Latest / First Love Revolution / One of Those People (Part 5): "The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved" | October 30, 2023

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One of Those People (Part 5): "The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved" | October 30, 2023 · First Love Revolution

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Revolution Church Message Series.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: One of those People.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: You can find the entire series in video and podcast format, as well as other messages, at FirstLoveRevolutioncom.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Here's Pastor Shane with today's message.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Siding days ahead.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And now let me just say welcome back to our weekend series called One of those People.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Today we're going to be looking at one of the OGs, the original.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: One of those people, okay, a man who not only was passionate but lived a life of continual, ongoing passion up until his death at a very late age, and so he sustained and he grew in passion over a lifetime.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: If we want to be one of those people, well, the apostle John.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: He is certainly someone that's a prime example for us, and we're going to be learning one of the keys of being one of those people who are passionate from him.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: John, of course, he's often known, he's often talked about.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: For a certain way, he describes himself in the gospel that he pinned, as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: John 21, 20, peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: So there you go the disciple whom Jesus loved is talking about John, and John is the one that's writing this apostle.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: So, like what do you think when you hear this?
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, imagine if somebody around here started speaking of themselves that way.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Brandon, whom Jesus loved.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Brian, whom Jesus loved.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Somebody decides to write a book Kevin, first name, last name, not Ross.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Kevin whom Jesus loved.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, this is.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I think most of us might kind of think wow, man, those guys think pretty highly of themselves, don't they?
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: And I think that a lot of people think that about John.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: It's like, wow, john thinks he's pretty special, doesn't he?
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: He thinks that he's someone that Jesus loved more than others, that he's someone Jesus loved in some unique way.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: But is that true?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Is that what John thought?
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: We're going to try to answer this question today and, as we do, it's going to be helpful to rewind a little bit from the text that we just read and see that this is not the first time that this phrase was used of John.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: In the Gospel of John, there are actually several instances that preceded the one that we just read to get to that point, and so, just backing up seven or so chapters to the very first time that John introduced this phrase as a descriptor of himself, and from then on, anytime he uses it, it's obvious who he is talking about.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: So this is the original introduction of this phrase John 13-23, reclining on Jesus' bosom was one of his disciples whom Jesus loved.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Now, I know we don't say bosom much these days, but here we have one of the disciples and he's reclining on the chest of Jesus at the Last Supper and we read that he's one of these disciples whom Jesus loved.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: When we read it here, we don't hear John saying that he is the disciple whom Jesus loved.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: It says that he's one of the disciples whom Jesus loved and so maybe he's not making the claim that Jesus' love for him was unique from Jesus' love for the others.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: But before we come to that conclusion, let's just look at another verse.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: John 19-26 also has the same phrase when Jesus is hanging on the cross at this moment.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: When Jesus then saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother woman, behold your son Now.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Earlier it was one of the disciples whom Jesus loved, but here it is in the singular it is the disciple the disciple was standing nearby whom Jesus loved.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: If you just look at this verse alone, I think it could certainly show that maybe John was uniquely loved in a way that the others were not, and that he knew it and all of that.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: But since it builds on that earlier passage that we just looked at, where John was one of the disciples, it really could go either way at this point.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Either John was uniquely loved by Jesus and it was a way to identify who it was, because everybody knew it, he was the favorite or whatever or this disciple had taken on the understanding of being loved and a unique enough way to identify himself with this phrase.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Here's what I believe is most likely here, that it is the second option, that John had uniquely come to know that he was loved by Jesus.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Combined with another important aspect of this passage by saying the disciple whom Jesus loved, this passage shows that there was only one disciple who was present at the crucifixion of Christ.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: You see, if the text said a disciple was standing by whom he loved, or one of the disciples was standing by whom he loved, it could be any one of a number of the disciples and it would not be clear that it was only John who was there at the crucifixion.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: But this fits with the other crucifixion accounts because they name many by name.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Many of the women disciples are named as being present at the crucifixion, but never do any of the accounts name a single apostle, a single one of the twelve who was present other than this one.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: All to say saying the disciple here.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: It's actually pretty critical when you understand that it makes it clear that there weren't other disciples present.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: There were not many disciples present, there was just one.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: So again, does John think that Jesus loved him in a way that Jesus didn't love others?
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Or does John simply prefer to say, to describe himself one whom Jesus loved, rather than every time saying you know, john was there, the son of thunder I mean, maybe it's just a more humble way actually of describing himself Is John uniquely loved in a way that none of us ever can be, that none of us ever will be?
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Is that what Scripture is getting at?
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: I believe that whenever we read it that way, if I'm honest, I believe it exposes our own insecurity about God's love for us, because it's simply not what John says.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: For example, john 11.3 says so the sisters sent word to Jesus saying Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: In context, this is the sisters, martha and Mary.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: They're talking about Lazarus getting sick and they're saying, hey, he whom you love, jesus, is sick.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: You know, would you come Now?
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: The term for love there used in that passage it's not the same term that we've been reading in John so far about Jesus' love for John.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: That was an agape love Jesus.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Agape loved John.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Here Martha and Mary say to Jesus the one that you loved is sick, but they are not using agape.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: This here is the Greek word, philace.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Okay, so it's from another word for love, philos, used to refresher on these three Greek words for love.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: There's eros.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: This is the Greek word for love, describing the love for what another gives to me.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: This was usually used in Greek culture of in an erotic sense.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: It's about what you do for me.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Philos was a brotherly love, the most common beneficent kind of love.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: It was like a give and take love, a mutual brotherly love, that sort of thing.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: There was another type of love that is used in antiquity, but it was very rare.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: It meant a one directional love, like a self-sacrificing kind of love for another, without concern for what it gets in return.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Really, the culture didn't have much use for this term because, well, frankly, it doesn't actually exist outside of the Lord.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Mary and Martha say to Jesus the one whom you love as a brother is sick.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: That's what they say.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: But check out John 11.5.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister in Lazarus.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: So now John comes back and says Jesus did love Lazarus, but he also loved Martha and he also loved Mary.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: But which Greek term do you think he uses here?
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: He doesn't repeat the type of love that Martha and Mary had used earlier.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: He actually subs it out for agape love.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: So who did Jesus love within agape love?
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Now it's Martha and Mary and Lazarus in the book of John.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: So is it just John that's agape loved by Jesus?
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Is that what he thinks?
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Well, now there's a number of others being listed.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: So did John believe he was uniquely loved by Jesus In a way?
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Others were not.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: It seems not.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Add to that John 13.1, jesus having loved those who were his own in the world to the end.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Again, here, john, he's not using the phrase that Jesus agape, only about himself.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: He's now using it here of all of the followers of Christ and don't forget, john's the one who wrote at the very beginning of his gospel, for God's so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him wouldn't perish but have eternal life.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: So in summary, so far John has said that he, john, was loved by Jesus.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: John has also said that Jesus loved Martha and loved Mary and loved Lazarus.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: He's also said that Jesus loved all of his disciples, and he has also said that God loved everyone in the world.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: So don't you think it's more likely that John uniquely understood that he was loved and that that's the point?
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: So, with that in mind, let's just kind of circle back to that scripture that we just read, because it said, jesus having loved those who were his own in the world to the end.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Love does that.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: It loves to the end.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: And in the end, at the crucifixion, when Jesus was loving all those who were his own to the end, who was also there loving Jesus to the end?
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: There was one, only one of the twelve, the one whom Jesus loved, and this should not be missed.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Why was John able to uniquely love Jesus to the end in a way that the others were not?
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: It's not because John was uniquely loved.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: It's because John uniquely knew he was loved.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: It's not because John was uniquely loved.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: It's because John uniquely knew he was loved.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: But how did John get there?
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: How did he arrive at this place?
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: If you have ever struggled with having this kind of confidence in God's love for you, that just melts away all insecurity and puts you at rest, no matter the storm.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: If you've ever tried to grab ahold of this, you might know how elusive it can seem to be, to have it take root deeply in your heart.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: So how did John get to this place?
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: How did he get to this point?
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Because I don't know about you, but I'd like to join you there, amen.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: How did he arrive knowing he was the one that Jesus loved?
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Was it because Jesus told him hey, john, you are just head and shoulders above everybody else?
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Was it because Jesus gave John unique powers and abilities that he didn't give to the others?
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: So he felt special and then he knew he was loved.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Nah that's not.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: It Was it because Jesus gave John positions of authority that he wasn't going to give to others.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Is that how John got there?
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: No, in fact.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: If I can just remind you, go back to Mark 10.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, john was one who, immediately after Jesus said in Mark, chapter 10 Jesus said we're gonna go up to Jerusalem, I'm gonna be falsely accused, I am gonna be betrayed, I am gonna be handed over To Gentiles, I'm gonna be spit on, I am gonna be mocked, I am gonna be scourged, I'm gonna be crucified and I'll rise in the third day.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Right after Jesus said that, I kid you not, look for yourself.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: The very next verse, john pulls Jesus aside.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: He's okay, can I sit at your right hand and your kingdom in your glory?
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: It's like insensitivity training anybody I Mean.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: It's unbelievable.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: If anyone would have ever take offense at something, I think Jesus would take offense at this and he'd be very justified.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Jesus could have said I just told you all of that and that's all you heard.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: That's all you care about Yourself, what, what benefit I can be for you, what I can do for you.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: You're no different than the masses that follow me and walk away the moment they hear cost of Love, but Jesus didn't say that.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: We would say that.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: We probably say worse than that.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: But Jesus didn't say that.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: But he also didn't say to John you know what?
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: I take it back, you're not loved and you're not special.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: What he does tell John and his brother James you made the same request is You're gonna be baptized With the baptism that I'm baptized with, which means you're gonna die.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Just as I'm going up to die, you also you're gonna die.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: But he also says and if you want it, if you want to be great, you want to be greatest, then be the slave of all.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: That's what greatness looks like.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: We're gonna come back to the significance of this a little bit more in a moment, but, in short, jesus responds to him in a way.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: He doesn't reject him, but he does correct him.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: He doesn't reject him, but he corrects him.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: It's perhaps one of the most remarkable demonstrations of love that they had ever experienced, because Jesus, he hears their selfishness, he sees their selfish ambition, but he doesn't reject him.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: He corrects them, but he doesn't reject him.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: He gives him a second chance.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: And so when we get to John, chapter 13, and, and John is like leaning back on the chest of of Jesus.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: It demonstrates that while John had been corrected by Jesus, he didn't feel rejected.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Jesus had actually drawn close to him in his moment of great failure, actually, and he stayed close to Jesus.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: So why does John seem to love Jesus so uniquely?
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: He loves him to the end.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Well, remember what the scripture says he who is forgiven little loves little, but the one who's forgiven much loves much.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: You see, in the correction that John received, john saw the gap between what was right and what he did and he Recognized how much he had been forgiven.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: In that moment he got a glimpse of the depth of God's love for him.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: He loved much because he had been forgiven much.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: See, john got his big mess up out of the way pretty early.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Peter took a little longer to get there.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: You see, his ambition and his desire to use Jesus.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: It was so fully evident.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Everybody saw it, don't forget.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: The rest of the disciples were indignant.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: This was like a public failure moment, and yet that Jesus would still draw him near and forgive him and love him and show Him the way.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: It changed him.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: It changed John.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: You see, the reason John was there the end is because he loved Jesus and he loved Jesus because he knew he was loved by Jesus.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: We love because he first loved us.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Later, by the way, peter and John, chapter 21 he's gonna find himself in the same place that John did.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: He has sinned.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: He needs to be reinstalled, if you remember.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: He's now denied his Lord multiple times, but he's insecure in the love of God.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: He hasn't really blown it this big before.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: And so Peter, out there back on the fishing boat, fishing doing the same thing they were doing before Jesus called him and, literally when Jesus called him.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: He's not looking for the love of God and his insecurity, he's not believing For the love of God for him, he's not hoping for the love of God.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Shame blinded Peter on the boat, so much so that, if you remember the story, peter couldn't see the God of love who was full of love that was literally right in front of him, even though he was repeating the same miracle that he did when Peter was first called by him.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: He still couldn't see that it was him.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Shame blinds.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: In that way, he couldn't recognize it.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: In that moment, though, who is the one that had eyes to see the God of love who was reaching out in love?
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: It wasn't Peter, it was John.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: John knew who it was.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: It was the one who had received the love of God that then recognized the love of God.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: It's the one who received the love of God that anticipated the rescuing love of God.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: The one who had received, he recognized.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: How do we all become like John, those who know we're the one Jesus loves?
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: I Just felt like God put it in my heart what if our church was a church that, that, if God just said the One I love, if all of us went oh, that's me, I know it.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: Our Love church for him is always in proportion to our knowledge of his love for us.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Our love for him is always a reciprocating love.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: So what keeps us from knowing the love of God?
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: Well, one thing is is Just being convinced that you know he could never forgive us for some particular sin.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: It keeps us from having our John moment.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: That changes us when we run from him instead of running to him for forgiveness.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Shame it hides, it hides, it doesn't go, it doesn't repent, it doesn't receive and its moment of failure it tries to earn, and so it never experiences the grace that's being given, it doesn't receive much forgiveness, it doesn't experience much forgiveness and it, of course, then doesn't experience much of the love of God.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Church, we got to stop running From the love that's reaching to us.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Amen, amen.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: There are some who are living with an anxiousness that they don't know where it's coming from.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: I know there's a number of reasons that someone can have anxiety, but this is a reason.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: It's when there's that thing in my past, that thing, that other thing, and I have never Truly come to a point of faith that God has forgiven me, and so I'm still living in fear of judgment Over something that I did, even though I've repented, even though I've asked, even though probably God has forgiven, I just haven't received.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: This happens a lot.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: The second way that we're kept from knowing the love of God, other than shame, it's self-righteousness.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: It's like what some people are stuck in shame, not believing that God can forgive them.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: There are.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: There are others who just don't believe that they actually need God to forgive them, at least not very much.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Instead of believing that they have too much to be forgiven of, those who are self-righteous, believe that they just don't have much that needs to be forgiven either way.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Both of these either shame or self-righteousness.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: It will cut you off from forgiveness and you will know little of the love of God, which leaves you profoundly insecure, by the way, until you know his love, those who are forgiven little love little because they've experienced a little love of God.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: There's a third way, and this one's very important.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: There's a third way that keeps us from confidence, knowing of the love of God, and it is a lie.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: It's a, it's a, it's a wrong belief about God's love and what it means in the here and now.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, love versus lies.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: This is the lie.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, for John, he initially viewed love as the love of God, as something that could be defined by his circumstance.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Okay, take, okay.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, god loves me.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Well, he's gonna exalt me.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: God loves me.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: So it's gonna come with a benefit and it's gonna come with Blessing.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: Surely the right hand, you know, or the left and in that moment, jesus sets him free.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: How does he set him free?
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: He looks at him and of course he's looking at him with love in his eyes and he tells him John, you're gonna die as I will die.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: And John was suffering.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: It's the most unlikely moment to heal a man, but it healed a man because he was freed from believing that God's love can be defined by what we experience in this fallen world.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: He's like wait, you love me and I'm going to die.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: Oh how are we going?
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: to raise up a generation who perseveres to the end.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: How are we going to be a generation who could persevere to the end?
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Really, church, at some point, the brokenness and the pain and the suffering that comes from a world that's under the dominion of the principality of the spirit of the air, it's going to come crashing down on us, whether it's loss, or it's physical suffering, or it's spiritual battle or whatever it is.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Circumstances are not all good in this life In the end not to be Debbie Downer, but we do all die, and for very few is it this painless falling asleep in the night, not preceded by any pain, suffering or sickness.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know many that.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: That's their reality.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: And sadly, church, there are many who lose faith in the final stages of their life.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: They lose faith in the end because they're encountering so much pain.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: They don't know how to reconcile that with their understanding of a loving God and they lose faith in him.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: What a shame.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Now imagine the end times persecution, where believers are cut off, they're cut off from the economy or, worse, they're being martyred.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: How is that going to go?
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: If they think that God loves me, equals, god blesses me with health and protection and prosperity, how is that going to work to raise up a generation who can persevere to the end, because that's their understanding of the love of God in this life?
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Will they, will we, if we are living at that time, enduring the love of God, enduring love for God?
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: What if we're at risk of not enduring?
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: And confidence in the God who loves us?
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: What would be the thing that would be kind for God to do in that case is actually to remove from you what would cause you not to stand and what would cause you not to endure to the end.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Just reflect on this.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: You know Paul.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: He talks about his confidence that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Romans 8, verse 35 and verse 38 to 39, he mentions tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril sword.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: He says I'm convinced that neither death or life or angels or principalities or things present or things to come, or powers or height or depth or any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: By the way, whenever he says he is convinced, that is simply the verb form of the noun faith, I have faith.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: He says that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: He's saying he has that faith.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: And then look at the things that he had.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Faith couldn't separate him from the love of God.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: And just ask yourself, as we go through the list, how many of these things has Paul experienced?
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death, life, angels, principalities, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth, anything else?
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: How much of that?
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Would you say that Paul had experienced?
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: A lot, at minimum.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Consider this as well.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: How much faith would Paul have that none of those things could separate him from the love of God if he hadn't experienced them?
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: How much faith do you think Paul would have had that none of those things could separate him from the love of God if he hadn't experienced any of those things?
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: He'd experienced all of them, frankly, church, except one in the most technical sense, that's, death.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Even then, we know in the scriptures that he had been in a situation where he had despaired, even to death.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: He had been at the brink of death.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: What he had been through in the past, though, it served to give him confidence that, no matter what he faced ahead, nothing, no, not one thing, could separate him from the love of God.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: And if we're going to be one of those people to the end.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: We need a revolution that returns to its roots, because we've got to be a people that are ready for persecution.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: We have to be a people that are ready for cost and ready for loss because of our Christian faith.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Again, we have to be ready to meet those things with joy, like the Bible tells us to, with celebration, like the Bible tells us to, with commendation, like the Bible tells us to, why?
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Because we know that one, our God, is with us and two, we know our reward in heaven, just like tripled, and we live for the things of eternity.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: The problem with our prosperity, theologies of all kinds, of various sorts, including word of faith, theologies around healing and health, is that they cause people to lack confidence in God's love because it ties love to circumstance in this world.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Trust me, I love when heaven comes crashing into earth.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: We are a church who, by God's grace, see miracles happen week in and week out.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: I could almost say I just guarantee you there's gonna miracles going to happen back in that corner.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: You know he just keeps moving.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: But we do not believe that.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: We are guaranteed that now.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: We certainly don't believe that we deserve that now, and we're not surprised when we suffer pain and hardship in this fallen world.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: I can personally testify, even at a very basic level.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: God works in this way he frees by allowing you to experience the thing you're afraid of experiencing.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: My primary fears is a young person failure, you know, didn't want to fail rejection I was afraid of evil spirits.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: This was a big one.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: It's probably not on everybody's list, but I was like, afraid of, you know, evil spirits.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: I can just tell you the last five to six years I have experienced more of all three of those things, at least from a worldly perspective, than I could have possibly ever feared that I would.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: And I can tell you this God has used it to expose and to remove the false understanding that God's love and being kept from those circumstances are one and the same.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: They're not.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: I can say now, along with Paul, that I have faith that nothing, not one thing, can separate me from the love of God, nothing.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: I couldn't have said it so assuredly years ago.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Believer, when the love of God gets rooted in us, what starts to happen when we face storms is we just say okay, I have confidence, god's preparing me for something.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Our circumstances don't define God.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: God defines our circumstances when the root of the knowledge of his love for us is firmly in position.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Oftentimes our circumstances create one of two definitions of God, with good circumstances equalling oh, god is love and God loves me, and you know all that kind of thing.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: When things are good, god is this.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: You know, he's the giant teddy bear.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: God is so good because my circumstances are good.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: But then, when we're bad, what often happens is we start to imagine him like this he's taller than me, for sure, but the incredible Hulk.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: And the incredible Hulk, what does he symbolize Like?
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: If he gets angry, he gets rageful, right.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: And when the incredible Hulk gets angry and he starts turning green and he gets rageful, he gets very unpredictable, he gets untrustworthy, he's unrestrained in his anger and perhaps even bad.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: And then there's this fear of him, but it's not a fear of him based on who he truly is.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: It's not a fear that's based on God's power and God's goodness and God's holiness.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: It's a fear that he's actually something other than what he is.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: This fear that there's like a shifting shadow within him actually.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: That God is sometimes good but sometimes bad, and that there's nothing to constrain or control him, not even the goodness of his character.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: But that's not who God is.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: It's fear of something, but it's not a fear of God.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: It's not who God is.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Our circumstances don't define God.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: God defines our circumstances and our circumstances don't define God's love for us either.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: God's love for us is constant.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: It's unchanging, it's always.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: It's why I think we have to be careful when we testify hey, god healed me, and then I end with saying God's good Like.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Well, god is good, even if he didn't heal me.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Just to be clear, the one who knows this knows the love of God.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Like if we're an oak, god's love is our roots.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: When we're secure in God's love, then, no matter what storm comes, that root is going to hold.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: It's not going to give way.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: We know that he loves us.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: So what if, knowing that, what if God knew that there was a herbicide that was eating away at that root in your soul, the root of the knowledge, of the confidence of God's love for you?
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: He could see it, but you couldn't.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: What if that was happening?
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: What if God could see?
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: There's this herbicide?
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: The enemy is laid at the roots of the tree and it's disintegrating the roots.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: What would be the kindest thing that God could do?
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: It would be to expose the problem in order to heal the problem.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Church, everybody here, we need to have the power of God at work in our lives.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: We need to know the all-powerful God.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Without his power I'll work within us you won't be able to persevere.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: You need his power to overcome temptation.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: You need God's power to have an unwavering faith and unshakable hope.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: We cannot do these things on our own.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: You need the power of God, but I can tell you this you also need to know the love of God, not just the power of God, but the love of God, because when you don't know the love of God the way I think of it is you have all these bungee cords that are wrapped around you.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Sin isn't the only thing that entangles, and these cords are wrapped around our hearts and they're wrapped around our bodies and we're trying to run this race, but we're like all tied up, we're all bound up.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: We're bound up by insecurities.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: These things are pulling on us, tugging us, making everything take ten times as much energy as it should.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: It just makes things more of a challenge, makes things more difficult.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: It's like, yes, you can have the power of God, you must have the power of God, but there's so much resistance when we don't know the love of God.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: What would it be like to run the race of faith both with the power of God but also not having all those cords of resistance on you?
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: It's possible, church.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: What most of us need most is to know the love of God, that we can be freed from the cords of insecurities that wage war on our peace with God, our contentment in Christ, our rest that comes only from this place and our capacity for community.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Frankly, in closing, let's just talk about some things that we can do to grow in this.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: What can you do to know the love of God?
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Number one.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Number two is confession and meditation.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: It's where it starts.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Confess the truth God loves me.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: You're never going to be the one Jesus loved and know that you're the one that Jesus loved if you keep meditating on the lie of the enemy, that he doesn't.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: You need to repent of that.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: That is sin.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: You're literally calling God a liar and you're agreeing with Satan.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, so stop that.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: Confess the truth.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: And two, I mean anchor in the scriptures that say that God loves you.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: And then two meditate on that truth repeatedly, recall it to mind, bring it to mind, direct your mind to think about it.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Too many of us think that we're just victims of whatever comes into our thoughts.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: Scripture tells us that we are responsible to take every thought captive.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Let's take every thought captive.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Third thing that we can do is just watch for signs of accusation.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Are the signs of accusation?
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: So many are insecure.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: They need to know God's love.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: I believe the insecurity is inevitable until you know the love of God.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter what your upbringing is, your parents, how good they were to you, all that stuff.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: Insecurity is inevitable.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Look at Saul in the Bible.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: His daddy loved him and he was tall and he was handsome and he was called.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: He was the most insecure man imaginable.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: We're all insecure until we know the love of God for us.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: But look for these signs of accusation.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: What's coming against it?
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: Cutting against the love of God?
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: Is there an accusation against you that God couldn't love you, he couldn't forgive you?
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: That cuts against your ability to receive God's love?
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Or is it an accusation against him?
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: He's not good, he didn't do this thing or whatever.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: A lot of times there's accusation in the heart, but people don't acknowledge it, so it just stays there.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: It's in there, but they're trying to keep the door closed on that thing Because if they acknowledged it, they know that in the end they're basically saying well, god, you don't love me because you didn't do what I wanted you to do.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: And they know that that doesn't sound good.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: They know it's not true and it's not right, but it's still there and it's eating at the root.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: It needs to be dealt with.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: Look for signs of accusation.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: Bring it to the Lord to be dealt with, for this one's not easy.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: But ask for understanding.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Ask God, press in, ask him, god, how is your love compatible with this?
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Because I'm looking at this and it's just screaming.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: God can't love me.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: But, god, I'm asking you, would you give me understanding?
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: I know you are who you say you are, but would you just help me to see.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Get understanding, church.
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: Sometimes God's love is through protection, sometimes it's through redemption.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Get understanding, ask him.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: Sometimes God's love spares us from the fire.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: Sometimes God's love refines us through the fire.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: Get understanding, ask Five.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Keep a testimony, keep the testimonies plural, of how God loved you, even when, even when that happened, even when it happened, and then tell it and repeat it.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: And sixth, pray.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: Ephesians 3, 14-19.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: What's the apostle Paul praying for the church of Ephesus?
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: He says for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven on earth drives its name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner man, so that Christ might dwell in your hearts through faith and that you, being rooted and grounded in what Love, might be able to comprehend with all the saints what's the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowing that you would be filled up to the fullness of God.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: This is what he's praying for, one of the most spiritually mature churches that he's planted.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: I want you to know the love of God more, more than you do now.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: Church, let's be asking God.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Let's be praying like Paul prays to know his love more, to know his love more.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: And, just by the way, post service prayer is a place that you can come and say I want to know the love of God more.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: Would you pray for me?
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: I would encourage you.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Don't stop until you're free.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: It's for freedom that Christ set us free and it is possible.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: But before we close with the time of response, just one last thing.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: I actually want to have a friend of mine come up and share a testimony about encountering the love of God.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: As I introduced this friend, it's not just any friend.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: This is the person that we have hired and who has accepted to become the campus pastor of our new Colorado Springs campus.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Praise the Lord.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: Now, that testimony.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: It's obviously a longer testimony than I can tell right now.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: But whenever we started out on this journey of following God into the first multiplying work of church of the front range, we were well aware of what we lacked, which was everything.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Well, god was well aware of what he had.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: So we knew that we lacked a place.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: Well, god provided.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: We knew that we lacked provision.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: God provided and, of course, he still is providing.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: We also knew, well, we lack a pastor and we lack people.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: These things are all kind of important to planting a church.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: Well, god is providing.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: So Moses here, that is his actual, real name.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: He is not new to us, although he is recently back with us.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: He's a major in the military, had been moved away from Colorado, but he got moved back to Colorado Springs just a few months ago and he and his wife Debbie, they just felt God calling them to drive up and come to church of the front range, despite it being a long trip with a little one in the car.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: At the same time, god had been speaking to our team about them.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: It's quite a testimony, but anyway, they just had their second child.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Here's Debbie, over here.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: Debbie, can you say everyone, say hi to Debbie as well?
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: This is Moses's wife.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: She's holding a newborn baby, just had a couple of weeks ago.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: So their kids are Josiah and Hannah.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: And I could say so much about them, but just want you to know Moses comes from a family of believers who know what it is to hear God.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: They know what it is to believe God.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: They know what it is to hold fast to God and the things that he has spoken over their lives.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: Moses was born in India and he grew up in the midst of some profound movement of God.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: He grew up seeing many miracles, seeing thousands upon thousands upon thousands coming to Christ, even witnessed the resurrection of his own grandfather, which I'm pretty sure none of you all have had that privilege to see.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: When his family moved here, his parents came as missionaries in pursuit of a promise of God, which God is still unfolding to this day in a really powerful way.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: There's so much I could say about Moses, but for now I'm just going to say this he's a man of unwavering faith.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: He's a man of unshakable hope.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: He's also a man that's marked with a deep love for the God who loves him.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: I myself have been inspired and moved as I've met with Moses and Debbie.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: He is one of those people and I couldn't be more grateful at who God has sent us, and I have asked him to come up and to share how the love of God and his encounter with the love of God has impacted him.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: Could you give a big first time welcome from Church of the Front Range to Moses.
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: Oh, praise the Lord church.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: God is good.
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: Thank you for that.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: Thank you for that.
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: Please be seated.
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: God is so good, we are so honored.
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: Let me start off by saying that to be a part of the vision and the ministry that is happening here at Church of the Front Range, it's tremendous.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: You're not an ordinary people.
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: You're people that is set apart by God to fulfill a destiny and a purpose.
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: If I don't come over to this section, you know why it's kind of I'll stick with the teddy bear here.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: But I tell you you are a people that's called apart.
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: God is doing tremendously.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: What an honor and a privilege.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: Pastor Shane, the entire team, we thank you.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: We're so honored to see revival come to this generation, to this nation.
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: I believe we're going to see it church.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: So, so honored to be a part of that.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: I just want to, as Pastor Shane was saying, my family just tremendous people of God came as missionaries.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: I've grown up in ministry, around people who love God and know God, and about 12 years old I started to tell myself hey, I know that my mom and my dad know God, but I want to know God too.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: How many of you know?
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: Like David said, you have to taste and see that the Lord is good.
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: You have to taste it for yourself.
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: It can't be like some fast that I do now, where I put on the food network channel, which becomes my favorite channel during a fast, and I just look at the food and I thought, man, I would like to know how that barbecue tastes.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: I would like to.
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: Anyway, I only have a few minutes so I better not digress.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: I said I want to know you, god.
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: So I was reading Exodus, chapter 33.
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: And as I'm reading that verse, in verse number 11, there's a powerful statement about Moses and it said that Moses knew God face to face, just like man would know a friend.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: And the Holy Spirit just captured me with that verse and I began to tell the Lord.
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: I said, lord, my name is Moses, actually Moses.
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: I said are you still God enough to speak to me?
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: In that same way, if I call out to you, will you answer me, will you show me who you are?
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: And that really began again.
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: Just the Holy Spirit just began to blow on that and I began to be obedient to it.
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: You know if you'll be obedient to the whispers of the Holy Spirit over your life if you'll begin to blow on it and give it flame, it'll grow and that became a passion.
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: And 12 years old, 13 years old, 14 years old, I continued to just pursue the Lord.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: I remember we were at a meeting when I was 14 years old and the pastor had called up people to the front to come and pray and I actually told my mom.
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: I said I'm not going up.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: You know God's not doing anything.
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: As we were in prayer today, pastor Rebecca said something.
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: She said you don't know when God is about to encounter your life.
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: I didn't know.
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: God was about to radically change my life.
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: My mom said you know what?
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: You should just go up there.
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: It's not all about you, just go on up there.
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: So I remember I went up there and I'll make a long story short.
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: I had a vision of the Lord Jesus.
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: The weight of his glory came down in such a powerful way.
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: No one prayed for me.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: I just hit the ground and I couldn't get up.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: When I hit the ground, my face was just face flat and I just began to weep.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: And I just began to weep and say Lord, I'm not worthy, lord, I'm not worthy, lord, I'm not worthy.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: And I looked up and I was in a dark room and Jesus was standing there in a lighted room.
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: He never spoke to me audibly, but he spoke to me in my spirit and at that time it was more clear than even if he had spoken to me audibly.
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: He told me how much he loved me.
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: There was two characteristics about Jesus that just struck me.
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: First was his love.
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: He is all Loving, full of love.
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: His love was so great and so powerful.
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: I felt like I was a pot that had been crushed by some tidal wave.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: He could see every part of me.
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: He knew every aspect of me.
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: He knew every sin, he knew every frailty, he knew every falling, and yet he loved me.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: So it's an indis.
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: I can't describe it to you, but I would maybe say that it's a ferocious love it's.
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: I began to understand what it says in Psalms 139, when David said if I ascend to heaven, you're there, but we expect that to God to be in the heavenly places and the love of God to exist in such places.
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: But then David goes on to say but if I go down to shield, if I go down to hell, even you are there.
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: See, it's the type of love that I saw in Jesus.
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: It's heavenly, it's far above its heights.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: You can't measure.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: But even in hell he'll come there.
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: The second thing I Didn't quite expect this Was his power, his kingly, regal glory.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: I Didn't not expect that fully and both of these things, kingly power and regal glory, combined into one person, god, which there are no words to express, time and space cannot be given to speak of who he is lion and lamb.
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: When I saw his power, I was like Isaiah and Jeremiah.
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: I was this undone John the revelator.
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: When he saw Jesus, he said you're Alpha and Omega.
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: And he said and he fell down as one dead before him, two things brought together in one God-man Jesus.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: This encounter radically changed my life.
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: I I Wanted to go and tell everyone about him, but I had a problem.
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: I Stuttered horribly.
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: I could not say my own name.
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: And so I remember I was at a church one day, small storefront church, and I can just sense the fire of God is burning in my heart, saying get up and speak and tell my people about who I am and what I am.
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: I said God, you got to be kidding me.
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: Go find someone else.
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: That can, he can, that can.
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: Somehow you just articulate they.
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: I won't even be able to get out what you want me to say.
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: How many of you know your inadequacy, your self-assigned inadequacy, your limitation?
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: It's not a limitation for God.
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: God will.
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: Who use whomever, he will do whatever.
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: If you seek him, you will find him.
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: It's like fire shut up in my bones.
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: I got up and I walked up to the front, no wisdom at all.
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: Like the pastor was preaching, I like tugged on his his shirt, and I didn't know if he was more shocked that the stuttering kid was coming up and Wanting to say something or what it was.
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: And he said alright, go ahead and speak.
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: And man, god did something.
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: I wish I could tell you that, that my tongue was just loosened that day and I just began to speak.
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: It didn't Quite work like that, but I learned that the message was more important than the messenger.
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: From that time, I began to see God do mighty things.
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: God did begin to lose my tongue.
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: God began to open doors from the time I was in high school, college, as I became a second lieutenant in the air force.
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: Just revivals, god moving powerfully, hundreds of people saved.
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: When you encounter God, you will be different.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: He will come in, he'll break bars of iron.
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: He'll.
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: He'll take away things, he'll put you in high places, he'll do what you cannot do in your ordinary capability, in capacity, and I saw all of that and I wish I could say that was my whole life, but it's not.
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: In my late 20s I Hit a place Tribulations, things that I could not understand, breaking beyond my comprehension, to the point where to make a long story short I Came to a place I said Lord, I know you're God, I've seen you, but but I don't ever want to.
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: I don't want to ever speak about you.
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: I Don't ever want to tell people about your love.
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: I don't want, I don't.
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: I don't even know if you are loving.
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: I can't understand you.
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: You say, somewhere along my journey, though I knew him, somewhere I thought it was my great love for God that was doing all these mighty things, all these wonderful things, that that if I worked hard enough and that if I did all these things.
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: You see, but then, when the tribulation came, and when she all came to my life In ways that I couldn't understand, I found how truly insufficient my love was, to the point where I Was in Denver, colorado, at the time, and I knew him.
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: I wasn't like Far away, but I said I just I'll never speak again about you, found the biggest church I could find, sat in the back row and thought God won't find me here amongst these Presbyterians.
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: Little did I know Shane farmer was the pastor and God was doing a mighty work.
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: I said God, you're even here in this place.
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: God will come to she'll to find you.
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: There's no depth, there's no place that God won't come after you.
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna wrap this up quick.
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: If I offended anyone, I'm so no, please don't take offense.
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: In John, chapter 4, there's this woman.
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: There's Samaritan woman.
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: She's a woman of ill repute.
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: She's she's had a very difficult life.
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: She's coming and she's drawing water.
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: Jesus goes out of his way to come to her at this well that she's at and he tells her woman, give me something to drink.
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: And the woman who's so broken, says you don't have anything to draw water with and the well is too deep.
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: The well is too deep.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: You, you might be saying that today.
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: That's what I was saying, lord.
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: My pain is too deep, the brokenness is too deep, the hurt is too deep.
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: You can't reach it.
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: Jesus responds to her and says woman, if you only knew who it was that's standing here before you.
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: If you only knew that it was he, jesus, who had created the world.
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: If you only knew that it was he who, from the dust of the ground, formed Adam and made him into man.
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: If you only knew who it was that's asking you for a drink of water, you would cry out to me and you would say give me living water.
• 53:52
  Speaker 3: Today I know that Jesus is in our midst.
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: I don't know what you think is too deep for him.
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: I Don't know what you think is shield.
• 54:03
  Speaker 3: I don't know what shield place you're in Might be addiction might be brokenness might be discouragement might be insecurity might be a limitation.
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: There's a vision of Jesus I want to tell you.
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: Not only is his love so fierce that he will come to shield to find you, but his power is so great that he's able to rescue you and me from that place.
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: I'm so excited for what God has for us, church.
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: We're not an ordinary people.
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: We're a people that's gonna see the glory of God in our generation and we're gonna declare his love and power to the world In Jesus' name amen.
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: God bless you, church, woo.
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: God bless you, church.
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: God bless you, church.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: Woo.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: God bless you, church.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: God bless you, church.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: God bless you, church.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: Woo, would you bow your heads with me and let's just close in a time of prayer.
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: Full response God, we thank you for the things that you have revealed to Moses and God.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: I believe that all of us, we wanna know your love.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: We want the power to grasp the heights and the depths and the winds.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: And God, we come right now, and we ask you, lord, would you reveal?
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: We're not worthy to see God, but we want to know more.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: We wanna know you, god.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: We wanna be a people that burn brightly in love for you.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: And we know we need a greater revelation of your love for us.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: God.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: We know it's for freedom that you set us free and I wanna encourage you to raise your sense of anticipation, church.
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: Raise your sense of expectancy.
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: God just impressed in my heart yesterday as going into this and I was saying to God, god, I haven't seen a whole lot of breakthrough with this one.
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: If I'm honest.
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: People are bound up in the insecurity and they just can't seem to get that you love them.
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: It's like man.
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen a lot of breakthrough, and he reminded me you had never seen someone healed when you prayed for them either until you had.
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: And there has been breakthrough in that ever since, and I'm believing that this weekend will be a breakthrough in the knowledge of the love of God that we've never seen before but that we will see moving forward.
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: God, that's what we're asking.
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: God, would you read in the heavens and come down and show us, give us the depth of a grace, a revelation of your love.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: Lord, we are praying for every brother and sister to be set free and at rest and content in the knowledge of your love for them, even the knowledge of your love for us and our worst moments that we would know.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: It's not something we did and it's not something we earned.
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: It's all you.
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: It's all you, believer, as you're praying for that, I do want to encourage you If this is a place you're stuck in, come and ask for prayer, but as you're praying and seeking, you're praying for the love of God.
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: You're praying for the love of God, but as you're praying and seeking him for that.
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: I also just want to say, if you're here and you would like to have a relationship with God, you're not confident that you do.
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: If you're here and you would like to know that you are going to spend eternity with him.
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: Well, the Bible is clear that we need to be forgiven of our sins and there is only one way for our sins to be removed and that's through putting our faith in Jesus Christ, who, being God, he came and he died on the cross for our sins and he rose again, promising life in place of death for all who have put their trust in him, and in him alone, to be the one who would forgive their sins and be the Lord of their life.
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: Without this the Bible is clear we will die in our sins.
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: We must receive his forgiveness to be reconciled to a holy, sinless God.
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: So if you are here and you do not have that peace with God, with heads bowed and eyes closed and no one's going to do anything weird to you but if you want to receive the gift of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus Christ, I would encourage you just to raise your hand.
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: Raise your hand and hold it high, like your way of saying God, if you have reached your hand down to rescue me, I'm reaching my hand up and I'm saying yes, I want to be forgiven by you, jesus.
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: I want to be rescued from the consequence of my sin, which is death, separation from you, god, which is life.
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: I want to spend all of eternity with you.
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: Is that you today?
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: If you're listening online, there is a place for you to indicate that's the decision you would like to make as well.
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: Thank you, you guys can put your hands down.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to lead those of you who are saying yes today to come to God and say God, I want to know you, I want to be in a relationship with you and I'm not too proud to admit that I've sinned and I need to be forgiven.
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: And I believe that Jesus, you being God, that you came, that you died on the cross for my sin and I believe that you rose, promising life in place of death for all who would receive you for who you are, for what you've done.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: I'm coming to do that today in the best way I know how.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: Jesus, I'm asking would you please forgive me of my sin.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: Jesus, would you please give me the gift of eternal life in relationship with you.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you for forgiving me.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: Thank you for saving me, in Jesus' name Amen.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: Church family.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: Can we just give a hand to those who said yes to a relationship with God through Jesus Christ today?
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: So exciting.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: If you would like to receive prayer, our prayer teams are going to be available right back here.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: Also, just a reminder whether you're planning or not, we do have an interest meeting for the Colorado Springs Campus launch.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: Happening in the gym right after the service At 10 minutes till is when we'll have lunch available, also at 10 minutes till.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: If you have kids, you need to pick them up and then check them back into the nursery area Up in the lobby at 10 minutes till as well.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: But if you'd like to attend that, you can Otherwise have a fantastic afternoon.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: I'll just see you guys back here soon.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: Thanks everybody.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: Goodbye.