 First, John chapter three, three little verses, yet they're powerful. And I'm going to do my best to elaborate on these verses, to encourage you through these three verses, because I think there's a lot here that we need to understand and grasp as Christians. And even if you're here, you're not a Christian, welcome. You're going to understand these things because they're important, and if there's a decision at the end that you would want to make as well. So I'm going to go ahead and read verses one, two and three. First John chapter three, verse one, behold, one manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him beloved. Now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. A while ago I ran into this article that actually caught my attention, the headline, the title of this article actually caught my attention, and the headline said this or the article said this, tycoons who won't leave their fortunes to their kids. Now as I looked at this list of these fathers who are billionaires, they all have children, and I would think that these children would be privileged to be the son of these guys because not only of their accomplishments, but also because of their money, right? Billionaires. Now I'm going to give you four of these guys, and you probably will know most of them, and just kind of give you some quotes of what these guys said about their money and their kids. The first person that you may know, you may not know, but the founder of eBay, he heir Amadeus, he became a billionaire when he was 31 years old, and as the eBay founder, he has made it his life to donate the majority of his money to those less fortunate instead of his three kids. Here's another guy, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. As of 2014, his net worth is $33 billion. I'm just right under that, no joking. He's pretty much set financially, right? Now in his letter to the Giving Pledge, Bloomberg wrote, and I quote, nearly all of my net worth will be given away in the years ahead or left to my foundation. Bloomberg's two daughters, he has two daughters, most likely will be left to basically foot the bill upon his death because he's not given anything to his daughters. Here's another one. You guys know this guy, Bill Gates. One of the richest guys in the world, right? He said this, I quote, I knew I didn't think it was a good idea to give the money to my kids. That wouldn't be good either for my kids or society. I feel sorry for those kids. Last guy, he's an actor, actor Jackie Chan, you guys know him, right? He said he wasn't going to leave any of his millions to his son JC, and he said this, and I quote, if he is capable, he could make his own money. If he is not, then he will just be wasting my money. I mean, these guys have fathers who are filthy rich, and if these guys were my father, I'd be privileged to say, yeah, this guy is my father, Michael Bloomberg or Bill Gates, and most of the people around me, my friends, would probably think that my fathers would actually leave some of the money. Now, I am not a billionaire, but if I was, I would give some of my wealth to my children. Now, I'm not going to just say, hey, you don't have to work, you don't have to go to school, don't worry about it. I would still encourage them to find what God wants to use through them and whatnot, but I would help them financially. I would help my kids, but these guys are so stingy that they're not leaving their money to their kids. Isn't that sad? That's pretty sad. I think it's sad, because these guys have enough money to just basically take care of the children. The thing about these guys is, and we're talking about these fathers, I want to talk about another father, another father who is filthy rich too. No, he's not in here. I'm talking about God, God the Father. He is extremely rich in love. He's so rich in love. And this is what John writes in these three verses. He is trying to really bring the point home to tell you and I that our God, our Father is filthy rich when it comes to love. And we see here very clearly that John is trying to remind us of these wonderful truths that we have about our Heavenly Father. Now John wrote this first letter to Christians, Christians who already knew the truth. If you go with me real quickly to John chapter, first John chapter 2 verse 21, it says very clearly there, I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth. So over and over and over, John the Apostle uses the phrase, you know, we know, and by this we know. He is writing to Christians who actually knew the truth, not non-Christians, not people that didn't understand about salvation, didn't understand about Jesus. This whole letter is about people that knew the truth. Now the letter here is a letter of encouragement. As you look at the entire letter, it's very encouraging with some practical insight about God's nature and our conduct as Christians. In fact, if I were to give you a quick outline of this entire letter, I would do it like this. Chapters 1 and 2, God is light. Chapters 3 and 4, God is love. And then chapter 5, God is life. It's a simple way of outlining this entire epistle. And these truths are important to us because they apply to our lives. Let me show you. God is light. Matthew 5, 14, Jesus said, you are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. So it applies to us because we are called to be lights. Now God is love. How does that apply in our lives? Well, Romans chapter 5, verse 5, and hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. It's like God took his love and he's just pouring it upon our hearts, giving us the ability to love people who are hard to love. Giving us the ability to love in a very unique way that when the world sees you loving people, they're tripping out, thinking, what is wrong with you? Well, that's the love of God. He's poured it out upon our hearts and God is life. John 20, verse 31, these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And by believing, you may have life in his name. So all these three truths apply to our lives. And that is the way you can outline the entire epistle of 1 John. So let's get into our text. What is John trying to say to us? Notice what he says in verse 1. He says, behold, very first word, behold. It means this. It means to contemplate, to look, to study, to ponder upon. It speaks of a wonder. He is drawing your attention and my attention to an amazing wonder. He is really ramping it up for us. Now did you know that there are seven new wonders of the world today? That when 2014 started, I read an article that said we have seven new wonders of the world. Now most of us probably are familiar with some of the older ones, some of the older places in this world that are considered wonders, but there's a whole new list now. And I went to Google and I looked up at these seven wonders, and I'm going to give you four of these wonders to kind of show you how amazing these places are. The very first thing, the first place is the Sun Doon Cave in Vietnam. I have a picture of it to show you. This is the world's largest cave. It's now open to the public for tours. The massive cave is over 5.5 miles long, 650 feet, and for $3,000. You guys ready? Christmas presents here, guys. For $3,000, you get a six-day tour, includes camping gear, caving equipment, food, drink, and transfers to and from the cave for three grand. Parents are going to be like, I can't do this, son. Can't even fly there. Second, another one, which is amazing, is the Asik Falls in the Philippines. Now, what makes this majestic waterfall, especially eye-catching, is that the water does not spring from above, a body of water from above, but the water is actually coming through the cracks in the cliffs, which was actually formed in 2008 after a typhoon uprooted trees, big trees that attached to the cliff, creating these cracks. So the water is just coming right through the rock. Amazing. Exactly. Like, whoa, right? Amazing. It's wonder. Here's another one, the Camille Crater in the Sahara Desert in Egypt. This was just found in 2008. It was found by Google Earth. Somebody actually zoomed in and said, wait, what's that? And this here, two years after spotting this crater on the satellite, researchers visited and found that it could be the best preserved crater on Earth. It measures 140 feet wide. Amazing. You're like, wow, what could you do with Google Earth? Try it. You might find something else. The last one, Mount Mabu Rainforest in Africa. This is a 1700-acre rainforest, and scientists determined that the rainforest was the largest one in southern Africa. And I just took a, well, I didn't take a shot, but I found this, and that's the entire rainforest from satellite view. Huge. Now these things are supposed to cause this amazement, this wonder. You're like, this is crazy. Well, this outburst of wonderment that John begins with, behold, that's his excitement about something that he's going to share here, about God. You know, in fact, he said this in John 1.29, the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold. He says, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What does John want us to behold? What does he want us to ponder? What does he want us to look at as something so amazing? Well, he says it right there. Behold what manner of what? Love. He wants us to be so amazed at the love of God. He wants us to see the love of God. He wants us to ponder upon his love. And I believe that it's a great benefit for us Christians to take a good, intense look at the love of God. Because what John is saying here, he's saying this, look at this love. He says, look at this wonder. It's unique. It's foreign. It's not earthly. The source and the origin is heavenly. And God is the initiator of this love. Because remember John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave. It was God who initiated love to come here to this earth. You know, what's interesting to me is that John, when he followed Jesus, the first time he began to follow Jesus, he was a young adult. Some scholars believe he was around 20 to 30 years old. When John wrote first John, at this time, he was around 90 years old. So think about this. It's been already 60 years since he was face to face with Jesus. 60 years under his belt, walking with Jesus. And John, at 90 years old, he is still amazed at the love of God. You know, that I've met Christians who have been Christians for 25, 30 years. And when you talk to them about God, they're so low on that. They're like, well, I used to serve God, now it's okay. That was back in those early days, I used to do this and go to church, you know, Sundays, Sunday nights, Wednesday nights. But now I just watch it from on television. Sometimes I don't even watch it. I just go out in the forest and hug a tree. Like, what happened? Like 30 years. It's like, remember Jesus said that in the last days, the love of many will what? Wax cold. John is such an amazing witness of a man who's been walking with God for 60 years. And at this time, he is saying, guys, do you know about the love of God? It's amazing. I hope you're like that. I hope that your love hasn't grown cold. That when somebody talks to you about Jesus, you're like, yeah, sure, whatever. That you're like, yes, I know Jesus absolutely. I know what you're talking about. This is John's excitement. He's this is an older person is a 90 year old man who's saying, yes, check this out. And he's drawing our attention to the love of God. Why is it such an important thing about the love of God? Well, let me give you two things. Without God's love, we would all be damned eternally. Listen to this, Romans five, eight. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. Isn't that crazy? While you were sinning against God, God died for us. The demonstration of God's love is to cross that while we were. Just living against God, he died for us. His love was demonstrated in the cross for us. Ephesians two, verses three through five, all of us who lived among among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following his desires and thoughts like the rest. We were by nature, objects, objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ. When we were dead in transgressions. Because of his great love, because of his mercy. I mean, you think about that. I mean, I remember, you know, before I became a Christian, I used to mock Christians. I remember I used to make fun of Christians. I used to totally do what everybody does with John three, 16, and just start mocking people with it. You know, kind of driving with my friends and posting John three, 16, just messing around drunk. You know, I remember those days. And I'm like, thank God that he looked at me. It's like, you know, you're a stinker, but you're going to get right with me soon. You know what I mean? Because that's his love, you know. And it's like when I read these verses, I'm like, I remember those days and it was pretty bad. And yet here I am in the love of God, still amazed by his love. And I hope I will never, ever lose that amazement of God's love as I grow old. I want to stay pure in that. I want to be able to be excited when it comes to Jesus, when it comes to God's love, his nature. I don't want to get to a point where I'm just like, yeah, whatever. It's yeah, it's whatever. No, I wanted to be like, yes, it's still real. It's still fresh in my own heart. Another reason why it's important for us to ponder upon God's love is because without God's love, we would struggle to find a sense of belonging in the world. You know, right now with Christmas coming soon, there are a lot of homeless people that will put themselves, position themselves at markets and, you know, places where they're asking for money. And, you know, as for us, as we drive by or walk by a homeless person, what draws us to them is because we feel sorry for them. We do. We have pity on them. And what do we do sometimes? Some of us here probably will buy them a hamburger, a soda or something. They'll give them food, a glass of water or bottled water. And we just walk away, right? We don't take them home with us. I mean, we just say, here you go. Here's some food. God bless you. Let me pray for you and we walk out. We don't say, well, you come over, come over to my house. We have an extra room for you. Let's shower up. You see, we don't do that and God didn't do that to us. God didn't look down from heaven upon us sinners and say, oh, poor people. Oh, you guys are so bad here. Here's some food. Go get it. He didn't do that. What God did, he sent Jesus to this earth and what he did for us is that he actually went beyond that and he took us in. He saves us, takes us in and gives us purpose. And then he calls us children. Isn't that great that that God didn't just look at us with pity and said, ah, whatever, you know, here's some food, you'll be fine. But but we see here that God, that John is actually so thrilled with the love of God. And then he says here, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Well, the word bestowed, the Greek word, it's a verb word, which expresses a generous kind of giving. We could almost say that he lavished on us. In fact, some of your Bibles might have that already translated. It's that God has lavished upon us his love. He's given it to us, which makes it a divine love, a generous love. God is very generous when it comes to his love. He goes beyond our minds, our comprehension. I like when one person said, and I quote, the love of God is like the Amazon River flowing down to water one day. It's huge. We can't even comprehend it. That's why John is just like, listen, check it out, guys. Look at the love of God. God's love was a free, uninfluenced, undeserved, unmerited with no human explanation, and there was nothing in us whatsoever to elicit this kind of love. It was strictly from heaven. God did not come to you and save you because you were cool. He didn't come and save you because you were pretty or because you were very successful. His love came from heaven to you because he loves you because you're a sinner. And according to scripture, before you come to Christ, you're an object of wrath. So God changes that position. He changes that status. And that's what he does here. Notice, behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. The greatness of his love is shown by this, that we are called children of God. Now I've talked to people in the past that say, well, we're all children of God. Have you guys ever had a conversation with somebody? You probably have that this month at Christmas time with a lot of your relatives or friends who don't know Jesus and you start talking about God. And maybe you bring up the whole topic about God being, you know, us being children. Oh yeah, we're all children of God. We're all, you know, we are the world, you know, whatever. We're all children, you know, that song's out of context, actually. But, but, is everybody a child of God, whether you're a non-Christian, an atheist, an agnostic, a practical atheist, is everybody a child of God? No. Everybody on this, in this world, on this world is in a creation of God. But not everybody's a child of God, because we see here very clearly that not everyone, not everyone can call themselves a child of God. God is the one who places you as his child. It's a status given to you by God. But you got to remember, this is something that you become when you receive Christ. Listen to this, John 1 12. But as many as received him to them, he gave them the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. Did you see that? But as many as received him to them, he gave, he says, the right to become children of God. So the next time you have a conversation with someone that says, we're all children of God while they're drunk, just let them know you're a creation of God. He loves you. He created you in his image, but you're not a child of God until you get right with God to become born again. Then you become part of the family. But until then, you're not. And we see this is what John is kind of showing us clearly. John is encouraging us to ponder upon this great privilege that we have, that we are called children of God. But he actually goes further than this and notice what he says. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. If the world knew us, the world would love us, but we don't belong to the world. We don't belong to the world at all. We're actually strangers to this world and God's love is very foreign to a non-Christian. You know, you've probably, if you've been walking with Jesus for a long time, you've kind of realized that there is a built in friction between us and the world, right? I mean, as you go to work, as you're hanging out with people, it's like there's a friction when you're hanging out with a non-Christian because something is going to come up in that conversation that you're not going to agree with. There's a worldview that's going to come up that you're going to say, I don't believe that. So there's like a built in friction in every Christian when it comes to relating to the world. And it's not that we're just being jerks about things. It's that just, it's who we are. We're not there anymore. We don't stand for those things anymore where we have a totally different worldview, a totally different life, a totally different heart. So when we're hanging out with non-Christians, we're going to clash eventually. And that's just the way it is. Don't, don't get discouraged. Don't, don't be bumped out about it. That's just the truth. That's reality. It comes with a territory of being a Christian. So, so just, you know, take advantage of the opportunity and witness to people when that opportunity comes up, when you bump heads with somebody, turn it into an evangelism time. Just, just encourage people to come to the Lord or whatever. But, but just don't get shot. Don't be shocked when it comes to that friction that you're like, wow, this is not right. Nobody told me there's going to be friction. There is. In fact, Jesus himself made it clear that there would be friction. You know, we see here very clearly that no matter how hard you or I try to make Christianity appealing to the world, it will never work. It will never work at all because the world does not know you and the world does not know God. They don't understand your passion and my passion for Jesus. So if somebody is trying to make Christianity pleasing to this world, they're not going to be good at it. In fact, there's a pressure in our society today, in our culture, even in churches with pastors, there's this pressure to somehow make Christianity pleasing to the world. And how do they do that? How do they accomplish that? Because you can accomplish that by one, by just staying away from sin. Don't talk about sin. Don't remind people that they're sinners. Keep them good. Let them enjoy themselves. They got great seats are sitting down at, you know, just let them enjoy themselves for the night. Don't tell them about Jesus. Keep it God. Don't go through the Bible. Don't bore them. Do something flashy. Give away a car at the end of the service. Whatever. There's, there's, there's. I know, and I'm not going to say the name of these churches, but there's one church that was given away a Harley. I was right there in the front seat. No, I wasn't. No, I'm joking. But, but seriously, there are churches. I mean, you look, Google this stuff and you're going to find churches that are doing things. You're like, what are they doing? This is crazy. It's all to just try to please the world. But see, the church is not supposed to please the world. The church is to give the world the truth, right? And the world's supposed to equip people to go out to witness the people. So the church has never been an entertainment center. It's been an equipment or equipping center, a center, a place that people come to get equipped and you invite friends that come to hear the truth with the hopes of them getting right with God and saying, I surrender, I need Jesus. But, but we see here that, that the pressure in our society today and our, in our culture is that they're trying to make Christianity appealing to the world. But we have to remember that the world doesn't know you. The world doesn't know you because it did not know Jesus. Let me, let me prove this to you. Let me, let's go into the heart of Christ's prayer. Turn to John chapter 17 real quickly. I want to, I want to show you something here real quickly. This is our own Lord praying and bringing up the whole topic of the world. And he said two things that are very interesting in John chapter 17, at verse 14, listen to this. He says, I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they're not of the world, just as I am not of the world. That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? It's like, I've given him your word and the world, the world has hated them for that. Now go to verse 25. O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you and these have known that you sent me. The world has not known you. I mean, could you imagine? I mean, here's God sending his own only begotten Son to a world that he created, to a people that he created. And can you imagine, like especially this Christmas going out to your relatives, party or friends or whatever, and you get to their house and they all ignore you. They just don't want to talk to you. They reject you. You're like, Hey, what happened? I mean, wouldn't you feel really weird and uncomfortable? You're like, you're, you're my blood. You're my family and you guys are not talking to me. What's going on here? They're just rejecting you. They don't want to have anything to do with you, even though you're part of them. Jesus, could you imagine Jesus when he came to this earth and God created humanity. God created every person and yet they did not recognize him. They did not give heed to him. They rejected him. They did not want, they didn't want anything to do with Jesus. And that's why he said, even to his own people, when he said, when he was overlooking Jerusalem, he says, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. You know, he was just sad. He was bummed that these guys that his own people leave the Jews, even rejected him. So, so we see here that it's very important. If you guys go back to first John, we see here that the world doesn't know Jesus. And because of that, the world will not know you. So don't, don't try to make it like a habit to try to be pleasing to people. You know, and I'm not saying be, you know, be like, you know, like the sons of thunder, where it's like somebody doesn't accept Christ, you're praying for fire to come down from heaven. I don't do that. There's, there's got to be a balance to it. You know what I mean? But, but don't get bummed out when people hate you because you're a Christian and also, you know, just know that the world is just not, it's not going to be there with you. I'm not saying don't be friends with the world. I'm not saying don't have non-Christian friends. You should have non-Christian friends, but make sure you're influencing them instead of them influencing you because we're called to go out and make disciples and whatnot and share the gospel like the apostles did in the book of Acts. But just don't, don't get caught up with trying to make Christianity pleasing to somebody who doesn't know Jesus. They need to just know the truth. There's enough of that in this world already. There's even enough of that in churches where people are not being told the truth, but we have the truth. We're truth bearers. We're the light of the world. We're the salt of the earth. We need to be front up front with people. They didn't show them in love what it means to know Jesus Christ. And we see here that John is making it very, very clear that, that Jesus was not known by people. One of the people, one of the groups that didn't know Jesus or rejected Jesus were the religious leaders. John chapter eight, verse 19. Jesus said this to them. If you knew me, you would know my father also. If you knew me. And remember, that's when Jesus said, well, you know, your father is the devil. Remember that? Your father is the devil. Try that on somebody. Just make sure you're like a few feet away. Right. But your father is the devil. But isn't that the truth though? Seriously. I mean, you either have a father, you either have God, the father as your father, or you really, you have the devil as your father, because you're either doing the works of the devil or you're doing the works of the father. So, so I mean, that's, that's, that's black and white there. That's, that's pure truth there. There's no gray area here. And we see that Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders. John chapter one, verse 10. He was in the world. And though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. Another reason why we, the world doesn't know us is because we have a different father. That's what I kind of made mentioned already. Turn to first John chapter two, or you're already actually just right over verse 15. Another reason why the world doesn't know us is because we do have different fathers. Verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. Those three verses are very cool verses to actually just dissect and teach from. But, but just to look at this, that the world is passing away. If you put all of your efforts and energy to try to live for this world, trying to get satisfaction from this world, you're going to be left empty handed at the end. Because see this world, this material world is passing away. All of your accomplishments is passing away. All of your degrees, you know, whatever you're making at work, whatever fame you have, all of that stuff is going to just pass away. You're not going to take any of that stuff with you in heaven. The accomplishments that will go with us are things that we do here on earth for Christ's rewards we get our faithfulness in serving him. So the world is passing away, but the one who does the will of God will abide forever. That's where you should put all your efforts in is serving God, just furthering his kingdom, because at the end you will be rewarded for it. That stuff will not pass away. It's going to be awesome in heaven when we get there. And there's this time of giving away giving crowns to us and rewards for what we did here on this earth. That's pretty exciting. I don't know how that's going to look like, but it's going to be pretty cool to actually be there. And even it says that some obviously will not get rewards because they used the wrong heart or they had the wrong motive when they were serving Jesus. They were doing it probably just so others can see them and do the things that they do. You know, I remember in Bible College when I was really young and the Lord, when the church met in here, I went to Bible College back in the early 90s and the church met in this sanctuary. This was actually the main sanctuary of the Cabbage Chapel, Chino Valley. And one of the things that I did when I was in Bible College is I helped out. I served cleaning this chapel was actually the sanctuary. It was all pews here. And I would vacuum up and down here. And I remember that Pastor David would always walk through those doors and I was almost I would almost time it when he would come. And as he would come up, I would turn this thing on like, look at Pastor, look what I'm doing. Look what a great servant I am. This is so awesome. And he walked by, Hey, come there. Come, you know, I don't think I've ever told him this, I should someday. But but see, that's serving with the wrong heart, right? I'm not going to get rewarded for that. All I got was a vacuum. You know what I'm saying? And that's not even a last anyway. So it's like, you want to do something for God that will last forever without good heart, with a pure heart that you're not doing it to serve other people, men or to be seen by men. But you do it for Christ. And we see here that John says in first John chapter two, that the world is passing away, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. So as he continues on in verse two, he continues by saying beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We are being made into the image of Christ, and it won't be until we see Jesus face to face that we will experience ultimate conformity to his likeness. It's called glorification, or being glorified, or when our bodies are glorified. Listen to what Paul said in Romans 8 18. He says, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Paul who suffered a lot said, listen, there's a day coming where this stuff is going to be gone. The suffering, the pain, he says it's not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed. He also said in 2 Corinthians 3 18, and we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the spirit. And then he says in 1 Corinthians 13 verse 12, now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror that we shall see face to face. Now I know in part then I shall know fully even as I am fully known. When we look in a mirror today, we actually see a perfect image of ourselves, don't we? And I was at the store today before I came here just shopping for Christmas. And there were mirrors there that I was looking at myself pretty clearly. Not trying to be conceited here. Come on, you guys do this all the time. When you wake up in the morning, everybody's hair is combed and ladies are make up or dolled up whatever you want to call it. You use a mirror. Well, right now we can use mirrors that we can see clearly our image, who we are, every poor in our face we can see clearly. But see mirrors back then, ancient mirrors as John is referring to here were actually much different because the ancient world mirrors were made out of polished metal, making the image unclear and somewhat distorted. So right now, let me imply this, right now the presence of Jesus in you and in me is somewhat dim. Not only that, but it's also kind of hard to see the full effect of Christ in our lives. It's kind of like a dim view because his presence will eventually be unhindered and unrestricted when we get into heaven and see him as he is. That's what is happening to you right now that right now God is actually making you more like Jesus. He is actually preparing you for heaven. And you're not done yet. There's still work that he's doing in your life, but he's promised you to actually do that work. And it's interesting that John makes it clear here as he talks about this that the Christian should long to be like Jesus, but yet remember that God will never force a person to be like him. God is not going to force himself on somebody to say you're going to be like me. I mean we have part in that to allow him to do what he needs to do in our lives. And in part of that, which he adds to this in verse 3, he says in everyone he says who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. Knowing that one day we will see Jesus face to face brings a purifying effect in our lives, doesn't it? It really does. When we know our end is to be more like Jesus, it will make us want to be more like him right now. I mean Jesus Christ is coming very soon. And just that truth, that fact should cause us to really be on our tippy toes. There's no time to be living in darkness. There's no time to mess around because Christ is coming. And that has a purifying effect in us to live a holy life, to live a life that is holy before the Lord. A life that is pleasing before him. Listen to 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1, he says since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness at a reverence for God. So living with the expectation of Christ's return will affect your conduct as a child of God. Don't be like those who say well God is not coming right now so I could do whatever I want. Don't be a fool because you know that Jesus can come back any time at any moment. And we have to live without understanding and people will mock you. Other Christians will mock you. Oh, you guys are into it. You guys are just a bunch of escapes. You want to just escape. You just want to leave. Yeah, exactly. I do. I want to escape from here. Why? Who wouldn't? You can stay here. Enjoy the Great Tribulation. You know, I'll pray for you up in heaven. But when people get all like that, you know, legalistic, you know, you guys are just a bunch of Christians are just, you know, man. Listen, for me to live every day as if Jesus is coming, purifies me in some way because I don't want to be caught doing something that I shouldn't be doing. And I hear the trumpet sound. I hear Jesus Christ rapture in the church. That's that's an important concept that we don't understand sometimes. And Paul, that generation lived with the expectation of the coming of Christ. That's why he wrote things like this. Of course, Christ didn't come in at their time, but now we're in the same way in our generation. We don't know if Jesus could come back in our generation, your generation. We don't know, but we're to be ready for him. We're to be ready for him and to be busy about our father's business. God here is in the process, like I mentioned here, John is making it clear that God is in the process of making all of us more like Jesus. He's working towards that. That is something that he's doing right now in your life. Whether you feel it or not, God is doing a work in your life. You're born again Christian here tonight. God is doing a mighty work in you right now. Listen to this, Philippians 1.6. I love this verse. Being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you, well, what? Complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. We're confident. I'm confident in Jesus that he's doing a work in me. But Robert, I failed the Lord yesterday. Does that count? Listen, it doesn't matter. You're going to fail the Lord. Yeah, that's going to happen because we're not going to reach perfection on this side of heaven. You and I will never be sinless here, but we will sin less. We'll never be sinless, but we'll sin less. We're not perfect. There'll be times that we're going to fail. We're going to fumble as a Christian, but even in the midst of all of that, God is still working his will in your life. God is still making you more like Christ because what he wants to do there is to make you more and more in love with his son, Jesus Christ. So we fail him. The effect of that should be Lord, I don't want to do it again. Help me. Help me be more stronger. Help me in these areas of weaknesses and God will come in and help us out because of this promise in Philippians 1-6. I want to close with a few comments here. A few thoughts. The great wonder of God's love is this, that we are called children of God. That we are called children of God. We are children of the King. We have an amazing father, a rich father, a father who is full of love. You see, when we read God is love, the Bible never says that part of God's nature is love. Just a little part of him is love, a little part of him is mercy. The Bible makes it clear that God is love. That's who he is. That's his nature. He's not a little bit of love, he is love. He is the one who initiates love. Because of his love, God took us in, adopted us and calls us his kids now. That's the amazement that John is having here. That through the love of God, that lavished love that has been poured upon us, he says, this love has made you a child of God. It's an amazing love. And that is our hope. That's our hope tonight. That we must never set our hope on other things. You should never set your hope on a relationship. You should never set your hope on personal success. You should never put your hope on your health, on your possessions, or simply on your own self. But your hope should always be in Christ, in Jesus. Because Jesus is our goal at the end of this life. Did you know that? When it's all said and done, guys, you know who you're gonna see? Jesus. You're not gonna see anything else. You're gonna see Jesus. He's the one you're gonna see when you open your eyes. When you close your eyes on this side of heaven, and you open them up in eternity, the first person you're gonna see is Jesus. Jesus Christ is the goal at the end of your life. But let me ask you this question. Are you a child of God tonight? Are you a child of God tonight?