YOU ARE SO LOVED – More Than a Man Series Not too long ago I woke up to just another ordinary day, headed for work proceeding on the route that I take every day to work. I like to go through Wynfield Creek. If you are in Huntersville you might know that neighbourhood. But it is a beautiful neighbourhood, especially this time of the year when all the plants and the trees and the flowers are just lovely as you drive through there. And so I was just taking my routine drive and I had the Christian radio station on when a song came on by Mark Schultz’s called, ‘Walking Her Home.’ And as I began to listen to that song, something unexpected happened. I literally fell apart. I found myself weeping and sobbing as I was listening to that song. In fact, I want to read you the lyrics as I sort of set up this morning. I was thinking about my love for my bride as I was driving to work and this song came on. So here are the words: Looking back He sees it all It was her first date the night he came to call Her dad said son Have her home on time And promise me you'll never leave her side He took her to a show in town And he was ten feet off the ground (Chorus) He was walking her home And holding her hand Oh the way she smiled it stole the breath right out of him Down that old road With the stars up above He remembers where he was the night he fell in love He was walking her home Ten more years and a waiting room At half past one And the doctor said come in and meet your son His knees went weak When he saw his wife She was smiling as she said he's got your eyes And as she slept he held her tight His mind went back to that first night (Chorus) He walked her through the best days of her life Sixty years together and he never left her side Page 1 of 14 pages 11/1/2009 YOU ARE SO LOVED – More Than a Man Series A nursing home At eighty-five And the doctor said it could be her last night And the nurse said Oh Should we tell him now Or should he wait until the morning to find out When they checked her room that night He was laying by her side Oh he was walking her home And holding her hand Oh the way she smiled when he said this is not the end And just for a while they were eighteen And she was still more beautiful to him than anything He was walking her home He was walking her home I have heard the song several times since and I am still having a hard time with the lyrics. But I literally had this moment in my car where I was weeping uncontrollably. You know that uncomfortable crying where you are wondering if there are any dudes around and hoping there aren’t. And I thought I must call my wife because I was so overwhelmed. It was like in this moment I was literally out in the future and time is going so fast. And I thought about what would it be like to not be married to her anymore, and knowing that could really happen someday. I may be walking her home; I may be saying ‘honey, you go to Jesus.’ Or she may be saying that to me someday. And I was just so overcome and I felt so much love in my heart. It was like God just said, ‘hey, do you want to feel what love really feels like?’ Check this out. And I had to pull over because I was just so overcome with it. And overcome with this idea of thinking I needed to do a better job being a husband. I needed to do a better job of being a dad. I needed to quit being so selfish. I needed to be more sensitive. And I need to learn how to cherish my wife better. Why don’t I get it so much? How can I miss it? It is all going to come down to that moment someday. And I called my wife, and I couldn’t even talk, I was just overcome. But my wife loved it. It is amazing, you know, if I had called up Matt Hatfield and said, ‘He Was Walking Her Home,’ he would say, ‘dude, you’re weirding me out, bro. Okay. Chill out.’ I don’t know what happened to me. I don’t know maybe my wife put some estrogen in my smoothie, but I was weakened in that moment. And I just felt floored. And I talked to her and I shared with her how much I loved her. I wanted her to know that she was so loved. And I also wanted her to know that I was miserable at knowing how to do this thing called love at times. But I will say something to you right now. Many of you in this room this morning may not have that experience of a husband or a wife that you cherish in that Page 2 of 14 pages 11/1/2009 YOU ARE SO LOVED – More Than a Man Series love. You may feel lonely in this room. In fact you may feel unloved. When you look at the world, it may feel hateful and you may think where is the love? But what I felt for my wife, I can tell you this. There is a God that would say to you in this room right now, ‘you are so loved.’ And as I have thought about how wretched I am this past week, I thought, wow, God, you love me, and I have been blown away. But what I want to talk to you about this morning is this idea of God’s love for us and what that should do in our lives. And I would like to ask, if you would, to turn in the Bible to John Chapter 3 as we continue on in our series called, “More Than a Man.” Last week we talked about how Nicodemus came out to Jesus one dark night. And as he showed up to meet with Jesus, Nicodemus had an unusual conversation with Him. He learned that he was lost, that he needed to be born again. And basically we said to be born again means that you are born physically, but you are dead spiritually; and you need to be born again spiritually. And they had this amazing conversation. And I shared with you from that passage when Jesus talked about the wind and how it moves where it wills. And I said the wind is the Holy Spirit. And that is what God does. He just sometimes moves in ways we don’t expect. Sometimes you come to church and you feel no wind. Other times you come to church and you feel the wind and it is like God. He just moves and He changes your affections for Him. He transforms your life in ways that you cannot imagine. As we wrapped up last week in verse 15 of John Chapter 3, we are going to look at verses 16 to 21 today. And it is important for you to notice as you look in your Bibles you will see that the words of Jesus are in red. But many scholars would say that those aren’t the words of Jesus in verses 16 to 21. Now they are not rejecting the inherency of Scripture, they are just saying that those are probably the words of John, the author. Because in the Greek there are no quotes, and what they were doing when they were translating Greek into English is they were trying to figure out where the conversation ends, and where the next conversation picks up, where the story ends and where the story begins to pick up again. And some have even gone so far as to say, you know what, the story between Jesus and Nicodemus probably ended after verse 12. I don’t believe that is the case. I believe it ends after verse 15. Why? Well, look at verse 13 if you will of Chapter 3 and it says, “No one has ascended into Heaven except He who descended from Heaven, the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up.” One of Jesus’ terms, if not His most famous term for Himself, was He referred to Himself as the son of man. So I think this is Jesus still talking to Nicodemus saying the “son of man must be lifted up.” But at this point I believe John has wrapped up the story with Jesus and Nicodemus and now he is going to begin to narrate from verses 16 to 21. Literally the whole Bible can be in red because we believe all Scripture is God-breathed, but what you have to figure out when you are looking at the original language is who is talking when. Right? And since there are no quotes, some people have said the Page 3 of 14 pages 11/1/2009 YOU ARE SO LOVED – More Than a Man Series conversation goes through verse 21, others have said it stops after verse 12, and still others have said it stops after verse 15.