knowledge.

We think it's like, Oh, I just want to talk about this. Hey, what about in the Bible when it says this? What is this? It's like, guys, the deepest thing in the Bible is the simplest. Paul himself even said, I will take the simple things to confound the wise. Meaning people that just have a simple understanding

and they get the truth is gonna confound

wise people. What he meant by wise was they're not really wise is people that they think they're smart, and they are so smart that they complicate it, and then they won't listen to Jesus because you'll make up your own reasons why you can't trust Jesus on that, and then you'll get bitter and you'll get mad. And Paul just said, God's gonna confuse the heck out of you if you think you're so smart.

And you're gonna watch people that are way simpler than you figure things out and have have life. Because the deepest thing the Bible says is this, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

We are sinners. We are broken. We've rebelled against Him, and He died for us. He says, Why we were yet sinners, He still died for us. He went first. That is love. And if I don't embrace that, that changes everything. Do you really, really, really embrace that? Because that changes everything when you really understand.

Paul even knew that that simple thing, Jesus loves me this and I know for the Bible tells Him so, he actually wrote about it. And he said it this way. He goes, Man, it is impo I am overwhelmed with gratitude, but also completely overwhelmed with the idea that I can't even fathom it completely

in how high, how wide, and how deep the love of God is. He said the most profound thing to think about is the fact that Jesus loves me. And we make it so complicated. And when we make it simple and understand that, that frees us to not be afraid of believing him and making room and being on mission

and not just attending a church, but being the church that I am attending. And I was so moved by this and encouraged and actually pastored. Almost throat punched, but in that loving way this week. When I got this this this picture by Johnny.

I think I got picture of it up there. Johnny drew this for me. Johnny Fernandez Lopez. He gave me his whole name. And even wrote the date so I don't forget. On tenfourtwenty six, he became my pastor. Because his mom brought him up to me and said he wants you to have... He drew this and colored it for you.

And he basically said, he goes, I I want you to know, do not fear. I am with you. He wanted me as the lead guy to don't be afraid of trusting God because God's with you. If you know Jesus, He's with you. You know what he's talking about? Do not fear. If God's with you, why would we fear in the first place?

If we think that having God means everything goes our way, he's not gonna ask us to do anything hard, You're confused by this verse. But the fact that He does challenge us to go through hard. He does send us on a mission that's in over our head. He does ask us to trust Him in such radical ways.

He says, you don't have to fear that though. Because when you do that, you're going where I'm at. You're going with me. I'm with you. He's the one already going that way. He's holding on his hand. Take my hand and come with me. You do not have to be afraid. And Johnny understood this.

He understood this to a level that he wanted me as the pastor and it hit me. I was thinking about it. I actually was thinking about some of the things that I'm stupid on and being afraid of like, Johnny's right. Johnny's awesome. And you know what? I wanna show you a picture of Johnny. There's Johnny. He's 24 years old.

That's him with his mom. He's a part of our Adapt ministries. He doesn't understand deep theology, but he doesn't need to. He's the example. He's ahead of us. He is proving the point to us. He is showing us the way.

When he stands out there every Sunday, he's out there today. I think his mom's in here now, so she's probably crying right now. Rochelle, good job. He even has his Chase, Paw Patrol. Stuffy gives him confidence. Chase is on the case with him. Every week. He doesn't come across as the most outgoing, but you know what he knows?

Jesus loves me. This I know for the bible tells me so, and I know he's with me. Therefore, I can do the scary thing because I'm gonna choose to love God back. And I love God's people, and I love people. He understands that. And I think he is setting an example,

and I think he should be a challenge to every one of us in this room. Because this actually challenged me.

How about you? If John was writing to our church today, I think he would have wrote the letter to our Gaius, which is Johnny Fernandez Lopez. It's simpler than you think.

God loves you. You can love others. You can love him back. You can overcome. And that's really what this whole series is pointed to. Even comes down to this moment of this this thing that Jesus did with his disciples, communion. He said, do this in remembrance of me before he died.

Because he knew that what he was about to do looked crazy. You don't win by dying, but he did. And he's gonna ask us, and we don't think we win by dying. But he asked us to die to ourselves every day. He asked us to make sure Jesus is at the front of our jersey.

And in that, loving others is the front of our jersey. In that, I will make room in my life in all those places that I need to trust him, and he will use it in the life of others.

We get to be on the championship team. But we gotta play our position, and we gotta play for the name. We gotta play for the name on the front of the jersey.

Not just be a spectator. We're on the team. And that's what this whole series has pointed to. When John was trying to encourage his churches, and now this guy, Gaius, all these short little letters, he's just been saying, it all comes back to the love of Christ. Love is defined by Jesus.

We saw that the first week. And next week we talked about love walks in the light. That light has a name. It's Jesus. And then we looked at that love obeys and that obedience has a name, Jesus. And then we had... That has the family resemblance. The part of the family we're supposed to look like has a name, Jesus.

And then last week, actually two weeks ago, we talked about love overcomes. Overcoming has a name, Jesus. He overcame the world for us so we can overcome in our lives. It has a name. That name is Jesus. And then last week we looked at how love guards the truth.

And I said it's not about fighting about all of our truths. That truth has a name. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. The truth is Jesus. And now love makes room for the name of Jesus.

And that's why he said in this moment, I'm gonna do something crazy, but you know how to go, this crazy is where the victory is found. This crazy is where the faith is found. I I was obedient to the father's will. I did this, and now you can too. You can follow me. Take up your cross and follow me Because that's love.

That's love. And you don't have to be afraid. Johnny preached. He took a verse of the bible, and he showed me the truth in love. What are you afraid of in making room?

Look to Jesus. That's what this moment's for, is to look to him. So we're gonna do two things really quick here. First, before we take this, we're gonna sing a song about the name of Jesus. And I want us to really... I'm hoping we're seeing Jesus in this moment, seeing God.

But before I do that, I think there's a lot of people in this room. They're like a lot of people in the other services that the problem with coming to church and the problem with what you've been fighting with is you probably thought church was I gotta come and try to do all these. Everything I just said, I know. I know I need to do those things, but you're thinking you have to do it so God will love you. And you've never actually just seen God, seen Jesus for who he is and accepted him.

You haven't become a Christian. You haven't just surrendered your life. You haven't admitted. And all that means is you gotta confess and profess. Confess that we're sinners. You know what it means to be a sinner? It means I was born living my life with my jersey backwards.

I was born with just my name on the front and you didn't even have God on the back. He was around but you didn't even know. And so we've just been living this way.

And to become a Christian means I confess that. I confess that I'm living for myself. I'm doing it my own way. I'm not trusting God. I didn't even know him, but now I know his love. And now I know. And now I want him. So you're turning the jersey around.

But communion is also a moment for some of us to reflect and go, hey, I have Jesus, but I've just decided to wear my jersey backwards lately. So this is a moment to reflect and turn the jersey around. But for those of you that have never accepted Christ, here's a chance to put the name of Christ on the jersey

and put it on the front. That's all it is. So I'm gonna pray with you. I'm gonna give you a chance. And it's simple. When I pray, make the prayer your words. Just confess to God and profess that he's the way, the truth, and the life.

And I'm gonna do that right now. So as we close our eyes, and I'm gonna ask you to do one thing that might sound scary, but it's a good first act of step. You realize God went first. So his arm... Hand is already extended towards you. He's been waiting.

What I'm gonna ask you to do is symbolically think about this physically happening. I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand right now if you're gonna pray with me. And imagine yourself taking his hand that's already extended to you.

That's what you're gonna do. I see those hands. Just keep them up. Keep them up. No one's looking except for me and people that don't follow instructions.

Awesome. Ton of hands up. Just pray something like this. Dear Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you had your hand extended when I didn't even know it was there. And so right now, in the best way I know how, I confess that I've lived with my name on the front of the jersey, and I didn't even know you.

But right now, in the best way I even know how, I I want that to be the other way around. I want you. So I put my faith in what you did for me even though I I live for myself. I've sinned. But you came, and you lived a life I couldn't live. Came back from a death I could never return from to give me life. So thank you.

So take my hand and help me learn to love the way you love. Help me learn to walk in this life as love defined. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Alright. There was a ton of hands that went up. Welcome to the family. Now you can enjoy this for what it really is. But before we do that, let's stand and we're just gonna sing quickly about the name of Jesus and celebrate and reflect.

I speak Jesus. Do we? I mean, this is what it all is about. You know what I love about Johnny's story is his superpower

is he doesn't have things get too complicated. He sees simple truth and he believed it. He didn't let anything stop him. He know that this is Jesus made room for me. So I wanna make room for him. And that's why Jesus took the the bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body broken for you. Take and eat.

That's why he took the cup. He said, this is my blood spilled for you, for us, for

Take and drink.

God, thank you. I thank you that you made room for us. And my prayer is simple for me, everyone in this room, anyone watching, is that we have seen you, that we have seen your love. And we've seen it so clearly that you have made room for us that we will choose to make room for your name in our lives each and every day.

We give you all the glory and all the praise and we pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Hey guys, as you leave, if you need to talk with someone or pray some more, we have our prayer room right over here as you go out on the right hand side. You can visit them and they'll they'll share with you. Other than that, I love you guys so much. Have a great day and go Cardinals. Why not?

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. You can stay connected with us through rockwind.io or our social media.