When God Speaks John 17:3

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the Erickson Covenant Podcast. We are so glad that you've joined us today. We confess that we don't have all the answers, but as a community, we seek to find and follow Jesus and to discover daily the life he has always wanted for us. We hope this message will be encouraging and will inspire you to take the next steps on your spiritual journey. If we can help you in any way, please connect with us. The easiest way is through our [email protected] let's get started. [00:00:37] Speaker B: For those of you who don't know me, my name's Cohen. Me and my wife Abby were just interns here for the last few months, but we've been here for about a year, and we're actually heading off today to Kwadra Island. Sorry, apologies for the cough, too. At least it won't be the crackling noise of the headset. Usually something new for you, but. Yeah. So we're heading off to Quadra island after the service today. Stop in Richmond the night, then head over there and we're heading to a camp there for about four months. So really excited for that and to see what the Lord's doing over there and join in on that work. So, yeah, really excited for that. As a church, we started a new series, When God Speaks. We've had a few speakers already. We weren't here last week, but I'm. Well, I wasn't here last week, but you guys had Cheryl, is that right? Awesome. Yeah, so we've had a few already, and so we're looking at verses that help us grow in our walk with Christ. Over the years, the Lord's revealed a lot to me through His Word. It seems like every time he's been teaching me these lessons, there's always a key verse to go with it, and. But there's one verse that stands out far above the rest of me, and that's John 17. 3. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. This verse has been so important to me as it's really the verse where the Lord revealed to me the fullness of his gospel for the first time and what this life and this Christian life is all about. He really used this verse to kind of break down a false gospel that I was believing that I didn't even realize. And I really want to call out this false gospel today as I'm going, because it is very deceiving, and I think it's actually one of Satan's favorites. But we've got to build to that first. Because I think some of you would stone me otherwise. If we jump straight into that. Let me pray. We'll get into it. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for who you are, Lord, and all you do for us. Thank you so much for this life, Lord. Lord, we know that, Father, just how excited you are for each of us to be here today. For each of us to be in existence today, Lord, that we might be in relationship with you. That we might know you, Lord. Just your excitement, Lord, of when you finally created us, Lord, that we might finally know the love that you've had for us all along, Lord. So we thank you, Lord. I pray as I speak now, Lord. It'd be your words, Father, Lord, that you would soften our hearts to receive whatever you want to speak through us, Lord, may we be available to what you want to do. And then through us today, Lord. And may we just know you, Father. May we just have a greater picture of who you are, Lord. And as we sung this morning, would you open the eyes of our heart and we see you high and lifted up. And in response, may we sing Holy, holy, holy Father. So we thank you Lord, and let's pray these things in your holy name. Amen. Okay, I don't know. This might not be relevant to too many here, but I grew up playing a lot of Mario as a kid. It's probably way before a lot of your guys times. I don't know what you guys were playing back then, but anyway. Some of you might know it though. But for those of you who don't know, Mario is a video game. And the game starts out with Mario and his princess Peach over here together just enjoying each other's company. And out of nowhere, this big bad dragon turtle dude comes and takes away Peach from Mario and they're separated. The game is then you trying to get back. You playing Mario trying to get back to the princess. You have to complete all these levels, defeat all these bosses, all these bad guys, until you finally reach the big boss again, Bowser. And after hours of game time just wasted, you finally defeat Bowser. And right at the end of the game, you get a quick little snippet of Mario and Princess Peach back together. Now you're probably thinking, what in the world does this have to do with the gospel with John 17:3, with any of this? So let me explain. We often view Mario the same way as we view the Gospel. Okay, let me explain. So this, this. This next slide is. This is called the Gos, they call it. It's A gospel acronym. So you can kind of see down the line, it spells out Gospel. And it's a way to be able to know and to share the Gospel very easily with others. It kind of gives you the full picture of it. So it starts off with God created us to be with Him. Our sins separate us from God. Sins cannot be removed by good deeds. Paying the price for sin. Jesus died and rose again. Everyone who trust in him alone has eternal life. And that life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. If you were to ask someone else what Mario is about, they'd probably say, oh, it's this game where you're defeating all the bad guys and got to complete all these levels. They probably wouldn't give you that backstory like I just did then. But the thing is, they'd be completely missing the point. The game is about Mario getting back to Peach. Even though that's the backstory, that's the whole point of the game. Completing all the levels and defeating the bad guys all has to happen in order to get there. But it's not what the game is about at all. It's about Mario and Peach being together again. The problem is we often view the gospel in the same way. If you could go to the next slide, we kind of remove that G and the L and this becomes our gospel. A lot of the time, our sins separate us from God. Sins cannot be removed by good deeds. Paying the price for sin. Jesus died and rose again. Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. But the G and the L are missing in that. And a lot of the time we can rather just leave it at this, or we replace that G and L with other things, in a sense. And it doesn't matter what you have in that place of the G or L, if it's not the G or L doesn't spell gospel and it's a false gospel and it will actually damage damages you and everyone around you that you're sharing this with. So this statement here, although it's completely true, all this is true, but it's not the full gospel. God did not send Jesus to die for your sins. That's not the gospel. Just like Mario, that might be the bit that everyone focuses on in a sense, but it's not the point of the gospel. And we need to remind ourselves what those points are. It wasn't his goal for Jesus to die for our sins. His goal was that we would be with him again, dying for our sins had to take place. But wasn't the goal forgiving us justifying Us. It wasn't his goal. It happened and it had to take place, but it wasn't his goal. His goal was reconciliation, to bring us back into relationship with him, the very thing we were created for. You can have the OSP be saved from your sins, even from hell and get to heaven one day. But you've completely missed the point. If you don't have the G and the L, if you don't have. If we could go back to that other slide. God created us to be with him. And life with Jesus starts now, lasts forever. This is what we started at and this is what we're trying to get back to. You can actually kind of put it in the names of Jesus if you really think about it. Like if you look at that ospe, that's kind of like if you look at Jesus as Savior or Jesus as Christ in the sense Jesus Messiah. But we often don't talk about the name Jesus Emmanuel. We don't often refer to him as that in a sense. But that's very much what the G and the L is about. It's kind of like Jesus is this two sided coin, one side being Jesus Savior, the other side being Jesus manual. He is God with us. He is our reconciliation. So you can have the ospe be safe from your sins, go to heaven one day, saved from hell. But again, you've completely missed the point. If you don't have the G and the L and you'll never enter into the floor fullness of life that God has for you here and now on Earth. John 17:3 says this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Kind of another way of looking at this. If you think of what's the most common verse we share to people when we're evangelizing. A lot of the time it's John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life. And you see this is true and this is the means in the gospel, that's the OSPE. But John 17:3 is actually the definition of that eternal life. It actually clearly defines what Jesus is saving us for, and that is to know him. The one true God in Jesus Christ, whom he sent. A false gospel is a message that starts off in truth, but has removed, added to or distorted the gospel. So this is actually quite a serious thing. Like if we are messing this up, if we don't have this proper understanding of our gospel, you can Send someone, if you just give them the ospe, you can give them that, and then they can make whatever they want out of it. And that's how you see different false gospels coming. You can say, okay, he came to bring us prosperity, in a sense. And all of a sudden you have this prosperity gospel where Jesus wants you to be rich. And if you're not rich, then you're probably not saved. Or there's so many different things you can add to it. And that's how they start in a sense. If it didn't. If false Gospels weren't based in that initial truth, they'd be very easy to kind of put away straight away. But that's what gets you with them. That's why they're deceiving. So it's so important that we actually have an understanding of why Jesus came, why he did all this, what was all this means for? And it is for that reconciliation for eternal life that we may know him, the one true God, Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. One of my favorite lecturers at Bible school. He's a South African man who lived in New Zealand, but was in Australia at the time talking to us. Awesome guy. He used to say this, and there's so many things he would say that have just stuck with me and helped me so much in this whole understanding of the Gospel, really. But he used to say, if you're in Christianity for anything other than God himself, you've gone astray. If you're in Christianity for anything other than God himself, you've gone astray. And there's a perfect example of this in the Old Testament. Can anyone just yell out very quickly, very shortly, what was the Exodus about? What's the Exodus? What was that? Freeing the people. Freeing the people. I had something over here. What was it? Sorry. Getting to the Promised land. Getting to the Promised Land. Very good. Yep. Sweet. Awesome. Okay. So we see the Israelites living in slavery in Egypt. I'm going to draw this out for you and think about it. Think about yourself as you're going along too. Kind of using this more of an illustration, in a sense. So we see the Israelites living in slavery in Egypt, not where they are meant to be in slavery to Pharaoh, enforced by the Egyptian taskmasters, with no hope of freedom until God divinely intervenes, sends a man who performs many signs and wonders and tells the people that by the blood of the lamb you will be saved. And they are saved. And the Lord leads them out of that place. But the Egyptians aren't done and try to chase after them. So as they've just walked through the waters, he does not allow the Egyptians to pass through, too. And he drowns the Egyptians behind them, the ones enslaving them to slavery. And instead of running in fear of the Egyptians for the rest of their lives, there's a verse that says they turn around and they saw the Egyptians dead on the shores. And they realize in that moment they are free. But guess what? None of that's the point. That wasn't God's goal. His goal wasn't to save the Israelites. His goal was to bring them into a land of abundance, flowing with milk and honey. It says that he might dwell with them there. That was his plan. We often. The whole Exodus story is all focused on the crossing of the Red Sea and the big action scenes and all these things, the means. But never really focused on the goal. I had never heard this preached for a long time, until I was probably about 19 or 20. But here's the thing. They didn't want him. Once they had crossed the Red Sea, they desired to return to Egypt instead. Their desire for Egypt was greater than their desire for him. They did not believe he would do as he promised. And they never went there where they were intended to go. They never dwelt where they were meant to dwell. They went astray. They wandered around the desert for 40 years waiting to die, and never entered into what God had for them. The abundant life saved, but never entering into it. Deuteronomy 6. 23. We heard that before, the passage read out there. But it's kind of a key verse in explaining this. It says, he brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which he had sworn to our fathers. The whole point of bringing them out was to bring them in Him. They were saved. They were free. But they desired Egypt instead. He was their Savior, and yet they never knew him. They missed the whole point. I don't know about you, but I see myself a lot in this story. And I'll kind of draw that out for you. Now. Man separated from God in a state of sin, not where we were designed to be, in slavery to sin, enforced by our flesh, our fallen nature, with no hope of freedom until God divinely intervenes. He sends the Son of Man who performs many signs and wonders, and he tells the people that by the blood of the Lamb, you will be saved. And he proceeds to be that Lamb on our behalf. And we're saved. And. And the Lord leads us out of that state of sin. But our flesh Our fallen nature, the old man, it's not done with us. Now flesh comes after us. So as he baptizes and cleanses us through his spirit, our flesh is drowned in the waters and we come up a new creation. The thing enslaving us to sin is dead. And instead of living in slavery and a fear of our flesh for our whole lives, we may turn around and see that he has conquered our flesh. We see that we are free from both sin and the power of sin. But guess what? That's not the point. His goal wasn't to save us. His goal was to bring us into relationship with Himself, the very thing we were created for, to have life and life abundant. But are we living out what we are created for? Sure, you might be saved, you might come to church, might even be trying to live your life for Him. But do you know Him? Are you knowing Him? Because all those things are meant to be an overflow of our relationship with Him. It's not these first or in unison with them. They come out of this overflow of knowing Him. I know it's easy for me to fall into that trap, a lot of separating the two, to desire sanctification and to live a good life for him, but not necessarily just dwell with him, to know Him. I find it easy to try and be a good servant, but not a good son. And in those moments I quickly find that, that so called life I'm trying to live, it's not out of a love for him, but out of a love for myself. Pride is very quickly exposed. So kind of growing up, I'll tell a bit of my story and coming to this with this, John 17:3. But growing up, had a complicated growing up, as some could say, yeah, anyway. But yeah, I heard, heard all these stories about Jesus, heard all these stories in the Bible, kind of knew in a sense why, why Jesus came, but not really. I knew he came to die for our sins, but not really the G and the L in a sense. And I guess I never really believed it for myself until I was about 15 and I went on a summer camp, it actually was. And it was there where I really met the Lord in a personal way. I kind of actually believed that he was real and that he had done these things for me. And kind of what I was told straight after that was, all right, you're saved now go out and live for Jesus. And to be honest, that was probably the worst thing I could have been told at that time. Because now I'm called to overflow, but I haven't been told to tap into the source, where that's meant to come from in a sense. And this was my gospel. I've been saved and now I live my life for him out of a joy of knowing that I get to go to heaven one day. That was my G O S P E L. It was as good as the Israelites. I was saved, but just wandering around for the rest of my life waiting to die and go to heaven one day, that's all it was. And there was great joy in that I get to go to heaven. But it was pretty surface level in a sense. And there was times when I would doubt a lot in a sense and had struggles through that. But in 20. Oh, golly, 20, 23 I think it was. Went to Cape and Ray Bible School in Australia. That's where I met Abby. And just to show you like, this gospel that I'm talking about now is not what I believed. It's kind of a funny illustration, but I remember seeing Abby for the first time and, and seeing all the tattoos on it and going, whoa. I didn't know non Christians come here. I was just this little stuck up religious boy. My sin was far worse anyway, sorry to anyone with tattoos. Anyway, went there and that's where the Lord really started. Started to plant this seed of this full gospel. But I guess at that time I was kind of distracted in a sense just by so much going on. The community we're in, it's all great. And it actually kind of reminds me of this one song now that I'm thinking about it. But one of the lines is don't let Glory's reflection distract you from glory. And I guess that's what was kind of happening for me there. But the seed was planted one way or another. It wasn't until months later when I kind of started to discover this idea of righteousness and our identity in Christ and what that actually means for us. I'd heard all these words before, but they were just sayings to me. They didn't actually mean anything. I didn't have the substance behind them. And I remember leaving Cape and Ray just thinking, you know what, this time's been great. I just want to live my life for him. This just solidifies it all the more. That's all I want to do with my life. Don't really care about much else. And I was so passionate. But I remember driving home in this eight hour drive and thinking, lord, I want to live this life for you. But I am completely useless. I want to do all these Great things for you. But I can't even read the New Testament and understand what it's saying. Like I'm in this for hours a week just trying to understand one verse and I just. Because I didn't have the picture of the Gospel. And that's what the New Testament is all about. That's what all Paul's letters are based on, is the Gospel. And so I didn't have the key to kind of understanding anything it was saying in a sense. And so it's kind of at this point where, yeah, Lord, I want to live for you, but I can't. I don't know what to do. I didn't see genuine fruit, I guess I. People would see things buying you in my heart, the corruption that was there, in a sense. And I didn't know I was free either. I was completely stuck in addiction. And I got to this point where I could stop in a sense, but. But I'd be waking up in the night from these dreams of me committing these sins in a sense. And I remember just thinking like, even in my sleep, I'm a sinner. I can't escape this shame and condemnation in a sense. And my relationship with God was really like a ladder in a sense. It was like, okay, I'm reading my Bible, I'm going to youth group, I'm doing all these things and then I sin and I fall all the way down to the bottom. And now I don't even have control of this anymore because it's happening in my sleep. It was minimum one to two nights a week. I'd be waking up just bawling my eyes out, just feeling this shame and condemnation. And it wasn't from the Lord. And I did not understand that. And so I started to discover righteousness and what that actually means for us. And yeah, it's not just. I think I might have talked about this last time, but when Jesus died on the cross, he said, all right, everything you've ever done wrong against me will do against me, any of these things. I'll take it now and I'll pay the punishment for it. The wages of sinners death, the Bible says. And he took that death upon himself and he was our sacrifice, he was our atonement. But if he had have left it just like that, we would have just been empty and forgiven. And the next time we sin, Jesus has to die all over again. But this is where righteousness comes in. He not only says, the life you've lived, I take and I'll pay the price for it. But he says, the life I lived of righteousness, I now credit to you. And so when he looks at us, he's able to say the exact same thing as he said to Jesus. This is my Son, in whom I'm well pleased. It's not by our works or merits that we can come to the Father and stand before him that he's pleased in us. It is solely by the work of Jesus on the cross and the righteousness credited to us. And that's not to be attained. It's completely by faith. By faith, it was counted to Abraham as righteousness, not by his works. If you look at Abraham's life, you'll see that there's no way he received all this from God because of his works. A lot of the guys in the Bible, actually. But, yeah, and I remember. I think it was January 12, 2020. Abby had come out to visit, and I found an old tape of the founder of Cape and Ray. And we sat down and we're watching it. I was like, man, this teaching is just so different. Like, it's so refreshing. There's life in it. Like, just so different to, I guess what I had gone home to after Bible school and hearing. And there was this substance to what we're hearing now. And this one line that Major Ian Thomas said just kind of hit me and just the penny dropped in that moment. I was like, oh, my goodness. But his quote was, God did not send Jesus to get man out of hell and into heaven, but to get God back into man as man was intended to be. And so it was kind of at this point where I was discovering righteousness, and I was. Sorry. Discovering righteousness. And okay, maybe my condition isn't perfect. I don't necessarily live righteousness perfectly. I do not live the perfect life. But Christ has said, no, you are righteous, you are perfect. That's your position. But your condition is different. That's what you're growing. In a sense, it's kind of like in the Bible, we're called oaks of righteousness. Okay? If you think of an oak tree, you plant it as a little sapling. In a sense, it's an oak tree, but it's very small. In a sense, it's kind of like our sanctification. He calls us righteous, but we're growing into righteousness. We may not look righteous right now, but he's growing that into us in a sense. And so I'm kind of at this point where I'm like, all right, I no longer have to work to God anymore. I'm Just here with him, he's placed me with him. That's what Jesus did in the sense. And so it's like, okay, if my life isn't about working to get to him anymore, what's it about? I kind of came to this point, well, you live for him. Exact same thing that was told to me when I first became a Christian. Go out and live for Jesus now. But I was still stuck at this point of, I'm useless, I can't do it. And this teaching kind of right. As we ended up going back to Caver and Ray volunteering, and I was able to sit in on some teaching. And just the teachings of John 15 and what Major Thomas had said in that passing before were just so helpful. And so John 15 says, I am the vine, you are the branches. No one can bear fruit apart from me, but he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. But if you are apart from me, you cannot bear fruit. In a sense, it's just a stick. And so that's an illustration. I have a really good illustration for this, too. It's not mine. I'm stealing this off people. But it's so helpful for understanding. These aren't actually my gloves. These are Mike's. I keep forgetting to give them back to him. So I'll be able to give them back. Oh, they're dusty. I'll be able to give them back to him after this. I also have your head torched, too. Anyway, all right, so this is a glove. This glove, this one specifically was bought to build a cabin. Okay. It was built to work, to do some carpentry work. This is what it was designed for. And as you can see, it's a glove anyway, so if I put this glove here and say, all right, glove, get to work. I want you to go chuck that window in for me, install the insulation, do whatever you say. All right, get to work. It's not going to do much, is it? It's not doing anything at all. The thing it's created to do, that's not doing okay. It's an outcome of what it's meant to be when it's being used. Right. In a sense. And so this glove, although it's designed for work, and there's so many different gloves. You've got gloves for cleaning dishes, you've got gloves for gardening, you've got gloves for gutter cleaning. Whatever kind of work you can think of, there's a glove for it, I'm sure. But every glove is designed in the image of A hand. And when the hand comes into the glove, then the glove is capable of doing everything that the hand is capable of doing. Because it's the hand dynamicking within the glove, it's the hand doing the ham, the hand doing the work through it. And it's very much like us. We are the glove. All made so uniquely for different purposes, to display different characteristics of Christ in a unique way. But we are all made in the image of God. But we can't actually tap into what we're created to do. We can't live out that image of God. We can't live out what he's created us for. Until he comes and indwells, until he comes in, we're capable of nothing. We are the branch that can do nothing. But he who abides in the vine, he who abides in Christ, and sorry, I'm mixing this up. He who abides in him and him and I, he will bear much fruit in a sense, when the hand comes into the glove capable of doing everything the hand can do because it's the glove doing it. This doesn't make you God. Just to clarify, this is another false gospel that can easily be twisted, does not make you God. It is God doing the work through you. So no longer is it me trying to live for God and do these things and coming to this point where I'm completely useless. But when I recognize my strength, my weaknesses in a sense, and realizing I am useless, I can do nothing for Him. I've got nothing to offer. That's when he says, I will make you strong in your weakness. And that's when he comes in and makes us capable to live this life out. And our requirement is not to produce fruit. That's his job. We're to bear the fruit. We're to hold it in that sense and have it on display, ready for people to pick. But our job is not producer. That is the vine's job. To send the life giving SAP through the branch to produce the fruit. Not our job. And we can trust him to do that. What he requires of us is abiding to remain in Him. Him and us. This is the relationship. This is the very thing we were created for. And kind of for context. This is actually he's telling this story picture of John 15 at the same time as he's saying John 17:3. This is eternal life that you all may know him. If you ever want to do a good study like John 13:19 is incredible. It's the longest day in the bible. It's all one day John 13:19. John 13:16 is his last teaching to the twelve disciples. He basically goes, all right, you've been with me all these years. You've seen all these things. See what you got to do. Here's the thing. You can't do it. I'm the vine, you're the branches. This is why I've got to go. I may send the helper. So it's not you just coming along with me as I do all the things, but now I'm actually going to continue my ministry through you, as it says in Acts. But, yeah, so that's good news. And so that kind of came to the point of like, all right, well, if I don't have to work to him, and he wants to work through me, not me work for him, then again, what do I do? What do I do with the rest of my life? And that was the moment when I realized I hit that John 17:3, and I read, this is eternal life, that they may know the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent. This is why he came to bring me back into that. And I've now realized that I've been completely freed up to simply enjoy him, the very thing I was created for. That was the night that really. I just can't explain what that night was to me. That was kind of mind blowing. That was like, oh, my goodness, this is the meaning of life. It's cliche, but it's true. It was, like, mind blowing. It's like, I have discovered this. What in the what? But, yeah, anyway, it was great. That night was just so impactful to me and completely changed my view on life, my view on the gospel, my view of God, all these things. He just wants to delight in us. He's created us to delight in us. He already delighted in us before he created us, but now we get to experience the delight he has for us. And we may delight in Him. And that's what it's all about. This is the ministry of reconciliation. We read it out before. Oh, I've got it here. Don't need to open my bottle. In 2 Corinthians 5, 17:20. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things have passed away. Behold, the new things have come. Now, all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against him. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. This is what it's all about. It wasn't the ministry of salvation that was given to Paul, wasn't the ministry of forgiveness, wasn't the ministry of sanctification, the ministry of being made holy, but the ministry of reconciliation come back into what we're created for, into relationship with him. So my question that I find myself, I find asking myself a lot that I find God asking me, I believe God is asking each of us is the same question. He asked Adam and Eve in the garden, where are you? He wasn't talking about location. He went to where Adam and Eve were hiding and then said, where are you? Okay, he was talking about in relationship to him. Where are you in relationship to me? And that's kind of the question you might. I don't know where you're at. I don't know whether you've been in the church your whole life and never knew that that was the heart of the gospel, to know him. Maybe you're saved, but have never entered into what God has for you. Maybe you've never heard any of this before. This is your first time here, and you're like, what the heck is going on? But yet the question applies to where are you? He has bridged the gap. He has done the OSP so that we might come back to him. There is no work we have to do, no ladder to climb to get to him. Nothing we've got to pay back. Grace is a free gift given to us. All he says is, I've done all the work. I've got rid of everything. All I want from you is you. In a sense, that's what he wants of us, is to return and say, all I want from you is you. And so I find myself repenting constantly from this because I've gone astray. There's so often I find myself in Christianity for something other than God himself, and I've got to reel myself back in and say, why am I here? I was thinking about the other week. It's a lot like my diet, actually. I love junk food, okay? And that junk food, it's not good for me, but I just enjoy it so much. But because I enjoy this so much, I can eat so much of it. And then I get to this point where I'm like, oh, man, I shouldn't have eaten that I feel so sick. And it's kind of this afterwards thought. But that junk food kind of actually puts me off. All the good food and the stuff that is nutritious, it has all these exploding flavors and all these things. But I began to desire those over the good food, the stuff that will sustain me in these different things. And so I find myself constantly coming back to this thing of I've got to stop trying to sanctify myself, trust him to do that. I've got to get rid of this pride. I've got to kill it in this sense. I've just got to come back to delighting in him. And I find myself singing that song a lot of the time of Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, I want to see you to see you high and lifted up Shining in the light of your glory as we sing Holy, holy, holy. That's not just to sing Holy, holy, holy. I promise you, if you're able to open the eyes, if you ask him to open the eyes of your heart and you can have that vision of him, that holy, holy, holy will naturally come out in your singing, in your life as you're working in the cafe, as you're working on the cabin, as you're working wherever in the sense in every part of your life that holy, holy, holy will come out. So that's my invitation to you guys is where are you? That is the one question that matters. Truly, it's the only thing that matters, is that where are you? If you're not in relationship to him? There's no shame, there's no condemnation, there's nothing. It's just come, taste and see. You'll fall in love with it very quickly. You'll fall in love with him so quickly. If you're able to come and taste and see, try him out. If you've been hurt by the church or the gospel, false gospel, in any way before, come to this. This is what he's saying to you. I want to know you. I want to delight in you. I want you to know the love that I have for you. Bask in it. Yeah, I have a. I actually don't know where it's gone now. Oh, here it is. I have a poem that I read that kind of, I don't know, sums up that enjoyment of life with him. It's called Discovering daily who Christ really is. Discovering daily who God really is. Thanking him daily. He's mine and I'm his. Discovering daily God's great love for me Such mercy, forgiveness, amazingly free. Discovering daily that God really cares Discovering daily he does answer prayers Discovering daily what grace really means Unmerited favor beyond all my dreams Discovering daily God speaking to me he speaks through the Bible Once blind, now I see Discovering Discovering each day that I live that all that I need he freely will give Discovering daily Christ working through me Accomplishing daily what never could be Discovering daily I can't but he can Thanking him daily for my place in his plan Discovering daily how real life can be When I'm living in Christ and He's living in me Discovering daily A song in my heart with anticipation for each day to start Delighting and basking in love so divine Secure in the knowledge I'm his and he's mine Besides mere contentment excitement I see a daily adventure Christ alive living in me I also have another poem I'm just going to pull up quickly. This is from when we were students at Cape and Ray. Our resident assistant kind of wrote this poem coming into a new year and I don't know, it really embodies everything she learned at Cape and Ray and the fullness of this gospel message. I'm just going to pull it up and it's been. I can't remember if I actually shared it last time. I might have, but I'm going to read it again because every time I kind of share a message like this, I'm just so reminded of it and how she sums it up. Sorry. Okay, so the new year brings all kinds of things promised and potential. More fun, funds, freedom, fulfillment. And yet what is anything at all if I do not know what it is to simply be with the One who is to know that I am loved, which is the beginning and the middle and the end of the story. Perhaps it is out of that knowing that I finally find what I was made for. To bring glory to the One who has authored my very existence and to very much enjoy existing in Him. What a relief to give up my parading clown act, my strong arm striving, my white knuckled wrestling, my brave faced bearing. I can trade it all in to simply be myself and in your presence and to delight in you. There Granted, in the year to come there will remain a good many things to be troubled and anxious about. But there also remains only one thing that is truly necessary 2020 six years later and the good portion is still the good portion. To sit with the Son to receive all that he is, as I offer up all that I am. Only then will anything else mean what it is meant to. Indeed, only as I delight in life Himself. Am I freed up to delight in life itself this year may I choose what is better the good portion. It will not be taken from me. And so that's the Message of John 17:3 this is eternal life. This is the gospel message. This is the message of the Bible. This is what God wants to speak to us, that he desires to know us that this is eternal life, that they may know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. The message Jesus came to die for my sins is a hundred percent true, but it's a rip off from the real thing if you leave it at that. It is only half the gospel and we must know the full gospel. I'll repeat it again. John 17:3 and this is eternal life that they may know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He has [00:46:17] Speaker A: sent thanks for listening in today. We hope you feel encouraged and challenged. If you know someone who would benefit from what you have heard today, please share this podcast. For more information or if you have questions, you can connect with us through our website, EricksonCovenant CA. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Erickson Covenant Church.