Abba: I Belong to You

Happy Father's Day, everyone.

The, um, interesting thing about today is probably recognising that today's

not always a really easy day as well.

Um, certainly as we remember the Stratford family this weekend, uh, at the loss

of Colin, um, Colin passed away on his birthday, would you believe, the 22nd

of August, and then the family's now dealing with Father's Day today as well.

So please keep, uh, Heather Col, um, Collin's family and your prayers.

Um, they have asked me to mention that we're gonna be doing a memorial

service here this coming Wednesday, uh, the 9th of September 10:00 AM.

Um, so I've been asked to let you know that as a church family, and if

you do wanna come along and you wanna support the family, please do so.

Uh, if you are coming, welcome to Red Door during the week.

Parking is a nightmare, and so therefore you'll need to park on the street.

So if you are coming, make sure that that is what you're, is in your mind.

Uh, very good.

But just back to that idea that today's not an easy day for everyone.

Uh, maybe when we think about your dad, you've had an absent dad.

Uh, maybe a strange, maybe there's tension, a conflict, maybe

there's a bit of hurt and pain, rejection, even just just the loss.

As we've talked about Colin today, part of the, uh, large macro image

of fatherhood is that our fathers are meant to reveal the father in

heaven's heart to us as children.

And the reality is, some of us have had amazing examples of

that, and we're grateful for that.

Uh, but then at the same time, we've also had examples of that that

haven't revealed the father's heart.

Uh, maybe in part, but maybe not as much as we would potentially hope so, no matter

how today finds you today, I just wanna let you know that, um, we all have a

father in heaven who's the perfect one.

He's the perfect father.

Um, and I pray the the volume of the father's love for you gets turned

up this morning as we focus our attention on the Father this morning.

And so let's pray.

Father, I just wanna thank you for every single one of us sitting in this room.

One thing we hold in common is we have a physical dad.

We all do, but uh, we also have a Heavenly Father.

And so for every, um, possible wound or stirring on the interior of our

souls, that today brings up when we think about our own dads, uh, God,

I want to ask Father that you would replace any pain, any vacuum with more

of your presence with the Father's hug, and that you would saturate

our hearts with your perfect love.

That is never ending, never ceasing.

In Jesus' name,

amen.

Silence is not simply the absence of noise or the shutdown of communication

with the world outside, but rather a process of coming to stillness.

Silent solitude for forges true speech.

I'm not only speaking of the physical isolation.

Solitude here means being alone with the alone, experiencing the

transcendent other, and growing in awareness of one's identity.

As the beloved, it is impossible to know another person intimately

without spending time together.

Silence makes solitude a reality.

It has been said.

Silence is solitude.

Practised in action.

It's a much like the story of the harried anxious executive who went to

a desert father and complained about his frustration in prayer, his flawed

virtue, his failed relationships.

The hermit listened closely to the visitors' rehearsal of the

struggle and the disappointments in trying to lead a Christian life.

He then went into the darkness, the dark recesses of his cave and came out

with a basin and a picture of water.

Now watch the water as I pour it into the basin.

He said The water splashed on the bottom and against the sides of the container.

It was agitated and turbulent.

At first, the stirred water swirled around the inside of the basin.

Then it gradually began to settle until finally the small fast

ripples evolved into larger swells that oscillated back and forth.

Eventually, the surface became so smooth that the visitor could see his

face reflected in the placid water.

That is the way it is.

When you live your life constantly in the midst of noise,

and others said the hermit.

You don't see yourself as you really are because all of the confusion and

disturbance you fail to recognise the divine presence in your life and the

consciousness of your belovedness slowly fades, takes time for the water to settle.

Coming to interior stillness requires waiting.

Any attempt to hasten the process only stirs up the water anew.

Guilt feelings may arise immediately.

The shadow self insinuates that you are selfish wasting time and

evading the responsibilities of family, career, ministry, community.

You can I afford this idle luxury theologian Edward Beck wrote in a

revealed religion, silence with God has a value in itself and for its own sake.

Just because God is God.

Failure to recognise the value merely of being with God as the beloved

without doing anything is to gouge the heart out of Christianity silence.

Solitude makes true speech possible and personal.

If I'm not in touch with my own belovedness, I cannot

touch the sacredness of others.

If I'm estranged from myself, I'm likewise a stranger to others.

Experience has taught me that I connect best with others when I

connect with the core of myself.

When I allow God to liberate unhealthy dependence on people, I listen more

attentively, love more unselfishly, and are more compassionate and playful, I

take myself less seriously, become aware that the breadth of the Father on my

face and my countenance is bright with laughter in the midst of an adventure

that I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy.

This idea of wasting time with God enables me to speak and act with

greater strength to forgive rather than nurse the latest bruise of my wounded

ego and be capable of those moments in life that are still to be still.

It empowers me to lose myself, at least temporarily against the greater

background than the tableau of my fears and insecurities to merely be,

be still and know that God is God.

This is a bit of a reading from, um, uh, Brennan Manning's book, Abba's Child,

and the, the, the topic is called, um, the chapter's called the Beloved.

And, uh, I wanna share some thoughts with you this morning on this theme.

Abba, I belong to you, Abba, I belong to you.

I love that song we sung this morning.

Amazing Grace.

This kind of origin song.

It made me remind me of, uh, this moment I had yesterday now and I

were driving through Northbridge.

I didn't really know that I was gonna be travelling this way,

but through Lake Street, no.

Lake Street in Northbridge.

And as we drove past, we were reminiscing about the nightclub that we met in.

Before, before we were Christians, before Jesus entered our world.

And uh, the nightclub in 1994 was Entit, was called Havana's.

That was the name of the nightclub.

It's had various names.

Lemme tell a few of them to you.

Um, it then became known as, I think the Kremlin.

It then became known as the library.

And then interestingly, the nice two names that I know it to be

known as was called the Church.

And then I'm driving past yesterday and Dale and I took a photo.

It was so blown away.

The nightclub is now called Preach Nightclub.

This is the place my wife and I met.

Little did we know that the prophetic voice of the naming of Havana's over time

would be a confirmation that his amazing grace can turn brokenness into something

culpable and purposeful for his kingdom.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that turned a wretch like Adam

into someone who would give his life to, to preach the gospel.

So when it comes to the role of fathers, there's this really

interesting image depicted in John 17.

As the perfect father is interacting with his son and his son, Jesus is praying to

the Father and there's this interaction, it's called Jesus' high priestly prayer.

And if you've ever been familiar with John 17 usually is used as we talk

about this idea of complete unity.

Um, but there's this little thing in there.

I just want a couple of things in there that actually

talk more about the process than it does about the destination.

And I wanna highlight them today to you.

And so this is from verse 20 of John 17, and it says, my

prayer is not for them alone.

I pray also that those who will believe in me through their message, that all

of them may be one father, just as you are in me and I'm in you, may they also

be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me, I've given

them the glory that you also gave me.

That they may be one as we are one, I and them and you and me.

So they may be brought to complete unity.

And then the world will know that you have sent me and have loved

them even as you have loved me.

Repeat that line and the world will know that you have loved, sent me and

loved them even as you have loved me.

Father, I want those you have given me to be with, where I, with me, where I am.

And to see my glory, the glory you have given me.

Because you have loved me before the creation of the world.

Righteous father for the world does not know you.

I know you and they know that you have sent me, I've made known.

I've made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that

the love you have for me may be in them.

And I myself may be in them.

We're picking up here a bit on the father's love for his own son, Jesus.

We're picking up on this.

His love that's in Jesus is in us.

It's being given to us.

This picture of the Father's love for his own son.

Jesus is not a new concept.

In John 17, John three talks about the father's love for the son and

has placed everything in his hands.

John five, the Father loves the Son and it shows him all he does.

John 1724, we just read it.

The Father loves the Son before the creation of the world.

And then the image of this love goes a bit deeper and says this remarkable phrase, I

have loved them even as you have loved me.

It's just a remarkable image.

To the same degree that God, the Father, loves his son.

Jesus loves you.

Now, if your reference point is, well, actually, if I live a good

life, if I, I'll make it to heaven because I'm a good person, you'll

actually always live anxious because you're always gonna be asking the

question of how good is good enough.

But rather, the gospel says that this minute, this second, that

last breath you just took, that the same love that the father has

for his own son, he has for you.

Now, if you can get that in your heart and your soul, you'll become capable of

a whole new way of relating to people.

The problem is how do we experience that love?

Like how do we actually take it in, get it on the interior of our souls?

This is not like a maths problem.

You've gotta work out people.

This is not a test in a sense.

There's something deeper going on.

How do we access that love?

I'm glad you asked.

Today I want to talk not so much about this love as something that you need to

put on, but rather I'm asking a question of what do we have to take off in order to

experience and live out of that same love?

Does that make sense?

What do we have to take off?

Please don't mishear me today.

I'm not suggesting that the love of God is not something we put on, but

at first I want to talk about today this idea of what do we take off?

Lemme explain it like this.

This is easily overlooked section in that same scripture in John 17 in

verse, I can't remember what it is, 22.

Thank you very much.

Since this, I've given them the glory that you gave me, that

they may be one as we are one.

I wanna introduce you to the word glory, the glory of God that Jesus is literally

saying that glory that He's received from the Father very much, a bit like this

love image, this same glory image, the same glory that Jesus has been given.

He is given it to us, that if we've been given it, we are his disciples.

So this glory we're speaking of is not merely just an honour and a

reputation, but the manifest presence and character of God shared with

you and I as believers of Jesus.

And as we behold that glory in Jesus, we reflect that glory to one

another because it's living in us.

Do you understand what I mean?

You've received something.

It's on the interior of your soul.

You may actually even have that glory right now and be completely unaware

that that is living in breathing and active with inside of you.

Biblical glory is this, the weighty, radiant manifestation of God's

character and presence revealing his infinite worth, holiness, power

and beauty, so that creation rightly perceives and responds to who he is.

What a definition that is.

Does it take you into the stratosphere of the universe to realise that God, you

put in a box is way bigger, way larger?

Man, I like to think about that, that the Lord who created the universe is

so much bigger than the universe, man.

Tell us.

Willard says this about the idea of glory.

Glory is the manifest outpouring of the radiant splendour of

God's power, strength, beauty and goodness, the glory of God.

I thought some of those songs, we might be going glory this morning.

In Exodus 34, there's this amazing story about Moses and,

uh, you would know the story.

Moses is going up the up the mountain and he's close to God.

He's doing lots of things on top of the mountain.

He is getting 10 commandments.

He's talking to God and every time he goes up and commun communes with

God, something happens to his face.

Does anyone know what happens?

He gets, he's shining.

He's like luminous.

He's like luminescent and people that comes in off the mountain and he's

just shining brightly, so shining.

However, he does this very odd thing.

He puts a veil over his face because he doesn't wanna scare the people.

And it also kind of seems to indicate that this shining is not something that

kind of is remaining, but is slowly kind of like a rechargeable battery

kind of leaching away over time.

And Paul picks up on this particular picture in Second Corinthians three,

and before I read it, I'm gonna read it outta the message translation.

Some of the phrasing here might catch you off guard because it's Paul's

trying to describe an Old Testament picture, an Old Testament covenant,

an old te testament, uh, imagery.

And he's comparing it to this new testament of grace and love.

This old covenant was based on the law.

This new covenant, this new agreement, this new way of governance

is based on grace and love.

And so I'm gonna read it to you.

Starts off pretty heavy duty.

It says this the government of death.

That's what I mean when I had to set it up for you, the government of death.

That sounds not good.

Its constitution chiselled on stone tablets.

Had a dazzling, inaugural the face of Moses as he's delivered.

The tablets was so bright that day, even though it would soon fade.

Soon.

Fade enough.

And the people of Israel could look no more right at him and stare into the sun.

Well, that's dazzling, isn't it?

How much more dazzling then is then the government of living spirit.

Paul's touching on this new covenant, right?

This living spirit covenant.

If the government of condemnation is referring to the old

covenant was impressive.

How about this government of affirmation bright as the old government was?

It would look downright dull against this new one.

Here we go.

If the makeshift arrangement impressed us, how much more this brightly shining

government installed for eternity.

So now he's starting to touch on, this is not something that fades.

This is something that is sustained.

It lasts with that kind of hope to excite us.

Nothing holds us back.

Unlike Moses, we have nothing to hide.

Everything is out in the open for us.

He wore a veil so the children of Israel wouldn't notice that glow was

fading away and they didn't notice.

They didn't notice it then, and they don't notice it now.

They don't notice that there's nothing left behind that veil.

He's talking about when the, the Jewish people are hearing about Jesus,

they, they're still thinking that Moses and the old covenant is the way.

That's what's happening there.

Even today, when the proclamations of that old bankrupt government are

read out, they can't see through it.

Only Christ can get rid of the veil.

So they can see for themselves that there is nothing there.

Whenever though they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the

veil and there they are face to face.

The suddenly, they suddenly recognise that God is a living personal presence,

not a piece of chiselled stone.

And when God is personally present, a living spirit, that old constricting

legislation is recognised as obsolete.

We are free of it, all of us, nothing between us and God, our face is shining

with the brightness of his face.

And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah.

Our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters

our lives and we become like him.

That sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

We're becoming like him.

We are brighter and brighter.

The face that we shine is actually not our face.

It's him shining on us.

We are a bit like a mirror at a 45 degree angle.

He's shining his glory on us and we are shining out that same

glory to the world around us.

That is the image that's being portrayed here.

But this scripture shows that the new covenant brings a surpassing glory.

It abides, it doesn't f fade.

I love the idea of the veil in a wedding ceremony.

I'm looking at the two people down here are about to get, I don't know

if someone's gonna be wearing a veil, but if she was, let's just imagine,

Alex, the groom is ready to go.

He's up the front.

He's excited about this day.

He's been preparing it for quite a while.

There's something about the moment when the kiss occurs and the groom

traditionally, you don't have to do this by the way you please kiss, but,

but what happens to the veil, right?

The groom removes the veil.

Do you?

Do you agree in order to do what?

To kiss?

It's a great picture.

We take off the veil not to be exposed to judgement , but to be exposed to love.

And in that love we become who we really are.

We become the beloved.

We receive the kiss, in this case, the kiss of heaven.

I remember that picture of a father and a son walking down the beach, and then

they are hand in hand, the father and the son, and all of a sudden the son

is picked up by the father and father kind of holds him above his head.

And then as he comes down, he kind of brings him into a close

embrace and kisses his head.

The image there is like, well, he's legally a son when he is walking

along the beach and he is legally a son when he is lifted in the air.

But there's something about being lifted in the air and hugged and

brought close into his flannel shirt that's soft and secure and precious.

He feels like a son in that moment.

He's no longer just a legal son.

She's no longer just a legal wife, a legal groom.

Their marriage, the connection, their love is felt.

It's real.

And so going back to that picture of the veil.

What veil are you wearing today?

What is stopping you receiving this love that the father has on offer for you?

See, this veil prevents us from seeing correctly.

It's hard to see out because it's obscured.

Our vision is obscured and the veil stops.

People seeing in the image of this veil asks us two questions.

How am I hiding and where am I blind?

What is causing the glory not to be on display through my life?

What is causing me to be unable to see the glory of God in others?

Since we have such this hope of hope?

As such as this, we are very bold.

We are not like Moses who puts a veil on over our face.

We have been given such a permission to take the veil off,

but yet sin hides his glory.

Sin has this way of being like a dirty windscreen.

It's just smudgy mess on it.

And you can't see out.

And you can't see in, and you, it's just a mess.

Yeah.

Can't drive the car like it meant to be Dr. Driven.

'cause your windscreen's dirty.

Maybe the veil for you is not sin, but a focus on your own

glory rather than revealing his.

Maybe the veil is shame condemnation, causing you to hide.

Maybe you've spent so much energy maintaining this veil, maintaining

this false self that you don't know how beloved you really are.

A few weeks ago, I, um, had an experience on a Friday morning and, uh, my normal

Friday morning is sort of most mornings.

Um, my wife will go into her little either walking routine or sometimes

she'll just go straight to her cloud couch and spend time with Jesus there.

And on occasion she'll come, uh, to me and, and, uh, have a bit of a chat.

And sometimes she'll have a download from heaven.

And she comes to tell me, and she's, this particular morning, she said, Adam, I've

got something to tell you, but I need you to know it's not from me, it's from

God, and it's not gonna be easy to hear.

I'm like, excellent.

I'm glad I could work up this morning.

I need to set that up there 'cause I don't want you to get the wrong

impression of my precious bride.

But she says, Adam, you are not special.

Have a good day.

No, she didn't say Have a good day.

And if I'm honest, then I plan to be.

I, in those instances, over 27 years of marriage, haven't always

responded well to those moments.

I've gotten defensive, I've gotten, and I wanna say they don't

happen every five minutes, okay?

But there's moments where my teacher, prophetic wife, has got some clear

download to give to her Apostolic Shepherd husband, who sometimes doesn't

get as many downloads as she gets.

Right?

We're all different.

Okay?

Anyway, this particular day I decided to sit with it and let it land.

Let it land.

And that day I had a, a, uh, I had to take the car to get a oil

pump replaced over in Melville.

So I'm driving to Melville and my expectation is they're gonna gimme a

loaner car that day, which was good news, 10 bucks from Melville Mazda.

Thank you.

Thank you, Melville Mazda.

So I'm driving there and I'm sitting with this.

I'm not special picture.

Now, it's tricky, right?

Because in God's eyes, his left pocket, you are special.

Amen.

In my eyes, I'm now sitting with this reality of like, oh, I'm not special.

And things are starting to come up to the surface as I ponder and sit on this

reality and go and find myself saying, Lord, forgive me that because I believe

that I'm special on the interior.

I feel like I'm owed something.

Because I believe I'm special.

I believe I'm entitled to something.

Father, forgive me that because I think I believe this.

You know, sometimes it's really hard to see the interior of your own soul and

the motivational drivers of your heart.

You know that Very tricky.

God started showing me something.

You're showing me.

Ah Adam, you've placed an inor inordinate amount of pressure on your own wife to

sustain your thought that you are special.

Oh yeah.

So I'm saying, Lord, forgive me that I am crushing my wife under the pressure

of her maintaining this delusion that I'm special as we go a bit deeper.

Lord forgive me that I've been maintaining a false self in order to

find my value from that performance.

So I get into Melville.

I'm now driving back to church here 'cause I haven't done my message prep yet.

So I'm like, Friday's usually my day off.

Newsflash, don't call me.

But by this Friday I'm here.

Pull up.

I'm just feeling as free as a bird.

I'm like, what is this?

What is this?

I should be feeling low and heavy and downcast, but I'm like, whew,

something's changed so much.

So 45 minutes later, message done.

Bang.

That's unusual.

FYI.

Like, whoa, gates of heaven are open to Adam today, and I'm loving it.

As I finish that, I start to pray God.

Remove the orphan spirit from my heart and cause a spirit of

adoption to run fresh in me.

Just so you know, this happened five weeks ago.

The start of August, I think.

Could be the 1st of August.

No, it was the 31st of July.

There it is.

Just so you know, I'm still a work in progress.

I haven't arrived.

It's such a disappointment.

Adam.

I thought you were the senior minister of this church.

I wanna let you know that we're all working towards freedom in

Christ, and please know that my righteousness cannot save myself,

nor can I save any of you all.

It's only the righteousness of Jesus that can rescue me.

That same weekend, I'm starting to find myself meditating on this breathing prayer

that I've just discovered, and it's, I've said it before, I'm saying it again.

It's a very simple activity that's I'm finding, so life giving.

I breathe in and I say ab.

I breathe out and I say I belong to you.

I breathe in and say My Abba.

I use the word Abba 'cause it's like, it's, I can say father, but abba's like

the perfection of the father in heaven.

It's got something for that word that helps me.

I belong to you.

I've been doing that for like five minutes, just sitting there, wasting time

with God, feeling relatively unproductive.

But mate, it's the most productive five minutes of the entire week ever.

I belong to you.

Lord, thank you for loving me.

Lord, here is my cold, cold heart that does not want to be close to you

because I can do it myself right now.

Please warm my heart towards yourself, a fresh desire to be close to you.

You are my Abba.

I receive the spirit of adoption today in Jesus' name.

May you receive that today.

That's the work of the spirit of adoption.

It's the same spirit that causes your spirit to cry out Abba Father,

and where your spirit of adoption is growing cold, where the orphan spirit

begins to show itself often through prayerlessness, often through striving,

often a need to prove ourselves.

These are hallmarks of the orphan spirit.

A realisation that God is more for you than you think.

But having the veil firmly placed over your head, the real you is

like living from a false self.

See, false self is about getting glory for yourself, also known as earning identity,

earning significance through performance, rather than receiving his glory as a true

son and as a true daughter of God, the false self cannot receive God's glory.

So Jesus said, I give them the glory that I have received.

You can't receive the glory of God if you are living out of your false self.

'cause it's not the real you.

He's only gonna give you his glory to the real you, not the false you.

Does that make sense?

So we've gotta allow the spirit of God to reveal these veils, these

veils, essentially just a false self spinning all this image energy,

this image, maintaining energy.

This imposter, this false self drawing identity from past achievements,

adulation from others, the true self claims identity from their belovedness.

You are beloved.

So a posture of humility is required.

A willingness to bring all your fears, your hurts to him, so he liberates you

and you become washed from shame so that you can boast in your weaknesses.

One of the ways I know this has shifted in me, what's it four weeks

ago, is I'm standing in front of you saying, look at this weakness.

And I don't give a rip.

That's what it is to be free.

Paul says it in two Corinthians 12, verse nine.

He says, but as for me, my grace is sufficient for you.

This is the words Jesus speak to him, speaking to Paul.

In this moment, my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so

that Christ's power may rest on me.

That's why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in

hardships in Friday mornings with my wife telling me what I'm not special for.

When I am weak, then I am strong.

Our spirit led capacity to go low is directly related to our capacity to both

carry the visible presence of His glory and for others to perceive it in in in us.

I read it before from Brendan Manning's book.

If I'm not in touch with my own belovedness, I cannot

touch the sacredness of others.

This is deep, isn't it?

If I'm estranged from myself, IE living in my false self world, happy.

So I am in my own deception.

I'm likewise a stranger to others.

Andrew Murray, this is brilliant.

Thank you, Andrew.

Here's the path to the higher life Down.

Lower down.

You are not special.

Haha.

Sorry.

Just as water always seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God

finds men are based and empty, his glory and power, power flow into exalt and

to bless, also known as the glory of God, also known as your belovedness,

also known as exalting and blessing.

You.

Anyone want a bit of that?

Please, Lord.

So having the veil up, you can't see in and you can't see out clearly.

Are you willing to take off some, some veils this morning?

You'll know the false self or the veil is ruling you.

Because your skilled and controlled openness is done in such a way

that it scrupulously, envo, avoids significant self-disclosure.

Because we're very clever as humans, we're very clever at maintaining

the false self when under pressure.

People who are ruled by this false self are quick to deny

and divert attention to others.

So people are not looking at you.

You blame others.

Rather than taking responsibility, the solution is exposing the

false self as a very poor saviour, your false self cannot save you.

Repent and allow the father's love to forgive you.

With the veil removed, there's now an opportunity for his love to meet you.

You've still got the veil there.

This love that he has for you can't meet you.

It can't grip your heart, it can't change you 'cause you're too busy

presenting to God the false self.

And if you think God's just gonna rip that veil off your face on

your behalf, sorry, he won't.

What he usually does is reveal the veil to you and then says,

would you like to take it down?

It's an invitation.

He's giving all of us.

There's this really strange interaction in John 21,

and I'll set, set it up for you.

John 21 is the moment that, so Jesus is now resurrected.

He's, uh, he's on the beach actually.

And he says to the boys in the boat, they've gone back fishing

and he's, he, he shouts at him and they're not catching anything.

Does anyone know this story?

And he says, try on the other side.

And once they tried it, 153, I think fish, many fish, right?

And then, uh, it's the Lord.

And they're running out, hiking up their shorts, running out,

running back to the shore.

You can see just, I see it.

It's just a magnificent picture.

And then in the, in the moment where they're having Breck together,

Jesus pulls Peter aside and asks him three times, do you love me?

Do you love me?

Do you love me?

And Peter, Peter says, feed Peter's hearing from Jesus.

Well, if you love me, feed my lambs.

Take care of my sheep.

Feed my sheep.

On the third moment, in verse 17, we read, I haven't got this here,

but it says that Peter was hurt.

So the third question comes, and Peter's like, rocked to the core.

He's like, oh, I'm hurt.

And he does this really fascinating thing, which I think I've got it here.

Yeah.

John 21, verse 20 to 21.

John 21:20–21

So Peter saw.

The disciple whom Jesus loved was following them.

This is the one who had leaned back on Jesus at the last Supper and had

said, Lord, who is gonna betray you?

So that bracket there is to tell us that we're reading the book of

John, who wrote the book of John.

John John's referring to himself in his own book, and he refers to himself

not as John, but he refers to himself as what the disciple that Jesus loved.

And then Peter says, Lord, what about him?

This is fascinating.

I'm hoping you're seeing what's happening here.

The issue isn't necessarily Peter's story.

In this story, I wanna focus on what John's doing.

John's receiving the hurt from Peter Peter's hurting.

Peter's going, oh, I don't like all this attention on me.

Peter, how's that veil looking brother?

You've probably got a little bit of a false self going on there.

He can talk to me later if he wants, but what I'm saying there is Peter responds

to that hurt and he goes, what about him?

Have you ever been the recipient of hurt?

Hurt people, hurt people?

John's so secure, and it's almost like he's reminding himself,

he's so secure as he receives the hurt from Peter way off here.

He's over there getting, what about him?

I'm the disciple that Jesus loves.

Secure.

Secure in what?

Breathe in ab.

That's what John's doing there, I reckon.

What's he breathing for?

Jesus.

Oh, he's saying that prayer that Adam told me to pray or wrong timeframe.

Sorry, but you understand what I'm saying.

He's secure in the moment where Hurt is trying to tell him.

Put the veil back on.

John, get your veil on.

John.

What are you doing?

Defend yourself.

I don't need to, I'm free on the Jesus, on the, on the disciple that Jesus loves.

So why is this all so important?

Because with the veil firmly positioned, you are the blind leading the blind.

As fathers, if we do not touch our own belovedness, then we cannot

touch the sacredness of our children, our families around us, and help

them see their own belovedness.

If we aren't conduits of his glory, we can't reveal his glory to those around us.

You are healed to, you are here as men to reveal the glory of God.

So why is it so important to, to take from John 17 so that the world would

know that the Father had sent the son to the degree that we are able to receive

his glory as beloved sons, as beloved daughters as well to that same degree.

We can then show it to others.

So what, so the world would know that the father had sent the son?

You're here on earth to make disciples of Jesus.

And if you don't drop the veil, then you will ultimately, ultimately

be making disciples of your veil.

You'll ultimately be making disciples of your false self.

You'll ultimately be making disciples of yourself and not of

Jesus because the glory that they're perceiving is just your own self

manufactured glory and not his glory.

The glory that Father gave Jesus has been given to you.

But because of the veil, it's preventing the glory to be

revealed through your life.

So how do we get rid of this veil?

We've gotta identify what is it that's causing me to hold this thing up?

And then we've gotta repent.

It was fascinating to me when I was doing that drive Coburn.

I'm like, oh, I'm doing, he's just saying, Lord, forgive me.

And guess what he is doing?

Just, just depositing his love into my heart.

Don't I gotta do something to like get that love?

No, just open yourself up.

Just take the veil off.

Just repent.

That's what it is.

Repentance is probably defined in the context of this message today.

Take the veil off.

And he's so loving.

He just wants to pour it.

He wants to give it to you.

Oh, look at my son.

Look at my daughter.

Just taking the veil off Vulnerably.

As I say that, know that that has to be a spirit birth reality.

It's not like, um, you know, like a formula, you know, like something

you must do, like a forced thing.

It's a spirit ushered thing.

It's a's a spirit prompted thing.

So the question I, I want to, I wanna point this at men today.

Now.

Sorry.

Sorry fellas.

That's why you got your shirt on.

Is, I just wanna point out the definition of masculinity to you men in the room.

The definition of masculinity is the joyful pursuit of

sacrificial responsibility.

The joyful pursuit of sacrificial responsibility.

So there's a lot in there for five words or six maybe.

Thank you.

The, the joyful pursuit.

I wanna focus on the sacrificial responsibility business and

recognise that you're all built as man for sacrificial responsibility.

Why do we love Braveheart?

It's Mint because we resonate with the call of a man to be responsible,

to sacrifice his own veil, give it back to God and say, Lord, take it.

What comes out of it is joy.

It's joy, it's freedom.

Ah.

So when you humble yourself, you remove the veil.

It's a sacrifice that those around you, the women in your life, the

children in your life, the people in your life, the more you take the

veil off, the more people feel safe around you because you're vulnerable.

And it actually inspires, it inspires people around you.

You know why I could finally see the glory of God through your life?

Was always the intention.

That's why they're inspired, not because you are inspiring,

but because he's inspiring.

His glory is inspiring.

The posture of humility before abba.

The willingness to bring all your fears, all your hurts, all your shames.

He wants to liberate you and wash you from all of that so you can boast in your

weakness and catch a glimpse of his glory.

Now, man, I know as you're listening, you're probably only picking up

like 5% of what I've said today.

It's fine.

It's What's your normal, it's called human.

So I've got a list.

These are the veils that we wear.

No, this is a suggested list.

I'm gonna read through 'em because I'm asking for you to consider in a moment

coming forward as a statement of, I'm willing to take the veil off today.

Maybe even before I've thrown this list up, the Lord's already showing you stuff.

Uh, it's highly likely he is, but we're all at different places in

sensitivity today, so I'm just giving you a few little prompters.

Maybe one of these is putting a word to the very thing that you are feeling

that can sometimes be difficult, not when you have a wife named Dale and she

just tells you, you are not special.

No, she wasn't telling me.

The Lord was telling me.

Just so you know.

So resentment, unforgiveness.

That's a veil.

It's a veil.

Contempt.

Shame.

Performance.

Remember what shame is?

Shame is not.

I made a mistake.

Shame says you are a mistake.

The shame fascinating, isn't it?

We wear shame like a veil, but we use it to protect ourselves.

Performance, that's Adam's one there.

So I'm special 'cause I perform well.

So

control, power, comfort, fear, guilt, jealousy, bitterness,

distraction and busyness.

People pleasing, which is connected to approval.

Criticism, ah, i's gonna point the finger out there.

That's what Peter did remember.

What about him?

Withdrawing and cowardice titles and position.

Oh, that's, that's where we use that one as a really good veil avoidance.

Self-reliance.

Men, let me remind you today that the definition of masculinity is a joyful

pursuit of sacrificial responsibility.

One of the ways, you know, you're meant to come forward this morning is 'cause

there's like, oh, I want to do this.

That's how you'll know, because if you go, oh, okay, fine, Adam, or calm, it's more

like out of obligation and guilt rather than you, you're feeling this, this, this

vision of freedom, like a life beyond this and it's, it's wooing you actually.

What it actually actually is, is the ABBA going?

I wish you'd know how much you belong to me.

I just want, I want you to see it for yourself.

He's wooing you actually father's heart to your heart today.

Close your eyes and the band's gonna come up as we just give some opportunity for

the spirit of God to work in this place.

Holy Spirit, we are wanting today, not a man manufactured,

human manufactured moment.

We want spirit of God to come and bring liberty and freedom

to every man here today.

Whenever you're here, and this is like your worst nightmare, Adam, I'm

gonna re write you an email this week and tell you what I think about you.

I wanna let you know I don't, so don't care.

I want your freedom.

And if this means you have to humble yourself, if you have to get low today,

if you have to feel embarrassed today, but you sense that you need to and you want

to, holy Spirit, draw us, draw us as men.

This is a judgement free zone.

Like the veil comes off and suddenly we can see that we're so loved.

But it requires a moment.

It requires a decision.

It requires a response to an invitation.

That I've used unforgiveness and bitterness to hide behind.

I've used performance to hide behind, and uh, I don't wanna

live like that any longer.

I wanna live burden free.

I wanna live free.

The Holy Spirit come.

Please cause our hearts to soften to your drawing, to your wooing, to your calling.

All of us as men.

Father, help us to do business with you this morning that we

would walk out of this place just feeling freer if you come forward.

Really what you're doing is you're saying, Lord, forgive me for.

I think I'm special.

That's really what you're doing, but your movement from your seats to the

coming forward is just a statement to say, I'm humbling myself today.

Maybe you're here and you are stuck.

You are so stuck, you don't know what to do.

It's highly likely the reason you're stuck is because you're

not willing to remove the veil.

And so Holy Spirit, please come this morning and minister

to all of us in Jesus' name.