Skip to content The Advent of Love | The Coming King with Dusty Davis – Audio Only Dec 18 · 22 min ...more
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0:00 Well, Merry Christmas from all of us here at Everyman Ministries, and welcome to week 3 in our Advent series, The Coming King. Now, we've been searching the scripture. We've been studying God's0:12 word in order to prepare our hearts, in order to get ready for the arrival of Jesus. But not just to prepare our hearts for his birth, we're looking at all of the things that were birthed that first0:23 Christmas. And we already saw in our study of God's word that hope was born that first Christmas, that peace, the type of peace that only Jesus can bring was born. And when we talk about hope, it's more0:35 than wishful thinking. When we talk about peace, it's more than just the absence of fighting. It's that hard fought peace that Christ brought us. Today, we're gonna unpack the love that is only found in0:47 Jesus. Today, we're gonna talk about and discover the advent of love. Now love might be the most widely accepted attribute of God. It comes naturally for us to think about it. Really, it's 1 of the easiest for us to0:58 grasp, or at least we think it is. Right? Because we love the idea that God is love. But before we can really grasp what that means and the implications for our lives, we've gotta understand1:11 what love really means, right? What's implied for us when we say that God is love? Because love is a word we throw around in our culture. It means a little bit different to everyone, right? It's a word1:22 that we use casually. Cultures define it and redefine it. I mean, think about all the stuff that we love. Me personally, I love surfing. But I also love double double cheeseburgers with1:34 grilled onions from In N Out. I love football. So you can see that I say I love a lot of stuff, but then I also love my wife. I love my kids. I love God. He loves1:46 me. You can see love is a little confusing in our culture today. It's actually been confused by our culture, and I think that there's a couple reasons that we should look at as we get started today, right? Because all1:58 the well meaning writers of love songs, romantic movies, maybe the entire Hallmark Channel, they've given us a version of love that I think is a little bit lacking. Right? Culture has reduced love,2:10 maybe, and even confused love. They've made it hard to understand what love really is. And so to think about God being love, we might have the wrong idea. 1 of the first things we see when we listen to music or we watch2:21 love stories is that culture has reduced love to just an emotion. Love is now in today's age just a feeling. Most songs and movies portrayed actually as some kind of out of2:33 control desire we have for another person. Now, there's nothing wrong with a love that makes us feel. But let's not confuse the emotion with love. Because if love is just a feeling, it's always gonna be2:44 fleeting. It's gonna be fickle. And actually, that kind of love is always gonna be a selfish love. When I release love to an emotion, it becomes something that I seek after to experience. I wanna get2:56 it from other people. It becomes a goal that we pursue and long for. Now that might sound a little bit intense because you're thinking about your favorite Hallmark movie and you're going, Dusty, you're going over the top3:07 here, right? Look at these people, they love each other. Really? Go with me here for a little bit, guys. Have you ever noticed the premise of some of these movies, some of the romantic movies we hold most3:19 dear? You realize how many of them start off by someone being unfaithful? Right? I mean, they're engaged to be married to the perfect guy or the perfect girl. That is until they they have to go home to the little town3:31 they were grew up in. Right? Around Christmas time. And then they fall in love with the single mom that runs the diner or she falls in love with the guy who somehow makes a living running a Christmas tree farm all year.3:43 Whenever Hollywood does this, they reinforce something that's simply not true. Right? Again, that love is just an emotion. That it's actually this emotion that we're powerless against. It's something that just3:55 happens to us. We fall victim to it. So if we're going to talk about the fact that God is love, that love was born on Christmas Day, we can't start with the human definition of love. Because our cultural4:07 view on what love is or it should be is always gonna be lacking. If I start with a worldly definition of love, I'm never gonna arrive at a biblical understanding of God's love. Until I4:18 rightly see what God's love is, I'm not gonna grasp what it means that God is love. Guys, God is love. Ain't that incredible? There's a lot of stuff that God does4:30 all throughout scripture, but love is 1 of the few things that he is. And if God is love versus God simply acting lovingly, then guess what that means? That means that every4:42 single thing our God does is loving. Even the things that don't feel loving. Even the stuff that might conflict with culture's definition of love. Right? Because love's not primarily a feeling. It's not4:54 primarily an emotion. Love is an action. And surprisingly, and maybe even counter culturally, 1 of the most loving things God does for us is discipline us. Listen, Hebrews5:06 chapter 12 verse 6 says, for the Lord disciplines those he loves. He punishes each 1 he accepts as a child. What? Dusty, you've to be kidding me. That doesn't sound very Hallmark y, does5:18 it? Doesn't feel very loving. Well, not according to how modern music and movies and culture makes love to be. Because in our culture today, 1 of the most unloving things you can do is say no5:30 to someone or challenge someone's beliefs or disagree with someone in any way. In our culture today, we wrongly think any kind of restraint to that suppression. And anything less than 100 percent support,5:42 that's unloving. Culture's twisted love to mean never challenging somebody, never saying no. Guys, you can see when we start with human logic, we don't we don't end up at5:53 biblical truth. Because how can God be loving when he tells me no? Guys, I'm only ever even gonna ask that question when I start off confused. Because when I start with culture's6:05 definition of love, God can't say no to me. Again, can't start with human logic and end in divine wisdom. We gotta start with the word. So let's do that. If we wanna know love, if we wanna know that love begins with6:17 God and that God is love, we see his love was on full display at Christmas, at that very first Christmas. God showed how much6:29 he loved us by sending his 1 and only son, this is first John chapter 4, into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. Not that we loved6:40 God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. That's first John chapter 4 verses 9 and 10. That's the beautiful picture of the love of God. Right? Not6:52 romantic love, not an emotional love, not culture's love where permission equals love. This is God's perfect model of love. And what does it say he did exactly? What did God's love7:04 move him to do? It moved him to give. God showed his love by sending Jesus to Earth. This is Jesus, coeternal with God. Right? He put on human flesh. All of7:16 this, the limitations, the needs. And what was at the core of that love? Sacrifice. At the heartbeat of God's love is God's nature. It's who he is. God loved7:28 us so much that he offered Jesus as the perfect sacrifice to take away our sin, to rescue us. Guys, scripture reminds us there's no greater love than to7:40 lay down our lives for our friends. At the core of true love, godly love, biblical love, is sacrifice. It's giving. That's the opposite of culture's view of love. Right?7:51 Human love always looks at what we can get. Right? What we wanna feel, what we wanna experience, what they're gonna do for us, what we love about how they make us feel. But when we start with God's perfect example of8:03 love, it always asks the question, what what can I give? What does love require of me in this situation, in every situation? Love then becomes both our motivation.8:15 Right? It's our why. But it also becomes the means in how we move out into this world. We're motivated by the love we've received. So we seek for opportunities to to give it away. Right? It comes from him. It flows8:27 through us to others. God so loved the world, John 3 16, that he did what? That he gave. And scripture encourages you and I to do the same. If you back8:38 up a chapter, first John chapter 3 verse 18 says this, dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let us show the truth by our8:50 actions. We're reminded that real love, true love, love that mimics the Lord's love for us, will always move us to act. Intentions aren't what matter when9:02 it comes to putting love on display because real love is is never content to just talk or just feel. No. Real love moves. Real love gives. It9:14 goes. Love does. Because love isn't just an emotion that feels, it's a decision that does. That's actually been 1 of the most consistent and overwhelming truths for9:26 me personally so far this Advent season. And not just with love. All the good things we've talked about that Jesus brings that I want to experience from God this Christmas, the good gifts, right, hope and peace and9:38 now love. I don't earn them, but I do have to choose to receive them. I don't deserve them. But but I have to pursue them. They're promised to9:49 me. Now, I can't make myself worthy of them any more than I can earn Christ's forgiveness, but I have to receive them, accept him. I have to decide upon them. I have to trust and submit to them and10:01 pursue them. Because a lot of times I sit back with my arms crossed and I wait to feel hope. Or I feel out of sorts and I go, God, give me peace. And I wait for God to reach out10:13 in love when the reality is God's already provided all of these things. I mean, think about love. What what else could he have done to prove to us the depths of his love besides10:25 offering the life of his son that we might live. And you know what I love? God didn't shout about his love from a great distance. No, he came close. He came near. He wanted us10:37 to experience the fullness of his love. At Christmas, we celebrate the incredible reality that our God is with us. Right? Emmanuel, God with us. First John 110:48 14 says, so the word, that's Jesus, became human, and he made his home among us, full of unfailing love and faithfulness. Jesus wanted us to feel11:00 his love up close and personal at Christmas, so he joined us. He made his home. He tabernacled amongst us so that we could experience his love. And11:12 guys, you and I can only experience true and lasting love in the presence of Jesus. And so let's ask our hearts another tough question in this session, in this11:23 part of our Advent. Let's look inside and let's ask ourselves, if I find myself lacking a feeling of of deep connection with God, if I want to experience more of his love, I gotta ask myself, am I11:35 choosing to be with him? As he made his home with me, am I making my home with Jesus? Am I seeking him out? Am I sitting with him? And11:47 if if I find that I'm not experiencing God's love in the ways that are gonna transform me, well, then I have to choose him. And if I find myself still desiring love, guys, like we've said since the beginning,11:59 1 of the ways that that we keep love is by giving it away. We we we seek to give away the life we wanna keep. This is the upside down kingdom. Now, I know this doesn't make worldly sense, but it makes biblical sense. The12:10 more love I give away, the more love I experience. And I don't run out of it because God fills me up. If I want to experience God's love, I offer God's love. And he shows up to provide12:22 everything I lack. God starts to love people through me. Right? Just like Jesus did. He said this in John chapter 13, he said, just as I've loved you, you should12:33 love each other. Actually, your love for 1 another will prove to the world you're my disciples. We're called to love each other in the same way as we've been loved. The word says just12:45 as. But we already talked about this. Christ loved us by sacrificing and offering himself. His love wasn't just emotional. Right? His love moved him to act. The same12:57 should be true of us. Scripture says the way we love each other is gonna prove to this world that we belong to Jesus. So this Christmas, don't don't seek out an13:09 emotional experience of love. Right? Don't don't pursue some emotion that's gonna fleetingly take off. Don't think about what you might get from others in the way of love. Focus on what you've already13:20 received. That God loved you so much that he came near, that he lowered and humbled himself. He suffered and died, proving the depths of his love for13:32 you. Open the gift of Jesus' love this Christmas. Actually, trust it. Settle down into it. Draw your strength up from it and your identity13:44 from it. I wanna leave you today with 1 of my wife and I's favorite passages in all of scripture. It reminds us of the practical beauty of living out every day in the love of God. Not just13:55 understanding it in my mind, but but experiencing it in my heart and in my life. And it comes from the book of Ephesians. It says this, then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.14:07 And your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you14:18 experience the love of Christ, though it's too deep and great to understand fully. And then you'll be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. This Christmas,14:31 our prayer at Everyman Ministries is that Jesus Christ would make his home in your heart. And as your roots grow down deep into his love, we pray that your life would become anchored, rooted in the14:42 immovable, strong love of Jesus Christ as put on display on Christmas morning. Merry Christmas.14:53 Isaiah 43 19 says, see, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the15:04 wasteland. Hi. I'm Kenny Luck, founder and president of Everyman Ministries. And for the last 25 years, God has been using every man to reach, to train, to encourage,15:16 and equip men to live out their calling as men. And today, I'm standing in Montana where we're hosting the very first every man encounter. God certainly is doing something15:28 new. We have a group of men here encountering God in powerful and in new ways. You know, 20 25 was such an incredible year, and we are in awe of15:40 everything that God has done. Every man was a part of live events all over California, Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, and here in15:51 Montana, and those were just the live events. We did father son events, men's retreats, youth camps, church services, school chapels, discipleship conferences, and16:03 more. In 20 25, we continued to follow Christ's encouragement in Matthew 25, where he said, I was in prison and you visited me. We saw incredible16:15 fruit in our prison ministry in partnership with God behind bars. Can you believe 1848 men profess Christ for the first time this last year? Our16:27 content was viewed in prisons over 1300000.0 times. And here's the real exciting thing. We have 1600 men enrolled in Get Healthy courses. This year16:39 we introduced the eBook collection and the first 3 books have been seen over 11000 times. We get feedback every week from prisoners telling us16:51 about the encouragement and the transformations that are happening behind prison walls. In 20 25, God took the ministry of Everyman literally everywhere17:03 through our international partnership with Pray dot com. All over the world, we've seen 7500000.0 minutes streamed on the Everyman platform. You know what that amounts to?17:14 188 countries all over the world. And now, we're using AI to translate our content into nearly every language.17:26 Allowing us to encourage and instruct and teach every man like it says in Colossians 1 28. And we proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching every man so that we17:38 may present every man complete in Christ. Well, that was 20 25. What does 20 26 hold? We wanna focus on 3 things that are new. The local church, the next17:50 generation of younger men, and discipling men on a daily basis. Let's talk about the local church. We are launching a brand new series of our classic get healthy discipleship18:02 program. Over 1000000 men have been through it, and we're excited for the next generation of men to go through and get healthy in family, in temptation, in friendship, and in their marriages. We're also going after men18:13 who are younger, the next generation. How? Through father son events. We're gonna have events that are geared up for young adults and college age event. Tomorrow, what it means to be God's man. So you're gonna18:25 witness the launch of the dangerous good and young movement. In terms of discipling men daily, we're going to launch the new every man encounter app. We're18:37 so excited about this because you're gonna be able to walk through daily challenges, daily studies, along with all of our content with the men in your life. We're gonna share prayer18:49 requests through the app. We're gonna remain connected to your forever brothers in group settings and situations, be able to encourage and sharpen 1 another all through the Everyman Encounter app. Now we are going to19:00 continue our partnerships with pray dot com. We're gonna expand that partnership. You know, they've asked us to film for all 17000000 of their users, a new series for the women in men's19:11 lives. We're excited about that. They've also asked us to own Father's Day with unique, highlighted video content, daily devotions, and more to encourage19:23 all of those users. In 20 26, we're gonna continue to expand our prison ministry. Actually, looking at in person events within the walls of the prison for every man. We're gonna make some19:35 unique content just for the prisoners filmed exclusively behind bars. And we're gonna continue to speak at conferences, churches, schools, and retreats wherever God calls19:47 us to transform the lives of men. But listen, my brothers, it is going to take all of us. If we're gonna reach every man to continue teaching and encouraging men behind19:59 bars, to train up the next generation to live out their calling as God's men and continue to see marriages strengthen. And finally, to reach men all over the world with the gospel of20:10 Jesus. It's just gonna take all of this because this is the great super story. The super adventure called the kingdom of God. And we all get to20:22 play our part. So this is our invitation to you to take up your spot in the kingdom and serve with us. God bless.
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