Mike Bickle emphasizes the profound nature of God's love, particularly the love shared within the Trinity, and how this divine love invites us into a deeper relationship with God. He explains that loving God wholeheartedly is not just a command but reflects the very essence of God's being, which is love itself. Bickle encourages believers to abide in this love, participate in it, and understand that God's love is the foundation for our identity and relationships. He highlights that our worship and prayer should flow from this understanding of God's love, transforming how we see ourselves and interact with others. Ultimately, the call is to engage deeply with God's love, which is the core of our existence and purpose.

Turn to John chapter 15. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus in this amazing reality of who you are and how you love and how you relate. We just stand awestruck before you. You are glorious. Worthy is our God. Worthy is the Lamb who loves like no other. In the name of Jesus, we ask you, Father, to touch our hearts even now. Amen. Well, I'm on a second session of a series that I'm calling Abiding in Love, and I'm taking it from the passage in John chapter 15 verse 9. I'm gonna spend some weeks on this, talking about participating with the love that burns in God's heart. It's a love that God has for God, the Father and the Son and the Spirit. It's a love that He has for us. It's a love that we have back for Him and and so on. And it's this burning love that's within God's heart that He calls us in John 15 verse 9 to abide in it, participate in it, go deep in it, stay focused on it, lock into it. I'm gonna begin probably each one of these sessions with a little bit of review from the session before just to kind of get our mind back around the subject. It begins here in paragraph A with Jesus calls us to love God with all of our heart and all of our mind and all of our soul. Now, He's actually quoting Moses from Deuteronomy 6. God spoke this to Moses and then Moses declared it. But here in verse 38 of Matthew 22, Jesus adds something that Moses didn't hear. He says, I want to tell you the thing that was spoken to Moses about loving God with all of your heart. It is the first priority to God. It is the first and the great commandment. So Jesus adds that commentary to that famous commandment. He goes, there is no commandment of a higher priority or a higher importance to God. Paragraph B, now this command to love with all of the heart actually, it doesn't begin in our response to God. The command to love with all of the heart actually begins in God's relationship to God. And what I mean that by that is the Father to the Son and the Son to the Spirit. Within that blessed reality of the Trinity, the Holy Trinity, one God in three persons. One God in three persons, mystery of mysteries. Paragraph B, this command to love God is but, that He gives us, is but one expression of this greater what I call ultimate reality. Again, that the Father loves the Son with all of His heart, all of His strength, all of His mind. The Son loves the Spirit that way, the Spirit loves the Father and so on. This ultimate reality existed before the foundation of the world. This is what God is calling us into. This is really the essence of what Christianity is about. Understanding this love, I mean in the introductory way of course, we'll only know a little bit in this age. Receiving it and then expressing it, participating it in these ways. Paragraph C, Scripture says that God is love. I like to add the phrase, He is wholehearted love. Because that's the only kind of love that God has in His personality. God never loves sort of. He loves fully when He loves. He never loves even 1% less than how He always loves. He always loves in fullness. The very being of God is wholehearted love. The Old Testament, I mean in Deuteronomy 4 as well as Hebrews 12, declares that our God is a consuming fire. Now this consuming fire is a fire of holy desire. Now some commentators when they see the the description of God as a consuming fire, they mostly see judgment in the fire. But I believe the core reality to that consuming fire is the fire of holy desire. It's His love. He burns with love. I believe that the core reality is positive and when something gets in the way of that love or hinders it, then it becomes judgment. Now this love, paragraph C in the middle, is of the first importance in the personality of God. It is of the very highest importance in describing God's personality. It's of first importance in the relationship that God has within the Godhead. It describes how God carries His heart, love. Now I am struck by the idea that God is moved by love. I mean that when we worship God, when we obey God, when we when we give ourselves to Him, it actually moves Him. The fact that God is moved is remarkable. We're talking about the Almighty who has all power. He has all knowledge. Nothing ever surprises Him. Nothing ever impresses Him, no matter how glorious the display of power is. Vast numbers do not impress Him. He doesn't go, wow, did you see that crowd? Or what an amazing building or light show. Boy, that was a lot of money. None of that moves Him. So how does the God who has all power, that possesses everything, that has all knowledge, that's never surprised, how is He ever moved? He's moved by love. I believe that's the only thing that moves Him in the positive sense. And the reason that He's moved by love, because He is love, the very core of His being is wholehearted love. It is burning desire. Paragraph D. I believe the most important thing in all of existence is God's holy desires. Now I could call it holy desire, or I could call it burning love. You can use different terms or phrases to mean the same thing. I don't believe there's anything in all of existence more important than God's desires. His holy desires. I mean, when we think of His infinite power, we think of His great wisdom. I mean, I love the power of God. I mean, we stand awestruck at His power. We look at the sky and the stars. We look at creation, and we're awestruck at God's power. It's amazing beyond description. His wisdom. Paul said, oh the wisdom of God, the depths of it. And he trembled before the depths of God's wisdom. But beloved, God's power and His wisdom are employed in order to bring to pass His desires. Even among His power and wisdom, they are servants, if you will, of His desire. They give expression to His desire. His desire is to fill the earth with love. His desire was to create human beings, and then through redemption, they would receive His love, and He would dwell forever filling the earth with love. He would dwell with them on the earth forever in love. That's what His desire is. He employed His wisdom and His power to make this come to pass. Now, what about the four living creatures around the throne in Revelations 4? They cry, holy, holy, holy. Well, when we think of God's holiness as related, when we think of holiness as related to the being of God, it means more than purity. Holiness related to God's being, it speaks of His transcendence. He is wholly separated and wholly superior from everything created. It speaks of His greatness, His transcendence. So His love and His transcendence are really both describing the same reality. So when they're crying, holy, holy, holy, or infinitely separated in superior greatness from all that exists, is what they're saying, they're really describing His love. His infinite power, His absolute purity, His fiery love all flow together as one shining light, one beaming bright light from His heart. Paragraph E We best understand this call to love with all of our heart by seeing it in its eternal context within the fellowship of the Trinity. This call to love with all of our heart, with all of our strength, again, it doesn't begin in our response to God. We understand that call best when we see it in its eternal context between the Father and the Son and the Spirit. It's more than just a superior aspect of kingdom ethics. You know, one of the best kingdom ethics to love God with all of your hearts. It's more than an ethic. It is the core reality of existence in God's kingdom, in the very being of God. The reason He calls us to wholehearted love, because that's who He is. The reason He calls us to wholehearted love, because that's who He created us to be. We're made in His image. Angels are not made in His image. We're created with a capacity to love in a way that angels aren't. Paragraph F Jesus revealed that the very essence of salvation is to experientially know God, to know God in experience. He said in John 17 verse 3, this is eternal life, or he could have said this is salvation. Here it is, summed up. To know God in an experiential way. He didn't say just to stand at a distance and gain information about God. He didn't talk about just intellectual information, but he's talking about experiential knowledge. Beloved, that's the the essence of what salvation is. We're not called to stand at a distance and just to adore who God is. We do do that forever, and that is our glory. To adore who God is, and to be lost in the declaration of His splendor, to praise Him. But he says in Hebrews 10 22, he says now draw near, come closer. The angels stand at a distance, and they gaze, and they declare God's glory and His worth, and we do the same, and we delight in that forever. But to the saints, he says now draw near, come closer. Come closer, yet still. He wants deep participation with us. He didn't create the human race just to display his power. He didn't say, I want to show everyone, all have created order, how much power I had, I'll create humans. He didn't create the human race just to have a larger audience that would adore him, an adoring audience. I mean, he had billions of angels. Why not add billions of humans, and then he'd really be a crowd. He didn't create humans to show his power, or to just increase the adoring audience around his presence. Though it did display his power, and we do adore him, and we love that. That's part of our destiny and glory, to be lost in the adoration of God forever. But he created human beings that we could participate deeply with his heart. Beloved salvation is so much more than escaping the penalty of hell. And you hear a lot of people leading people to the Lord, and they talk about the subject of escaping hell, and that's legitimate. That's a biblical doctrine. That's a very important one. I'm extremely glad I escaped hell. I really like that doctrine. And it really meets a felt need to an unbeliever, because they're grappling with the fear of death, and the idea of escaping hell, that's like, wow. But beloved, there's a far greater dimension of salvation. The most glorious, the most beautiful man, the most fascinating being, Jesus, the God-man, fully God, fully man, is beckoning us into deep relationship with him. I mean, that's so much beyond escaping something negative. We are called to interact with the most glorious, interesting, fascinating, loving being that exists. That is what salvation is. Now, an unbeliever might not have an awareness of that glory, and so maybe escaping hell, like, okay, I'm interested in that. Let's talk. But beloved, we have a lot bigger story to tell them than the fact that they get fire insurance on the last day. Paragraph G. Now, I went through this in our last session, and I may spend two minutes each session. I don't know how many sessions I'm going to cover on this, but we're going to just kind of linger around John 13 to 17, these five chapters, just kind of touch different themes. I mean, they're massive in their implications, these five chapters. They've been called the holy of holies of Jesus' teaching, these five chapters. But let's look at these five expressions of love, and I'm just going to talk about one of them today for a few minutes, and we will just cover about half the notes, and the rest we'll leave for you to read on your own if you want. And then in the following sessions, we'll take one of these themes and develop it just a little bit. And then we'll look at some of the passages in John 13 to 17. We won't look at all of them, but we'll look at some of the themes, and that's what this series will be about. Well, just to stamp your mind with these five expressions of the love of God, just so it's so clear in your mind that every time you think of love, you think of all five, you don't think of just one. Because these five are deeply interrelated with each other. You can't separate them. If you separate them, they don't have their power in our experience. The full power is when they're all brought together. The first reality, the first expression of love, is the way God loves God with all of his heart. Now, I know that's a funny way to say it, God loves God. What I mean, the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Spirit. The Spirit loves the Son, the Spirit loves the Father, etc. God loves God with all of his heart and all of his strength. That is an amazing reality. Before the creation of the earth, that love was flowing in fullness and full satisfaction. Secondly, that love did not stay within the Godhead, because love by definition demands to be shared. The joy of that delightful love, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit declared, we will share it with a race of beings we will yet create, because love demands to be shared by the very definition of love. So he loves people. Then, the people that are redeemed love God in that same wholeheartedness. Now, our all, when we love God with all of our heart, is a lot smaller than God's all, but we bring our all into the relationship. That's the point. Number four, that very same love is expressed in the way we love ourselves in the grace of God. Jesus said, love your neighbor as you love yourself. Now, he's talking about something different than loving ourself outside of the will of God and outside of the grace of God. We'll spend a whole session on each one of these. Then, number five, he talks about loving others. Beloved, we are going to enjoy one another in the deepest way forever in the overflow of how God enjoys God. I mean, even that believer that bothers you, who's mistreating you, that causes you untold frustrations, you will be the dearest of friends forever in just a minute. Paragraph H, I speak of these five expressions of the fellowship of the burning heart, the heart that burns with love, the Father, Son, and Spirit. That's where it is. That's the beginning, but that's not where it ends. It flows down through his people. Tabitha, page 2. Abide in love. Here's the main verse of this series. And we'll probably spend 10 or 12 sessions on it. That's hard to say. But John 15 9, I want to go to it over and over again. He makes three statements, and the implications of these three statements are vast. He says, as the Father loved me, I've also loved you. Abide in my love. He starts. He says, the way that God loves God, he goes, that's what I want to draw your attention to. The way the Father loves the Son. Let's go to the very core reality of love. It's the way God loves within the fellowship of the Trinity. But it doesn't stop there. He goes to the next phrase. He goes, that's the way that I love you. He would later say in John 17 23, he goes, the Father loves you in that same intensity. Jesus would say, it's not just that I love you that way, so does the Father, and so does the Spirit. So he gives the first two expressions of this, this fellowship of the burning heart, the way God loves God, the way God loves his people, and then he gives the third phrase. He goes, in referencing those two grand realities, I want you to abide in love now. I want you to participate in this love all of your days. I mean billions of years into the resurrection. I want you to dwell. I want you to participate. I want you to stay focused on this reality all of your days. So he highlights the first and second expression of the five that I've outlined here, and then with that foundation of the way God loves God, the way God loves people with all of his heart, he says, now he calls us to the the exhortation to abide in love, and that's why I'm calling this series Abide in Love. He's saying participate in it. Don't just adore it. Don't just be, don't just admire it, I mean. Don't just be amazed by it. I want you to participate in it. I want you to participate in it. It begins by staying focused on it and going deep in it. Beloved, all of our days we'll never graduate from this theme. Never. We may have other themes and other assignments in the kingdom that we're to study, but Jesus is saying here, I want you to stay long-term, yay forever, locked into this theme, and as a spiritual family, I'm just jealous that we would abide in love. Not just participate in it one day, but we would intentionally focus on it. We would study it out. We would talk about it, pray about it, ask the Holy Spirit for understanding. All of that is involved in this exhortation, Abide in Love. Let's go to paragraph K. First John 3, 1. John says it again in a different way. He calls it, behold the manner of love the Father has for us. He's saying I want you to focus on the manner of love the Father has. You could, instead of the word manner of love, you could put the phrase in, focus on the quality of love the Father has for you. Jesus called it abiding in love. John 15, 9, the verse we've just looked at, John calls it beholding the manner of love. It's the same exhortation. What John is saying here in essence, don't move on. Behold it, study it, focus on it, lay hold of it, lock into this, and go deep all of your days in this. Romans number 2. I'm going to give about three practical applications, and they're vast in all that would be implied in these applications. Paragraph A. First, I want to make the introductory principle that the most important truth in all of existence, the most important truth to enter the human mind is the truth of God's greatness. There is no truth more important, more profound, more powerful, more transforming than the truth of God's greatness. Now there's many dimensions to God's greatness, and we spend too little time focused on this most transforming, most important theme of God's greatness. But before we break it down, and I've already told you where I'm going, I'm going to the subject of God's love. But when people think of God's greatness, often they think first and most about His great power. Say God's greatness, they think He created the heavens and the earth. He has incredible power. And beloved, God's power is a part of His greatness. But what I believe from the scripture, that the core reality of God's greatness is actually His burning desire, His love. Because His power is used to give expression to His love. His power is a servant that supports what His love desires. Now, we don't need to pit one against the other. That's an unnecessary division. But I'm only saying this, that when we think of greatness, don't automatically think of power or wisdom. Because, and then to relegate love to kind of the peripheral, sentimental part of God's personality. I mean, God's powerful. He's filled with wisdom. And you know, sentimental, He's got a touch of sentimentality. He does love, and that's really neat that He loves. What I'm saying is that love cannot be relegated to a secondary place in our thinking. But His burning desire, His infinite power, His great wisdom, and then all the other attributes that are comprised in His majestic splendor. And those many, many, many attributes that are known, and many that are not known by man. But when I think of God's greatness, I think of seeing the quality, the manner of love the Father has for us. Beloved, there is a quality and an intensity about God's love that is so remarkable. But it's more than just the intensity and quality of His love. It's actually the way they actually relate to one another. There is no quality relationship like the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. Well, this actually has a very practical application to our lives. One here, and this is kind of the summary of the notes that we're not going to again cover, but about half of them, is that I have here in the end of paragraph A, by seeing the union within the Trinity. Meaning how the Father, the Son, and the Spirit interact. That's what I mean by the union. When we see that glorious and mysterious way they interact in such depth. Distinct persons, but deeply engaged with love and joy, fully involved with one another. One God in three persons, the mystery of the Trinity. But when we see this union, we gain insight into the quality of the love that they have for us. Because Jesus said it, He goes, the way that I love you, and the way that the Father loves you, the measure of that love is the way we love each other. I mean, it's from the lips of Jesus. There's no more authoritative source. He goes, the measure of the quality of the way the Father loves you, the way the Son loves you, is the way that God loves God. He says that in John 15 9 and John 17 23. I have the passages on the notes. So when we understand how they interact, we're supposed to connect the dots and understand that's how God interacts with us. Now as we break down the implications of that, that changes the way we see ourself. It changes the way we feel about ourself. It changes the way we view our future. It changes the way we relate to God. It changes the way we relate to one another. But it begins in the core reality of how God loves God. It's not just a theoretical, theological discussion. This is a practical discussion that will affect the way you feel about yourself. And Jesus in John 13 to 17 brings these ideas together and we're supposed to connect the dots to associate the way that God relates to God is the standard by which we understand he relates to us. There's many parallels in the way he relates to us and that changes the way we look and think and feel about ourselves. It actually shifts our own emotional chemistry in our view of ourself in life. Now many believers never ever spend time locking into this. The quality of love, the manner of love the Father has for them. They don't abide in love. They don't focus on it. They don't participate in it. They kind of stand at a distance and just kind of moan over the fact they feel forgotten, left out. They don't feel his presence and Jesus beckons us come abide in this. Come drink from this well. Lock into it. Don't move outside of it. I mean don't move on and leave this behind. Yes, we will add other subjects to our study, but never in a substitution of these. Paragraph B. One application is that when we see the quality of love that God possesses, it fills us with awestruck admiration for him. By just seeing how God loves, we stop and we say worthy is the Lamb. What manner of man loves in this intensity, in this quality? Worthy is he who sits upon the throne, which would be the Father. I mean when we see this quality, it fills us with admiration and it fills us with worship and the desire to just cry out and declare back to him his worth. His supremacy and his greatness in love, power, wisdom, and splendor and all these other ways. Paragraph one. Worship is actually a response to a revelation of God. When our worship is low, we need a greater revelation of God. When we see more about God, we worship more. When we see more about God, we love more. We love deeper when we see more. Because worship is a response to the revelation of God. And what I'm saying is that when we study the way God loves God, his ultimate expression of greatness is his love. And his ultimate expression of love is how he loves within the Godhead. That's the love that we is expressed in his relationship with his people. It's that very love. When we study it, when we behold it, it produces in us a tremendous response of giving ourself to him and declaring his great worth and supremacy. Paragraph C. It doesn't stop with declaring to God how amazing he is. And beloved, we will delight in that forever and forever. Just the declaration of the truth of who he is. I mean the power and the pleasure of that will renew our being forever and forever every time we do it. It will actually touch us and impact us greatly, and it will move the heart of God. I mean, it's a glorious reality. That it will actually move God, not just move us. But number, paragraph C, there's another dimension to seeing the quality of this love. It increases, it enhances the spirit of prayer in our life. Now around the throne of God, worship and prayer mingle together. In one sentence, I mean it would not have to be technical, I'd need to break it down more than this, but just to be really brief, worship is agreeing with who God is. Intercession is agreeing what he said he would do. When we worship, we agree who he is. You're loving, you're great, you're powerful, you're wise. We declare his worth. We declare who he is. We agree with who he is. In intercession, we agree with the promises that he made. Release your power, send revival, break in with justice. So whether we declare who he is or we declare what he promised to do, those mingle together. And the more that we see how God dwells within the fellowship of the Godhead, you know, it awakens this compelling cry in our spirit. We want to give expression to it in a greater way. So the more we see, the more we're compelled to say, worthy is the Lamb, break it in power, break it in power, worthy is the Lamb. I mean it just ebbs and flows, and beloved, this is the means by which God releases his power into the created order. God has chosen to release his power through his people who come before him in worship and intercession. I put them together here, I call it intercessory worship. Jesus lives forever to make intercession. I mean, God the Father could just bypass us and just release his power in the created order, but he goes, no, I'm going to do it as an extension of you declaring my promises back to me. Well, let's go to paragraph D, and this is the main paragraph of the notes here that you have. And now, most of what comes in page three and four is just restating paragraph D. That's why we won't go through a lot more beyond this. Paragraph D, the third expression, the third application, rather, to seeing how God relates to God, one, it invokes a response of declaring his glory. The second, it enhances and increases the spirit of prayer. But thirdly, it empowers us to love, to participate in the love. Now, we don't have to put these three against each other. You know, one guy goes, well, I'd rather declare God's glory. The other guy says, I'd rather pray. Another guy says, I'd rather enter into love. Beloved, we don't want to pit them against each other. You don't have to pick which is your favorite, your heart, your liver, your kidney. You want all of them. We don't have to pick which is our most, I mean, the most important or our favorite application. We want all of these to flow together in our heart. Some people have this tendency to put one against the other. And that's so unnecessary to do that. I'll summarize the main point of this message. Again, we're not going to break it down. The notes give a little bit. But even then, I'm talking about giving you a mindset for decades to come of how to approach the Word of God to search this out. I'm talking about far more than a short teaching on a Sunday morning. Paragraph D, when we see the union within the Trinity, how the Father, Son, and Spirit interact, we gain insight into the nature, the quality, and the intensity of their love. Now, the nature, and the quality, and the intensity of their love, the way they love each other is the way they love us. The way they love and interact together is the way they interact with us. That's the takeaway point in John 13-17. That's one takeaway point. I mean, one takeaway point is we just get lost in adoration of how glorious God is that such a being dwells in such a quality of love. I mean, that's a good enough point in itself. But there's another application. There's a personal application on how it actually affects the way we see ourself and our relationship to Him. Their relationship, the way the Father and the Son relate, the Son and the Spirit, etc. It is a model that inspires us, but it's more than a model. The love they share is actually the source that energizes us. It's not just a picture of perfect love that when we see the picture, it changes our perspective of what love is and how important we are to God. That picture, that model is important. I mean, that really changes the way we think about ourselves. It inspires us. We view our life very differently when we see how they love and we know they love us in that way. But it's more than a picture, a model that inspires. The very substance of God's life, God the Holy Spirit, the very love that they share, not a substitute that's nearly as good, the very substance of that love, God the Holy Spirit, Romans 5.5, dwells in our being, pours love into the human emotions. He energizes our heart with love in a supernatural way. If we would dialogue with Him, if we would give ourselves to the relationship with the Holy Spirit, we'd be inspired by the model of how they love and we would be energized by the very person of God in us, saying, I want to do in and through you what we do together forever. We look at that and we go, what is this about? Beloved, salvation is so much more than going to heaven when we die and having a ministry and a few blessings and our money and a few relational favor and relationships. There's so much more to salvation than that. Well, it's the source and the model by which we relate to God and others. Paragraph E. God wants more than people gazing on Him at a distance and declaring how powerful and how great He is. We will gaze on Him forever and declare how powerful, how great, how intense His love is, but He wants more. The angels do that. They're awestruck in their gazing and in their declaration. But the Father says to us, draw near, really close, come closer. Take a few steps, come closer, closer, come right near to me. I mean, it's terrifying. He wants us in its splendor, I'm talking about terrifying. He wants us to participate in the love with Him in a way angels don't. Top of page 3, paragraph B. We best understand God's love as we consider the truth of the Trinity, how God relates to God. Now, the reason I say that, and I've already said that five times, I'm just repeating myself, just so you don't think I'm making another point. When some people think of the Trinity, they think, oh, the mystery of the Trinity, we can't understand it. It is true, we don't understand it completely, and we may never understand it completely ever. But we can understand the introductory principles that are clear in the Word. So we don't have to be intimidated because of the fact we'll never understand it completely, and we may never go deep in this subject in this life. But we may have the introductory principles, but beloved, those introductory principles, when we see them, it will shift the way we see ourself and the way we see our relationship with God. Meaning, John 13 to 17 develops them. Jesus is saying, these are critical and practical to the way you live. Don't separate yourself from these truths and realities. Don't be intimidated and say, well, only the theologians get it. You know, I don't mess with that. No, don't do that. This is part of your inheritance. Because when we connect how God relates to God with how God relates to us and we relate to Him, and then actually in the overflow how we relate to one another, it really does affect the way we think and feel. It really makes things different. Now again, I'm not breaking that down a lot in this session, but I'm pointing to the reality. And I have a little bit more on the notes, and we'll have more to come in the weeks to come. Paragraph C. Now the way God loves within the Trinity is the way He always loves. God always loves as fully God. What I mean is that when God loves, He never suspends a little bit of His love. Not even for a moment. He never does that. He always loves in fullness. He is fully God in every activity that He engages in. God never diminishes His love. Like He doesn't love some of the believers 99%. He never grows in love. I mean, Jesus is never going to say one day, last year was a great year. I grew in love a little bit. Wow, it was a great breakthrough year for me. He never loses it. He never grows in it. Because His love is infinite in measure and eternal in duration. It can never ever be improved. It can never ever be diminished. So when God loves you, when you're having a bad month, He loves you the same way as He will when you're in the resurrection in total perfection. Now God can discipline us, but that never ever minimizes the way He loves us. I mean, His discipline is actually an expression of His love. God can be grieved by an area in our life, but fully engaged in the relationship with love. Just like many parents know, they might have a teenage child that they are grieved by an area, but they love the child with all their heart and they love the relationship. The one area that grieves them doesn't define the entire relationship or the person. Well, if we can do that, how much more does God do that? God never experiences less love for you. Now we can experience less by the way that we live. We can experience more by the way that we live. When we live in greater abandonment to God, in greater obedience, and we seek Him, we will experience more. But God's not experiencing more love for us because we're experiencing more. We're feeling more of that which never changes. Paragraph D, the Trinity, one God in three persons. Here's the point I want to make. They're equal, co-equal as God, one essence. Equal in deity. The one essence of God, one God in three persons. Again, the great mystery. But here's the point I want to highlight. They are distinct in their functions. In every work that Jesus did, when He was on the earth and even in eternity past, eternity future, but I'll just lock in when He's on the earth. Every miracle Jesus did, the Father and the Spirit were involved with Him in that miracle. Every one in a distinct role. And Jesus describes that here in John 14. He said, I'm in the Father and the Father's in me. Now that kind of throws Him off a little bit. He says, let me explain what happens when I do miracles, when I do my works. The Father's in me. And what He means by that, the Father is deeply engaged with me. His role is different, but He's fully attentive, totally engaged, filled with joy in everything I do. And the takeaway point in our personal lives, that's how God relates to us. Because in verse 20, He would go on to say, that's the same relationship me and the Father have with you. Again, we'll break that down later. Get a little bit more on the notes on that. Let's look at paragraph G, and we'll end with that. The way that God interacts with God in His works. Again, every work that Jesus did, the Father was involved, the Son was involved. When Jesus was raised from the dead, the Bible says, the Father raised Him from the dead. The Bible says, the Spirit raised Him from the dead. And the Bible says, Jesus, I mean with His own lips in John 10, verse 18, He said, I have power to raise myself. It's my power. Whoa. Well, who raised Him? All three of them had a role in it. Well, that describes the deep way they interact, and that's how they interact with us. That's, again, a takeaway point, a practical point. This is not just a theological theory. This is a practical reality that must be thought through by people who want to experience God to the full degree that we can in this age. Paragraph G, we'll end with this. Each person that God had enjoys and fully engages in the relationship and in the work. Not just in the relationship, but actually in the tasks too. That's what's involved in God being the Father and the Son and the Son and the Father. That's one of the implications of that. Jesus has full enthusiasm in His love for the Father. He is moved when He loves the Father. It's not passing. When He loves the Father, it moves Him, but it doesn't end there. When the Father loves Him, it also moves Him. Jesus is moved in loving, and He's moved in being loved. Where's that going? God's moved in loving you, and He's moved in you loving Him. It matters to Him. Jesus is never disinterested in the Father or the Father and the Son. Jesus is never bored in His relationship with the Father. He's never bored with us. We get bored with Him, but He never gets bored with us. I mean, it's interesting that the most fascinating man we get bored with, we get bored with Him, and He's the most interesting person. He is fully engaged with us, and we're the most boring in the relationship. How's that work? But He says, just stay with it. You'll see. When you see what I see and feel what I feel, we'll come to be equally yoked in our relationship as the days unfold. Well, I'll just end with that. The exhortation I'm going to leave us with probably every week is this. Let's determine to abide in love. Let's participate in this. Let's lock in. We're going to go deep in this. We're going to focus on it. We're going to study it out. We're going to see where the Spirit will take us in our individual lives and our corporate experience together. Amen and amen. Let's stand. Now, I covered a lot of ground. I realize that. Worship team, come on up. But that's why I give notes. You go back and say, what? What was that? Father and Son, what's that mean now again? Go slower. Think on this. Don't just let it slip away real quick. Let's just open our heart before the Lord. Father, I ask you, even now that you would touch us, Holy Spirit, that you would touch us in this room, you would awaken love in our heart, even now in this place.