Welcome And Series Framework

All right. Welcome back to the Daily Living for Christ podcast. You know it's me, it's Donald. And we're continuing with the series, the new series, Loved to Lived. It's living the sacred rhythm of agape, agape tose, agape tan, and agape. In episodes one, now notice there were two parts. If you haven't checked it out, there's two parts to episode one, parts one and two. We open with something that I believe the Holy Spirit has been wanting believers and the body of Christ to understand for a long time. And the distinction is between agape as a now and agapau as a verb. And I I gotta share this with you right up front because I sat with this, man. This has been with me now almost a year and a half. I sat with this and just really trying to distinguish agape and where where it showed up because it's a verb. And then agape toast, and I don't mean to get all technical, but agape toast is you know, beloved, right? It's our identity, right? I want you to get that. It's identity received, and then agapitan is identity expressed. So I was using agape, the source, agapitos, identity received, and agapeton is identity expressed. I kept that together. And for a year and a half, I never brought out agapow. But what happens is when we move from identity expressed, and people don't understand agape, that it's love and action that's motivated. We can get in a place of doing that is not healthy. And separating it out created four movements, and that is the source, agape, that is identity received, agapeos, identity expressed, notice, expressed. So you're still operating in identity that expressed, it's agape ton. And then now love in action is agape. So it begins with God and it ends with God, agape, because it is God's agape that is flowing through us that causes the action to happen. And yeah, let me hold it because I got so much I want to throw out here. But what I said, what I said here is that the distinction between agape as a noun and agape as a verb, we saw that in the New Testament, the New Testament writers chose the verb of love over 300 times. I just, it's mind-blowing for me when I think about that. Not love as a concept, right? Not love as a theological category, but love as emotion, love as life, love as a daily relational, active reality. And we did all of that in episodes one and two. And here's the thing we plan it, and at the end of that, we plan it. I planted a diagnostic question that will follow us through every episode in this series, however long it takes us. And the question is this is I'm gonna say the here, let me say it this way, and then I'll break it down. Is my doing coming from my being or from my wound? I just want you to get that. Let me put it this way: is your doing, is what you're doing coming from your being or your identity received, an identity expressed, or is it coming from a wound or a trauma? What is the motivation behind what's coming out? And that brings me to today, because today we move from language into life, we move from the linguistic reality of Agapao to its living embodiment, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And here's the thing I want to say what's beautiful. We're doing this episode on the Thursday before Good Friday. And it's so, I mean, I'm so sensitive to everything that Jesus did for us. And I'm hoping that parts of this series really shine through what God is saying to us. Jesus was agape in the flesh. I just, I just, man, I just hope we get this. Jesus was agape in the flesh with legs, arms, eyes, feelings, emotions, hurts, disappointments, all those things Jesus experienced, but yet something stayed consistent. And I want you to get this, right? Because here's the key. And the living embodiment is Jesus of Nazareth. I'm saying Jesus of Nazareth, or I can say Jesus Christ. I just want you to understand that. Because before we can understand what beloved self-doing looks like in our personal lives, we need to see it perfectly. You understand me? Perfectly modeled in Jesus' life. Jesus did not teach about a God Paw. He was a God Pao. He was the embodiment, he embodied love, active and rooted. Incredible when you think about this, man. When you when you read the gospel now, I want you to see that Jesus is the abodiment of agape in action, which makes it agape. The question that we must ask of every act of love, when we read the gospels, we tend to focus on what Jesus did. We are moved by the miracles, the instruction. I mean, how he instructed by the teaching, and we are amazed by what took place on the cross, which we are going into that season right now, because it was amazed, amazement that he did it for us. And I want to say this now because it was so awesome to read the scripture that says, while we were, yep, while we were sinners, God sent Jesus. I want you to get that now. That that that in itself is speaking to us in a way that you can never comprehend it in your natural mind. Let me say it this way: While we were separated from the Father, God sent Jesus to repair the relationship to win us back. He didn't expect us to win the relationship. He sent Jesus, he sent himself in flesh and blood to win us back. I just want you to grab that. Because here's the key, but there is a question that we rarely ask. And it's the question that this series is training us to ask of every act of love we encounter in scripture and in our lives, on your job, in your family, in your community, in your church, wherever you are, this is the question that God is actually asking us. Where did that love come from? Where did Jesus get it? Where did it come from? We see it in action, but where did it come from? And once we understand where this love came from, we can operate in it because it is the same for us. And for Jesus, watch this now. For Jesus, the answer is always the same. You ready? Every act of healing, every foot wash, every child he held, every leopard he touched, every moment of weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, all of it flowed from one source, and it was not duty, and it wasn't moral obligation, and it wasn't a need to prove himself, and it wasn't out of fear of disappointing the father. So to answer the question, it flowed from a settled, ready, a settled, unshakable identity. He knew whose he was. And from that knowing, agape moved, or love in action moved. So whenever you hear me say agape throughout this series, I'm saying love in action or agape in action or God in action, because first John teaches us that God is love, and that word says God is agape. So whenever you hear me say agape, you're hearing me say God in action. Agape in action and agape in us in action towards someone else. So make the connection. Agape in action is a agape. Got it? So I want to just get this now. Love in action. Now, this is the pattern the New Testament wants us to see. If you haven't seen it, you will get it by the time we get to the end of this. This is why over 300 uses of Agapao, love and action, are not coincidental. They're instructional. You see, and it's hard for us to detect it, it's to detect it in reading the Bible because sometimes they use a different word, loved, beloved, dear friend, and you'll see all those things. But in the Greek, the word that's used is agape. Love that was motivated from agape. I hope you all are getting excited because I'm I'm like on fire just listening to this, listening to me speak this is just incredible. Let me say this again is this is the pattern the New Testament wants us to see. This is why over 300 uses of Agapao, love in action is not coincidental. They're instructional. They are showing us love as it was always meant to live. You got it? They're showing us how love was always meant to live from being not towards it. So coming out of us, not trying to get it. You'll catch it, right? So I have three movements that I want to talk to in this episode. I may not get to all of them because I don't want to rush this. So if I don't get to all of them, just look for the next episode as a part two. And if it has to be a part three, then that's what it'll be because we're not going to rush through this. Because this to me is very, it's critical that we stay in belovedness, that we understand beloved, our belovedness in God, or our agapeos, so that we can live out of the agape ton so that agapeo can flow out of us. So now, movement one, and I've said this before in the last series, but it's it's critical that I go over this again. The baptism, here's the key, where identity was established, where agapitos was established. Let me read it. Matthew three, seventeen, and a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. Now we can begin nowhere else. Everything is right here, right now. Everything was leading up to this moment. This is the axis of the entire gospel of Jesus Christ. Not the cross, which is important, not the empty tomb, which is extremely important, not the sermon on the mount. The axis is right here at the Jordan River before any of what I just said took place. Before the cross, before the empty tomb, before the sermon on the mount. It all started at the Jordan. And here's what took place. When the Father speaks, he speaks three things over Jesus in a single declaration. Let me read what he said again. He said, You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. Now I want you to listen to the three declarations or the three things that God the Father spoke over Jesus' life. And I'm going to be as bold to say that as he spoke it over Jesus, he was speaking it over us. And you'll get it. And I'm going to share with you when and why and how. First, he spoke relationship. You're my son. Belonging is established before anything else. And we live in a world today where one of the main things is people want to feel like they belong. But the challenge that we're having is we want to belong to a world that doesn't know who we are. And before the foundations of the earth, before the foundation of everything that is created, God knew us. And God established relationship with us. We belonged in God, and therefore God called us into being here, that we are now on earth. I want you to catch that. Relationship was first, you are my son. The second thing that was was identity. When he spoke the word beloved, igapitos, the precise word, not a servant, not a worker, not a messenger, beloved. I want you to get that. So he established relationship, and then he says, Here's your identity. And your identity is in me. Agapeos has agape in it. That means that everything, our identity, all came from God. Wow, isn't that powerful? I just let that settle. Now the next thing, he spoke delight. With you, I am well pleased. But the interesting thing about this is Jesus never did one thing in ministry. But he speaks, he says, With you I am well pleased. Not because of what he had done, you catching it, but because of who he is. And I want you to hear this now. God is well pleased with you, not because of what you have done or trying to do, but because you are a son and a daughter. And this is the key, the transition that moves us from right from beloved, being beloved, into becoming a believer. Where we've gotten it backwards. We said you gotta believe first, and then you are beloved. No, we are sons and daughters, God is our creator. Now, by accepting our identity from God, we move into relationship, and it's it's profound when you think about it, and that relationship transitions us into the place of believing. Now we go into a deeper relationship where our motives, everything, we become what God is seeing. We become more Christ like. Identity and delight. And notice the sequence here. The father does not say, right, you preach well, therefore you are beloved. He does not say, you healed the sick, therefore I am pleased. The declaration of agapitos, identity received, precedes the ministry entirety. It receives, it I mean, proceeds the ministry entirely. There is nothing, Jesus did not one thing. He came to be baptized by John. And here's what I want you to take away from this. Get this right now. Identity is not a reward. Identity is the foundation. Let me say that again because I know that that's like I want you to grab this. Identity is not a reward. Identity is the foundation. So now this is agapitos. This is identity received in its purest form. It is the seed bed, right? It's the seed bed or the seed that the sower is sowing, from which every act of agape in Jesus' ministry will grow. Every act of love in action, of agape in action in Jesus' ministry, begins right here. Jesus does not love to earn the Father's pleasure or approval. He loves because the Father's pleasure has already been spoken over him. You see it? That in itself is everything. God has already spoken this over us. Well, where did he say it, Donald? When did he say it? John 3 16. God so loved the world and everybody in it that he sent or gave his only begotten son. He sent Jesus to repair the relationship to win us back. And from that love we become believers. We are beloved, therefore we are in a position to become a believer. I want you to grab that. And I know I'm gonna rattle some feathers, but this is this is gospel, y'all. We've gotten this thing backwards, and we need to correct it. The baptism does not commission Jesus to love. I want you to see this now. The baptism does not commission Jesus to love, it roots him in love. And from that rootedness, agape, love and action becomes inevitable. So let me say it this way. I hope you get it, right? And I'm gonna use baptism, but I'm gonna fix this up because I know people from all different Christian faiths listen to this podcast. So the baptism or your born-again experience, whatever experience it was that you accepted Christ, does not commission you or me to love. It roots us in love. And from that rootedness, love in action becomes inevitable. Now, are you ready for this? Watch this now. Now you can understand why Paul's prayer for the believers in Ephesus and for us is so powerful and profound. Listen to what Paul prays. He says, and I pray that you being rooted and established in agape, love is the word there, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide, how long, and how high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Look at Paul. Look what the Holy Spirit imparted into Paul to pray for the Church of Ephesus and all believers since that point. It's right here, right in front of us. In this very, in these three verses, two verses, we see agape showing up twice. It's just right there, established in love, power together. And then it says right here that how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is love of Christ, and to know this love again that surpasses knowledge. Isn't this profound, man? It's like right here we get to see Paul had an understanding of three of the uses of the over 300 times Agapau and its derivatives were used in the New Testament. And you can see it, why Paul was so profound and why the church was operating the way that it was operating. So we talked about movement one. Now here's movement two. It's important here, and I'm gonna spend my, I'm gonna take my time on this one because this I think is where we get, we lose it, we we misunderstand what's happening. Movement two, which I talked about this before, the wilderness where identity is tested, not the person. Its identity is tested. Matthew four and one, then Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Why, Donald? And all of us go through this season. Let me finish and I'll share with you about myself here. Immediately after the Father speaks, agape toast, identity received over Jesus, the Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness. And this is where something critical happens, y'all. Something that reveals exactly how beloved, right? Beloved self-doing works, and exactly how the protective self tries to replace it. This is what I want you to get here. The enemy does not come at Jesus with a theological argument. He does not attack Jesus' power. He doesn't attack his knowledge or his virtue. What does he attack? He attacks his identity three times. Each assault opens with the same phrase. If you are the son of God. Did you catch that? If you are, right? This is what I want you to get here. If you are the son of God, in the same way, well, you you you're like this moment that we're we're living in our Christ, and it's like that temptation will come. Well, if it's like you don't even, all the words don't even come out, son of God. It's like, well, if, and then we just move. But here's what I want you to see. Did you hear what is happening? The enemy is not trying to get Jesus to sin. He's trying to make Jesus prove himself. Now you understand it. I just heard, I heard the earth shirk. I heard the earth shake with that one. I heard it. I felt it. He's trying to make Jesus prove. He's trying to dislodge Jesus from agapitos, from the settled belovedness just spoken over him and force him into the protective self. And let me tell you, it's been that way from us from since the fall all the way to the current day. Because we don't know of our belovedness in God, we are forced into the protective self and we build this wall, this safety net around ourselves, and we start doing from protection versus doing from being or from the beloved self. And what happens when you start to operate from the protective self? We act from fear. We may not admit it, but we're acting from fear. Somewhere along the line, at the root, fear is there. Well, if I don't work, I don't eat you. We've heard that in church before. Well, if I don't work, I don't get this. If I don't do this, I won't get paid. If I don't do that, I won't get the bonus. If I don't do that, I won't get promoted to get more money. All these things is driving us to do it. And at the root is fear. And here's another thing from the protective self-doing, act from fear and demonstrate what we believe is our worth to try to earn what God the Father just gave us for free. You cannot put a monetary value on being beloved. I mean, do you get it? The creator of the universe values you so much that you exist on earth. Do you not understand that? There are so many people, I'll share this with you. My wife and I, we tried to have a baby for ten and a half years. Ten and a half years, and nothing happened. And in Cairo's time, my daughter Madison, my wife got pregnant, and my daughter Madison showed up. Doctors told us before that it's never going to happen. But in God's timing, Madison shows up. And here's what happened in that time, and that I'm calling the wilderness. Because for us, we were trying to make this thing happen versus resting in our belovedness in God and knowing or when saying if God wants us to bring forth life, it's going to come forth. Not stressing over it, but resting in it. So where are you operating in the wilderness now trying to make something happen? And I will say this again: I got ordained in 2001. And it felt like for 20 years I had been put on the shelf. But within those 20 years in the wilderness, God revealed to me things that were inside of me that I am grateful now that I didn't go up front and live in ministry. Glad that God was gracious with me and took time to develop in me my belovedness. And I fully, as an ordained minister, really didn't step into the true reality and understanding of what it means to be agapi toast, to be beloved of God, until just recently. Yes, I'm being honest. I understood what it meant intellectually and theologically, but viscerally, experiencing it in my life ontologically, no, I didn't. But I know now that God is with me and in me. I know for sure that agape will never leave me. I know that God loves me. I know that all of my expression of the love that flows out of me is not because of me. It's because the love that I have received. And when I try to love someone out of my own strength, it just doesn't work. And that is one of the most important things I want you to take away with you that loving out of your strength will not work. Eventually, you are going to grow tired of loving in your own strength. And the moment you become tired is when God says, I've been here. Why does Paul tell us that our identity is in Christ? Our identity is in the agape of God, not in ourselves. Want you to really grab a hold of that. Situations or circumstances are coming at us to attack our identity. They want us to prove who we are. No, we don't have to prove it. We don't have to demonstrate our worth. We don't have to act from fear. We don't have to earn what God has already given us when he declared that we are the beloved. And here's the thing: Jesus refuses every time he refuses to respond from fear, from demonstrating or trying to prove. He doesn't argue with the devil. He doesn't argue with the temptation. But what does he do? But by returning again and again and again and again to the word that was already spoken. And Jesus said it this way: He said, It is written. In that statement, he was speaking about his belovedness in God. He was speaking about his identity in God, in the Father. And this is why you can go to John and you can read. Right? And then he turns around and he tells us, he said, Abide in me and I in you. He said, Because apart from me, you can bear no fruit. He's telling us the exact same thing. So what he received from God, he now passes on to us by staying attached to the vine. By us staying attached to Jesus, we live from agapitos, our identity received, we flow into agapitan, identity expressed, and then agape love goes into action. I just want you to get it. Jesus said, it is written, he does not prove who he is. He rests on who he has been declared to be. I want y'all to get this. I want you to get to this place where you can rest in who you have been declared to be, and not based on how you feel. It's not a feeling. It's a truth, an eternal truth that can never be taken away. And this, let me let me close, let me let me wrap this up on this. This is one of the most important formational moments in all of scripture for understanding agape, for understanding love in motion. I mean love in action. Because the temptation Jesus resisted in the wilderness is the same temptation that drives protective self-doing in us. It's right there. It's been driving people for over two thousand years. The temptation to act from the womb of an unproven identity rather than from the rest of a received identity. Let me say that again. Right? The temptation is to act from the womb of an unproven identity. Rather than from the rest of the one received, of the of the uh of identity received. I'm sorry, I got tongue tied there. Rather than from the rest of an identity received. Listen, the wilderness is where agape tos, identity received, is stress test. And that could explain why some of us and some of you listening to this feel like you've been in a wilderness or in the desert. It's the proving ground. God is building it in you. Go back and listen to the last series. The desert is not punishment. The wilderness is not punishment. It's to fortify you. It's to ensure that the roots run deep. And here's the key: Jesus emerges from the wilderness, not depleted, but confirmed. And from confirmation, his ministry begins. So I want to go into a short contemplation. I think I'm going to end with this because there's a lot that's going on here. I want to pause here. I want you to pause here with me for a moment. Because a lot has gone over here. But where in your life is the enemy using the same tactics, or your protective self is using your same tactics? The ego self, the saboteurs are using the same tactics, not attacking your strength, but questioning your identity. Where are you hearing? Or if you really were worthy, where are you hearing that if you question, or if you were, you see, where is that if popping up for you? Because if is a contradiction of what has already been declared. So now I want you to settle in. Take a moment, relax your body. Settle in, and I want you to breathe in, take a deep breath in. Exhale, and I want you to remember every time you breathe in, you're breathing in the love of God. And every time you exhale, you're breathing out the love of God. So now breathe in again. Inhale. I am already named beloved. On the exhale, I do not need to prove what God has already declared. Let's do that one more time. Inhale. I am already named beloved. Hold it. Now exhale. I do not need to prove what God has already declared. I'm going to stop right here. Listen. And I pray that this episode has touched you in a way that needs to be touched. And don't forget, come on back to the next epic hole. We're going to pick up on movement three. And there's some other things that we're going to discuss. And movement three is the ministry of Agapao and daily expression. And until then, keep living daily for Christ.