Mike Bickle emphasizes the passionate nature of God, likening Him to the sardius stone, which represents fiery desires and deep love for humanity. He explains that understanding God's beauty and majesty is essential for a genuine relationship with Him, urging believers to engage in dialogue with God about His attributes. Bickle highlights that God's passionate love is not just a fleeting interest but a consuming fire that defines His relationship with us, as seen in the incarnation and crucifixion of Jesus. He encourages believers to recognize their worth in God's eyes and to respond with wholehearted love, as this is the key to living a fulfilled and purposeful life. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a deeper understanding of God's unrelenting desire for His people, which transforms our perspective on life's challenges.

for the word of God and I ask you to inspire our spirits with your with power on our spirit to hear and to speak and receive from your heart in the name of Jesus amen well tonight we're looking at session eight in this studies on the beauty of God and tonight we're looking at the God of Sardius like passion that may sound like a strange phrase but I trust by the end of the session that will make more sense to you Roman numeral one just a little review from the last couple weeks the need to encounter God's beauty that's one of the great emphasis I believe that the Holy Spirit is making right now in the body of Christ for the prayer movement to fuel up the prayer movement by the revelation of the beauty of Jesus paragraph a revelation four and five give us the highest revelation of God's beauty in the scripture it's the revelation of his throne if this is a new passage I want to encourage you to go slow through it take time we're on our eighth week on this passage it deserves long and loving meditation and study every phrase every phrase is filled with meaning this is the clearest revelation of God's throne in the word of God it's God revealing God on his throne this is what God says about God on the throne he's going to read it Revelation chapter 4 verse 2 to 6 John said I was in the spirit and a throne was set in heaven and one set on the throne speaking of the father he was like a jasper and a sardius stone and there was a rainbow around the throne and around the throne were 24 thrones and I saw 24 elders they had crowns verse 5 from the throne proceeded lightning and thunder and voices seven lamps of fire were burning and before the throne there was a sea of glass and around the throne were four living creatures paragraph b God gave us this passage to help us meditate on his majesty around his throne paragraph c it's not enough to study about God's majesty or God's beauty you can use those words interchangeably this is one of the most important things I'm going to say tonight it's the simplest but it's one of the most important it's not enough to study about God we have to talk to God about God not just talk to God about others to talk to God about God to talk to God about God's majesty will cause it to increase in your in your understanding in the impartation that is a very simple point but this is a point that has changed my life radically this one simple point not just to be blessed to understand some things about God but to actually use that information in my dialogue in my conversation with God to actually tell God what God says about God and the idea at first we do it by thanking him for whatever is true about him taking a few moments actually thanking him for his sardius like glory his jasper like glory and then we ask him to reveal it something as simple as that we do it patiently slowly in our and we begin to grow in our understanding of it I cannot stress the importance of that paragraph two what God feels like or roman numeral two what God feels like the sardius like fiery desires let's read verse three again he who sat there was like a jasper it's a diamond like gem an ancient jasper is different than a modern day jasper he was like a jasper and he was like a sardius sardius a deep red gem this is God revealing God God said John this is what I looked like I want you to know this it means something and there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald paragraph a God did not describe himself to John by human characteristics meaning in Daniel chapter 7 verse 9 when Daniel saw God he saw his white hair he saw his garments Ezekiel and Moses saw God's feet and his back and there's a different human characteristics that describe different dimensions of God John does not see the human dimensions like hands and hair and and feet and garments he sees radiant light he sees color and these colors are significant in their meaning and we find uh their meaning even uh is defined within scripture and part of it it's just its meaning in in normal life the sardius stone in normal life is a deep red gem it's a ruby red uh like a precious stone what struck John was the colors that were radiating out of God's countenance and from God's person or his presence from his throne they were radiating out of his throne and his face and out of his being this is magnificent and he said two things about the face and the throne and the being of God he looks like a diamond a sard a jasper and he looks like a sardius stone in the bright radiance coming out of him why the diamond and why the jazz why why the sardius why the jasper which is the diamond ish type stone we looked at that last week paragraph b John recorded what God looks like the the uh the jasper now he's recording what God feels like and that's the sardius and then the rainbow we'll look at uh lord willing in the next session it's what God acts like in his mercy his emerald rainbow everything that God does he does through the lens of mercy even his judgment is an act of mercy even when God destroys the wicked he it's mercy to the righteous so that his kingdom is preserved in its order forever and ever in blessing and tranquility and beauty and divine order paragraph c the sardius stone is a fiery red or a ruby like gem God has fiery desires God has burning passion in his being that's what the sardius stone speaks of God was giving John insight into what God felt like he told Moses this same truth in Deuteronomy chapter 4 he told Moses he goes your God he says Moses I'm your God and I am a consuming fire I and then he went on to define what he meant by a consuming fire because there's several different properties of fire that have meaning when relating to God's personality and God's being there's several different dimensions of God's personality and being that are uh emphasized by God being fire one of them is the fact he is jealous he is passionate you could put the word passionate instead of jealousy you could put the word zeal I am a consuming fire I have zeal I have burning desire in my being that's what my that's what the fire in my being is all about Jesus made a statement in John 17 we'll look at a little bit later but it's so it's so dramatic it's so big he said that the world may know he's praying to God the father the world may know you love them in the same way you love me you feel for the body of Christ in the way you feel about the Godhead beloved that is that is beyond exaggeration it is impossible to exaggerate that reality we cannot get even anywhere close to touching what that means that God loves the people of God in the way that God loves God and the way that God loves the trinity beloved that's consuming desire that's fire that's the that's the heat of his raging desire for his people burning in his heart paragraph d the sardius stone points to God's passionate desire as manifest in redemption or in judgment God's desire in redemption God's desire the reason Jesus came to the earth was was a reflection of the burning desire God had for us it is so extreme that Jesus became human that within the context of the Godhead Jesus is the uncreated God like the father in the spirit there was never a time when Jesus was created he is forever uncreated and Jesus crosses this line and becomes human and he could never ever go back and be non-human once he crossed the line he's human forever some people have maybe have never really thought it through they think well he became human did what he needed to do then he went back to heaven then he laid aside his humanity he will be human for billions and billions and billions of years forever he's human he crossed a line it's not just that he's human he's jewish meaning his ethnicity will be the same forever and forever and forever i mean for God to take on human dimension like this why would he do this the Sardius God burning inside with desire for humans it took him to such extreme measures becoming human and then beyond becoming human the next extreme he's crushed by the wrath of God God the father is crushing him by his own wrath he had to to make a way for us this is the extremity of the desire God has for humans people uh you hear it all the time if God loved people so much then why are all these negative things taking place what God showed us about his interest in our life is so extreme in the incarnation and then the crucifixion it's a reflection of the Sardius God when John stood before this God of this blazing red radiance coming out of him John understood he was before the God who was jealous who was consumed with desire for humans beloved this one issue this one issue defines your entire life this one issue makes your life glorious no matter how hard it is while you're on the earth not just that you'll live forever it's more than that the fact that he will burn with desire for you forever it's not just that he had a flash of interest in us enough to send Jesus and now we're redeemed beloved he will be the Sardius God forever and forever a billion years from now he will not lose any intensity of his interest for what's in your heart it's one of the great revelations of scripture roman numeral three the Sardius stone in scripture i'll just kind of be brief on this but i'll point you in in the in the right direction here paragraph a there's three primary lists and i have them here there's three primary lists in scripture that highlight precious stones as they relate to the majesty or the beauty of God to his countenance his radiance paragraph b the first list describes the 12 stones on the high priest breastplate the high priest had a breastplate he had 12 stones and each stone represented one of the tribes of israel and the reason that the high priest had them on his heart on his breastplates because they were near his heart because they were near God's heart and then he would bring he would wear this breastplate when he would go into the holy place and then into the holy of holies to offer the blood he would be bearing the people they represented the people of God on his heart because God they were on God's heart the whole time and it's interesting that the first stone and God chose the order the very first stone is the sardius stone the stone that depicts the red hot desire that isn't in God's heart for a moment that will be in his heart forever and forever the God who's jealous the God who's zealous the God who is interested in us forever i don't want to minimize the difficulty of some of the struggle that people have in this life i don't mean just with sin i'm real hard difficulties i there are people even in this room that are have experienced things so difficult it would be hard for others to really understand so i don't want to minimize that but let me tell you the desire of God's heart for you is so great that whatever we endure for a moment 70 years on the earth when we stand before him it's not just a God who says you know you can come into my kingdom but a God who stays forever enthusiastic and zealous for our heart and our life and our destiny it will cause it all to make a whole lot more sense the sardius God is a revelation we have to get a hold of John undoubtedly was overwhelmed by this sardius light emanating out of God's countenance and God's throne paragraph c we find the sardius stone also also listed number one interesting listed number one on the breastplate if you will it says the term it uses is the covering in verse 13 in Ezekiel 28 13 it calls it the covering it's talking about lucifer who when he fell he became satan but before satan before lucifer let me say it different before satan fell he was the covering cherub he was the worship leader at the throne before the throne of God he was he was so near God's throne and he represented the order of divine worship i don't want to develop that that's a pretty well-known and established truth and what is happening here in Ezekiel chapter 28 is lucifer before he fell as being described and hit the order of worship in heaven is revealed somewhat some principles of that are revealed in this passage and you will notice that the first stone that's on his heart on his breath on his covering his breastplate so to speak of which the high priest breastplate uh there's parallels to it there's only nine stones here there's 12 on the breast on the jewish high priest there were nine on lucifer's covering but the first one again is the sardius paragraph d the third list that describes God's glory is the new jerusalem the bridal city that are the city of God and the sardius is mentioned there as well all throughout the city these 12 stones will be reflecting the light of God's personality it's not just the beauty of the city they're all revealing facets of God's thoughts facets of God's desire for us everywhere we go the music and the fragrance and the light reflected through the city and the light that's even reflected in our resurrected bodies that will be filled with light the sardius light we will see it everywhere not just as a reminder it's more than a reminder the visual will have power when it touches us God's light is more than a something we stand at a distance and look at God's light has power in it when it shines upon his on his uh creatures that are before him and this sardius light will radiate through the city as well 12 different facets of God's heart and his relationship with his people in these 12 stones in the in the new jerusalem will release impartation to us let's go to the top of page 3 roman numeral 4 the passionate God or we could say the sardius the God with sardius like passion the sardius God created us the passionate God created us with a desire to be passionate this dimension of God's personality gives us great insight into our own personalities the fact that God is sardius in his glory he has he's fiery red in his desire as one of the two dimensions in revelation four that describe his own being it's the jasper and the sardius they stand and then of course the emerald as well but these two colors they emanate out of his countenance they emanate out of his personhood these two stand separate from all the other colors because they speak of God's heart and they speak of his of his beauty and of his mind so we want the Lord to touch our heart with this with the uh a greater revelation of this but as I stand before God in worship I imagine this red fiery red light and radiance and I think oh and in that I think of his deep commitment his desire for me beloved that changes our life to stand before God in this light and I'm talking about light I'm talking about understanding in our mind I'm not talking about we actually see real light we will in eternity but the sardius God gives us insight into how we're made the wholehearted God made us to be wholehearted being wholehearted is not a luxury being wholehearted is a necessity it really is if you're not living wholehearted you're living diminished and you're living broken and you're dissatisfied you can only function before a wholehearted God in wholeheartedness the sardius God gives us insight we have these dimensions in these this cry in our own spirit the God who said you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart is the God who loves you with all of his heart and all of his strength God did not ask us to love him more than he loves us when he said you shall love the Lord your God with all of your strength he was saying I am the leader in this love dynamic I love you with all of my strength I love you with all of my mind I love you don't ever imagine that God asked us to love him more than he loves us don't imagine that somehow we're unequally yoked we love him with all of our heart but he comes up short beloved God loves us with all of his heart with all of his strength we're talking about the genesis one God who has strength loves humans with all of his strength this is inconceivable to our small minds the sardius God I have here in paragraph a in the middle if we have nothing to die for we have nothing to live for one of the great reasons for the spiritual boredom and for the uh so much of the emotional hang-ups I don't want to be simplistic about it we all have emotional hang-ups but I mean the profound despair that's in many people's lives they're in the body of Christ it's not the only reason I don't want to simplify it there's despair has a number of issues involved boredom is what is one of the contributing issues to despair there's nothing worth giving all of our strength for even though we're believers many believers live uh half-hearted before God God is important to them but not enough to take hold of their time and their energy and their schedule in a consuming way and beloved if we don't have something to die for we really have nothing to live for that's exciting not really the uh momentary maybe a few years but the momentary lure of achieving something great can keep people excited for a few years you know if the guy's on the fast track in ministry or he's on the fast track in his business he thinks well maybe I'm gonna be rich and famous maybe real and maybe real this or that and for a few years that really excites him that only lasts for a few years though it's an illusion at the end of the day because we can never ever we can never ever become exhilarated in our spirit except we're wholehearted towards God it's impossible to be because that's the goal of everyone is to live exhilarated to live with joy to live wholly given over and yet even God's people give are wholly given over to their ministry uh future instead of to God himself and their ministry always disappoints them ministry will it will disappoint no matter what there's too many surprises in it too many setbacks in it no matter Billy Graham I assure you if you interviewed the largest ministry in the world he has many setbacks and disappointments and many times where his heart was injured and hurt in the process and the biggest ministry in history or whatever in terms of the number of people beloved there's only one possible way to live before a Sardius God with a like abandonment that's the only possible way that we can live and soar to the heights of our human potential paragraph c God created us for love he created us for love and I'm not gonna read that paragraph there but we don't work right if we're not pursuing it and I don't mean just uh kind of love in an undefined way I'm talking about the kind of love that is radically obedient to him and it will make us loving to one another even our enemies some people have this real uh inaccurate sense a dichotomy between the first and second commandment I've heard it for years it's it's real uh inaccurate non-biblical as though you can live the first commandment you can pursue wholeheartedness with God and somehow not love people or they pursue it the other way you can somehow love people without being wholehearted for God you can't the two of them are inseparable one always leads to the other the second commandment cannot work except we live wholehearted in the first and the first commandment cannot be stopped it always leads to the second it's a it's an impossible to separate those two only on in theory and only on whiteboards can you separate you can't separate it in the human heart the reason our love for one another is weak in the body of Christ is because our love for God is weak I heard one guy say well you know that group they really love God they don't love people I go no no no their their weakness in loving people is because of the weakness for loving God and the reason they're weak in loving God is because they're weak in seeing God's love for them they don't see the Sardius God the wholehearted God of zeal creates a zeal in us for him and it always overflows in zeal for people it's impossible for you can't stop it paragraph five the Christian paradigm of God I remember first reading this in William Barclay's uh common commentary in Hebrews 4 20 years ago 25 years ago I read this and I was so touched by this and uh I so I've taken some of the ideas from that the Christian paradigm of God is a God of deep feelings of love now that's a simple concept we all kind of know that but that's a profound sentence from a historical point of view the revelation of God as a father a tender father a father with tender desire for people the revelation of Jesus as a passionate bridegroom with desire for people tender desire whether the father of the bridegroom was an entirely new idea in religious history when Jesus came and preached it when Jesus came and preached about the father and about his own heart as a bridegroom it was a it was an entirely new idea yes it was in the Hebrew Bible in the scriptures but in almost completely overlooked by the nation of Israel though it was recorded in the scriptures there was no there was no presence no uh uh prevailing presence of these ideas in the Jewish community at all didn't exist anywhere on the earth a prevailing sense of this reality and Jesus came as an oracle from heaven to unveil this reality of God let's read through some of this and this isn't word for word from uh uh William Barclay I've added a few sentences but you can look as Hebrew for and and get it word for word if you wanted it and I've I've read this over the years I love it I love the logic of it to the Jewish tradition and the generation of Jesus the first century the primary idea of God emphasized he was holy but not in the holistic sense he was holy in the sense of being totally separate from sin and that is true God is holy and totally separate from sin but holiness is bigger than that the subject of holiness is a bigger subject than that I don't want to go into that right now they did not think of a holy God as a God who shared human experience they thought of God as being incapable of sharing human experience simply because he was God and he's holy he couldn't understand he couldn't feel what they felt he was in every sense above sharing the human dilemma by the very definition that he was God that's where the Hebrew mindset was when Jesus came to preach about the father he he gave a a completely different view of God than what the average Jewish worshiper understood paragraph B the Greek philosophers they saw God as emotionally distant from humans the most prominent Greek thinkers were the Stoics you know you talk about somebody well he's a real Stoic he didn't have very much emotion is what we mean when someone says that they saw the main attribute of God is apatheia or apathetic is what we get the word apathetic they saw that God had an apatheia which meant he had no ability to feel anything this was a major idea to to Greek philosophy that's formed religion through history here's what they reason if God felt something he would be influenced by what he felt and if he was influenced he could possibly be controlled by what he felt because he was influenced by it the Stoics argue that those who felt sorrow or joy were vulnerable to being controlled for the people they had sorrow or joy for therefore the one who brought the sorrow or the pain or the joy for at least a moment for at least a moment would have greater power over God they reasoned I'm in paragraph C now they reasoned in the middle but by definition of who God is he can't feel emotions or he would be controlled so they have a God completely beyond feeling to them God couldn't be glad or sad by what humans did because he'd be controlled by humans if he got happy or mad at humans a well-respected Greek philosopher Plutarch he's a one of the most well-known Greek philosophers he preached it was blasphemous to think of God as lowering himself to be impacted by humans in human affair he said if God God wouldn't lower himself to feel and be impacted by what humans do and that's why they had this immoral philosophy because we were off the screen so to speak God was far away in the heavenlies not lowering himself to bother himself with what we think or feel good or bad but he would deal with this you know in the afterlife paragraph e another well-known Greek school is the Epicureans they believed top of page four the Epicureans believed that God lived far away in an eternal bliss they lived in an intermediate world what you know far far off in another realm thus they were not even aware of what we were doing they were completely detached from human affairs as they lived in glory and happiness in the realm of God so paragraph f to sum it up the Jews had a paradigm of a holy God that was driven by religious rules the Stoics had a feelingless God the Epicureans had a detached God it's into this context that Jesus came and talked about a God of deep feeling and involvement with the human heart this was radical even to the Jews this completely disrupted their Jewish mindset Jesus talked about a God who deliberately embraced he deliberately embraced human experience he talked about the Sardius God this was an inconceivable idea of a God who deliberately underwent every human experience a God who deliberately experienced pain Jesus deliberately took on weakness and they're thinking what what are the implications of this God of deep desire the implications are the incarnation and then the crucifixion and then the glorification and eternal partnership of human beings with God beloved not just glorified glorified into intimate partnership with the God of deep feeling the Sardius God the implications of a God of feeling is that God became human the incarnation God bore the wrath of God at the crucifixion and then we were exalted not just to a status but to a place of interaction with the deep feelings of God forever this is the implication of the Sardius God this changes everything about what your life is about if we if this touches your spirit we can endure anything with this revelation anything we can endure with this understanding we can stay steady we can weather a storm we can be on a marathon pace throughout our entire life of just steady righteousness without needing the full return of all the things that we hope for in our own time frames that's what injures us the most all of us the thing that injures us the most we don't receive the return from God on our time frame the delay the delay return it doesn't come in the amount or in the timing that we we uh expect and we even necessitate it and it's normal for all of us i'm not putting us down we're human it's intrinsic to our humanity to demand a larger portion in a quicker time frame and then to be really bruised when it doesn't work that way i mean really bruised people get in such despair they give up and just throw their lives into darkness because they didn't get the amount in the time frame they wanted from God it have a number of different things but this revelation of the Sardius God creates such steadiness in our spirit a God who feels enough for the crucifixion and the incarnation and the glorification the eternal engaging of the heart of the human with his heart forever in joy in in gladness and in desire it's not just that he hires us forever he delights and it's a mutual exchange of zealous wholehearted love back and forth he loves us with all of his strength forever and forever with all of his might he loves us you know you could say i got it made beloved we have it made you could say that it would be true you have it made already with this understanding God's kindness and the way he treats us God's continual response of kindness to our lives seems like he's a little rough on us but when all this when the whole story comes is out about how big he is and how good he is and how long eternity is and what we really did he is his kindness his continual kindness is so great that it will produce a gratitude in us that just overshadows any of our ability to complain when we're in his presence i mean forever when all this is made known and we see his burning desire we see his kindness in light of our failure it will overshadow any of our desire to offer complaints to him but the answer the answer to this getting free of complaint is obviously seeing the burning heart the sardius god the more that i feel complaint in despair and exasperation with God's leadership my life why won't you give me more and why won't you give it sooner and again whether it's more revelation more anointing more favor more honor more healing more friends more whatever if why don't you give me more and give it to me sooner in any of those categories and complaint begins to rise in my spirit which is normally takes the form our complaints normally take the form of despair discouragement our discouragement and our complaints go hand in hand we typically don't link them together and it's because we think we got a bad deal God didn't give us enough soon enough we see the sardius god then we see his his investment in us his investment is so intense when we see his investment in our lives and what we mean to him and what he's gone on the line already i mean not to mention the creation first he created the world then the incarnation then the crucifixion and then the glorification to where we're in intimate partnership with us when we begin to see the whole story and then our refusal resistance of him each step of the way but his perpetual desire his sardius like desire his radiant countenance coming after us with desire with zeal with wholehearted love we refuse him in light of all these things he comes again we refuse him he comes again we refuse him he comes again as the creator as the redeemer it's the one who glorifies us beloved we lose we lose our energy to complain before him we all of our it's so his kindness so overshadows anything that we could complain about that's called gratitude that comes in light of the sardius god in the light of the revelation of the unrelenting wholehearted love of god coming towards us paragraph i the two significant implications that jesus emphasized was a god who felt desire passionate desire and he emphasized the quality of sympathetic understanding there was no god anywhere in the religions of the earth that had sympathetic understanding this was a nor passionate desire jesus introduced these two new realities to the human race roman numeral six the ravished heart of god it says in song of solomon chapter 4 verse 9 god speaking to his bride to the church you have ravished my heart you have ravished my heart and though the song of solomon was written as it to glorify the beauty of married love the song of solomon is used by the spirit and intended by god to magnify the beauty of redeeming love as well it does speak about the beauty of married love but beloved that it does not exhaust the song of solomon and i know that uh you already believe that this is a statement of the sardius god from the throne of god the unrelenting god who loves us with all of his strength and all of his might and all of his soul these are such dynamic words the god of unrelenting desire and zeal for humans paragraph b a working definition of the ravished heart of god what the word ravished means it means to be overcome with emotions of joy or delight unusually attractive pleasing or striking beloved you are unusually attractive to god's heart god is attracted to you in a way that you or i cannot even begin to touch the edges of the reality he has an unrelenting attraction for us and the proof of it is his creation and the incarnation and the glorification of his people and the cross itself you can read uh those definitions a little bit more but to be ravished god is overwhelming he has overwhelming motions of delight look at paragraph c god describes his heart as overcome with emotions of delight for his people he says i am my beloved the the brightest thing and she says this dynamic statement his desire is for me and when this connects with me a little bit when the sardius god when i stand before him and this radiant unrelenting red fiery light and desire touches my spirit and i know certainly doesn't touch me in the way that i want it to but my my argument against his leadership in my life called complaint begins to to diminish my sense that i got a bad deal changes and i begin to understand i'm treated far better than i've ever been i ever deserve far better than i've ever deserved to be treated his desire is for me paragraph d beloved salvation is more than a legal exchange of our position before god some people uh emphasize and it's good to emphasize this that salvation there is a legal exchange we were guilty and now we're innocent because the innocent one became guilty so the guilty ones us could become innocent it's a legal exchange in the court of god all of my sin was paid for by the innocent one and it's a it's a legal transaction but it's more than a legal transaction it's a transaction of emotion and affection not just a legal one it's not just that he forgave us the question we ask is why did he forgive us why did he send his son because he desired us that's why let's go to paragraph to roman numeral eight top of page five roman numeral eight jesus's revelation of his sardius-like passion we'll just take another two or three minutes here and we'll end you can read the notes more if they if you're interested in them paragraph a at the last supper jesus prepared his desire his disciples for the pressures of disappointment and persecution temptation that were going to come that night he's at that he's at the last supper he tells them that very night matthew 26 31 i have the passage there he tells them that very night every one of you will deny me tonight so everything he tells them about his love for them he tells them with the full knowledge that they're all going to deny him he's not telling them under any kind of pretense or idealism he knows they will all deny him and he says this to them in the same in the context in that evening when he tells them how he feels towards them paragraph b jesus emphasized that the measure of god's desire for them was no less than the measure of the love the father has for his son number one he says this john chapter 15 verse 9 he tells him this he goes as the father loved me in the same way the father loves me in the same way i love you i feel about you like the first person of the trinity feels about the second person of the trinity beloved that is loving you with all of his strength look at that he says i love you in the full strength of my being the way the father loves me in the full strength the father loves me with all of his heart and i love you with all of my heart like the father does look at the next passage number two we looked at this already he goes on he says he prays that the world may know that you father he goes that you father have loved them in the same way you love me the father loves the son and the full strength of his personality and that's the way the father loves you beloved this is the sardius god paragraph d i'm gonna have the worship team come up it's essential to know what god has done for us on the cross it's essential to know that what he's done for us what he's going to do for us in the coming revival we're believing god for the outpouring of the spirit this that it's essential to know what he's going to do for us in eternity the resurrected sin in the new jerusalem but beloved we need to know why he does what he does not only what he does we need to know why he's doing this why did he go to the cross why does he have the new jerusalem plan why is he going to pour out his spirit what is he thinking when he planned these things i tell you that we worship a god the sardius god who has a ravished heart it's the nature of his heart to be ravished he is the ravished he's the god with the ravished heart beloved this is how he feels towards us and satan is the god of this world comes to always blind us to the glory of how of god's heart towards us he wants to confuse us so that we complain against god so that if we complain against god in our spirit if that complaint is lodged there then satan can easily get us into sin if he can get us into despair he can lure us into darkness into compromise a grateful spirit standing confident before a god that's ravished is a spirit that is focused on righteousness and steadiness with god amen it's going to end with that let's stand i want to remind you tonight about 10 minutes 15 minutes in the west foyer for the evangelism as well as the classroom seven for those that want to talk more about the anna calling we'll do that in about 10 or 15 minutes i want to invite people to come forward to stand up here you're saying the enemy is really trying to shut this down in my heart this truth you know i maybe i know this truth a little bit but the enemy is trying to take this thing out trying to trying to take me out he's lying to me and i need a fresh touch of the god with burning desire the sardius god the god that emanates fire and passion from his being i want you just to come and stand up here if of course we all need that i mean you know i need it desperately i need more but i mean some of you are really at a point a crossroads tonight it's going to have the music play for just a minute we're going to wait on the lord for a minute just continue with the instruments though obviously you can pray in your chair you don't need to come up i want to lead you in a time of repentance you're talking to god privately you're saying god i'm sorry i'm sorry i accuse you so quickly i forget i lose my way i lose my way and that's not what's in my heart towards you i lose my way the lord understands he's not offended he's the sardius god he's not offended he's steady he's unrelenting in his zeal for you he's not offended but you have to repent because if you don't repent of the attitudes then we don't break our agreement with darkness and the darkness takes hold of us nobody can repent for you you have to do it yourself do you ever talk to god about being the sardius god do you ever thank him for that when you go to him in prayer do you tell others about it or do you actually tell him about it you want to talk to god about this not just others that's where the power of it is holy spirit i ask you i ask you even now lord as we come and repent we ask you to cleanse our spirit come and cleanse our spirit come and cleanse our spirit even tonight come holy spirit it's gonna wait another minute come in power right now on our hearts if you have despair if you have discouragement i'm not trying to be mean on you i'm i'm tough on myself i always link it back to lack of gratitude with his lack of revelation of what the real deal is you know what we do with it we repent of it i say god forgive me some people say god heal me of despair what they need to be praying is god forgive me for accusing you of your leadership in my life that's where despair comes from it really does we all we all experience it we all struggle with every human does but you get free by by repenting of it the holy spirit cleanses even now i'm invite any others that are in the room that want to help help me if you're love jesus you're on the ministry team if you want to be come and move around and just lay hands on different ones and ask the lord to touch their heart with this revelation of his burning desire so as many of you will just come on if you've been the only stipulations if you've been trained in ministry at any time back back home in your church been trained in any kind of altar ministry then you're welcome to come and pray for and just move around as your heart if you feel a tug to pray for this one or that one just move around