Love Sees This

1 Corinthians 13:11-12 | September 6, 2020

Have you ever tried something on a computer that didn’t work?

I heard a guy recently say, “You know I keep hitting the space bar, but I’m still on earth.”

Speaking of hitting the space bar, did you know that there are world records for hitting the space bar?

There are a lot of numbers out there, but I saw one that said a guy hit the space bar 94 times in 5 seconds. 

You can go to clickspeedtester.com and see if you can break any of the world records. 

I gave it a whirl a few times and my best was 34 clicks.

Now, I know on the surface 34 clicks sounds weak compared to 94 clicks, but Bo Jackson was the fastest player on Tecmo Bowl and he was #34, so, there’s that.

Plus, if you take 34 and add the 3 and the 4 together you get 7 and the number 7 in the Bible often symbolizes completeness, so, I’m completely happy with my 34. 

In 5 seconds, you might be able to…

• Hit the space bar in world record time
• Completely solve a Rubik’s Cube
• Eat 4 shrimp wontons
• Fold your shirt like a ninja

But in the big picture of life, 5 seconds isn’t long at all.

Unless, of course, you are talking about the most important things in the universe.

I saw something the other day that said that life is always more than what you can see and that some of the most defining breakthroughs in your life you never see coming and those breakthroughs can happen in just 5 seconds.

Now, I’d love to tell you that today’s sermon is only going to be 5 seconds long but sorry no such luck. 

I do hope, though, that in his mercy God might help you have some minor or major breakthroughs as we unpack some advice from the Apostle Paul.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 13, beginning with verse 11:

11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

That’s pretty self-explanatory.

At some point early in life you quit wearing diapers and you quit drooling and you quit rearranging your entire life around eating cookies and pudding. 

Then at some point later in life most of us will go back to doing all of those things.

But why is Paul saying this?

Well, a couple of sentences back, Paul made this pretty bold and encouraging statement,

1 Corinthians 13:8

Love never fails…

• The stock market may fail
• Your favorite candidate’s campaign may fail
• Your space bar world record attempt may fail

But love never fails. 

• Love never fails
• Love never quits
• Love never ends

So, the focus of our lives first and most should be on love. 

Now, someone might be thinking of their favorite Old Testament life verse right now…

Song of Solomon 2:5

…comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

I realize some people might be sick of hearing about love.

But what makes us get sick of hearing about love?

More than likely, one of the following reasons…

• We are not showing love to others
• We are not being loved by others
• We are not using the correct definitions of love

Paul is not taking about…

• Intimate love
• Family love
• Friend love
• Movie love
• Sports love
• Hobby love
• Pet love
• Shrimp wonton love
• Apple love

He’s talking about what is known as agape love and agape love is a self-denying love that keeps on loving even if love is rejected.

And that’s why we don’t like to always hear about love because our love is rejected or we have someone demanding that we give more love or we are convinced that loving our family or our pet or our boat or our tractor is the same as God’s kind of love.

But God’s kind of love is different and here is the primary reason why we should never tire of hearing about God’s kind of love…

Romans 8:35

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

 

Romans 8:37

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

 

Romans 8:38

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,

 

Romans 8:39

nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That’s why as believers we should always be concerned when we feel like we are sick of hearing about love.

• You exist because of love
• You have life because of love
• You have victory in life because of love
• You have victory in death because of love

If you are a believer, then God’s kind of love is designed to define who you are. 

But what if you are not a believer and follower of Jesus?

Then ultimately you are defined by something else.

• Yes, you can have good job and a nice home
• Yes, you can travel and visit exciting places
• Yes, you can exercise and have a healthy body
• Yes, you can have a favorite team that wins games
• Yes, you can have a romance movie kind of marriage

But without Christ, you will be separated from God’s kind of love.

You will not have any true victory over tribulation or distress or peril.

And things present and things to come and every other created thing will have the power to separate your heart and your mind from all that is good and happy and holy and satisfying.

But with Christ, you will overwhelmingly conquer those things.

Does that mean you won’t get sick or you won’t have a difficult spouse or you won’t have rebellious kids or you won’t ever lose your job or you won’t have to care for aging parents?

No, it just means that Easter changes every moment. 

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead changes every moment of your life because Jesus promised that his resurrection produces resurrection for all who believe.

Two chapters later, Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15…

1 Corinthians 15:32-33

If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

 

What company are you keeping these days?

Are you in the company of the redeemed?

That doesn’t mean you should only hang out with Christians and never have non-Christian friends.

It’s more a question of the mind – who are you listening to first and most these days?

Bad company doesn’t have to be down at the local bar or pool hall or beauty shop – bad company can be on your TV or your radio or your social media feed.

Writing recently about these days of the mob mentality, Greg Morse said this about crowds…

Greg Morse

Possessing the power to make the timid brave, the good better, or the bad devastating: crowds.

Greg Morse

When passions are shared, they swell, exciting actions to the status of legend or infamy. The power of assembly can build a better society or destroy it.

So, which crowd are you mentally running with these days?

• The Easter crowd or the November election crowd?
• The Easter crowd or the pandemic is a hoax crowd?
• The Easter crowd or the pandemic is the apocalypse crowd?

Greg Morse

Fighting with the madness of crowds is nothing if there is nothing after this life. If death were the end, Paul and his companions would go out for drinks, have some laughs, and never cause a commotion for Christ.

Greg Morse

But Paul believed in the resurrection. He believed he possessed eternal life. He knew his God. He knew his Savior. He knew he was immortal.

Listen again to verse 11…

11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

Based on verses 8-10, Paul is primarily saying that if you try to make prophecy or speaking in tongues or systematic theology more important than God’s kind of love and more important than the gospel then, in a sense, you are being childish.

Being childish is the opposite of child-like faith.

Child-like faith does not get distracted from Jesus. 

Childishness gets distracted all the time by things present and things to come and every other created thing.

Does that mean that we shouldn’t pay attention to things present and things to come and every other created thing?

No.

It just means that the main company we should keep in our minds is the Easter crowd.

Dear Christian….

• Do you believe in the resurrection?
• Do you believe that you possess eternal life?
• Do you know God?
• Do you know your Savior?
• Do you believe that you are immortal?

Then nothing can you separate you from the love of Christ.

And because of that you can and ultimately you will overwhelmingly conquer all things through the love of Christ!

• Love never fails
• Love never quits
• Love never ends

Don’t get sick of love because love is the mark of maturity.

I hope that simple truth can be a breakthrough for how you think about life.

And not just how you think, but how you see. 

Listen to what Paul says next…

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

Sometimes we want the mirror to be dim, right?

Like when you walk by the mirror when you get home and think, “Yikes, did my hair look like that all day?”

In ancient times mirrors were more like the fun mirrors you see at the state fair or the arcade in Garden City – they weren’t clear. 

Paul is saying…

“Yes, we know some stuff about God and Jesus and salvation and theology and the church and how to build an ark and how to decorate a tabernacle, but we only know things in part – they are completely clear. But one day we will know things fully.”

Now some of us don’t like that.

From the White House to the State House to the church house to my house to your house, we all seem to sound way too much like child philosopher, Veruca Salt, who wanted to have her golden egg and eat it too.

Veruca Salt

I want a party

with roomfuls of laughter

Ten thousand tons of ice cream

And if I don't get the things I am after

I'm going to scream

Veruca Salt

Presents and prizes

and sweets and surprises

Of all shapes and sizes

And now…I want it now

• We want answers now
• We want access now
• We want normal now
• We want change now
• We want updates now
• We want information now
• We want explanations now
• We want help now
• We want healing now
• We want it all now

And that is childish. 

And it’s impossible.

There’s no way your pastor or your physician or your politician or your paleontologist has all the answers you want or need.

Even if God were to give you all the answers you want, in the words of Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, “You can’t handle the truth.”

This side of heaven we can’t handle the answers we so often demand to know.

But that is the beauty of the Easter crowd.

When the resurrection of Jesus becomes that ultimate answer of your life and you know God and you know your Savior and you know that you possess eternal life, then you can hang in there when you don’t get ten thousand tons of ice cream or your candidate doesn’t get elected or you have to wear a mask the beauty shop or to church. 

We know some things now, but one day we will know in full.

And that is a great, great, great thing!

Why?

There is truly something to look forward to!

Some of you are angry and depressed and afraid because you think the world is falling apart – it is!

It’s always been falling apart!

That’s what sin does and that’s why the church exists – the world has always been yearning and longing for good news – and we have it – the good and great news about Jesus.

In Christ there is always something to look forward to because we cannot be separated from his love.

We cannot be separated from his love!

No power of hell and no scheme of man and no pandemic and no presidential election can ever pluck us from his hand!

Do you believe that?

I don’t mean are you a Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian or South Carolinian or Tiger or a Gamecock or a Coke person or a Pepsi person or a Republican or a Democrat or an American – do you believe that you cannot be separated from the love of Christ?

If, so then every 5 seconds of your life is different because whatever you are seeing and whatever you are hearing on any given moment can be changed with the eternal reality that you cannot be separated from the love of Christ. 

I heard it put this way, it’s like the illusion picture where some people see a young woman and some people see an old woman. 

Can you see the love of Christ no matter what you are looking at?

Can you hear the love of Christ no matter what you listen to?

Can you feel the love of Christ no matter what kind of pain or fear or anger you are experiencing?

And how can you see and hear and feel that way?

By remembering.

Remembering that one day life will not be a dim mirror.

Remembering that one day, if you are a believer, life will be face to face with Jesus.

To be saved by Jesus today and to one day be with Jesus forever is the greatest satisfaction in the universe.

But why does it seem that even we as Christians don’t live and think that way?

On this past Friday’s Make Your Own Headlines podcast, I made this comment…

We’ve had so many smoothies and lattes and hot pockets and pop-tarts and we’ve watched so many movie sequels and binged so many TV shows and we’ve pulled ourselves up by own our bootstraps so many times that we’ve almost unknowingly become dull to the things of God. 

To be saved by Jesus today and to one day be with Jesus forever is the greatest satisfaction in the universe.

But our hearts and minds shy away from that truth because we are too consumed with the things arounds us.

C.S. Lewis

…like a…child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

So how can we give up the mud pies and be a lot less dull?

Well, it requires two pursuits: we must pursue God and we must be pursued by God

How can you pursue God?

• Engage with the Bible
• Engage with prayer
• Engage with good books about God
• Engage with good music about God
• Engage with good sermons about God
• Engage with good podcasts about God
• Engage with mature Christians
• Engage with people who are not Christians

All of those things will tune your heart and your mind and your soul to remember and enjoy what it means to be saved and what it means that you cannot be separated from the love of Christ. 

But you cannot pursue all of that on your own. 

John Piper

God wills that a chapter be read, or a meal prepared, or a friend visited in the space of hours not seconds. He wills that a house be built in months not hours. He wills that a child be reared in years not months.

John Piper

But there are breakthroughs which could come in seconds.

John Piper

God can do more in five seconds than we can do in five hours or months or years.

My original and reigning BFF texted me last week and said, “Has there ever been a preacher give more examples to sermons using food?”

Probably not and here comes another one. 

• I love a steak
• I love some fresh shrimp
• I love some air-fried asparagus
• I love a burger at Neptune’s in Boston
• I love a doughnut
• I love a slice of pecan cream pie

What do you love?

• Fishing
• Hunting
• Shopping
• Reading
• Fortnite-ing
• College football
• Pro football
• Golf
• Soccer
• Lacrosse
• Classical music
• Jazz music
• Kids
• Grandkids
• Spouse
• Friends

Imagine the best things in life…

• The best foods
• The best experiences
• The best cars
• The best sports
• The best movies
• The best hobbies
• The best people

Someone said that the best things in this life will be swallowed up in a fullness of pleasure that goes beyond anything we can possibly imagine. 

What is that fullness of pleasure?

Seeing Jesus face to face. 

There is no greater joy than that!

Message by Dow Welsh |

September 6, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/alone-against-the-mob

Have you ever tried something on a computer that didn't work? Maybe you have that moment this week. E heard recently about a guy who said, You know what? I keep hitting the space bar, but I'm still here on Earth. Yeah, it's okay. It won't even be funny after lunch, so don't worry about it. Speaking of hitting the space bar, do you know that there is a world record in hitting the space bar? This is an actual thing. Uh, I saw where there's a guy who clicked the space bar 94 times in five seconds, 94 times in five seconds. So there's a website out there if you want to give it a go, I decided to give it a go. About the only extracurricular thing I can do because it only took me 20 seconds to do. But But you go and you click. And so I think I tried it three or four times. My best time was 34 Now, on the surface, I realized 34 sounds pretty weak and slow compared Thio 94. But in the game, Tech Mobile Bo Jackson was the fastest player and he was 34. So I've got that going for me. And if you take the number 34 you take the three and four and you add them together, it becomes seven and seven in the Bible often means complete. So I am completely happy with my 34 clicks, whether or not it's a world record or not. Five seconds. Five seconds. What can you do in five seconds? Well, maybe you can get a world record and click in the space bar. Maybe in five seconds you can put together and solve the whole Rubik's Cube. Maybe in five seconds you can eat four shrimp wontons. I don't know if that's your thing. Maybe in five seconds you can fold a shirt like a ninja. But five seconds, generally speaking, regardless of what you may be able to do, is still not a long, long time. Five seconds is a very short amount of time unless you're talking about the most important things in the universe. I saw something this week where somebody talked about how what we see is not always what's happening. In other words, we can't always see what's really going on. There is Mawr toe life than what we can see. And that means that there are things that come our way, some of the best breakthroughs in our life. We never saw them coming. And some of those breakthroughs can happen in about five seconds, about five seconds now. I'd love to tell you that today's sermon is only going to be five seconds long, but no such luck. But I do hope that today there might be some breakthroughs in your life, some minor breakthroughs, maybe some major breakthroughs as we pay attention and look at the truth of God's word. The apostle Paul was writing to some folks in a place called Current, and in Chapter 13 he wrote this to them, beginning with Verse 11. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child. Think like it's I'll reason like it's ill. When I became a man, I did away with childish thanks. It's pretty self explanatory, right? I mean, there was a point early in my life when I stopped wearing diapers and I stopped drooling and I stopped rearranging my life around eating chocolate pudding. Those things stopped. Now, humility reminds me. There may be a time later in life where I start doing those things all over again. This is possible. But why would Paul right about these things? Why would Paul say these things about a child? Well, a couple of sentences back. Paul made this pretty bold and really encouraging statement. He said that love never fails. Love never fails. The stock market may fail. The campaign of your favorite candidate may fail your attempt to break a world record space bar clicking might fail but not love. Love never fails. Love never quits. Love never ends. Now, about this time, somebody might be thinking of their favorite Old Testament passage from Song of Solomon to five. Comfort Me with Apples for I Am Sick of Love. All right, maybe, You know, maybe there's some people out there today, like man, I'm just so tired of hearing about love and And how does that happen? How is it that we get to the point of kind of being sick about hearing about love? Well, I think it could be one of three reasons. One, we're not being very loving toe. Others to other people are not be very loving toward us. or three were using the wrong definitions of love. Just three ideas of why we sometimes might be sick of hearing about love Paul when he's writing about love here. He's not talking about intimate love. He's not talking about family love or friend love. He's not talking about movie love or hobby, love or sports love. He's not talking about shrimp. Wanton love. He's not talking about Apple's love. He's talking about what's known as a gap love. It's a a non self centered love. It's a love that self denying. It's a love that keeps own loving even when the love is rejected. That's the picture of love we have. And so when we begin to say, Man, I'm just kind of tired of hearing about love, love, love, love, love. Part of that reason is our love is being rejected or we have someone demanding that we would love Mawr or we've convinced ourselves that that our love for our family and our love for our pets and our love for our boat, in our love for our tractor is the same kind of love as God's kind of love. But it's not God's kind of love is different, and here is the primary reason why we should never get sick of God's kind of love. Paul was writing to the folks at room and he said this. Who will separate us from the love of Christ, Tribulation or distress? Or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? He goes on, No, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. And then he says this for I'm convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor Principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor death depth, nor any other created thing just in case anything got left out will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ, Jesus, our Lord. As believers, we should always be concerned if we get sick of hearing about love because love is the reason we exist. We exist because of love. We have been saved because of love. We have victory in life because of love. We have victory in death because of love. God's kind of love is designed to define the life of a believer. But what if somebody's not a believer. What if some eyes? Not a follower of Jesus? Well, that's the case. Then their life will be defined by something else. Does that mean they won't? They won't have any love. No, they may have a job that they love. They may have a house that they love, a car that they love. They may they may have some travel experiences that they love. They may have some exciting events that they go to that they love. They may look at their life and say, Hey, you know, I exercise good. I got a body that I love. Let me look at everything that's happening. So you know what? I got a favorite team that I love, and that team wins all the time. And and you know what? I've got a marriage. It's like one of those romance movies. I got a loving marriage. You can have all kinds of love. But if you're not a believer, if you're not a follower of Jesus, then you will be separated from God's kind of love. You'll be separated from the kind of love that actually helps. In the worst moment you'll be separated from the kind of love that would actually help you have victory in the midst of tribulations and distress and terror. You would have the kind of love that when all things present and all things to come and every other created thing begins to attack you and pull you away from all that's good and holy and happy and satisfying, the love of God would bring you back. But if you're not a believer, if you're not a Christian, you don't have a connection to that love with Christ, the when tribulation and distress and peril and thanks President things to come and any other created thing when those things come. Paul reminds us that in Christ we will overwhelmingly conquer in all of those things, not just casual victory, but overwhelmingly conquer. Now does that mean that will never get sick? That will never have trouble in life. But our marriage will be perfect that our kids will never rebel. Does it mean that we won't lose our job? Does it mean that we won't have to care for our aging parents? Does it mean that any and all things that we desire toe have economically in our life will always perfectly work out. No, it doesn't mean any of those things. Toe overwhelmingly conquer just means this. It means that Easter changes everything. What does that mean? It means that the resurrection of Jesus Christ can change every single moment in life. Because the resurrection of Jesus comes with this guarantee that for all who believe there will also be resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus becomes the amazing highest reality of hope. Two chapters later, in first Corinthians 15 Paul said this If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow. We die, man. This'll resurrection thing in truth, and it's just just blow it all off. And then for me, it's almost like a little little parentheses. It's like he's saying, And if you're thinking that way, then listen to this to Here's the second part. Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. So what kind of company are you keeping these days? Are you in the company of the Redeemed? Does that mean that you're only supposed to hang out with Christians and you're not supposed to have any non Christian friends? No, that's not what it means. It all primarily we're talking about the mind here who you're keeping company with in your mind. Who are you listening to first and most in your mind? See, bad company is not just found down at the local pool hall of the local bar, the local beauty shop. Okay, bad company can be found on your TV, on your radio and on your social media feed. There's bad company just about anywhere. Writing recently about the mob mentality that we see in our culture today, Greg Moore said this about crowds. He said crowds possess the power to make the timid, brave, the good better or the bad devastating. Then he goes on. When passions air shared, they swell exciting actions to the status of legend or infamy. The power of assembly can build a better society or destroyed. So where's the company of your mind? Are you building or destroying? Which company? Which crowd are you mentally hanging out with? These days are hanging out with the Easter crowd or are you hanging out with the presidential election is going to be the end of the world as we know it. Crowd, you're hanging out with the Easter crowd. Are you hanging out with the presidential election is going to be the new Garden of Eden on Earth Craft. Are you hanging out with the Easter crowd? Are you hanging out with the pandemic? Is a complete hoax crowd. Are you hanging out with the Easter crowd? Are you hanging out with the pandemic? Is the apocalypse crowd? Which crowd is in your mind? Which company are you? Keep? Morse goes on to say this fighting with the madness of crowds is nothing. If there is nothing after this life. If death were the in, Paul and his companions would go out for drinks, have some laughs and never calls a commotion for Christ. But then he says this. But Paul believed in the resurrection. He believed he possessed eternal life. He knew his God. He knew his savior. He knew he was immortal. You knew it. What? A casual fault wasn't a fairytale. He knew it. No. Listen to verse 11 again. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child. Think like a child. Reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things. Its's a picture of the company of the mind, right when I was a child, my my mind was more childish. But then I put those childish things away. Now, specifically, Paul is referring back to vs eight and 10. And what he's saying is that, generally speaking, that if you try to make prophecy or speaking in tongues or some strain of systematic theology mawr important than God's kind of love arm or important than the Gospel than, in a sense you are being childish. That's the picture that he's painting and and childishness. Childish, childish child That's a mouthful. Childishness and childlike faith are completely different things. Childlike faith never gets distracted from Jesus. That's how we see it, right in these pictures of Children in the New Testament. There's this childlike faith. Faith is trust in Jesus. Childishness is always distracted. It's always pulled away by thanks present, thanks to come pulled away by every other created thing. It's always distracted. Now, Does that mean that we shouldn't pay attention to things president? I mean, we shouldn't pay attention to things to come or pay attention to all the other creative things. Not it doesn't mean that what it means is this that the main company of our minds needs to be the Easter crowd, so to speak. So if you're a believer, just a few questions just to consider. Do you believe in the resurrection? Do you believe that you possess eternal life? Do you believe in God? Do you believe in your savior? Do you believe you are immortal? If so, than that truth reminds you of this that you can, And one day you will overwhelmingly conquer in all things because off the love of Christ, that's what it means to be in Christ. That's why the love of Christ matters so much. That's why the resurrection matters so much. That's why we say our main company needs to be the Easter crowd, because the Easter crowd company reminds us that love never fails and love never quits. And love never ends because the ultimate definition of love is Jesus. So don't get sick. The word love, because with love that we see from God, is the kind of love that's supposed to be in our life. And it is the mark of maturity. It's the mark of mature. No, I hope that simple truth is some kind of breakthrough for you today. Ah, breakthrough and how you're thinking even today and how you're thinking this week and not just how you're thinking, but how you're seeing. Look at Paul says next verse 12. For now, we see in a mirror, dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part. But then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. I don't know about you, but sometimes I want the mirror to be a little dim, right? You know, I don't really want to see what I see. It's like you come home at the end of the day, come home from school or work. You walk by the mirror and you stop and you look back and you go. Thanks. Is my hair looked like that all day long? Sometimes we want the mirror to be them. In ancient times, the mirrors were kind of like this fun mirrors that you see at the State fair, carnivals or arcade. You know, they're not really that clear. You know, you can't really see much in it. There's something there, but you don't know exactly what it is. That's kind of what Paul is saying, he said. You know We know some things about God. We know some things about Jesus. We know some things about heaven. We know some things about hell. We know some things about theology. We know how to build an ark. We know how to decorate a Tabernacle. But But we just know some things. We just know in part we don't have the complete picture. But then he says this one day, though we'll have the full picture. We will know fully is what he says. One day we'll get it all if we're honest, though some of us don't like that. I mean, really From the White House to the State House to the church house toe my house to your house way seem tohave this thing where we lean far too often toward the ways of child philosopher Veruca Salt, who wanted her golden egg and wanted to eat it too. Baracus Song. Her tune in Willy Wonka went like this. I want a party with roomfuls of laughter, 10,000 tons of ice cream. And if I don't get the things I'm after, I'm going to scream presents and prizes and sweets and surprises of all shapes and sizes. I want it now. Sorry I couldn't resist. That's how it went, right? I mean this thing. I want it now. I want it now. I want it now. We don't like to admit it, but that is exactly what we sound like. Are you really? We won't answers now. We won't access now. We won't normal now. We won't change now. We want information now. We want explanations now. We want help now. We want healing now. We want it all now and most of the time. Generally speaking, that is childish. It is just childish. And you? What else it is, It's impossible. It's impossible. It's impossible for your pastor or your physician or your politician or your paleontologists or any other person in your life to ever have all the answers that you won't ever have. All the answers that you need, it's not possible. Even if God himself were to give you the answers that you really want. In the words of Colonel Jessup, you can't handle the truth. We can't this side of heaven. We cannot handle the answers that we demand to know. We can't handle it. But that's what makes the Easter crowds great. because see that the Easter crowd. It reminds us of the resurrection when the resurrection of Jesus becomes your ultimate answer in life. When that becomes the answer of all answers for you when knowing God when knowing your savior when knowing that you possess eternal life when knowing this phrase that you are immortal in Jesus, when you know that that changes every single moment in life, when you don't get 10,000 tons of ice cream when your candidate doesn't get elected, when you have to wear a mask to the beauty shop or to church, or wherever you have to go. When any of those things happen to know the resurrection and the power of the resurrection, it changes everything. So we know some things now, but there's coming today when we'll know in full, and that's a great thing. Why? Because unlike so many things in our lives right now, that means there really is actually something tangible to always look forward to. Always, there's always something we can look forward to, you know, I think many people are angry and depressed and and afraid right now because they feel like the world is just falling apart. Guess what it ISS and guess what? It's always been falling apart that that's what sin does. And that's why the church exist throughout the history of the world. The world is always longing and yearning for beauty. And we have beauty. We have good news for the world and that good news is in the person and the work and the salvation and the resurrection and the returning of Jesus. We have this good, great news to offer to the entire world. In Christ, there's always something to look forward to. There's always something to look forward to because you cannot be separated from his love. You cannot be separated from the love of Christ. It is impossible. No power of hell, A scheme of man, a pandemic, no heart attack, stroke, no economic failure, no presidential election, Nothing but anything in the blank you will. None of it can ever separate you from the love of Christ. So here's the hard question for us. Do we believe in Do we believe that? Do we believe that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ? Now, I'm not asking if you believe if you're a Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian episcopate. And I'm I'm not asking if you believe that you're a South Carolinian or a tiger or a Gamecock or a Coke person or Pepsi person. I'm not asking if you believe if you're a Republican or a Democrat or American, I'm asking you, Do you believe that you cannot be separated from the love of Christ? Do you believe that there is a hope in the resurrection of Christ that cannot be explained? But if you believe it than every five seconds of your life can be different, every five seconds of your life can change. Why? Because no matter what you're listening to, no matter what you're watching, no matter what you're hearing, all of it can be overridden by the simple truth purchased with his own blood that you cannot be separated from the love of Jesus. It can't happen. Heard it put this way. It's kind of like that black and white illusion picture. You know where where you look at it. You either see a young woman or an old woman. That's kind of the picture, like when you're looking at whatever you're looking at, Can you still see the love of Christ, no matter what you're seeing, can you? Can you still see the love of Christ? No matter what you're listening to? Can you still hear the love of Christ? No matter what's happened in your life that's creating, paying their anger or frustration or sadness or depression or anything else Can you, in the midst of all about still feel the love of Christ? And how can you do that? How can you see and hear and feel that way? Well, it's super simple, but it's by remembering. It's by remembering, remembering that one day life will not be like a carnival mirror. It won't be fuzzy. You won't know in part, you'll know in full one day things will be different because one day you'll see Jesus. I think sometimes we know we should remember that. But But we don't always remember that that we will see Jesus face to face. Just put this in context, being saved by Jesus and by default. Being with Jesus forever is the greatest satisfaction in the universe. There's nothing greater, but sometimes we as Christians seemed to not live and think that way. Why? Why did we not live and think that way this past Friday on our podcast. Make your own headlines. I made the following statement. We've had so many smoothies and lattes and hot pockets and pop tarts, and we've watched so many movie Sequels and bench so many TV shows. And we've pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps so many times that we've almost unknowingly become dull to the things of God, dull to the things of God, to be saved by Jesus and by default, to be with Jesus forever. One day is the greatest, most satisfying thing in the universe. But we don't often lean that way because far too often we are just enjoying the things around us too much. C. S. Lewis put it this way. Like a child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. So how can we quit making mud pass? How can we be less dull? How can we take the truth of the resurrection of Jesus and it have an impact in our life on this son? September 6? Well, it involves to pursuits. It involves you pursuing God, and it involves God pursuing use. It's both, and so how can you pursue God? The list is pretty simple. Engage with the Bible. Engage with prayer. Engage with good books about God. Engage with good music about God. Engage with good sermons about God engaged with good podcast about God. Engage with mature Christians. Engage with people who are not Christians because all of those engagements will keep stirring in your mind and heart the overwhelming reality that you've been saved and your heart and your mind and soul will be stirred by all of those things that, hey, I'm saved. And it is impossible for me toe. Ever be separated from the love of Christ and that does something to you, so pursue God, pursue him. But you can't do all that on your own. John Piper says this God wills that a chapter be red or a meal prepared. Our friend visited in the space of hours, not seconds. He wills that a house be building months, not hours. He wills that a child be reared in years, not months. We all know that we experienced that in life then he says this, but there are breakthroughs which could come in seconds seconds. If you've been a Christian for, let's just say more than 10 years, remember that moment? Or maybe that more than one moment. We're like it was just a few seconds and something clicked. I mean, I remember getting off the Interstate Highway five in North Augusta heading toward Colombia. Goodness, that was 1994 Whatever the math is on that. And I could remember in a millisecond the song that I was listening to change the course of my whole way of thinking about life and what I was supposed to do with my day every day. And it's why I'm standing before you now. It was a breakthrough on the interstate in less than five seconds. I know some more moments like that. Some of you have had those moments where there was a breakthrough and God, God did something. He changed something inside. Piper goes on to say this God could doom or in five seconds. Then we can do in five hours or five months or five years. It's true, it's amazing. That's true. So whatever your five year plan is your five day plan. Your five week plan, Whatever it is, this stretching you out about any of those things. Just remember, God can do more in five seconds. Then we can do in all of our fives. My original and raining BFF texted me last week and asked this question. Has there ever been a preacher? Give more examples to sermons using food? I'm thinking No, probably not. And here comes another one and the hits just keep on coming. All right, so I love steak E love steak. I love fresh shrimp. I don't care if you fry it if you grill it if you boil it. I don't care. I love fresh shrimp. I love air fried asparagus. New thing in my life. I love it. Man is so good. I love a burger at Neptune's in Boston. I love a doughnut. I love a slice of pecan cream pie. Best thing that has ever happened to me in this pandemic is that recipe that my wife found is fantastic. I love all these different foods. What are your foods that you like? You've got some in your mind. And what else do you love? You love hunting. You love fishing, love, shopping, love reading, you love fortnight ing. Do you love college football? Do you love pro football? Do you love basketball? He loves soccer. He loved golf. He loved across. Do you love jazz music or classical music? Or rock music? Or hip hop music? Do you love your spouse? Love your kids. Love your parents. Love your grand parents. Love your grandkids. Love your friends. What do you love? What do you love? Imagine You take all the things that you love. The best things in life. You take the best food and the best travel experiences and the best sport experiences and the best hobbies You take the best cars and the best homes and the best financial situations. The best retirement you take the best health. The best people take all of the best. Any best that you have. I recently heard somebody put it this way. That there's coming today when the best things in life will all be swallowed up in a fullness of pleasure that goes beyond anything we can imagine. What is that? Fullness of pleasure. What is that best off the best? What is the most satisfying thing that our hearts and our souls could ever know, no matter what's happen that best. That fullness of pleasure is seeing Jesus face to face. That's it. There is no crater joy in the universe. I've been seeing Jesus face to face whether it takes five years, five months or five seconds. But God, give us that joy.