Have you ever considered how love can completely reshape your life? Our final Advent series episode is an emotional exploration of that very idea, guided by the wisdom found in 1 John chapter 4. We unwrap the transformative power of God's love, recognizing that salvation is more than a ticket away from judgment—it's an invitation to love others with a boldness and selflessness that reflects Christ's love for us. With the story of Scrooge serving as a poignant example, we illustrate the boundless change that occurs when God's love is genuinely embraced, changing hearts and perspectives in the most Scrooge-like among us.
As we bid farewell to this series and look to the horizon, we ponder the full spectrum of the Advent season—from the awe-inspiring anticipation of Jesus' birth to the hope of His second coming.
Have you ever considered how love can completely reshape your life? Our final Advent series episode is an emotional exploration of that very idea, guided by the wisdom found in 1 John chapter 4. We unwrap the transformative power of God's love, recognizing that salvation is more than a ticket away from judgment—it's an invitation to love others with a boldness and selflessness that reflects Christ's love for us. With the story of Scrooge serving as a poignant example, we illustrate the boundless change that occurs when God's love is genuinely embraced, changing hearts and perspectives in the most Scrooge-like among us.
As we bid farewell to this series and look to the horizon, we ponder the full spectrum of the Advent season—from the awe-inspiring anticipation of Jesus' birth to the hope of His second coming.
Hello and welcome one last time to the Real Friends podcast, colin, the Advent series, episode 22. You've made it to the end. Congratulations, pastor Chris Right hey.
Speaker 2:I think we need to mention this. This is our third locale where we have recorded right, and so we started at the church, we moved to my house and now we are in backsliders jail in our church sanctuary. Actually it's the baby crying in the room, you know, but we like to joke and say it's backsliders jail and no wonder I've been tearing up.
Speaker 1:I didn't even know why for sure, but I guess it's because we're back here. No, it's lovely, it's really a perfect room. So you know, pregnant or expecting mothers sorry, we have co-op in this space.
Speaker 1:It's ours now and that's all right, because we're here to talk about Advent and that's pretty important and there are no pregnant mothers waiting outside the door. We're the only ones here, so it'll all work out. But it also reasons we have been talking about the themes of Advent and we're on the final one for the fourth week, which is love, and let's just jump right into the verse and then we can kind of expound from here. We've been going from 1 John, chapter 4, and taking a group of verses here that all reflect back to the Christmas story and the love of God. Now I'm going to start with chapter or, excuse me, verse 11, beloved. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Very, very simple, very, very short, and yet it's powerful. In fact one might even say transforming. That's our keyword for this particular episode Wow look what he did there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty fancy right so we've talked about that the love of God and Christ is life-giving, and then we moved into it being atoning and I'm going to make up a word here and say propitiatory. That's probably not a word.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's try them scrabble and see what happens.
Speaker 1:That one is too long. But now we're onto the transformational power of God's love. It's not simply that he loves us and then we are saved. I mean, that's a big part of it, but there's so much more to it. We're not left to the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, the word saved it's a loaded word, you know. It doesn't mean you know, just, oh, we get to go to heaven now, right, or new creation, but we are saved, almost from ourselves. We are brought into this new humanity. So, yeah, god does not save us just to leave us like we are. When we trust Christ, we are given his spirit, we are changed from the inside out. And so here's what's beautiful the Lord transforms our hearts and he empowers us to be better human beings, more loving, more gracious, more magnanimous. Radically and sacrificially loving others is part of the evidence that we are in fact, truly saved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're not just saved from something, that being ourselves and from the wrath of God because of our sins, but we are saved for something or to something is the way that you've raised it before, that's right.
Speaker 2:If we have been saved, we will love others and remember what we said the first episode, when we are called to love others. We don't just love by declaration, but we love also by demonstration. So, by grace again, the Lord empowers us to live really as we were created to live. As you know, God created, you know, Adam and Eve and put them in a garden and gave them this ability to love perfectly. But then they disobey God and messed everything up, just like we would have done.
Speaker 2:And yet God has now, through Christ, redeemed us and called us, not only called us to love one another in a new way, but he has empowered us to do that as well. So at Christmas, we are reminded that Jesus became like us. He took on flesh so that we could be like him. As a matter of fact, Romans 8 talks about this that we are predestined to be transformed into the image of Christ. So, God you know you talked about God does not just save us from something, but he saves us for something or to something, and that main goal is to be formed again into the image of Christ. We're all created in God's image, but that image has been so tainted by sin. So God saves us and empowers us now to be, you could say, to redeem that image.
Speaker 1:So he first formed us, then came sin, and so now we have to be transformed, and that gift is a free gift, thank goodness. So, as we've done so many times, let's make one more tie into a Christmas movie, something practical that everybody knows, that they will probably see or have seen this holiday season and can think about the theme that we're talking about of transformational love, and I am talking about the movie Scrooge. On Wednesday night, we all talked about our favorite movies during our fellowship time that we had in lieu of a kind of service proper, if you will, and I was really surprised that nobody mentioned Scrooge, because there have been so many versions of it done. But while it is not a movie that is about the Christmas story, it certainly has elements of the exact same theme of transformation, because you've got as big a humbug as ever was in Ebenezer Scrooge, and different forms of the movie that are out there give different reasons. The one that we watched at our house last night that I'd never seen was the animated musical version from just last year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've not seen it.
Speaker 1:That starred Luke Evans. Well, you know it doesn't do anything new really compared to the original one, but it is what it is. It's different. It will be remade over and over and I think a large part of that reason is because the transformational end of it I mean I teared up at the end. It's just so powerful to see what Ebenezer goes through.
Speaker 1:Now think about this. You're getting to the end of the movie and Ebenezer you know he sees his end, his undoing, and he is. He is well to say it again, he is undone, wakes up back in his bedroom, says I have to change. And I promise to keep Christmas in my heart today and all the year long. The ghost of Jacob Marley and all the other three ghosts could suddenly reappear and say he got it, he got it and we could have a different song, and that could be the end of the movie.
Speaker 1:It's not the end of the movie. That's not what happens. It is not enough for him to simply say we want to see it demonstrated. That is when we are moved. He goes out and you know, does you know? He cancels debts and he buys Christmas gooses and medicine and in the version I saw, he makes Bob Cratchett, a partner in the business, so that he can make more money, and we see him doing these things. That is the transformational part of the transformational nature of God's love. Is not simply that he loved us and we accept that. That's a big part of it. But we have got to be moved to action by that. Or has it really happened just as God took action by sending Jesus to us?
Speaker 2:Right, we're not. You know. We say often we're not saved by good works or works of love. You could say, but good works or works of love are evidence of true salvation. Yeah, that's what we are saved to yeah when.
Speaker 2:God transforms your heart. I mean honestly, and I think you would agree with me here when God touches your heart, when he transforms your heart, when you really understand the gospel, when the veil is removed and you see, perhaps for the first time, the beauty and the wonder and the glory of Christ, you cannot help but love others.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. This holiday season is your. You know it's getting toward the end, hopefully your shopping is done, but whether you're shopping, whatever else you're out doing as you, naturally you know, feel, you know love and maybe extra love because of the holiday season and the general you know just the feel of the holiday. As you feel those things, don't let it stop there. Pick a specific time, make it real, make it take a while, make it real, make it tangible, demonstrate it for yourself, demonstrate it to God, demonstrate it to somebody else and just Let go and do something this holiday season for someone else. Demonstrate that love and enjoy it. You'll feel great.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It is more blessed to give than to receive. I feel like I've heard somebody say that before.
Speaker 1:Read that somewhere. Well, you've talked about Dylan and something that he does. Can we bring that in?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. Yeah, this has been really remarkable and just honestly fun to watch. When my kids were young, obviously they were all about their gifts and there's nothing wrong with that. I mean kids see that.
Speaker 1:Always exciting to get a shiny box when you're 6, 10, 12 years old.
Speaker 2:When you're a kid. So the joy that my kids experience in those days and opening their gifts and stuff, it was great. But it doesn't hold a candle to the love that they now experience in their ability to be able to give gifts. When Dylan particularly got his first job and he had a little bit of money that year, he couldn't have cared less about what he was getting. He grinned from ear to ear Christmas Eve night when we were opening our gifts from him and every year he and my mom go shopping on the week or two before Christmas and I mean I think he lives for that day.
Speaker 2:And it just brings him so much joy and it's just been awesome. I mean Dylan's 24 now, and just to see the way that the joy he gets from tangibly serving others is just really remarkable. And so there are many ways that you can. Maybe you're listening and you don't have the money to go buy someone a gift, that's OK. Bake your neighbor some cookies, or go sit with somebody this holiday season maybe an elderly person, a widow, who maybe doesn't have a family in town, or what have you and just ask the Lord God, show me something that I can do to bless somebody else and I'm telling you it'll be the best Christmas ever.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a great prayer to pray this holiday season. Lord, put someone in my path that I can serve.
Speaker 2:Yeah and Matthew. One more thing before we close this series out. I think I would be amiss if, again, I didn't remind our listeners of Christ's second advent. So remind us what the word advent means. We haven't actually discussed it in quite a while.
Speaker 1:Sure Going back to the beginning. Advent means arrival.
Speaker 2:So during the advent season we actually look in two different directions. We look back to Christ's first advent, when he came to give his life as a ransom for many. But then we look ahead. When Christ came the first time, he inaugurated the kingdom of God. But we look forward now with great hope and anticipation at Christ's second advent, his second arrival, when he will come and consummate that kingdom. So when we think about these advent themes that we've discussed over the last few weeks, you've got what's our first one Hope, hope. And then peace, joy and love. We have a foretaste of all of those things. Right now we have a foretaste because we're in Christ, but when he returns we will know those elements of our faith perfectly and wholly. And so the life to come, when Jesus returns, we will be part of new creation, we'll be part of the renewed earth, and this is we can't even grasp this concept, but it will be a world without sin, without evil, and we will all experience perfect love, unbelievable.
Speaker 1:That is the real, ultimate story of the Christmas season.
Speaker 2:Matthew, thank you so much for hanging with me in the last 22 days. Well, likewise.
Speaker 2:And for all of our listeners. I just want to say I hope you've enjoyed this series and more than just your enjoyment, I hope that it's really truly helped you focus on Christ more this holiday season. I hope your affections have been raised for Jesus, and today is Christmas Eve, tomorrow Christmas day, and I know it's going to be busy for most of you, but please take time and just glorify the Lord in all that you do and just meditate on the great things he has done. If you would, this is the Real Friends podcast. Please go to your favorite podcast platform. The only gift we ask for is A pony.
Speaker 2:Well, wait, no, that's the other one you think Wendy will get you on this year.
Speaker 1:No, I don't do a good enough job taking care of the cats. Wait.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the only gift that we want this year is for you to subscribe to our channel and please leave us a review. By you doing that, that will help other people find our podcast, and we're going to start season four at the beginning of the year and if you're listening and you are part of the real life community church family, we want you to be on the Real Friends podcast.
Speaker 1:That's right. We're going to do some more interviews, so please have a great holiday season, merry.
Speaker 2:Christmas everybody.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Enjoy and be safe.