Special

I'm gonna now just gonna spend some moments.

You might be here thinking, and you've you've never heard any of this and you think gosh what is all this about? Well hopefully we're gonna have some time now just to explain what is the gospel that these sisters are professing and if you do know these truths and you're here to to rejoice with the girls then hopefully it's just a chance to be warmed once again about these things. We read two passages there that I want to hang this off that Megan had in her testimony. John chapter three verse 16 and Romans chapter five verse eight. And I wanted to start by asking you what do you think is the greatest demonstration of love?

Maybe what is the greatest show of love that maybe you've received or that you know of? What is the thing, what's the best thing that your spouse has got you? And if you think they never got me anything, well, sorry to hear that. Or like a parent, what was the best thing that your mom or your dad have got you? You know, there's lots of dramatic and costly examples of demonstrations of love.

Know, there's been people that have have built entire structures just to to to show off how much they love their loved ones. You know, the Taj Mahal in India was all about how much this this man loved his his wife, even though she was dead at that time, it was a mausoleum built for her. Weird, I know. Or like the hanging guards of gardens of Babylon was a a love gift. Apparently, many of you will know the the famous rapper Jay Z.

He bought one Valentine's Day his beloved wife Beyonce, Queen Bee herself, an $8,000,000 blue diamond ring just for Valentine's Day. Jerusha, don't get any ideas. It's not coming for you. And another time he bought a $33,000,000 private island. Gosh.

You know, what great demonstrations of love. Yes. But I want to contend that the greatest demonstration of love is the one that is confronted with us in these verses. John chapter three verse 16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And then Romans five verse eight, But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is the greatest demonstration of love that the world has ever seen. There is no greater demonstration than we see in Romans five verse eight. And Megan helpfully, helped us think about this. He demonstrated, how does he demonstrate his own love for this?

Well, it's whilst we were still sinners, and you think, well, what is what is sin? What is so wrong with sin? Well, the very concept of sin is that we have decided to reject God. We've rebelled against the God of the universe who made us, who made us to worship Him and live in total reference to him. We've said, no, actually, I want nothing to do with your law.

I want nothing to do with your rule. I want nothing to do with pleasing you, but I wanna do it all for me. It's all about self rule and living my life with no reference to God whatsoever. And what results do you get from that? Well, you get a desperate search for meaning, don't you?

You get rid of God and you have a real desperate search for purpose and it's exhausting. It was so helpful what Tamara was saying. Tamara basically tried every single thing in the world by the sounds of stuff, didn't you? You know? Career.

Can I find the purpose in career? Can I find happiness and meaning in career? Can I find it in relationship? Can I I find it in family? Can I find it in living for the things that this world has to offer, whether it's the next wine bar or the next pub?

And yet, as you go from one thing to another without living with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll find you're exhausted. It's exhausting. Sin is exhausting. Trying to make it up for yourself you're gonna find is exhausting and unsatisfying. And that is what we were before God's sinners.

Now you might be thinking, these ladies, they don't seem that bad, do they? Well, maybe Megan does. Hannah, no way, she's lovely. No she isn't actually, she's really bad because that verse that Megan said, Romans chapter two, shows us how we're that bad. It says, For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.

No one in this room, not even Hannah, I know has pleased God completely. No one has matched his perfect standard of keeping the law. No one has matched his standard of living totally pure for him. And so are they really that bad? Well, yes.

Yes, they are. It feels odd because they are lovely. And we know... We also know that they're that bad because the solution is so incredibly magnificent. God so loved, John chapter three verse 16 again, the world that he gave his one and only son.

That is a a demonstration of love right there. That's more costly than an 8,000,000 blue diamond ring. The solution's absolutely humongous. That God takes the most precious thing he has, his son. His darling son who is loved from eternity.

The one that they have been with in joy and happiness forever, and he sends him to deal with our problem. God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. See, God gives it all and the Lord Jesus gives all of himself. He gives all of himself.

He becomes a man, he becomes the perfect man and goes to a cross and he bears our sin and our shame and our guilt upon a cross so that we can be forgiven, so that your problem of sin can be dealt with. Now you might think, much of how much of my problem of sin and death? How how much of my problem? How much do I then have to make up? Did he do...

Do... He can't... Surely he can't have done it all. We're not living in a dreamland here, are we? Well, hopefully, Tamara use that verse in Jeremiah thirty one thirty four, and it says at the end, I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

How incredible that is, remember it no more. You know, isn't that quite hearty? That's quite hard to comprehend, isn't it? Because like, you know, someone does something wrong to you, and you think, well, okay, I'll let you off, but it's really hard to still let go of You think, yeah, I did forgive them, but it's still quite hard to let it go completely. I still hold on to that grudge a little bit sometimes.

I still sort of think, oh, maybe I'll bring it up next time we're having an argument. Yeah? Yeah. Oh, actually, I've got a little bit of ammunition now to use against them. They're not gods.

Once he's forgiven it, it's forgiven. Remembered no more. Christ is so serious in the way that he deals with our sin that it's completely forgiven. But it's not just that. It's not just like, oh, now I'm forgiven, and now I'm let off and I can just do whatever I want, and maybe I'll have another good go at it.

No, that's not that's not what the Bible's about. No, it's it's more than that. It's actually that we're we're saved for a relationship. Do you see that in Psalm 23? In Psalm 23 it says, the Lord is my shepherd.

It's not just he's a shepherd, and he's sort of walking around hitting some sheep. He's my shepherd. He's the one who who is over me. He's not just... And that's really important, by the way.

Some people might just go, oh, he's just a savior. Now I can do whatever I want. No. He's not just savior. He is my shepherd, the Lord.

He's the ruler. He's the one who governs me. He's the one I now need to obey as as the girls were saying. He's my shepherd. He's the shepherd king.

And so on to the scene walks the Lord Jesus Christ and he says, I am the good shepherd. I love that image. Shepherd's such a good image because he's got these stupid sheep. Because sheep are pretty stupid, right? You know, if you think of sheep, look at Liam, he looks like a sheep, the brother of the Ardendorf's.

His words, not mine. Was it your words? I can't remember. His sister said it was fine. Yeah?

You look at him, you think, what a stupid little sheep. Yeah? And and Liam is like the reflection of us all. A very good metaphor for... Sorry, Liam.

I've... There's a lot of apologies. I do apologize. Yeah. But Sheba, dumb, aren't they?

They get themselves into all sorts of trouble. They they find themselves with their head stuck in barbed wire. You know? You... Have you ever watched that jolly program, Clarkson's Farm?

They're there just jumping over walls, to find some sort of mischief. They're ridiculous animals. And so what do they need? Well, don't need Clarkson, because he's not great at it. They need a shepherd.

I need a shepherd who's over them. They need a shepherd who loves them. They need a shepherd who they can listen to and they can obey. They need a shepherd who will take care of them and will protect them and that is what Jesus is, he's the good shepherd. And the glorious news about that it means he's always for your good.

You get it wrong, you try and go your own way and you're exhausted, but Jesus if he's your shepherd king, he's always for your goods. And so Jeremiah, as Tamara read to us, says in chapter 29 and verse 11, I know the plans I have for you, declares the lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. If I trust that Jesus is my savior and he is my shepherd king, I know that ultimately he is for my good. I know that even though I may face hard times, I know that I may face times with uncertainty and I don't know why these things are happening to me, but I know ultimately that the good shepherd is for my good. He loves me so much.

He loves me so much that he died for me. And I can know that he is always protecting me and giving me security and giving me safety and giving me comfort and giving me a world where I don't have to fear the evil that is presented before me. And he gives me provision and he gives me an eternal reward with him forever. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And so if I can understand that, I don't have to be anxious.

Philippians chapter four verse six, Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and by petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. He did all the work for me. He is my good shepherd. He is my savior. I can now go into this world without anxiety because he's got me in his hands.

That is the greatest demonstration of love, I would contend. You can argue with me afterwards. You will lose. But only because Jesus says it. With a demonstration, though, you're not just meant to look at it and then forget about it, are you?

Demonstration requires a response. You're meant to see it and go, wow, what a lover God is. I want to live for him. I want to trust in him. And that's what these these three are showing.

They're gonna say we love him because he loved us and we want to follow him and we want you to know that we love and follow him. And they're gonna dramatize exactly what's happened to them, that they've died to the old self, to sin, and that they've raised to new life with Jesus as both Lord and Saviour. And so the question is as you watch them get dunked, to put it mildly, what about you? What about you? Megan said she never wanted to grow numb to the fact that John three sixteen is true.

Have eternal life. Let's not grow numb to that Christians. Don't grow numb to that. That is the most incredible lavish gift of love that has been poured out on humanity. Let's grow in that.

Let's keep loving. Let's keep on rejoicing. But maybe you're here and you've never trusted in Jesus. Well Jesus says in his word there, if you believe in him tonight, if you trust in him tonight, you shall never perish but you'll have eternal life as Jesus as your savior and as your king. That's what they're professing.

I wonder if you would like to profess that tonight. I'm going to pray and then we're going to sing our final song. Father we thank you so much for the things that we've heard Hannah, Megan and Tamara say to us tonight. We thank you that you have transformed their lives, that you have taken them from death to life, that you have taken them from sin to children of God. We thank you that they are confessing that Jesus is their savior who died on a cross to bring them into his family and that he rose again to give them eternal life.

We thank you so much for the greatest demonstration of love that we're confronted with in scriptures that you, oh god, whilst we were still sinners, you sent the lord Jesus Christ to die for us. Whilst we were rebelling against you, whilst we were trying to rule ourselves in an exhausting fashion, Christ, in his great love, hung up on a cross so that we may be saved. Help us not to grow numb to these truths and we pray father for any here who've never really trusted in that reality, that they would seriously consider just how glorious Jesus is and that they will want him to be their king and that they want him to be their savior. And so we do pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.