John 3, in John 3, John the Baptist, our friend, our wild, wild man friend who eats locusts and is just crazy. He shares with us a metaphor of who Jesus is. And he relates to Jesus to a bridegroom. He says, Jesus is like a groom, and we as the followers of Jesus are the church were the bride.
And it's not this new idea, it's not this new concept. John is actually pulling from the Old Testament. So, Josea, Isaiah, Jesus, even in his ministry, he's going, I'm the groom, you're the bride. And what Jesus is doing is he's trying to give us this picture of what God is like and how he wants to relate with us.
And even at the end of the story, do you know the last thing that we're gonna be saying as the church? We're gonna be saying, come back, Jesus. The spirit in the bride, we're gonna have this longing, this cry, and it's gonna be come back, groom. Come back, Jesus our groom, we are the bride.
And so at the end of the story of human history, do you know our primary identity as the church that we're a bride and that we're waiting for, groom? Even Jesus, he's hanging on the cross. Do you know what he says? As he's hanging on the cross, when Brian Simmons came, he shared this.
He shared that the word it is finished. As Jesus says that, his last phrase on the cross. He says, it's finished and in Aramaic, that same phrase is bride. Jesus last word on the cross gives us insight into what he's thinking about.
He's thinking about relating with us as a bride and as a groom. And we see that Jesus, John sees Jesus and he's talking his disciples about Jesus. And he's going, he's a groom. And John paints this picture actually, that's a Jewish marriage custom.
What would happen is a bride and groom, they'd get betrothed, right? So they'd get engaged in our culture as they'd get engaged. And what would happen is they would be separated, they'd be separate in the bridegroom or the groom. He would go and he would build an addition onto his dad's house.
And so he would enter into this building project. How many of you have heard Jesus when he says, there are many rooms in my father's house. I'm gonna go and prepare a place for you. That's like a Jewish marriage custom, where the groom would go and build an addition onto his dad's house, because that's where the groom and the bride are gonna live.
And so they go into a building project. When they're done with the building project, what the father does is he goes, all right, you're ready. How many of you remember Jesus says, no one knows that they're the hour except my father in heaven? That's because the father is the one that looks at the groom's work and says, hey, go get her, it's ready.
Go get her, it's time. And so the groom goes and gets the bride and there's this procession in the streets. Him and his friends, they're like, all right, it's time. And they go and they get the bride.
And what the groom does is he brings the bride back to the addition on the house, the marriage chamber, and they consummate the marriage right then and there. That's wild, okay. No wedding or anything. It's just like, hey, here we go, all right?
And so they consummate the marriage. And what that's speaking of, as John the Baptist, he's painting this picture, what he's saying is, just as a husband and a wife, have intimacy and it's the highest level of intimacy that humanity knows is between a husband and a wife. Fully vulnerable. That's the type of connection that God wants with us.
Not a sexualized connection, something weird like that. But God is saying, I want intimacy, into me you see, where there's this deep revelation of who I am and me before him and him knowing everything. God is actually delivering us from whitewashed religion. He's delivering us from the shell of everything.
He's delivering us from trying to be like someone else behind closed doors with God. The Lord's like, guess what? He sees through all of the plastic. He sees through all of the, I don't, he sees through all of the persona that we put on.
And he's going, don't be like them, I want you. Don't try to be like them. Don't try to be like him or her. I want you to be you with me and we'll be ourselves together.
How many of you know that God sees through it all? And he's going, I want you to be like David. David, where he comes before the Lord and he just is himself in all of the mess, in all of the pain. You know, we've read the Psalms and it's like, you read the Psalms of lament and you're like, wow, David, come on, buddy.
You know, like you're pretty mad all the time and upset. And David is the one that's after his own heart. Why? Because he's real authentic, vulnerable, not religious, trying to put it on, trying to be a should.
I should do this, I shouldn't do that. And I need to be on my best behavior. And God's like, don't, I don't want your best behavior. I don't want you to be a good boy or a good girl.
I want you to be you in all of your junk. And I want us to have real authentic connection and vulnerability. So much of the church is just trying to be what we think a good Christian should be. And the Lord is going to be my bride and you be you.
And so I believe that we're not supposed to, we're not just supposed to be ourselves, but we're supposed to actually get caught up into something greater when we meet him. And what happens is, how many of you know that when the bride walks in, she's looking at what the groom's been working on. Is that right? And she's going, oh my goodness, I love this.
And then he's got some presence in there. He's like, oh my goodness, I love this. Thank you for buying this for me. And she's appreciating all the things that the groom purchased for her and all the things that the groom prepared for her, right?
And it's just like Jesus, all these things that he's prepared for us, the bride. He's prepared gifts and callings. And he said, I'm going to give you authority and power so that you can heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons. I'm giving you freedom over sin.
I'm giving you all of these amazing gifts. And I just want you to have them. And then our rightful response is, thank you. Oh my gosh, I love this.
This is all great. And then as we go through the space, there's a moment where you have to pause. And if you just keep on looking at all the things that he's done, but you actually don't turn face to face and actually look at him, it's not real intimacy. You can be in the same space, you can cohabitate with God and not actually know him.
And God is going, I don't want us to get distracted with all the things that I've done. I want you to actually get face to face with me. Side by side is great. Back to back when you're fighting battles and he's got your back, that's great.
But face to face is what your destiny is. Face to face is what he's been longing for. Face to face is John 17, where Jesus is going, I want them to know my longings, Father. I want them to know my desire.
I want them to know me and what I want. That John 17 fulfillment, it only comes when we go turning off all of the distractions. How many of you know that you can't be looking at a screen and looking at him at the same time? And thinking that like, hey, we're both looking at our phones, Jesus.
How many of you know he's not distracted by Instagram and you're time with the Lord? He's not like, nobody did you see this post? No, he's not. He's actually just like, hey, he's lifting our chents.
He's going, hey, look, look, look, look. And then Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, the ticker of the Trinity is literally, there he is. And he's like, let me out on Lord. And Holy Spirit's like, I love my job.
I have the best job in the whole world. He's just super excited. And he's going, let me reveal you, Jesus. And Holy Spirit is just on.
He's like anticipating us showing up. He's anticipating us just walking through the door. And he's like, oh, yeah, yeah. I am going to blow their minds.
That's what Holy Spirit's job is to reveal the depths of God. How many of you know the depths of God are meant to blow our minds? They're supposed to actually rewrite our brains, not brains, our brains to actually understand what true pleasure is. There's all of these other lesser lovers, lesser pleasures, and the Lord's going, do you know what's at my right hand, Jesus?
Do you know what's also at my right hand? Pleasure's forever more. Do you know what Holy Spirit's job description is? To reveal Jesus.
In other words, my job, ticker, Holy Spirit's job, is to actually go, oh, do you know him this way? And he's leading us onto the Mount of God. And he's going, hey, come into this cave. Come into this mine, and I want you to take your pickaxe, and I want you to start swinging it right here.
And then we just start doing a little bit of work. We just start reading in our Bibles. Just reading a little bit of Bible. And Holy Spirit goes, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, did you hear that?
You hit something. And then we go, OK? And we start picking more and more and more and more. And all of a sudden, there's a jewel that comes to the surface, and we look at it, and it's his compassion.
It's Jesus' compassion on display, and there's a million different angles to the jewel of his compassion. And all of a sudden, we get into a group of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we start meditating on the compassion of God. And we start looking at it and polishing it from different angles. And we're going, do you see this?
Do you see that? And we start meditating on the eureka of God, his nature and who he is. It's the holy grail that we are destined to discover, the knowledge of him. Like Indiana Jones, he's going through all of this stuff, and actually the one thing that we're created for is to know him, to get fascinated with him.
It's actually beaten secret. I just see the Lord is raising up a corporate resting place, like a corporate overlap, a corporate dwelling of God, dwelling of man coming together overlap of heaven and earth, and he's going, that's what I want. I want it corporately, and I want it privately. I want it when you're all together, and I want it when no one's around.
But the greatest hindrance to true intimacy is shame and guilt, is that right? Because in the place of intimacy between a man and a woman, there's shame that says, I'm not enough, right? We're fighting, we fight as men and women against the shame that says, I'm just not enough. I'm not good enough.
I don't have what it takes, whatever it is. And then there's guilt because of all the stuff that I've done. I'm not worthy because of my past. And it's not forgiven, it's still who I am.
And the Lord is going, we're going to remove all of that. I'm going to wash you in my blood. I'm going to remove the chirp out of your ears. And I'm going to rip the battery out of the chirping of shame and guilt and condemnation so that you can actually be like David.
And you can be without shame. See what happens is in the Garden of Eden, do you guys remember Adam and Eve after they send what they did? They made themselves close out of itchy fig leaves, just miserable. Fig leaves give you rashes and stuff.
It's just awful. So Adam and Eve are trying to cover themselves with fig leaves. And then they hide behind the trees. And Holy Spirit and God, God the Father is walking in the garden.
And we're all meant to be like David, where we come out behind the trees and go, love me in all of my mess. Love me. Even though I don't feel worthy of love at times, would you love me? And the Lord is like, it's my delight.
He will no longer, Isaiah 56, you'll no longer be called desolate. You'll no longer be forsaken, your hepsaba, which means my delight is in you. That's your identity in the Lord. My delight is in you.
That's what he thinks about you. When he looks at you, do you know what delight is? Delight is like an appreciation and like I like you. Sometimes we need to hear our own voice articulate that he actually likes us.
How often have you said, Lord, I thank you, that you like me? Do you ever say that to the Lord? I want to encourage you. Say that to the Lord.
You need to hear your own voice because the accusation that we agree with is about 10 times what we usually agree with with the Lord. And what he says, we're agreeing with accusation far more than we're agreeing with what he says about us. And we actually need to hear our own voices go, man, you like me, don't you? You really love me.
The Lord is going to make us joyful in his house of prayer. He's going to make us joyful in his house of connection. That's what prayer is, connection with God. He's going, I don't want it to be this mad, sad, angry prayer meeting, even though I love that minori intercession.
I'm just like, yes, I love that. But Jesus is going, hey, I'm going to make you joyful in our house of connection. And the way that you start getting joyful in the house of prayer, how do you even get there, is you get a revelation that's better than the Sunday school. Now I lay me down to sleep type of stuff.
And you get a higher revelation of who he really is. And when you start touching who he really is, that he's not mostly mad, sad, and angry, but that he's mostly love and patient, and kind, and gentle, and self-controlled, and keeping no record of wrongs. And you start getting caught up into the love and joy of God. And then all of a sudden, you start going, whoa, I like going to the place of prayer.
I actually like going to read my Bible. Why? Because I know that he actually likes me. How many of you know that you don't like going and hanging out with someone that isn't beautiful, that's ugly, mean, and keeps a record of wrongs?
God is beautiful. He loves you. He likes you. And he says you're forgiven.
The reason why we don't like people like that is because we feel like we're on eggshells. And God just totally, he just kind of just trumped in. He's like, oh, go gotha. He just like trumps onto the mountain.
And he's like, we're breaking all the eggshells. I want them. In all of their mess, I like them, and I want them. All the facades, they got to go.
Facades have to leave. John the Baptist. I had you turn to John 3, and we so unread it. OK.
John 3, 29. Actually, we'll start 28. You yourselves bear me witness. So what he's saying is, John the Baptist, he's talking to his disciples.
And he's saying, hey, you remember, I bore witness. In other words, I articulated this, that I am not the coming king, or I'm not the Christ. I'm not the anointed king, but Jesus is. And my role, look at that, but I've been sent before him.
In other words, I am a messenger, and I'm going to like prepare the people of God for the coming king. That was John the Baptist's role. Verse 29. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom.
So Jesus is the bridegroom, and he has the bride. The friend of the bridegroom, which John is calling himself, the friend of the bridegroom, stands and hears, and stands at the door and hears him, and rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mind is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.
John the Baptist, he's painting this picture. I want us to listen closely. He's painting this picture of another Jewish marriage custom. And so remember husband and wife, bridegroom and bride, they're consummating the marriage.
But in Jewish culture, what the best man would do, the friend of the bridegroom, that's the best man, OK? In our culture, it's the best man. The best man actually stands outside of the hotel room while they're consummating the marriage, OK? In Jewish culture, all right?
Should we do that in our culture? What do you know? OK. So what happens is the best man stands outside of the new addition onto Dad's house, and while they're consummating the marriage, he's standing outside the door, OK?
I know that's wah, it's wonky, OK? And what happens is once they've consummated the marriage, the bridegroom, the groom, shouts to his best man. All right? I don't know what he says, OK?
But he says something to his friend, the best man, and then the best man starts the party. The best man starts the reception that lasts for like a week, OK? And so with John the Baptist here, this is all right. We're going, hey, all right, let's reel it in, guys.
Come on. What's happening is John the Baptist is giving us a metaphor, and he's saying, you guys, disciples, my disciples, this is what gives me the greatest joy to seek God and his people actually connecting and not having a middle man priest in between him and them. And he's going, this is the greatest joy of my heart. When I hear his voice and his voice sounds like the bride's actually connecting with me.
She's actually meeting me. She's actually getting fascinated with my heart, and the Holy Spirit's going, yes, I'm breaking open all of the compartments that they put around me. I'm breaking all the boxes. I'm taking all the systems of theology and just, and the Holy Spirit's like, yes, that's what we want to do.
And the Father and the Son are going, it's our greatest joy to connect with her. It's our greatest joy for them to actually know us. And I believe that God is actually commissioning us as a house and as a people with this friend of the bridegroom call, that we are called to be like the best man to Jesus, and the greatest joy in my heart. And you're, I'm not saying this is like an organization thing.
I'm primarily talking about us as a people, like you as an individual, your call in God is to be a friend of the bridegroom. This is the posture of the friend of the bridegroom. Whenever someone new connects with him, it's my greatest joy. Whenever they meet him and they see him for who he is, it's my greatest joy and I rejoice, and I'm ready to throw down a party.
I'm ready to just go into dancing because they're connecting with him, they're seeing him, they're actually meeting him, it's their destiny, and it's his long and it's what he wants. And all of a sudden we're starting to be like Tigger, just like the Holy Spirit. And we're going, yes, yes, yes, this is what they were always made for. This is what the longing of Jesus was in John 17, and that's the call on this house.
I'm telling you what, we are called as a city to have a point in our hearts like John the Baptist. How many of you know if I pointed up into the balcony and I say, hey, look at that person. All of us are like, okay, we're gonna look here. And I believe there's a point that we get to carry in the spirit as a house.
I believe that this point is pointed towards Jesus, and we're going, look at him, look at him, and all of a sudden there's this insatiable desire and hunger to go, I have to look. And I just see that in businesses. I see it in schools, I see it in hospital rooms, I see pointing happening, and all of a sudden, now the city of Minneapolis in St. Paul is a pointing city.
And God is raising up a church that has got the point in the spirit going, look at him. He's the one that we want, he's the one that you want. This is your destiny. And all of a sudden, our whole city goes, we have to be with him.
We have to be with him. But I'm telling you this, that John the Baptist called the friend of the bridegroom, that point that God is giving us, it starts with us, meeting him in secret, meeting him as a corporate people, encountering him for ourselves. So we actually have an appreciation when someone else has that experience. It has to start with me going beyond my 70, 80 years, beyond my longitude and latitude, I want to get caught up into the beyond of you.
I don't want to get distracted with all the other stuff. Thank you for all the stuff. And I see it in this house. I see that God is raising up a praying church, a praying people, not a praying organization.
When I say church, I'm talking about a people. I'm not talking about a budget, I'm not talking about a building, I'm not talking about any of that. I'm not talking about services, I'm talking about a people that have a point in their hearts and they're going, it's him, behold, it's him. There's this looking up that God's inviting us into.
And we have this questioning, what are the chair bumpsy? What am I not seeing? They don't take any naps, they don't take lunch breaks, and they still are saying there's nobody like him over and over and over and over and over again. Past, present, future, there's no one like him.
What are they seeing? What must they be seen that I don't see as I'm just bored? Swiping on my phone, passing time. Let's make the best use of our time because the days are evil.
How many of you know that the praying church is gonna be a prevailing church? I wanna say that again, the praying church is gonna be the prevailing church. The praying people are gonna be the ones that have the overcoming in the time of difficulty. When the days are cold and many hearts grow cold, there's a people that will rise up that said, I wanted to get oil.
When there wasn't a fire, there wasn't a storm. When it wasn't cold outside, I wanna get an oil of intimacy and love in my heart so that when the fire starts coming and the cold night approaches, I have oil in my lamp. And the oil in my lamp lights up everywhere I go. There's a flame in my heart and it got stewarded when I wasn't in the cold night, but I was actually just in the mundane.
How many of you know love happens in the mundane more than it happens on the wedding day or the wedding night? God is calling us out of just wedding night Christianity. Out of just, I went on a date Christianity. He's calling us out of date night Christianity.
Hallelujah, he's calling us out of date night Christianity. Date Sunday morning Christianity. And he's calling it Sunday plus. He's going, it's not just Sunday Christianity, it's actually everyday Christianity.
It's everyday oil. It's everyday fire of God in my belly, love in my heart, getting oil in the mundane, reading my Bible when I don't feel like it, love getting stirred on the inside. Ooh, God is raising up a church, a praying church. And when I say praying church, I mean, a connected people to his heart.
Let's all stand. You can spread out, worship team, why don't you guys come up to the front? This overcoming thing, the days of difficulty that we're all gonna have, I just wanna name this. All of us are going to go through storms.
All of us are gonna go through difficulty. All of us are gonna go through trouble in the next three years, five years, 10 years, 20 years. We're all gonna go through just awful things. I'm sorry, I wanna have hope, but we live in a fallen world.
And I just got to name it. Like I got to manage your expectation, life is gonna be hard. And we're all in process. And none of you are perfect.
None of you are like what you've seen. You all seem great. We're all in process though. We're all in process, okay?
But there's an overcoming people. And the overcoming people, they overcome by what? The blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. And the blood of the lamb gives you an identity so that it's not shaken in the day of difficulty.
The blood of the lamb makes you new and gives you access without shame and guilt to the intimacy that God wants for you to have, right? The word of our testimony, we think that salvation, is testimonies of love sickness that are gonna sustain you in the storms of life. I believe it's God is giving us testimonies of intimacy. And it's just gonna be like Mary.
All of you are Mary's. All of you are destined to be Mary's that have testimonies of love in your heart. And how many times has the story of Mary been shared? Jesus said, this is gonna be shared everywhere.
It's an overcoming testimony. God is raising us up as a people of love. And when you start connecting with Him in secret, and you start loving Him, all of a sudden, you just start becoming love. In the storm, you start becoming love.
And I just, I feel that the American church, is getting called into the upper room. Just like the early church, they went into the upper room, and they started praying and worshiping. They started getting caught up into the place of intimacy, looking at God. They started, even in those early days, do you know what their prayer was?
As a people, the early church, do you know what their longing was? We see it all throughout the epistles. Their longing was we want you back. Their longing, they believed in their lifetime.
Jesus was gonna return. Are you hearing me? The early church believed that Jesus was gonna return in their lifetime. And they said, I want Him back.
And there was a longing in their hearts. We must have Him. That was the thing in their heart. We must have Him, wake our hearts up.
Lord, we just declare, put a point in our spirits. Give us the burning flame of love, Lord. We want the oil. We want the oil that you've destined us to have.
Lord, call us into the prayer closets of our city. Lord, we ask for corporate prayer closets. Give us, raise us up as the praying people. Lord, bring us to the upper room.
Bring us into the place of community, communing around you. Holy Spirit, I just say this. Holy Spirit, do your job in me. Just welcome, welcome Holy Spirit, do your job in me.
I love you Holy Spirit, do your job in me. Yes, Lord, you're calling us into the minds. The eureka minds of the glory of heaven. Oh, you're calling us to encounter you.
Yes, Lord, raise us up as the praying church. I just, just in your own way, just say wake me up. In your own prayer, just in your own way. Just say wake me up.
Wake me up from the American dream. I want to see you rightly, Jesus. Wake me up from the American dream. I want to see you rightly, whatever you want to say.
You just pray it out yourself.