Welcome And Series Bridge

All right, welcome back. It's yep. It's another opportunity to be in presence with you and to kind of continue on this beloved journey that we have been on, the fact that we are beloved of God. And I'm excited about something here that I want to share with you because I think it leads into exactly where we were in the last series. And I hope you're catching the bridge. I hope you're catching the rhythm of what God is doing. Because in the last series, beloved, becoming who we already are, we journey through six sacred movements. And those movements are important. And the first one was beloved, before anything else, we are loved. I want you to hang on to that. We're loved. If you got nothing else out of that series, know that before anything else, you are loved. The second movement was chosen. You are wanted and you're called into relationship. God initiated it. We didn't initiate. No human initiates this divine relationship. God initiated it. And that's what's so beautiful about understanding that we're beloved and we're chosen. The next movement was blessed. So God sees you with delight and speaks goodness over your life. It doesn't matter the situation or circumstance that we in or we're going through or that we have done. In spite of, remember these words, in spite of and in everything, God sees you in delight. And we're going to talk about this because I remember a while back I mentioned about wounded, being wounded and trauma. So we're going to bring this up just a little bit because I want you to understand, because the next movement was broken. Your wounds are not hidden from God. And that was so powerful to understand what Jesus did. Your wounds are not hidden from God, they are the place of deepest love. Jesus did not hide his wounds. When he resurrected, he came back, and those wounds are still with him today as a witness of the power of God that flows through him, and that is flows in us and through us. So that's important for us to grab that. And I just want you to sit with that because all of us have wounds. Every human has a wound. All of us have something that we are holding on to or we've repressed or suppressed it down. And in spite of that, God is still moving to establish relationship with us. And that relationship is never forced as much as we want to think it is, it's never forced by God. People may force it or try to push it, but God has never ever pushed Himself on relationships. And the fifth rhythm or movement was given. So we have beloved, chosen, blessed, broken, given. And this is one of the keys. Love received becomes love expressed. And that's the key because I want to I want to tie in on this one because more came out of this. And I want to dig a little bit deeper. And I don't want to sound nerdy, but this is pretty awesome what came out of this. But love received becomes love expressed. What is that singing? And I want you to remember this, because this is the revelation that I got a couple of months ago. It might have been two months or so ago, a couple of at least in the last series of the last series before that was the empty jugs at Jesus' wedding, the the wedding at Cana. There were six empty ceremonial jugs there. And I want you to see this. And the jugs were empty, waiting, waiting to be filled. And Jesus was present in that wedding. And as those jugs were filled, us, they were filled to the brim. And what happened was is when they drew from the jugs, the transformation happened. Water was in the jugs, and as the water drew out, transformation came, happened. So this key given, love receive becomes love express. Or the agape we receive becomes agape express or agape tose expressed. I want you to catch that. But in the Greek, they can break this thing down and they can tell you so much more about what the writers were trying to say to us by the use of the words that they chose. And the last movement was abiding, and that was the last episode. It's the spiritual life is the ongoing returning to love or returning to agape or living from the agape that fills us. And living from our belovedness. So in that last episode, abiding in belovedness, in episode six, was the key. Abiding that was consistently staying in our belovedness. That's our identity. We arrived at the beautiful and necessary resting place. This was it. This was the resting place. Jesus modeled abiding as a rhythm of returning. I want you to catch that. Jesus modeled abiding as a rhythm of return. And more, we'll get more into this as we go in because I want you to see the rhythm of returning. G he withdrew to quiet places, praying alone on the mountain, living from presence rather than pressure. That's the key. The rhythm of returning was this withdrawing, forgive me, withdrawing to quiet places to be with the Father, rising early in the morning, praying alone on the mountain, living from presence or living from being filled by God the Father rather than pressure. And we close that episode with this invitation. Come home to the love that has always held you, even when we didn't feel it, that love was always holding us. Abide in belovedness. I want you to think about this, man. I want you to think for a moment here. Just hang out with me for just a moment here. I want you to think about your life. Think about all the stuff, all the situations and circumstances that you have gone through to be where you are right now. And I want you to hold on to that for a moment. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And I want you to think about all of the situations or circumstances by the grace of God we never saw. Because God said, No, I'm not allowing that to happen. And we will never know what those situations or circumstances were that God said no to until we go, until we're face to face, until God reveals to us what He held back from us or what He protected us from. And that's what abiding does. But here's what I want you to understand abiding is not the end of the story. It's actually the launching point. It's the launching pad of the story. I want to make sure you get this. Abiding is not the end of the story. Remember what Jesus said: abide in me and I in you, and you will bear fruit. So we know that abiding is not the end. It's the point where, because we're connected, fruit comes on our tree, or through something that we're doing, belovedness is flowing in us, or agape is flowing in us, and belovedness is flowing out of us, things change. Situations change. We change. And we have the ability to the word becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us and doing what Jesus did. But when we abide in belovedness, something begins to move in us. And this is what we're going to talk about. I'm going to set this up. Now I'm not going to do a lot, but I'm going to set this up because I want us to understand when we abide in belovedness in our identity in God, right? Remember the saying I said that it started out long ago. But I've been recently saying we were created by agape to be agape tose, to agape on others. We were created by love to be loved and to love others. That's what I'm saying here. When we abide in belovedness, in the love that we God has for us, something begins to move in us. Not as effort, not as duty, not as striving, and not as performance, but as the natural, unstoppable flow of a life rooted and grounded in divine love. An unstoppable overflow of a life rooted and grounded in divine love. The question the beloved series planted in our hearts was who are we? That's the key. We're beloved. This new series takes us to the next sacred question. And that question is: now that you know who you are, how do we live? How do we live? Now that we know we're the beloved, how do we live? So today, as I introduced this one, I'm gonna directly it's gonna flow out of what the Holy Spirit has been doing through the beloved journey. The series is titled Loved to Love Others. Right? So loved, or I could say agape, agape to agape toast, others. You got it? So let me say that again. Actually, I didn't say that correctly. Agape toast, loved, beloved to agape ton others. That's the second rhythm. Because agape, which I'll let me not get ahead of myself because I'll share more about you for the foundation here. But loved to love others, living the sacred rhythm of agape, agape tos, agape tan, and agape. And I'm gonna break these down for you in English so that you can understand exactly what this all means, because it's extremely powerful. The agape pape agape is a very powerful point here. And that's why I decided to stay here because this verb of love of agape appeared today in my research. Not today. I've been sitting with this for over a month, and today it re it it finally showed up, and I understood what it is, and I want to pass it on to you fresh. So agape, as we all know, is the divine love that comes from God. Agape tos is our belovedness in God. Agape tan is that love that we receive, love receive begins to flow out to others. And agape agape tap pow, I'll get this as we go, guys. My tongue just doesn't flow. Agape agape agape pow, right? And forgive me, all you theologians, right? Agape pow is the essence or the motivation behind the love that's flowing. And this is why this series is important, because we're gonna talk about the why behind loving others. Because then we begin today with something I believe this point here, I believe will reframe how we have ever read the New Testament, possibly for your entire Christian life. I I believe if you understand what's gonna come out of this, and and it's all part of the book, the manuscript, and I'm gonna be releasing here. But if you get a hold of this, this might change everything for you. Because I believe it's hidden in plain sight. It's the hidden hidden hidden river. It's showing us about God's love, God's agape that's always been flowing. But when you understand what the writers of the New Testament were actually saying about love, the specific Greek words they chose and why they chose them, something unlocks. It was like was like the heavens open. It unlocks in your theology, in theology, it unlocks in your formation, it unlocks in the most important question many believers carry, but rarely, rarely ever talk about. Because in the New Testament, the writers used basically three primary Greek words for love or for agape that are at the center of our framework. Agape, the noun form, appears approximately a hundred and sixteen times in the New Testament. Agape tos is the adjective, it appears approximately sixty-one times. This is our belovedness. Approximately sixty-one times, right? And I want you to see something else that's gonna pop out of this. The next one is agape ton, the verb form of identity. But agap agap agape agapa agapa pow is the verb form of agapitan. So it is agapi tan in motion, appears a hundred and forty one times. So it is the motivation behind what we do. I just want you to catch that. I want you to catch that. That is the motivation behind what we do. That's what the writers were trying to get us to understand when they began to see it. That's what they were writing inside of the Bible. When they use agap, agap, oh my goodness, I'm struggling with this word today, agapau. There it is, agape. When they used agapow to express what was going forward, they were telling us that they were flowing out of their identity in God, their belovedness in God, not out of something else. I want you to grab that. They were flowing out of their identity in God, not something else. And this is also going to shed even more light on the fact of why we always have the question is is why, or what made the people in the in the early church, what made them go through all that they went through? What gave them the strength and the power to do what they did, to become martyrs, to be persecuted, to be hunted, and still live out the gospel and still preach the gospel, right? What was it? We're gonna learn all of this. So let me break down agape for you again. I want to give I want to give some points here and then we'll go. So agape, and here's the thing everybody knows the word agape, and we talk about it, but I don't think we've truly understand what it is because the revelation for me was in 2021, I got the words we were created by love to be love and to love others. I I heard the words. Those words audibly. As I was doing an assignment, those words came to me, and it was more from an understanding of my daughter, my eldest daughter, when she passed away. I was writing a paper, and God revealed to me my hidden biases, how I had used my biases to shield others out that didn't believe like me, that didn't act like me. And in essence, I was not operating in agape tos. I had built a wall. And when God said that to me, we were created by love to be loved and to love others. We, that means all of humanity was created by love, by God. God initiated it. And every human being is agape tos. The God, they are God's beloved, not just believers. I'll talk more about that. I want to give it all away, but we've put an emphasis on believing before belovedness. And I believe that that is the challenge. That's the problem. Because the New Testament church, the early church, they understood that they were loved by God, loved by Christ. Therefore, they believed Christ, and their life reflected their living from their belovedness. Just want you to hold on to that. So I mentioned about agape, the noun 116 times. Let me break down agape for you. So agape is the divine love of God. It's the presence, it's who God is as sustainer of all life. Agape is the hidden, often unseen or unknown, divine energy of God's love that holds, knows, and accompanies humanity as God's own creation. It is a love that continually pursues, sustains, and transforms the person until they awaken to its presence, worth, and power. As this awareness deepens, the human heart learns to rest in being agapeos, the beloved. And from that place of identity, agape tan, to love others or to love emerges. Love flowing outward freely and naturally into the lives of others. I just want you to grab that. Now, agape tos, the beloved. Watch this now. The beloved is identity, it's our identity. Who we are in God or who we are, I should say, who we are in God and to God. You got that? Agape tos is the one who is held within the abrace of agape. God so loved the world that he gave his only son. While we were yet sinners, God loved us, or God sent his son. See, God initiated. God initiates. Humanity doesn't initiate this relationship. God does. To be beloved is to be received, to be known, and cherished without condition. I just want you to get this. I want the world to hear this without conditions. The beloved do not earn identity. There is nothing we can do to earn the identity of beloved. Belovedness is received. The beloved awakened to what is already true. And that's what we talked about in the last series. What is already true for every human being? I want you to grab that. Every human being. This identity is not fragile or transactional. It is rooted in divine delight and sustained by God's eternal nearness. It's so beautiful. Now, agape tone, or I'm gonna say agape, agape, agape pow, agape pow. By the next episode, guys, I will get this thing right off my tongue. Is talking about so agape tone is the identity of the love that's flowing out of us. And agape is to love how it is expressed outwardly. So it's to act out of the agape that we have received. So agape tone is to love the act in agape. The expression is how love moves through us. Agape. That's what we're talking about. You see, so it's the movement, so agape tone is the movement of agape expressed in relationship. To love in this way is to participate in God's own life, to see others through the same sustaining gaze, that which God sees us. Wow, isn't that incredible? This love does not force, demand, or control. It honors freedom, nurtures growth, and remains steadfast in the slow yet steady process of transformation. Agapitan, agapau, is love that flows from identity, not for identity. Let me say that again. Agapow, agapau is love that flows from identity, not for identity. I just want you to get that. And that's why when you hear the scripture, Matthew 3, 17, it talks about when Jesus, before he was in ministry, 317 says it this way: it says, and a voice from heaven said, This is my son, whom I beloved, with him I am well pleased. Jesus never did anything in ministry, so what we do has nothing to do with our belovedness or our being beloved of God. That's an eternal truth that no one can ever take from us. John thirteen thirty four. No, no, thirteen, yeah, thirteen thirty-four, Jesus said it this way. He said, A new commandment I give you, love one another as I loved you, so you must love one another. So what is he saying? A new commandment I give you. Agape one another, as I agape you, so you must agape one another. So he's saying have the right expression or the right motivation of why you love others because you are doing or following the way that I loved you. That changes everything. We're not just showing up to love others and making it look like it, because that's the trick. We can be loving out of a need, but it looks like we're loving out of agape. And only God knows the difference. But I'm here to tell you that there are warning signs. There are signs that we can see when it's coming out of our belovedness, when love is truly flowing out of us, where Christ is flowing out of us in that love. So now that I broke down all of this, I want you to stop for a moment and I want you to think about it. Over 300 times in the New Testament, the derivative of agape is used, agape. A derivative is used over 300 times. This is not an accident. It is not an accident. The writers of the New Testament were inspired by the Holy Spirit to choose the verb form of love far more frequently than the now. They chose the action. You got that? They chose Agapau a hundred and forty-one times the action, the motivation of love a hundred and forty one times in the New Testament. I want you to get that. And they chose that over the now agape. Did you catch that? Because once, look, what did I say earlier? Once you receive agape, something starts to happen within you. You become aware that you are the agape ton, I mean the agape toast, the adjective, that you are beloved of God, and then that love has to flow out of you. It may not begin flowing out of you as agapeo, but eventually, the more you live out of your belovedness, the more you live out of the agape of God, out of our beloved self, the more it starts to affect everything around you. And that's what we're talking about. That's what God is getting us to become aware of. And that's what rooted is all about. That's what daily living for Christ is all about. It's for us to learn and for us to understand and for us to know that we live out of belovedness. So let me read a little bit more and then I'm gonna stop because I don't want to, I don't want to go too far. I'm gonna kind of do this in bite-sized pieces because I know it's a lot. But let me read the statement again. Stop here for a moment. The three over 300 references is not an accident. The writers of the New Testament, inspired by the Holy Spirit, chose the verb form of love far more frequently than the now. Why does that matter? Because agape as the now is the substance, the divine energy, the source, the nature of God's love. Agapau is the verb. You got it? Agapau as the verb is that love in motion. I just want you to get that. Agapau, that's it. And look, it got me to the end of the episode, and I finally got to say it right. Agapau is the verb that is love in motion, in relationship, in the dailiness of life. Now you're getting this. I know I can see it. I can see it. I can see it popping. The early church was not primarily interested in defining love, they were interested in living it. I just want you to hold on to that. I want you to hold on that they were not interested in defining it, but living it. Again, over 300 uses of agape and its derivative is not a theological footnote. It is the New Testament's insistence that love must become an action. And that that action must originate from the right place. I'm gonna hold on to that right there. Love must become an action. Agape receive, it can't be held in. And that that action and that the action must originate from the right place. And in the next episode, we're gonna talk about being and doing, the distinction between being and doing, the heart of this series, because this is what I'm saying, where the rubber meets the road. We hear the scriptures, God loves a cheerful giver. Give and it will be given back to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and runneth over. All of those things are saying it. Notice is that cheerful, but God is more concerned about what's going on on the inside versus what we do on the outside. So I want to make sure that you be encouraged. And hey, stay with me on this one. Stay with me for the next six, seven, eight, or nine weeks or whatever it is. Be ready to get this episode when it drops. You got it? But I want to I want to break down the no, I'm not gonna break it down. So I just want to the next episode, I'm gonna start with being and doing the distinction. And that's the key because this is the crucial distinction that this entire series rests on, and it is one the New Testament assumes, but rarely makes explicit in English translations. There is a profound difference, and this is where I'm gonna end right here. There is a profound difference between doing that originates from being, which I'm saying is belove, from the being of belove, and doing that originates from woundedness or a need, and that's the key. And God doesn't want us to operate from our wounds. Why? Because He's got us covered, and once we learn and live in our belovedness, the wound no longer takes precedent, but God takes the glory. More to come. Until next time, keep living daily for Christ.