This past week I had the joy and privilege of uh getting away for a few days with my wife and my kiddos up north, the Flagstaff and it was a lot of fun. We got to play in the snow a little bit. Although we had to go up to snowball, uh where they manufacture snow, which is an interesting concept, but it was great. And so we were playing in the snow and just hanging out and, you know, drinking hot chocolate, playing with the kiddos doing things that families with young kiddos do. Well, one of the favorite things that my daughter loved to do on that trip and she just turned, she's four, almost five is that she has now entered the Barbie stage of little girlhood and this is new for me as a dad. I, I have a boy who's 12, 8. I'm used to like tackling, throwing a football, you know, wrestling. And now with a little girl, I'm, I'm not used to Barbies, but we got up there and my, my daughter Chloe was like, daddy, let's play Barbies. And I'm like, ok, I'm not sure what to do and, but I figured it out though. We ended up having a really intense dance competition between Tabitha and Sophie. Those are the names that we gave them. And, and so, and just, you know, I won, I won the competition um because I'm competitive like that. No. And so I just play, was playing Barbies with my, with my daughter. I love being a girl dad and just, you know, combing her hair and drinking pretend tea and haven't gone as far as decorating the nails yet. Any da uh dads of girls already had their nails painted or remember those? OK. We have for those watching online. We have the, even since reliving some childhood memories right now right in front of us. So, uh I haven't gotten that far yet, but we were enjoying just playing together. It was great. It was a great time with the family. And so after we were playing Chloe just jumped in my lap and, and leaned in real close and she goes, dad, what's that? And she started poking me and I was like, OK, I get it. Chloe. Daddy's put on a few pounds. OK? You don't have to. She was no daddy. What's that? And she started tapping my chest like this and then she put her head in real close and she goes daddy, I hear it and I was like, is she hearing voices? Like, should I be worried? Like, maybe we shouldn't play so realistically with the Barbies like what's going on and she says no daddy, I hear it and she goes, I hear your heartbeat, hear mine. And she stands up like this and for the next couple of minutes she just sat there in my lap. And what I love about that moment is that here. I had my four year old daughter. She's not concerned about COVID. She's not concerned about financial stress or whatever. All of us adults are worried about. The only thing she cared about in that moment was that she was sitting on the lap of her father and she was close enough to hear his heartbeat. And if you think about it, if you've ever heard a heartbeat, there's something soothing about it, isn't it? BB? Think about even going to a medical office, a doctor's office, which can we agree? Like the, I think we can make doctor's offices a little bit cozier than they are. Like, why is it that, like, it's always like a cold room, fluorescent lighting, a random landscape picture on one wall, on the other wall. Like a picture of anatomy with all the diseases that could go wrong. And now you just, you get more stressed when you go into the doctor's office, like, oh, what is that? Do I have that? What is that? And you look on the wall? But even in that moment, a doctor walks in or, or an assistant or a nurse walks in and comes in with a stethoscope and says, OK, breathe in and you breathe out and you go in, even in that setting, even in an uncomfortable setting, you find yourself having to relax to take a deep breath and you realize that you can actually do that at any given time. In fact, let's just do that right now. If you're watching, um, online or here in the room, everybody, let's collectively just take everybody here, just take a deep breath together. Ok. Ready. I know 2020 is stressful. You know, COVID, numbers are on the rise and there's financial stress. Some of you who are employees wonder if you're gonna keep your job. Some of you are employers wondering how you're gonna keep the jobs of your employees. Are you thinking? Well, should we connect with family? I don't know if we need to keep a distance. Maybe there's a health issue. Maybe there's something that's completely unrelated to COVID, but just as stressful for the next 2025 minutes. I just want you to collectively take a deep breath and picture yourself there with your Heavenly Father close enough to hear his heartbeat because if you're in the arms of your Heavenly Father and you hear his heartbeat, it changes everything, doesn't, it? It really does because I know this to be true. You can impress from afar, but you impact from up close. You can impress someone from a distance with the clothes, you wear the car you drive the money you spend whatever you post on social media or you can impress from, from a distance, but you really impact up close those personal relationships, the ins and outs of the working relationships at your business, the deep conversations late at night with a good friend, an encouraging word from a coach, some inspiring feedback from a teacher, some shared experiences with a family member. This Christmas season. I don't want you to think about what it is that you need to impress. But instead, how close can you get for impact? Because the Christmas story of Jesus coming to earth, it's not about man reaching up to God, but instead, it's about God reaching down to man. And if God can make a manger and a messy, dirty stable holy with his presence, then I know that we can be made holy with his presence. And that when God reached down to man, the coming of Jesus as a baby, it's really the coming of love. And that if you are so close to your heavenly father, that you can hear his heartbeat, you're gonna feel safe, secure, valued and you'll be able to take a deep breath for just a moment. So that's what I wanna do. If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down, the closer you are to the heartbeat of God, the greater your love for others becomes the closer you are to the heartbeat of God. The greater your love for others becomes because when you hear God's heartbeat, it changes your heartbeat and you start to view people and circumstances and relationships differently because you are secured and loved by God. If you have your Bibles, open up to a letter called First John, towards the end of your Bible, if you don't have a Bible, we actually have one that we'd love to give to you today. And if you don't have a Bible and you're watching this online, uh again, if you visit Mission grove.info, you'll see the passage. But if you actually don't own a Bible, I'd love to send you one. So just fill out that form or comment and, and we'll send you one in the mail. I can't guarantee it'll be here by Christmas because it seems like everyone's sending stuff or ordering from Amazon Prime. But, but we'll try to get you one here and that's just our gift to you. So there's this guy named John who was known as the Son of Thunder. You don't get that for being too meek, I don't think. Ok, so he's clearly loud, rambunctious. And this guy who was known as the Son of Thunder ultimately becomes the apostle of love. And in the later days of his life, he's writing this letter and we pick it up here in first John chapter four verse 16. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us know and believe that's an all encompassing idea that you fully embrace the truth. That God is love. One of the common things we say here at Mission Grove is that we love to be for the community that comes from verses just like this one, first John 416 because we believe that God is for you and if God is for you, we are for you and together we can be for this community. We believe that for far too long, churches have been defined and described by what they are against. Instead, we want to be known by whom we're for and we can be for people because God is for us. God is not up there with a giant stick ready to play, whack a mole whenever you mess up. He's like uh he's not that Dennis, the menace kid with the magnifying glass trying to burn ants on the ground. OK. I'll be honest, I did that. Did anyone do that anyone else do that with a magnifying glass as a kid? OK. OK. Don't be afraid of us. OK. We're not evil people. Uh We just experimented with science in glass and light, but I, I noticed that I, when I shared with you just now that I used to try to burn ants with a magnifying glass. Some of you judged me. OK? We're gonna talk about that in just a moment. OK. So, so I'll prepare your hearts for having judgment in yours. Ok. It was really fun. I might be honest, it cool. We were like, oh fire, ok. Anyway, see this is why I was not used to playing Barbie with, with my daughter yet. I was like, ready to burn stuff and throw a ball and hit stuff or play video games. And so Barbie was new for me. So here we have back to our verse. So we have come to know and believe the love that God has for you and he's not pulling something from you. He has something for you. God is love. It doesn't say love is love. I mean that sounds cozy and you're gonna hear it on commercials. Love is love is love. That doesn't mean anything. Do you understand that? A tree is a tree is a tree. You know, food is food is food, air is air is air like it. You can't just repeat a word and then be like, oh that's cool. Like it doesn't work that way. Here's the thing. You have to have a basis for love. Something that defines or describes something that is a foundation that starts. What's the point of language? If you don't have a dictionary to define what words mean, it's important to know what dictionary people use to define words. Sometimes they have the same vocabulary but a different dictionary in other words, they say the phrase but they mean something completely different. Well, those who believe in Jesus who call themselves Christians or Christ followers use God as the basis for love. And this is great because He gives us an eternal platform, a solid rock to base our understanding of what love really looks like and what love truly is. And so he says that we know and we believe the love that God has for us and that God himself is love. It's not just something He does, but it's who He is. And so God cannot do anything but love. That doesn't diminish his justice or his holiness or his perfection. It just means that He is in his perfection, in his justice, in his righteousness, love. And it says, whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in Him, that word abide is the same word that he wrote in his gospel. The same author wrote the Gospel of John and in John chapter 15, he described it this way that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Last thing um The last last I've heard is that in order for a branch, you know, to produce fruit actually has to be attached. You know, I love Wi Fi in our homes and you don't, you don't realize how much you love internet and Wi Fi connection until you go to a place with doesn't have Wi Fi connection. Have you ever been in that spot? Isn't it amazing how quickly humanity has come to expect fast internet? Do you remember the days not too long ago where you just heard that, like, trying to get on the internet or, you know, maybe build the time before electricity. Right. I'm just kidding. Kind of. Oh, maybe not. I don't know. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Bill. So, it's amazing how quickly our standards change. But here's the thing we think that, like, abiding is like wi fi like, oh, I'll just connect so, anywhere from wherever I am, but you have to actually make a conscious decision to abide or stay connected to the vine of Jesus in the same way my daughter couldn't hear my heartbeat unless she was right up next to me. Question is how close are you to God? Do you acknowledge him from a distance? Do you just sing Christmas carols? And that's the extent that you know, of who God is? Or are you close enough that when you pray or when you read or when you talk to someone that you could hear his heart? That's what it's saying that when you know God and you abide in love, you abide in Him and God abides in you. Let's continue reading verse 17. So by this love is perfected with us. Now, pause in there for a second. That word perfected actually has even a deeper meaning than what you first think. Because if the first time I read that, that God's love is perfected, it's like, well, wait a second, you mean, God's love isn't already perfect or am I perfect? Because one, I know God's love is already perfect. And then on the other side, I know that I am not perfect. And so the combination of those two doesn't really make sense to me. But as I did deeper study on this scripture came to realize that that word for perfect, the Bible of those that might not know was, was written in the, in the language of the day. And so the New Testament that was Greek. And so the everyday Greek was used and that word, that same word in other places was translated as accomplished. For example, uh John 434 Jesus said, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work, that word accomplished is the same word there in John 17 verse four, Jesus was praying and he says, I glorified you God on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do same word there. And so the idea of being perfected is the idea of activating, maturing, accomplishing its intended purpose. So take that concept and place it into this verse. So by this love is activated within you, isn't that awesome by this love is matured and growing within you. By this, you are actually accomplishing what God has created you to do. And so you see that love is part of your purpose. So by this love is perfected or growing within us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment. Oh All those who judged me earlier, ha got you. No. Um OK. Now this phrase doesn't seem to make sense. We're talking about love. He is the apostle of love. God's love is being perfected in us. God is love. It's cozy, warm fuzzy feelings by a fireplace. But what does this word? Judgment have to do with anything? Well, in the final days when God will judge the world as he sees sees fit, remember he is just He is perfect. He is holy. He's going to judge the world. But it says that we can have confidence why? Because God is not judging us for our sin but judging us based on Christ's sacrifice, you see, our sin was already paid for God already took the check. Have you ever been at a meal with a big group of people? And then you were, you were stressed about who was gonna pay or what was it gonna be the split? Ok. And then come to find out someone already paid and then come to find out actually no one paid and you just walked out with a free meal. No, no one's done that. Ok. So just kidding. No. But if you've been in a group and someone already like paid, isn't that a cool feeling? Well, Jesus already took the check. He already paid the penalty or the payment for your sin. And so this actually says, because of the love of God that has come to us through Jesus, that we can actually have confidence for the day of judgment because as He is so we are in the world, so God has loved us and now we can go and love the world and our sins have actually been paid for. And he continues on actually in the verse 18 here and it says for there is no fear and love, so confidence on one side and no fear on the other side. And so it's two ways of actually saying the same thing he's saying, you can have confidence before God and then you can have no fear. And so the idea of what you don't have, you don't have fear, but instead you have confidence and so you have this boldness to go before the throne. Why? Because perfect love casts out fear. Now, John was like many of the other disciples, a fisherman. And so notice that word cast, that's the same word that was used in Matthew 418 when Jesus first called the disciples, they were in their boats casting the nets by the sea. Now to be fair, there's a lot of different definitions for cast. So there's some other uses throughout scripture, not just casting nets, but you can get the imagery from a guy who was a fisherman now writing. And so it says actually in the definition to cast is to throw and not care where it lands. It's also how I approach laundry in a hamper. They wanna do that. Maybe your kids or your spouse. Ok. Yeah. You know, I, I feel like if you make it within, it's kind of like, um, you know, it, it's kinda like playing with horseshoes, you know, and like, if you, you, you should get a point if it's touching the hamper, you know, and, and three points. If it, if it goes in the hamper, I feel like, and so you have like, you just throw stuff to the ground. Are you throwing out? Well, same idea here is like a fisherman casting a net into the water. You are casting fear out, you are casting it away. It's being replaced with love. It says for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. That same idea of perfection is described and Paul writes a letter to the Colossians in Colossians chapter 128. He says, Christ, we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ, same word as perfected there. So this idea of love, the specifically the love of God and the love of Christ. When it enters our lives. When you hear the heartbeat of God, it grows, it accomplishes his purpose in your life, it changes everything. And so that when you are close with your heavenly Father, you recognize that there is nothing you could do to make God love you more and there's nothing you can do to make God love you any less. And so therefore you move beyond fear. When you discipline young Children, there, there's a healthy fear of God. But as the relationship grows, it turns from fear of punishment to love and relationship. And so is your relationship with God based on fear or is it based on loving God and loving others the way that He has loved us? And so we have this incredible picture that with the love of God, the transforming, perfecting love of God. And we can have confidence before the day of judgment, no fear because love casts out fear. And then we have this incredible verse. And if you wanna underline a verse, I want you to underline first John chapter four verse 19, it says this, we love because He first loved us. Oh How we try to change this verse, don't we? We love because we wanna earn reward, we love because we have to, we love because it's needed for us to reach up to God. And the Christmas story is not man, reaching up to God, but God reaching down to man. And so he is the basis for everything that we do. Paul writes in Romans five chapter eight that says that while we were still sinners, Christ at the right time died for us. This idea is, is that God did not wait for us to get our act together. God did not wait for you to get your life together. God did not wait for you to be perfect instead. He says, I wanna give you love that will be perfected in your life over time because every one of us makes mistakes. Every one of us has issues. Every one of us has worries and doubts. Some struggle with pride, others with lust, others with lying, others with greed, whatever it is that you work through a combination of all of those we walk in. And it's interesting that when we walk into church, how often do our guards go up and we try to act perfect when this verse tells us that God's love perfects us and it's not even being perfect. It's that it makes us mature, it grows, it accomplishes its purpose because God loved us first. Imagine for a moment being able to walk into church, not pretending to be someone you're not. But just being, imagine walking into your workplace on Monday, not having to live up to some fictitious standard or fakeness. Imagine having an open honest dialogue when someone says, how are you doing? Really? Imagine not having to pretend, not having to get everything together, but just to be able to go into the lap of the Heavenly Father close enough to hear his heartbeat and to hear your heavenly Father say daddy's here. Imagine how freeing that would be to know that there's nothing you could do to make God love you more and there's nothing you could do to make God love you any less. And that God loves you as you are right now. And that God wants to have his love grow in your life so that you can love others like he did. In the nineties, there was a craze of bracelets that actually you still see out a little bit today called the WWJD bracelets. Remember that it stood for? What would Jesus do? Uh My oldest son, Jackson, when he saw one of those bracelets because time had since moved on from that kind of craze. And so so cool. WWJD. What would Jackson do? I'm like, you don't get it. Ok. Um And so people would wear these braces and what would Jesus do? And I always used to think that was really unfair because Jesus was God, right? Because I'm sure his brother James heard that growing up. Come on, James, what would Jesus do? Right? You hate to be James going at another wedding right after Jesus turned water into wine. Hey, Jesus isn't here, but we got his brother James. Come on, we got this whole thing of water. Come on, Jesus did it. What would Jesus do? Right? You read these stories of Jesus and he would calm ST storms with a word. He fed 5000 men with a boy's lunchable of fish and bread that really ultimately fed close to 20,000 people. He walked on water. He, he did all these crazy things like what would Jesus do? I, I don't know. But then you realize that when he took on the limitations of a human being that he experienced everything we experienced temptation, frustration, persecution, isolation, hunger, thirst, being tired, and yet he remained faithful and obedient to God's will for his life. And so we have this incredible example. And so I believe now there's a newer movement um spreading out also on bracelets and t shirts and stuff. Um That's meant to be an answer to that question. So the question is, what would Jesus do? And the answer is actually found in this verse first, John 419 is that he would love first. So Hwlf, he would love first. And when you categorize that question, what would Jesus do? And you frame it with this verse, he would love first that now gives you the ability and me the ability to respond and act and to love like Jesus. So the other thing I want you to write down this morning is that when it comes to love, go first, when it comes to love, go first. And I'm not talking about being in the front of the line. In fact, most relationships like dating or marriage is, is really a race to the back of the life. What I mean is go first in showing love. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna have anybody raise their hands because I don't, I don't wanna get too up in your business today, but I'll let, I'll let God get up in your business right now. And so just in your head right now, is there a relationship friend, family member, parent, child, sibling coworker? Who are you? You are intentionally and purposefully holding back. If he only if he says this, then I will forgive If she says that, ok, then I will serve that once I have this, then then I won't no. See that's not love. When it comes to love, love always goes first. Jesus did not wait for you to get your act together. Instead he went, he came to us. This is the whole Christmas story. He came to us to show us what love really is and he died on the cross before we ever prayed to receive him. And so love went first. What if, what if this Christmas season you decided to forgive? What if this Christmas season you decided to serve? What if this Christmas season, that person that you struggle with? You decided to give them a gift, you decided to share because love doesn't wait till the conditions are right. Love always goes first. Why? Because when you have everything you need in Christ, you approach relationships, not by what you can get, but instead with what you can give. When you realize that Jesus is all that you need and you can freely give to every relationship because forgiveness isn't just about the other person. It's actually about you. Do you understand that forgiveness is not the same thing as trust, trust takes time. But forgiveness is the idea of saying Christ died for that too. And if God's forgiven me, if God went first with me, if God loved me as I was as I am with all my mistakes, all my issues, all my worries and as I hear his heartbeat, then I can in turn love people the way that Jesus loved me, I can forgive people because Jesus forgave me. I can bless people because God has blessed me. And we become the church that is known throughout the community and the world as the church that loves. And if you discover that kind of love this Christmas, there's nothing that God can do in your life. And I don't know what the remainder of this year looks like. I don't know what 2021 looks like, but I know that 2000 years ago love came down in the form of a baby into a manger. I know that that first Christmas was crazy too with government unrest, political unrest, social unrest, financial stress. They're in a manger in a stable, the little town of Bethlehem with unlikely people and unlikely circumstances. Love came down and if love can come in a manger, then love can come in your life. And if you experience the heartbeat of God. Then you know, the God can move in your life. You'll free you to love people the way that Jesus has loved us and that my friends is wonderful love. Let's pray dear heavenly Father. I pray right now for those in this room and those watching online that God, you can just move in our spirit, in the middle of our worries, stressful circumstances. God, I pray that you can draw close to us so that we can draw close to you. May we hear your heartbeat? May we understand that you love us and that we have everything we need this Christmas. Yeah, I mean, we in turn go first and love the difficult people in our lives. We would be the first to forgive the first to serve the first to give of our resources and our time. God, I mean, we understand that it's not about waiting until circumstances are right, but instead just receiving your gift of your presence in our life. I pray for anyone who might be hearing this for the first time that they will put their faith and trust in you. They can know and believe and your son Jesus and that through believing, we can experience love, experience forgiveness and may this love accomplish its purpose in our lives, maturing and growing and being perfected so that the world will know what love looks like. Christmas is more than just a season that ultimately it is the coming of love and it's a personal relationship with you. Thank you for coming. Thank you for going first. God. May we answer that question of what would you do, Jesus with the truth that you would love first? And if you would love 1st may we love first in our home with our parents, with our kids, with our siblings, in our workplace, with our friends in the neighborhood, God, everybody that we encounter where we enter and define our relationships, not by what we can get, but instead what we can give. Thank you for loving us. May we experience that? Love this Christmas? I mean we sing to you now and your son that we pray.