First Love

Announcer: Welcome to First Love with Dr. Robyn Kassas and Dr. Nathan Kassas, where faith meets real life. In this week's broadcast, you'll discover practical and spiritual keys to reclaim God's story in your life, deepen your relationship with Jesus, and encounter him as your first love, whether for the first time or all over again. No topic is off-limits as we make Jesus real, relevant, and relational. Stay with us; your journey back to first love starts now.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Hello everybody and welcome to First Love. My name is Dr. Nathan Kassas, and I have Dr. Robyn Kassas with me. Dr. Robyn, how are you today?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Oh, it's a beautiful day today. We had an amazing time at church last night, learning more about Jesus, so I'm feeling really good.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yes, it has been an exciting time. Last week, you revealed through this broadcast, as well as through our Sunday service, that the Lord wants to introduce Jesus to the American church.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: The man.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The man, fully God, fully man. We are so honored to be trusted with that message. We realize that Americans don't know Jesus.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: They know roles that he plays, but they don't know him in his humanity.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: We are moving on this broadcast tonight to begin the journey in God's story because Jesus is the main player in God's story, not us. We are the supporting role, and he is the main role. He's not just a theology; he's not just a savior. He's actually someone who has lived the human experience to its entirety. As I kept mentioning last night in my sermon, "Eat Emotionally Attached to Truth," which you can go and listen to on all our platforms.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: What do you mean by eat?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: I meant that Jesus was able to say only two times that he publicly hears his Father affirm him in his mission and in his identity and his position as the Son of God. "This is my Son, whom I love, and in whom I am well pleased." That fed him all the way through life for three years of ministry, as well as the ordeal of the cross.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: If we think about these things, we think that if we allow this humanity side of Jesus—fully God, fully man, fully man—we're talking about this side—we lose something. We think we can't say that. We don't want to feel that because we're losing some part of God. But this is not the case. If you could grasp this, if you could hold this, then you can understand why he understands what you're going through.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Exactly. The key is if I can associate with him, then I can trust him.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's the key. That's the big key. That's what they fear losing. If they lose that sort of image about the Lord, they're going to lose some image of God. But they don't; they gain. Not lose, gain.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: This was the problem all along with the Pharisees. They could never associate with God on a personal level, so they never really trusted God on a personal level.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: They could never see that God could be able to touch humans. He had to be up there, and we had to be reaching up to touch him, instead of realizing that he came down to touch us.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: We've come to this point in our traversing this understanding of God's story where we're not confronting transformation from the idea of it as a model; we're confronting transformation from the idea it's a person. Because it's a person, that person is the carrier of all authority that brings transformation.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's got to be that name, that image. That's the only thing God the Holy Spirit will bring to the table.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: To help the listener understand, Jesus isn't just displaying authority; he is authority. Scripturally backing this up, we understand he says, "In my name, they will" (Mark 16:17). "Whatever you ask in my name" (John 14:13). "There is no other name by which men must be saved" (Acts 4:12). So the name of Jesus here is not an idea; it's not a phrase. It is the governing authority of God's story.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I agree with you, but I think the scripture that really stands out to me is do all in the name of Jesus and word and deed. All. That's the all.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: A lot of people can struggle with this part because when we come to transformation, we come to this really, really important question that we're going to be asked by the Lord: who has the authority over your heart? This is what you will be confronted with. When you start understanding Jesus as the man and you start finding association with him, and God shows you that he is qualified beyond anything you could throw at him to be able to associate with your pain and feel what you feel, not believe what you believe, you will be poised with this question: do you still control you?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: No, you don't. It's a bit like I was just thinking about this right now as we're talking. When he became—he went to the mount of temptation and the devil had the hide to even put these things before him. Why did he think that he could put these things before him? I'll tell you why: because he knew he had taken off his deity. This is it. He stood fully as a man. Not a god, but as a man, but relying totally upon his Father.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: This is where the real big understanding that we have to reshape in people's minds. We don't mind giving our authority to the Father when it comes to those great spiritual conquests. "Your will be done." But here's where we're being confronted: do we give our authority when it's personal?

Like Jesus, in the humanity of not being able to pull on any spiritual preemptive support or dynamic. I said last night to the church, isn't it interesting the Father never intervenes when he's being tempted. The Father never says, "It's okay, Son, I'll help you out here. I got this." He lets him go to the nth degree for our sake of seeing that in the shaping of that human moment, Jesus has all authority. Why? Because he has all love for his Father.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Love is the key.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Love is the predecessor of authority. You can have no authority where you have no love. Because he loves his Father that much as a human, not as a God, as a human being, he is able to lay down his life continually.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Everything else will pass away except for love.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: What we're presenting to you today is transformation requires a process. Yes, but it's a person. That person has all the authority to take you into that access to transformation. But the problem, Dr. Robyn, from my understanding, is that we haven't been accessing transformation because we haven't been giving up authority.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Also, we don't understand the process and the method and the way God wants it to operate. It's all head figures. It's all roles, and it's not a person; it's a role.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: We need to understand before we go into the break that we can't have a connection with a role. We have to have a connection with a person.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: We have to go back. When we come back, we have to talk about where he was in the beginning. There was never a beginning. We use that word, but he was never begun. He was always there. I know that Pastor helped us just to understand a couple of things just a minute ago, and we need to share those. They're very important.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Very important. We'll come back and we'll go straight in.

Announcer: You're listening to First Love with Dr. Robyn and Dr. Nathan Kassas. The story isn't finished yet, and neither is what Jesus wants to reveal to your heart today. Let's jump back in and pick up right where we left off.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Welcome back. An important first part, Dr. Robyn, to establish the right foundation. Why don't you kick it off with what you were talking to me about during the break? You said we have to go back to the beginning.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Meaning the beginning of how God's playing out his story. Not the beginning of God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit. There is no beginning. There is no end. They were there. "Let us," he said, "make man." It's not "let me" or "let you," it's "let us." Go ahead from there.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: You were talking to me about the importance of realizing that Jesus is not an addition. He is the story and he's been the story from the beginning.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: God spoke himself out into his Son. Not created, but literally manifested.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: In Genesis 1, even before any account is given of human creation, we see that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all there. Genesis 1: "In the beginning God," the Father; the Spirit hovered over the waters, Holy Spirit; and then God said, "Let there be light." That is the name of Jesus, the word that holds all ecosystems together.

All of nature, all of science, all of biology, all of everything in life is held together by the glue of that name and how that authority was expressed through the spoken word, Jesus. When Jesus comes to the Earth, that authority comes in the form of a man. Fully God, fully man. Here's the crazy thing: he has all authority, but he doesn't use it.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He gave it to us.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: He says, "I do nothing except of my Father." He's saying here, "I have the ability to pull on everything that's been given to me, but I'm not pulling on it because of my love for my Father. I'm not using it prematurely." This is what I said to the church last night. I said the whole entire temptation, the whole entire attack of Satan all throughout his three years of ministry is just for one moment disconnect yourself from your Father's will and pull on your deity prematurely.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Because he knew he would not. He knew it. It wasn't that he was hoping; he knew it. But he had to tempt because it was the man. He was approaching the man Jesus, not the God Jesus.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Again, authority is linked to authorship. That's the root word of authority: author. So who is Jesus declaring is the author of his story by not pulling on his authority? His Father. He's saying, "This is not my story. I don't have the right to pull on it, even though the Father has said I have the right. I'm not going to pull on it because of my love for my Father."

This brings out an important thing that ties into God's story for your life. Part of the reason why you haven't walked through transformation or I haven't walked through transformation is because when we've come to those moments to let God be the author, we have prematurely pulled on our right to steer the narrative. When we begin to steer the narrative, we begin to author the story ourselves. We help God along.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's like we are doing this because we believe it's our story. I'm telling you, God has a story. He's not making it up as he goes along. He is the story, and Jesus tells the story through his love.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: No authority where you have no love.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: How does it all happen? The Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, promotes that story through the power, the presence of Jesus. You need to know that when God the Holy Spirit activates this, you begin to see Jesus' authority is not separate from his presence. You can't separate power and presence.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Here's something I want to read out. Hebrews 4:15: "We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize." Then Paul says, or Peter, whoever you believe wrote Hebrews: "But was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." Here's an important understanding: even though he faced everything we face, he never let what he faced define who he was.

He always goes back to his Father's words about him. That's the authority of Jesus' life. That surrender actually produces authority. Authority is only given to the person who will surrender it. Hold it lightly, church, hold it lightly. He says, "No one takes my life from me, but I willingly lay it down." That's the first part. But then he also says, "And I take it up again."

I'm telling each listener listening, the first part of his story is where he laid his life down. But now you're living in the part of the story where he's taken it up again. That means life has now got to be top down, not bottom up. When we live according to our authorship—authorship of our plans, authorship of our emotions, authorship of how we see God playing out the story—we make Jesus once again the suffering servant and not the reigning king.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: When we do the bottom up, it reminds me very much of the Tower of Babel. They wanted to go from the bottom up because they thought they could be God. If we can reach him, then I can be him. But you'll never reach him. And you're still trying to do that.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Even in creation, we understand authority is gravitational. It's what holds everything together. When we try to author our life by holding ourselves together, you are essentially saying, "I am the author of me," and you've become bottom up and not top down.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: He gave us authority over things, even the atmosphere. He gave us authority over that, and we should move in that. But when you move in that, you've got to invite his presence as well.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Jesus was given authority over the devil, authority over sin, death, hell, and the grave, and he was given authority over the elements. He could say to the winds and the water, "Cease." But here's the key: he was given authority over people, but he never used it. He worked with man, not over man.

We are so interested in pulling our authority over people to control the story. But even God in the flesh, who had every right to use his authority, he never exercised authority. You cannot exercise authority where you have not yielded love.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: It's all about love, Pastor. It's all about love. Last night, you said something so, so important: can God trust us with silence? Jesus, his Son, the man was trusted with one statement, and it saw him through his whole ministry. It was the only time that God said, "Look, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased." Every other time it was Jesus talking, "I only do what I see my Father doing," giving back the honor to his Father.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The Godhead is always other-promoting. They never say "I," they always say "you." Father, you. Jesus never once quotes to the enemy, "I have the authority." He says what is already said about him by his Father through the prophets: "It is written." I think the enemy gets us so caught up in this web because we do have authority because Jesus gave us the authority. Will we give it back?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: When you're given it, the surrender is to give it back.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: We don't like giving it back because when we give it back, we lose control and we have to risk not getting what we think we deserve.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Authority and the presence were given to us, but we don't recognize the presence. We just want the authority. You can't separate that. That's what this whole podcast is all about: First Love. This is the first love. The first love is Jesus.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Authority is therefore not what you take; it's what God entrusts to you. So you can't take it. Here's an important statement that I said last week: if Jesus is not the author of your story, you will misuse authority trying to control it. Then there's no transformation.

The key here for transformation: if you want to transform, the first thing you have to do is surrender. You have no authority where you have not surrendered. This is why we really want to introduce you to the man Jesus because you don't lose anything, but you gain everything. The only thing that you're losing is the old life.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That should be gone in the first place. Should be dead.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: His authority is not control. It's alignment with what governs your life. We have to come to this place where as followers of Christ, we determine once and for all: my understanding, my interpretation of his voice is not going to govern my life. I'm not the author of this story.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I get to be a part of it, but I'm not the author. Power flows where presence is aligned with authority. Whose authority? Jesus' authority. He gave it to Jesus.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: This is the key. If the authority is not given to Jesus because he's earned the right, as the scripture says, something else will always try to enthrone itself unless he's on the throne. Take off your humanity and put on Christ. Dr. Robyn, throwing it to you for your final words.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: If we come back to why we called it First Love, it was because our first love has to be with a person and not a role. If we do that, we won't lose anything, but we will gain everything.

Announcer: Thanks for spending time with us today on First Love. If today's message spoke to you, share it with someone. And if you're looking for more teachings, visit www.torcc.org. That's T-O-R-C-C.org for more. We'll be back next week, same time, same truth. And as you go, don't forget: the one who loved you first is still loving you best.