Mike Bickle emphasizes the profound love and enjoyment God has for sincere believers, regardless of their spiritual maturity. He encourages believers to approach God with confidence after stumbling, rather than retreating in shame, highlighting that God's heart is always inclined towards His people. Bickle outlines seven principles that reveal how God feels about believers, stressing that God's enjoyment of us is not contingent on our perfection but on our sincere hearts. He reassures that even in weakness, God delights in our attempts to love Him back, and that His grace is always available for those who seek Him. Ultimately, understanding God's perspective transforms our relationship with Him, empowering us to live boldly in faith.

When we had the prayer meetings, daily prayer meetings, at St. Louis when I was pastoring there, and his mother was just in high school, and she would go to the prayer meetings like literally every day. This is like 33, 34 years, something like that, and she stayed with it. And so when IHOP started, they said, hey, we're gonna do one of these too, and so they're doing it, and I'm just so blessed to be connected to them and and stand together with them. Okay, let's go ahead and look at our handout here, session five, we're talking about the gospel of grace. Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for this glorious truth of who you are and how you feel, and what that does to our heart when we understand the way you feel. And Holy Spirit, we ask you to let us see what you see, and feel what you feel about the heart of the Father and the Son towards the church. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Now, this is one of the most important subjects, in my opinion, to be established in, not just the legal truth of who we are in Christ. We've been focusing on that the last few sessions, but the relational and the emotional implications of that legal truth. Now, as you're discipling young believers, and if you're not, one day you will be, and hopefully one day soon. I encourage everybody to find some believers that are newer in the Lord than you are, and get them together, five or three, four, five, six, seven, meet with them on a weekly basis for an hour, and disciple them, talk about the things of the kingdom. But anyway, this is one of the very important subjects that, if they get established in this, what happens, they will run to the Lord with confidence, even when they stumble, instead of running from the Lord with condemnation. And when we run to the Lord after we've stumbled with an open spirit, with confidence, that God enjoys us, beloved, that will change your spiritual life dramatically. The enemy wants to confuse the subject. He wants you to run from the Lord without confidence that God receives your repentance, that the blood of Jesus is sufficient, and the heart of God burns with desire for his people. The devil wants us to run from the Lord, close our heart, and to go hide out in and put ourself on spiritual probation for a few months before we have boldness again. Now, we've been going through the gospel of grace, the grace message, and there's two main passages that I've drawn attention to. Romans 3 to 8, that gives us the most comprehensive description of who we are in Christ. Romans 3 to 8. Now, we're going to look at more of that in the weeks ahead, but Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount, is the most comprehensive statement on how we are to respond to the grace of God. So, Romans 3 to 8 is the grace that's available to us, who we are in Christ, Sermon on the Mount, how we are to respond to the gospel of grace. Those are the two most comprehensive sections of Scripture passages that lay out the whole subject. Now, here's the key, then we'll get to the notes, that whether we're reading Romans 3 to 8, our legal position, who we are in Christ, or Sermon on the Mount, how we are to respond to the grace of God, we will only do it in the way the Lord desires, if we do it through the lens of the first commandment. Meaning, it's all about love. Our legal position is more than just facts. It's about love. It's the way He loves us, and the way He wants to awaken love. And when we study the gospel of grace through the lens of the first commandment, then we understand it in the way it needs to be understood. I've heard many people teach on grace, or teach on the Sermon on the Mount, the response to grace, and they don't do it with a sermon, I mean with a first commandment lens, and they end up getting distorted in their view of grace, or even the response to grace. It's about love being released to us, and then flowing from our heart back to Him. Paragraph A. This most glorious truth. Again, this will change your life. God enjoys you. Now, I'm talking, the you I'm talking about is a sincere believer in Christ Jesus. Talking about something, I'm going to define sincerity in a few moments. I'm not talking about a mature believer, I'm talking about a sincere believer. God actually enjoys us during the process of spiritual maturity. He don't, He doesn't only enjoy us after we mature, He actually enjoys us each step of the way. And what He wants, He wants us to enjoy Him enjoying us. He wants us to enjoy the relationship. It's not an issue of gritting our teeth, paying the price to kind of relate to boring God. No, we don't pay the price. Now, Jesus in Luke 14 talked about counting the cost of paying the price, but He was talking about people who were coming into the kingdom who did not understand how glorious He is. But when we understand who He is, beloved, it's not about paying a price to endure relationship with Him. Then the paradigm shifts. It's an issue of our heart being fascinated. It's our heart being invigorated in, in the love of God with a vibrant spirit. Now again, many people believe that God enjoys us maybe after we mature. But then if you push them, when do you mature? And when is maturity enough to where God actually starts enjoying the relationship? And I've pushed people on questions like that, and it makes some people really uncomfortable. And what they end up with this idea that only when they are more mature than Paul the Apostle does it actually work. And so they, functionally, it never becomes a reality in their life. Paragraph B. The assurance that God enjoys us, I believe is the primary emotional need of every single human being. God designed our human spirit with longings, and I believe the most powerful and fundamental longing of the human heart is the assurance that we are enjoyed by God. Now there's only one way that we can find that. That is through Jesus, and through what the Word of God says about our relationship in the grace of God with Jesus. Now some people, many actually, they have this very distorted idea that humility means feeling unsure about the relationship with God. That if they feel miserable, and they're never confident, somehow that is humble. That's not humble, that's confusion. And I say that not, I don't say that to be mean. God is not honored or blessed if we stay unsure, and we suffer and kind of, you know, sit over in the side and just kind of suffer in the uncertainty of how He feels. That does not honor Him. That's not what He's after. God is a father wanting to enjoy relationship with His children, and Jesus is a bridegroom wanting to enjoy a deep partnership with His eternal companion. Paragraph C. Now our heart is empowered most. Now notice two things here in paragraph C. When we have confidence that God enjoys us, again, based on the truth of who Jesus is, and what He did on the cross. But it's not enough that God loves us. There's a response. We have to have confidence that when we respond in love back, that God actually honors and receives that response. See, some believers, they believe God loves them, at least technically they believe it. But when they love God in response, they believe their love is so bad, it's so broken, it's so weak, that God despises their response of love back. Well, I have good news for you. When we love Him back, even in our weakness, God receives it. He enjoys it. Because weak love, our love is weak, our love is flawed. Weak love does not mean it's false love. Our love, when we return it, though it's weak, and though it's flawed, it's still real. And it moves God's heart. And when we have confidence that He enjoys us, and number two, that He receives our love, and our response back is genuine, even when we're weak, that does something to our relationship with God. It completely transforms the way that we view our relationship with God. Now, some people, paragraph C, they are afraid of this truth. I've spoken this over the years, and I have different leaders, and they get nervous about this. They go, wait a second, if you get people real confident in the love of God, they will get, they will become careless in their walk with God. And I believe it has the exact opposite effect. I believe that when people become confident in God's love towards them, and they're confident that their love in response, God takes it as genuine, when we become confident in that, confidence, it invigorates and empowers our heart in a, in a very dramatic way. It doesn't make us careless. Farewell, since God loves me, and He knows I love Him, who cares? It touches the deepest longing of our being. There's nothing more satisfying than having confidence in that exchange with God's heart. Now, I mean, it gives us a reason to live, beyond any other reason. It gives our life meaning and purpose, and it satisfies our human spirit like nothing else does. Now, when we have condemnation, and here's what condemnation is, it's that feeling of shame after we've repented. We've repented, but we still feel the shame. When we have condemnation, we've repented of our sin, the Lord has cleansed us, the Lord has received us. But we have condemnation, we have this shame, and it makes us close our heart even while we're worshiping God. I mean, many people, when they worship the Lord, because they have these wrong ideas, they're singing, they're actually engaging their mind, but their spirit or their heart is closed. I'll say their heart is closed. They're protecting themselves, even while they're worshiping, and they're just at it. I love you, God. I love you, God. Oh, please give me one more chance. I love you, God. You're magnificent. You're glorious. Please, I'll never do it again if you forgive me one more time. And they don't have an open spirit, and they can't receive from the Lord in that kind of posture. Paragraph D. Now, God loves everybody. He loves unbelievers. He even blesses unbelievers. He loves and blesses unbelievers that rebel against Him. Says in John 3 16, God so loved the world. I mean, He loved the unbelieving world. He does, deeply. Matthew 5 verse 45, He causes the sun and the rain to bless evil men. He blesses evil men. He loves evil men. But don't mistake His blessing on evil men as His approval of them or His acceptance of a relationship with them. He loves and blesses evil men who resist Him, and He gives them a season. To come to Him, I mean even decades. But don't mistake the idea that God loves them and blesses them with the idea that God approves of how of the relationship or how they're responding to Him. Romans 5 verse 10 says that they are enemies of God. They are at enmity with Him. They are declaring war on His leadership over their life. They're saying no, and because He blesses them and loves them, sometimes they get comfortable in a wrong way, out with no relationship through Jesus, and they mistake His blessing for His approval. Now paragraph E, this is the question of the hour. You have to answer this question in a biblical way to grow in the most optimum way in your spiritual life. Here's the question. How does God feel about you when you sin? You need to be able to answer that question with clarity in your heart. Not that we know the whole answer in fullness, but the Bible makes it clear how God feels about sincere believers. I'm talking about sincere believers now the whole time. When we sin, when we come up short, when we stumble, now God has different emotions based on our response. God's emotions are related to our response to Him. Now many people, they live, believers I'm talking about, they live confused on this subject. They're never sure. They don't know if God is mad, sad, or glad. They love God, but they don't quite know what mood He's in. I love the saying that you've heard that, I have good news, God's in a good mood. God is, has a happy disposition towards His people. Now just to say it real brief, and I summarize it a little bit more on the last page, but you know we never get to the last page, which is okay. That's why we have it there. You can read it on your own. He's angry with the rebellious. I'm talking about unbelievers. He's actually angry because they refuse His kindness as He's been wooing them, and there's different measures of His anger. He's grieved at believers that He loves that persistently resist His leadership, but He enjoys sincere believers even in their weakness. Most of you in this room, hopefully all of you, are sincere believers. We all have weakness and immaturity in our spiritual life, but the revelation is God is not perpetually sad about His relationship with you, and the idea that some people have is because God's sad, if we're sad, and He's sad, then that's the best way. That's called humility. No. The good news is if you're a sincere believer, and again, I'm going to define that in just a moment, He is actually glad and enjoys the relationship, and we can enjoy Him enjoying the relationship. Paragraph F, again, some think God only enjoys them after they're more mature than Paul the Apostle. I mean, when they're real mature, and they don't know when that mysterious moment is, when God actually starts smiling at them. They kind of imagine He's mad most the time, then when things get a little better, He's not mad. He's just sad. When He thinks about them, He goes, Oh, that boy, I love you, but you sure break my heart all the time. So He's not mad, but He lives in perpetual sadness when He thinks of them. Many believers, they camp out in one of those two mindsets. The idea that they think that He's sad their entire spiritual life. I mean 20, 30, 40, 50 years He was sad the whole time relating to them, and they're seeking Him with all their heart. Because they have weakness and failure. Beloved, I have good news. God really is glad in His disposition towards His people, even in our weakness. Look what Jesus said in Luke 11. If you, being evil, earthly parents, know how to give good to your children, you're evil, but you know how to give good to immature children. Then how much more does your Heavenly Father know how to give good, is the idea. Now, if we can enjoy our five-year-old children who are immature, if we can enjoy the relationship with our children, even though they have immaturity, and they have areas of disobedience, and areas what they're not refining, but we enjoy the relationship. And if we're evil, meaning we don't have the goodness of God in our, in and of ourselves, He imparts that to the grace of God, that ability to have emotions like His. But if we can do that as fallen people, enjoy immature children, how much more can God who is the very fountain of love, how much more can He enjoy His children? We have this idea, some folks do. We can enjoy our immature children because we can sort through the issues, but somehow God can't. So, without really saying it, our perspective in love is superior to His. Because we can sort through the issues with our children. We know, hey, we love the relationship. We love the little guy. That one or two areas we're going to change, and we're going to confront. We can sort through the issues, but when it comes to their Heavenly Father, they don't imagine He can do that at the same level they can. Well, obviously, He can't. Much more than we can. How much more does your Heavenly Father have goodness towards His immature children? Paragraph G, now when the twelve apostles were in the garden of Gethsemane with Jesus, they were, He called them to pray. He says, you better be talking to God right now, because you're going to all deny Me. But He spoke the most affirming statement to them. He said this, Your spirit is willing. That's remarkable. He said, I see in you, Peter. I see in your spirit willingness to be courageous and to obey Me. The problem is, Peter, your flesh is weak, and when the intense situation comes, fear is going to overtake you, because your flesh is weak. But I want you to know, Peter, I see your spirit. There's a yes in your spirit that I see, Peter, that you don't even see. Because when Peter stumbled and yielded to his weak flesh, it was such a crisis that I believe he was tempted just to give up on the whole thing. Because all he could see was his weak flesh. But the good news is, the Lord doesn't only see your weak flesh. He does see it, He sees the yes in your spirit, a willing spirit. Now, we typically are aware of our willing spirit until we stumble, and then the conversation shifts dramatically to the other side, and we become so aware of our weak flesh, we lose sight of the fact that in the grace of God, we do have a yes in our spirit to God, and it actually moves Him. Then when we get over the trauma of our sin and failure, we kind of forget about it, then sometimes we overemphasize our willing spirit, and we get confidence in our dedication, and we think we're doing good. Then we stumble again. We go, oh no, what a crisis. Then woe is me. We want to quit. What's the use? My flesh is so weak, but the Lord says, I want you to know, when you discover the weakness of your flesh, I didn't discover it just because you did. It might be new to you, but it's not new to me. The Lord could say, I remember as a young believer in my teens, well, I had many sins, but I would say this to the Lord. Oh God, I can't believe I did this. Can you believe it? You know, I was 16, 17, 18 years old, and I just kind of, in the anguish of my sin and failure, can you believe it? I wasn't asking a real question, but I blurted that out a few times. And I imagine if the Lord was answering out loud, He would have said, oh yeah, I can. And there's a whole lot more where that came from. But I see something more than your weak flesh. I see a willing spirit. Now I define sincerity as setting the intention of our heart to obey. We determine to obey, and then when we fail, we don't rationalize it. When we sin, we don't say, well, there's a Bible verse that might back it up, but maybe it wasn't that bad. No, we call sin, sin. At whatever level, thought, word, or deed, whatever level we're dealing with, we don't rationalize our sin. We call sin what it is, then we, we enter back into a war against that sin. We determine. We're gonna resist it. We may fail the next day. We may fail later that day. Every time we fail, we admit it, and we declare war on it, and we resist it, and we dialogue with the Lord with our intention to obey Him, and we may fail many, many more times. In time, you will get the victory if you stay with it. But here's the good news. The Lord actually enjoys the relationship even before you get the full victory. Because the good news is this, when you admit it, sin, you declare war on it, that's the beginning of victory. Some people imagine that victory is only victory when it's the fullness of maturity. Beloved, when you say yes to God, you declare war on that sin that you just did three times today. And you may say, Lord, I, I really want this to go away. I'm not trying to think of ways to get away with my sin. I'm trying to think of ways to get free from it. That's the dream of your heart. You're trying to find a way to get free of it, not to get away with it. Beloved, that is the beginning of victory. Victory is already working in you. Victory is not only the fullness of liberty where you never stumble again in that area. I mean, that's a greater stage of victory, but victory begins long before that stage. Top of page two. Well, we're gonna look at these seven principles ever so briefly. Because they really are pretty self-explanatory. But the point I want to do is you, you get the key idea. You get these seven key ideas, these principles, clear. You will have a confidence to run to Him instead of from Him. And you won't have condemnation shutting your heart down. Again, condemnation is that shameful feeling you feel after you've already repented and the Lord has already cleansed you. The devil stays around and whispers, you're not really cleansed. You're not forgiven. It's still hindering the relationship that sin you did yesterday. Principle number one, spiritual maturity is not the, immaturity, I mean, is not the same thing as rebellion. Now sometimes the person that's rebellious, who doesn't care about their relationship with the Lord, they're rebellious towards God as an unbeliever. They couldn't care less. And the immature believer, outwardly they look the same. Sometimes. I mean, the outward behavior is the same in that particular issue. And without any discernment, you might look at them and say, well, you just did what the unbeliever did. Bah humbug, away with you. But the issue is, the sincere believer has a very different heart response to the failure. Now, people talk about, I don't want to be a hypocrite, and that's good. But a hypocrite is not somebody who says one thing and does another. That's not what a hypocrite is. You've heard that. A hypocrite says one thing and does another. No, a hypocrite is somebody who says something and doesn't seek to obey it. I mean, we all say things that we don't fully live in the fullness of them. We all make statements about our intention to love God and obey Him, and we come up short. We're not hypocrites. Because we come up short of what we say. We're hypocrites if we're not seeking to walk in the things that we say. So you can have confidence in your walk with God. Even when you're coming up short, because when you come up short, you recommit yourself to obey and you recommit yourself to to be engaged in a war against that issue in your life. And every single time you come up short, confess it to the Lord. You don't confess the same sin a hundred times. You don't have to. Thank Him for His full cleansing. Stand in the presence of God as a first-class citizen. I mean within the minute. That's a little rough on the emotions, because our unrenewed mind wants us to be driven from God's presence. But the truth of who you are in Christ, you have every right to stand there as a first-class citizen. I'm talking about moments after you repent. Now there's a war in our mind. Until our mind is renewed and agrees with the Word, we believe lies about how God views us, so we want to run from His presence. Like Adam did back in Genesis chapter 3. He ran from his presence to go hide from God like that was going to get him somewhere. Pick up B. Now I think of two animals, the sheep and the swine, or the pigs. In the Old Testament, one was a clean animal, the sheep, and one was the unclean animal, the swine. They both get stuck in the mud. But they have a very different reaction when they get stuck in the mud. You get a pig out of the mud, within the minute they're looking for another mud hole. But the sheep are very different. They're stuck in the mud and they're kicking to get out of it, and they can't get out. But they're fighting and kicking. They're trying to find a way out. They're not looking for another mud hole. They're trying to get out and their feet are stuck. And the Lord sees their response very differently. Paragraph C, I've already said this, but since I'm here, I'll say it again. Our love is sincere even when it's weak and flawed. Weak love is not false love. The intention to obey matters to God. The attainment comes later. Now we want to walk in the attainment of full obedience. But that attainment, that victory of full attainment begins with the intention. I made that point a moment ago, the setting of the heart to obey. That's the beginning of victory. The enemy wants to cancel us out. When our spirit is willing, it's right. There's a yes in our spirit. But our flesh is weak. The enemy wants us to give up and run from God and go hide, put ourselves on spiritual probation. Principle number two, God enjoys sincere yet weak believers. I've already made that point. But one of the great examples in the Word is King David. I love Psalm 18 verse 19. David prayed this prayer. He said, God delivered me and then he gives the most amazing reason why God delivered him. He said, because he likes me. He delights in me. Now, to understand the power of Psalm 18, you have to understand the context of when David wrote Psalm 18. You open your Bibles, Psalm 18, and you see at the very top it says, this Psalm was written on the day that God delivered David out of the hands of his enemies. And when you read it, it becomes clear how David's responding on the day that God delivered him from King Saul, who was trying to kill him about six or seven years. The jealous king had been pursuing David for six or seven years trying to kill him. And on this one day, Saul died in battle and David was liberated from his enemy. But the part of the story that's critical to understand this Psalm is what David had been doing for the 16 months leading up to the day that Saul died and he was delivered. I don't want to go into the details now, but I'll say this, David was living in a city called Ziklag for 16 months. But here's the point, he was living in that city in compromise. I'm not going to break that down right now. I have that written in some different books and stuff and find it on the website if you want to search that out. It's a glorious truth. So David had been 16 months in compromise. And King Saul was trying to kill him and God removed King Saul. And on the day that that happened, David stands up and says, I'm delivered. Somebody, I imagine a reporter says, why did God deliver you? We want to interview you young King David. Well, I'll tell you why God delivered me. He liked me the whole time. That's why he delivered me. One of David's mighty men might have said, David have you forgot that for the last 16 months there's been an element of compromise in your life? Yeah, I know. But you know what? I repented. Yesterday. And God delights in me and I'm going with that. Beloved, it's remarkable that after his 16 months in Ziklag in compromise, he repented. I have the passage there in 1 Samuel chapter 30. He repented. The favor of God came on him. God delivered him and David had the insight to say the reason he delivered me is because he likes me. Now what we would do, we would go put ourself in, hide away somewhere and kind of build up our spiritual muscles for six months or a year and then be bold before the Lord. But I mean within 24 hours. David says I'm back in business. I've repented of it. The favor of God's on me. I know what he's like. He likes me. That's why he delivered me. Now paragraph B, it's important to know I've studied David's life pretty energetically over the years. David, I listed all of his sins one time. I gave a message where I highlighted 10 sins of David that are in 1 and 2 Samuel. I mean when you see all 10 of them in a row, it was so bad. They were considering censoring David in the children's church literature. Not really. But I remember I laid out 10 of them in the congregation. Wow, that guy. You know what? I'm not sure. About that guy because we can get them all in a row. It looked like David sinned more than Saul did. But what's the difference? Because God looked at David and restored him quickly. Then he looked at Saul and rejected him. Here's the difference. When David sinned, his heart was wounded because he grieved God's heart. He cared more about his relationship with God than the consequences of getting caught. When Saul sinned, he cared more about getting caught, not about offending God's heart. That's the difference. Paragraph C. David understood this revelation that God delights in mercy. He actually likes it. God doesn't endure giving us mercy. He actually likes giving us mercy. That's an insight into his personality. Paragraph D. The famous parable, the prodigal son. Here's the question I want to highlight. When does God enjoy the prodigal son? We know Luke 15, the prodigal son. The young man takes the father's inheritance and he wastes it all on sinful living and he comes back to his father. Now here's the remarkable story because this is very important because Jesus is revealing what God the father is like. And the pharisees don't like this parable because Jesus portrayed God as so tender and kind and loving towards his children. Verse 18. When the prodigal son said, I have sinned, immediately immediately the father receives him. The prodigal son has not even had a chance to prove he's sincere. He still had the unsettled issues in his life. But literally that very day when he returned, I mean the issues are still, he's still got problems in his life, but he's changed his hard attitude. Look at what it says in verse 20. That when the prodigal son, all he had done is repented. He has not cleaned up anything yet. He hasn't gone to the 12-step healing course. His life is still a wreck and his emotions and some of the things that he's doing, but he changed his attitude and he called sin, sin and said, I'm gonna war against it. Look what happened in verse 20. The father, when he saw this, felt compassion, ran towards him, fell on his neck, which means embraced him, and kissed him. Then he says, bring out the best rope. Now the older brother says, wait a second dad. I mean, he's only repented 12 hours ago. Let's kind of put him on the back row for a while. See how this pans out. And if it turns out okay in the next couple years, then let's have a fellowship, a meal to celebrate his recovery. Father says, no, we're not going to wait a couple years. We're going to do it today. I mean, it's hours later. The father runs after him, embraces him, and kisses him. And what Jesus is talking about is God the father relating to people. That's the message. Verse 22. He gave him the best rope. Wait, you can't give him that rope today, that sign of favor. Wait for a few years. But I mean the very day he returns. The father immediately reinstates him into a relationship where he's enjoying his son. That's the point. Well, there's actually many points, but that's the only one we're looking at now. Paragraph E. His mercies are new every single morning. Beloved, no matter what you do today, you can repent of it sincerely. Cry out to God. I mean, declare war on it. And you know whether you're being real or not. Again, the plan of our heart is figuring out how to get free from the sin, not how to cover the sin up. You can have a new beginning every single day. Every single morning is a new beginning if you have the understanding to take it. Top of page three. Now, lest we misunderstand. God's enjoyment of us is not the same thing as his approval of everything we do. God enjoys the relationship with a sincere believer. But he doesn't approve everything that sincere believer does. Look what Jesus said in Revelation 3, verse 19. There's no contradiction in these five words here. He goes, I love you. Therefore, I'm rebuking you for the area in your life that's wrong. And I'm not just rebuking you. I'm going to discipline you. Now, what I want you to do is to be zealous, to be aggressive in your relationship with me. And I want you to repent of your passivity and your compromise. But know this. I love you. I want you zealous. Therefore, I'm going to discipline you. So some people get the idea that if God loves us, all is well. Sometimes it's a very different story. Because he loves us, he's going to press in on that issue that's hindering our ability to walk in the relationship in fullness. He wants us zealous, wholehearted. But while we're repenting, he loves us every step of the way. He actually enjoys us each step of the way. Look at paragraph B. Talking about Jezebel. I mean, Jezebel, she was a mess. And Jesus said, I gave her time to repent of her immorality. Beloved, he gave Jezebel time to repent. Here's my point. Many times God will give us time to repent. And because he gives us time, don't interpret his patience as his approval on that one issue in your life. There's an issue. We know it's wrong. The Lord says, and we're warring against it, but we're not getting the breakthrough. And the Lord says, I love you. I even enjoy the relationship with you, but I've got my finger on that issue. And I know you're warring against it, but now I'm going to help you. Because the breakthrough's not coming. It's called discipline. And I'm not going to discipline you because I've cast you aside. Opposite. I'm going to discipline you because I have great plans for our relationship. And I'm so committed to our relationship. Now, some people, they'll be trapped in something for a few months, even a few years. And they go, well, doesn't seem to cause any problem. I mean, everything seems okay. The Lord might say, don't take God's patience for granted and misinterpret his patience with his approval. His patience is given to woo us to repent. Look what it says at paragraph C, Romans 2. Here's the problem that Paul highlights. He goes, don't despise the riches of God's forbearance, which means patience. Don't you know that God's patience is meant to woo you to repent, to be more wholehearted. Don't take his patience and despise it. Be grateful for it. Let it woo you to repentance. Romans number four or five, principle four. When God corrects us, he's not rejecting us. Matter of fact, his correction is proof of his love. Paragraph C. Notice, here's David again. God doesn't discipline us to the degree we deserve. David was under divine discipline a few times. And he said this, having come through it all, he goes, at the end of the day, he didn't deal with me according to some of the things I was resisting him on. He was far kinder in the process than I deserved. Now again, the issue wasn't David going to heaven or hell. That wasn't the issue. God wanted to remove the issue out of David's life various times in his life. Because the Lord enjoyed the relationship with David. Now the enemy will come along and tell us that God's correction is rejection and it's not. He hasn't lost interest in it, interest in the relationship. Matter of fact, it's just opposite. Paragraph D. To be disciplined by God means God's not giving up on the relationship. I tell you when the trouble comes, you get away with something for a long time. That's not good. That's a terrible thing when the Lord says, okay, you know what, you can have your way then. That's bad. I'll let you have your way. We don't want our way. The Bible calls that God giving them over to what they want. While he's disciplining us, he's declaring his commitment to the relationship. So when we're under a season of discipline, somebody says, I don't know, is it the devil attacking me or God disciplining me? The Holy Spirit will make it clear to you if you ask him. May take more than one request, but he'll make it clear to you. Let's go to page, top of page four. Now, there's a different situation. Now, I'm not talking about the sincere believer who stumbles, repents, declares war on their sins, stumbles, repents, declares war, stumble, repents, declares war. God allows that to go and then eventually God breaks in and starts helping them called divine discipline. Because God's so committed to the relationship. But there's another situation that's far more negative. It's the believer who is in persistent known sin for a season. The Bible makes it clear that God's grieved. He's sad. He's not mad. Mad is different than sad. He's mad at rebellion. He's sad over compromise of people that he has a relationship with. Paragraph B, Jesus talked about these lukewarm believers. He spoke in this strong language, but we want to understand the language. He goes in Revelation 3 16. I will vomit you out of my mouth. Now, you might really misinterpret that. He's not saying I despise you. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying I've lost interest in the relationship. What he's saying is the relationship, the way you're relating to me, it hurts my stomach. It hurts me. Because of all the loss that's happening in our relationship. I love you so much that it makes my heart sick. It hurts my stomach when I see the truth of how you're responding to me. So this isn't about him despising us. It's about it's one of the most graphic statements of grief, but he's not giving up on the relationship because this is the very passage where he said I love you. Therefore, I'm going to discipline you. We just looked at that passage a few moments ago. Paragraph C. This is a very graphic passage. Jeremiah 12 verse 7. God's talking to the nation of Israel when they were in the height of rebellion and compromise. He said this. He goes, I'm going to give you over to your enemies, which was the Babylonian invasion in 586 BC. He goes, I'm going to give you over because you won't listen to me. And your rebellion is heightening. But I want you to know you are still the dearly beloved of my heart. Though I'm going to give you over to discipline, my heart calls you my dearly beloved one. My point being, when Israel repented the Lord says, I'm so desirous for the relationship to be in that first class status right now. I'll take you back in the in the full sense if you'll just say no to your rebellion against me. Principle number six. When we are pressing into God, we have spiritual disciplines in our life. And the grace of God calls us to respond with spiritual disciplines. Like prayer and fasting and reading the word. God has ordained the spiritual disciplines, particularly in Matthew 6, not as a way to earn his favor. Discipline does not earn us anything. You couldn't pray or fast enough to earn the love of God. I mean, think about it. You pray, you're just telling God what he tells you to tell him. Fasting, you're miss skipping lunch. How could that possibly earn anything? Some people get into this kind of fixation that they're not going to do that because they don't want to earn something. Well, think it all the way through. Prayer is just talking to God, having a conversation with him. You don't earn anything by having a conversation with somebody. What the spiritual disciplines do, they position us to receive more and to receive it freely. The analogy I've used over the years, we put our cold heart before the bonfire of God's presence. Like our heart is cold through prayer and the word and worship, we are putting our cold heart before the bonfire of God and our heart becomes tenderized. The warmth causes the frozen dimension to go away, to thaw out. The power is in the bonfire, not in the discipline. Discipline. Discipline doesn't earn us anything. It positions us for the bonfire to impact our hearts freely. We don't earn anything by it. The reason I say that, some people think if they throw discipline in, that they automatically are trying to earn something. Now, some people do pray and fast to earn something. But again, if you think it through all the way, if you talk to God, you don't earn anything by just talking to God. That's a relational statement. He goes, I just want you to talk to me because I love you. That's the only reason I want you to pray. Now, God gives us on the basis of hunger. He will give us more if we're hungry for more. That's what He promised. He says, blessed are those that hunger for the things of God, they will be filled. Here's the reason. God honors us valuing the relationship enough to put ourself in the place to grow in it. When we so value our relationship with Him, we will do these things, then the Lord releases even a greater grace because our hunger is for the relationship to get stronger. So we will enter into more experience of that which is freely offered to us. Beloved, God doesn't love us more when we're more disciplined. Here's why. God's love is infinite and eternal. He won't love you more a million years from now than He does today. He can't love you more. He can't increase in love. He loves you perfectly and He never changes, ever. What discipline does and it enables us to experience more, it doesn't cause God to love us more. Principle seven. Maturity allows us to be entrusted with more. Now, this is a... I'll be very brief on this. I want to bring this to an end. But this is very important because it could be a tricky one if you hear it wrong. Paragraph A. God loves and anoints all of us to do the work of His kingdom. The most immature believer, He loves and anoints us to do the works of the kingdom. The Bible, Jesus talked about talents and folds. I have that written in here. I'll just sum it up to you. He talked about the one man that had two talents or five talents or ten talents. Talents describe the sphere of gifting and influence that God might give you. Now, that's a sovereign determination. In your mother's womb, God determines how many talents you get. The talent is the measure of your gifting and the measure of the influence He's going to give you in this life if you'll obey Him. Then He talks about 30, 60, and 100-fold. That's our response. Now, here's the tricky part. A man with the 10 talents may only have 30-fold obedience, but he'll have a much bigger impact than a man with one talent that has 100-fold obedience. So we could get real confused. If we look around, we say whoever has the biggest influence or the biggest resource, they must be the most obedient. It doesn't work that way. Because a 10-talent man can have 30-fold response of obedience and still make a much bigger impact than a one-talent man with 100-fold obedience. So don't look around and compare yourself. Say, well, that guy must be really obedient. Look how much he has. Now when a 10-talent man or woman has 100-fold obedience, then you get something like Paul the Apostle. What happens when we obey with all of our heart, we enter into the fullness of what was ordained for us originally. I don't know how many talents I have or how many you have. It's not like there's a number and God tells us the number. But the Lord says, if you will obey, you will enter into the fullness of what I ordained for you. And it might be small, but you can enter into the fullness of what I ordained. And when you stand before me, then I will give you the full reward above and beyond even what men would have guessed in this age. My desire is to enter into the fullness of my ordained calling. It's not to have a bigger calling than your calling or a smaller one. I want to fulfill my calling. Whatever that assignment is. And the Lord says, if you will obey with all of your heart, you will enter into the fullness. I will entrust you with all that I would have given you, that I have ordained to. But many people, they respond passively and they still get blessed. But the Lord would have given them more if they would have entered in more because he entrusts us with the fullness, responded in response to the mature obedience. But our obedience does not earn it. Our obedience puts us in a position for God to entrust us with more. Because here's the issue. If God gave you everything he ordained for you and you were not obedient, it would end up hurting your life. And you would end up using it, those resources, in a way that would trouble other people's lives because you would use the blessing with the wrong spirit. So the Lord says, I will give you the fullness of what I've ordained for you when you respond to me in the fullness of what I've called you to. Amen. Let's stand. Let's stand.