Go a little deeper
On a snowy Sunday at Journey Church, Pastor Keith Kirkpatrick opens with the darkness of the world and the breadth of God's forgiveness, then asks whether people who profess to follow God actually live like it. He turns to the Bible as the place where God is known, and to the Gospel of John as a distinctive portrait of Jesus. John, he says, is taken up with love and wants readers to see that Jesus cannot be understood apart from it.
Pastor Keith reads John 1 as presenting Jesus as the eternal Creator who became human to reveal God’s character. He emphasizes the generosity of grace in Jesus and asks listeners to consider what their own lives express. Turning to Romans 5:8, he presents Jesus’ death for rebellious people as evidence that God’s love is a gift rather than a reward for good behavior or church attendance.
Using 1 John 3:1, Pastor Keith presents the Father’s love as a generous gift that gives believers a new identity. He reads 1 John 4:8 as grounding the meaning of love in God’s character. He explains eros, philia, storge, and agape, connecting agape’s generosity with John 3:16. He then considers Jesus’ commands to love God and others, connects them with Deuteronomy 6, and presents repentance as turning toward Jesus. The message ends with an invitation to receive Christ.
Take this with you
God's love is not earned
Pastor Keith uses Romans 5:8 to present Jesus’ death for rebellious people as evidence of God’s generosity. He teaches that good behavior, family background, and church attendance do not earn God’s love. He grounds that love in God’s character rather than human performance.
Agape is divine, not natural
Pastor Keith distinguishes four Greek words for love in the New Testament, noting that agape is the one John uses of Jesus. Unlike brotherly or family love, agape gives without expecting anything back. He ties this to John 3:16, where God's love for the world moves him to give. Pastor Keith says this kind of love is not natural to humanity but learned from God, who is agape, and it shows up in giving to people who have nothing to offer in return.
Let God define love
Pastor Keith reads 1 John 4:8 as grounding the meaning of love in God’s character. He warns against defining love independently of knowing God and applies this to believers’ understanding of identity, sexuality, and marriage.
Love God, love people
Pastor Keith reads Matthew 22:34–40 as identifying wholehearted devotion to God and care for other people as the central commands. He connects this with Deuteronomy 6:4–5 and presents these priorities as the purpose of the church.
The response is repentance
Pastor Keith names repentance—changing your mind, turning to Jesus—as the way to receive agape. He cites Jesus' first preached message in Matthew, announcing that the kingdom of heaven is near and urging repentance, and Jesus' instruction to the woman caught in adultery and the paralyzed man to leave their sinful ways behind. Repentance is presented as turning from old ways toward the God who is love.
The conversation,
in their words.
Transcript from the recording’s captions. Select any timestamp to hear the original audio.
welcome to Journey Church hey can we just give it up for this band that comes here every single week to bring us into the presence of God I also want to just I want to thank you for coming out today on a on a snowy blistery day I know you are the ones that love Jesus so uh those of you who are watching online we got people watching all over the world if you don't notice that a whole blanket of snow outside and so there these are the brave ones that came to church in person today you didn't have to but you did that's how much you love Jesus you know the World shows us what they love you know you you have a football game and it could be like 20 below zero and you're in Chicago those people will go out to watch the Bears play right they'll go out and they'll have big signs with the with with some support for their team I'm telling you on days like this you
should just bring big signs that say Jesus you know you should just just come just dressed and ready to serve God wherever you are today just reminds me no matter how sinful we are we have been forgiven as wide as the snow blanket outside no matter what you've done God wants you to know your Crimson blood-ridden sin he has covered you as wide as snow as wide as white wool so what a blessing that we get to be here today I'm so glad that you're here we live in a dark evil world don't we I mean evil is all around us you you can't escape it everywhere you go today these These are dark difficult days I I overheard recently someone actually say they were about my age and they they were just talking to someone else and they were just near me I wasn't trying to eavesdrop but I was and and they just they made a statement like this they
said this is why I didn't have kids I didn't want to bring them into the evil of this world and I heard that statement I couldn't help but have my heart broken in the sense of saying you see depravity and darkness and evil when in reality God sees the potential that a child might be the very solution to the evil that's in this world and I'm not saying that all of us need to live the lives the same I'm not meaning to judge this person because I don't know them but I am recognizing that we do live in a dark evil world and that Darkness it can seep into our own Hearts it conceived into our heads it can it can come into our homes it can be in our city in our state our nation and Beyond in fact the academics of this world want to try to use intellectual arguments to
try to disprove God by the existence of evil that somehow if you just look at the problems how could there be a good god allowing these evil things in this world and the scriptures teach us it's the fool that says there is no God it's the fool that says there is no God it's the fool that has to say I'm not going to turn to a God for the solutions of the problems of this world I'm going to turn inwardly and I want to challenge you today in the same way that I challenged myself if God is God we should live like it there are many people that profess to be Christians that look just like the world there are many people that profess to know the one true God yet they're living just like everyone else so I want to ask you today if God is
truly God which I believe we have a minimal or maybe even a distorted or wrong view of God some of us ask simplistic questions like where did God come from or the childlike question of who created God and that's the wrong question because if there is only one God no one could create God God cannot come from somewhere he's eternally existed he's always been God so how can we get to know this God how can we find out more about this God I believe it's found right here in this book this is called The Holy Bible the word bible just simply means book that's all the word bible means book and it's not an ordinary book it's a holy book the word holy means set apart this book is set apart for in this book we actually have 66 books that compromise
this one book we have authors that would write over a millennia to describe to us what's in this book on three different continents we we have in this book something spectacular and I say that not because the origins of where it came from but because of what this book is about this tells the story of God that's what the Bible is about it's not your story it's not Humanity's story it's in this book that we learn the origins of sin but we actually understand how to overcome sin how to overcome Darkness so that we could believe in the one that can give us hope I love this book because it describes to me that I need God
God is God and I am not if you're new to church and new to what it means to follow Jesus the Bible is not an ordinary book because it is active and it is alive it'll speak to you when you need it it'll say to you what you need it will display to you God's promises at a time when you need it most in fact the scriptures say it's like a light for your feet it's like a lamp for your path in a dark place there are four books in the Bible that are described as gospels everyone shall gospel gospel now what does gospel mean shout it out good news so gospel means good news four books Matthew Mark Luke and John all four of these gospels Describe the life of Jesus Christ the
first three Matthew Mark and Luke are known as synoptic gospels synoptic is where we get the word synopsis so it gives a description similarly to one another so these first three Matthew Mark and Luke they they describe Jesus similarly then the fourth gospel he goes off and does his own thing he gives a completely different perspective of Jesus the Same Jesus Just In a Different Light or a different view than the first three synoptic gospels and today I want to look at that fourth one it's the Book of John John writes about the life of Jesus Christ and he does so in a spectacular way he wants you to know a gift that just keeps giving this is a gift that's not like a an ordinary or traditional gift but you can only experience a gift if you receive it gifts are meant to be given and God gives us a gift he wants you to have
this gift and today I'm going to open up this gift and I want you to know it is yours it is yours God has this for you today not just for today but in the days to come as well God has a tremendous gift for you the author John that we're going to look at wants you to know the depth of this Paul when he writes the Ephesian church he he says it's it's wider and broader and higher and you can't escape this gift and I want to get into this gift just so we can get into the message today this gift happens to be the gift of does anybody want to guess yes yes yes it's the gift of love love John when he writes about the life of Jesus actually says that this love is No Ordinary Love This is a limitless love
this is what he chooses to write about when he writes about Jesus Christ in fact John is so obsessed with love he uses this word love more than Matthew Mark and Luke combined he wants you to know that you you can't understand Jesus without understanding love and as we turn to the scriptures to understand who Jesus is I want us to understand better what love looks like and we're going to study that right now if you've got a Bible you can turn to the Book of John with me we're going to go all over the place today but I want us to see what John wants us to know about Jesus he he doesn't start in a traditional fashion with a lineage he doesn't look back and say Jesus started with a mother and father in fact he goes back to the first book of the Bible
Genesis and the opening lines of this book in the beginning and so John says of Jesus Christ in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God he was in the beginning with God all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life and the life was the light of men the light shines in the darkness and the Darkness has not over come it John traces the origins of Jesus back to the beginning where there was no beginning before anything was Jesus was he was there in the beginning and so John says he was
the maker the Creator he is the sustainer he wants us to know that when God decided to become a man this is no ordinary man this is God In the Flesh and so he would go on to say in John chapter 1 verse 14 and the word became flesh the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glories of the only son from the father full of grace and truth the Creator became one of the created the maker of humanity becomes a human he he wrapped himself in flesh
God decides to leave heaven and come here and temporarily make earth his home the phrase dwelt among us to look at the original Greek language as he tabernacled Among Us the Tabernacle was a traveling tent that the Israelites would bring with them on their Journey it's where God would meet with this people it's where God would dwell and God would go with them wherever they would go in this tent the Lord decided to come and Pitch his tent Among Us so that we would see a glorious God that we would understand who God is through this person the fullness of Grace in Jesus the fullness of Truth in Jesus in fact he would go on to say for from his
fullness we have all received Grace upon Grace for from his fullness I need you to consider this John is just starting off the biography of the life of Jesus and he's only in chapter one when he's describing these things for from his fullness I wonder if someone was to write your biography and to describe your fullness what would they say would come out of your fullness when we think of Jesus who he is his very character he gives Grace and he doesn't he he doesn't limit his grace it's one of our core values and journey to be Grace givers if you really experience the grace of Jesus you can't contain it you've got to give it we've got to give what God has given to
us now let that sit there in your own soul what do people think about your fullness and when we read about the life of Jesus and we hear that he's the fullness of Grace and Truth and from his fullness we've received Grace upon Grace I wonder today if the world needs some more of this but they might just say prove it how do I know that I get God's grace how do we know that Jesus is the fullness of Grace and Truth we live in such a technological world that if someone says something we can simply say prove it I saw so and so we'll prove it send me a picture I've got such and such well prove it show me a picture of that we live in a world that we want to see proof
I went on vacation it was better than yours prove it I want to see the Instagram pictures prove it the favorite app in our family is be real I said it's an app that we started over the sabbatical where or once a day with be real it reminds you to take a picture and you you click the button when it reminds you and what it does is it instantly takes a picture of what's in front of you and then it takes a picture of who you are you can't take multiple pictures you can't fake it you can't make it it's just once a day it reminds you to take a picture sometimes it's 8 am sometimes it's 8 P.M sometimes it's 1 p.m and then you get to see where other people are are they at school are they at work are they at church and and you get to see the real person they can't fake it they can't they can't give you the right angle they just got to show you right where they are you gotta be
real so we always love it where are people at the same time that I am what are they doing during that time and our family just loves it you want to follow me on be real my handle is the cool dad my my kids started the account all right so you want to follow me I get to see what you do for real and you get to see what I do for real and we actually get to see it we get to see where someone is someone might say today how can I see God's love I I want him to prove it I need him to show us and Paul the writer to the Romans he says to us in Romans chapter 5 verse 8 but God shows his love for us God has proved it he's sent you a text he it's like he's taken a selfie he's he's proven through a picture in all of history he shows us his love for us in
this that while we were still Sinners while we decide to do things our way when we're doing our thing in sin that's when Christ died for us so here's how God shows you here's the image of what God is doing God is actually thinking of you when you're not even thinking of him this is a wonderful display here because if God's going to show you the fullness of grace and truth if you're going to see what Grace upon Grace is he starts with love and God shows us his love if we're going to be real he does not give you love because you're good God does not give you love because you're going to act better God does not love you because you're born into the right family God does not love you because you decide to go to church God does not love you because of anything
you can do God loves you in your worst he gives you his best God who has no sin stepped into our story lived a life of no sin while we are immersed in sin that means no matter how much you've messed up no matter how jacked up you are no matter how drunk you've ever been that doesn't stop God's love he loved you at your worst this is a love that's incomprehensible so we need God to prove it we need God to show it he that he doesn't give you what you deserve he gives you who he is he gives you himself and so John he he writes the life of Jesus in a book called John named after the author but he also writes three little books called first second and
third John so it can be confusing all these Johns the same writer John The Book of John is about Jesus first second and third John are letters that accompany that book about Jesus it tells you how to live for Jesus and in first John chapter 3 verse 1 John says see what kind of love the father has given to us just look at this be real just see it see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God and so we are the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him I want you to look at this verse for a second see what kind of love the father has what given to us that that word given and the original Greek language is the Greek word ditto May
everyone say didome ditto May ditto May is a Greek word that when we translate it into English we try to find the closest English word we can to it the the translation I use is the ESV it's the English Standard Version it's a very literal translation so given is a is a great description or definition of ditto May in the King James version It's bestowed not many of us use that word today it sounds like you're giving something to the queen bestowed see what kind of love the father has bestowed on us it's Affair though because God treats
you like royalty he's bestowed on you a love not because you've earned it but he's actually bestowed he's given I really like how the NIV that is The New International Version take it takes that word ditto May and has translated it lavished see what kind of love the father has lavished on us see what kind of love the father has given bestowed lavished upon us now when we talk about love we're talking about a limitless love let me just say that again why don't you say that those two words with me Limitless love that love is indescribable in fact the best way I could put
Limitless love is to throw a question into your lap and say how do we limit God less for so many of us limit God we we don't live like children of God because we have limited how God loves us but do you know the love that God has lavished on you he's bestowed on you he's given to you do you know what he's given me he's given me the gift of adoption when I believe in Jesus I'm no longer who I used to be I now am a child of God he's given me the gift of Grace which is not just forgiveness that is the hope of Eternity a great inheritance he gives me all that he has do you know what he's given me a purity to understand that my identity is not
the things that I've done but who he is he's given me his righteousness oh he's given me his joy we talked about this last week that we would have his joy and his peace he's given me peace that according to Paul surpasses understanding oh he's given me Grace upon Grace he's he's the God not a first chances not a second chances he's the god that doesn't give up on me when I've given up on myself so many of us view God the way that we view ourselves and as a result we project on God who we are and we think listen the world limits love the world has not loved me limitlessly therefore I can't love the world with Limitless love someone's walked out on you someone's
hurt you someone's betrayed you and after a while we have to use tactics to guard our hearts to put boundaries around our lives and and this world can be so limited but but according to first John 4 8 whoever does not love does not know God because God is love this is important theology to understand that God does not try to love God does not have to love God is love nowhere in the scriptures does it say love is God we are currently living in a world of confusion that has come up with our own conclusion of what love is we find yard signs
laced throughout our own City describing what this love might be in their own homes and that is a love that has no boundaries I love this person I love that person regardless of skin color or sexuality at the end of this sign you'll often see a statement like this love is love now if we were to break that down theologically we would try to ask this question well who gets to Define What Love Is so that I understand what love is because what John says is that we can't come up with our own conclusion about what love is love but rather it is God that is love so therefore it's not trying to come up
with an understanding of what love is it's coming to a conclusion of who God is so the more I know God the more I know love because God is love the moment we make love God we actually have come up with an idol in our own hearts of what love looks like and God wants to adjust in our hearts so that we don't come up with our own conclusion of what gender is what sexuality is what marriage is or any other thing it's not a judgment it's not a condemnation it's a conclusion that God is God he's given us his story so that we would know the truth of who he is and who we are and if God is love and I receive the gift of Jesus Christ I'm now a child of God and if I'm a Child of God I'm a product of love
that no matter what the world says the world might say it was a mistake the world might say it was a surprise the world might say I'm disabled the world might say one thing God looks at you and what he sees is love love God loves you and so many of us put limits on love based on what we've experienced so we put a limit on God and the whole story of Christmas is that Jesus would go to any length to display his love a god that is love would step into our story so that we would accurately understand what love looks like yet right in the midst of all of these right in the midst of the story in history right in the midst of us right now God might be moving and you can miss it
love could be right in front of you and you may not know it this is what John says in chapter 1 when he's describing this life of Jesus he puts it in almost poetic terms when he says this in verse 9 he says the True Light he's talking about Jesus Jesus would later describe himself in the same book saying I am the light of the world when the True Light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world he was in the world he says in verse 10. the very world that he created the world that was made through him the world he made yet the world did not know him it is possible that God could be working and we miss it
that love is right in front of us yet it's not the way I thought it should look it's not the way that I perceived it's not the way that I wanted to receive it if the world knew that the very Creator had come in the form of Christ I don't think they would have treated him that way but they were looking for what they would project on God to look like yet God's love does not look the way we can project on him as the way that he wants to project it on us in the New Testament was the New Testament originally was written in the Greek language it was written at a very important time in history the Middle East was influenced by the Roman Empire as a Grecian Roman Empire and the New Testament was written in Greek and
in the Greek they have many more descriptions for the word love than we have in the English we would like to say that we've really progressed through history but yeah our language is really limited compared to the ancient languages what I mean is we only have one word to describe love I love pizza I love my dog and I love my wife well do we love those things equally well no because I don't even have a dog but we we use that word so loosely that it's hard to understand what love is uh in in Hollywood they would say regarding sex you make love we would we would just describe Love Is Love what does Love Actually mean well in the New Testament here let me just give you the four quick brief descriptions of love in the New Testament so that we understand the word love in the English that was
originally intended in the original Greek word the first word I want you to know in the Greek is Eros Eros is where we get our English word erotic and it's it's simply a sexual love it's a romantic love it's a love based on chemistry so if I was to think of it in terms of a gift Eros is something that I want is something I long for because I desire it it looks good I want it so Eros is not necessarily a bad thing because Eros in the context of marriage is wonderful it's it's a chemistry it's a a romance that God designed he designed us sexually we shouldn't be afraid of Eros Eros goes wrong when you start to Eros everyone when you see something you love and you say okay well I I want that well you can't have that that's someone else's you know like Eros
goes wrong when we come up with our own conclusion of what that is but Eros in in our English we could call it love I love you that means I'm attracted to you uh then there's there's another word philia which is where we get the word Philadelphia which means the City of Brotherly Love philia or faleto is just simply means brotherly love this means I like I like hanging out with you you like the things I like and I like the things you like the best way I could say it in terms of a gift is when someone needs to move they call on you because they know that you have a brotherly love because if you help them move you know that you can call on them and they'll help you move I give you a gift you give me a gift I love this friendship hey I bought the beer and pizza last
time you buy it this time it's a brotherly love I do for you you do for me we do it together we go hang out we go to the football game but whatever that might be I have a problem you listen to me you have a problem I listen to you then there's a third type of love that in Greek is storge storge is like a family love it's the paternal love that when your child is in the womb you love that child even though they're not in the world yet you don't even know what they're going to look like what they're going to do you just love them because they're your child it's a it's a love that God created in the context of family that when a family is healthy it's it's a parent that says I love you even if you're snotty knows with Dirty Fingers I love you you're mine I love you it's storge is a is a family love and in family love I give to you but I also have an expectation that you're not
going to abuse this you know a parent has boundaries and and there's an expectation that I'm going to teach you I'm going to give to you but I also expect something from you you're going to help clean up the wrapping paper you know you're going to write a thank you note and then there's a fourth love here's here's a fourth love that we see most common this is the word that John often uses describing Jesus and it's agape agapao Agape has been described in many different ways this is this is what we would say today a limitless love some refer to as an unconditional love meaning there is no condition I'm going to love you even though I expect nothing back so I'm going to give you a gift but I don't expect a gift back I'm going to give you a gift even when you've misbehaved I'm going to give you a gift regardless of what you look like
this Agape agapao is what we would say is a Divine love because it's not natural to man we don't go around giving gifts to people that we don't love in fact we start to limit those things we start to limit who do we give gifts to because what are you going to do with that gift and if you're not going to use the gift the way I want you to use a gift I don't want to give you that gift and we start to create boundaries around what this gift looks like and we do the same thing with love so Agape is a love that we cannot fully understand until God teaches us because God is agape agapow he's not storge he's not Eros
he is agape there's no condition so in John 3 16 when we see famously this scripture that says for God so what is it it's agape it's not brotherly love God did not come to this world and say I'm going to give to you as long as you give to me God didn't come to this world and say you're so attractive that's why I came to this world you're beautiful I just had to come tell you that I'm attracted to you that's why I came to this world you didn't come into this world and and give to you because as a parent this is his obligation to do this no he Agape he came into this world when you were at your worst you smell like pig slop you had no shoes on your feet you went and wasted the father's money you have nothing to offer and God looks
at you and says I still love you I want to give you a new identity I want to show you that my love is not based on what you've done but based on who I am I want to project on me my love for you [Applause] see when Jesus said for God so loved the world he did what he gave this is what Agape does it gives a gift is not a gift unless it's given and God says I'm going to give you love so that whoever any whoever's in the house today come on whoever recognized I didn't earn this I don't deserve this but whoever believes in Jesus should not perish but have eternal life God knew that he couldn't just talk about this love he had to demonstrate it he had to do something he'd have to show you he'd have to prove it to you and he went to all lengths this this is what Paul says to the church in Ephesus he says I just want you to know how high
this love is how wide this love is oh the breath like you you can't escape this you're going to run to the right or to the left you can't escape this love the creator of all things the Everlasting to Everlasting the Ancient of Days decided that you can know him through the person Jesus Christ and he doesn't put any conditions that you're born into the right family or you go to the right church or you do the right things you don't have to be a certain age you just have to believe in the person Jesus Christ and when you do you have to take the limits off everything you grew up with every perception of parents or some first love you had in high school you have to take the limits off of God
when Jesus was once asked he was more than asked he was tricked to say in this big book which is the most important part to read which part should I take the most serious in the Old Testament we have What's called the Torah this is the instructions of God we could call it the law of God and within the Torah you have over 300 Commandments now let me look at this in context when Jesus was asked which is the most important commandment it says in Matthew 22 starting with verse 34 hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees the Sadducees were a group of religious people that did not believe in a resurrection and here Jesus comes to this earth and
he describes himself as the resurrection and the life that what he came to do is actually make dead things alive he didn't come to make bad people better he came to make dead people alive so Jesus silenced the Sadducees that they couldn't argue with him about why there would be no Resurrection to the resurrection and the life and so the Pharisees which are another group of religious people that did believe in a resurrection but their whole life their whole premise was built on legalism the Pharisees got together verse 34 says and one of them verse 35 an expert in the law see today we have incredibly intelligent people they might be smarter than all of us in this room combined yet they can still be
fools for when you come before the god that is all-knowing and try to trick him it will never work so one of them an expert of the law undoubtedly a really smart guy tested Jesus with this question teacher which is the greatest commandment in the law what a great question don't you want to know of all the Commandments which one is God really going to be impressed with it's probably the you shall not murder right because that was like the first big sin with Cain and Abel that whole murder thing and you know you could have murdered your brother but you didn't you know you could emerge your spouse but you didn't you could have murdered your your co-workers but you didn't
that's got to be it right I mean they're asking you which one's the most it's got to be the Sabbath one right because the Lord mentions it so many times the Sabbath so what what is Jesus going to say look at verse 37 Jesus replied this here's the greatest commandment you love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind he continually says this is the first and greatest commandment to love the Lord and the second he says is like it this is really really the same it's similar you can't have one without the other so the first is the love God and the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself all the law and the prophets so everything you read in the Bible hang on these two Commandments
which simply put here if you were to ask what is the purpose of Journey Church two things love God and love people Jesus says that's ultimately when you read this book which is the story of God what should be our response when we read about the story of God we should love him and love people yet if we were to get brutally honest in this world this world could use a lot more love and Jesus in answering this question wanted the religious people to know listen you're trying to make this more than it actually is which becomes a big burden and and Jesus goes back to the Shema which is a Jewish prayer that comes out of the scriptures is found in Deuteronomy chapter six you can read in verse 4 and 5. hear o Israel the Lord Our God the Lord is one you shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might this came at a time when the Israelites were trying to figure out their identity today we still have an identity crisis and we still are projecting our view of what God looks like on God which is exactly what the Israelites did when God said listen listen you can't project your view of who you are on me rather you need to love me because of who I am it reach shapes and reshifts things and this this is what often happens even today when people are looking for a church and they've been a part of a church for a while they're looking for what they like really unintentionally but often we aren't looking for Jesus in a package that looks different than
anything we've expected before things got quiet real quick what I'm trying to say is Jesus looks differently than we can project we like in our culture things that are familiar because if it's familiar it's comfortable if I understand what's going to happen then everything's okay but when Jesus shows up on the scene the expert of the law did not expect Jesus actually to have an answer for that I love that Matthew didn't say man Jesus said hey could you give me a couple days to come back and study the scriptures and give you an idea Jesus had an answer the answer is agape God's Agape you you Agape him and if you
Agape him you've got Agape others because you understand the god Agape you did you track with me there but most of us haven't received Agape we don't know Agape so we have no clue how to love other people and if your identity is not in a god that is love you can't love the world the way that God loves you because the way God loves you is he loves you when you're a sinner and you study the life of Jesus he's going to say some things that are really uncomfortable hey instead of hating the person that hates you love them I know that person that did the worst thing to you you need to pray for that person this gets real and then Jesus actually
puts this into practice aren't you glad the Jesus just didn't talk the talk he he was not about Twitter he was all about be real he didn't say just follow this thread and you're gonna you're gonna hear about me no no he said I want you to see me I'm going to show you he says in Matthew 11 you come and yoke on me learn from me let's do this together he's not just a Rabbi that teaches he wants you to learn from he wants you to embrace this he wants this to shape you he wants you to receive the shoes for your feet he wants you to receive the robe he wants you to go into the party and celebrate because this is the kind of love God's given us when John says see what great love this is not a love that you understand
this is a limitless love that the father has given lavish bestowed he has ditto May for you and the response of getting this gift is I am a child of God this is who I am I'm not a sinner I'm not a political party I'm not a nationality my lineage is in agape and this starts to shape me because when I believe in him I start to recognize that who I am is not who I used to be and we are today in a cultural crisis where the whole world wants to Define what truth is and Jesus is the truth and if you don't know Jesus you don't
know the truth and you don't know love and and the idea that love is love is really nice I commend someone for putting a sign in the yard because they're actually taking action they're saying listen I don't want to just talk about this I want to do something about this but sometimes we do things that are sincere but we can still be sincerely wrong we say things that we think are being nice but but sometimes the greatest thing we could do is just be silent and not come up with our own origin and purpose but to turn to the definition of What God Says when John describes what this looks like lived out he says in First John 3 verse 5 you know you can know this you know that he appeared in order to
take away sins and in him there is no sin no one John says no one who abides in Jesus keeps on sinning no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him the devil would love you to keep living like you've always lived and the reality is you can probably justify why you do it because this world is dark so if someone offends you sure you might as well cuss them out or get Vengeance or if someone has hurt you the natural response is to hurt people hurt people hurt people but John says if you would understand that God that is love came down here and gives you the gift of
love and if you keep living like you used to live you haven't received this love you're not living like it you're actually doing the devil's work in fact he says this and he puts it bluntly by the way in verse 8 he says whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning the reason the Son of God appeared was to what destroy the works of the devil the Devil is a deceiver and he's a really good liar the devil can come up with every reason in the world to convince you to do the things that aren't of God that person does not deserve to be loved that person has hurt you that the devil could give you a million reasons why you shouldn't accept God's love you remember what was said about you remember what was done to you why would God allow those things he doesn't love you the
devil is a liar and what the devil wants you to do is to continue to live in the world not live for the world that God has planned for you this is just a journey this is not the end this is not the destination God has something so much greater and he came to show you and point to you and give you a purpose to live for something much more so how can you Embrace agape it's simple it's one word and it's going to sound too simple but if it was simple the whole world would be doing this it's one word it's repent this was the first message of Jesus and by the way it wasn't the first message if you if you go to the end of the Bible it's also the last message repent in Matthew chapter three this is what Jesus print rep preached he said repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand this was his first message
first message what's the first thing that Jesus wants the world to know repent now the word repent if you're new to church the word repent means to change your mind the best way I could put it is turn to Jesus that's what repent means so how can you experience Agape repent turn to Jesus trust in him change your mind don't think like the world go to God and what you're going to discover is he has a kingdom that's far beyond the king of this world this is the message you know when Jesus writes to the church in Revelation 2 and 3 every single time he writes to them and there's something that's wrong he doesn't leave them that way he says this repent that's the message Jesus has for the church today repent quit living like the world quit acting like the world quit living like the devil repent
change your mind because God is love and this love has no limits we see this when Jesus was confronted with a woman caught in adultery he did not condemn her he set her free and his words to this woman were sin no more meaning because of the love I've given you change your mind how you think of the world there's another occasion where a man had been paralyzed for over 30 years most of his life he he had been at this pool hoping for a miracle and Jesus comes and tells him to take up his mat and to walk and you know what Jesus message to this man was hey you should go compete in a marathon and show the world what I've done no he didn't say you should go show everybody
what you could his message with this really simple he said sin no more the message of Agape is don't go back to the pig slop don't go back to your vomit as the scriptures say don't go back to your old ways God has something so much greater if we want to overcome evil in this world if we want to overcome Darkness we've got to do it the same way Jesus did we need to step into it and not conform to it we need to be the light we need to be the love we need to realize if Jesus has set me from sin guess what he's done for you as well set you free from sin Let me just explain this with this this gift when we've been loved it's absolutely incredible
I can remember vividly on my wedding day when I locked eyes with my wife I just started bawling like a baby I mean I was just like so amazed how beautiful she is I actually just wrote her text message today she's not here so I could talk about her I wake up really early on Sunday mornings and get to the church at oh dark hours and I just wrote her and this is what I said I said yeah I never get tired thinking about you she's just so amazing like I just can't believe I get to wake up and have her as my wife and uh it was it was a long time ago we got married but we we looked at each other and we made these big vows as just young and dumb people like oh we're gonna make it through thick and thin and then when the thick comes you're like I'm not sure about this you know like
was this the right choice you know like this is pretty hard we've been through a lot together I mean just a lot I've had knives in my back and I've pulled it out and I've I've I've put knives in her back and I've just we've been through we've been through a lot and that's just a glimpse of God's love like I I said yes to her she said yes to me and that's love but it doesn't stop there like you know who's seen me at my worst is my wife you all get to see a preacher try to inspire you with God's word but she gets to see me when I go home and yet we still have love see at the end of the day like
like you I come from a broken Dysfunctional Family my dad walked out on our family when I was two some people thought that I had abandonment issues because of that and I tell that story about my dad but it was more the dysfunction of who my identity is in Christ that was the true dysfunction that I had to figure out that Christ would love me regardless of what I've been through listen listen this love oh it's so great this is a love that I've had to figure out with my kids how do I love like Jesus you know Paul said to Timothy that he was the worst of Sinners and he says he did all of that he acted in ignorance and unbelief most of my life I've acted in ignorance and unbelief but once you have love it changes you listen listen my point is this
love has no limits so everything you know of Jesus he is more and if you want to follow Jesus I want to warn you of this he says this in John chapter 3 when he tells Nicodemus for God so loved the world if you want to follow him it's like the wind and if I was to go take a jar and catch the wind I would be a fool I don't know where the wind goes I don't know which direction sometimes the wind is so powerful we get some powerful winds in Central Oregon it knocks down trees the wind he's describing is the person of the Holy Spirit that when you receive Jesus this love I got to tell you this love
it just keeps coming but for me to stand before you and try to give you a Christmas gift and explain to you what this gift gift is going to look like I can't describe it it's indescribable [Music] all it can do is say he has shown us through Jesus Christ keep growing the good news is if you receive Jesus you get to grow for eternity [Music] because this is who you are you're a child of God John whom we've been looking at today did not have an easy life sometimes we like to think that those who follow Jesus are going to have an easy life but can we declare today in the name of
Jesus that if you follow him it won't be easy do you all understand what I mean some of you are going through such suffering and you're actually blaming God but if you love Jesus you will suffer so John he has a really difficult life I won't go into all the details but he's cast onto an island it's an imprisonment of isolation the thing the devil would love to do in your life is to isolate you and it was here that God didn't give up on him he revealed himself and let me just tell you what God does he reveals himself through the person Jesus Christ and he writes the last book of the Bible what's it called Revelation it's the revelation of Jesus Christ and he starts off this book and this is what he says this is the Christmas Story Grace to You and peace from him who is who was and who is to come and from the seven
spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead and the rulers of the Kings on Earth to him who what Agape us to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood who made us a kingdom priest to his God and Father to him be glory and Dominion forever and ever amen okay this is like 16 sermons right there we have the picture of one true God in the Trinity God the Father who loves us God the spirit who in this context is described as seven spirits the number seven is apocalyptic language it's the fullness the whole Spirit the true spirit and then the son Jesus Christ the
Father the Son and the spirit don't miss this year he's loved us by what he's done for us through his blood we are made a kingdom we are no longer who we used to be you are a priest in God's eyes you point people to God you live out his ways this love shapes and changes us because I can give you a message of Limitless love today but you can spend the rest of your life discovering this love in new ways and the way I would point you to this is to get into this book get to know God don't read this chronologically study the scriptures see what God has to say for you [Music]
today I want to ask you if you've never received this gift of love it's yours just right where you are I'm just going to do this briefly just close your eyes if you want to receive Jesus Christ for the first time you've never recognized and confessed your sins and you want to repent right now would you just throw your hand up in the air so I could see you right where you are so I could see you say yes to Jesus Christ praise God so proud of you anyone else yes praise God you came in alone but you've got a god who's with us who's for us he loves you anyone else is yes praise God this is a love that changes everything in your heart you pray something like this Lord Jesus I love you I need you I Repent of my sins and I follow you
I receive your love which is salvation it's the gift of eternal life and it's the gift of God himself the holy spirit it's in Jesus name we pray amen amen
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A Love We Don't Earn
Pastor Keith uses Romans 5:8 to present Jesus’ death for rebellious people as evidence of God’s generosity. He argues that God’s love is a gift rather than a reward for good behavior, church attendance, or family background.
Romans 5:8
- Where in your life do you find yourself trying to earn God's love rather than receive it?
- What would change if you truly believed God loved you at your worst, not just your best?
Jesus, the eternal Creator, becomes human
Pastor Keith explains that John’s Gospel begins with creation rather than a genealogy. He reads John 1 as presenting Jesus as the eternal Creator who became human to reveal God’s character. He emphasizes Jesus’ abundant generosity and asks listeners to consider what their own lives express.
John 1:1-5 · John 1:14 · John 1:16 · Genesis 1:1
- What difference does it make that John begins his Gospel in the beginning rather than with Jesus' birth?
- What does it mean to you that God chose to dwell among us rather than staying distant?
- The message asks what comes out of your fullness—what would you honestly say people see flow from you?
God’s character and the meaning of love
Pastor Keith reads 1 John 4:8 as grounding the meaning of love in God’s character. He warns against defining love independently of knowing God. He applies this to identity, gender, sexuality, and marriage, and connects receiving God’s love with belonging to his family.
1 John 4:8
- How do you respond to the claim that our culture often defines love on its own terms rather than God's?
- Where might you have formed a view of love that shapes your decisions more than God's character does?
Eros, Philia, Storge, Agape
Pastor Keith explains that Greek has several words for love and walks through four: eros (romantic desire), philia (friendship), storge (family love), and agape (unconditional, divine love). Agape is the word he says John often uses of Jesus, and he ties it to John 3:16. It gives without expecting return and is described as not natural to humanity but learned from God, who is agape.
John 3:16
- How does the description of agape in John 3:16 reshape the way you think about giving?
- Where have you set boundaries around your generosity because you expected something in return?
- How would your relationships change if you practiced agape with someone who has nothing to offer you back?
Love God, Love People, and Repent
Pastor Keith interprets Matthew 22’s central commands as wholehearted devotion to God and care for others. He connects them with Deuteronomy 6 and then presents repentance as turning toward Jesus and receiving his love. He draws on Jesus’ announcement of God’s kingdom and ends with an invitation to receive Christ.
Matthew 22:34-40 · Deuteronomy 6:4-5 · Matthew 4:17
- What would it look like for your week to be shaped by loving God and loving people?
- The message says repentance means changing your mind and turning to Jesus—where might you need to turn this season?
- Who is one person in your life who is hard to love, and what would agape look like toward them?
Answers from this recording
Start a conversation.
Why does the message say God's love has no conditions?+
Pastor Keith uses Romans 5:8 to present Jesus’ death for rebellious people as evidence of God’s generosity. He teaches that good behavior, family background, and church attendance do not earn God’s love. He calls this agape: love that gives without requiring an attractive appearance, good conduct, or anything in return.
What is the difference between the four Greek words for love?+
Pastor Keith describes four Greek terms. Eros is romantic and sexual love, good within marriage but distorted when we make our own conclusions about it. Philia is brotherly friendship—the love of people who share interests and show up to help each other. Storge is family love, like a parent's love for a child. Agape is the fourth: an unconditional, divine love that gives without expecting return. Pastor Keith ties agape to John 3:16, where God's love for the world moves him to give, and says it is the word John often uses of Jesus and is not natural to humanity until God teaches it.
What does the message say about defining love?+
Pastor Keith reads 1 John 4:8 as grounding the meaning of love in God’s character. He warns against defining love independently of knowing God and applies this to identity, gender, sexuality, and marriage. He encourages believers to know God more deeply as the basis for understanding love.
What does the message mean by repentance?+
Pastor Keith defines repentance as a change of thinking and direction toward Jesus. He connects this with Jesus’ announcement of God’s kingdom in Matthew 4:17. He also recalls Jesus calling the woman accused of adultery and the man healed at the pool to leave sin behind. He presents receiving God’s love as something that changes how a person lives.
How can faithfulness to God's Word shape our identity?+
Pastor Keith uses 1 John 3:1 to connect receiving the Father’s love with belonging to God’s family. He then draws on Revelation 1:4–6 to describe Jesus’ loving sacrifice, the freedom he gives believers, and their priestly calling to point others toward God. He teaches that relationship with Jesus changes identity and encourages listeners to continue discovering that love through Scripture.
