Recap On Beloved Identity

All right. Welcome back. Listen, I am so excited to just just jump right in here because after last week's episode, I just I hope you got something out of last week's episode because it was profound, right? And we ended it with the contemplation, talking from the the breathing aspect that Jesus loved from who he was. And I just stood with that. Jesus loved from who he was. He loved from a place of identity. And then we practiced the exhale that I am being formed to love in that same way. We're being formed every moment of every day. We're being formed to love in that same way. Scripture says it like this. Scripture says that we are going from glory to glory to glory. Right? We're exceeding in glory, which means the more of agape, the love of God that is flowing in us, the more of God's glory that is present. Not our glory, God's glory flowing in us. But this episode, I want to focus on, I want to focus on the rhythm of returning. But I want to be specific and show you how Jesus sustained Agap Ow. This to me, man, this is it. This is it. And if you grab it and you get a hold of this, as you begin to read the gospels again and see Jesus in action, something's gonna shift inside of you. You will never read the Bible the same once you understand what he did. And not just reading the Bible, this the Bible will become alive to you. Because as you read this and you begin to put into practice what Jesus did, you will start to see how you are being formed, right? How agapitos and agapitan is being formed into agapao, right? Because agapitos, let me just remember, agapitos is we are the beloved. We don't need to do anything for that. We are the beloved. And from the identity of beloved, agapitan says identity expressed. It is that love that we receive, it's the forming of it being expressed. And how is it expressed? It is expressed to agape. The love of God in action, not Donald's love. It is the love of God that has filled me, flows out of me to someone else. Man, I hope you're ready. Yes, you can see how excited I am. And before I get started, man, send me a fan mail, man. Let me know. Let me know how you are being blessed by this discussion, by these episodes, right? Like Paul said, fan my flame. Let me know. I know God's working, but I want to hear from you. What are you getting out of it? All right. So let's jump in here. So the re the the rhythm of return, try saying that like 10 times, the rhythm of return, right? The rhythm of return is critical. Because this is one thing we must see before moving forward. We have to see how this rhythm of return is connected to everything else. Because a question may be forming inside of you. How did Jesus sustain this? I want you to think about it. How did Jesus sustain everything that we've been talking about? We saw in the four movements, we saw how Jesus moved, we saw how he from Lazarus, from the leopard, we see all these things, but what was inside flowing? Because Jesus was operating as 100% man, son of man. So how did he sustain it? And here, here's another one for you. How did Jesus live, love, right? How did he love like this day after day after day, with such consistency and depth, and watch this now, without burning out, without becoming cynical, and without retreating into self-protection. Right? I just want you to see that now. When you read the gospels, you don't see Jesus turning, going in, right? You don't see Jesus being burnt out, you don't see Jesus becoming cynical. You see him approaching the Pharisees in one way, but he's not cynical. And you don't ever see Jesus retreating into self-protection. But what we need to understand is how did he do it? So I'm gonna read through some scriptures, and maybe this might be turned into a contemplation, but I want you to read, I want to read scriptures so that you can see what Jesus did, right? Because the gospel answers this very clearly for us. But we often read past them. So I'm gonna start out with the scriptures, and if I decide to just do some interjecting, I might just get there and go from there. So here's the first one that I want to focus on, right? The first one is this very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Mark 135. Want you to notice the rhythm here. The next one that shows up is Matthew, right? I want to read Matthew 14 and 13. When Jesus heard this news, the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitude place. I want you to catch that now. Look what he's doing here. He withdrew quietly to a solitary place. Then we have this one. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5, 16. Let me read some more. I want to see if you're catching the pattern. It says, after he, Jesus, dismissed them, who the disciples and the people. This is after feeding the 5,000, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Matthew 14, 23. Then we have this one. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. Right? Well, let me oh well, let me read the whole thing. I just I read the bottom of it. It says, Instead, he went out and begun to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter the town, but stayed outside in a lonely place. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. Here's another one, and that was Mark 145. But I want you to pick what are you picking up now? What words are coming out for you here? At daybreak he departed and went into a desert place, a deserted place. Luke 442. Here's another one. Let me read this one. But now, more than ever, the word about Jesus spread abroad. Many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he, Jesus, would withdraw to a deserted places and pray. Luke five, fifteen and sixteen. Here's another one. The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. He said to them, Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat and departed to a deserted place by themselves. That's Mark 630 through 34. Let me read some more here because I want you to see this before I even start. Here's the thing in the mountains, I want you to think about mountains. Remember, I talked about mountains before. I talked about deserted or desert desert places and wilderness places. Now let's think about mountains. When you think of a mountain in the Old Testament and from the first century, the mountain was the place where you would go to meet God. God was on high. All the psalms talk about God being on high. And I want you to be able to catch this. But look what it says. It says, immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead. I think I read this go ahead to the other side to Bethesda. While he dismissed the crowd, after saying farewell to them, he went up the mountain to pray. I want you to get that. He went up the mountain to pray. And here's another example. This is that was Mark's description. And then here's Matthew. Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side. While he dismissed the crowd, and after he had dismissed them, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. Notice the details. That's Matthew 14, 22 and 23. Let's keep going. When he, Jesus, was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. Notice, look what look what Jesus is constantly doing. Let me keep going. It says, by now, more than ever, the word about Jesus spread abroad. Many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their disease. But let me, I read this already. I'm going to read it again. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray. Beautiful. Here's another one. Now, doing those days, he went out to the mountains to pray and was passing the night in the prayer of God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them whom he named apostles. Look at the pattern. And that's Luke 6, twelve through thirteen. Here's another one from Luke. Now, about nine days after these sayings, Jesus took with him, this is so important. Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on a mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white. Who does that remind you of? If you guess Moses, you are correct. I'm gonna come back to this one because I want to go into the scripture and I want to read a little bit more on this one. This was Luke 9, 28. Let's keep going a little bit. I got two more or so to read for you, and then we'll do we'll get into this. Every day he was teaching in the temple. Notice every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called, and all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple. Luke 21, 37 and 38. Then we have the last one I'm gonna read. It says, He came out and went as he was well as it was custom to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them, Pray that you may not come into the time of trial. Luke 22, 39 through 40. Let me see. I want you to pick this up. He came out and went as it was his custom. Notice he didn't say, Luke did not say it was the custom of the people, it was Jesus' custom to break away to ensure that he could spend time with the Father. So tell me, through all of this reading, what did you notice? What was the first thing that came up for you? Were you able to see the consistency in which Jesus made it very specific for himself to be able to be in presence with God? It's so important for us to see this because everything that we're talking about has to be done in a spirit of wanting to, not in the spirit that you have to, right? This is the kenosis. The kenosis is that your desire is to do this because it is pleasing unto God, not unto yourself. You are doing this because you desire to walk with God. And the way that you walk with God, as Jesus showed us, is to make time apart from everything to be alone with God. What I love about all of the scriptures that we read, it just said alone with himself to pray. And this is the beautiful thing about it is because it didn't tell us how he prayed. But what we can see is we will see certain times where he taught what that was. And all you got to do is go back to Matthew 4 and 4. He said, When you pray, and I did an episode on this, remember? Metanoia and Talmion. When you pray, go into your house and close the door, right? Go into your house, close the door, pray to your father who is in secret. That's the key. So the door, the contemplatives of old realized that that going into the house and closing the door in that inner room was a representation of us closing ourselves off, going into our heart, allowing our heart to commune directly with God. And he said, pray to your father who is in secret. Not what we desire, but being in the presence of God where you get to that place where God can speak in through you. So let me read some stuff here, and then I want to break down. I want to go back to the transfiguration because I believe that there's some information in there that we don't pick up that I want to bring out before we close out here. But here's the key. After the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, after the healing of the sick, after the long days of teaching, what did Jesus do? He withdrew on purpose. He returned to the Father. He returned to the place where identity was spoken and agape was the source. Let me read that again because I want to make sure you get that. I want to say it again and again and again. After the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, after the healing of the sick, after the long days of teaching, after all that you do, your days at work, your house, all the stuff that we do, return, right? Or withdraw means come away from that place and get to that secret place where you can withdraw and be with the father. Because it said Jesus withdrew on purpose, and then he returned. So it's a withdrawing and a returning to the father. Or let me say it this way: returning to the place of our source. Because that's the key. He returned to the place where identity, where belovedness was spoken, and agape was the source. And this is not incidental. It's right there in plain sight in the gospel for us to see in all of the gospels. But here's the point. If we haven't noticed it, it's never too late. And this is what I believe God is unveiling for us. It is the tsunami of agape that's bringing us to this place where we know that we can come back to this. It's not incidental. This is the formation rhythm that makes agapeo sustainable. Through the outpouring of agape, of being able to receive agape and going back to the source and making sure that we never run dry. Agapow is sustainable. Without this rhythm, you are going to run dry. And when you run dry, irritability shows up, frustration shows up, tiredness shows up, bitterness shows up. Or let me say it this way: all of the functions of the protective self starts to come back into play. By going into presence, by withdrawing and returning into presence, you loosen the grip of the protective self and all of the saboteurs. Because when you are in God's presence, you're not trying to perform. You're not trying to achieve. You're not picky. You're not stickler. You're not restless. You're not hyper-achieving. You're not hyper-vigilant. And that's what the presence of God does. Notice, I want to make sure you see this. Notice it's not a worship song that Jesus is using. It's not reading the scriptures. He did not have the scriptures where he went to go read the scriptures. He went back to the source that doesn't require us to leave our house. And when I say house, I mean our temple, which is our body. I hope you're getting that. And here's the key. Jesus loved. And here, I mean, let me say it this way. Jesus did not love from an infinite, I mean, Jesus did not love from an infinite reserve that required no replenishment. He loved as a human being. And as being human, he returned regularly to agape at the source. You see, this is what people don't, they miss this point here. They think, oh, he was God, so he had an endless supply of it. No, Jesus was functioning as the son of man. So it wasn't an infinite or a limitless supply. He had to be on purpose, going back to return, back to the source to be filled. And the and when he went back to the source, the father, the silence, the place where identity was held and spoken and re-received, he got what? Recharged. Life was given into him. And that's where where some major points show up. Let me go back now to the transfiguration because I believe there's something in here that I want to share with you and see if you noticed it. Right? All right, we're doing good here. So about the eighth, it was about eight days after Jesus said this. He took Peter, John, and James with him and he went up to the mountain to pray. Let me say something here. Jesus said he took Peter, John, and James. Not everyone is gonna be in that position where they're going to be ushered into the presence. You have to work. There were 12 disciples, but only three of them went in. Three of them went up to the mountain. So this is what I'm saying to you. If you are sensing God inviting you, or let me put it this way, based on the scripture, if you are sensing Jesus inviting you into more, you feel that urge to be into presence and that urge to go into solitude or silence or contemplation, it's not you. Jesus is inviting you in the same way he took Peter, John, and James and went up to the mountain on high. Let me keep reading. Well, let me say this: why did he take them? Have you ever thought about that? Why did Jesus take Peter, John, and James? I tend to believe he saw something in them and he wanted to show them what they were going to need once he was not around. How to sustain the very presence that he was living in. And look what it says here. It says, as he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became bright as a flash of light. Verse 30: two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure. What I love about this man, Luke is got, Luke got all the details here. He said they spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. But look what happens in verse 32. Peter and his companions, Peter, James, and John, were very sleepy. Did you ever notice that? They were in the presence of Jesus and he is transfiguring. And what does it say here? They were very sleepy. So offer yourself grace when you start to go into this type of prayer and you become tired, or you might even fall asleep. Because that is the protective self trying to get you to be discouraged to turn back and not go all the way in and sit with Jesus. I just hope you caught that. Verse 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy. What? But now it says, but when they became fully awake, notice when they became fully awake. So the question here is what made them become fully awake? Let me keep going and I might share the answer with you. He says, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. I want you to see that I'm gonna pause there as the men were leaving, Jesus, Moses, right, and Elijah were leaving Jesus. Peter said to him, Master, is it good for us to be here? I just want you to catch that. I want you to catch the fact that when you go into presence and you start to see and and and sense and know the very presence of God, and you sense the Holy Spirit operating and working in your life in prayer and outside of prayer, and you feel the presence of God, not an emotional presence, but the known presence of God, the agape of God flowing in and out of you. The question is going to come up. Is it good for us to be here? That question was the protective self trying to cast doubt that this was good for them. Because the protective self knows if you get locked in with God, it's losing its position. The flesh cannot be in the presence of God. And it's very subtle here, but I love it. And look, look how the look how Peter justifies it. Or I don't want to say Peter because this was the flesh. So the protective self justifies it. Master, is it good for us to be here? The next thing he says, he goes right to work. I want you to catch that. He goes right into trying to strive or produce something. He says, let us put up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Did you catch that? He went right into striving. God had a transformation moment, a transfiguration moment. And the only answer that Peter could come up with was to question if he was supposed to be here. And once the question went out, automatically let me go to work to earn to be here. I hope you saw this. This is awesome, y'all. This is insanely awesome. This is the stuff that nobody wants to talk about. But the tsunami of agape is saying it's time to talk about this. It's right here, hidden in plain sight. And look what verse 34 says. While he was speaking, who's he? Peter. A cloud appeared and covered them. The glory of God filled them, filled the place that they were in. Are you catching this? And they were afraid as they entered the crowd. So look, look what it's telling you. You might have a sense of fear because this is stepping into the unknown, the visible presence of God when it envelops you. What can you do? Because it it blows our mind. Just like this series I'm talking about, the everything that's coming out, it is blowing my mind. It's blowing the concept of what I thought about things. I see scripture with a whole new light. While Peter was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered. This is what I love. At least they didn't run away. Stand in your fear and allow the cloud to cover you. And look what happens in verse thirty-five. And it says, A voice came from the cloud saying, This is my son, whom I have chosen. Listen to him. The same voice that said in Matthew, This is my beloved son, and who I am well pleased. Did you catch that? I hope you got something out of that. And look, verse 37, 36. Let me finish this. When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. Wait a minute. Jesus left them? I did you did you see? Did you catch that? They did so if the voice, it said when the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. So they were encamped in the presence of God, and Jesus was not present there. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen. But I it's no longer for us to keep to ourselves. God is designed for us to get into that position, the same position that they were in, so that we can experience the glory of God's presence, envelop us. What does Colossians tell us again? Christ in us, the hope of glory. Paul said it this one I have been crucified with Christ, yet I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And I hope you're getting something out of this. And this is what I want to end on. This is short, but I want to make sure you get it. I got a couple of brief prayers for you and some questions that you can take with you. And these questions are for the last two episodes. This third episode is connecting the last two episodes that go with this. But here's the key: this is the connection to the last episode of the series that we're talking about. Abiding in Belovedness. So in episode six of the beloved series, the title Abiding in Belovedness, this connects. Abiding is not passive. I want you to get that now. Abiding is not passive. It is the active, intentional returning to the source of love so that the expression of love does not become depleted performance. Oh did you catch that? So that the expression of love or expression of agapao does not become depleted protective self-performance. Agapau is not sustained by trying harder. It is sustained by returning deeper to Agapitos, the beloved, to the Father's voice, to the love that was spoken before the first act of ministry or anything we have ever done began. Now, some questions for you before I end here that you can take with you. You got it? So of the four scenes: the leopard, the foot washing, the weeping at Lazarus' tomb, and Peter's restoration, which one reveals something in you about how you are currently loved? What did it reveal? Another reflection question. Number two, where in your life are you most tempted to love from the protective self? To keep distance, keep score, or to require restoration before you extend love again? Reflection question number three. Jesus withdrew regularly to sustain his capacity for agape. What is your equivalent? What is your practice? What or place where you return to the Father to be re-rooted in agapitos, your belovedness? Last question here for you to take with you. Where has loving others depleted you? And in light of what we've explored in these last three episodes, what might that depletion be telling you about the root of that love? Let me pray. Father, Jesus, you showed us what love, what love looks like when it has the true source. Lord, you touched the untouchable, you healed the hurting, you restored the sight of the blind. You did what agape does. You made yourself available. Continue to form us as we rest in our agape tos that we may become agape. And Father, thank you for illuminating your scriptures, for illuminating your word, that this word may become flesh and dwell amongst people. Or to say it this way, this word may become flesh and agapow others. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, now let me close this out. So we saw agapau as it was always meant to be, flowing from the identity of agapitos through the form vessel of agapitan and into a world without depletion, without performance, and without fear. You can operate in a world without being depleted and exhausted, without trying to perform or strive and without fear. And in our next episode, in the next couple of episodes coming up, we are moving from Jesus as the model into the community he formed, talking about us. We will look at the early church, Acts, Paul's letters, and John's writings to see how the first followers of Jesus actually live this sacred rhythm of Agapao in the dailiness of their communal life. Not in theory, not in an ideal, but in practice. And until then, carry these words with you. You are being asked to love the way Jesus loved, not through willpower. You are being invited to be rooted and grounded where Jesus was rooted and grounded. And from that rootedness, love will find its way. Until next time, keep living daily for Christ.