Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of recognizing the beauty of God as depicted in the Song of Solomon, illustrating how this beauty captivates the human spirit and fulfills our innate longing to be fascinated. He explains that God created us with a desire to marvel at His beauty, which can only be satisfied through a deep relationship with Him, rather than through worldly distractions. Bickle highlights the prophetic promise that in the generation of the Lord's return, the beauty of Jesus will be magnified, leading to a resurgence of love songs and expressions of worship that celebrate His attributes. He encourages believers to pursue this beauty intentionally, as it is foundational to spiritual vitality and safety, and warns against spiritual boredom that arises from a diminished view of God. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a renewed commitment to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ, inviting others to join in this pursuit of divine beauty.

is the realm of beauty, the subject of beauty. It's the great eight chapter love song where Jesus, the bridegroom king is singing to his bride and she's responding in song. It's called the great song of all songs, the great song of all the ages. And so if you're a singer and musician, or if you're a lover of Jesus, Song of Solomon is right down your alley. But one of the main distinctives of the Song of Solomon, this eight chapter love song, is the call to be fascinated with the beauty of God, as well as the beauty of the bride. It's both end, okay, paragraph B. God created us with a longing to be fascinated. Every person in this room was created with a longing in your spirit to be fascinated, to be awestruck. We love being struck with wonder and awe and marvel. The marvelous God simply created us to marvel. Now we can't remove that longing to be fascinated by repenting of it. You know, in some Eastern religions, they try to empty themselves from all feeling and emotion. You can't empty yourself of the longing to marvel and to be fascinated. It's a significant part of our creative design. God created us that way in order to fascinate us with himself, and not only with himself, but primarily with himself. We'll either satisfy that longing in God, or we'll seek to satisfy it in darkness, because that longing won't go away. Now the secular entertainment industry has identified this longing. They've really locked in and focused on it. They've targeted on it, and they've exploited this longing. They may not use that language, but they think, hey, the human heart wants to be fascinated. Let's make some money on this. They've exploited the human race to their profit and to the ruin of many people. Paragraph D, one of the great prophecies for the generation the Lord returns. It's found in Isaiah 33, and in context, this is for the generation the Lord returns. It's a very well-known prophecy. We quote it often here and sing it. The Lord spoke to Isaiah, your eyes will see the king and his beauty. The Holy Spirit is going to magnify and emphasize the beauty of Jesus. I mean, all through history, but in the generation, the Lord returns in a heightened way, in a way beyond any other time. And the Holy Spirit's gonna fill the earth with love songs, songs that magnify the beauty and the love of God. And those songs are already breaking out in the last few decades in a whole new level. But the next decades to come, we're gonna see the Holy Spirit, it's gonna cause the theme of the beauty of the king, loving him and him loving his people to fill the earth. Now, the great king of Israel, the man after God's own heart, King David, he was called the sweet psalmist of Israel, the great singer of Israel. But he wasn't just a singer, he was the great songwriter. And it's not an accident that the great songwriter of redemptive history, his life passion, all of his days was to encounter beauty, the beauty of God. There's a correlation between his calling as the great psalmist, the sweet singer of Israel, the songwriter, the lovesick worshiper, and the man that was absolutely determined to focus on the beauty of God. Look at Psalm 27. The key phrase that I wanna highlight is all of his days. This wasn't just a summer at IHOP. This wasn't just a conference, a worship leaders conference. From his youth to his latter years, David had this intentional focus to gaze upon the beauty of God. He was a student of God's emotions, a student of God's heart. I mean, it's quite a challenge because he was running the government, he was king, and he was over the army. But more than that, he was a man focused all of his days on the beauty of God. And I believe God's gonna raise up men and women like David in the generation in which the prophetic word is, your eyes will see the king and his beauty, and your lips will sing of the king and his beauty. And I believe there'll be all kinds of manifestations in media and writing and messages and song and dramas just proclaiming and giving expression to the beauty of the Lord. Well, the paragraph aft, the Holy Spirit is described as searching the deep things of God. I mean, imagine the Holy Spirit is described as discerning. I mean, the Holy Spirit's fully God. So this is unusual language. He is pictured as discerning the deep things of the Father and the Son's heart. And what does he do with those deep things of the beauty of God, the Father and Son? He makes them known to the church. And of course, that's his job. That's his job description forever. It's not just till the resurrection. He will be guiding us into truth and revealing Jesus, though we'll be face-to-face, there'll be a spirit of revelation that will increase and multiply even in the resurrection in our lives. But I don't wanna wait till then. John chapter 16, he'll guide you. He'll escort you. He'll take you by the hand and lead you to go as far as your hunger wants to go. He won't force you on this journey. He won't force feed you. But he says, I'll guide you, I'll escort you. I'll take the things that belong to Jesus and I will give them to you in this age and the age to come. But he gives them to us according to his hunger. I mean, it's remarkable. We have the beautiful God beckoning the human race. Come and behold my beauty, but he won't give it to us automatically. He'll give it to us according to a hunger. That's why David's intentional statement, all my days I will seek the beauty of the Lord. That wasn't a casual thing. That was something he had to contend for because undoubtedly he would lose his way and then re-sign up and realign his heart again. Now this subject of the beauty of God is not just a nice subject. It's germane, it's foundational to our safety, to our spiritual life and our spiritual safety. Because without a sense of awe, without a sense of marvel, we end up spiritually bored. One of the great problems today in the body of Christ is so many believers are spiritually bored with the fascinating God. They were created to long to be fascinated. They long to be fascinated. God is fascinating. The Holy Spirit's been given, but he won't force feed any of us. He'll give us to the degree that we're hungry. And he says, come after me. The Holy Spirit says, I'll escort you. I mean, I want him to give me just a whole lot all the time. He goes, no, I'll just give you a little bit. It's kind of like vitamins. You know, you take vitamins, you don't feel anything. Like, did you take your vitamins today? Yes. My wife gives me vitamins for years. And somebody goes, are they helping you? I don't know, I can't ever tell. Because the vitamins I took this morning, I can't tell if they're helping me. But the smart guys say that over years, it really does make a difference. Besides that, I do what my wife tells me in these issues. But the thing is, it's little by little. And you look back over some years, and you can see the difference. I believe this subject of beauty and longing, the, I mean, the longing for beauty and for fascination is a battleground. It's a key battleground in the culture of this generation. Because this longing to behold beauty, this longing to be fascinated, it's really coming to the forefront because the media is so sophisticated, it's drawing it out to a whole new intensity in the culture. But the Holy Spirit's gonna use this, that which the devil means for evil, God's gonna use for good. Top of page two. Well, let's look now at the Song of Solomon and this subject of beauty. This is a subject we can't focus on too many times. Can't focus on this enough. Roman numeral two, we're gonna look at this. Oh, I love this verse, Song of Solomon chapter one, verse three. This is the bride speaking to the king. Because of the fragrance, she's speaking right to the king. Because of the fragrance of your good perfumes, your name is like perfume poured forth. Therefore, the virgins, the people of God, they love you. Draw me after you, draw me away after you. Let's look at this again. This is a poetic statement, but its meaning is pretty straightforward. Because of the fragrance of your good perfumes, your name is like perfume poured forth. Therefore, the people of God love you more, and they love you more, and they love you more. So, now to understand this poetic description of the king or this adoration that the bride had before her bridegroom came, the fragrance of a rose comes from its internal qualities, obviously. It's the internal qualities that constitutes the quality of the fragrance that comes forth. In a similar way, the king's perfume, in this symbolic meaning, in this allegorical interpretation, speaks of his internal qualities. It's the way that he thinks and the way that he feels. That's the perfume that emanates out of him that captures those who worship in spirit and truth. Now, notice in paragraph B, I have written here that because of his perfumes, two things happen. Because of his good perfumes, because of his internal qualities are so excellent, the way Jesus thinks, the way Jesus feels, the things he has planned, the way he responds to people is so extraordinary, it is so excellent, that the first thing I wanna highlight is that the father has determined his name because it is such quality, because it is such a fragrant, beautiful perfume, because his internal life has such a unique quality, God the father says, I'm gonna pour it forth in the nations, I'm gonna exalt one name, I'm gonna promote the only name that is altogether lovely, and of course, the name speaks of the internal character. He's gonna reveal it to the nations. God's gonna fill the earth, he's gonna pour forth the perfume of the name of who Jesus is and his glory will fill the earth. Well, that's one thing that's gonna happen because of the fragrance of his good perfumes. The book of Revelation calls it, that all the angels and all the nations will sing worthy is the lamb. Revelation chapter five, that is his name and the fragrance of the truth of who he is filling the entire earth in the age to come. You know, there's a prophetic snapshot, a little token, a little prophetic picture of this. It's in John chapter 12, when Mary of Bethany went in right before Jesus would go to the cross, she took the costly fragrance, she poured it on Jesus' feet, she anointed his feet with the oil and her hair and it says, and the fragrance that was all over Jesus has filled the room. Well, that was just a little snapshot, a little prophetic token that the fragrance of that man is gonna fill the earth. And the thing I always love about that word, that episode is that at the cross, Jesus was still drenched in the power of that perfume because it was very costly, very rare, very strong, beautiful perfume. And there was only one person in the crowd that smelled exactly like Jesus on the cross and that was Mary of Bethany standing at the foot of the cross. Well, the point I wanna make here is God's going to pour forth his name because he's the only name that is perfect as the fragrance of his good perfumes. But secondly, it says that because of your good perfumes, the virgins love you. It's because his beauty is accessible by the Holy Spirit to our hearts that our love grows and grows. You know, in ages past, his beauty was hidden. It was veiled. The Holy Spirit hadn't been poured out and though you could see the glory of God in creation, you had to kind of connect the dots together. There must be an invisible God behind this created beauty and he must have a beautiful character and mindset and heart to create this. But much of the beauty of Jesus was actually hidden and veiled but that he came in the flesh, died on the cross, rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit's poured out and now his beauty is accessible in a greater measure even as time unfolds. Of course, at the resurrection and the second coming, it's gonna be far more accessible and it's gonna fill the earth but the idea is this. It's the premise of the scripture is that the knowledge of God and we'll say the knowledge of his beauty because the knowledge of God and the knowledge of his beauty is the same thing. It's powerful that it's the very knowledge of God, it's the knowledge of his beauty that moves us. It awakens us, our hearts, it inspires, it wakes us up. Wow, this is a remarkable and it causes us to love him and that's what this great love song says. Because of the fragrance of your good perfume, the virgins, they will love you more and more and more. The beauty of God that has enthralled the angels in ages past is now accessible to the human race by the incarnation resurrection and the outpouring of the spirit, we have access to that beauty that they did not have even in ages past. Beloved, I don't wanna wait till the resurrection and the face-to-face relationship with Jesus to move forward on this because the fragrance of his good perfumes, I'm telling you, it will cause the people to love him. Most of our spiritual problems are rooted in having wrong ideas about him. Our view is too low, our vision is too dim, our spirit is too dull and it's by getting greater glimpse of him through the scripture, through creation, I mean by the Holy Spirit, where the Holy Spirit lets us see that the invisible hand and heart behind that created beauty is the redeemer. I'm not talking about worshiping creation, I'm talking about creation as a picture book, as the theater of which we see the invisible heart and hand behind that created order, the invisible design, I mean the mind behind this glorious design. All right, let's look at Roman numeral three. We go on a few verses in Song of Solomon. From verse three, because of the fragrance of your good ointments, God's gonna pour your name forth and the people are gonna love you. That's verse three, let's go on to verse 13. The bride, she breaks out in another declaration and I wanna urge you to see the truth behind this poetic language. You don't have to say this language to God, but you wanna say the truth represented by this poetry, this poetic love song. Verse 13 and 14, a bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me. Verse 14, my beloved is to me a cluster of henna blooms. Now these were symbolic, I mean, the symbolism was obvious to the people in that day, the people in the ancient world. Myrrh was well known in that culture as a very beautiful and it had a fragrance, but myrrh was also used commonly in preparing a body that had died for, I mean, for wealthy people, of course. And henna blooms were flowers that had tremendous beauty and tremendous fragrance. And so what she's saying to him in the love language of this poetry, again, you don't need to use this language to God, you can, but a bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me. Look at paragraph one. Again, myrrh, I'll just mention two uses of myrrh that were commonly known that help give meaning to the symbolism. I mean, it's obvious symbolism, it's not mystical, it's not hard to understand, particularly if you live in that culture. Myrrh was used to make fragrant perfume and particularly it was used in the anointing oil that God told Moses to make the anointing oil in a certain way. But also myrrh, I'll say it again, was used to prepare a body for burial, paragraph one. At Jesus's birth, the wise men came and offered him frankincense and myrrh. I mean, can you imagine bringing embalming spices to a baby shower? I mean, myrrh was like, why are you bringing myrrh? It spoke of his death, it was a prophetic statement of his death, even when he was born. Then he was offered myrrh on the cross and then it was prepared, it was involved in his burial as well. Paragraph two, the henna blooms. These were beautiful flowers. They had delightful fragrance. The henna blooms of Engedi, which is a beautiful oasis just west of the Dead Sea, very well-known kind of a resort area, so to speak, in the ancient world, an oasis of remarkable beauty. And the henna blooms were famous in that part of the world. And she's declaring to her king, and through the imagery of this love song, we proclaim to the Lord Jesus, you are beautiful, you are fragrant, you're altogether lovely, you are delightful to me. Beloved, he's delightful. And when we see the truth of his beauty, then it exposes the lie, the religious lie that God is boring and obeying him is boring. God is boring if our spirit is dull and we're not connected to the truth about him. And again, one of the great problems today in the body of Christ is so many are spiritually bored. And the problem with being spiritually bored is we're far more vulnerable to the enemy's attack when we're spiritually bored, when our hearts are invigorated, when we're on pursuit, when the beauty of the Lord, even in small measures, is unfolding in our life, little by little, because we're intentional about it. We're not casual about it. We're not, well, you know, we see it, we see it. If we don't, we don't, no. No, we want the intentionality of King David. All the days of my life, I'm not gonna let go of this preoccupation. Yes, you might be the king of a nation like David, you might be the head of an army like David, but your hands are occupied in a task, an assignment, but your heart is preoccupied with a person. And that's a great preacher statement, but this was a reality in David's life. He stumbled and he fell a number of times, but he re-signed up, he realigned his heart to that reality. When I think of Jesus being a bundle of myrrh, it's the beauty reflected in what he did at the cross. I didn't make that point, but that's the point being made. She's awestruck in the New Testament language, and through the lens of the New Testament, all night I meditate on what the myrrh, the fragrance of what you did in love because of love for me. What you gave yourself for in order to win me to you. Says that the myrrh would lie all night between my breasts, and what would happen is they would have just a little container of myrrh a woman would have around her neck, and it would just cause wherever she'd go to be perfumed. And the imagery of this is all night unceasing, I am struck by the beauty of what Jesus is as the one who is like myrrh, who gave himself on the cross for us. But not only his death is beautiful, he's not only like a bundle of myrrh hanging upon my heart, he's like the henna blooms as well. The henna blooms, he's fragrant, he's beautiful, he's not boring. I mean the endless possibilities of pursuing him, and what I mean by endless possibilities of new and greater depth of insight. We will never ever exhaust the beauty of this man, like the seraphim around the throne. They cry out holy, holy, holy, and they cover their eyes, and when they cry holy, they're not crying purity, purity, purity. What they mean by holy, they're saying transcendent beauty, infinitely superior. Holy other than is what they mean. Holy meaning completely above and beyond anything that exists, transcendent beauty, and they will never ever exhaust the beauty of God. A billion years from now, we'll look her at the throne, and the seraphim will be covering their eyes yet again, and the power of that beauty racing through their being is kind of like they come up for air. They glimpse it again, and they cry holy, and they cover their eyes, they bow down again. Whatever we're doing anywhere in the eternal city, the new Jerusalem, and reigning with Jesus on the earth, we'll look up at the throne, and we'll see a million years from now, the seraphim are bowing yet again. This is man, they're not even close to exhausting the beauty of God. Let's say, I guess we got a long way to go, so let's say to each other, we'll never ever exhaust it. Paragraph B, verse 16, then she gives the summary, the bride summary of this whole section. Again, we haven't done the verse by verse through this. We've done it in the past. I've got that on the internet, and of course, there's lots of commentaries on it. The spiritual interpretation of the Song of Solomon is the beauty of the love between the bridegroom, king, Jesus, and his bride, but she declares, you are beautiful. You are altogether lovely, she says later, but you're truly delightful. It's what she proclaims. Beloved, when he's beautiful and delightful, because we've stayed, we've gone after him, and the Holy Spirit has given us, little by little, just little installments, little inspiration of insight. But it's like the rich get richer. The more you see, the more you long to see. The more that you encounter, the bigger your capacity, and the greater demand in your heart to encounter more. But as we see, the Lord is beautiful and delightful. Obedience seems reasonable. Obedience doesn't seem extraordinary or dutiful or odious or why do I have to obey? I mean, gee whiz, what does he want from me? But when we see who he is, obedience is very reasonable. We are like Paul when he said, I suffer the loss of all things for the excellency. He could have said, because of the beauty of the man Christ Jesus. He goes, I consider what I gave up rubbish or dung. He said, I don't care what I gave up. Don't tell me I gave up a lot. You don't know who it is I'm looking at. It doesn't mean anything what I gave up when I behold him. Top of page three. What we're doing in this session is just wanting to strengthen, give you an initial paradigm or perspective of the kingdom of God through the lens of beauty. And others of you, you've had this paradigm for a while, I just wanna strengthen you in it because I know in my own life that I get a hold of this, then I lose my handle on it, then I re-sign up, then I lose my grip of it, then I re-sign up again. So I'm just wanting to take this kind of refresher course and remind us of the fundamental reality of the kingdom of God. Is it working for him? Yes, we're working with him, not for him. We're working in relationship with a man we love because the fragrance of his good perfumes. He's so beautiful, we love him. He's so fascinating. He's so enthralling. He's worth everything we give. This is fundamental to the kingdom of God. And yet it's so easy to serve in the kingdom distinct to separate it from this very fundamental, foundational reality in the word of God. Well, Roman numeral four, top of page three, God's beauty speaks of that which is attractive about him. I wanna just give you a few little practical ways to think about this. And Sunday, I'm gonna break down, I'm gonna stay on this theme, the beauty of God, not so much from the Song of Solomon, but I wanna give 12 different ways to pursue the beauty of God in our personal lives. Terms of minds, I mean, things to think about and things to go after in our dialogue and study with the Lord. I wanna talk about 12 distinct ways. So I'm not just calling you to gaze on beauty without giving you a little bit of a roadmap on how some steps to take. Not that I understand it all, but I understand a little bit of it. I'm gonna give you the roadmap that I'm using. Some of the pathways to go forward in this. I'm gonna do that this Sunday. But here, just to stir you up on it, just to get you to say, yeah, refresh your course. This is what it's about. Yeah, this is what makes holiness seem joyful. This is what makes the labor and the sacrifice seem worth it. This is divine entertainment at its best where my heart is invigorated and alive interacting with him who is altogether lovely and altogether worthy. But just a little introduction before Sunday. And we'll have the notes on the internet because some of you won't be here and you'll say, yeah, I'd like to those 12 points of how to pursue the beauty of God. And again, I don't wanna talk about how to, I'm gonna talk about more the areas that you're gonna bring to the Lord, areas of thought about his beauty that we can break it down and talk to the Lord and meditate on and give thanks for it and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in it, those kinds of things. But the beauty of God, paragraph eight, speaks of that which is attractive to him, who he is, the power he possesses, how he thinks, how he feels. These are just a few of the 12. What he does, how he looks. I mean, how he looks. I mean, we have a man with a resurrected body. His eyes are like fire. His face is brighter than the sun. Lightning is coming out of his hands. John the Apostle looked at him in Revelation 1, fell like a dead man because of the splendor and the majesty of a real man with a physical body. We're talking beautiful. We're talking majesty. And of course, he's a reflection of his father. Paragraph B, just a little hint. The beauty of God is seen in the father's affection for Jesus. When we understand the way that Jesus loves the father and the father loves Jesus, both ways, we capture a dimension of the beauty of what he's like. Meditating on how God loves God. The father loves the son and the son loves the father and the spirit, et cetera. The beauty of God is seen in the way that God loves his people. This deep longing for partnership, that's beautiful. It's beautiful to behold. It's beautiful to experience. The beauty of God and the created order, whether it's the earth, the animals, the sky, the angel, the new Jerusalems, the resurrection, all that he creates are tokens of the beauty of his mind. I mean, talking about a beautiful mind. This is the core reality of a beautiful mind, the man Christ Jesus. His eternal kingdom, the way it unfolds, the way it progresses, the nature of his leadership is beautiful. And when we see his leadership and the wisdom behind it and the plans behind it, it moves us. It's not just like he's powerful. It's like who thinks like you think, who feels like you feel, who plans the things you plan, who creates like you create. I mean, we look at the created order and it's awesome. And he says, you think the earth is beautiful? You wait till you see the new Jerusalem. You're really gonna get touched. You wait till you see the new heavens and the new earth. I mean, he is the great architect. He's the great artist of creation, behind creation. The intelligent design, he's not only brilliant, he's an artist in all that he does. Now, his beauty is heightened. Again, we'll break down these a little bit more on Sunday. His beauty is heightened, especially when we see his beauty, his mind, his power, his plans, the way he feels, in context to how he responds to us in our weakness. Like I see my weakness when I sin, come up short, and yet he responds this way to me. His beauty is magnified even more in context to when I see my weakness and your weakness and the nation's and yet I see the beauty, the way he responds to us. I mean, who would have people like you and me rule forever with him in resurrected glory? Beloved, we don't deserve this. There's a beautiful heart and a beautiful mind and a beautiful plan behind this idea of people like you and me having magnificent resurrected bodies ruling with him face to face forever. There's a beautiful plan behind this. And when I touch this even a little bit, it excites my heart. Sin is not near so enticing when our heart is preoccupied in these directions. But when we're spiritually bored, we're so much more vulnerable to the enemy's lies and attacks. Paragraph C, this book, The Evidential Power of Beauty, I highly recommend it, by Thomas DuBay. Thomas DuBay, in this book, you can read it, it's maybe a couple hundred pages, it's loaded. He talks about the evidence of God's beauty in creation. Thomas DuBay traces the signature of God through the physical world. Very, very brilliant man. He's just some years ago went to be with the Lord, but this book is such a gift to the body of Christ, one of the best books I've ever read. The Evidential Power of Beauty. He traces the signature of the handiwork of God, ranging from the cosmic rotation of the planets. I mean, he spends a chapter on that and all the beauty, not just the brilliance and the power, but the beauty of it. What happens out in space is remarkable. There's a person behind that. And he is a bridegroom king, and you are his eternal companion. He doesn't just become beautiful when you figure this out in the resurrection that he has all this power. He's beautiful now. It's not something that happens once we figure it out. Thomas DuBay, then he goes to the, talks about the Earth's atmosphere and the vegetation and the agriculture. Then the wonders of biology on the molecular level, down to the behavior of atomic particles in the smallest. I mean, his point is there is as big of a universe, a vast universe within the atom as there is in the sky. And he breaks this down. And you're like, who are you, Jesus? What is this? I don't wanna miss this part of who he is during this age. I wanna engage with beauty in an intentional way. Paragraph D simply put, the Lord makes things beautiful because he is beauty. We get glimpses of it in creation. But we have to have a trained, attentive, inspired eye. Because we can walk by the flower. We can walk by the tree. And not, I mean, we all do. And lose the wonder, miss the wonder of what's behind it. I mean, think about the sun. The sun is like one of the greatest miracles. We're so used to it. It doesn't move us in the way it does if we're intentional. Say, Holy Spirit, tell us more about all this. And we begin to just go on this treasure hunt in life of discovering the beauty of God anyway, the evidential power of beauty. I highly recommend that book. Paragraph E, John Piper. He has a quote here that God himself is the original pattern of beauty, of all other beauty. Beauty is what God is. His wisdom is beautiful wisdom. His power is beautiful power. His justice is beautiful justice. His love is beautiful love. But what he goes on to make, you can read the quote later if you want, but he says it's not just that these qualities are infinite and eternal. No, it's the way they interact, these qualities, with each other. It's their interplay. It's their harmony, that God never suspends one attribute when he exercises another, that all of his attributes are fully engaged in everything he does, meaning we look at God's mercy and we go, wow, we love your mercy. Then we look at his judgment and go, oh, no. But his mercy and judgment are perfectly in harmony. There's no contradiction of one. There's no suspending of one to exercise the other. His power, his long-term planning is in perfect unity with his mercy and with his desire and delight in us. Sometimes his long-term planning kind of throws us off, like, Lord, let's get with it. He says, you'll see. I am getting with it because I delight in you. That's why I have a long-term plan. There's no contradiction. In my power, my patience, my judgment, my wrath, my tenderness, my kindness, there's perfect harmony in all that I'm about. Paragraph F, Balthazar, I love this quote. Every experience of beauty points to infinity. Every experience of beauty points to infinity. It points to the eternal, to God himself. The criterion of truth is beauty. What he means by that, it doesn't mean that if you think something's beautiful, therefore it's true. He's saying that in the absolute sense, God is the creator of beauty. He's the steward of beauty. He's the defender of beauty. He's the multiplier of beauty. He's the keeper of the flame of beauty. He defines beauty, and so the criterion of truth is what God calls beautiful. That is what truth is. He puts the two together. We say sometimes beauty's in the eyes of the beholder, but when the beholder's fallen man, that definition of beauty is tainted, and it's not reliable, but there is one who is beauty, and he's the creator, the sustainer, the multiplier, the keeper, the steward of beauty itself. Well, Song of Solomon chapter five, just to stay with the book a little bit, we're not gonna develop this, but I just want you to know about it. This chapter five, verse 10 to 16, this seven verses is the ultimate statement in poetic language of the beauty of Jesus. What happens is that the bride is, she is combining metaphors of the physical body and of the Jerusalem temple. She uses these two metaphors to describe the king in poetic language, and so there's 10 different attributes of the bridegroom king that are magnified in this poetic way, and of course, when we take Scripture with Scripture, and we're understanding that there is a poetic love song between a man and a woman, an actual natural interpretation of the Song of Solomon, but that's not the interpretation we're using, though I believe in that interpretation. That's a, Song of Solomon talks about the beauty of married love, that is a good song and way to interpret it in itself, but that's not the complete or the ultimate interpretation of that song, that we see these attributes of the king, and I've enjoyed like no other, I mean, I was gonna say like no other passage, but that's not true either, I've got a bunch of passages that I've put in that category, but I have so enjoyed Song of Solomon, chapter five, verse 10 to 16, and I wanna encourage you to put that like note to self, make this chapter, these seven verses, something you spend time in in the weeks and months ahead, and we'll take a whole session in this course on the beauty of, on this Song of Solomon this summer, we'll take a whole session on this passage, but she focuses on his leadership and his personality, and again, she combines the metaphors of the human body with the Jerusalem temple, because these were, she was extolling the beauty of the king through the lens of those two metaphors, and I just put a little hint of it here. She starts off in verse 10, my beloved is chief among 10,000, so that's her introductory statement, there's no one like him is what she's really saying, she's not saying he's the best of 10,000, but the other millions of the earth are better than, no, that's not what she's saying, there's none other like him, it's a poetic statement, his head, his leadership is like finest gold, it's perfect, it's fully God, Jesus is fully God, and his wisdom and reasoning is like pure gold, his cheeks, and cheeks in the song speak of his emotions, because when you look at somebody's, all the expressions on their face, they're giving insight into what's happening in the heart, they are like banks of scented herbs, his hands, his power, his works are like rods of gold, not only are they strong, but they're divine, and they're perfect like gold, using the poetic language, his legs are stable, his works, his plans are like marble, nothing will move what God has determined, yes, he's altogether lovely, anyway, she develops it far more than that, I just wanted to give you a little, kind of a little taste and see on this chapter, this is a fantastic chapter, Song of Solomon five, this passage, verse 10 to 16, turn to page four, we'll look a little bit of this on Sunday, but Revelation four, paragraph I, it's one of the greatest passages on the beauty of God in the Bible, it's the throne room, beloved, what God puts around his throne, is an expression of what he calls beauty, if he puts something around his throne, he says it's beautiful, because his throne is the perfection of beauty, according to Psalm 119, it's the consummation of beauty, his throne, I call the throne room of God, or the throne seat of God, Revelation four and five, the beauty realm of God, that's where the epicenter of beauty is, and that every phrase has many implications, and the Holy Spirit's saying, just ask me to develop these phrases, and the word develops the word, the Holy Spirit will use the word to interpret the word, so you're not getting out in some crazy idea of your own, but this passage was given by the Spirit, and in the word of God, for us to use it, and to understand the beauty around God's heart, his throne, paragraph J, that in this passage, I identify four categories, God's person, his people, his power, his presence, and each of these four categories has three specific themes, so there's 12 themes that are captured in this passage, about God's person, how he looks and feels, about God's people, their enthroned, their robed, their crowned, that's an indication of what God's like, that his people would be crowned, and robed, and enthroned, that the power of God, lightning, and thunders, music, and voices, and fragrance proceeding out of his throne, that his presence, there's lamps of fire, and the seraphim, the living creatures, are called the burning ones, then there's the sea of glass, like crystal filled with flaming fire, all of these are the, it's where the saints gather around the throne, let's just read this passage, Revelation four, verse three, he who sat there was like a jasper, that's like a brilliant, bright diamond, and a sardius stone, he looked like a deep red gem, and a bright, shining, diamond-like crystal, but there was a rainbow around his throne, and the rainbow had a emerald hue to it, it had a dominant emerald color amidst the other colors, spoke of the mercy of God around the throne forever, that gives us insight into what God looks like, and how he feels, how he thinks he's a God of mercy, under an emerald rainbow forever, all of his works are covered by his mercy, verse four, around the throne are 24 thrones, God didn't need other thrones around, he wants his people around the throne, he wants to share this, gives insight to what he's like, there's other kings, they don't want to share their rule, the Lord is adamant about sharing his rule, he demands to share it with his people, I mean, he's always the preeminent one, unique in glory in his own way, but he wants his bride together with him forever, he said before he went to the cross in John 17, 24, he said, father, I desire them, that where I am, they, she would be with me, they will be with me where I am forever, I demand this, I insist on this, what kind of man is he? Beautiful beyond description, verse five, from the throne, lightning, thunder, voices, don't think these are just idiot voices, beautiful music, it's proceeding out of the throne, don't picture some little light show, this thing is spectacular beyond anything you can imagine, then seven lamps, burning, these are not little five by five little lamps or little four foot lamp you might have in a living room, these are massive lamps of fire, I mean, they could be beyond, size beyond anything you could imagine, I don't wanna go to that right now, but I got some ideas I'll share later, burning before the throne, they are manifestations of the Holy Spirit, like what happened in the book of Acts, when the fire rested on the 120 in the book of Acts, well, this fire, this lamp's not just gonna rest on 120 in Jerusalem in the book of Acts, I mean, on the day of Pentecost, all the saints, a billion, two billion, three billion, whatever the number is, are all on the sea of glass and the flame of fire is resting on them as a, I mean, a eternal New Jerusalem upper room with the fire of God upon all the saints there before the throne, oh, I can't wait to be on that sea of glass, that's gonna be amazing, with you, we're gonna have a ball, that's gonna be fantastic, I don't know if we'll have a ball, I don't know if that's the right word, Roman numeral five, just the last few moments here, just to go back to the prophecy in Isaiah, there's one generation that will see the beauty of God beyond any other generation, your eyes will see the beauty of the king, the eyes will see the king in his beauty, verse chapter four, same prophet Isaiah, in that day, he's talking about the generation the Lord returns, the branch of the Lord, that's a term for the Messiah, it's a well-known term in the Old Testament for the Messiah, the Messiah shall be seen in his beauty, Isaiah nine, we know it well, unto us, a child is born, a son is given, his name is the one who fills his people with wonder, beloved, this is more than a Christmas card, this is a reality, the name of the child and the son, the ruler, is the one that fills his people with awe and wonder forever, that's his name, that's not an overstatement, he didn't oversell himself on this, he goes, I have enough to fascinate you forever and forever and forever, I am the one who fills his people with wonder, you wanna use, think of the word wonderful, don't have a tame little vanilla definition of what wonderful means, I like those Christmas cards, but they're too tame for me, Paul said, Ephesians three, to me, grace was given, the anointing was given, that I'd preach the unsearchable riches, beloved, we need to be people that are locked in to preaching, proclaiming, singing, social media, drama, art, proclaiming the riches of a man, the unsearchable riches, Paul says, I'm anointed to make the riches of that man known, the most neglected subject in the kingdom of God today is God, but the Holy Spirit's gonna correct that, the kingdom of God is not God-centric right now, it's bless me centric, and God wants to bless his people, but I tell you, we are far more blessed in a God-centric life focus, instead of God-centric focus and paradigm of the kingdom of God, the subjects that are taught most in the kingdom of God, which are very good subjects, by the way, and I teach them, but we can't teach these more than our teaching about God, we teach on leadership, economic principles, leadership skills, relationship skills, how to be happier, how to get more money, how to make life easier, those aren't bad subjects, those are biblical subjects, most of them, and I'm not putting those down at all, I teach them and they're in the Bible, but the subject of God is the most neglected subject in the kingdom of God, worship team, go ahead and come on up, Proverbs chapter two said, if you seek for her a silver, search for her as hidden treasures, and it's talking about the knowledge of God, you read Proverbs two, it's talking about knowing the beauty and the wisdom of what God's like, search for her, beloved, the knowledge of God is the highest, yet the most difficult reality in the spirit to stay with and to grow in, it's the most powerful, the most enjoyable reality, but the one that Satan attacks most, I call it the Mount Everest of the kingdom of God is God, this is kind of the unscalable mountain, we need an escort, but we need a focus because he'll only give to us according to our hunger, so I end here with Revelation Ephesians one, this is the prayer that Paul prayed about the beauty of God, this is the prayer that we've prayed in the 17 years of IHOP, Ephesians one is the prayer that's been prayed the most, it's one of my favorite prayers, we got a prayer list up there at the prayer microphone, and I made that prayer list, I just took all the prayers of Paul and Jesus and put them up there a bunch of them, I put this one first, and that's the one that's prayed the most, that's what I wanted, I want the spirit of revelation of God, that's the prayer I pray most in my life, and the prayer I pray most for the people I love and for the nations, that God would be revealed, wake them up because of the fragrance of his good perfumes, God has poured forth his name in the nations, and the people will love him more and more if they see the fragrance of those good perfumes, amen and amen, let's stand before the Lord, I want to encourage people this phrase, this Ephesians three eight, Paul said I'm anointed to preach the riches, the unsearchable riches of a man, he's fully God but he's fully man, to sing, to write, to make known, to make disciples around this subject, I want to call forth people of ministry, people saying I want to commit my life in a new way, in a new intentionality, not for a summer, not for a year, I mean for the next decades, that I'm going to proclaim the riches of a man, not only that but that's my primary subject, I want to invite you to come, if you would like prayer for that, and your pulpit might be one-on-one discipleship, it might be social media, it might be the children's ministry out in the neighborhood, but you're going to make the riches of a man known, that's what the anointing is about, I'm going to invite you to come forward.