God With Us

Today, I wanna talk about knowing God and specifically about the reality that God became flesh, that God dwelt among us. In theological terms, this is called the incarnation. And before we get into that, I was listening to a scholar and he was talking about the creation account. The very beginning of your Bible in Genesis, it talks about how God created the heavens and the earth and he creates everything out of nothing by the power of his word. And God creates the land in this creation account and yet the land is empty, it's barren, and God speaks to the land and he tells the land, let it produce vegetation. And the land begins to produce all the vegetation, all the greenery, the plants, and the flowers. And God looks at this creation and he says, oh, it's good. And God had created the waters and he speaks to the water and he tells the water to team with all kinds of life. And now this water is full of fish and the different animals that are in the sea, in the reefs, and it follows God's command and it's filled. Now, I wanna ask you a question and this is rhetorical, you don't have to say the answer out loud, but if you were to take the flowers and you were to remove them from the earth, if you were to take the plants and all those living things in the land and you were to remove them from the land, what happens to the plant?

It dies, it can't survive apart from the land. God spoke to the land, said produce these plants. If you were to remove them from the land, the plant would die for the fish. If you were to remove the fish from the water, what happens to the fish? No matter how much you try and care for the fish, maybe you put it out in the sun so it can receive the rays from the sunlight and feel the cool breeze. If the fish was created for the water, you remove the fish from the water, eventually the fish dies. The internet's gonna hate this illustration and before you freak out, this is just a carrot slice. I didn't actually pull a fish out of the water, but you get the illustration. If you were to pull a fish from the water, the fish dies. Now, when God created mankind, do you know who he spoke to? He spoke to himself. God is three and yet one, one and yet three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And God says to himself, let us make mankind in our image. And it says male and female, he created them in his image. He speaks to himself. So if you were to remove us from God, what happens? We die. The Bible refers to this actually as the second death.

And so when we're talking about knowing God, this is not just, hey, let's gain some knowledge about God. We're not talking about head knowledge. We're talking about actually knowing personally the God who created us to be restored in this relationship that you and I were created for. This is not just an intellectual exercise. This is a matter of life and death. You and I were created to be with God. Jesus, in John chapter 17, this has been our key verse throughout the series. In his prayer, he says this, John 17, verse three. He says, now this is eternal life, that they know you, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Jesus is saying real life is found in knowing God. And if you wanna know what God is like, so we're talking about this infinite eternal spirit, was an intellect, personality, feelings, will. If you wanna know what God is like, this infinite spirit, you look at Jesus. You look at Jesus. Jesus is God with a bod. Again, the theological term is he is God incarnate. That when we were separated from God by our sin, when you and I, there was nothing we could do to work our way to God, we were. were dead, separated from him, dead in our transgressions, the Bible teaches. God, in love, in mercy, and in grace,

worked his way to us in and through the person of Jesus. And so today I wanna talk with you about the impact of the incarnation, the impact of God being made flesh. And there are several things that are really important for us to understand about God and why God would take on flesh to meet us where we are in our brokenness. If you're taking notes, you can write this down. The first thing is that now God is relatable. God is relatable. God who is infinite, eternal spirit. How do you know infinite, eternal spirit? Because God emptied himself and he took on flesh. Now we can get to know God in a way that we can understand. And a lot of times I have conversations with people that are new to faith. And I'll have a conversation where they're talking about religion, which all religion is is advice of this is what you have to do to work your way to God. And I'll explain to them, Christianity, it's not a religion. It's a relationship that God has already done the work to work his way to us. And usually I get the question, well, what does that actually mean? And if ever you've wondered, what does that actually mean to have a relationship with God?

What does that look like practically? Here's the beautiful thing. Jesus has modeled it for us. That we have recorded in the Bible, in the New Testament, your Bible's broken up into two parts, Old Testament's looking forward to a coming savior. The New Testament looks back and says a savior has come. His name is Jesus. The beginning of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, these are like the biographies of Jesus. They record the things that Jesus taught. And they also record the things that Jesus did. And so we can learn things about how to have a relationship with God by looking at how Jesus lived out his life. And Jesus would do things like get up in the morning and he would spend time away from everybody else. And he would pray, he would spend time just he talking with God. This was a regular practice that Jesus had. Jesus would give his time to serve other people. And you can actually get to know God by serving other people. If ever you've wondered like, how do I show God love? The way that you show an invisible God love is by loving the visible people he puts in front of you. And Jesus models this. We see these habits in Jesus's life. This is what relationship with God looks like.

We have a model that we can follow. And we also can relate to him through shared experience. Shared experience going, man, not only has he modeled what a relationship with God looks like, he's also lived what life on this planet looks like. He knows our challenges. He knows our temptations. He knows our struggles. He emptied himself of all of his rights as God and he emptied himself taking on flesh and he experienced this world, not in its ideal state, but in its broken, fallen state. When I was 18 years old, I was invited to speak to adults for the very first time. So up to that point, I had worked with students and I was an intern at a church. And so I was used to teaching junior hires and even high schoolers, even though I was pretty much their age. But when I was 18, I was a freshman in Bible college and we were doing service projects. And so they invited me to teach a room full of adults at a place called Phoenix Rescue Mission. And the way it worked is we provided dinner for people who were on the streets and all of that. And so they would come into this room and they could hear and smell dinner cooking and we were gonna serve it to them. But first they had to listen to some 18 year old preach a message out of the Bible.

And so there I was my first time speaking to adults and I wasn't sure exactly what to talk about. So I remember I talked about the love of God and I shared John 3, 16. And I taught this message and afterwards I was like, a little sweaty, my armpits were sweaty, all of that. And I was like, I don't know if that went great. Like their faces, I was reading their faces. It didn't look like it was going great. It didn't seem like they were really understanding or really appreciating what this 18 year old kid was saying to them. And then one of them came up to me afterwards. And I don't know, in my mind, he was like the size of Goliath. Big guy, tatted up. And he kind of gets in my face and he goes, was Jesus ever addicted to meth? And I remember looking up and I'm going through all this shit. scriptures, I'm like, no, he wasn't, you know? And so I looked him in the eye and I said, no. And then he leaned in even closer, and he goes, how does he know how I feel? And then he walked away. And I learned a few things. One, that guy was addicted to meth. Two, he didn't care very much for my message. But then I had a mentor, an older professor, he walked up to me, he saw this interaction,

and he put an arm around me and he said, hey, that's not about you. And he encouraged me, and he reminded me of the reality that Jesus actually relates to our temptations. He can relate to what it's like living in a broken world, even though he never gave into temptation, he understands what it is to be human and to wrestle. Hebrews chapter four, talking about Jesus, verse 15 says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. Jesus can't relate to the sin, but he can relate to the temptation. He can relate to the brokenness. And this is what makes Christianity different from every other faith on the planet. See, Christianity, it's not this, here's, we're trying to work our way to God, God's just on this high pedestal, this ivory tower, maybe even unknowable for those that are agnostic. Christianity teaches, no, God actually understands that he entered into the brokenness of this world. And so if you're walking through a difficult season, remember that God himself suffered. Jesus, when it was prophesied about the coming Messiah was referred to as the suffering servant, God himself suffered, which means if you're going through something difficult, remember, so did Jesus.

Have you ever prayed for something and you didn't get what you wanted? So did Jesus. Have you ever faced temptation in a moment that you felt weak? So did Jesus. Have you ever been lied to by somebody that you loved? So did Jesus. Have you ever been persecuted, misunderstood, mocked, disregarded, insulted, falsely accused, betrayed, tempted, abandoned, exhausted, physically attacked, verbally attacked, spiritually attacked, forsaken, so has Jesus. He can relate to us in our struggles. And Hebrews goes on to say we can actually approach God's throne of grace now with confidence. He gets us, he understands us. Second impact of the incarnation, salvation is possible. Salvation is made possible because God worked his way to us in and through the person of Jesus. Whenever there's a story that really resonates with people at large, I believe when there's stories that resonate and we go, man, there's something about this, I'm drawn to this story, it's because that story has roots in the gospel. In 2018, there was a soccer team in Thailand. And some of you maybe remember this story. Their coach took these 12 teenagers and they went into this cave system

and they went deep into the cave. I mean, over a mile into this cave system. And what they didn't realize is the rainy season was gonna show up early that year. And floods began to fill up the caves and they found that there was no way to get out because all of the ways that brought them into the cave were now filled completely with water. And so eventually word got out that they were trapped inside of this cave. And the whole world was watching and trying to figure out a way to rescue this soccer team. And they planned for days and eventually they had these Navy SEALs, these rescue divers that went in to enter into the cave. And one of them ultimately would lose their life trying to rescue this team. And their life was sacrificed trying to save this team. And again, the world is paying close attention. Each day felt like an eternity as they were again. Day after day, they weren't yet rescued. And then they finally devised a plan where they had divers they went into, they found where these boys were, they sent these divers in, and they sent also an anesthesiologist who sedated them so that they wouldn't panic, so that they wouldn't struggle. And they were passive participants as these rescuers pulled them through the maze

of this cave system. And every single one of these boys, including the coach, were rescued. And you look at a story like that and you go, man, what a beautiful picture of humanity at its best. What a beautiful picture of people stopping everything to do all they can to enter into the depths of the crisis, to rescue those who were trapped, who had no way of escaping on their own, to rescue them to freedom. That resonates with us because that's the story of the gospel. That Jesus has entered into the depths of our brokenness so that he could rescue us out. In Galatians chapter four, in verse four it says, but when the set time had fully come, the Old Testament looking forward to a coming Savior, a coming Messiah. So when the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship. See the law, the old covenant in the Bible, the law was like a mirror. And what this mirror showed us is that we weren't good enough to work our way to God. That even our best efforts all fell short. And so Jesus was sent, born under the law.

And he lived the perfect life under the law. In light of that mirror, all it reflected back was his perfection. As he kept every bit of the law. The Bible teaches that he fulfilled the law. And after living this perfect life, fulfilling all of the law, he laid down that life. So he could rescue us out of the depths that we could not rescue ourselves from. That he entered into the brokenness so that he might restore a relationship between us and God. And just like those boys in that cave, our role in all of that, we are passive participants. When it comes to salvation, we put our trust in Jesus. He's the one that does all the work. Now, growing in a relationship with God, we are active participants. There is effort in getting to know God and knowing him more closely. But when it comes to salvation, our job, we put our trust in the person and in the work of Jesus. And he's the one that rescues us. We don't rescue ourselves. It is grace that we receive through faith. It's not by any effort, any works that we do. It is fully by his grace. So that none of us can go, look what I did. Look at what I did to rescue myself. It's all his grace.

Salvation is made possible. Impact of the incarnation. Number three, suffering is meaningful. Suffering is now meaningful. The fact that Jesus himself suffered. It gives us a new paradigm for when we go through suffering. The fact that God himself suffered. Think with me for a moment. The fact that Jesus suffered, Jesus, who is in perfect relationship with God, Jesus, who is God in the flesh, if he suffered, then that means when you and I are suffering, it's not because God has abandoned us. It's not because God doesn't care about us. It's not because God doesn't love us. At the baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is descending like a dove and the voice of God the Father speaks. This is my son whom I love, with whom I'm well pleased, and yet that son would suffer. Which means if you're going through suffering or in the future you're going through suffering and you're thinking God doesn't care about me, that is completely wrong. Jesus suffered. Jesus experienced the pain of this broken world, which means suffering has less to do with the character of God,

and it has more to do with the brokenness of this world. Yet usually when we suffer, we go, oh, God must be the one that's doing this. God will use our suffering to grow us, to transform us, to make us more and more like Jesus. But the cause of suffering ultimately comes from the fallen brokenness of this world. Jesus himself said to his disciples, in this world, you will have trouble. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. Jesus doesn't rescue us from difficult circumstances. He rescues us in difficult circumstances. He enters into those moments with us. God incarnate means God with us in the good times and in the bad times, that he walks with us, that he loves us, that he understands that he himself experienced the suffering. He doesn't bring us from the brokenness into the ideal. He leaves the ideal to meet us in our brokenness. 2 Corinthians chapter one, Paul's writing a letter to the church, and he says this, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion. The Father of compassion. Megan mentioned this a couple weeks ago. We mentioned it a couple times in this series. Compassion means with suffering.

Passion is suffering, compassion with suffering. The Father of compassion. By the way, when God describes himself to Moses in Exodus, do you know how he describes himself? That he is the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious. That God suffers with us. Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in. Not from, comforts us in all our troubles so that, listen to this, we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. That now our suffering has meaning. That in our suffering, we can actually relate to Jesus in ways that otherwise we couldn't. Do you realize when it comes to knowing God, the opportunity to know God grows significantly when you're suffering? When you're in a season and things are really successful, you tend to not grow in your relationship with God as much. But when you go through suffering, now when you realize God is all you have, then you begin to discover God is all that you need. And that closeness, that intimacy with God begins to grow more through the suffering than through the success. And so we can relate to God more through the suffering. We can understand that Jesus himself suffered

and then God comforts us in those moments so that when somebody else is going through something, we can then comfort them. Pastor Tim Keller, who is now with Jesus, he explains it this way. If ever you've gone through a season of serious suffering, you're going through great difficulty and somebody comes up to you and they have no experience with what you're going through. And they begin to give you advice and they begin to tell you, no, everything's gonna be okay. Whether you say it out loud or you're just thinking it, you're going, this person has no idea what they're talking about. Yet if you're going through a season of difficulty and somebody who's gone through exactly what you're going through and maybe even 10 times more than what you're going through and they come up and they begin to say, hey, everything's gonna be okay. And they begin to give you some guidance. Hey, here's some things that helped me. You lean in. And when they try and strengthen you, you're actually strengthened. When they comfort you, you're actually comforted. But when it comes to our relationship with Jesus, he's gone through whatever you're going through times 10. Whether it's rejection, whether it's hurt, whether it's difficult circumstances,

whether it's brokenness, whether it's fatigue, whether it's abuse, he's experienced it. and he had experienced being God, emptied himself and experienced that, so his experience is times a million. And so he can now comfort us in those moments. He can guide us in those moments by the power of the Holy Spirit as we spend time with God, getting to know God, and he begins to do a work inside of us through the suffering, and then he uses that so that we can help others who are suffering. I have a friend, his name's Chris. And Chris, when he was a kid, he woke up one day, in elementary school, woke up one day and he couldn't lift his head. And it turns out that he had some rare disorder and he would end up in a wheelchair and he would have to fight to be able to get out of that wheelchair and begin to use a walker. And to this day, it's been decades and decades. He still lives with this disability where it's difficult for him to speak, it's difficult for him to move, and his body, the muscles are kind of working against him. And yet, if you've ever met Chris, he is one of the most joyful people I know. In fact, recently, one of our staff had an engagement party and there was a bunch of people at this engagement party and I was there with my wife and I saw,

I looked down this row of tables and I saw that Chris was there at this party. And this group of people, I gotta tell you, some of my favorite people on the planet were at this celebration. And I was like, everybody move out of the way, I wanted to go spend time with Chris. Because if you spend time with Chris, what you experience is the joy of the Lord. You experience this guy who's gone through great suffering, great difficulty, and when he talks about his relationship with God and what he's learning and how he's growing, I wanna lean in. And the suffering that seems so big to me just moments before suddenly feels really, really small. And Chris is a great encouragement to me. Because of this relationship with God that Chris has experienced, it comforts me. And because of my relationship with God, even through suffering, now I can comfort others. Our suffering now has meaning because of the incarnation. And the last thing, point number four, the impact of the incarnation is that your value is unquestionable. Your value is unquestionable. Do you wanna know how we determine the value of something? Value is the price that somebody is willing to pay for something. I'm gonna say that again, the value of something is the price that somebody is willing to pay.

And the reason I can say, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter what's been done to you, God loves you. And your life is incredibly valuable because the price somebody was willing to pay was God himself taking on flesh and laying down his life for you. That's how valuable you are. Romans chapter five, verse eight, says, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. There's nothing Jesus would not do to rescue you. There's no length that he would not go to, no depth that he would not descend to to rescue you. And for those who would put their trust in him, that he's already done the work, that he's already lived the life that you and I couldn't live, and he's given that life as payment for our sin, if we would choose to be faithful to him, that life is payment for our sin, if we would choose to trust, to receive his grace through faith, he would rescue you. That he would demonstrate his love in that way. Paul goes on to write in Romans, I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor powers nor height, nor depth,

nor anything else in all of creation will be able to save you. Separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. If you're here and you've never said yes to receiving the gift of knowing God, your sin paid for, that chasm that separates us from God, that being removed through the person in the work of Jesus, I wanna invite you to receive that gift right now. And I wanna tell you once again, this is a matter of life and death. To be separated from God is death. If you wanna be restored in that relationship, I can help you do that right now. I'm gonna ask that all of us take a moment and pray, and if you wanna say yes to putting your trust in Jesus, to receiving that gift, as we close our eyes, if you'd be willing, maybe even in a posture of receiving, just to open up your palms, and you can talk to God, you can use my words, you can use your own, and would you just say, Lord, I need you. I know that my sin separates me from you. Jesus, thank you for the incarnation, for meeting us in our brokenness, to rescue us out of the depths. And the beautiful picture of the resurrection that we'll celebrate this Easter, it's a foreshadowing of the resurrection that we'll experience through faith in you. I believe in the resurrection, Jesus,

I believe that you are Lord. Lead me from this day forward. My life is in your hands. Amen. If you said yes to Jesus, we have a gift we wanna give you. Would you just let us know that you said yes by texting the word yes to the number 48,480-480-480. Zero, zero, just text that word yes, that'll start a conversation with us. We're not gonna do anything weird, not gonna show up at your house, we just wanna give you a gift, and encourage you in what it looks like to know God. Next week, Chad's gonna be back continuing our series, Knowing God. I hope you guys will join us for that. I love you, let me pray for us. Father, for each one of us here, would you help us to know you more? Whether we're in a season of success, we're in a season of suffering, or anywhere in between, Holy Spirit, would you meet us right where we're at? Jesus, thanks that we can relate to you, thanks that you've set an example that we'll be blessed if we follow. Would you help us to serve others the way that you served and experience you in that way? Would you help us to spend time in conversation with you, to get to know you that way? Would you help us to look to you

when we go through suffering? And would you help us to see opportunities to help others that are going through suffering? To be present, to be an encouragement. And God, would you be glorified through us, and may we know you more, in Jesus' name, amen.