Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon us
with might and power and deep conviction at this time.
We ask, Father, that you would help us in the power of the Holy Spirit
to know that we are in your presence,
that Jesus is the Savior and that he is Lord.
And we ask, Father, that as you draw us into your presence
that we will know that you desire to give us grace,
to establish us and deepen us in your grace and your love.
And help us, Father, to be in your presence,
to receive from you in a worthy manner,
and to respond to you in a worthy manner.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
We're doing a sermon series entitled Knowing God.
And I guess I'm just going to use this.
I forgot about the mic.
I feel scattered this morning for some reason.
I don't know what it is.
Maybe it's the constant, unrelenting heat.
By the way, kudos to you folks to leave your
cool, air-conditioned domiciles
and to enter the soup and come here.
So way to go.
So we're doing a series called Knowing God.
And on one level, this is a very, very simple session.
Once again, on one hand, it's the idea.
In fact, if you could put up the first point, Claire,
that would be very helpful.
That unless the triune God revealed himself,
you could not know he exists.
Unless the triune God revealed himself,
you could not know he exists.
It's a very simple idea.
But, well, as part of my sermon preparation this week,
on Friday night, with some of my grandchildren,
I watched Angry Birds 2.
I don't like to just study, you know,
Calvin and Aquinas and stuff like that.
Occasionally, you need to prepare for things like this topic
by watching something like Angry Birds 2.
Actually, to be more honest, I was watching Angry Birds 2.
And as I'm watching Angry Birds 2, I thought,
wow, this actually sort of fits in with my sermon this week.
It was more that way.
Now, this isn't much of a spoiler alert.
And I don't know how many of you have watched
any of the Angry Birds movies.
But Angry Birds 2, sort of, I guess,
at the end of Angry Birds 1,
the red bird is the hero of the movie.
And what happens in Angry Birds 2
is that everybody's praising him all the time.
But it turns out that he has a very deep insecurity.
And his deep insecurity goes right from the time
he was a tiny, tiny, tiny little chick.
And as he grew up as a child and as a teenager,
and his great insecurity is that nobody would,
that he'd be all alone.
And it's not so much that he'd be all alone,
because all of us like being alone sometimes,
is that he'd be all alone in the sense
that nobody wanted to know him,
and nobody wanted to have a relationship with him,
that he would live,
he'd been living his life,
in a sense, unknown
and not able to know anybody.
And so he was reveling
in all of this praise,
the fact that people,
sort of,
would notice him.
He was reveling in it.
But really,
as I explain to my grandkids occasionally,
I'm sure much,
I'm sure they just completely and utterly ignored me.
The three-year-old has,
far more interested in the cute little red birds
and other birds up on the screen
than anything her papa's going to say.
But anyway,
the movie goes around upon this particular theme.
It's one of the themes of it.
And in fact,
the movie is touching on
one of the deepest human needs that we have.
Human beings have this profound need
to know and to be known.
Not just to know other people,
but to know and to be known.
One of the,
those of you who struggle with addictions
or alcoholism,
you might or might not realize this about yourself,
but for those of us
who've struggled with these types of things,
one of the problems that alcoholics and addicts have,
and in a sense,
it's a human problem,
but people who struggle with alcoholism or addictions,
they have it at a deeper level,
a more profound level,
a more potentially life-destroying level.
which is they have this deep fear
that if people actually got through the surface,
the force field that they put out,
and got to know them,
that people wouldn't like them.
That in fact,
often alcoholics and addicts
have this belief that
the more you know them,
the less you'll like them.
And yet,
and so what often they do is,
those of us who've struggled with those things,
is you try to numb it in some particular way
with the drugs or the alcoholism.
You're often still consumed with shame
at a deep level about yourself,
but even though you worry about this,
and so you create fronts,
and you do all this other type of stuff,
at the end of the day,
and you might try to numb it,
but you have this deep, deep, deep desire
to know and to be known
that all human beings have.
Just a couple of weeks ago,
Louise and I had supper with somebody,
and the woman's quite a remarkable woman.
For the last 15 years,
she's been one of the primary caregivers
for a youngish woman
who has severe cerebral palsy,
and she's completely and utterly uncommunicative
in terms of being able,
she has no verbal skills whatsoever,
and basically every single thing
that has to be done for her
has to be done,
she can't do anything herself,
everything has to be done for her.
She's completely helpless
and completely and utterly non-verbal.
And this woman has been caring for her,
one of the primary caregivers for this woman
for 15 years.
And I think the young woman's in her early 20s.
But one of the things
that came out very powerfully
as we were talking
is that even though this
very, very, very, very handicapped woman
with severe cerebral palsy
is completely non-verbal,
she can still communicate,
and she still knows,
and in fact, actually,
she really knows this woman,
we'll just call her Sue,
that there's in fact
a deep relationship
between the two of them,
even though she has no words.
Because, you see,
there is this fundamental human desire
to know and to be known.
And so this woman,
her face lights up
with a huge smile
when she sees Sue,
and Sue's face lights up
with a big smile,
and there's obvious ways,
even without having to use words,
that they can have a relationship.
Obviously not the same
as they can with somebody
who can speak
and all of that type of stuff,
but there is this profound relationship
that happens between them,
and for this woman
with the cerebral palsy,
she, like all human beings,
has this desire to know
and to be known.
It's a very, very profound
human need.
So when you hear this idea
that unless the triune God
revealed himself,
you could not know he exists,
often what happens
is we immediately want to go
into all sorts of types
of arguments about this.
There's obviously some problems
with the Christian idea
that what Christians would say
is that the way
that God reveals himself
is primarily
in four different ways.
That on one hand,
he reveals himself
through nature,
and by nature,
it's the creation.
That on one hand,
the conscience in human beings
is a bit of an indicator
that God exists.
The fact that we have minds
is a bit of an indicator
that God exists.
That just the beauty
and the grandeur of nature,
there are all these
different things
in the world outside
and the world inside of us
that in some ways
point to the fact
that there is a triune God
that does actually exist.
And then, of course,
Christians say
it's not just general revelation.
There's what's called
special revelation.
There's the Bible,
the Word of God,
that God has actually
communicated to us
with words,
that every word
ultimately in the Bible,
at least in the original manuscript,
is the exact word
that God wanted to be there
and that God communicates
through his Word.
And then, of course,
it's not just a matter
of general revelation,
the special revelation
of his Word,
that the preeminent way
that he reveals himself
is in the person of his Son,
in Jesus,
in what Jesus did
during his life
and the words that he said
and especially his death
upon the cross
and his resurrection,
that that's the pinnacle
of God's revealing himself
to human beings.
And that it's not just
a matter of us
knowing some stories
and things about Jesus
in the past,
that what happens
is that when God knows us,
when God comes
into a knowledge of us
and we come into
a knowledge of him,
it's mediated
not just by the Word
and by knowing Jesus,
but the Holy Spirit
literally comes
and moves in our lives
and brings,
in a sense,
Jesus home to us,
the Father home to us,
the Holy Spirit
comes into us
and that we know God.
And these are sort of
the basic Christian ideas.
But at the heart of it all
is this fundamental idea
that God wants,
not just fundamental idea,
however we want to talk
or think about this doctrine
of God revealing himself,
it has to always be understood
in the context of God,
of human beings
having this profound desire,
this profound need
to know
and to be known.
You see,
there's an extra mystery
to this,
which we all know,
and it comes up actually
in some of the ways
that people respond
to the idea
of Christian revelation.
I remember
one of my summer jobs,
I had to work
as a painter
in a bell building,
a bell telephone building,
and for the summer
we were working
in repainting
those parts of the building
that most people don't see.
It's where the heating
and the whole pile
of the behind-the-scene guts
of the buildings were
and I was with
this professional painter
and I had to be
his assistant
and we would paint
every day.
And he loved
to talk about the Bible
and loved to talk
about theology
and one of his big complaints
about the Christian faith
is that why doesn't God
just,
if God wants to know me
and he wants me
to know him,
why doesn't it
make it more obvious?
Like,
why doesn't he just show up
and appear to me
if that's what God
actually wants to know?
Well,
there's different versions
of it
and as I would talk to him,
he'd have different ways
of doing it.
But here's the thing
and I'll tell you
some of the things
that he would say
and they're things
which I've heard
from many other people
over the years.
Actually,
every criticism of God,
in a sense,
reveals something about us
and it reveals something
about us,
not just in our relationship
with God,
but actually the fears
and the longings
that we have
and the problems
and idiosyncrasies
we have
even if we want
to know another person.
So, for instance,
why couldn't God
just make some display
every night?
If he really wanted
to be known,
if he really wanted
you to know him
and if he really wanted
you to know him
and he wanted to know you,
why couldn't he make
his existence
more obvious?
So, one of the obvious ways
that he could make it
more obvious
is that, I don't know,
every night
at five minutes
before midnight
and he would do it
in every time zone
from five minutes
before midnight
to midnight,
every night
there'd be a big thing
in the sky
that everybody could see,
the appropriate language,
all of the appropriate languages,
I exist
and I want to know you.
Like, why wouldn't God
do something
very, very obvious
like that
that every human being
every night
if they wanted to know
whether God existed,
they just had to be up
at five minutes to minute
or set their camera
or whatever
and they could see
this sign every night.
Why wouldn't God
do something like that?
If he really wanted
to know you
and to be known by you,
why wouldn't he make
his existence
far more obvious
than general revelation
and the Bible
and Jesus
and the Holy Spirit?
But if you think
about it for a second,
for many, many, many
people in the world,
if God did something
like that,
maybe for many of us
even here,
how would we respond
to it?
The fact of the matter
is that we wouldn't
respond to it
by saying,
good grief,
God really does exist.
I better allow him
to know me
and I'm going to allow him
to speak his word
into my life
and I'm going to love him
and I'm going to adore him.
No.
How would most of us react?
Why is God so showy?
Is he needy?
Like,
why does God have to do
such a big thing
like that every night?
Like,
he's too showy,
he's too pushy,
he's too needy.
Like,
you know,
God shouldn't reveal himself
in that way.
That's how we'd respond.
If,
instead,
God was to try
to be very present
in your consciousness,
in your emotions,
if he decided
to reveal himself
in such a way
that you could never
just evade him,
that you always
immediately felt him
as a very,
very,
very present power
in us,
it probably wouldn't
lead us to want
to worship him.
In fact,
what we would say
is that he's
too intrusive,
too intimidating,
and we would take him
to be more like
a stalker
than a lover.
if God was to provide
a human being
with a knocked-down,
dragged-down,
unrefutable,
logical argument
and set of logical arguments
for his existence,
we would say,
why all this cold logic?
Why no creativity?
Why no love?
If God was to only,
if God was to give you
less evidence
for his existence,
if he was to give you
less evidence
than the Bible
or Jesus,
we'd say,
why doesn't he give us more?
If we were,
if he had only created
one religion
so that we had
absolutely no choice,
we'd either have to follow
the one religion
that he created
and he would stop
all other religions
from existing,
our response
would always be,
I think I could do
something a little bit better.
And if he forced you
to believe in him,
well,
it would be like
when I was a kid
and you'd get wrestling
with a bully
or a bigger kid
and they'd get on top of you,
they'd finally wrestle you down
and they'd say,
I'm not going to let you up
until you say
that I'm better than you.
Well,
you'd fight against him
and fight against him
and eventually you'd say,
okay,
you're better than me
to get him off of you.
But inwardly,
you'd say,
no,
you're not.
you're worse than me.
But you wouldn't say it out loud
because you want to get up.
And that's what would happen
if God was to do something,
was to,
in a sense,
force us to believe in him,
that the fact of the matter is,
is that if he forced us
to try to believe in him,
we'd end up saying,
I don't believe in you.
In fact,
we actually would say
that we hate him.
You see,
here's part of the thing,
is that not only
human beings
have this profound
and deep need
to know
and to be known.
The fact is that
when I described
how addicts
and alcoholics
often
have this
deep fear
within them
that if you really
got to know me,
you wouldn't like me,
you wouldn't love me,
you'd like me less,
that all of us
can resonate with that
to some extent.
that
even for the most
narcissistic amongst us,
there would still
probably be
a tiny bit of a
awkwardness
and embarrassment
about some of the things
that are about us.
But at the same time,
there's something
ornery about us.
There's something about us
that in terms of,
not only we have
this deep desire
to know and to be known,
but we also have this,
in fact,
sometimes we have
just this profound
frustration
that we can't know
and that we can't be known
and sometimes we just
have this profound
frustration
that when we try
to make a good friend
or something like that,
we put our foot
in our mouth,
we trip over
what we want to do,
that we come on
too strong
and force them
and then they think
we're like a stalker
or where we come across
as too needy.
The fact of the matter
is that we both
want to know
and to be known,
but there's part of us
that doesn't really
want to know
and to be known
and there's part of us
that worry that we'll do it
in such a way
that it overwhelms
our freedom
and there's part of us
in such a way
that makes us worry
that we don't want
to give up,
we don't want to surrender
all of ourselves,
we're afraid of being
fully revealing
and that we human beings
are very, very complicated
and the only solution
to most of that stuff
is a love,
a love that is deep
and that is real
and that is unchanging
is,
that's actually connected
to wanting to know
and to be known
is a desire for love
because it's,
for those of us
who've experienced it,
one of the great mysteries
about great love
is that
when we are most in love
we are both,
we feel both most free
and most bound
to the other person
at the same time.
And so we human beings
are a riddle and a mystery
and it's,
if we think about that
a bit more deeply,
it's hard,
actually,
we start to realize
it's actually hard to think
that if God wants to know us
and to be known by us,
that part of the problem
with that ever happening
is in us.
Probably the best text
in the Bible
to help you understand
what it means
for God
to want to know you
and to be known by you
is seen
in Matthew chapter 11
verses 25 to 30,
which is what we'll look at
just very briefly right now.
It was the gospel text
which I read
and it goes like this.
At that time,
Jesus declared,
I thank you,
Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
that you have hidden
these things
from the wise
and understanding
and revealed them
to little children.
Yes, Father,
for such was
your gracious will.
All things have been handed over
to me by my Father
and no one knows
the Father,
no one knows,
sorry,
all things have been handed over
to me by my Father
and no one knows
the Son except the Father
and no one knows
the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom
the Son chooses
to reveal him.
Now just sort of,
you know,
pause there for a second.
Here's this very interesting
little thing
just up a bit before
that God has hidden
these strings
from the wise
and understanding
but revealed them
to little children.
You see,
the type of knowledge
that we ultimately desire
to know
and to be known
is,
it's not something
that depends upon
our IQ.
Like,
to know,
to try to figure out
quantum mechanics,
to try to figure out
some very,
very complicated
mathematic things
requires a particular
type of mind,
a very,
very high IQ.
People who can figure out
a lot of complicated
engineering things
or accounting things
or are very,
very good
at amassing
a lot of knowledge
about history
or strategy
or technique.
It requires high IQs
and it requires
lots of disciplines
and it's a very,
very small number
of people
and the harder
the knowledge is,
the smaller
the number of people are.
but we know
that that's actually
not the type of knowledge.
I mean,
that's a good knowledge
if you have those,
that type of mind.
Good for you.
Use it wisely
and well to the glory
of God.
But that's,
that the amazing thing is,
is that that type
of personal knowledge
is something
that a person
with severe
cerebral policy
is capable of.
A Down syndrome
child is capable of.
a street person
terribly broken
by their drug addiction
or their alcoholism
or their mental illness
has the potential
to have this type
of personal knowing
and to know.
And so when Jesus says here
that it's been hidden
from the wise
and the learned
but made available
to children,
it's not just talking
about a type of humility
to receive from Jesus
to start to realize
that maybe
if the problem
of knowing
and knowing God
isn't so much
and how God does it
but the problem
is in me.
The problem is
that somehow or another
there's something
broken and angular
and both very,
very desirous
but very,
very fearful
and very,
very confused
and the problem
is in me
that that message
about the little child
is giving us
a bit of a clue
that maybe we need
to be the,
to understand
that we need
to be the ones
to sort of stop
for a second
and let God be God
and for him
to do something
to reveal himself to us
but it's also
letting us know
that the type
of knowing,
this type
of personal knowing,
this type of love
that is ultimately
what God wants
to communicate to us
is something
that in fact
even children
are capable of,
that all human beings
are capable of.
It's not just something
for the intellectual
or the IQ elite.
It's something
which is just
deeply human
and is available
from everything
from the tiniest
little baby
to the most
handicapped individual
to the most broken
by illness
or addictions
to the most brilliant
in theory
all are capable
of having this
type of knowing
and known
and be known
and which is all
characterized by love.
And then it's further
when Jesus said
in verse 27
all things have been
handed over
to be my,
my father
and no one knows
the son except the father
and no one knows
the father except the son
and anyone to whom
the son chooses
to reveal him.
This is just this doctrine
which I said
at the beginning
that unless the triune God
wants to reveal himself
we could never
possibly know him.
And Jesus is saying
that, you know,
at the end of the day
all of the Bible
all of general revelation
all of the Bible
and by general revelation
that includes the fact
that if you start
to actually analyze
and look at your heart
and if you realize
that there's this desire
to know
this fear of being known
this desire for love
this fear of being loved
this, this,
these false starts
these successes
and all of this complication
and that that's pointing
to that there's some type
of a riddle about you
that unless God comes in
in a way
that respects your freedom
and respects your integrity
and your dignity
and comes in
and offers himself
in a way
that you can receive
and does what you cannot
do for yourself
that you cannot even
possibly know him
but that all,
all of the general revelation
and special revelation
of the Bible
all of it culminates
in the person of Jesus.
in his life
and his death
and his resurrection
that he is going
to be the one
that makes it possible
for human beings
like you and me
to know God
and to be known by him
for him to reveal himself.
And it's very,
very interesting
because it says
all things have been
handed over to me
by my father
and no one knows
the father
and no one knows
the son except the father
and no one knows
the father except the son
and anyone to whom
the son chooses
to reveal him
and then we sort of
have this pause.
Okay, now he's going
to say that
only people who are
same-sex attracted
he's going to reveal
himself to
or only those
who are other-sex attracted
he's going to reveal
himself to
or only people
who are from Africa
or only people
from a wealthy neighborhood
or only people
from Asia
or he's only going
to talk about
good people
or he's only going
to reveal himself
to special people
he's only going
to reveal himself
to people
who have positive
self-regard
or a good sense
a good control
in their life
and are successful
or he's only going
to reveal himself
to those who are broken
in particular ways
in whatever ways
that we try to spin it
as if all of a sudden
there's going to be
some type of a criteria
by which Jesus
is going to reveal
the father to us
this all comes out
but in the very same breath
that he says
that no one knows
the father
except the son
and anyone
to whom the son
chooses to reveal him
his very next words
are come to me
all who labor
and are heavy laden
and I will give you rest
are you same-sex attracted
come to me
all who labor
and are heavy laden
are you heterosexual
come to me
all who labor
and are heavy laden
are you watching this
in Africa
or in Singapore
or in South America
or in Rockcliffe Park
or in Ledbury
come to me
all who labor
and are heavy laden
and I will give you rest
take my yoke upon you
and learn from me
for I am gentle
and lowly in heart
and you will find rest
for your souls
for my yoke
and my burden
is light
come to me
all who labor
and are heavy laden
and I will give you rest
take my yoke upon you
and learn from me
for I am gentle
and lowly in heart
and you will find rest
for your souls
for my yoke
is easy
and my burden
is light
see the triune God
reveals himself
to be known
and to know you
in a covenant of love
that's the second point
the triune God
reveals himself
to be known
and to know you
in a covenant of love
not in a one night stand
not in a fling
not in an affair
but in a covenant of love
that he desires
to reveal himself
to you
so that you will know him
and he will know you
and then that knowing of you
and knowing of him
can be something
that will continue
and deepen
there obviously
at your end
there can be step backs
and stepping away
and confusion
and all of those types
of things
but that he
wants to do this
to know you
and to be known by you
in a covenant
of deep love
that respects your freedom
and who you are
I mean
actually if
here we'll just say
one more thing
maybe one more story
and then we'll bring this
to a close
if you could put up
the third point
the person words
and works
a work of Jesus
reveals the triune God
and redeems all
who receive him
it's a very simple point
but here's the story
that shows the depth
the depth of his love
if you turn in your Bibles
to Luke chapter 23
verses 35 to 43
Luke 23 verses 35 to 43
we have this very wonderful story
only recorded by Luke
obviously based on
eyewitness testimony
of one of the things
that happens
when Jesus is hanging
on the cross
and here's how
the story goes
and the people
stood by watching
but the ruler
scoffed at him
saying
he saved others
let him save himself
if he is the Christ of God
his chosen one
in other words
and then the soldiers
also mocked him
coming up
and offering him
sour wine
and saying
if you are the king
of the Jews
save yourself
and there was also
an inscription
over him
this is the king
of the Jews
and one of the criminals
who were hanged
railed at him
saying
are you not the Christ
save yourself
and us
you see
in other words
what they wanted
was they wanted
Jesus to reveal himself
in a type of way
of power
that if he had done it
it would be like
knowing your bank statements
it would be that type
of knowledge
it would be like
seeing the sign
in the sky
that even after you
saw the sign
in the sky
of God revealing
himself like that
every day
you'd still just say
well that's just
an interesting fact
of nature
it's not a personal
type of knowing
you see
at the heart
of all love
all love
is always going
to have to involve
sacrifice
after sacrifice
a giving of yourself
and a giving of yourself
and even a type
of sacrifice
to receive love
a sacrifice
of setting aside
your pride
that you can do this
for yourself
to receive the gift
of love
from the other person
to not think
that when
a young child
tells you a joke
that you could tell
the joke better
but to sacrifice
those desires
of pride
and arrogance
and to just
take great delight
that that young child
would like to have
a conversation
with you
and that they
would share
no matter how
poorly told
that joke
you see
it's the proud
and the arrogant
and the desire
for power
the opposite
of what Jesus
was talking about
in Matthew chapter 11
that keeps us
from knowing
and being known
it's yet another
reason why he said
that unless you're
like a little child
that it's little children
that he reveals it to
it's that type
of humility
it's that type
of childlike love
that both
to know another person
you're going to have
to make sacrifices
for the other person
and that even
in receiving love
you need to make
sacrifices
that put to death
your pride
to be able to receive
that love
and that affection
from the other person
and so here we see
that even as Jesus
is dying upon the cross
the demands
of people
who are crucifying him
and even sharing
his death
is for him
to reveal himself
in a way
which is merely
of power
which would merely
be that we know
something about him
but given that God
wants to reveal himself
in such a way
that you can know him
and be known by him
in a covenant of love
and given that you're worried
and should be
that he's going to do
something to overwhelm
your freedom
and also just worried
about your own inability
to really love
that even your best
relationships of love
on this side of the grave
are often filled
with things
that constantly
need forgiveness
and other types
of intervention
of grace
to make up
for your mistakes
and your inabilities
and your weak
and your lacks
and your brokenness
and the things
that you do
that are just wrong
and that what we really need
is on one hand
within the context
of a covenant of love
is by respecting
our freedom
and knowing us
as we really are
with nothing left out
every single wart
every single bad thing
every shame
every excellence
to have that type
of perfect knowledge
which is shown to us
in a sacrificial love
and God doing
what we cannot do
but not overwhelming
our freedom
but respecting who we are
and still an act of love
that's what we need
from God
and we can only receive it
if we put down
our weapons
and just say
God I don't know
what on earth
you could do
with a mess
a person like me
and that's where
the next part
of the story
is so powerful
verse 40
but the other
rebuked him
saying
do you not fear God
since you are under
the same sentence
of condemnation
and we indeed
justly
for we are receiving
the due reward
of our deeds
but this man
has done nothing wrong
and then he turns
to Jesus
now Jesus knows
that this guy
is not a good guy
his
this guy
has already
just publicly
confessed
that he deserves
to die
whatever he did
that was wrong
it has led him
to this point
in his life
that he deserves
to die
and there is
nothing he can do
to fix that
he can't
all of a sudden
say I'm going to
learn how to do
the Hail Marys
I'm going to learn
how to use
the book of Common Prayer
I'm going to have
a charismatic experience
I'm going to start
to clean up my act
I'm going to stop
drinking
I'm going to stop
doing drugs
I'm going to stop
doing all these
you know all the
affairs I had
I'm going to start
making some money
I'm going to get
my life in control
I'm going to go
he can do nothing
he's hanging up
there on a cross
and he's doomed
and he turns
to Jesus
and says
Jesus remember me
when you come
into your kingdom
he's like this
other famous
story in the gospel
where Jesus says
you know the
the proud religious
person says
look at me
I do this
boom boom boom
boom boom
alpha male
and then there's
other person
who's lived
a completely
disreputable life
and all he does
is stand at the
back and says
have mercy upon me
a sinner
doesn't even look
his eyes to heaven
and Jesus says
the man who was
at the back
he's the one
who wants home
forgiven
not the guy
who just parades
all of his things
and so this guy
says Jesus
remember me
when you come
into your kingdom
I mean he sees
with the eyes
of faith
that Jesus
actually is
the king of kings
the king of love
the king of beauty
the king of peace
that his kingdom
is the one
that is characterized
as what I call
the covenant
of love
that's what the
bible calls it
he literally
can say to Jesus
nothing in my hands
I bring
simply to you
I cling
and Jesus'
response to him
is truly
I say
to you
today
you will be
with me
in paradise
today
you will be
with me
in paradise
you see
the triune God
reveals himself
to be known
and to know you
in a covenant
of love
Jesus knows
every single thing
about you
when he dies
for you
and still he dies
for you out of love
and he doesn't
expect you
to fix yourself
to be with him
and to know him
he has to do
it all
and he just
asks for you
to stand
and come into
his presence
and humbly
say
Jesus take me
as your
as your own
be my savior
and be my lord
hard for me
to believe
that your desire
is to know me
in a covenant
of love
and to have me
know you
in a covenant
of love
that begins
on this side
of the grave
and will go
to all eternity
but just as you
said to the thief
on the cross
today I say to you
today you will be
with me in paradise
I claim that
prayer promise
is my own
that I trust
that what you did
on the cross
is good enough
to make me your own
and your covenant
of love for all
eternity
that you can do
what I cannot do
you can come
into me
and make your
home in me
and fit me
for heaven
and be my
hope for glory
reveal yourself
to me
and start to
so free me up
as I think
upon your death
upon the cross
and your great
love for me
that I can start
to reveal myself
to you
knowing that
you will not
be ashamed
or turn your face
away in disgust
at anything
I share with you
but that your
response will
always be to me
child
let me know
you more
please come
higher into me
and know me
more
invite you all
to stand
let's bow our
heads in prayer
father
we give you
thanks and
praise
that you
desire to
know us
in a covenant
of love
and we give
you thanks
and praise
that when we
put our
faith and
trust in
Jesus
we enter
into that
covenant
of love
with you
that we
are in
Jesus
and he
is in
us
that the
Holy Spirit
brings us
into that
covenant
of love
and that
you will
never let
us go
and we
give you
thanks and
praise
father
that you
who are
infinite
Lord
Jesus
Christ
you
who are
infinite
Holy Spirit
you
who are
infinite
that your
love is
infinite
your goodness
and your
beauty
is infinite
and that
our small
beginning
steps of
knowing you
and being
known by
you on
this side
of the
grave
can
continue
on and
on into
the depths
of eternity
and never
be exhausted
because you
are the
infinite
beauty
and infinite
goodness
and infinite
love
and we
give you
thanks and
praise that
you have
made us
for yourself
as Augustine
said
and that
it is only
in you
that our
hearts begin
to know
the rest
the wholeness
and completeness
that you desire
for your
children
for all
eternity
so father
we give you
thanks and
praise
that you
are god
that jesus
is our
savior
that the
holy spirit
brings us
to jesus
and brings
us to
you
and we
ask that
you would
do your
work more
and more
in us
today
to the
end
and all
this we
ask in the
name of
jesus your
son and
our savior
amen
for
your
family
one
two
three
one