transform. I have to start with a couple jokes if it's okay. My family does not like my dad jokes. You ready?
First one. What kind of man was Boaz before he got married? Ruthless. What kind of car does Jesus drive?
Chrysler. I got one more for you. A young boy was pushing his old lawn mower down the street hoping to sell it. As he passed by a local pastor's house the pastor came out and said, hey there, what are you asking for that mower?
The boy said, just enough to buy a new bike. So the pastor smiled and said, well, I've been needing a mower. Tell you what, I'll trade you my bike for it. The boy's eyes lit up.
Deal. A few minutes later the boy petaled off happy and the pastor pulled the starter cord on the mower. He pulled it again, again, nothing. He called out to the boy, hey, the mower doesn't start.
The boy called back, oh yeah, I forgot. You got a cuss at it. The pastor said, or the pastor said, Brown, son, I'm a preacher. I haven't used a cuss word in 15 years.
He said, keep pulling it. It'll come back to you. Oh, come on. Happy Father's Day, y'all.
All right. So today I have a lot to get through. Let's buckle up. I was sitting on my couch and I was flipping through trying to find something to watch if my family knows that yeah, I struggle to find something to watch.
It takes me hours to really lock in on something. So I'm flipping through and I'm just like, man, my wife's walking through and I was like, hey, have you ever seen Game of Thrones before you judge me? Okay. I know everybody in here watches the chosen and that's it.
But she's like, without skipping a beat, she's like, you wouldn't like it. It just keeps moving. And in that moment, I know this sounds funny, but in that moment, I'm like, spoke to my heart. And I didn't hear an audible voice, but I heard and felt something that said that close.
And I'm like, that close. What does that mean? And I'm asking the question and I'm thinking that that's how close the father wants a relationship. That without explanation without anything with just walking by, you wouldn't like it.
And there was something in me that was just like, wow, that we could have a relationship. Jesus has a relationship and model to relationship that close with the father that he's a father first and that we could have that connection to where I know his heart and he knows my heart. And the only way that we can get that is through relationship and intimacy with the father. See, she wouldn't know that if we wasn't in relationship.
She wouldn't know, she wouldn't know who I am. She wouldn't know everything about me to know that, hey, you wouldn't like that. And so as I was thinking and just praying, that's when all this became to really be pressed on my heart to talk about relationship and intimacy with the father. And that I believe that Jesus and what his goal was coming to his reveal the nature of the father to show that he was a father first and that he was a son.
He modeled sonship. And so what we're going to talk about today is relationship and I'm excited about it. Relationship before anything else is the focus. See, I'm going to have a lot of scripture today, guys, but I want to punch home something.
So follow with me and we're going to get through this. I want to start by saying Jesus didn't start walking with the father when he showed up in the manger. He was with the father from the beginning. John one says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God.
Joerdo said, in the beginning was the word. What's the word? All right, you didn't sound confident. Help me out.
Jesus. Who's the word? Come on, this side's got it. Let's try this side now.
Who's the word? I think I'm going with this side. Who's the word? There we go.
Come on. Shoo. Father, help us this morning. So I want to point out that the word with there.
Here's what I want to get to as we're reading this today, church. I want us to see the Father. I want to see the Father and the Son relationship. The word with there literally means face to face, face to face.
Like that close. Say that close. I don't know if you are today, but I hope you leave here today face to face with the Father. I hope that you understand that he wants the relationship that close with you, that you're face to face with him.
That that's the type of relationship. That's the intimacy of face to face with the Father. Shoo. You aren't excited yet.
Jesus said in John 17, glorify me and your presence with the glory I have with you before the world began. I don't know if y'all are hearing me like I'm reading this, but he also said in 17 in John 17, you love me before the foundation of the world. I want to say a couple things. That means before miracles, before mountains, before mankind.
He just shared with us that relationship was before all of that. There was a relationship of love before any of that. I think he's telling us something before creation. There was connection.
Before there was even purpose. There was presence. Before anything else. There was the Father.
Father, thank you for your word today. Father, I thank you that you sent your Son so that we could have relationship with you. God asked today that you would just open our hearts, our eyes, our ears to see things in a new way. We love you.
We honor you. And the church said, Amen. If you got your Bibles turned to Luke chapter 2. And if you're new here, I sweat like this all the time.
I go hard. I'm excited. All right. I'm giving you a second while you're getting there.
If you're there, say I'm there. Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house and other, depending on what translation you have about my Father's business. I'm sure you guys have heard all this. I want to point out that this is the first recorded words of Jesus in Scripture.
I got it up there. Yeah, do this is at just 12 years old. And it's revealing his heart. I want to really grab ahold of this church that he's saying in his first words that we have recorded of him.
My father's house. Father. Father. He's not talking about the crowds.
He's not talking about the law. He's not talking about any of these other things. He says, don't you know? Don't you know it's a it's about my Father and his house.
This is the Son. This is this is Jesus. This is our Savior. This is his first recorded words.
It's 12 years old. This is before anything. He shows us from the start of who he is that his heart is all about the Father. He's trying to teach us something from the very start.
I know this seems basic, but we're going to get deep in this because the Father is the most important thing. We acknowledge that and say that, but I don't know if we understand it to the point that the Father, he's Father. He's a Father first before anything else. Jesus is, say is the revelation of the Father.
Man, you all need to wake up this morning. We're almost at lunch and you all sound like you just woke up. Come on. John 1030, if you got your Bible slipped there, I'm going to run with it.
I and the Father are one. Come on. I and the Father are one. I'm just going to tell you a little bit of what's happening here.
This time that Jesus said, I and the Father are one. He was in the temple during the Feast of Dedication, a season that celebrated the rededication of God's house. The religious leaders were pressing him to declare plainly if he was the Messiah. Like this is in public, y'all.
This is serious. This is really like a bold thing for him to be saying right here. Jesus told them plainly in John 1025, he said, I already told you and you do not believe the work I do in my Father's name, testify about me. And he pointed to his miracles as evidence.
Then he took it a step further. In verse 26 through 29, he described the security and intimacy between him, the Father, and his sheep. How no one could snatch them out of his hand or the Father's. And then in verse 30, he drops the revelation.
I and the Father are one. See, did y'all hear it when I was reading that right there that when it's talking about like the security and intimacy, like that, what's a Father give? Security, right? And when we read these scriptures, you know, everyone loves to do it.
You know, my sheep know my voice. Y'all say that? Everyone says that. I know they do.
But are you understanding the connection that's being made there? You understand that he's saying, hey, listen, this is such a relationship. This is a close relationship to know somebody's voice. You got to know them.
You got to be in relationship with them. He's saying so much more than just the average thing surface level that we talk about when we say, well, my sheep know my voice. Because when people say that, I don't think they're making a connection to the relationship that it's about the Father, the Father, the Son, and us. We're all together.
There's an intimacy there that's being talked about that is such a revelation of the nature of the Father that we would know him. Know who he is. Like, I don't know about you, but to be not to be able to be snatched out, you got to be pretty close, right? Like you got to be super close.
Like there's things that's being talked about here, like things. Then he says, I and the Father are one. Oneness. Oneness.
And then shortly after that, when they picked up the stones to kill him, and not because his miracles, but they understood exactly what he was claiming. He was one with God. Jesus was claiming his relationship with the Father. See, this statement wasn't just poetic or symbolic.
It was revelation. He was declaring something powerful, unity of heart. Jesus wasn't doing his own thing. He was in complete alignment with the Father's will.
Intimacy of relationship. They weren't just close. They were one. One.
Nothing Jesus did came outside of what the Father desired. Equality of nature. See, the religious leaders knew what he meant, which is why they picked the stones up to kill him. Jesus said, I am not separate from God.
I am the visible expression of him. When the pressure was on, Jesus didn't point to his performance. He pointed to his oneness with the Father. Jesus said, I'm not just sent by the Father.
I'm one with him. I believe that's what gave him confidence. That's what gave him power. That's what gave him peace.
That's the intimacy, the oneness with the Father is what gave him everything he needed to stand and boldly declare the relationship, intimacy. Like he's modeling this this entire time. And I don't know if you're like me, church, but as I'm reading through these, I'm like, man, have I missed the intimacy, the deep intimacy that Jesus was modeling for us. That he was a son and that God was a father first before anything else.
See, and here's what I believe through Jesus we're invited to share in that same oneness. You know, not that that was God and Jesus was the representation of him. And I'm not saying as God's I'm saying as sons and daughters is what we were invited into. He doesn't just give us salvation.
He gives us a new nature. One that knows the Father. One that loves like the Father. And one that reflects the heart of Jesus.
John 1 18 says this, no one has ever seen God, but the one and only son who is himself God and is in, you ready for this? Is it up there? Closest relationship with the Father has made him know. Closest relationship with the Father.
I'm running through these because I got a lot. Hebrew is one, one through three. And these last days he has spoken to us by who? You all should know this.
We've been hammering this time lately. The exact imprint of his nature, the son. In these last days he's speaking through his son. Colossians 1 15 says, the son is the image of the invisible God.
What I'm getting at is that he came to show us the Father, church. I hope you're seeing this through the Scripture. Jesus isn't God's representation. He's God's revelation.
He is the revelation of the Father. He's the exact imprint. He's the perfect image. He is the full expression of the Father's heart.
So when you see Jesus, do you see? You're not just seeing power. See everyone's, I want the power. I want to release the power, but when you see Jesus operating in power, are you seeing the Father's heart?
That's who the Father is. He didn't do anything. He says that he didn't see the Father do. So when he's operating in power, are you seeing the Father or are you just seeing power from Jesus?
Are you making a connection? What's actually happened is the Father's heart being released through the Son to bring glory to the Father, to make the impact that the Father is trying to make. Are you seeing Him? Are you just seeing the miracle?
It's about seeing the Father. You're not just seeing healing church. When you see someone get healed, you're not just seeing that. You're seeing the compassion from the Father.
You're not just hearing truth. You're hearing the voice of a loving Father. Someone to tell you real quick, if you're struggling to read your word. I bet you if you sit down and understand that this is a Father's letter to His Son or daughter, to share truth to your heart about who you are, who He's called you to be, how much He loves you, what He wants to do through you, that you're a son or a daughter, that it's a love letter.
It's the greatest love letter to His sons and daughters. Do you see that church? Or do you just see scriptures on a page? Have you not made the connection that it's the Father speaking to His children?
He was sent. Man, this rocked me. I realized that we needed a Savior. I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I realized we needed a Savior.
But when I'm thinking, it says God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, you guys know it. But as I'm understanding this and realizing that what He's sending for it, if you're a follow me, we establish that it was a relationship first, intimacy first before creation and all of those things. It was about relationship first. So then when, I'm sorry ladies, it is Father's Day, but when the woman ate the fruit, I'm joking, calm down.
Yeah, He was. But when that all that happened and then there was separation from relationship with the Father. See, the main reason, one of the main reasons He was sent, so that we would then be able to have relationship again with the Father. So I know our focus a lot of times on how He's paying for saying He's doing this, He's doing that.
But no, no, no, no. They talk and establish about relationship with the Son and Father before all of this and that the whole idea is that the Father wants a relationship with us. That was separated. He sent His Son because He loves us and said, I'm going to, He's going to make the payment so we can then have relationship again because that's what it's about.
Intimacy, relationship. I want to be in relationship with the Father and He wants to be in relationship with us. That's why He sent His Son. This side don't understand.
Listen, here, I'm joking. Does that not excite you when you think about relationship that He says? Like, it was all about relationship. Man, thank you, Father.
If you don't have to say right now, just say thank you. All right. Shoo. My second point, I don't even know if I told you my first one.
I'm just excited, y'all. Jesus lived from intimacy. Don't beat me up. He lived from intimacy, not for attention.
He lived. He lived. Say, He lived from intimacy. I think what might happen today is that once you understand the Father wants a relationship with you and that what He gives you access to that you no longer live for something you live from things.
That was a good point. I'll clap on that one. See, John 519 says, the Son can do nothing by himself. He only does what He sees the Father do.
I don't know about you, but you got to be in close relationship. My son's pretty good at basketball, but it's because he's seen his father jump shot. I'm joking. But you got to be that close.
You got to be that close. He now here doing things for no reason because he's seen his father, intimacy, relationship. John 1249 says, I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. I don't know about you, but to know, I ask my wife some time like, hey, what else is this?
She tells me. You got to be that close. Right? That takes a relationship.
Do you guys hear what I'm saying? Somebody out here just speaking on your own authority. But if you're close with the Father, come on. If you're close with the Father, where are you going to speak from?
Then intimacy with the Father. You're going to be such close relationship with him that oneness is there that you're going to be speaking with the Father speaking or making me work today. It's Father's day. Oneness with the Father.
Closeness. I don't know, Church, do you desire to be that close with the Father? That you know his voice, that he's speaking, that you know you're that close. All right.
Y'all ready? Say I'm ready. All right. Jesus didn't start with ministry.
He started with intimacy. He didn't move in power before he moved in relationship. Everything flowed from the oneness with the Father. Everything.
I'm helping some people today. God said that those that are trying to pursue ministry and letting everything of the Father flow from them, that it's going to have to start with intimacy with the Father because that's where everything flows. That you can't do nothing apart from that. That if you're focused on ministry, you're focused on the wrong thing because it has to be intimacy because then that's when it's going to build up in you and you're walking with the Father and the things that the Father's doing, guess what you're going to be doing?
If you're walking with the Father and the Father is love. He does all these things. You're walking in oneness with him. What do you think is going to just begin to naturally flow from you if you're in relationship with the Father?
Come on. All of the things of the Spirit that we read about that we're like, hey, how do I do that? I love people like, hey, I'm praying for, don't pray for patience. I'm praying for patience.
How about you just say, hey, Father, I want to know who you are more intimacy. Why don't you focus on intimacy? Patience will happen. Believe me.
Believe me. I got a fireball for a wife. I believe me. Patience only came.
I say, Father, Father, help me Lord. Yeah. Church, I'm trying to help us today. The Father wants intimacy.
He's got purpose for your life. I believe everybody knows that deep down in. He's got purpose for your life. He's a good Father.
He can do all things, right? We know that one. Well, if he can, then why don't you just focus on him in relationship with him and let him do all things? Come on.
You ready? I believe people want the fruit of Jesus' ministry without the root of his intimacy. I'm going to say it one more time for the people in the back. People want the fruit of Jesus' ministry without the root of his intimacy.
I believe believers are trying to show off ministry, but Jesus came to show us the Father. That was his heart. I believe he just naturally did ministry because he was so connected with the Father. That was the Father's heart.
So those things naturally happen. Church, I want to help some people today. Quit chasing ministry. Chase the Father's heart.
He'll lead you into whatever he's called you to. He'll put you around the right people. He'll position you. Like quit chasing something other than the Father.
He's got you. He's a good Father. He will place you in the right place at the right time. Have you ever not been paying attention and you're just like, man, I'm glad I was here because this connection was made.
Do you see what I'm saying? The natural of who the Father is will flow if you're just walking in intimacy with him. You don't have to set out to do something special. Something special is in you trying to get out of you.
And if you naturally walk, it's going to happen. Jesus' miracles were reflections of his Father. His words were echoes of the Father. His actions were birth in closeness, not ambition, closeness, the church today.
We got a generation chasing ministry before they've learned intimacy. I believe that we got to help. Come on church. I don't know if you're new here, it's fine, but our mission, we're serious about it.
We're trying to equip the one that knows Jesus, the reason one that needs Jesus. And I tell you what, we're going to start with intimacy because that's the most important thing. We're not chasing nothing else but intimacy with the Father because everything flows from that. So we got to stand up and we got an example to this generation what it is and that's to chase intimacy with the Father.
Nothing else because everything's flowing from that. Like come on, say that close. See, if intimacy was Jesus starting line, where should ours be? Everything flows from that.
See, ministry without intimacy is motion without meaning. There's nothing attached to it. Father first. See, Jesus even taught us to pray with the Father first.
These are popular scriptures, but I want to help perspective here and refocus. Matthew 6, 9 says, this then is how you should pray. This then is how you should pray. Our Father.
Do you see the initial connection that what you're praying to is the Father? It's saying Father. Yeah, not just some distant, like, oh, well, I'm going to try to get this thing up there. No, like our Father.
Connection with our Father. And I like the sense it's Father's Day. You ever heard the joke like Howard be that name? I thought that one time.
That was so funny. Who's Howard? Bob says Howard be that name. But do you guys hear what I'm saying?
Our Father. When you go to connect and pray, are you connecting with the Father? I know I have squirrel moments, Church. I'm sorry.
But are you guys connecting with him saying Father? Our Father. I think he was teaching us so much there. I think we often come with our laundry list of needs, complaints, or requests.
But Jesus modeled that he began with relationship. He put everything aside and said, our Father. Reverence for the Father. I think the most important thing he showed us here was to approach him as Father.
What's your approach today? If you would get honest with yourself and say, how have I been approaching God? Have I been approaching him as Father? Not as boss, not just some distant ruler, but a Father.
See, Jesus taught us to pray, I believe, from where he always lived, from a place of oneness with the Father. He lived there. I ain't going to be able to read that next part of my skipped it because it could talk about how it would be that name. I'm just going to be thinking about Howard now.
See, before petition comes position and before request comes reverence, Jesus taught us that intimacy and awe can coexist and intimacy. Go to the next slide. We celebrate Jesus as Savior, but miss the way he modeled being the Son. Here's the challenge with that church.
Jesus, we all know, is Savior. Amen. But if you only see Jesus as Savior, you're going to miss that he walked the earth as Son. And if you don't see Jesus as Son, you'll never relate to God as Father.
See, Jesus walked in Son's ship, not just servanthood. He walked with the Father, with, not just for him. I believe there's a lot of people walking for him, but not with him. See, I don't think you can truly know who you are until you know who he is.
And he is first and foremost Father. He's Father. See, I think this is what produces light in your life. This is what gives power to your walk, not gifting, not performance, but intimacy.
I think everything that we see of Jesus shows that it flowed from intimacy, from a relationship with the Father. So if you want to walk in light like Jesus walked in, you have to live in the closeness that he lived in, one that's with the Father. I think I put some quotes up there. Oh, there they are.
And you only see Jesus as Savior, you'll miss the invitation to Son's ship. You won't live like a child of God until you know God as your Father. If there's a disconnect or you're questioning and wondering why, I don't understand why, I would say that it might be because you're not connecting God as Father. You're not seeing that Jesus modeled Son's ship to that we can walk and invited us in to walk as sons and daughters of the Father.
That's who we are. If you didn't know, now you know, that's who you are. Listen, it's good to trust Jesus for salvation, but we must see that he was Son and his example. See, I love it that he did come and die for us.
We all know that. That's everyone's favorite thing to know. But one of my favorite things now is that he came to show us how to live with the Father. And I believe that's one of the things that's often we're often struggling with now.
I don't know what God's calling me to. I don't know what I do. Like I don't get it. Listen, if you're there, it's okay.
But we're going to get you all the way there. And how you get all the way there is that you finally realize and understand that he is Father and that you are son or daughter and that the intimacy there is going to lead you into all of those things that you have questions about that you don't know what you're called to. Just start with the intimate with the Father, that your son, that your daughter and that you have a Father that loves you. And I promise you, when you start to see him as Father, your whole identity of who you are, your confidence, your boldness, all of those things are going to shift because you know I'm son, I'm daughter, I don't have to question anything.
That's who I am. And everything flows from that. Jesus made a way for us to walk in that same relationship. John 1721 says this, that they all meet maybe one just as you Father are in me and I and you.
Church, in this chapter, Jesus is praying right before his arrest and crucifixion. If you're asking me, I believe it's his most intimate recorded conversation with the Father and it gives us a front row seat into what mattered most to Jesus. Here's a little kind of a little breakdown. Verses one through five, Jesus prays about his own relationship with the Father and the glory they share.
Verses six through nineteen, he prays for his disciples that they would be protected, sanctified and unified. Verses twenty through twenty six, he shifts and prays for all believers. That includes us. Jesus is praying for unity, but it's not just surface level unity and agreement here.
I believe it's also individually. See because why I believe this is that he says here that they all may be one. I know that a lot of times we think that we all may be one. I believe that he is talking about that like all y'all, we all, just as Father, you and me and I and you.
I think that most of all he's saying, Father, I'm praying that this would be the thing that happens, that they would be in you and you would be in them just like I'm in you and you're in me, that this connection here, because if this is here, then it'll flow here. We will start to love like you. We won't have the nonsense we have. If this became the most important thing, the Father relationship, and this is Jesus's prayer, Father, I pray that they would be in you just like we just heard, did you all hear about all the oneness with the Father that Jesus was talking about and so?
Now he's at the place of praying that that's what everybody else would have. That intimacy, that oneness, that closeness with the Father. My goodness, unity with all of us flows from intimacy with him. Complete intimacy, full alignment, shared heart.
He's not praying for cooperation. He's asking for oneness rooted in relationship with the Father. It's interesting. He prayed before all this.
He didn't die just to get us into heaven. He prayed to get us into relationship, but the same exact one he had with the Father. Say, Father, first, this is our, this is Jesus Church praying that we would have the same relationship that he had with the Father. An invitation, he gave us access to be able to walk that close with the Father.
We read everything in the word about Jesus and who he is and what he did, how he walked, how he lived. It's to draw us closer to be created to live our lives, moddewing Jesus that reflects the nature of the Father because that's who he did. This is his very prayer that says, I pray that they would be in you and you and them, like me and you. I don't know if that touches your heart today, but Church, I think it's so important that we grab a hold of the relationship and intimacy.
It's so important that that was one of the main things that Jesus modeled. Father, he was always referred to as son. And now because of him, we are all sons and daughters. And if you ask me, I think that's what's going to position people for transformation in their lives.
Like, could you imagine certain to, to reflect the nature of the Father and people begin to see that they're sons and daughters of a Father? See, I do think that religion has done a bad job, modern day religion has done a bad job to connect God as Father. That's why some people and a lot of people reject it. But could you imagine if we started to love people and they understood that, oh, hey, no, you have a good Father that loves you.
He's a Father and he loves you. I think we would start to see the intimacy and the unity that we all pray for and desire, Church would naturally begin to just happen. Because you know why? Because then I could start seeing you like son or daughter.
I'm going to go a step further and I'm going to say that if we started to live our lives like that, we would see other people like sons and daughters. We wouldn't have all of the nonsense that we have right now with anything. And we got, y'all see all those kids up here, right? That stuff's cool, right?
Shoo, there's a next generation. And I want them to know that there is a Father in heaven that you can have a relationship with that will lead your life, that will guide you and that we will all come together to raise these children known. They're the next generation and to make an impact and to show that we have a good Father. I'm telling you, Church, there's something special about this intimacy thing.
And if we could just grab a hold of it, man, if we could grab a hold of it, you know, there's, I'm just going to say it. I was trying to avoid it. There's so many things that's going on in the world. I'm not going to talk about the stuff that's happening and point single anything out.
But I don't, I think that if a body rose up to reveal the Father and oneness that we came together and we began to reflect God's heart, that we'd be able to make a huge impact together to show and reveal what this life is all about. We wouldn't be pushing personal agendas. We'd be wanting to reveal the Father's nature. We wouldn't be going a thousand different ways.
We'd come together to say, hey, this is the nature of the Father. This is how I'm living. This is what I want to reflect. This is the light on, Shawn.
This is who I am. We wouldn't have all this other stuff. Certain rights, you know, all that stuff. We'd be able to look and be like, oh, man, that's a, that's a son or daughter.
We can have disagreements, but hey, that's a son or daughter. Let's come together. Like we would really be able to do something church, but that can only, you can only get there. See, Jesus's ministry was special, right?
You all agree? It's pretty special. The only reason it was special because it flowed from intimacy with the Father. And I think we could begin to love people, look at people like sons and daughters, and love them and help them if we would just focus on the Father.
We wouldn't see anything else.