Daily Dose of the Word of God - John 3: 16-21

Gregg DeMey, Lead Pastor

Transcript

Gregg DeMey 0:07  

Good morning and welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose of the Word of God. It's Thursday, January 22nd and this is Greg gDeMay, Lead Pastor at the church. We are starting this year with a spotlight on Jesus with the apostle John guiding our way. Today's verses come from John 3, verses 16 through 21.

Gregg DeMey 0:28  

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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Gregg DeMey   1:17  

According to the Gospel of John, God is love. And by the way, the reverse is definitely not true, that love is God. It's a really bad idea, especially with a number of trivial and shallow definitions of love that we're comfortable with in the English language. But God is love and from the overflow of this love, God sends His Son for us and for our salvation - God so loves the world. God's love is deep enough and wide enough to rescue, redeem, heal and save everybody. Wow. And God's love is focused enough to rescue, redeem, heal and save you and me. Along with God's love comes a dynamic dose of divine light. Now, light sounds great, especially during these bitterly cold, short days of January, right? Light warms us. Light helps things to grow and light exposes the darkness and the hidden recesses of the sinful world and the dark corners of sinful us - that doesn't sound so comforting. Believe in Jesus, get exposed! But the good news is that God's light always comes along with God's love. Whatever God's light reveals, God's love is there to deal with in the best possible way. I'm more than 50 years old and God's light is still revealing things about my heart, mind and spirit that confront me, humble me and cause me to turn again toward God's love in Jesus Christ. Maybe that's true for you too.

Gregg DeMey   2:58  

Let's pray. Oh God, today we seek your light and love and we bring to mind not only ourselves, but someone who is in special need of your love and in special need of your light. Thank you for the promise that the day is approaching in your comming kingdom when it will be non-stop life in the sunshine of your presence and love. In Jesus name, amen.