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Already Loved, Nothing to Prove · In the Stillness Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey y'all, it's friendly. Welcome back to In the
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  Stillness. Happy Thursday.
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  We are almost at the end of another week.
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  So crazy that tomorrow is literally May 1st, but I'm so
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  glad that y'all are joining me on today's podcast episode.
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  And today we are gonna be continuing in our conversation
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  about God being love. And we're going even deeper
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  because I think this is not something we just hear all at
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  once and fully understand. We honestly will never fully
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  grasp it. It's something that we have to
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  grow into layer by layer, and I think a lot of us know about
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  God's love, but it can be easy to drift from fully living in
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  it. We can get into checking the
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  boxes, doing the right Christian things, simply staying
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  disciplined. But The thing is, if it is not
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  all rooted in love, it's gonna feel empty.
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  So this morning we're gonna slow down and let this truth really
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  hit. God did not just say that He
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  loves you. He made it visible through the
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  person of Jesus. So let's go ahead and read first
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  John chapter 4, verses 9 to 10. The light of God's love shined
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  within us when He sent his matchless Son into the world so
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  that we might live through him. This is love.
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  He loved us long before we loved Him.
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  It was His love, not ours. He proved it by sending His Son
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  to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins.
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  OK, even in just two verses there is so much here.
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  Right off the bat, we see, it says so that we might live
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  through Him. So that communicates.
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  Your life is not sustained by your own effort, by your own
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  strength. It's not based on how well you
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  perform, how disciplined you are, or how perfectly you follow
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  through. You were never meant to carry
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  your life on your own. You were meant to live through
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  Jesus. And I loved this.
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  In the commentary it said something about the Aramaic
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  translation and it says that we might live in His hand.
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  So you are held. That means you are not climbing
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  your way up to God. You're not trying to reach the
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  top of the corporate ladder like in a job, not trying to prove
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  that you're worthy enough, but you're actually being carried
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  and sustained and kept by Him. Isaiah 46 four says I've made
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  you and I will carry you, I will sustain you and I will rescue
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  you. So there is no ladder to climb
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  here because God came down to you.
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  And I believe when that clicks, it shifts everything because if
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  God is love, then knowing God means knowing love and not just
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  knowing about it, but actually embodying it.
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  That's why in Ephesians 3 verses 17 to 19, it talks all about
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  being rooted and established in love, actually grasping how
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  wide, how long, how high, how deep God's love is for you.
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  First Corinthians 13 verse one also says even if we do all the
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  right things, but do it without love, it means nothing.
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  It's only noise. So this is not just extra, this
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  concept is everything. And God did not just define love
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  with a feeling, he defined it with action.
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  This goes back to what we were talking about in yesterday's
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  podcast episode. God sent his only son and y'all
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  may have heard the phrase only begotten son.
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  And it's actually deeper than it just sounds because Jesus was
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  not created in that moment. He has always been eternal and
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  one with the Father. So this was not just a gift from
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  the Lord, it was a cost, a real painful and sacrificial cost.
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  Jesus knew exactly what He was walking into.
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  Hebrews 12 verse 2 says for the joy set before him, He endured
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  the cross. He persevered it not because it
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  was easy, not because it felt good in any way, but because you
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  were on the other side of it, because love was the driving
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  force. And one of my favorite songs is
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  Consider Him by Abby Gamboa in Upper Room.
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  And I just love how this song puts it.
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  It says for the joy set before him.
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  He endured the cross knowing from the beginning it would be
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  worth the cost. And then later on, in another
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  stanza of the song, it shifts. It says for the joy set before
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  us, we will lay aside every weight to behold our prize.
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  So what he did in love now becomes how we live.
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  Love is not just something that we feel, it's something that we
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  choose, that we walk out even when it costs us something.
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  So I just want to ask you this honestly.
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  Reflect on it, you and God, What is actually motivating your life
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  right now? When things feel hard or slow,
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  there's uncertainty. What are you looking towards to
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  keep going? Is it the next relationship or
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  the next job breakthrough? A perfect body?
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  A perfect routine? The life that finally looks put
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  together? Because the truth is, those
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  things will never be enough. Y'all.
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  I have chased that before. I have tried to climb the ladder
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  and maybe you have to. You keep thinking, OK, once I
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  get to the next thing, I will feel secure or I'll feel
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  satisfied with myself. But then when you get there, it
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  still doesn't feel what you thought it would.
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  Because the bottom line is that anything outside of Jesus is
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  fleeting and it will fail you. There is only one place where
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  your soul can actually rest. So just as the song says, just
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  as scripture preaches, fix your eyes on Jesus.
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  Not the next best thing, but the one best thing, Jesus Christ.
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  And this is where God completely redefines our version of love
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  that we see in the world. Because while this world says
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  that love is quick, it's easy, it's self focused and based on
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  feeling, God shows us that love is the reason He created you.
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  It is the reason He cares for you in your sinful, broken
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  nature. It's the reason He gives you the
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  choice to respond to Him free will.
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  It is the reason Jesus died for you and it is the reason that
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  you're offered eternal life. Love started with God.
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  The Aramaic translation is also cool for this.
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  It says this is how love was born.
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  So love is not something that you have to go search for.
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  It is not a competition and it's not a chase.
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  It has already been revealed and made known in the person of
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  Jesus. It's freely available right here
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  in this instant, right now. And you are never too far gone
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  for it. You never were.
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  God invited you in and sent Jesus to die for you at your
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  very worst. It said that it was God's love,
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  not ours. So He's not going to turn around
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  and reject you now. He is not looking for your
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  perfection. He is simply looking for a
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  willing heart. So just sit with this for a
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  second. Are you truly living like you're
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  already loved, or like you still have something to prove?
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  Which one is it? Because you do not have to chase
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  love. You don't have to earn it.
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  You don't have to climb your way into it.
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  You've already been welcomed into it fully, freely, and
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  forever. And when that really sinks in,
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  it does change how you live. It does change how you love.
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  It ultimately changes everything in your life.
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  So I want to leave it at that for today.
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  Let's go ahead and closeout in prayer.
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  Dear Jesus, thank you for showing us what love really is
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  through the way that you gave yourself for us so freely, so
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  willingly obedient to Your Father's will.
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  I pray that we would not just understand, but that we would
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  actually live from it. Break any mindset in us that
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  feels like we have to strive or to prove ourselves to gain that
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  love. Would you remind us that we are
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  already fully known and fully loved in you?
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  Would you fixate our eyes on your face?
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  Jesus, may our gaze look up to you above everything else.
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  Would you educate us in how we can love like you, how we can
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  treat others the way that you treat others?
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  God, may we love sacrificially and love with grace, with truth,
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  and pursue you wholeheartedly. I pray that we wouldn't just
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  love to receive something in return, but that we would love
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  out of the kindness and compassion of our hearts.
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  Only by you, Jesus, would you increase in us so that we might
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  decrease. We pray this in your holy
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  precious name, Jesus. Amen.
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  OK y'all. Well, that's today's podcast
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  episode. Praying that you can take some
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  things away and just bask in the Lord's love today.
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  It's not something that you have to earn or deserve.
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  We could never deserve it. It's something that is freely
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  offered. And so take advantage of it
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  today. Enjoy the rest of your Thursday
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  and I will see y'all on Friday's episode.