Welcome to the Daily Disciple Podcast, where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus, our teacher. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the podcast. And we are, we're together. We're friends that are friends of Jesus and we're on mission together.
We're partnering with what God is doing in his world, whether it's the season before this season, the next season, God is on the move. He's on the move. He can't be stopped. And we are with him on that adventure.
And the last thing that Jesus said before he ascended to the right hand of the Father to rule at the helm of the universe as a messianic King, he said, I will be with you always to the very end of the age. And the title of the podcast this morning is with you always. And that's a promise that Jesus made to his disciples. It's the promise that he is still making good on today.
And it's the fundamental reality of what is actually happening in our lives and in our world. We are never alone. He is always with us. And that is maybe the bedrock truth of the Christian journey.
That's fundamentally what reality is because Jesus, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Trinity has won the victory. And so we get to walk and talk and be with him and we're never alone. We're never, never alone. So the title of the podcast this morning is with you always.
And that's the promise that Jesus gave his disciples. Now we feel alone and you may feel alone right now. You may really, really feel alone right now. And we do not like that feeling.
It might be the worst feeling that we can even imagine. The feeling of isolation, no one to connect with, no one to talk to. And we're really feeling that in a lot of ways, you know, in the season and feelings are not always telling us something that's actually accurate, but they're real nonetheless and, and heavy nonetheless. And when we miss people or, or miss things, it does make us feel alone.
And right now, many of us are missing, you know, friends and family, even work and the connections that we have at work sports. I'm missing Sunday morning and we'll be doing Sunday morning terribly. You're missing Sunday morning terribly. You know, we're missing rhythms and also we're just missing kind of normal interactions with strangers, with people in public, because right now interactions are they're awkward and they're stilted and they're just kind of weird in this season.
Some of us have lost relationship with people. Some of us have lost people to death in the season. Some of us have lost loved ones. Some of us are, you know, separated from the people in life that we just enjoy doing life with the most.
Maybe it's your grandkids. And again, I think we're feeling more alone in this season than maybe we've ever felt before. And screen time doesn't do it. We're discovering that screen time is just not even close to the same thing as face-to-face life on life, you know, interaction.
And honestly, and before we go to the text that we're going to look at this morning, this is one of the enemy's favorite strategies to get us to feel utterly alone and isolated. Because when we believe that these feelings that I'm alone, you know, are telling us something that is true. There can be all kinds of other symptoms that arise in our lives as a result of believing that we're actually alone. And just one more thing, you know, for some of us, there've been times in the past that, you know, where we felt alone or abandoned or isolated in this particular season is bringing up some of that pain and some of that difficulty and some of that fear.
And so, you know, Jesus speaks into this predicament with his worldview, his worldview of the kingdom and of the King of that kingdom, who he called father. And he encouraged his disciples to call father as well. And so we're going to take a look for just a moment at what's called the upper room discourse gospel of John chapter 14, 15, 16, and 17. It's a meal and conversation that Jesus had with his friends right before he was arrested and crucified.
And so I just selected a couple of passages. If we wanted to do a 30 minute podcast, I could read the whole thing. Maybe you go and read the whole thing. It's amazing.
But in chapter 16 of the gospel, John verse 32, Jesus says a time is coming and in fact has come where you will be scattered each to your own homes. Now that's, that's an incredible verse considering what has happened, you know, these last nine months during this COVID season scattered to your own homes. And of course I don't think that's a specific prophecy that Jesus made, you know, about the season that we're in, but I do think it, it flags the power and the the way that scripture just speaks into our lives and our journeys and our stories, whatever the season might be. But Jesus says, there's going to be a time.
You're going to be scattered each to your own home. You will leave me all alone yet. Notice what Jesus says. I am not alone for my father is with me.
So Jesus starts with him and his father. I am not alone. Even if all of you leave me alone, I am not alone. Even if all of you desert me, I am not alone.
My father, my father is always with me. Now we're going to go back to chapter 14 verse 10. Don't you believe that I am in the father, Jesus says, and that the father is in me. The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority.
Rather it is the father living in me that is doing the work. And then let's go down to verse 16 if I can find it. And I will ask, Jesus says, and the father will give you an advocate, a helper that will be with you. This will be the spirit of truth.
The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he lives with you and will be in you. And then Jesus says in verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.
And then verse 23 of chapter 14, Jesus replied, anyone who loves me and will obey my teaching. My father will love them and we will come to them and we will make our home with them. Now I could go on and on and on. There's so many passages in the olive discourse about I will never leave you.
I will never forsake you. You are never alone. I am with you always. This, you know, verse 23 is probably one of the best because Jesus says, we will come to them.
In other words, we, the father, the son, and the Holy spirit, and we will make our home with them. Jesus says you are never alone. Even if you feel alone, you are never alone. And this is the worldview of Jesus.
And remember worldview is not something that you look at. It's something you look through. And by the way, this is what makes a historically great teacher. When the teacher offers a new worldview, a way to see the world that no one has ever taught it before, but the teacher kind of invites or summons people into this worldview.
And Jesus is talking about a Trinitarian worldview. He's saying father, son, and Holy spirit. Trinity. God is Trinity.
God is community. God is a family. God is a friendship. God is a heroic fellowship.
God is the home that you've been looking for all of your life and you're invited into it. You're summoned into it and you are never, ever alone. And as the discourse continues, Jesus actually says to his disciples, you know, it's going to get difficult. There's going to be trouble.
You're going to be scattered. You're going to feel alone. You're going to be persecuted. There might be some solitary confinement.
Some of your family members are going to turn against you. You're going to face trials and tribulations and you're going to feel at times alone, but you are not alone. You are never, ever alone. And you know, it's a good idea to, to think about what we tend to do, how we tend to act when the enemy has his way.
And we begin to think that the feeling I am alone is actually true. I mean, what do we do as a symptom when we, when we believe that we are alone, do we further isolate? Do we reach for addiction? Do we collude with depression?
Do we get under other people's skin and try to annoy them because we're hurting? And you know, of course, these are symptoms of a feeling that seems true, but it's not true because the truth is, as Jesus says elsewhere in this discourse, take heart because I've overcome the world and I am with you always. I'm with you always. I mean, at the heart of the universe is a community.
In fact, the Genesis of the universe is a community. The deepest and greatest reality of the universe is this wonderful community that you and I have been invited and summoned into. So that's the reality, whether we feel it or not, whether we're aware of it or not at this moment, that's the reality that undergirds the worldview of Jesus. And honestly, that's the reality that that undergirds what we've been talking about these last nine months, walking and talking with Jesus, practicing his presence, practicing the awareness of Jesus and becoming more and more aware each and every day that we are never, ever, ever alone.
Even if we're hurting because we're not with, we're seeing, or in the same kind of connection that we have with the people that we love the most. We are never, ever alone. Jesus says, I will come to you and we will make our home with you. So let's practice the presence of Jesus today.
Let's practice the