My Story, My Song | Battle Belongs, Part 3

0:01 Hey, everybody. Andy here. Welcome to Your Move, where we help you make better decisions and live with fewer regrets. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on the generosity of our listeners. So if you have been positively impacted by this podcast, would you consider supporting Your Move with a tax-deductible donation? To give, just visit yourmove.is slash give. That's yourmove.is forward slash give. Thanks for considering. And now back to the show.

0:35 So as we said last week when we started this series, we all have a song or some songs that somehow stamped our lives that take us to another place and time. Today's part two of our series, My Story, My Song, where we are actually, to use a seminary word, we're actually exegeting or picking apart or taking a closer look at some of the songs we sing in church because in the songs we sing in church, and there are important messages buried in these songs and the lyrics of the song. And I wanna highlight a few so that you don't miss the message of the song. And my real hope is that some of these lyrics would literally stamp your life because I don't want you to miss the message in the song to the point that when I want you to feel them, I want you to feel these lyrics when we sing them. And for those of you who don't sing them, some of you, maybe you shouldn't sing them, I don't know. But anyway, if all you do is just face forward and see the lyrics on the screen

1:29 I just hope that the power of the music and the significance of the lyrics sink in and that maybe some of the lines from some of these songs would mark your life because of what's going on right now or something that went on in the past that you need to kind of move beyond whatever the case may be. We hope that it stamps your life. So today, the song that we're gonna look at was actually written by our local artists. We've sung it many, many times. God is Love by Clay Fennison, Casey Hines, and Jared Hamilton. Now, as we jump in, I wanna step way back context and many of you may find this surprising. Some of you may just not believe this and think, I think Andy just made that up. Good, you can go home and check for yourself. That would be great. And if you're not a religious person or you're from a different faith tradition other than Christianity, or maybe you used to be a Christian, but you've, you know, that's in the rear view mirror and you're only here or you're only watching because, you know, people kind of forced you or bribed you with lunch, whatever the case is.

2:24 Or maybe you've never been a religious person. What we're gonna talk about in these next first three or four minutes in particular, this idea that I'm gonna present may create an on-ramp for you to faith or an on-ramp back to faith, or this is kind of, I don't know, take it however you want to. What I'm about to present, it may actually provide you with a detour around some Christians you know, because you've had a bad church experience, you had a bad experience maybe with Christians, and you sort of believe in God and you might know there's something out there somewhere, but if all religion to you, if all your experience with religion has been kind of negative, this may give you a way to detour around some of those obstacles to once again explore faith sincerely. So I hope that's the case.

3:16 So here we go, no more building up. There is a vast difference. In fact, vast isn't even probably the best word. It's the only word I could come up with. There is a vast difference, vast difference. between these two statements. God loves everybody and God is love. God loves everybody and God is love. When Christians say generally that God is love, they usually mean that God loves everybody. When people say, you know, God is love, that means God is loving and therefore God loves everybody. But that is not what the original author of this phrase, God is love, meant. Let me tell you where this came from. The first time this phrase, God is love, showed up showed up in a first century document that was included in the New Testament that was included in the Bible. That in the first century, when John, the apostle John, who was one of Jesus' original followers, one of the disciples, when John penned this line or dictated this line, God is love, it was unbelievable.

4:13 To our knowledge, no one had ever said such a thing before. No one had ever written such a thing before. It originated with John, the follower of Jesus. And the reason it was so unbelievable is that in the first century, all over the world, other than Jews and Christians, everybody believed in multiple gods. And you would never say the gods are love. You wouldn't even say the gods are loving. Now there were gods of love. Venus was a god of love, but nobody would ever say, Venus is loving because Venus did other things besides give people love for each other. So the whole idea of a supernatural being, being love, not just being loving, and yet John had the courage and had the insight to pin or to dictate this line, God is love. But let me tell you the difference between these two lines.

5:06 This does not mean that, but that is the reason this is true. This does not mean that, but that is the reason that this is true. And so when John was dictating his letter And when John had these words penned, John was not thinking, this is super important, John was not thinking about the fact that God loves everybody. When he wrote or dictated God is love, he wasn't thinking, oh, God loves the world, God loves me, God loves everybody. And he certainly wasn't looking around the world going, isn't the world lovely? Because when he wrote this, the world was not lovely in any sense. When John dictated this line, God is love, he was thinking about someone he had met. He was thinking about Jesus.

5:52 One of these statements reflects a choice, what God chooses to do. God loves everybody. God chooses to love everybody. The other statement reflects what God is, God's essence, that God just doesn't love people, that God is in fact love, that God's love is not a response to something outside of himself, that God's love is not a response to some code of ethics. This is where we get confused, that God is God and there's like this code of ethics and just and unjust, and God has subscribed or ascribed himself or embraced some code of ethics that sits outside of him. That's not the picture at all. John is making the point that God is love. Another way he says it is that God is pure light. Now, the reason this is confusing for most people, and the reason this gets confusing even for Christians is partially people who do what I do for a living who get up here and stand up and talk about God, Some of the language in the Bible makes this confusing as well, not because the Bible's confusing, but whenever we try to comprehend the essence of God, it gets a little bit confusing because in some ways our language falls short.

7:05 And here's sort of the bottom line of all that. Most of us have reduced God to a being, that God is a being out there somewhere, that God is a highly ethical, powerful being. In fact, God is the most powerful being, That's completely wrong, John would tell us. Somehow, someway, don't ask me to explain, John would say.

7:30 God squeezed himself into a body. And this is why John concludes what he concludes about God, that God is love. Now, this is important, okay? If you're not a Bible person or you're, what about the Bible and you have problems with the Bible? Okay, we'll just set that aside for one second, okay? For John, this idea, this was not theory. For John, this wasn't philosophy. For John, this wasn't even theology. For John, this was his experience. Because at the end of his time with Jesus, three to three and a half years, at the end of his time with Jesus, following the resurrection, John concluded, along with everyone who had followed Jesus through that chaotic time leading up to his arrest and crucifixion and resurrection, John concluded that Jesus was God in a body and that to see him and to listen to him and to experience him was to see and to listen to and to experience God.

8:35 And so he said, I don't know any other way to say it because if Jesus in some way was God, then God is love. In fact, at the opening lines of his gospel, we call it his gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. So he wrote the book of John, we call it a book. And then he wrote three letters to the churches. I'm gonna read some of that in just a minute. Listen to this, the opening line, the opening lines of his story, his account of the life of Jesus says this. And I've changed a word because the English word, we just read right by it and we think it's talking about the Bible or something. Listen to this statement. It's so brilliant. It's so rich. It's so deep. He says this. He says, the logos, it's a Greek term. The Logos became flesh and made his dwelling among us. When he says among us, he's not talking about, I read about a story about Jesus. He's like, no, no, no, no.

9:29 Like we fished together and we camped together and we walked miles and miles and miles together. God showed up and he made his dwelling among us full of grace and truth. Now this is a very important word. In the Greek way of thinking, here's how they thought. They believed in lots of gods, but they also believed in wisdom, and they believed in truth, and they believed in justice, and they believed there was injustice, and they believed there was fairness and unfairness. And they couldn't sort this out because the gods weren't just, the gods weren't consistent, and the gods certainly weren't always good. So they knew, they just knew intuitively, instinctively, we would say divinely, that there was something behind the gods, and they didn't know what to call it. They didn't even know what it was. But there's something back there beyond that that kind of informs our conscience, He referred to it as the Logos. The Logos was this existing principle. And John, this is amazing, in his brilliance says, I'm gonna tell you guys, I'm gonna tell the world what the Logos is.

10:27 The Logos has a name. The Logos is God and God, that mysterious thing that everybody's trying to sort out and figure out, he wanted the human race to know him and he appeared and he came and made his dwelling among us 100% truth and 100% grace. John, after his time with Jesus, was absolutely convinced that if Jesus, if Jesus was a reflection of, if Jesus was a demonstration of, if Jesus was a living picture of God, then there was no way around it. There was no other way to say it. John, you spent time with Jesus. If Jesus is God, sum God up for us. John would say,

11:15 God is love because I saw love personified. I gazed into the eyes of love. And if Jesus is God in a body, which I'm convinced he is, then God is love.

11:39 Later, he would write these three letters to Christians in the first century. Listen to how he now expands on this idea. He says, dear friends, it's a letter, dear friends. And just for a second, and I know I say this all the time and I get in trouble for it, but I care too much not to. Okay, for just a minute, please don't hear, oh, Andy's up there reading the Bible. No, I'm reading a letter written by a first century follower of Jesus who wants first century followers of Jesus to understand what he experienced. That's what I'm reading for just a moment, okay? Fortunately for us, this extraordinary, valuable document was preserved and copied and became part of the New Testament. It became part of our Bible. But it was written about over 300 years before the first Bible was ever assembled. I only make that point so that you'll hear the words of an old man at the end of his life who has suffered greatly because of his faith in his rabbi Jesus. And he's still convinced that Jesus is God. and in some unique way, God's son.

12:37 Listen to what he says. He says, dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from, emanates from, is sourced in God. Okay, whoever, he goes on, he says this, whoever does not love, does not know God because God, here it is, first time ever written down that we know about because God, John's like, but God, well, God is love. So you can't say you know God and you can't say you follow God if life isn't characterized by love because God is love. To which, you know, let's play the skeptic for a minute. Okay, John, okay, you're an old man. You're just making stuff up, right? Okay, how do you know that? How do you know God is love? I mean, there's so many philosophers. There are people wiser than you. I mean, come on, come on. What makes you think God is love?

13:30 You know, make the case. He's like, oh, it's easy. This is how God showed his love among, in other words, he's saying, I was there. This is in philosophy and theology, I was there. This is how God showed his love. This is how God proved to us that God is love. This is how God showed his love among us. He did something. He sent his one and only son into the world that we, me and my friends, his mother, his brothers,

14:03 that we might be sustained and have life through our rabbi, through our friend. This is remarkable. He says, now this is love. He says, let me be real clear. This is love. When I say love, this is what I'm talking about. This is love. Not that we love God. John would say, I'm not the source of love. You're a nice person, but you're not the source of the kind of love we're talking about here. It didn't begin with you. It didn't begin with me. It didn't begin with us. He's like, no, it began with God who is love. It's not from us, he says, but this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. He made the first move. And he sent his son to be an atoning sacrifice

14:46 for our sins. That God is love and consequently love you and wanted to create a way for you and for me to have a relationship with the infinite and our response? He says, oh, let me tell you what you should do. Dear friends, dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love God. Oh, no, no, no, no, that's easy. No, no, no. If you really understand what I'm saying, he says, then you also ought to love one another. Yeah, but she's not lovable, which John would say, and neither are you. God doesn't love you because you're lovable. God loves you because he's love. And it's that kind of love that has been demonstrated for you that you are to demonstrate for her because it is not about her.

15:41 It is about the God who loves you because God is love. And it's like, yeah, but that takes away all my excuses to which Jesus would say, welcome to my kingdom. if we love one another he goes on he says this if we love one another God lives in us and his love is this is okay real quick if you've been thinking about something else playing with your phone you know whatever you're doing at home you're driving you turn listen I just need you to hear this next part then you can go back to your grocery list or whatever you do this next part is so important I don't want you to miss this okay so everybody real quick I'm gonna read this again I got your attention, okay. If we love one another,

16:18 God lives in us and his love, it's a process, is made complete in us. Okay, look up here. The best Christians you know, the Christians that give you hope that maybe there's something to all of this, the Christians that really, they are the exception to maybe what has been for you the rule in terms of your experience in church, I hope it hasn't all been bad, but the best Christians you know are the ones who invite God to make his love complete in them. The best Christians you know are the ones who have the courage to hold up their lives beside Jesus and say, dear God, make me more like that, more like Jesus, Christ.

17:13 who was and is love. Isn't that amazing? This is why, okay, just a side note, I didn't say this earlier. The word gospel, it gets all misused. The word gospel, it shouldn't even be in the New Testament. It means good news. Anytime you hear the word gospel, you should say, I just say good news. If you can't say good news, then your sentence is wrong. It's good news. This is why it's good news, that God is love. And we have been invited into his love and to make his love complete in us, which emanates out and saturates the people in the world around us. And it's not easy and it's not always positive, but it's the way the world becomes a better place. It's the way your family and your life becomes a better place. So with all of that as the backdrop, I wanna dive now into the lyrics of this amazing song. You ready? Listen to it, maybe in a way you've never heard it before. You don't just tolerate us.

18:10 have somewhere to go. God doesn't roll his eyes at you because his love for you is not contingent on you, is not dependent on you. And for some of you, this is a problem because it's like, wait a minute, this is too easy. You know, I want God to look at me and go, man, you got it going on. Whoa, dude, you got it. I love you. That's because you don't understand you. And it's like some of us want to be recognized for what we've done, for God to be, you know, prouder of us or more loving about us because of how committed we've been and the sacrifices but see at the foot of the cross, it's just all level. All that goes away, all that pride and posturing goes away. I gotta keep moving. You don't just tolerate us. You don't have somewhere to go. We're not your trophy children. Oh, look at Andy, he's preaching. I love him, you know. We're not your trophy children. We get it right sometime and then, uh-oh, you abandoned when we roam.

19:02 Uh-oh, you had a bad day, had a bad week. Things aren't going so well at home. The lyricists, they got it exactly right. That's not how God operates. This is how we operate. But look, you didn't earn it. You didn't earn God's love. You can't unearn it. Don't miss this. Your behavior may break his heart. It will not break his love because God is love. See how it works? It's amazing. Your mercy is not a favor like God's doing us a favor. Your presence isn't rushed. Perhaps God is nothing like your earthly father whose presence always seemed rushed. And of course, all of us have a tendency Earthly father over God the father. In fact, some of you, you really kind of despise the language that God is a father because of your earthly father and I'm so sorry. And we all have, I guess, to some extent, those that feel like there's some sort of gap. I create gaps for my kids.

19:58 And the lyricists, the three folks who wrote this incredible song are saying, no, this is, that's not it. Perhaps he's better than that. Our God, the lyrics going, our God is love. This is right on the nose with what John was saying to us. The cross, the crucifixion of Jesus, it wasn't a vehicle for you to finally care. Like, oh goodness, I gotta come down there and do something. I mean, I'm gonna have to go back. Stop it, you know, stop it back. I'm gonna have to come back there. It's not that. This wasn't a desperate move on God's part. John assures us the cross was not a last resort. It's why in part he came to demonstrate his love for you. He says, when we look upon your character, your grace, it's always been there. And then this line, acceptance not withheld from us.

20:50 God's acceptance of you is not contingent on you because he's not contingent on anything and neither is his love. It is not based on something outside of him, which means it's not based on your performance. Acceptance not withheld from us. there's no need to measure up our god is love and then this this is this is these are the lines that get to me personally how vast the father's heart for us or how vast the father's love for us we will never reach the end and this you put quotes on from my life I thought for sure I'd found it. In other words, I thought I could wear God out because I knew better. As I've told you so many times, the problem with being a preacher's kid, when I would sin, I knew the chapter and the verse about my sin. I mean, I'm like so accountable and there's no excuse. And over and over, I would break promises to God. And over and over, I would go back and over and over, Scott, if I just don't get caught, I won't do it. And knowing in my heart, in my head, I'm probably going to go back to this sin, whatever it might be, over and over and over.

22:01 And at some point, God, God, do you even take my prayers seriously? My prayers aren't even worth being taken seriously. I have been so inconsistent. But God's love for me and for you is not contingent on my consistency. Even though I'd broken so many promises and hurt too many people. I love this next line. I thought for sure I'd found it. I thought for sure I'd worn him out, taken him to the end. But he proved me wrong again. up here. God cannot run out of what he is. So much higher, so much wider, so much deeper than we know. Our God is love. And then the chorus, his arms, and some of us aren't comfortable with this, I get it. His arms are open to all, for all to gather here. I mean, if God is love, Who does God not love?

22:55 The cross, I mean, this punctuates it. The cross is spoken. If you wonder who God loves and you wonder if God loved, I love this line in the Psalm. The cross is spoken. The cross is spoken. The cross is the punctuation. The cross is spoken. There's nothing left to fear. Real quick, when you begin to doubt God's love for you, the two places you should not look are the mirror or around. When you begin to doubt God's love for you because something unjust happened to you, something unfair happened to you, somebody you love, you've done your best, you've hung in there and they're gone and things have just gone upside down. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense to you and you're like, does God really love me? John would say to you, the apostle Paul would say to you, Peter would say to you, Mary the mother of Jesus would say to you, hey, when you begin to doubt God's love, don't look in the mirror and wonder what's wrong with you and don't look around and wonder what's wrong with the world. You look at the cross because the cross punctuated in time God's love for you because God is love.

23:58 Once and for all he showed at the cross, how far his grace would go for us, our God is love. And then like last week, we get to the part of the song where we breathe and we reflect. Whatever the picture, whatever picture I have, it isn't big enough. Boy, you're right. I just considered God the most all powerful being, of the Wizard of Oz or something. Like he's just the most powerful of all the power. No, no, no, no, no, whatever picture, we've reduced God to something that's contingent. Whatever picture I have, it wasn't good enough either

24:34 because the only kind of love most of us know is contingent love, dependent love, performance-based love. And his love is better than that. Whatever picture I have, it doesn't sum you up. It couldn't sum you up. how could us finite beings comprehend God and that kind of God? And this is what's so amazing about Christianity and why you should consider becoming a Christian. The infinite transcendent God wanted you to know him. It went out of his way to demonstrate his love and personal concern for you. His arms are open for all to gather here. The cross is spoken. left to fear. Once and for all, he showed how far his grace would go for us. Our God is love.

25:26 God is love. Therefore, God loves. And the men and women who knew Jesus personally would assure us, it is so much higher and it is so much wider and it is so much deeper than we will ever know. And they would say, the reason we know that is because we saw it. We saw him touch the untouchable. against injustice. We saw him die on a cross and understood later he went to the cross for our sins. We saw it, we heard it, we experienced it. And we are confident that God is love. Because Jesus was love personified. And he has invited all of us, all of us, to allow him to make his love complete in and through us. And how does that happen? Not overnight. It happens as we

26:17 follow. As we get up every single morning and we say, I'm surrendering myself to my king. Today, I will follow. Make your love complete in and through me. And when that happens in a family, and when that happens in a community, and when that happens in a city, if that could happen in a nation, the world changes. It's why Jesus came saying, good news, the kingdom of God has come, King has arrived.

26:52 So thanks for listening. But before you go, I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who supports Your Move financially. It's the generosity of our listeners that makes this podcast possible. So if you have found this content helpful, we would like to invite you to make a tax-deductible donation to Your Move. You just visit yourmove.is forward slash give. That's yourmove.is slash give. Thanks for considering and make sure you join us next week.