Book Announcement And Research On Agape

Donald 0:21

All right, welcome back to the Daily Living for Christ podcast. And before we jump in, I have some news I want to share with you guys. It's been about two weeks since I posted an episode because I got inspired. You I don't know if you've ever experienced it when you kind of get an unction from the Lord to dive in. So I've been working on a manuscript for a while. Well, I've been working on a manuscript for I've been working on research for, I don't know, it's been four and a half years now. And agape has come to be the forefront of what this research is about. And this series that we're talking about the belovedness of God becoming who we already are. I started writing about, I don't know, six or seven months ago, formulating my ideas. And I'm happy to say to you that I have completed the monologue, and the title of the book is called Beloved of God Exploring Agape through the Scriptures. So I just want to thank all the listeners. I want to thank you for being here present because as a result of the podcast and the journey that we started in 2025, it resulted in kind of writing out what was coming up in it. And before we get into the episode, and I will say this, and I I did the deep research for you, and I and I want to make sure that you get a hold of this. And for anyone that's yeah, I I just yeah, I'm rambling here, but let me get my focus here. But within the New Testament, and I've said this to you before, 200 and plus mentions to agape and its derivatives. So the the English translation would say agape, agapeos, and agape ton, divine love, you are loved or beloved, the beloved, and then to love. So after further research, it's about 319 times. And when you grapple with the fact that in the New Testament, 319 times the Holy Spirit is trying to reveal to us the aspect of agape and how that we receive it. We are first beloved, or we are agapean by God, then we receive that agape, and as we receive it, it flows out of us, and that's everything that we've been talking about, even from January of last year all the way through now, and this series, Beloved Becoming Who We Already Are, is solidifying this. So I just want to thank you for that. And yeah, I'll tell you more about how you can get a copy, especially for my faithful listeners in Germany and in you know the U.S. I'll give you an opportunity to get a copy of it, a free copy, because I want to make sure because you've been here on the journey, you've been with me for five years and you've seen this journey go forward. So God bless you and thank you for continuing to support the podcast and to be present here with us. So tonight we're gonna jump in because episode five is where the journey turns outward. We've been talking about a lot of internal stuff in the first three episodes, four episodes of this series. But as we turn outward, I want to make sure you grab a hold of this, it's not an effort, and it's not in striving or performance, but it's in overflow. I just want you to get that. We're turning outward, but it's not an effort, striving or performance, it's an overflow. In this episode, we're gonna see where beloved, chosen, blessed, and broken takes on movement and purpose. I'm excited. I'm I'm so excited. It's just this is real. This episode is about living from what God has done in you, not what you try to do for God. You ready? Let's dive in. So the episode I'm titling it, it's called Given. Your life becomes a gift. Wow, that in itself is just like, yo, let's get ready. You know what I mean? So we've been walking through the movements of belovedness. You are beloved, you are chosen, you are blessed, you are broken, and love there. And in this, now we come to this fifth movement, which is given, and we're gonna walk through this. So, blessed, chosen, I mean beloved, chosen, blessed, broken, and loved right there and given. This is where belovedness begins to flow out of us or outward towards others, not in pressure, not out of striving, not out of spiritual duty, not because you have to, but because you want to. And that's what I mean by out of overflow. Overflow is because it is naturally flowing out of you. There is no pressure for it to flow out. And it's like I think about the scripture in Timothy that says, all good and perfect gifts come from heaven above and add no sorrow. So when we receive the gift of agape and the identity of agape, it should add no sorrow. And because it adds no sorrow, it flows continuously out of us to others. Just remember the empty ceremonial jugs. As long as we stay empty, God can fill us with whatever is needed in the moment. Whenever it's needed, if we're empty, God can fill us in the moment, and others can draw from us, or it can draw out of us or be poured out on behalf of others. So once we know we are beloved, chosen, blessed, and loved in our brokenness, our life becomes a gift that naturally pours out unto others, or naturally pours unto others. And I want you to grab this because when we get to see the the the the stages, I'm gonna read from Luke 22 and 19. And it says, and he, Jesus, took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, That's the key. So he took the bread, he blessed it, he broke it, and he gave it outward. We just read it beloved, chosen, blessed, broken, and loved there in our brokenness. And brokenness, let me say this now because I just heard this. Brokenness is not from the point of being like a wound or trauma. When we're broken in God, it is a beautiful place to be, and God can take a wound or a trauma and heal that and allow us to come out of that in brokenness. So the place of brokenness is when we surrender or remember, kinosis, when we let go of who we are and we live in who Christ is in us. So the the ability to remain broken is our ability to remain in Christ, not in ourselves. So the pattern is he took the bread, he blessed it, he broke it, and he gave it out. This is not simply about communion, which it's mainly, but it's not simply about communion. This is a pattern of a life lived in Christ. Through Christ in God. I want you to get that. It is a pattern of life lived in Christ, I mean through Christ in God. Colossians says that we are in Christ in God. And this is what Paul was saying when he says, I have been crucified with Christ, yet I no longer live, but Christ lives within me. That's what this is saying. To be taken, blessed, broken, and given is to be in that place where you realize that your life is lived in Christ, not outside of Christ. And you're so in union with God that God's desires become your desires. It's no longer about trying to convince you or convince yourself or to convince God. You're you're one with God in everything. It doesn't mean you don't miss it, but your heart is in union. Your heart is committed to being the beloved of God and to being the empty vessel that God can use when needed. So Henry Nowin writes it this way: He says, Our lives become bread for others when we know we are beloved. Just think about that. Jesus said that he says, I am the bread of life. And as we take in Christ and as we live from Christ, our life becomes the bread for others or the vessel for Christ's bread, the bread of life to flow through us to others. But it starts with us coming from the position that we are beloved. And I said this over and over again, which is the context of the book, beloved of God. We are beloved before we become believers. Every human on this earth is beloved of God. And I want to get this out as loud as I can. It doesn't matter where you are from a perspective of faith, you are beloved before you become a believer. Believing is a result of the love or the agape that you have received from God. Therefore, you become a believer. And believer means that you are stepping into, you are living out of the place of the belovedness that God has given unto you. You've accepted it. I mean, this is awesome when you think about it. And I know at times it feels like as the church, we got it backwards, but it's okay. Grace says, let it go. I know at times we we got believer before that, and we might have hurt people, or people have been wounded, but grace says, let it go. Agape says, let it go, because agape can heal all wounds and all trauma. So Jesus here models given. I want you to grab this now because Jesus gives his life not to prove love, not because he is rooted, but because he is rooted in love. Let me get this right now. Jesus gives his life on our behalf not to prove love, but because he is rooted in love. And I'm gonna say he is rooted in agape, which is greater than any type of human love that we could ever grab a hold of. Now, as an example, I'm gonna read from John 13, one through five. And here's what it says it says, it was just before the Passover feasts, and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. I want you to get that now. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. So I want you to grab a hold of it. So I want you to understand what he's saying here. He says, Having agape his own, who were in the world, he agape them to the end. You getting it now? He said the evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. But look at verse 3, he says, Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of his disciples, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him. So I want you to see this now. So Jesus gives his life to prove, not to prove love, but because he was rooted in love. And part of this example here, this is Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. Jesus knew, here's what it said. Jesus knew that the Father had given him all things into his hands. So he rose. He got up and he began to let that love flow out. Are you catching it now? The unction of the love to flow out. So he got up from the meal and took off his outer clothing. So agape that's flowing out of us prompts us to do something that is not for ourselves. It's greater than who we are, because it is God flowing in and through us at all things, in all things. And here's another example. Jesus served from identity not to earn it. So Jesus served from a place of belovedness, being known by God, being known by the Father. And we have multiple examples, and I'm going to give some of these to you right now. John 6.11 says it this way. 611 says, Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were seated as much as they wanted. Did you catch that? As much as they wanted, he did the same with the fish. So out of what was in him, they were hungry. They were far away from where food could be, where they could purchase food to do those things. So out of it, Jesus takes the bread. The miracle is God's love made shareable. See, we always talk about the miracle of the fish, but the miracle was an example. It's showing us that the miracle is God's love made shareable. It's the moving of God to have compassion on the people, to take what was present, and to be able to multiply that so that the people could be nourished in their moment. You got it? Isn't it beautiful? Now, Matthew 14 and 14, and we're talking about giving now, giving out of ourselves. And here it says, when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. So what we see here, before he goes anywhere and he goes to feed them later on, look what he says. He says, He had compassion on them. So before he feeds anyone, what does it say? Here's the key. He had compassion on them. And then as you read down, verse 15 says, When nighttime came, they were in a remote place and they didn't have food. So compassion was the belovedness of God flowing out of him onto the people that caused him to move. So givingness flows from compassion, not from obligation. So I know the word may not sound right, but when so giving this, the act of giving should flow out of compassion, not out of obligation. And we've all been there, at least I know I have. Let me just say I've been there where I felt like I gave out of obligation. And and the scripture tells us that we're not to do anything out of obligation. We are to give with a what? A cheerful heart. And we're not to give out of obligation, but out of that that love that flows from us. It says to be a cheerful giver. And I'm not talking financially. I'm talking financially. I'm talking about out of our out of our resources and out of our life flow, out of everything that we do, it should be out of a spirit of love for the Father, love for Christ, out of an unction of the Holy Spirit leading us. So here's the key thing here. We've read multiple scriptures now. John 13, one through five. All things into his hand. So he rose, went into action. And then we see that Jesus served from identity in John 1 through 6. He takes the bread, he blesses, he breaks it, and he gives it out to the crowd. And we saw that that miracle is not about supply. The miracle is about God's love made shareable. Then in Matthew 14, we see before he feeds anyone, he says, the scripture says he had compassion on them. So the core here is you don't give because you should. Let me say it this way: you give because you know whose you are. You catch that? And because you know where you belong, and because you have been held, seen, and beloved. This is what Jesus modeled right here in the scriptures. This is the message today for us. Out of all belovedness, you get to that place where you know who you are. And what is that? A beloved son and daughter of God. No one can ever take that identity from us. No matter what the situation or circumstances is, they can lock us up, they can enslave us, they can imprison us, they can persecute us, but they cannot take our belovedness from God. And I want you to grab a hold of this because this understanding is what allowed the church to go through the persecution for 300 years after the birth of the church. From the day of Pentecost all the way through, up three centuries later, they held on to their belovedness in Christ. They knew that they were beloved of God in Christ. And here's another point. They knew where they belonged. They knew that they were in Christ. And nothing physical could take them out of Christ. I want you to grab this, man, because once we get a hold of this, and I want everybody, once you grab a hold of this, your life is going to change. Once this transformation happens on the inside, you're never going to be the same. And here's the third thing. It says, you have been held, seen, and beloved. And how is it, Donald? I want you to think about this now. How is it that three centuries after the resurrection, they still knew that they were held in God and seen in Christ and beloved of God? I can tell you what it was. Because belovedness came before believing. And the community expressed their belovedness of God went outward, and therefore the people that they were surrounded by experienced the love of God, therefore they became believers. Doesn't it say in Acts in Antioch was the first place that they were called what? Christians, Christ-like, or let me go a little bit deeper now, they were called the beloved of God. Not because of their doctrine, it was because of the love that was flowing out of them. The same love that was identified in Christ was the same love that was flowing out of them. And we're talking 10 to 15 years after the resurrection, and it was still flowing out of them. So here's the key here. Let me repeat this again now. You give because you know who you are, you know where you belong, and because you have been held, seen, and beloved. And this is it. I want you to grab this. Hold on to your seats and grab a hold of this. Belovedness becomes a gift. There's nothing we can do to earn our belovedness. God already did it before we were created. This is the beloved self in motion. Belovedness is a gift that we must receive. And it's wrapped up in the identity. Everything is in the gift. Once you accept the gift, you get all the benefits that are associated with the gift. How does that make you feel right now? I want you to grab a hold of that. I want us to pause for this moment here. Take a slow breath. Just breathe in and let that settle. Belovedness becomes a gift. Belovedness is a gift. So I want you to inhale and say, I am beloved. Exhale and say, I have love to give. Inhale and say, I am beloved. Exhale and say, I have love to give. Not forced, not rushed, just true belovedness to pour out. Now, I want to talk about a thin line tension here. Because where giving or givingness goes wrong. When we give from the protective self, here's what transpires. We become burnt out. Or we burn out. There's no connection, there's no life in it. So we burn out, we fizzle out. We resent those who we serve. And we serve to be needed. This is a big one right here. We serve to be needed. Like we're getting confirmation, our identity is in serving the fact that people need us. That's the identity. That's all driven by the protective self. But when we give from the beloved self, watch what happens here now. We serve without losing who we are. Because we can't lose our belovedness because we know we are beloved. We love without fear of depletion, because we know we're not the one to fill us. We are the empty ceremonial jugs that God constantly fills so that it can be poured out to others. You getting it now? And we offer what is ours to offer. And what is that? We offer ourselves. Why? Because we are the vessel. God is already in us. It has the vessel wasn't what was important. Let's go back to the miracle. The vessel was just the container to hold the water that was about to be transformed into the wine. The container didn't get the praise. What got the praise? The wine. Or the transformation of the water into wine got the praise, and it was to the glory of God. So if you've been trying to get the praise as a vessel, rest in your belovedness. Rest in knowing that you are beloved. You don't need to earn belovedness. It's all done. It's been all paid for. It's been all settled by Christ. We don't have to stress overall belovedness. And if we are stressing, if we're stressing to find our identity, if we're stressing to be seen, to be known, and to be heard, which is exactly the message that the world is trying to feed us, we have not settled in our belovedness. Because we are seen, we are heard, and better yet, we are known and we are held by God, the creator of the universe, and we're loved by Christ who gave himself for us so that we could have relationship with our Father again. What more can be done? Nothing. And here's the key between the protective self and the beloved self, the difference is do I give to be beloved or because I am beloved? Did you catch that? You see how simple that is? So when you're when you're acting and you're flowing and something's coming out of you, are you doing it to be or are you doing it because you are or I am? Isn't that wonderful? I want that to settle. Do you do because I mean, do you give or act to be beloved, or are you doing it because you are beloved and it's all about identity, it's about knowing your position. And let's wrap this up here. I'm gonna give you some reflection questions that you can take with you. Because the key here is God is moving in a very powerful way. And I want to make sure that all of us, all of us as listeners, that we get this. And here, I want to put this out there now. Share these episodes with somebody you know that's challenged in their identity, that's challenged if they have been seen, heard, loved, or known? Just share it. And here are the reflection questions. Where have I been giving from exhaustion rather than overflow? This is a big one. I want you to just think about that and invite the Holy Spirit in to these questions. Question number two. Where is God inviting me to give more gently and more freely? Beautiful. Last question. Who in my life is already receiving the quiet gift of my presence, compassion, or encouragement? Isn't that awesome? Let's pray. Most gracious Father, Jesus, you are the one who gives yourself freely from love. Teach us to share our lives, not to earn belovedness, but to extend the belovedness we have received. Make our presence a place where others encounter your heart, Lord. Let our lives become bred, broken, and shared in your compassion. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's let me let me just finish this up here because here's the deal. And in closing, beloved, chosen, blessed, broken, and loved right in that brokenness. And now we have given, and I'm gonna say given out in love. And in the final episode of this series, we will bring the journey home. In episode six, we're gonna talk about abiding in belovedness, how to live there, how to return there, and how to stay rooted and grounded in love daily. Until then, you are beloved, you are loved, you are held, and your life is a gift to be shared with others. Stay the course. And until next time, keep living daily for Christ.