07 Jesus' "Training Manual" for Pressure and Success (David Sliker)

all right everyone this is uh dave schleicher you know david is the and uh he's the president of uh our ministry school but more importantly he is uh tracy slyker's husband vinnie's father and he's my friend so how's that for progression no i just so enjoy dave you know the thing is about dave and i'm just so excited about him sharing is that um david in my opinion is a prophetic teacher and a prophetic preacher and those are two different graces in a vessel and very seldom are the two of them operating in someone's life he's a prophetic teacher because when he he knows the word he breaks down the word and there's a spirit of revelation upon the word but he's a prophetic preacher and that he's able to by the grace of god bring people into a prophetic understanding of how to relate in terms of how to relate to the times in which we live and really just kind of give a sense of a yes you know let's go for it type type anointing that's on his life and so i'm just so excited to hear him share tonight um besides that um i'm funnier than he is and so i just want to kind of throw that out there wow oh you like that that actually was funny no it wasn't it was it was it was interesting cbc i still got more laughs than you just did okay father we just thank you lord for for our friend dave father thank you for the anointing lord that's in his life father i ask you lord you would stir it up in an increased measure even tonight father i ask you that you would anoint lord the proclamation of the word and the hearing of your word or you'd open up our eyes to your law in jesus name amen amen amen well if you'd like the notes they are posted online you can follow along with those um what i'm talking about tonight i'm looking at john 13-17 as a template or a training manual for pressure and success i'm going to tell you just right up front what i'm going to tell you and then i'll tell you and so what uh what i find profound many things are profound about john 13 through 17 but it it really does contain you could call it the secret of life it contains the secret of life in that the lord hands us the way forward and it's a little bit surprising he goes i'm going to give you what you need i'm going to give you the anchor as it relates to the storm of persecution and pressure to come i'm going to give you the anchor that you need as it relates to the storm of success and glory to come both of them are are storms and their own right and i'm going to give you the anchor of stability that you need to weather those storms and here it is the anchor of stability is found in trinitarian community trinitarian community is our pathway to new covenant community and it's actually in new covenant community fueled by trinitarian community that we actually have an anchor but more than an anchor the way that jesus defines it he calls it the fullness of joy and peace or rest contentment would be another word we can find our way even now and that's the glory we're not even though the name of this course is intimacy with the trinity in the context of eschatology we're not necessarily waiting for the last three and a half years for the benefit of these chapters to come to bear in what they're meant to produce for such a time as this and what they're meant to produce again it's stability in our times and it's in an hour in which everybody is arguing with everybody about everything the lord by getting us into the glory of trinitarian community he doesn't just get us into a different conversation he gets us into an entirely different way of living and enjoying life and the witness of how life was meant to be enjoyed is going to cut against the the world as it now is and where it is going if you think the world is unenjoyable now you just wait and i want to affirm the world is profoundly unenjoyable it's not just that sin is unenjoyable lovelessness is unenjoyable boredom with one another contention the way in which humanity is set against and polarized it is profoundly unenjoyable it is profoundly unstable and it is destabilizing and deconstructing before our very eyes there are foundations that society is built upon is unraveling and the more unraveled society becomes the more unstable community apart from christ becomes and the lord gives us this anchor he goes i'm going to give you the pathway the entryway into trinitarian community and if you can lay hold of or begin to the beauty of trinitarian community in other words how god communes within himself how does jesus commune with the father how does the father commune with the holy spirit how do they do community within the godhead how do they enjoy one another and how do they relate and that becomes our pathway that becomes our way forward to the great surprise the great surprise that kind of destroys our you know our old kind of rally and cry all i need is you god all i need is you and you alone i'm gonna find my satisfaction in you and you alone and the lord goes i love that i love that you want that but you're way forward in the storm of tomorrow both in persecution and success and glory your way forward is actually to touch the pleasure of community within me so that you can experience it and express it with one another in other words the rock of stability for the days to come is to find stability in christ and then through christ stability bring stability to one another and as we bring stability to one another in new covenant community built on the foundation of trinitarian community are you following all this if we do it if we do it we touch what jesus advertises as the fullness of joy the fullness of joy i'm going to make a controversial statement the fullness of joy is not found in god alone the fullness of joy is not found in god alone it is not good for man to be alone god said of adam in a garden if the fullness of joy could be found in god alone then there would have been no need for eve god understood that god plus man is man alone what man needed in a garden was companionship to actually touch the depths of what it means to be in god to be connected to god to derive pleasure in the relationship but then to express that pleasure in community with one another god plus man is not enough god plus men is the intention of a father to build a family in which we express what he enjoys within himself that we would express it with one another that's god's desire and as we express it with one another as we express what god expresses what the father expresses to the son and what the son expresses to the spirit what god expresses enjoys experiences within himself as we touch that and as we engage with that and as we begin to experience it and enjoy it with one another now we begin to touch what jesus advertises in the fullness of joy and peace or another word for it is rest we actually find rest when we experience trinitarian community with one another and that rest that joy that we find and experiencing community of that quality with one another then becomes our anchor or our kind of stability in the storm of what's to come i just want to say this this is what jesus is wanting to bring us into it's more than godly friendships i love godly friendships but the lord is going you need more than a godly friend you need to go somewhere with that godly friend in me together you need to experience something in me that i experience within myself you need to experience that together and if you do you will have more than you need to endure what's coming in the days ahead so that's the i just told you what i'm going to tell you tonight john 13 through 17 jesus gives us the pathway he goes i'm going to it's it's profoundly practical these chapters and and the thing that so moves me about it again here's jesus he's about to go to the cross but as he's about to suffer the cross and all that that means all that he's about to bear it so moves me that the thing that is on his mind is how the cross begins the changing of everything his friends know relate to the world as it is the cross is about to turn their world upside down and the thing that's on his mind as he goes to the cross is getting his friends ready for what's about to happen to them that's so moving to me can you imagine you're about to suffer in an excruciating way and in a public and humiliating way you're about to suffer in a historic way and the primary thing on your mind is the preparation of your friends for all that that means and what's to come beyond that in other words jesus uses the upper room just before the cross he uses the upper room to prepare his friends for after the cross and he uses the upper room to prepare them for the next upper room he goes from upper room to upper room he's preparing them and so these these chapters become this profound template or or training manual for preparation both for everything the cross is about to unleash and unlock in jewish society and everything that's going to be unleashed from heaven as it relates to the outpouring of the holy spirit to follow he prepares them for it and so he uh he's getting them ready he's giving them the pathway to enter into something that they need to endure to bear the weight that's what we feel again as we as we kind of engage in the world around us we feel the weight of what's happening what i said a moment ago that it's unraveling that society as we know it the destabilization of the foundations of society as it has been the economic foundations the moral foundations there are there are underlying foundations that are unraveling and it's causing the weight of man's sin and it's causing the weight of man's rebellion and disobedience to bear down on the human race and the lord is i i just want to say this the lord is preparing to break into that destabilizing rebellious disobedience of man he's preparing to break in with a revival or two before it's all done there is going to be glory and trouble in our future but john 13 to 17 and the way forward it prepares us for both so we can watch as he prepares his friends as he as he equips them and gives them the tools to bear and he talks about it all through this discourse he talks about the demonic attacks the human rage the the notoriety the suffering the success that's going to follow them because the cross isn't the only thing that's going to happen the cur there's a progression the cross and his seeming defeat it's going to embolden his enemies to come at them so so he's going to prepare them for that he goes what so it's going to look like we're losing and that's going to embolden it's going to expose it's going to embolden my enemies and my enemies embolden they're going to come after you they haven't felt permission up to this point because they haven't been sure which way the crowds were going to go but when it looks like we're losing the crowds are going to shift they're going to turn against and when they have permission they're going to come after you so i want to prepare you for that says the lord and those days are i mean that's instructive for us those days are coming there is a there is a corporate cross coming to the body of christ by which it's going to appear that we are losing and the appearance of the church losing which is that's terrifying theology for many in the church like we are not going to lose it's not going to be negative like well no there's there's there's the appearance of negative and actual negative in our future there's both but whichever it is the appearance of negative or actual negative what it serves to do it emboldens the enemies of the cross it emboldens the enemies of the lord because uh because the thing that the thing that kind of keeps everybody in a in a separate piece the thing that keeps everybody relatively quiet is the underlying nagging question of who's right and who's wrong it's that underlying question who's right the the church we as believers we kind of have a sense that we're right we have enough of a sense that we're right like the disciples that we've kind of hitched our reputations we've hitched our livelihoods we've hitched our names we've hitched our families we have enough of a sense that we're right that we've got a lot riding on the promises of god we've got a lot of writing on what the word says related to where it's going we've kind of thrown ourselves at it they're going i think i think we're right i mean we've put a lot behind the idea that we think we're right but there's a lot of other people that have given their lives to their way of doing things and their way they think the world should go and their reputations their names their livelihoods their family heritage and what the future means for their kids they've got a lot of writing on it and so the the separate piece is the uncertainty of are they right or are we right and that the cross has this funny way of kind of releasing this moment of seeming failure for the redemptive plan of god and the seeming triumph of the enemies of god by which for a brief moment the enemies of god go wait a minute we're right it's that great moment of doubt for the disciples of christ were we wrong i mean we gave up everything i gave up my fishing business i gave up my tax job i i gave up my sweet spot in that little army of assassins i that's judas i gave up my i gave up a ton of stuff to follow this jewish man around thinking that he was going to be the son of david appointed by god to bring israel into her destiny i thought it was going to go a certain way i've got a lot of writing on this were we wrong and of course the other guys are going we're right we knew it we knew it and again the crowds and the and all of it goes a certain way it emboldens the enemies are you are you ready at the heart level for that disconcerting disorienting moment where not only is it kind of that dark night of uncertainty as it relates to your own future in the promises of god are you ready for the corresponding emboldening of the enemies of god where they're emboldened in their sense of rightness the way that jesus said it he said they're gonna they're going to think they're doing a service to god when they when they attack you when they hate you when they come against you in other words thinking they're doing a service to god is another way of saying they're they're self-righteous they're they're settled in their sense of rightness as it relates to the right that they possess to do what they're going to do to you the the thing that seems unthinkable to us the way in which the bible describes persecution or bloodshed or the martyrdom of the saints in the west it seems unthinkable to us because we are naive to what human beings do when they feel a profound sense of self rightness or self righteousness or permission related to the the threat that you pose i mean we're seeing glimpses of it even now we see glimpses of it in the whole vaccination non-vaccination debate when people feel a sense of rightness they have a sense of permission related to what they can say about you and what they can think about you and when society celebrates that it only accelerates that sense of permission jesus goes now if you if you get where that's going if you take that seriously not with not by being afraid or not by shrinking back in fear but if you see the trajectory that society is on and what and if you actually come out of your naivete related to what men are capable of when they're emboldened in their sense of rightness it'll give you a healthy sense of urgency to lay hold of that stability in godly relationships related to where we go together the need to to engage in the trinitarian conversation to lay hold of the beauty of trinitarian community so that we can express that amongst ourselves it will end up being a profound and beautiful place of refuge in the storm we're going to find in the wisdom of god refuge in one another as we begin to touch the way that god loves god and as we begin to express that love one to another we're actually building our own place of refuge peace and joy in the midst of the storm to come what followed the that brief moment of emboldened enemies what followed was a shocking turn of events and that shocking turn of course was the the resurrection of christ where suddenly it goes from the idea of defeat and the certainty of rightness to now a shocking moment of uncertainty followed by rage and resistance and then probably one of the most difficult challenges even in the midst of persecution was the outpouring of the spirit and the the anointing of the power of the spirit on the preaching of the gospel and suddenly the explosion and the and the outrageous fast growth and if you read the book of acts carefully a massive influx of finance finance growth success the holy spirit numbers crowds resistance suddenly there's a new challenge on the early church and jesus was looking to prepare them for the challenge again we're thinking of the challenge of persecution and resistance but jesus goes i want to prepare you for the challenge of success as well i want to get into you the necessary tools and perspectives and and connection to me that gives stability in both storms the storm of success and the storm of persecution suffering and success the internal the external threats that surround all of that sustained profound peace sustained profound life joy that are necessary to overcome the fear that jesus talks about right in 14 1 don't let your hearts be troubled the disillusionment the disorientation the discouragement the offense the betrayal the failure the shame there's a lot that's yet ahead but the lord goes i've got something that can anchor you in the midst of all that i want you to pay attention to me i want you to pay attention to how i've engaged and prepared myself for this moment i'm going to release grace for you to do the same let's start with the cross that storm of disappointment and disillusionment there's lots of different ways to to look at the cross there's lots of different ways to ponder and contemplate the cross the way i want to do it tonight is i want to look at the cross as the as a window into the the way in which we i mean this room and again there's lots of new interns in here tonight and so you may not be necessarily so connected to our family or corporate promises and prophecies and hopes related to what the lord has said about kansas city and where this is going but you've got your own promises you've got your own prophetic story if you didn't have a prophetic story of some kind it's likely you wouldn't be here in other words there's some kind of promise set before you that that you're staring at that would lead you to believe that kansas city could be a part of the fulfillment of that promise the disciples were no different they have if anything they've got a prophetic history and they've got a prophetic storyline that's so far beyond ours i mean it's one thing for the lord to prophesy hey i'm gonna save a lot of souls in kansas city and we're like that's awesome that's like that's one of our like sweet promises like wow that's amazing hundreds of thousands saved that would be amazing what about you guys israel like we got this prophecy from moses about being the head not the tale of all the nations huh wow did you have like a cool prophetic encounter associated with that promise well yeah god came down and brought his throne room to a mountain in the middle east and it was there that he said these things to us wow okay that's a that's a prophetic story so we have with the disciples we have this way of understanding how they carried how they understood how they walked out this expectation of what their future was going to be what they thought it was going to be like what they thought life would be like when the promises came to pass all of us we've got imaginations there's a there's an unacknowledged part of us that accidentally uses prophetic promises as a means of dealing with our discontentment with the present in other words prophetic promises a destiny you know you might not again you might not think in terms of prophetic promises or prophetic stories you might just use the old youth group term destiny i've got a destiny or you could use the other one i've got a calling whichever one you want to use whichever whichever way in which you've thought about your future sometimes particularly in the charismatic world we think of prophetic promises or destiny or calling as a way of dealing with our profound discontentment with today it's why people don't like end times teaching because if the future through the lens of the word of god is about and nobody would say this explicitly it's just kind of what we feel emotionally if the future is about being delivered from a secretly miserable today into a glorious tomorrow and then you show up at the service and the end times preacher goes it's persecution you're like nah it's like prosperity it's glory it's revival it's altar calls and people shouting getting saved it's all that yes it sounds exciting but also people be super angry huh we have this filter and the disciples and the cross is our first introduction to that filter by which we process the future and what we hoped it would be as it relates to the way the promises accidentally became our projection of our unfulfillment or our projection of our carnal hopes the manner in which we accidentally kind of transposed our discontent and our ambition onto prophecy and the cross is this moment in their lives where suddenly they realize i only read the parts of the old testament prophecy that made me feel excited about the future there's a whole bunch of suffering servant in isaiah 53 i kind of glossed over there's a whole part of wounded for our transgression that i kind of moved past in fact i kind of skipped right to the kind of awesome habakkuk lightning from his hands shattering his enemy passages and i miss the suffering ones and it's not like we miss them on purpose we're not trying to miss them we're not we're wanting to be loyal to the word of god but we accidentally gravitate towards the parts of the word of god that we need in that moment related to comfort in our unfulfillment and so we project on the future but the cross is one of those moments where the lord definitively defines what those prophecies mean in a way that transcends their ambitions and their hopes and their fears like in a moment isaiah 53 definitively means that god just said there's no there's no more speculating there's no more you know bible studies what do you think isaiah 53 means it's like no it happened it's done there's a moment coming in which the second part of those old testament prophecies is going to definitively happen and our end times debates will end there is a day in which bible debates are done and it's pretty likely that it's not going to look like what any of us thought it would look like because we've got blind spots in our perception and the way that we see the future and what i find to be amazing the way that they processed i mean they were bold in processing their future around jesus as it relates to their opportunity that's how they process the promise of god they weren't thinking in terms of romans 11 they were thinking in terms of where's my office and the lord doesn't mess with that so much he doesn't correct them he doesn't rebuke them he doesn't go come here son it's not going to be what you think it is he doesn't go you know there's this you're going to be so shattered at the cross he didn't do any of that he knows that they're headed for profound disillusionment but not just as illusion disorientation when the future arrives in god's sovereign purpose in a way that you never conceived of and you were an avid student of the scripture but it comes crashing in in a way you thought you were sort of ready for it but realize you're not and the disorientation of it all the word goes let me i'll say it like this i'll say it in my own kind of personal way when i when i you know heard ihop kc's you know prophetic story and the prophetic history when i was younger in my 20s i thought that that those prophetic stories and some of the warnings that were connected to him and some of the things that the lord said would happen i went ah good lord you're telling me in advance so that i don't do those things i will be humble when that happens i know this is a prophetic story about pride but you're telling me in advance so that i'll be not proud i'm so glad you told me in advance because no i'm not giving you instructions on what not to do i'm telling you in advance what you're going to do but i'd like to get out of that because i know you don't get out of it by deciding you don't get out of it by just hearing and make it a vowel the word goes i'm going to help you get out of it but the way forward number one you can't just extract as a as a act of your own will you can't just refuse to enter into pride your way forward in these promises is to take my pathway that i'm going to give you to engage in trinitarian community and express it with one another and if you'll do that you'll end up with the means to put big promises into perspective you'll become joyfully content with a small life in the light of big promises when i was when i was younger you know the the the faith movement language was still in operation in the pentecostal wing that i grew up in and everything had to be big especially in youth ministry if you ever were in youth ministry for like a minute everything has to be big everything has to be epic and everything has to be historic and everything has to be about daring to dream that you little guy could do big things for god there's no youth group i went to anywhere ever that said you're not gonna do big things for god you're gonna get happy in a small life with a big god and the most profound thing that you're going to enjoy in your future are godly friends that want to burn like you do a couple of them you're going to get tight and you're going to want to suffer together it's gonna be real simple you're gonna share meals and cry about things not going well and pray for one another and then look back and go man how would i have done this without you that's really what it's going to end up being about you all the big promises are going to happen but they're going to happen with you and a couple friends going wow we did it we made it like it's not it's not as powerful and as big as i thought the lord goes i'm gonna i'm gonna get you into contentment and joy and profound rest and peace in the small as the big happens around you so that the big that happens around you doesn't take you out like a tidal wave but yet you're anchored you're rooted you're rooted in genuine meaningful profound eternal friendships that are built around who i am says the lord and are built around the potential of where you can go together in me and then you'll lead some people to the lord you'll pray for people and they get healed and then hard times will happen and you'll get through it and confusing things will happen and pressure will come and you'll bond even tighter because it's really it's really quite small it's really quite simple but the problem is in your soul you don't like small and simple you don't want to do all this sacrifice and you don't want to do all of this giving up stuff you don't want to do all this i could have been somebody's for small and simple you want to do it for big and meaningful and significant the word goes you got compulsions and cultural understandings and weird ways of viewing the world lacking perspective but i'm going to help you i'm going to give you something stronger than the pain and the disillusionment in your future i'm going to give you something stronger than the disorientation again i want to say this again the lord doesn't say to them take heart you won't be disillusioned he doesn't say take heart there will be pain but you won't feel it take heart you won't be disoriented you won't be depressed he didn't say any of that he goes i'm going to give you something stronger than that i'm going to give you something stronger than that and you will overcome it you will overcome it i mean think about what a not faith preacher jesus is in the last section of my notes jesus at the very end right before he prays because i'm going to pray for you but before i pray for you i just want to tell you this i just want to say this to you that enemies are going to come you're all going to be scattered and you're all going to betray and fail me he says that he goes all of you all of you are going to be a profound disappointment in about t minus 10 seconds this is so this is the great discipler of men like all of you are about to betray and fail me all of you like right now it's about to happen he goes but i need you to know something even though you're all gonna scatter when the pressure comes and you're all gonna fail this pop quiz all of you and when you do he goes you're all gonna leave me alone but then he says the next phrase and i love it he goes but i'm not alone i'm not alone just take heart take heart i've overcome he goes because this what's about to happen to me the other comforting thing that he says what's about to happen to me is gonna happen to you because in the world there will be tribulations that's how he says it what's about to happen to me later on it's going to happen to you you're going to get left alone they're going to scatter they're going to forsake you i mean he might as well be writing paul's biography that's how paul describes the end of his life they've all left me what happened to jesus happens to paul they all left me i mean it's kind of sad but jesus isn't sad he goes in the world there will be tribulations in the world there's going to be disruption in the world there's going to be pain the people around you will disappoint you even the ones that you're forging this fire of trinitarian relationship with they're going to disappoint you like oh so i'm going to do this thing where i like go for god with friends that want to go for god and we're gonna go after the fire of trinitarian glory we're gonna burn with the fire of trinitarian love and then kind of somewhere in there they're going to be profoundly disappointing maybe even leave me alone when the pressure comes it's possible likely because it's likely if you're in the world there's going to be tribulation he goes but take heart i've overcome the world in other words if i can overcome if i can prepare and overcome in that moment if i can touch in the heart of my father as a man what helps me in that day so can you there's i am telling you these things in advance so that when that happens you're not thrown off into an existential crisis by which you quit but quite the opposite not only are you not surprised you're not hurt you're not offended you're you have compassion you know that though they there may be a scattering for a moment fellowship will be restored eventually it's just a moment and through it you're not alone the lord goes i want to hand you something by which no matter how amazing or disappointing your friends your spouses your families your i want to hand you something that no matter how disappointing humans can be you're not thrown off by it because you're not alone but what is it lord it's so simple because here's what i want you to do i want you to do this i want you to engage in these things do what john 13. i want you to serve one another fight for one another because i'm about to wash your feet i'm going to serve you i'm going to lower myself i don't i'm going to do philippians 2. i'm not going to see myself that's better than you i'm gonna come under i'm gonna serve i'm gonna wash you i'm gonna i'm gonna love you right now and i'm gonna do that calling you to do that for one another the way that they were wired and the way that we're wired if we're honest it's like i'll just i'll use a kind of a weird example when this goes on the transcription mike is going to feel weird about this example so it'd be like if 12 of you were in a room with mike and he goes hey i'm going to do something right now to model how i'd like you to love one another he washes the feet about half of you would think i'm gonna wash mike's feet right now that's what half would think none would think i can't wait to wash the other dude's feet it's just not how we think we think well why do we do that oh was it wasn't that for me what does that gave me i don't i do that none of them are thinking i can't wait i can't wait to wash mark's feet i can't wait to i love his upper room i'm gonna wash that guy's feet like crazy it's awesome like none of them are thinking that they if anything they're thinking i'll wash jesus feed so he knows how godly and humble i am so that when he comes into his glory he picks me i'll wash his feet so he remembers that i listened he's going no no i'm going to model for you how i want you to care for one another you're about to go through something in which you're not just gonna scatter from me and leave me alone you're about to go through something where you're gonna scatter from one another and leave one another alone and i need you to not leave each other alone i need you to actually ache for one another and fight for one another and pursue one another at the end of the day the the time that the lord has spent emphasizing revelation 3 and the laodicean church and the lukewarm spirit is as much about our boredom with one another as it is with god it's as much about his refusal to leave us at our safe distance that we keep from one another in our fear of being hurt by one another our self-protective distance that's hiding a lukewarmness towards one another that we are content with in our relationships we're playing it safe on a daily basis we're playing it safe with one another and the lord goes you don't understand what's coming in the days ahead in both crisis and glory you can't afford to play it safe in your relationships you can't afford to show up to your friendship group yet again hide in a corner say nothing play it safe make sure you don't say something that gets rejected make sure that if you do say something it gets high-fived serve just enough to not be rejected we are so safe in our relationships because we live afraid related to the people around us and john was clear he's clear the trinitarian fellowship the trinitarian community converted his soul to this point there is no fear in love perfected love casts down fear and you know that you've been washed by the trinitarian fellowship when you look at the person in your home group and you're not afraid of what they might do to you you're not afraid of them rejecting you you're not afraid of what they might say about you you have this glorious holy redeemed renewed i don't care followed by a desire to fight for and serve without any regard for how that's going to benefit you in the reciprocal love back that we secretly work for if i serve them they will serve me if i love them they will love me no the rule of law in new covenant community is this if i serve them they will disappoint me and if i love them they will not love me back and if i talk nicely about them they won't talk nicely about me it is very likely that the people that i'm in a home group with are human i just realized i thought when i came to ihop i would be with spiritual non-humans and weird they're human here we don't say it that way we complain ah yeah that's the i thought this was a praying community i thought people were godly here and i thought people loved here clearly we do the first commandment we don't do the second clearly yes we [Music] and you and us but the lord goes but but i'm not letting you off the hook related to their inability to love you back somebody's got to start somebody's got to do more than have a godly friend and be in a godly home group somebody's got to do more than just be nice what's coming the intensity of what jesus is advertising is bigger than nice we don't get to be nice to one another as the world burns around us he goes no it is genuinely an urgent matter of life and death that you wash one another's feet it is genuinely a matter of life and death as it relates to the condition of your souls as it relates to bearing the weight of what's coming as it relates to bearing the weight of man's rage and rebellion and disobedience and sin as it relates to where things are actually going it really matters to me says the lord that you observe this new command that i give to you i am building this new community that's whose centerpiece is my community that i enjoy with my father and the spirit the fuel for this new community is the trinitarian community that's been experienced from eternity past i want to inject it and i want to infuse it into your relationships i want you to enter into it i want you to pay the price i need somebody to lead the way and forge something otherworldly with one another that looks and sounds like me therefore serve one another and fight for one another even if they do not serve you and fight for you i need you to wash one another and pursue one another and if you're wondering if they got it did they get the message it's one of the most beautiful parts of peter's story that we overlook by accident and it's in john 21 after the events that jesus was preparing them for related to the disillusionment and the disorientation and the pain and the confusion it's after that peter is in the shame of his betrayal he's in the shame of it and he says what we know i'm going fishing in other words i have no ministry future i have forfeited my place alongside jesus i have disqualified myself with my betrayal i'm going back to what i know i'm going fishing and the most beautiful line is what comes next and we don't even see it the boys go well we're coming with you then i love that part right there in john 21 3 they go well we're going to that's that's our indicator that they got it how do we know they won't leave peter alone peter is wallowing in his self-pity wanting to isolate himself and the bros go not on our watch you go fishing we go fishing why because they know that they're gonna be there they're not necessarily you don't see them giving them tons of you know awesome council it's not like they're being these great pastoral counselors you know peter in these moments of the dark night of the soul here's what you do next what are they doing they're just there fishing with him and then they go there's jesus i mean those are their two they go fishing with them and they go look there is i mean that's their profound role in peter's restoration it doesn't have to be amazing and anointed and filled and dripping with gems of wisdom there just has to be an internal refusal to leave one another alone to let one another wallow in our self-pity and our pain a refusal like no you go we go we'll sit with you until there's breakthrough we'll sit with you until the lord appears we'll be with you until the lord rescues you we can't be your rescuer but we can be your companion in the tribulation it's beautiful he says don't serve one another fight one another start there he goes let that be your starting point your entry in a trinitarian community begins with honoring and self-sacrificially giving of yourself to one another in the same way that we do you can start to reflect it even before you feel it even before you experience the fire of it touching your heart you can start to enter into it and if you'll enter into it you'll position yourself to touch it and be transformed by the fire of it because then i need you john 14 verse 1 he goes then from there once you begin that process of serving one another fighting for one another john 14 1. i need you to believe me i need you to believe me believe that what's about to unfold isn't the permanent state of things i mean right now we're just in the annoyance phase of the deconstruction of society but the annoyance phase if anybody here goes on social media which if you don't bless you you are a modern day hero and saint because i mean it is just the mirror of humanity that we didn't know that we didn't want but but in one sense we peer in why do i do social media when i get so annoyed because i because i i peer into without elevating myself above that's my goal i don't want to elevate myself above i am better than look at those simpletons look at the way they argue about vaccinations and medical issues look at the way they fight i am so far above them no i appear not as a witness from my vantage point of awesomeness i peer into a mirror by which that's me and i'm them and we're in this together and as i peer into the human condition i go lord that's me and help me and help them lord help me find that point of compassion that comes from you i find social media not to be just evil i find social media to be a shortcut in a prayer life it's a shortcut because right now we show up you know friday night egs sunday morning church and we kind of see the sterilized sanitized niceness of the midwesterners around us but social media becomes this shortcut this glimpse into who we would all be if the conditions just went one click to the left and it's there i go lord i want to find your love there that here's what's amazing about what i'm calling trinitarian community here's what's amazing about it have you ever been late to the party and when you're late to the party you walk into the room and the room is populated only by people that have been friends for like the last 50 years it seems like they finish each other's sentences it's like they are it's like they have telepathy and i mean that in the metaphorical sense not in the witchcraft sense it's like it's like they can read each other's thoughts it's like they can but again metaphorically it's just because of intimacy it's because of history it's because they know each other well they laugh at each other's triple layered inside jokes from experiences they had together that you could never touch how many of you have felt that feeling you know what i'm talking about you've walked into the room and it's really clear you guys know each other super duper well and i'm just kind of an observer to your awesome friendship [Music] what's amazing to me again i'm not talking about that awkward dating couple that is way too into each other i'm not talking about that what's that it's like am i even here or am i your third wheel that you're using to be pure okay so the uh so the uh some of you just answered my question so when you when you walk into that trinitarian community you should feel like i just described you should feel that way i mean you're talking about from eternity past a union of friendship and honor and history and story there's an ancient friendship with a profound unified understanding and enjoyment a pleasure in that ancient friendship it's like you're stepping into something you all at first it's almost like you shouldn't be there it's so profoundly beautiful and precious and profound and powerful and intimate again it's like you're a stranger to a to a ancient friendship that's been going for trillions of years with inside history that's far beyond your understanding and yet there's something profound about that trinitarian fellowship by which you don't feel like a stranger at all as soon as you step into the center of it well number one they bring you right to the center of it that's the glory of the cross the shed blood of jesus the finished work the glory of the gospel is that you get to experience who god really is in the depths of his profound acceptance of you in a manner that doesn't leave you on the outside of that community peering in wondering how you fit in the moment they spot you they bring you right to the center of it and they love you so fully it's almost like it's all about you but you know it's all about him and you're in the middle of it and the acceptance the power of it the knowing you feel known you feel understood you feel cherished you feel honored in other words it becomes quickly evident that what you stepped into isn't reserved for himself within himself but you feel the generosity of god by which he very quickly gives you that which he reserves for himself within himself he brings you into and enjoys you as if you were always there and you go why are you doing this well two answers number one this is who i am and number two this is who you were made to be the way that i love within me is the way that you were made to love within us the body of christ you start to touch the what jesus is talking about the fullness of joy again the fullness of joy isn't just the singular communion with the fire of god's affection in the place of prayer the fullness of joy is when you see the fruit of that prayer leak out into the people around you and that trinity the quality of trinitarian fellowship begins to become enjoyed in the people around you you begin to that feeling that you felt when you entered into that community cherished known honored beloved accepted now suddenly you're seeing it translate to the people around you and they don't feel excluded from this divine secret that you carry but they feel quickly included accepted cherished honored the body of christ is made to be this receptacle of that kind of profound holy transcendent love what happens when the body of christ comes through the crucible of in the fire of persecution and success the storm of glory and the storm of rejection what happens when we come through that crucible having laid hold of that trinitarian fellowship and on the other side of it we love like he does with that quality of love what does that do to a generation it's something stronger than the disillusionment the disorientation the pain the depression the despair it's something stronger than the temporary circumstance he goes believe me when i say i'm preparing a place for you and it's not just a beautiful home i'm preparing a quality of family engagement for you i need you to believe me that while it's not easy right now related to the fullness of the human condition and how that fallenness is impacting you emotionally how that fallenness is impacting you spiritually it's not easy to bear with one another but the lord goes john 14 1. he goes believe me i need you to believe me if you believe me and if you believe that there's a quality of something that you can have and experience and enjoy that there's a quality of relationship in me and with one another that's again more than being a godly friend and more than being godly to one another that there's a depth of something that can be touched and enjoyed in the in these kingdom relationships that are forged in the fire of that kind of love because if you believe that it's possible then the only obstacle isn't their sin but your unbelief the only obstacle lay hold of it isn't their brokenness but your lack of faith he goes if you believe me you'll start serving one another you'll start fighting for another and you'll obey me you'll obey my commands when the circumstances and when the pressure and when the difficulties of life start to come crashing in it becomes an apologetic for disobedience it becomes a why what am i doing why am i persevering why am i continuing on i don't believe that what he promised is possible the lord goes no it's again it's not the promise of a billion soul harvest that gets you up in the morning the billion soul harvest that's going to happen it's the promise of a quality of community that i want to bring you into that will be your rock your anchor of peace and stability and joy and rest you have to believe me that i'm going to bring you into that therefore obey stay with it abide express talk with me talk to me say back to me my promises say back to me say to me out loud the what you see in my word in my promise related to that community and the the quality of it say it to me abide john 15. stay connected to it cling to it apart from me you can do nothing therefore engage with the helper the holy spirit bring the holy spirit into your daily experience and then john 17. listen just sit back for a minute and let me pray for you john 17 when you if you're wondering if it's possible if you're wondering if the destiny of the church as it's written the in the song of the father's heart as it relates to where he wants this thing to go if you're wondering if it's possible just sit back put john 17 audio bible in and just listen to him pray for you last point last point by engaging in the trinitarian conversation we're laboring to anchor our soul into what solomon and the song of solomon calls those superior pleasures the the exhilaration of engaging in that love within the godhead our life goal as we start to touch it really does become lord draw me away and i'll run draw me away but but the way that the song of solomon ends i know i'm just hammering this point over and over again the way the song of solomon ends isn't her alone under a shade tree with god the way the song of solomon ends her journey in failure and compromise and restoration and that transcendent pleasurable exhilarating love of god expressed towards her the way that he feels about her these affections that put promises and purpose and into priority and perspective that kind of sets things into order the highest things of love gets set into place the way the story ends is that love converts her into loving a church that has profoundly mistreated her even after she's feeling the pleasure and the delight of serving the church there's still controversy around her they're still arguing about her but even my favorite verse my favorite verse in song of solomon chapter seven she looks at the church and its immaturity in its brokenness and its weakness and it's arguing and it's debating in its controversy and unlike earlier in the song she says there there i will give you my love she's the one that's laying hold of jesus and going let's go i can't wait to love your bride the love that you're destined for on the other end of this trinitarian conversation is bigger than your pain and your disappointment related to the church the love that you're destined for is to not view the church according to her worst day as it impacted you and caused your worst day lord because i have an entirely different way of you relating to her and it will be you laying hold of me to go serve her because there there you experience the profound heights the sweetness the glory the fullness of joy one last passage how do i know how do i know that the fullness of joy that jesus is advertising in john 13 to 17 is found in that new covenant community filled with that trinitarian expression of love how do i know just turn two if you would just to close philippians chapter two philippians chapter two verse one it's a familiar passage but when you read this passage through the lens of john 13-17 it almost becomes a different passage he says therefore if there's any consolation in christ if there's any comfort of love what i described what we find when we step into that trinitarian fire there's any fellowship of the spirit if there's any affection if you have any affection in you if you have any mercy towards one another in weakness this is the key phrase fulfill my joy make my joy complete what is it paul what's the secret of life what's the secret of the fullness of joy how do we lay hold of it he goes here's how have the same love being of one accord being of one mind allowing that trinitarian conversation to wash away your selfish ambition to cleanse you of your vain conceit but in lowliness of mind esteeming one another is better than himself let each of you look not only for his own interest but also look for the interests of others john 13. because the fullness of joy isn't experiencing love singularly and alone the fullness of joy is when you begin to see that love expressed in the people around you and you begin to go somewhere together and then together you have the anchor that sustains you in persecution in pain in disillusionment in success in revival in more in growth in notoriety in increase beloved it's not just persecution that's coming it's increase that's coming growth is coming revival is coming the outpouring of the spirit is coming and we need to prepare our hearts our lives our friendships for the growth and the more and the increase as much as we need to the persecution and the trouble if i found anything in church history and personal experience it's that persecution can draw a church together and grow success and more can split a church apart the lord goes i've got the key to both to set you in the midst of community as i envision it and stay there until it's forged in grace let's stand could it be that all that we could ask or imagine could it be that being filled to the with the fullness of god could it be that all we could ask or imagine is more than more as it relates to numerical growth and evangelism could it be that god has something for you that's bigger than the stadiums and bigger than the biggest ministry vision anybody could ever come up with could it be that the thing that staggers and actually brings us into unbelief is that the lord before his return could produce a quality of community in a new covenant people that is beyond anything that's been seen before in history as it relates to a depth of cherishing and honoring and enjoying and accepting and delighting in and blessing and serving hearts alive daring to risk the giving of oneself fully not just to god wholeheartedly but to one another wholeheartedly lord do it i've done a lot of altar calls and normally the altar call is i've written myself out or have disqualified myself because of my own opinion of myself i want to do a different one what i'm saying to you is almost like a foreign language because you've so written off the church because of hurts of the past disappointments of the past disappointments of the recent past some of you are coming here and you're in the honeymoon phase of awesome but the honeymoon phase is really about how much you don't like where you came from and you've accidentally written off parts of the church because the way they treated you or the way they treated others that you cared about or the way they came short and you're realizing that's not only ungodly it's unbelief as it relates to what god can do with weak people and the kind of church he'll have on the earth before he returns the lord wants to get you back into that story but he wants to get you out of your dignified unbelief as it relates to who the church can be if you're realizing that's me i've kind of written parts of the church off there's parts of the church it might be the progressive side of the church it might be the reform side of the church [Music] their theology their practice you've gone yeah lord you're gonna unify your church but probably not them and you're realizing lord you wanna i thought you wanted to deliver them but actually you wanna deliver me into loving them serving them blessing them fighting for them praying for them that's you you want to be delivered into a fresh love for the church again i want to invite you to come forward i want to pray for you just ask me i've had unbelief related to the church i've had i've had justified unbelief related to the church's failures the church's weakness brokenness what leaders did what they did what they did to them what they did to me i just want to get out of that i want to get into the lord's view the lord's love the lord's commitment the lord's seal just as you're up here just close your eyes put your hands in your heart let's pray for our hearts lord i'm asking right now fill us up get us out of waiting for them to be transformed get us out of waiting for them to be changed lord here i am here's my heart i'm asking fill me your vision your commitment your jealousy and zeal your love and delight and acceptance even for those in the church we don't even feel deserved god we don't deserve it you love them fill me with that love for them fill me with that love for your people [Music] oh lord [Music] lay hands on different ones [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] you've been playing it safe because of fear in your relationships i believe the lord wants to minister to you that's you you don't have to even come up just raise your hand right where you are you gotta be playing it safe because of fear i've settled for less than my friendships my relationships i've been playing it safe i wanna i wanna help with that if you see somebody raise a hand around you just gather around them there's a few hands over here let's just pray for them right now lord help me god i'm asking get me out of playing it safe i want to risk i want to believe i want to press lay hold of something in you the fire of who you are the way that you love the way that you spend yourself for love what you rest what you sacrificed i want to be like that [Music] help me lord [Music] [Music] [Music] your family [Music] change the way i love change [Music] help me [Music] [Music] [Music] my [Music] fill me with the mind [Music] that believes all things [Music] fill me [Music] me with your mind fill [Music] fill me [Music] wanna love my sisters [Music] it keeps me [Music] teach me [Music] in that same love you can manage to have [Music] in my [Music] i heart keep this [Music] love for your family i want you to me [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's like [Music] let it overflow [Music] [Music] who who might have played safe and not give everything to them oh lord i'm holding back i'm holding back i'm holding nothing back from you [Music] i'm holding back i'm holding back i'm holding nothing back from you i'm holding back [Music] i'm holding back [Music] i'm holding back [Music] lay my heart on the line [Music] [Music] i'm [Music] [Music] give me your heart for is [Laughter] [Music] no more security for myself i wanna love freely not withholding any love and with that we would like to ask you for you to take your conversation outside if you'd like to continue to fellowship and talk you're free to do so but please do it in the foyer or out there in the back doors if you could please bring your conversations to a close this is transitioning to the prayer room into a prayer meeting we'd like to keep this atmosphere sacred for people to engage and encounter the lord get prayer so if you have personal conversations please make your way out to the foyer on either side [Music] you

Channel: Mike Bickle Official

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Id: X55Zp5UR8AM

Length: 84min 55sec (5095 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 07 2021