10. The Spirit as a Voice of Love - I Am Who I Am - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

so today's today's Father's Day and instead of hopping out of the series actually this is kind of timely that it's Father's Day today because we're continuing on in our series called I am Who I am exploring what the word God needs to a Christian and we're in the the third part of that series has been on the Father the Son and now the spirit were in this series on the spirit and it happily coincides with with Father's Day for for a number of different reasons so let's just dive into that I invite you to get out your Bibles and open up to the Gospel of Matthew the Gospel of Matthew chapters 3 and there's a story here in Matthew chapter 3 that it's pretty familiar we've actually gone through it a few times already in this series but the experience of becoming a father for me personally and for those of you who are fathers for many of you there's something in this story that becoming a father help me read it with new eyes and the Holy Spirit is right smack in the middle of this story in Matthew chapter 3 so let me kind of frame frame things as I often do and I think it will give us some some new insight as we go into the story so as I mentioned those of a young there's like a brand news Micah where are you there we go back window how new of a father are you two weeks there you go if you want to see the tiniest human in the room just go look in the little thing that it has references body so uh so for many of you if you're a father you know the experience of becoming a father as an experience that gets gets etched esthe in your memory you know two weeks ago I talked about labor right for a Romans chapter 8 a woman in labor that Paul uses that metaphor and here we're talking about this image of becoming a father and the love that comes from a father and these two moments are etched in my memory and there's two pictures we we had a friend or family member present at the birth of our two son and taking pictures and so we're just you know I'm trying to like focus on Jessica and now this new crazy little human that just came into the room you know and so we have a friend or family member snapping pictures of all of this and so Josh got to share a bunch of pictures on Mother's Day right so I can share a few of my own so these are these are my two sons on the left is Roman this was almost three years ago his birthday's next month and then on the right is little August his birthday is in a couple weeks he'll turn one in a couple weeks here and so these these are fresh brand-new little human beings like they're just minutes minutes old right here and man I will I just will I'll never forget these first moments of being a father and just what like comes rises up inside of you in in that moment now I think what's striking about these pictures this is this is the first few minutes outside of the womb how how do they how does it seem that they feel about about their first moments in our world you know what I'm saying like really like look and this is this is how every single one of us entered in to the world so they're both now laying on this substance called cotton and it is not nearly as soft as uterus I can only imagine right so that's like and they're pretty much they're going to be bound to cotton or polyester you know whatever for the rest of their lives now you know like what what you know like just imagine like what does these what these pictures capture an emotion right of the experience of coming into our world and this confusion there's people poking me and measuring me and move me around and looking at me you know this guy with glasses totally in my face right here you know and confusion there's certain I mean you have to imagine none of us remember this moment thank God perhaps you know but but of anxiety or fear or stress and here you go that's it this is how every single one of us entered into the world and my first moments as a father is is trying to help a little human creature in this in this position and and it gets me thinking in a number of different ways I mean first of all you know these are our first moments every single one of us had a moment like this and does it really does it really get any better does it really change you know expect like so you know it begins like this and and it kind of keeps going for for many of us you know and so you know of course not you know I've since been able to introduce each of them to ice cream or something or butterflies and going and playing in the park or whatever and so they don't they don't act like that when we're at the park until we have to leave right and so but but what makes what makes ice cream and butterflies and go into the park so awesome is that most of life isn't ice cream and butterflies and going to the park we all come on to you know the stage of our lives in a pretty like confused anxious stressed out fearful state and for the most part that just kind of continues on is different levels of intensity and so on and this this struck me deeply in these first moments of watching my son's come into the world it's just like holy cow you know and you begin to reflect on your own life and this is how I came into the world and then all of the moments throughout your own story right that are marked by the same type of experience of confusion of fear of anxiety of what's going on around me I don't get what's happening right now and this is this is part of what it means to be a human living in living in our world and it what it evokes in me when I think back about this is it's a question that's just kind of with me as a father thinking thinking through how they came into the world and thinking through my own life story and people that I know and it's just the question of what good news do I have as a father to offer these boys who entered the world in a fearful confused State and who will continue to have moments of fear and confusion and what what can I do as a father to offer good news to my boys because if I don't have good news to offer to my boys I'm definitely in the wrong profession as a pastor I like what am i doing up here so if so what what is that and that good news and asking that question has caused me to come back to this story in Matthew chapter 3 and read it with the with a new set of eyes so let's uh let's go for it we'll come back to the boys again before where the story's over Matthew chapter 3 the role of fatherhood the spirit and good news Matthew chapter 3 this is the set up story to Jesus coming on to the public public scene here chapter 3 in those days John the Baptist came he was preaching in the wilderness of Judea and he was saying repent for the kingdom of heaven has has come near this is the one who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah a voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord make straight paths for him so we're at this this key moment in the storyline of the Bible and and John the Baptist appears on the scene and he's like one of these Israelite prophets so we're going to see he was setting new fashion trends pretty gruff did and he's out there in the desert right in the wilderness and he is announcing this message he's calling the people of Israel back to the god of the Covenant and so on and that the kingdom is coming God's going to do a new thing to rescue his people the rescues his world to set to set all things right and this is all fulfillment of the long storyline of the Old Testament we get a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that there was always expected to be one coming who would announce the Yahweh the God of Israel was on the way keep reading verse 4 the trend setter here the fashion trendsetter John's clothes were made of camels hair and he had this leather belt all around his waist and he was a foodie oh yes his food was was locusts and wild honey he just lived off the land people went out to him from Jerusalem and from all Judea from the whole region of the Jordan and they were confessing their sins and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River so think of what I think about John the Baptist doing think of him like in as a figure similar like in American history to UM to the great revivals the old tent revivals you know in the south and it was this cultural religious renewal movement and so you have this eccentric charismatic prophetic figure and he goes out and he's wearing the symbolic clothing right and he's dressing just like the prophet Elijah and Elijah used to dressed if you go read the stories about them and first and second Kings you'll see John was actually imitating these ancient renowned prophets way of dressing and he goes out there and he's eating off of the land and he goes to this symbolic place right he goes to the wilderness down by a river what he doesn't live in a van down by a river but but he goes down by at the river and what River in the wilderness the Jordan River and this is all full of cultural historical symbolism because the Jordan was the birthplace of Israel as the people as they made their way into the Promised Land they were led into the land under the figure named Josh and there they inherited the land as a pure gift and John's conviction as a prophet is that Israel has squandered that gift and they've forfeited it and things have gone terribly and so Yahweh's coming again and we're going to start this whole thing over let's call the people back to the covenant relationship so he goes down wearing ancient prophetic garb goes down to the symbolic place full of cultural memory for the Israelites and he has them engaged in this symbolic activity right of being immersed in the water going down and getting dunked in in this river recalling Israel's passage through the waters of the Jordan to become the people who receive the land as a gift and so on he's life it's going down there and he's essentially saying this is a new moment for God's people and we're going to renew the people of the Covenant come be a part if you want let's confess our sins let's get the story back on track again now there's lots of people who come to him and they think he's crazy and so on and that's what the next few verses are about look at verse 11 this is John's response explaining what he was doing he says i baptize you with water for repentance we're forming a new people who are recognizing that we failed as the people of the Covenant we're asking for Yahweh's forgiveness and to to renew the story but he says but after me is coming one who is more powerful than I whose sandals I'm not even worthy to carry he's going to baptize you with what Holy Spirit and Fire so he's going to immerse you in the personal presence of God and fire that sounds inviting doesn't it right so obviously obviously this is this is a metaphor right so there's a whole there's a whole bunch about Israel that needs to be purged and purified and burned away so to speak and so the coming of Yahweh's personal presence in the Person of the Spirit is both going to be create new life as the spirit always does but it's also going to purify and purge God's people at the same at the same time verse 12 this one who is coming his winnowing Fork is in his hand he'll clear the threshing floor gathering wheat into the barn burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire this one is going to come and bring new life and new moments but also going to bring justice and make every wrong right again so john sets up the stage where it's a moment yahweh is going to return and bring all things immerses people in the spirit and we're expecting prepare the way of the lord and the lord must be coming now and then who should appear on it seen for the first time as an adult here in the story then Jesus came he came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John but John tried to deter him saying well no no no I need to be baptized by you what what are you doing coming here to me jesus replied let it be it's hard not to hear the Beatles song I know let it be right let it be so now this is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness and then John consented so so John's like holy cow like you're coming as the Messiah is Yahweh coming to rescue his people like I you know this is all upside down and Jesus Jesus says no this is actually this is part of what needs to happen for righteousness to be fulfilled now this is this is kind of an obscure phrase to us righteousness to be fulfilled this is this is language that the Old Testament prophets used in the Old Testament poets throughout the Psalms use God's righteousness is his covenant commitment to rescue and restore his world to bring his justice and it just flows out of his character and so Jesus is God becoming human to set all things right and that fulfills purposes in the world and so Jesus is going to be baptized as to identify with the new covenant people who are being formed right here now that was all set up here we go here's the moment and here's here's the moment in the story that I've come to read with new eyes after these moments and experiences of becoming a father verse 16 as soon as Jesus was baptized he's merged in the water he came up out of the water and at that moment heaven was opened this is this is a phrase used of many of the prophets of Daniel and Ezekiel when the heavens are opened it's it's a phrase that signals some sort of visionary experience when heavens open you're getting like the curtains are drawn back and you get a true vision of what's happening right in the world the heavens were open and and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him a lightening who used that word in the last week I love the Bible so our lighting upon him I think you know like resting on him and then a voice from heaven said this is my son whom I love with him I am well pleased and then that's how that story ends what's going on here there's about a million things going on here let's just let's just look at a few so you have this this visionary experience of Jesus is this is his public entrance onto the scene and the whole story has been leading up to him and then there's this moment where we're in public this visionary experience and he sees the personal presence of the spirit descending and it's in the form of right you see it's like a what what's the spirit like a dove and of course you know in children's book some pictures are trying to picked all this what does it actually depict the spirit as as it does right but it's like it does okay is the vision this is this is the personal presence of God coming in the form of this bird to to hover over to Jesus in the waters right and to rest and rest on him and we've looked at this passage before in this series on the father on the son and on the spirit because can you think of another story in the Bible where the spirit is there personally present hovering over the waters do you remember this it's like the second sentence of the Bible in Genesis chapter 1 where the Spirit of God was the personal presence of the Creator God hovering in the midst of the chaotic dark waters and then right from there God begins to speak and bring order and do life out of the chaos and so on and so here again you have the Spirit of God hovering as a bird over the waters because a new moment is is about to happen in in God's story of creation so you have the Spirit of God there and it rests on him and then you have then you have God's speaking from heaven it's like God making this public announcement of who Jesus is and you have these words three phrases this is my son I love him he's well pleased now this is what's so awesome about these famous lines is that every every bit of this line actually God's quoting himself God's quoting the Bible right here all of these phrases are phrases that occur earlier in the Hebrew Scriptures that God spoke about someone someone and actually almost all of the lines that are being merged together here from the book of the prophet Isaiah that matthew has already quoted from up above these are two of the most important passages that is quoting from right here the first ones Isaiah chapter 11 and it's a prophecy about the coming Messiah the coming king who will rescue God's people and bring justice to God's world and and this is how the passage reads out of the stump of David's family will grow a chute it's a metaphor describing the family of David of Kings as a tree that's been cut off and it's now like this dead stump and then the little new growth green chute peers out and it's yes a new branch bearing fruit from the old root and the spirit of Yahweh will rest on him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh and he will delight in obeying Yahweh when the Messiah comes he'll be the spirit empowered individual the Spirit will rest on him and you'd read this description and and you can just see exactly like these words depict all of the ways that Jesus talked and behaved and treated people and so on wisdom and understanding and council of power and knowledge and so on the other passage is later on in the Book of Isaiah you have this figure who's called the servant and this is also a depiction of the coming Messiah but depicted as one who carries out the will and the purposes of God and so God says about this servant in Isaiah chapter 42 God says this is my servant whom i strengthened he's my chosen one I am pleased with him I have put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nation and so what what God is doing here is he's announcing that Jesus is this one to whom all of these ancient prophecies point and so the Spirit of God descends on Jesus as the Messiah and he's pleased with him and so on you guys with me here this is all God's quoting in self fulfillment of Old Testament processing okay now here's what's really unique about this of course is that we have the spirit resting and we have the servant and I'm pleased with him Isaiah 42 God says this is my servant Matthew chapter 3 God says this is my son do you see that difference is that a significant difference yeah that's a really significant difference right because what's happening here is Jesus is coming onto the scene and there's Jesus is revealing who God is and it's a it's a category breaking there were kind of language and hints of it in the Old Testament Scriptures but nothing to prepare for this whole new category breaking reality of who Jesus revealed God to be and it's the vision of God the Christian vision of God that we've been exploring in this in this whole series Jesus revealed God to be the one whom he called father whom he called God and as someone distinct from him and Jesus called himself son son of God or the son of the Father but yet there were other times when Jesus says I and the father are one if you've seen me you've seen the father jesus said and then here in this story you have the father making this declaration about the son and who is the one who's communicating this love and commitment and statement from the father to the son who who is it the spirit spirit and so you have this vision of the one God who is father son and and spirit and it's the vision of God we've been exploring for for four months now now later Christians would come to find a term to describe what they saw Jesus revealing about who God is they didn't invent this idea when they used the term Trinity what they're trying to do is read a story like this and and find a word that can describe the god who's revealed in this in the story here and so you have this this one God who is Father Son and spirit and Father Son and spirit in their unity they're try unity and their commitment to each other our God one God who is who is yes three that's the vision of God revealed in this story now that's the theology piece but look at this statement all right this is my son and what does the father say about the son here this is the fundamental revelation of who Jesus is and who God is what is the fundamental relationship between the father and the son what does it say what does God say I love him I love him and that that love is communicated from the father to the son through whom the spirit the spirit the Spirit is the personal presence of the father coming to be with the son to empower him to equip him to anoint him but here specifically to communicate the love of the father and this story is just in a nutshell the whole Christian vision of God it's what it's what the later biblical authors will look back on like in the letter of first John where the Apostle John says God is well what is he saying what are you saying is the Christian vision of God is the one God who is father son and spirit who were who are committed to each other eternally perpetually in a covenant of that each is perpetually committed to seeking the well-being and to honoring being others centered and that's the Christian view view of God at the heart of God is an others centered self giving love community and that's the God is revealed to us in the story right here now that's the theology piece that's a really beautiful piece here's your something that's that struck me after my sons were born and that made me find something in this story that at least personally that I hadn't reflected on before I think of where we're at in the story right now in the story of Jesus so this what has Jesus done so far what's he done I mean that's nothing he was born so they probably cried you know pooped his pants or something like that you know we're not given any information about what he's done up to the you know the 30-some odd years up up to this point so the point this is his public kind of entrance you know as prophet and Messiah announcing the kingdom of God and so on and so what has Jesus done for the kingdom of God yet and the answer is nothing absolutely nothing he has he has no followers yet right he he's done no signs or wonders he he's done no amazing teachings like the Sermon on the Mount he hasn't given any great you know moral you know proverbs to love your neighbor as yourself he hasn't said any of that yet he hasn't yet healed anybody he hasn't done any of that stuff he happened and yet what is the father's statement in and through the spirit to him I love him I love him not even just I love him but I'm pleased with him oh wow but what does Jesus done yet to elicit God's love and God's pleasure and the answer is nothing nothing and just right here is where you just have to stop and you have to you have to say in you know we've we've hit this theme many times here at door of hope over the years there are we all inherit a vision of what love is from our own life experience from our own cultural upbringing in our culture especially love primarily refers to an emotion it's something that happens to you and so you respond to it and it's an emotional connection and passion and so on in the Bible love is an action and a choice it's a choice that I make to seek the well-being of another people another person through decisions through actions that I do to seek their well-being regardless of how they respond to me this biblical vision of love and what the story is trying to tell us is that before Jesus has done anything the father makes this statement of his eternal disposition and posture towards the Sun it's one of love and permanent commitment before Jesus has done everything anything at all and this is so profound this is to me so utterly profound because it's so counter to all of our experiences of of love save maybe in one relationship and that is between parents parents and their children the most and even then even then it's not not even a perfect analogy because if you think about it all most of our experiences of love are based on an understanding that I need to do something to make myself desirable to people I mean just think about what drives half of the things we do with our waking hours you know what it means so we need to whatever be responsible you need to work and provide for our basic needs or for those who depend on us but then there's this other layer of stuff going on in our day-to-day lives right and it drives what we wear it drives how we make ourselves appear to others or how hyper aware we are about how we appear to and what's that all about there was because we want to appear desirable we want we want to be known and we want to become lovable to others there's just something about the human heart that we just want to be known we need to be loved we need to be admired we need to know that someone's pleased with us and when human beings when we're deprived of that it's like it's it's you know it's like trying to start a fire with no wood right it's like trying to drive a car with no gasoline human beings don't work when we don't have love and pleasure and approval we shrivel as human beings emotionally spiritually and even physically it affects us and so most of our experiences of love are that we make ourselves loveable we are successful we're admirable we do the right thing and then our friends will like us then your parents will finally approve of you then your teachers will actually start to pay attention to you when you begin to perform right I mean that's our am i describing the world that we live in or that's our day-to-day experience and and the story of Jesus comes to us with this absolutely counter vision of who God is and and what love is and what Jesus is revealing of who God is is actually that there is this love that stands at the center of the universe and this love precedes everything it precedes Jesus doing anything Jesus comes and he does everything that he does not to earn the love of the Father but precisely generated out of the fact that he is the beloved of the Father this is the love that grounds human beings this is a love that precedes and pre-exists before Jesus ever you know arrived on the scene and did everything this is the the eternal loving God that's what the story's trying it's trying to tell us and the only thing I can liken it to is is the love that that a mother or a father has for the little human before they arrive you know before this this human emerges from the womb there are ideally hopefully two you know a set of parents or one parent there's somebody who's thinking and hoping well-being and love for this little human before they even arise and so that's that whatever this language of father or son is referring to ultimately surely it's meant to lock into this human experience that God is a source of love before humans before like a we'd ever do anything at all it's just there it's just a fact and that's who the Christian the to the Christian God is I mean here's what's interesting is look at the look at the next verse look at the end of chapter 3 right we have this announcement of the father to the son communicated through the spirit this is my son whom I love with him I am well pleased what happens next what happens next then Jesus was led led by him by the spirit so this this loving presence this this personal presence that communicates the love of the father to the son leads the son into where into the wilderness and what happens in the wilderness testing testing and temptation testing and temptation to do what well Jesus encounters he's led by the spirit into this wilderness and he encounters another personal presence it's a personal presence of evil that the Scriptures call the Satan or the devil and what is the primary tactic of this personal spiritual evil in the story right here we won't read it in detail but but what does the tester come to do well in each case the tester asks Jesus questions three of them and all of them begin with if you really are the son of God right so all the questions begin if you are the son if you really are the beloved son of God what on earth are you doing out here starving and tired and hungry I mean all the circumstances line up to tell you that God actually doesn't really love you and he's abandoned you because look at your life circumstances right now is that what what what the presence of spiritual evil does it tries to get Jesus to doubt his status as the beloved and to doubt his status as the loved son if you really are the son of God then listen do some magic tricks right provide for yourself rias's and you can show everybody who you are and then each case jesus humbles himself he quotes from scriptures kind of a pattern whenever God speaks he quotes from the scriptures whenever Jesus speaks the often is quoting from the scriptures and basically in the power of the Spirit Jesus asserts to this evil that's getting him to doubt God's goodness into doubt his status as the beloved he just says away he says away that's the story that follows right here Jesus counters evil evil comes as this voice that's trying to get Jesus to doubt his status as the beloved son that love that's communicated by the Spirit and he he quotes the scriptures that speak what is true about him and what is true about God and he says away he resists the urge to doubt his status as the beloved that's Matthew chapter 4 this Matthew chapter 4 this is so this is so profound it seems to me there's a there's a passage in Paul's letter to the Romans and we were looking at Romans chapter 8 just a couple weeks ago but there's another chapter that has kind of led me to read it with new eyes the experience of becoming a father and it's crucial in this whole connection here it's a romans chapter 8 and pay attention to the language here this is so this is so key paul says for those who are led by the Spirit of God they are the children of God what did the spirit do to Jesus and Matthew chapter 4 it led him it led him right it led him those who are led by the Spirit are the children are the children of God and Paul says listen the Spirit that you receive doesn't make you slave so that you should live in fear again then the spirit that you received brought about your adoption to sonship this is the theme that we've been exploring also in in this series so far is that the father sends the son as the one true human who is the human being that we all perpetually fail to be and in so doing this triune God binds himself to sinful broken humans and permanently commits himself to rescuing us and bringing justice and restoration and he does that by sending his spirit to communicate his love to the son and ultimately this act of love from this God points towards and comes to the moment of Sillman in the cross where Jesus lived for each one of us as the human that you and I perpetually failed to be he died as as absorbing the cost and the consequences of all of the stupid sinful selfish decisions that we have all made and on in his resurrection his his love conquers even the powers of death and the sin that brought him about sin that brought it about and so life and grace new humanity is offered to each to each one of us and the son does this as an act of love and powered by the spirit and for those human beings who look - this son of God in space and what he did for us Paul says the Spirit comes and takes up residence in your life and it's as if you become adopted to become sons and daughters or as Paul says later in Romans 8 he says Jesus came to become the firstborn of a whole new family a whole new family of humans who like the people who came to John the Baptist's who confess and recognize we failed at being humans and we need someone to lead the way into a new future and a new humanity and Jesus comes as precisely that one and Paul says when if you're led by the Spirit but the Spirit has taken up residence in your life then you have been adopted into the family of Jesus and if that's the case then what that means is that our relationship to the Father as actually a gift to us from Jesus's relationship to the father and what did Jesus call god father and so look at what he goes on to save right here he says so so we've received the spirit as we've been adopted into the sonship into the family of God's children and by the Spirit we cry out Abba Father and this is really curious Abba me ever heard that word before Abba and you think of the you know the 70s rock band of course which you should it was they were a great band and they produce a lot of great it's actually I think I think they were fairly influential anyway so ABBA so don't think of that don't think of that Abba this interesting Abba is is the word in Jesus's you know native day-to-day tongue which was Aramaic it's an Arab you know you're speaking ancient Aramaic when you say Ava's right you think you think of 70s pop culture right but actually you're speaking ancient Aramaic and here's what interesting is that you know as Christianity began to spread the the language of the world at that time outside of Israel Stein was was mostly Greek and Latin and so you have all of these non-jewish Christian people becoming Christians or whatever and they all speak Greek they don't know lick a Latin but they're a sure din to this tradition of Jesus's people and and how do we refer to God around here in the family of Jesus's people even if you speak Greek or English who do we call God we call him Abba Abba this this word referring to the father kept consistent through the centuries why because this is how Jesus referred to God and so Jesus referred to God as Abba and because he paved the way for us you and I are invited as sons and daughters to call God by the same exact name Abba Abba Father and and Paul closes here saying the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children so here's what this all means what it means that this story of giasses baptism this is true of him yes but I think what Matthew is trying to get to see and what Paul is trying to get us to see is is what's true of Jesus is also true of those who reach out to him and say and the same spirit that communicated the eternal pre-existing love of the father to the son now becomes this voice that testifies this voice that speaks in our hearts and our minds as Christians reminding us of who we really are we are the beloved and this is a love that comes you know that clearly it's like it pre-exists before you ever did anything this love is just there and it's for you before you you arrived onto the scene there was this one whose attention was set on you and your story and and and this God's fundamental posture to you is one of utter commitment permanent eternal commitment and love and the one who communicates that love to you before you ever like you know got a a and math or a D and math if you were like me you know before you ever like succeeded or failed at anything before you ever made yourself look hot or handsome or not hot or not handsome or whatever before any of that ever happened there's just this one who's attention is set on you for your well-being to love you and and that love is communicated to you in the person of the spirit so here's what I'm really getting at is that this one of the roles of the Spirit it's in the series on the spirit we're exploring the role is in the reality and what the Spirit does one of the key roles of the Spirit is to remind you of who you are this voice reminding Jesus's people that I love you this is my daughter I love you I'm pleased with you but you know I'm actually not really somebody that a lot of people take pleasure in yeah that's kind of actually decides the point so you know I'm actually you know clearly by my appearance I'm not a kind of person that like people like wants be around or look at I'm not the first person people look at when I walk into a room or whatever this besides the point this is my daughter I love her this is my son I love him and this is the fundamental being of God towards his children and it seems to me one of the most greatest challenges that we have as Christians is this discipline of our minds to listen to the voice of the Spirit as opposed to listening to these these voices of evil that would get you to doubt God's goodness and and doubt who God is towards you and to doubt God's love for you and to doubt your status as the beloved and the Spirit comes testifying is this voice reminding us of who you are that's that's one of the roles of the Spirit Henri Henri Nouwen I don't know if you know who Henri Nouwen is he was a kind of a Catholic priest turned spiritual director writer of lots of really amazing books and he wrote a little book just exploring this very idea this whole theme such a little short paperback that I recommend is just called the life of the beloved it's learning to live claiming your status as the beloved and there's a section of the book where he closes it and it reads like this he says in the midst of this painful reality we must dare to reclaim the truth that we are God's beloved even when our world does not love us as long as we allow our parents and siblings and teachers and friends and lovers to determine whether we are beloved or not we are caught in the nets of a suffocating world that accepts or rejects us according to its own agenda of effectiveness and control the great spiritual battle begins when we reclaim our status as God's beloved long before any human being saw we were seen by God's loving eyes long before anyone heard us cry or laugh we are heard by our God who is all ears for us long before any person spoke to us in the world we were spoken to by the voice of eternal love it seems to me Henry Henry now and he's putting his finger he's putting into words exactly what Matthew 3 and in Romans chapter 8 is trying to trying to communicate in that moment a the picture that I showed you write it right at the beginning when my both my sons were just minutes old you know so the moment they come out clean them up and just set them right on mom it's like the initial nursing and that's skin time or something like that right and so and so you just get them on you know bare skin to bare skin and that's just really important in those first few minutes there because they're clearly really stressed out right and so so that's happening and then you know after ten minutes or so you know there's still actually a lot that the female body needs to go through after after birth and so on and so you know like little room and little August gets set right beside mom and Midwife and so on are now attending Jessica and so I've never run but just my first time as a midwife just looked at me and said go go be with him this is what you do now go be with him right I'm like what Jessica oh she's like the Jessica will be fine you just go be with your self and so I have this moment you know I'm you know so you know beside Jessica or later on the bit and so you know I'm having my first conversation with my son you know and I didn't know what to say you know I've had having conversations with my wife stomach for a while you know trying to you know get it used to my voice or whatever gonna be some my voice but and so whatever you know I just a not man I'll just that moments act in my memory because I like what do you say so I just I just started talking to him you know and and just telling him like how excited we are that he's here and that we're here for the long haul and this is going to be awesome and you don't even know how much that we love you and in both in both cases Roman and with August our friend family member that was there taking pictures that captured that that moment for us and the picture that remains really special to me and this is you know this is the closest like I'm I don't know how to get near to this except this analogy in my own experience that that I got to play a role in these two little humans lives of love for them before they ever really existed and that ended in their first moment I got to speak love to them in their first minutes of existing and it seems to me this is what Paul's trying to say there's this voice trying to get your attention every day above the cacophony of voices that make you question your status as the beloved and the spirits they're just reminding you this my daughter I love her this is my son I love him and this is what this is what the Spirit is trying to get us to listen to and so I think the question the question for us is do we have ears to hear the truth about who we are because of what Jesus has done for us in his life and his death in his resurrection do you have the ears to hear what the Spirit is trying to tell you let me close the inward prayer you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 51min 56sec (3116 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2017