I. Intro – John 2:1-11
God loves us not from a ___________________ but by entering into our ____________________.
It’s not a matter of “If you build it they will come” but rather if you go the ________________________ just may come.
Jesus said as much with his _____________ as he did with his words.
II. The Incarnation and Incarnational Ministry
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
III. Love and Listen
Romans 13:8-10 (the Message)
8-10Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other "don't" you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.
I must say, Crispin, that this certainly was not the traditional Father’s Day sermon, and I’m glad. Not that I would have minded that either, but this was not what I was expecting and so it was refreshingly authentic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. You made so many wonderful points: To focus on the Word (incarnate) and not only the words of Christ, to love someone more so by entering into their world (as was your challenge to us all this week), in fact the 90%-10% ratio of Jesus doing exactly that, bringing more of the Kingdom of God into the lives of those in his circle of influence. I also loved the quote of “Being heard is so close to being loved that they are virtually indistinguishable,” as that is so important to all of us… to know that someone actually gives a crap about our life/situation. That is why to be a good listener it truly takes work, but it is a skill we can all improve on if we’re willing to bear the emotional burdens of one another. (What’s that called again? Oh yeah, loving one another!) And a final point that really spoke to me Bro, was that if we’re willing, and if we allow ourselves to enter into another’s life with the actions of love, then we can be free to simply be ourselves, without conditions and expectations upon us, and to let the actions speak for themselves. Good stuff, for sure. Happy Father’s Day, and the Pi Man hopes the beer and bacon rolls wagon shows up next year!
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