Guest Speaker Dr John Harris

It's good to be back, and I know that you all had a great weekend this past weekend with the Growth Conference, and I say this, I think, every time that I come here, because I mean it every time that I come here.

First of all, I have a confession to make that I am one of your online stalkers, and so it's a pleasure to see what God's doing and how you all are growing, and so I'm glad to be able to stop by from time to time and to share.

Thank you again, Pastor Nate, for inviting me to come.

I want to dive into a topic today that is one of the things that has been a shift for me in my life, and what I'm going to tell you today is part of one message that I have.

I think I have one message that is 500 hours long, and I just share bits and pieces of it from time to time when I'm invited to share, and this is part of it, and here's why I have such an affection for this part of the gospel, because I know what it is to go through the motions of Christianity.

I know what it is to be told what a good Christian should do and be like and act like and then try my best to be that and I know what it is to be frustrated that I couldn't do that and and I know what it is to put all that aside and just tap into the living Christ on the inside of me and let him emerge, so that I'm not trying to be something but I'm letting him make me more like him.

Those are two different processes I'm going to tell you right now.

One of them is teaching the flesh and teaching external actions and behaviors to meet a standard of what something should look like.

The other one is more of a natural process that God created when he put Christ on the inside of us and said I will continue to do this work Right, he who began a good work in you will continue to perform it, the same thing that Paul was telling the Galatians.

Do you think that you got started in this by the power of the Spirit and now you're going to continue it with your own effort in your own flesh?

He's like no, that's not how it works.

All of it is by the Spirit.

And so a big part of this truth for me of living by the Spirit, as it relates to my walk with God, as it relates to feeling more authenticity in the life that I'm living instead of trying to strive to be this other thing.

Part of the shift for me was what we're going to be talking about today.

So we're going to talk about today Now.

Oftentimes, when we think about being Christians, we oftentimes focus on just Jesus alone.

And what does it mean to be like Jesus?

And look at the words of Jesus.

But the words of Jesus and the life of Jesus are not just by themselves.

They are part of a larger context, of a story created by his father, and so we cannot we cannot just look at Jesus and pursue just trying to be like him without an awareness of what he even came here to do, Because that shaped what he said and that shaped why he did what he did.

There is a larger context, and so I want to talk about knowing Jesus and knowing the Father.

So the Father, God the Father is one who sent Jesus, and he sent Jesus so that we could be united with God the Father.

Listen, he didn't send Jesus just so we could be united with Jesus.

He sent Jesus so that, through Jesus, we could be united with him.

So a large part of my walk and I didn't think about this consciously, but after I learned what I'm going to be talking to you about today, I began to see it much more clearly how I in my own mind, had a different view of God the Father, how he was more the Old Testament like will open up the earth and swallow you up.

If you mess up, Like you, don't play with God, you know, like people dying touching the ark.

Or you know, Moses, come up to this mountain but tell the people not to touch this mountain.

I've only given you a pass.

If anybody touches this mountain, they're going to die.

You only have chosen you and because I've chosen you to be this conduit, you have the pass to come and commune with me in my holiness.

I haven't made that available for everybody else.

It's like man.

But then Jesus comes in the New Testament and now there's a whole different dynamic and so typically people might have, you know, warm fuzzies with Jesus, like I'm cool with Jesus, but God, I don't know.

I don't know about God.

I don't know because he did some stuff and I don't want him to do that to me.

Okay, nothing in the Old Testament is going to happen to you in the new covenant.

Okay, you don't have to worry about the earth swallowing you up.

That's not happening, okay, and we're going to talk about why.

Because if we don't get this foundation, it could be a block.

No matter what we try to do to grow in our Christianity, to grow in our spiritual maturity, it can be one of the things that is a block, like a glass ceiling, that you can't quite get through.

But if you do understand what we're going to talk about today, some dots will start connecting for you.

Some dots will start connecting for you and you'll be able to experience living in the power of the gospel in a way that comes out of your heart and who you really are, instead of trying to do some things on your on your own.

So I'm talking about living in the power of these eternal truths and these eternal, these eternal realities.

So, um, when, when we think about following Jesus, one of the things that we want to do is look at this passage in John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

In John chapter 14, Jesus, on multiple occasions, had been trying to tell his disciples that he is going to go to the cross, that he is going to die.

John 14 · chapter mention

Now he had called them and they had been following him for three years, and so, time and time again, he tried to kind of prepare them that the Calvary was coming, he was going to die.

So he kind of prepared them in different conversations.

And this is one of those conversations.

Okay, and as we're reading through this particular conversation, I want you to pay attention to but without condemnation pay attention to the cluelessness of the disciples.

Oh, it's going to jump out at you Like it's going to be obvious, All right, the cluelessness.

I want you to notice a particular pattern.

Before we read it, Jesus will say this is what's true, and his disciples will go no, Okay, watch what happens, I'm telling you what.

So this is what happens.

So the tone again, this is a serious conversation.

I am preparing to leave, but I want you to know some things so that you are comforted in my leaving.

So John, chapter 14, verse 1, don't let your heart be troubled.

John 14:1

Believe in God, Believe also in me.

Okay, Now, another theme we're going to see in these passages is God, the Father and Jesus, God and me, God and me, Me and the Father, the Father and me, I and the Father.

You're God and me, God and me, Me and the Father, the Father and me, I and the Father.

You're going to see all that.

He's trying to communicate the synergy there.

They're not way over.

Here, right, there's God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

There's three in one, but you can't separate them in relationship like that.

You can't have a relationship with one and not have a relationship with the other.

Okay with the other.

Okay, Because you're going to see the unity here that he's trying to stress in light of this very important conversation, as he's praying them for what he's about to do.

Don't let your heart be troubled.

Believe in God.

Believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many rooms.

If not, I would have told you I'm going away to prepare a place for you in my Father's house.

You didn't have a place there I'm going to.

He's not your father, he's my father.

Right Now, in your union with me, he'll become your father.

I'm going to prepare a place for you so that where I am there, you may be also.

So I had a place with the father before I came down here, and now I'm about to go back up there and prepare a place for you so that where I am, you can be there also.

You didn't earn it.

My father is giving it to you because you put your faith in me.

Believe in God, Believe also in me.

In my father's house are many rooms, many places to abide, many dwelling places, and I'm going to prepare a place there in my father's house for you.

I'm going to go away and if I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to my cell.

Okay, so I want you to again.

Don't let your heart be troubled.

I'm leaving, but I'm leaving to come back.

I'm leaving to do something.

I'm making your reservations.

Then I'm going to come back and we're going to take on a trip.

That's what he's saying.

I'm going to prepare a place for you.

That's a reservation.

Y'all right, I'm going to prepare a divine, heavenly Airbnb just for you.

So I want you to be comforted when I'm gone, knowing that I am coming back.

Prepare a place.

I'm going to come again so that where I am, you may be also.

Watch this.

You know the way to where I am going.

That's what he said.

You know the way to where I am going.

Verse five Lord Thomas said we don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way?

How can we know the way?

Oh, after three years, Thomas, I try to tell God not to let you in People think you doubt.

No, I have my doubts about you.

I have my doubts about you.

Yet here we are All right.

So that's not in the Bible.

I made that up Just to make that clear for anybody new.

Okay, Like, what version is he reading?

I made it up, I made it up.

So Lord Thomas said we don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way, the truth and the life?

I'm all three.

I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

So this is what's interesting If we're going to go anywhere, we got to know the way.

If we're going to know anything, we're going to have to have the truth.

And if we are going to live, we're going to need the life.

And Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life, the way to where the Father.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

That's what it means to be the way, and to be the way means there is no other way.

Now you might be thinking no way, there's no other way.

There's no other way For everyone in the world.

There's no other way.

A popular clip of Oprah some years ago.

She's saying there can't possibly be only one way.

Yes, Oprah, there's only one way.

It doesn't matter if you agree with it or not, it doesn't matter if it makes sense to you or not.

See, part of what's happening in our world is our world is trying to change positions with God.

God is the one that is on the throne.

Who will judge man?

But man's trying to be the one positioning himself on the throne to judge God and say, well, what God is doing is not moral.

Over and over and over, you'll hear these arguments where people are trying to be the moral judge of God.

Well, God is not fair.

Well, God, that's not just.

Well, how can you call this sin?

If this is sin, like this is who somebody is, then God is unfair.

God is unjust.

God is not loving.

No, no, no, See, we're not going to let you flip it like that.

God is the one that's on the throne.

He's the one whose word is true and we're not going to let your opinions trump what we know.

God is already saying God's word is what's true.

Now, if this ever comes up for you in an apologetics kind of context or maybe you're trying to explain the faith to people, and people want to say well, the question is, how can there only be one way?

So they're trying to say that for God to be loving and to provide salvation for the whole world because the world is filled with diversity and variety there must be a variety of ways and a diversity of ways to get to him.

That God certainly would make multiple ways to get to him to accommodate people all over the world.

And if he is not going to have multiple ways, then it's not right and it's not fair for him to only have one way.

So then the idea is to cast doubt on the character of God, is to cast doubt on the character of God when the reality is how can there only be one way is a wrong question, and it is a question asked out of an ignorance of who God is.

We think of God as absolutely holy in nature, absolutely righteous in nature, filled with light, where there is no darkness within him at all, there is no flaw, absolutely spotless, Holy, holy, holy.

The angels are singing around him all the time.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

When we think about that kind of God wanting a relationship with you and with me after all the stuff we've done, the darkness that we've been in, when the wages of sin or the cost of sin is death, which means if you sin one time, you deserve eternal separation from God and eternal death from one sin, not just because of how you might think it's so bad, but you don't understand how holy he is.

He is completely holy.

Our God is a consuming fire and without the proper protection, it will consume you.

His response to sin is just.

He would be just in letting us be in our darkness forever.

However, the issue is not why is there only one way.

The issue is why is there even still a way?

As holy as he is, as spotless as he is, as much as we love sin, even still we love sin.

We love being in darkness, we love following around.

Like we made up all kinds of ways to sin, and if we couldn't find sin on our own, we made all kinds because we had this proclivity to sin and to run to sin and to have sinful thoughts and sinful actions and sinful behavior.

The question is not why is there only one way.

The question is why is there still a way?

That's because of the goodness of God, that's because of the love of God that he made a way.

So don't allow the world to minimize the fact that there is a way because they want to complain that there's not multiple ways.

Way, because they want to complain that there's not multiple ways.

Don't understand the holiness of God.

He didn't have to make one way at all at all.

He could have left us in our sin, but he didn't.

So don't allow the world will try to say is no, Jesus is not enough.

Jesus is not enough.

Oh, he absolutely is.

And you better get with the program before it's too late, because at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of things in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.

And you'll do it voluntarily or involuntarily, but one day your knees are going to get weak and you're going to drop before the throne and he's either going to say welcome in or depart from me.

The choice is yours.

So when we look at Jesus, we have got to understand, especially in our world today and in our culture today, where they have idolized their own opinions, they have idolized their own ways.

They have even said that there is no absolute truth, which by definition is an absolute statement.

But we'll move on.

Jesus says I am the way.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Now, either Jesus is true or Oprah's true.

I'm taking my chances with Jesus.

He said no one, no one.

Now here's what's interesting.

We'll go a little further.

Right, so Jesus is our way to the Father.

Now, that's something that a lot of us if you've been in the context of church before and in community and small groups, you may have been familiar with that one, especially that particular phrase I am the way, the truth and the life.

It's a pretty popular phrase, sometimes on bumper stickers and billboards and things like that.

But here's something else.

I want to add another layer to what Jesus is.

I want to highlight another layer to what Jesus was saying that Jesus is not just our way to the Father, but watch what he says in verse 7.

He says if you know me, you will also know my Father.

So now this is not just the way to him, but the way to know him.

See, that's another dynamic.

If you know me, you will also know my father.

From now on, you do know him and you have seen him.

That's what he says.

From now on, you do know him and you have seen him.

One of his brilliant disciples Lord, show us the father and then that'll be enough.

Jesus is like see, y'all have me praying up in here.

I can't change the world with y'all.

Y'all don't even.

This is a hot mess, Bro.

I just told you how are you?

I just told you but remember, I said we can't be too hard on them Because I don't know about you, but I see a lot of myself in them.

How many times has God been like John?

I told you I'm like, no, I needed another confirmation.

I wasn't sure if that was you, but I gave you a dream, yeah, but then the dream was kind of it was kind of subjective.

I wasn't quite sure and I put on a billboard yeah, but then the dream was kind of subjective, I wasn't quite sure and I put on a billboard yeah, but I just thought there was a coincidence.

It's like now we need a confirmation, a confirmation for the confirmation and another confirmation to confirm that the first two confirmations were a confirmation.

It's like sometimes God is—we just have a hard time getting it, don't we?

Okay, yeah, so let's not be too hard on the disciples, but we do want to be just observe it.

Just observe it without any condemnation like man, okay.

So he says show us the Father.

And that's enough for us.

Show us Right after.

Jesus said if you know me, you'll also know the Father From now on.

You do know him and you have seen him.

If you want to see God, I'm telling you how you see God.

It's in me.

You know the father and you have seen him.

Well, when are you going to show us, Like dude?

So then Jesus is trying to be calm.

I don't know what his facial expression looked like, dude.

So then Jesus is trying to be calm.

I don't know what his facial expression looked like, but he had to have had one.

He had to have had a facial expression right, he had to.

Jesus just made a meme face right here.

He totally made a face that would have been a meme.

Jesus said to him have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip?

What he's saying is I've been with you for three years and you still don't get why I'm here.

The one who has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say show us the Father.

Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

That part right there, y'all See that part.

Jesus is not by himself.

He is in the Father and the Father is in him.

To learn about Jesus is to see the heart of the Father.

The words of Jesus are the words of the Father.

The actions of Jesus are the actions of the Father.

He revealed his nature.

The Father revealed his nature through the Son, and Jesus is expressing a little frustration here, like for three years I have been showing you the Father.

I've been revealing to you the Father.

If you have seen me, you've seen the one who sent me, which is why it was so important for Jesus to only do what the Father told him to do.

If Pastor Nate sent me on a mission to go and talk to some people on his behalf and I went there and I just showed only my personality, only my words, the things that he told me to say I didn't say, I just made up my own stuff when I got there, Would those people know what Nate is like?

No, but if Nate gave me words to say, things to do, and then I went there to those people and shared those words and did those things.

Now, even though they're not seeing him, they can see him through me and Jesus is saying that's what I've done For three years.

That's what I've done.

I didn't come down here on my own accord.

The Father sent me and he sent me to reveal to you him.

So, in following Jesus, don't just clamp on to Jesus and ignore the one who sent him, Because the one who sent him sent him so you could be connected to him, to the Father.

So you see, we can't have this Christianity where we have God, the Father, way over here, because we think he's like in the Old Testament, and then have Jesus over here, Like sometimes.

My kids know that if they ask for certain things, they know if I'm going to say yes, they know if I'm going to say no, they know what to come to me for and what to go to their mom for, Right.

So if there's a certain thing, if they want to have some kind of snack after bedtime, they're not asking me.

They're not asking me, they're going.

Hey, mom, I'm thirsty.

Some of the thirstiest people in the world are kids at bedtime, Like.

You've been here all day Now, you're thirsty, Some of the thirstiest people in the world are kids at bedtime, Like you've been here all day Now you're thirsty, Right?

So we can't have this relationship where it's like I'll talk to Jesus, Jesus, can you talk to God for me?

Because I don't want him to say no, he likes you, he likes you and so won't you ask him for me, Right?

That's not the way it works.

Now there is a passage that talks about Jesus interceding on our behalf, like he's praying for us on our behalf, but it's not like we just put our request to Jesus so Jesus can follow it on over.

It's not the way it is.

Here's the thing Hebrews makes it clear we can come boldly before the throne of grace and ask for help in our time of need.

We can come to God directly because of Jesus.

You don't have to be scared of God when you make a mistake.

Because of Jesus, you can always enjoy worship, whether you feel bad about it or not.

Because of Jesus, God's opinion about you never changes.

Because of Jesus.

He is the way to the Father, a way to be united with the Father, and so we're not just followers of Jesus, we are children of God.

God has adopted us to become part of his family, as his sons and his daughters.

So don't just get caught up.

I'm following Jesus.

I'm just following Jesus.

No, that's great to do that, but understand why.

Those who do it are children of God.

And we're following Jesus because Jesus, as a son of God, shows us how to be sons of God.

That's it.

So, as we look at Jesus, we got to understand that he's not just a way to the father, but he's also the way to know the father, to know the father.

He's not just a way to him, he's not just a bridge.

He is a revelation of who the father.

He's not just our way to him, he's not just a bridge.

He is a revelation of who the father is, the nature of the father.

And so, because of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus, because of the gospel, this is where the new covenant comes in.

So we're not under the old covenant, we're under the new covenant.

The new covenant is a better covenant.

Sure, it might have been cool to pull out your cell phone and record the crossing of the Red Sea when all the water man talk about something we want to get on video.

That's one of them.

It would have been cool to see this pillar of fire come down by night and keep them the big old camp, have light at night while they're camping.

It would have been cool to see a lot of those things that happened in the Old Testament, but the reality is that was an inferior covenant.

The reason why all of those things happened externally, listen because God wasn't living on his people, inside his people.

Internally, they were not led by the Spirit.

Jesus and the cross and the resurrection made it possible for the Spirit of God to now live on the inside of us.

So don't think that God on the inside of us is inferior, where you want to look at the other things because it would seem cool to watch all these other cool things happen externally.

Man, that would have been awesome.

That would have been awesome.

Don't you know that those people in the Old Testament wish God could have lived on the inside of them?

They would have given Christ living in me, Amen more credit and value than water's opening up.

What we have is a more superior covenant, it's a better promise and we can know the Father as we're looking at the life of Jesus.

So anytime you're reading the words of Jesus, the actions of Jesus, pay attention to what is he saying and what is he doing?

Because he's not just on his own.

He said it over and over I didn't come down here to do my own will.

I came down here to do the will of him who sent me why?

So you would know the heart of him who sent me.

Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before Calvary, Jesus is saying God, if it's possible, Let this cup pass from me.

Calvary man, it's going to be hard.

Is there any other way we can save people without Calvary?

He's like nope.

He asked him three times.

Like nope.

Okay, here we go.

Then he gets up and he goes to the cross.

He says not my will, but your will.

Be done.

Because that's what sons and daughters do.

They do the will of the Father.

They can have their own will, but they submit their will to the will of the Father.

How do we know that?

Because that's what the Son did.

He was showing us.

So in following Jesus, we're following his model for how to be in relationship with God, the Father.

So he made a way for us to be united with the Father and then made a way for us to know the Father through him, through him, through him.

So in your walk with God, don't separate.

You're not a child of Jesus.

You're not an heir of Jesus.

You're a child of God.

You're an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ.

Christ is your brother.

We are joint heirs.

We're brought into the family Now.

We have an inheritance that he purchased for us, but we are God heirs.

We're brought into the family Now.

We have an inheritance that he purchased for us, but we are God's children.

This is not just a Christian cliche.

Don't allow your familiarity with the phrase child of God to be so familiar that you lose the power of it.

Child of God, it is an eternal truth.

It is an eternal.

You will always be a child of God.

You will always be a child.

There's a place for you in heaven that Jesus has prepared for you because you are a child of God.

There are riches untold for you because you are a child of God.

There's a place where there'll be no more death, no more sickness, none of those kind, no more tears.

All those things will be wiped away for those who are children of God.

So I don't care how many times you see it in worship lyrics or how many times you read it, don't ever let that phrase child of God, sons and daughters of God just be too familiar that it loses its impact.

This is our eternal identity, and so you can't live out being a child of God, neglecting God and just loving Jesus.

Don't you believe that I am in him and he is in me?

It's together and you are brought in together.

So in John 17, Jesus is praying.

He says, Father, I'm praying that they know that you love them as much as you love me.

What, how is that possible?

That the eternal Son of God who was with him in the beginning, the eternal Son of God who the Father loved the Son, the Father loved the Spirit, there's this mutual community of divine love, that, the way that the Father has loved the Son in all eternity, that now, now, with my lying and deception and pride and rage and jealousy and anger, all of our sins, now, because of Christ, he loves me, John Harris, as much as he loves Jesus.

Yes, Is that hard to understand?

Yes, that's why Jesus made it a prayer request.

I'm praying that they know that you love them as much as you love me, that they know they're not stepchildren, Full-blooded children of God.

Knowing Jesus and knowing the Father are together, Amen, Amen, God bless you.