Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] I want you to bow your heads for just a moment.
[00:00:11] Lord, we approach the Scriptures today with humility, with hunger, to receive daily bread.
[00:00:24] We pray that your Word will dwell richly in us.
[00:00:31] Lord, we posture our hearts not to just be hearers of the Word, but to be doers.
[00:00:38] Lord, our heart.
[00:00:41] We want to position our heart with a readiness to respond.
[00:00:47] We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing from the Word of God.
[00:00:53] So, Holy Spirit, we ask you, speak to us.
[00:00:57] Speak to us individually. You know our hearts, you know our thoughts. You know our pain, you know our challenges, you know our weaknesses.
[00:01:08] Speak to us. Feed us.
[00:01:10] May youy Word cause our hearts to burn.
[00:01:14] To burn for your to be drawn to youo, to experience youe, to experience youe presence.
[00:01:21] May your Word become alive today.
[00:01:27] Thank you, Jesus, that you are here to feed every hungry person.
[00:01:33] Those who believe that, say Amen.
[00:01:37] Amen.
[00:01:38] Well, we're going to be in different passages, but the two main passages of Scripture are going to be John chapter 14 and John chapter 17.
[00:01:50] And other scriptures will be like cross references that we'll touch. But those are the, the two sort of themes that will stay in. And I, I believe that one of the missions or the messages of Jesus as He came to this earth was to correct their wrong view of God and maybe to reveal God as a Father.
[00:02:24] And so the, the title of the message is the Father's Invitation.
[00:02:29] And the subtitle is Living in Union.
[00:02:32] And so that's what we're going to talk about today. Let's go straight into John chapter 1, verse 18.
[00:02:42] John chapter 1, verse 18.
[00:02:45] Look what it says here. No one has seen God at any time.
[00:02:51] God, the only Son who is in the arms of the Father, he has explained Him.
[00:03:03] No one has seen God, God the only Son. So notice that it's not separating the Son from God.
[00:03:12] God the only Son who is in the arms of the Father. I love that picture that draws the Son with the Father in the arms of the Father. And the Bible says, and he has explained him, this is where we get the word exegesis.
[00:03:30] That's the Word explained.
[00:03:32] And Jesus is God's explanation of himself.
[00:03:41] In other words, if you want to know what God looks like, look at Jesus.
[00:03:47] If you want to know God's nature, look at Jesus. If you want to know the way God responds to failure, look at Jesus, how he responded to Peter. If you want to know the way God is compassionate, look at Jesus.
[00:04:05] If you want to know the way God meets broken people, look at Jesus. If you want to know How God responds to sickness, look at Jesus.
[00:04:14] If you want to know how God responds to sinners, look at Jesus.
[00:04:18] Because Jesus is the explanation of God.
[00:04:23] And the reason why I believe this is foundational is because if we know God any differently, it will shape our identity, it will affect everything about us, because our behavior flows from what we believe. And what we believe about God, according to A.W. tozer, is the most important thing about us.
[00:04:49] And so Jesus is the explanation of God. It's the word that became flesh. Colossians 1:15 says he is the image of the invisible God.
[00:05:03] Hebrews chapter one, verse one through three, it says the following. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets, in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, he has spoken to us in His Son. Not just through his Son, in His Son whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power.
[00:05:46] So Jesus represents perfectly the nature of God.
[00:05:54] And you know, sometimes we get confused about that. We go Old Testament stories, New Testament, and we're trying to have these different images of God compete in our hearts. But listen, if you just look at Jesus and it becomes clear and what the Bible is saying for us to look at Jesus, because he has become the embodiment of God's nature, the radiance of glory, the visible to the invisible.
[00:06:27] I like, I like how one quote by a pastor says it like this. Jesus is perfect theology. We heard of this, right?
[00:06:35] If you've seen Jesus, you've seen exactly what the Father is like.
[00:06:42] The goal of the Gospel is not merely getting man into heaven, but getting God back into man.
[00:06:51] Look at one of the first prayers and this is profound. In Romans, chapter 8, verse 14, it talks about all who are being led by the Spirit of God. These are the sons and daughters of God. For you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear. Again, slavery leads to fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption.
[00:07:17] See, this is the picture of like union and family.
[00:07:22] The spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, abba, Father.
[00:07:31] The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. We're not going to continue to read further, but it uses this language. Abba, father. You know, just in the book of John, the word father referring to God is used over a hundred times.
[00:07:51] So this is a big theme, Jesus's message.
[00:07:56] But do you know that this word abba is only used three times in the entire Bible or in the entire New Testament, because the Bible is written in Greek. But this word abba is Aramaic.
[00:08:13] It's actually kept in Aramaic because the Greek definition of father didn't carry the depth that would explain who God is to us.
[00:08:27] And so it's only used actually three times. And the word abba, it doesn't just mean daddy or Papa. It's this language of intimacy, nearness, affection, love, but it also represents union.
[00:08:47] Abba, father.
[00:08:51] And it uses father twice, in a sense. Aramaic, abba, and then father.
[00:09:00] Because this is the way Jesus, who was God in the flesh, wanted us to see God.
[00:09:10] And the three times it was used.
[00:09:13] And the only time it was used by Jesus was actually in his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
[00:09:23] The second time it was used in Romans, where we just read this. And the third time, it's used in Galatians 4, 6. It says that because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying out, abba, Father.
[00:09:42] So we see this picture, Jesus is crying out, abba, Father.
[00:09:46] We are crying out, abba, Father. And the spirit in us is crying out, abba, Father.
[00:09:54] I mean, that's a testimony of three.
[00:09:57] This is an important foundational truth to our relationship with God.
[00:10:04] Frank Damasio, who was one of my mentors, he's with the Lord now, said it like this. Sonship is not a position we earn.
[00:10:14] It is an identity we receive.
[00:10:18] So the Holy Spirit is not just, you know, the helper. He is the spirit of adoption. He gives us identity through the revelation of God as Father.
[00:10:31] And, you know, some of us, we don't know God this way. Some of us even get offended, especially some manly men here might get offended by this view of God as someone tender and affectionate.
[00:10:47] But wouldn't you say that there is no one that knows God the way Jesus knows God, who is God in the flesh.
[00:10:57] And he describes in Luke 15 this parable that really reveals what the Father is like. And if you remember the prodigal son who was running back after he messed up, took his inheritance, you know, squandered it, was living in sin, decided to return home. When he's coming back, you see this picture of the Father, and this is Jesus describing the Father. The Father is running to him, and he embraced him and kissed him.
[00:11:29] The kisses of the Father, the embrace of the Father is for the sons.
[00:11:36] There's a picture of his love as affection and kisses and embraces.
[00:11:45] And some of you manly men you need the kisses of the father.
[00:11:49] Because the most manly people on earth are people that are able to receive the love of the father and be loved by the Father.
[00:11:57] They're the ones who are courageous. They're the ones that take responsibility.
[00:12:01] They're the ones that lay down their lives for their wives. They are the ones that are able to lead courageously because they have experienced the love of the Father.
[00:12:17] Jack Frost says, the orphan spirit causes us to strive for what the Father's love has already freely given to us.
[00:12:32] You can never earn what you're designed to receive, but you can work with what you received.
[00:12:41] And we're not called to earn what we are supposed to receive as sons and daughters. We're called to work with what we received.
[00:12:51] And, and so the revelation of the Father's love heals the orphan heart.
[00:13:02] I want to go to John, chapter 14. You can open up to that finally.
[00:13:09] And this is, this is the, the kind of the last day of Jesus with his disciples before the crucifixion. This is the. The last 24 hours they're having the Last Supper. And Jesus is telling them all kinds of stuff like, you know, I'm leaving you guys. You will not see me. And then you'll see me.
[00:13:34] You know, one of you is going to deny me, another one's going to betray me.
[00:13:39] And, and the disciples are like, wait, what?
[00:13:42] This doesn't sound super encouraging.
[00:13:45] And one of the disciples asks a question. And so we're, we're opening up the answer to a question that Philip asked. And you know what he asked in response to this context? He says, lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us.
[00:14:04] In other words, what he's asking is, okay, God, if we're going to go through all this stuff, like, give us a deeper revelation of God, and it will be enough for us.
[00:14:14] How many of you guys know that? That's a really good prayer to have. Because sometimes we want God to reroute and protect us from any sort of storms or pain. But sometimes all we need is just a deeper revelation of God to know God more in that space and time. So he's like, give us.
[00:14:33] Show us the Father and that's enough. We'll go through all this. That's enough for us.
[00:14:39] And Jesus responds in verse nine, he says to him, have I been with you for so long a time that yet you have not come to know me?
[00:14:54] The one who has seen me has seen the Father.
[00:14:58] How can you say, show us the Father?
[00:15:03] Do not believe that I am in The Father and the Father is in me.
[00:15:07] The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own. But the Father, as He remains in me, does his works. Other translations will say, the Father, as He lives in Me, does these works.
[00:15:22] Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.
[00:15:34] What is he saying? He's saying, if you're still struggling, because no prophet, no apostle, no teacher has ever referred to himself in relationship with God as one and talked about union that way that I came from the Father. I'm not just talking about God. I'm not revealing pictures of God. The Father is in me and we are one.
[00:15:59] And so they're struggling with this idea. And he says, listen, if you're still struggling to see me this way, believe the works.
[00:16:07] Because all the works I'm working, it's actually the Father working through me.
[00:16:14] And all the works that I'm doing, when I'm healing the sick, when I'm touching the lepers, when I'm eating with sinners, when I'm forgiving sins, when I'm doing all of these things, I am displaying the very nature of God.
[00:16:32] So he's saying, believe the works. They flow as a result of our union.
[00:16:44] And then he continues in verse 12, truly, truly, I say to you, the one who believes in me, the works that I do, he will also do.
[00:16:54] And he will do greater works than these, because I am going, where?
[00:17:00] To the Father. Where's Jesus?
[00:17:03] He's with the Father. And he says, and whatever you ask in my name, this I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in My name, I will do it.
[00:17:21] When Jesus points to the Father, the promise of greater works follows that. If you remember, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
[00:17:40] So what I want to share today is not just the invitation to experience God as a Father, or to even experience his love as a Father, but to understand that through the life of Jesus, through the cross, we were invited into the same union that the Son and the Father lived in.
[00:18:01] This is profound.
[00:18:09] What he's saying is, I'm going to the Father, and now you can live in the same relationship with him that I have lived in.
[00:18:29] Let's look at John 12, verse 44.
[00:18:36] This is towards the end or the closing statements of Jesus's public ministry.
[00:18:44] In verse 44, he says, Jesus cried out and said, the one who believes in me does not believe only in me, but also in him who sent me.
[00:18:56] And the one who sees me sees him.
[00:19:02] The one who sees me sees him.
[00:19:05] Could it be that what he's saying is the only people that see me rightly are the people that are seeing him because I'm representing him. I'm the exact representation of his nature.
[00:19:22] So he says, the one who sees me sees him.
[00:19:27] And that word see there is not just to behold, but to understand.
[00:19:37] Why does this matter?
[00:19:40] Because a lot of us see God through our experiences.
[00:19:46] We see God through our upbringing. We see God through the church we grew up in. We see God through our earthly fathers. We see God and our image of God is shaped by all of our experiences. And what Jesus is saying here is that the only way for you to see God rightly is to see me.
[00:20:08] You've been looking at other experiences, other people, other people's actions out of pain and brokenness to define God for you.
[00:20:17] And Jesus is saying, no, no, no. The only way to know the Father, see the Father, experience the Father, Father is to see me, is to lock eyes with me. To behold, to perceive, to contemplate, to understand.
[00:20:32] And so he says here, the one who sees me sees him.
[00:20:39] And I believe God. God wants to break off these orphan slave mindsets and form in us sonship, forming us identity through the love of the Father.
[00:20:58] And now in John, chapter 17, verse 20. This is the final prayer.
[00:21:09] This is the final prayer that Jesus prays. Some will refer to this prayer as the high praise priestly prayer.
[00:21:19] And look at his prayer. I want you to see this.
[00:21:24] And this is the prayer where you can actually find yourself. Jesus here is actually praying for you.
[00:21:33] He says, I do not pray for those or for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
[00:21:43] That's you and I.
[00:21:46] That they all may be one.
[00:21:49] Watch this. Watch the connection that they all who? All the people that believe through their word. That's us.
[00:21:57] It's not talking about the early church. It's not talking about Jerusalem. It's not talking about the Jews. It's talking about us.
[00:22:03] That they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.
[00:22:14] That they also may be one in us. You see that invitation now?
[00:22:20] Our union, our harmony, our intimacy, our oneness.
[00:22:27] Let them, all them that believe, be one, like we are one in us.
[00:22:39] That the world may believe that you sent me.
[00:22:43] And the glory which you gave me, I have given them that they may be one. Just as we are one, I in them and you and me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me.
[00:23:04] And look at this final phrase.
[00:23:07] And have loved them as you have loved me.
[00:23:15] Jesus is revealing the union that he shares with the Father. And he invites us into that glorious union by the work of the Spirit.
[00:23:29] And through that union, we come into this final phrase in this prayer to experience the love of the Father that is exactly the same that he had for his son, Jesus Christ.
[00:23:44] That when God gazes at you, when God looks at you, his eyes are like flames of fire, burning with love, compassion, mercy, tenderness and kindness.
[00:24:05] In the same measure that you have observed God the Father loved Jesus is actually exactly the way he loves you.
[00:24:20] So if you ever feel like God's not there, God is absent, maybe God rejected you, abandoned you. Look at the way he loved Jesus.
[00:24:31] Looked at the way the Father affirmed Jesus loved Jesus was present with Jesus.
[00:24:39] He loves you the same way.
[00:24:48] The goal wasn't more unity, it was more union.
[00:25:13] Leif Hetland, who is actually going to be one of our speakers for the next Holy spirit conference in 2027, he. He said it like this. You can only give away the love that you have received.
[00:25:52] I love this because the picture of adoption, the picture of unity, the picture of oneness, is actually Jesus pointing to Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
[00:26:06] I would say it is impossible for any religious organization to achieve without the love of the Father and the revelation of God as a good Father.
[00:26:21] And then he says, these works that I'm doing out of union, that display the glory of the Father, you're gonna do why? Because that's the byproduct of union with him.
[00:26:33] And I'm inviting you into the same union I have with the Father. Look at that invitation.
[00:26:42] Can you imagine that some of us pass on that invitation and respond to other invitations to be slaves, to be workers, To just take the benefits and run and enjoy this life. But both sons came to to their end and realized that there is nothing there. There's no fulfillment there, there's no life there. There's no wholeness there.
[00:27:12] And this might feel like a simple message, but you would be surprised how many people know about God, God as Father, but don't experience him that way.
[00:27:24] I remember.
[00:27:29] When I was born again, I encountered God. I was loving Jesus. I felt like my whole life was healed, restored.
[00:27:41] I was on fire for God. I don't know, I must have been like 19 years old.
[00:27:46] And I encountered God when I was 16, gave my life to Jesus. I was born again. Set free from drug addiction and juvenile prison. All this stuff that was in my past. And God completely restored and redeemed me.
[00:28:01] And so here I am, like, burning for God, loving Jesus, experiencing his presence every day.
[00:28:08] And a guest pastor comes to our church and he's sharing this simple message about God being our father.
[00:28:16] And at the end of this message, he makes this invitation. He says, if you're here and you haven't experienced God as a father, or maybe you had broken relationship with your father and that has got in the way of your relationship with God. And I don't remember everything he said, but I remember it was like. Like rivers opened up. And it was just my soul was leaking, my eyes were, you know, sweating, and I was a mess. And I didn't know.
[00:28:44] I didn't know that I needed that.
[00:28:47] And I remember just crawling out to the front because I couldn't even walk.
[00:28:52] And I just lay down on the floor and I begin to experience, you know, like Paul says, it has to be experienced. It's. It's too much for words. Like, even Aramaic doesn't have the right words to define the love of God.
[00:29:11] And as I was laying there and God was healing my heart, my father and I had a tough relationship. God. God reached both of us. We were, you know, backsliders and living in sin. And so when I got saved, I felt like God. God restored our relationship. We were doing so well. I didn't have any offenses. I felt like my heart is healed. But, you know, the Lord can touch areas of our pain that we don't even know exist.
[00:29:40] And as I was laying on the floor, my dad was sitting in the church, like, in the last row, and he saw me.
[00:29:48] And he started to encounter the Lord in the very last row. And he got up and started walking to the front. And he laid down next to me on the floor and just started weeping. I was weeping. He was weeping. He was saying, I'm sorry. I was saying, no, I'm sorry. And we were like, arguing. Who's more sorry? Because we both messed up. But we were encountering the love of the father that was healing both of his sons.
[00:30:16] We're both his sons.
[00:30:30] And I realized that so many people grow up in the house, in the Father's house, but live like orphans.
[00:30:38] Grow up in the Father's house, but live like slaves.
[00:30:43] Because your view of God will not determine what you receive from him.
[00:30:50] The way you're experiencing God is not the definition of who God is.
[00:30:57] He's better.
[00:30:58] He's gooder.
[00:31:00] I know that's not a word. Thank you, guys.
[00:31:05] He's better than you think. So you need to change the way you think always. And when you. When you got there, you need to realize he's even better than that. So you have to keep renewing your mind to see him rightly.
[00:31:21] You know, in Luke 15, both sons grew up in the house with a loving father, and both of them didn't experience him rightly because of their mindset.
[00:31:32] Some of you grow up in church and you don't even realize that your wrong views of God, your mindsets are blocking you from encountering the love of God.
[00:31:46] And I want to propose to you, there is nothing, nothing more powerful than the love of God. Nothing.
[00:31:57] There is nothing that can heal you the way his love does.
[00:32:01] There is nothing that can define you the way his embrace. Embrace does.
[00:32:07] You know, even with our natural kids, as fathers, we have this mandate. We have this responsibility to instill identity into our kids, right? Because what fathers do affects children so much.
[00:32:25] And maybe more than that, maybe what we don't do affects them so much when we didn't see them, when we didn't embrace them, when we didn't acknowledge them, when we didn't show them affection and love when they needed it most.
[00:32:40] But for us to live the way God designed us to live, as men, as fathers, as men of God, we need to stay in the love of God, stay in the embrace of the Father.
[00:32:57] Ava, can you come here?
[00:32:58] It's my firstborn.
[00:33:04] You can come up the stairs. I want to show you a picture.
[00:33:11] I love this illustration that I saw, and I think it perfectly describes what we're talking about.
[00:33:18] It was actually Francis Chan who.
[00:33:21] Who said this. He said, your prayer life and your time with the Father. Does it look like this?
[00:33:40] Because if it doesn't look like this, you're not doing it right.
[00:33:49] This is what time with the Father looks like.
[00:33:54] We started this message in First John that the Son is in the arms of the Father.
[00:34:01] That's where you belong.
[00:34:04] In the arms of the Father, in the embrace of the Father.
[00:34:11] Would you stand to your feet with me?
[00:34:24] Jesus's invitation.
[00:34:33] Is to come into union with the Father.
[00:34:38] And he, Jesus actually said, I am the way to the Father.
[00:34:45] Behold me to experience him. See me to see him.
[00:34:50] I am the door, I am the gate. I am the way to the revelation of God.
[00:35:01] So I'm gonna trust and believe that the whole Holy Spirit is going to break off wrong images.
[00:35:10] He's going to expose them.
[00:35:14] Aw Tozer said that our. Our soul experiences almost like this law of gravity that it gravitates towards the strongest images of God that we have.
[00:35:28] And if you don't see him as a loving father, Father, you will resist his love.
[00:35:35] When I invite the ministry team, we're going to go into a time of worship.
[00:35:42] I just want to ask you to look inwardly and allow the Holy Spirit to to cry out in you, abba Father, and to lead you through the spirit of adoption. To cry out abba Father, to position yourself to receive the kisses of the Father, the embrace of the Father, the love of the Father that He called us to experience.
[00:36:11] And so I'm going to invite you to respond, whether it's responding to this message or just responding in in time of worship, to just receive prayer. Whether you need healing in your body or you need a breakthrough in your finances or marriage or whatever the need you may have, want you to come and receive ministry. Believe the Lord's going to touch you. The Lord's going to meet you with his love. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:36:46] Thank you for joining Kingdom Movement Online. I. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.
