Burn Series

Really, I’m not talking about God hiding your presents from you. Rather, He hides them IN You!!!

“…the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world”

Don’t pass over this point!!! This is the key to something great in your life.

a. Emmanuel = “God with us.”

Matthew 1:23 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

• This all by it’s self is AWESOME

• Think of it: “God in the flesh (How incredible) God with us (What an honor)

b. Something even greater than Emmanuel has happened!!!

• How could something greater than Jesus walking and talking and eating and visiting directly with us ever come?

• No more pilgrimages, no more trips to inquire of the priest. None of it. Christ in you the hope of Glory!!!

• Never alone / Always enough

c. Live with a burning passion for knowing God

• This is where the title of my message today comes in.

• I’m talking about a burning passion to know God more, to live in the FULLNESS of this REALITY as Christians.

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

• You know God.

There are a lot of privileges in life for those who know the right people. They have influence.

Who has more influence than God; More connections; more blessings?

Who can open the doors he shuts and close the doors he opens? NO ONE.

But “Knowing God” is so much more than privilege. (Privilege has to do with power and authority) God has all of that, but they are not the root, of who God is, read verse 8:

8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

• Realize: All the power in the world won’t settle your soul.

• All the authority in the world won’t make you sleep better or make you excited to wake up.

• No, they are EMPTY without LOVE.

When you have both, you have everything you need. God’s love and His power.

Your dog may love you and that provides company. But he isn’t powerful.

Rick and Louise have the cutest little miniature wiener dog named Coney. He is very loving and affectionate. But he is NOT powerful. Even if he thinks he is.

When God loves you; he brings his power and authority too.

• Love is Critical. You can’t force love, you can’t coerce love. You can’t demand it.

• You can only accept it (Receive it) and then give it away.

9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.