Love... Obeys!, Part 2

“If you obey Me in this journey of revealing the Father, ask Me whatever you wish, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another counselor,” literally, another advocate. The word is paraclete. One who is called alongside, right next to you, to give you everything that you need.

The word was used for a lawyer, it was used for a helper, it was used for a counselor. In other words, but the word “another,” are you ready for this? It’s another of the same kind.

There are two words in Greek. Heteros, hetero, homo – hetero: different; homo: the same. This is the word, not another, another of the same kind. In other words, Everything you have experienced in Me, in our conversations, in My love, in My heart – exactly of the same kind I am going to send the Holy Spirit.

“And He will be with you,” – how long? What does it say? Look. “…forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him or knows Him. But you know Him,” by way of experience, “for He lives with you and He will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me. Because I live,” resurrection, “you will also live. On that day,” about three or four days later, “you will realize that I am in the Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.”

And then He sums it up, look at verse 15, “If you really love Me, you will obey My commands.” Look at verse 21 as He closes up, “He that has My commands and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And I will love him and I will disclose,” literally, “reveal,” or, “manifest. I will make Myself known.”

What is the fear? You are going away. What is the answer?

The Spirit of God will live in you, and I am going to make Myself known to you. In other words, I will speak to you more clearly, more intimately, more often than even…

In fact, later on He will say, If you really understood what was going on, you would be happy I am leaving, because your deal gets better. I am going to live within you.

Notice that line He said, “You know Him because He has been with you.” Right?

These disciples have experienced the Holy Spirit. Remember when they were sent out on the mission? They cast out demons, they preached, they healed people. They have seen God’s Spirit.

He said, “But He was with you,” here’s the difference. “He is with you, but now He is going to be,” – what does it say? “…in you.”

He is blowing their minds. The problem with us today, we sort of, Oh yeah, that’s right. Jesus lives in you. I received Jesus. He came into my life. We have lost what that means. And we have lost the awe and the opportunity of what God has given us.

Well, Judas (not Iscariot) is tracking with Him and he goes, “Okay, You’re going to reveal yourself to us. Well, how are You going to reveal Yourself to us disciples and the whole world not see it?” And so we pick it up in verse 22.

Verse 22, Jesus is confronted with Judas, (not Iscariot), “But, Lord, why do You intend to show Yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, are you starting to get this connection? “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him,” and notice the change, not I, “we will come to him and make Our home with him.”

Are you understanding what He is saying? The Second Person of the Trinity, God in flesh, leaving, says, “I am going to be with the Father; I am the path. If you continue to follow and obey My teaching, I will reveal Myself to you. But as you do that, the Father and the Son, we will come and,” literally, “your heart, your inner person will become the home,” literally, “the dwelling place of the Eternal God.”

Have you ever, do you get that? Christianity is not like: be a good person, try really hard, have a little bit better morality, be nice. It’s about a supernatural relationship with your Creator, where the Spirit of God manifests, makes known.

And a little bit later, some of you are thinking, I’m not experiencing a whole lot of that, so you better get to that part soon. I will. Okay? I will.

And what you are going to see is it is so, Jesus is so profound and so simple and so clear and so loving. He didn’t write a book for rocket scientists and all of you Ph.Ds. – God bless you all. But there are some of us simple people. It’s just got to be clear. But what happens is we get it all “religious.” And we miss the point.

Finally, Judas gets his question answered and Jesus says, “All these things I have spoken to you while I am still here. But the Counselor, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,” here’s the promise, “He will teach you all things and He will remind you of everything that I have said to you.”

So here is My gift, “My peace I leave with You. I don’t give you peace like the world.” There is a supernatural peace of knowing the future is secure, the Spirit of God lives in you. You know where you’re going. I am going to take care of you, the worst that could ever happen to anyone is to die. And the moment that happened, you would be ushered into My presence. And there is a forever and an ever and an ever and an ever called “eternity.” I want you to know, that one is done. It’s solved. But in between times, I am going to give you a supernatural ability to not respond in fear and worry.

Literally this: “Let your heart not be troubled,” it’s, “Let your heart be at ease.” I might even translate it, “Lighten up. Lean back. I got this. I got this and I’ve got you. And it is going to be okay.”

And for some, I am going to deliver you completely out of some hard stuff. And for others, I am going to deliver you right through it. And for others, I am going to deliver you to Myself, because you are that precious. You can’t lose with Me.

“So be at peace. Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Don’t be afraid. You heard Me say, ‘I am going away; I am coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would be glad that I am going to Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you before it happens,” there are no surprises, guys! I didn’t say it was going to be easy, but there are no surprises.

“I told you before it happens, so when it does you can believe. Now, I am not going to speak to you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. But he has no hold on Me.” There is a dark day coming. The world is going to get dark, and Satan is going to have his day, and he is going to think that it has all been won, because the Son of God is going to die. And when He dies, He is going to defeat death when He is risen from the dead. He is going to defeat sin and He is going to defeat Satan.

So He is going to say to these guys, notice the very last line, “I need to demonstrate My love for the Father, because I will do exactly as He asks.”

How does Jesus connect His love for the Father? It’s with His submission and obedience to the Father’s will.

And could I remind you, emotionally? If Jesus was going with: If it feels good, do it – He wouldn’t have done it. Do you remember at the garden? Remember when He was praying? Remember when He was sweating great drops of blood?

Sometimes we think Jesus had a big “S” on His chest. When it got really hard, He turned into God. Fully God, fully man! Hypostatic union without confusion. He died as a man. Every emotion, every temptation, every struggle, every fear, every doubt that any human being has ever had, Jesus had as a man. And He did not turn on His “God aspect.” He came and as a man, He submitted to the Father’s will, powered by the Holy Spirit to give His life away for you, knowing He would be beaten to a pulp, knowing that there would be a moment in time when the Father would turn away because sin would be placed on Him for you and for me.

But who, for the joy set before Him said, “I will endure that,” – why? Because He loves you. He loves me. And He says, “I want the world to know I love the Father. And the example is why I obeyed Him.”

The connection, verse 15; the connection, verse 21; the connection, verse 31, “If you love Me, you obey; if you love Me, you obey.”

“If you love Me,” doesn’t mean you don’t struggle, but you don’t log on to porn and you don’t have affairs, If you love Me. If you love Me, you don’t walk off with the trainer and leave me with two kids. If you love Me, you don’t say, “Oh, I’m on your team,” but not show up.

Love and obedience – obedience is not some external, I’ve got to do the right thing, I’m trying to earn someone’s favor. Obedience flows out of a…did you notice? Go through the text later this afternoon and every time the word “know” after the very first, circle it, circle it, circle it, circle. “If you knew Me, if you knew Me, don’t you know, don’t you know?” It’s about knowing and intimacy and love.

When you love someone, you care about their outcome and their concern more than yourself.

Now, I understand that is a clear story and this is history and what has happened. But as I go through things like this, sometimes I feel like maybe it’s the teacher in me or I tend to be pretty strategic and linear.

So what I did is I took everything that we have learned that I thought, I am going to put that in six clear points and just say, “Okay, because God loves me, here are six things that are true that come out of this text.”

And then I am going to give you just a little bit of warning. Here’s how I want you to list, because I am going to go through them very quickly. I want you to think, This is true of me, because God loves me, this is true of me. This is true of me.

So, are you ready? Let me just summarize what you have already learned.

Because God loves me, Jesus is preparing a place for me with the Father. I don’t know what you’re going through, but right now, at this instant, He is preparing a place for you personally, if you know Him.

Because God loves me, God sent Jesus to make a way for me to be with the Father. He is the path, He is the road, He is the way, He revealed the Father. It’s a gift.

Because God loves me, He sent Jesus to reveal to me what God is really like. You can know Him personally. It’s not some vague, religious concept. You can know His heart. The Holy Spirit isn’t an “it.” It’s not a force. It’s a person.

Because God loves me, number four, He will use me greatly and hear me always. Isn’t it amazing to think that the One who spoke the maybe between one hundred and two hundred billion galaxies into existence is, like, Hey, I’d like you to be on My team.

Because He loves me, He sent the Holy Spirit, notice, to live inside of me to make known or to manifest the presence, the personality, and the power of Jesus, 24/7.

Finally, because He loves me, He gives me peace even in a world of turmoil by defeating death, sin, and Satan.

Satan is an enemy. There is evil in the world, but greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. That’s who you are.

How do we love Him?” And Jesus really laid that out. So, let me highlight. And if you have your pen, maybe you’re going to put a checkmark just next to one of these.

But this is what Jesus taught in this passage we have gone through. “If you really love Me, you will obey,” right? If you really love God, or better, because I love God, I will not fear, because my future is secure. That’s a choice. That’s where you let your mind go. I will not fear. There is a place for me. My eternity is settled. Now I work it backwards.

Second, because I love God, I will trust Jesus as the only way to eternal life. I’m going to respond to the offer. It’s a free gift. But I have to take that step and receive it.

Third, because I love God, I will make knowing God the number one priority of my life.

Eternal life isn’t some gift that you get after you die. Jesus would literally say a few chapters later, “This is eternal life, that they know You, Father, and Your Son whom He has sent.”

Fourth, because I love God, I will use my time and talent and treasure and platform or influence to make Jesus known to others.

Number five, because I love God, I will submit my heart and my mind and will obey the Holy Spirit’s direction through His Word, His people, and His promptings.

Obedience is the organ through which intimacy with God is obtained. It’s not knowledge, it’s not religious activity, it’s not trying hard, it’s not trying to be moral. Jesus said over and over and over – what? “If you love Me, obey Me.”

So here’s the thing: Has God spoken to you? Has God spoken to you about something? If you respond to the light that He gives you, and it might be: Forgive so-and-so, or forgive your mom, forgive your dad, forgive your ex, forgive your business partner.

And down deep, No, I’m not doing that. Then guess what, you don’t get more light. He says, Deal with the lust in your life. Deal with your greed. Resolve this issue. He has been nudging you, Go to counseling and work on this marriage. No, I’m not doing that, but I’ll go serve in the church. He doesn’t want you to serve in the church!

He wants you to respond to the area that He has put His finger on, because He loves you. If you do take a baby step, He will give you more light. And as you take that step, He will manifest, He will make Himself known, there will be more power, there will be more joy.

Every time I take a step toward God, what He wants me to do: More, more, more. By the same token, the opposite is true.

Do what God is speaking to you to do, and I am going to tell you, and then you’re going to go, I can’t! Of course you can’t! And so you say, Lord, I can’t forgive him. But I choose to do it, and then I will tell you, this will open up. And then you will need people. And then He will speak to you. And then He will give you peace.

Now, are you afraid? Of course you are. Obedience to God requires faith and courage and usually help. Everything I am telling you, I can’t do. I praise God I’ve got a wife who walks through it with me and close friends who…all this is true of me. And He wants me to do that and I don’t want to do it. And then I realize I’ll be stuck.

How many of you are stuck? How would you like to get unstuck? Well, it’s not some big, big deal. Take the next step. Maybe He has been saying, I’d kind of like you to read My Word. I’d like to speak to you.

The final thing is: Because I love God, I refuse to worry. The very back page, which you all are there, I like the turning of the pages, that’s really good, is what is the relationship between love and obedience? Love does what? Obeys.

But, see, obedience that flows out of love is different than outward performance or moral conformity that flows out of guilt. It’s like night and day.