Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of intentionally seeking God's beauty as a hidden treasure, urging believers to pursue a deep relationship with God rather than settling for a casual faith. He reflects on his own journey, sharing how Proverbs 2 profoundly impacted his life during his college years, leading him to prioritize time with God amidst distractions. Bickle encourages the congregation to view their pursuit of God as a treasure hunt, requiring effort and commitment, while also highlighting that true pleasure and fulfillment come from experiencing God's presence. He stresses that the knowledge of God is both valuable and costly, requiring a willingness to rearrange priorities and seek Him earnestly.

Session 11. Where's Brandon at? Hey, at the end, can we have a little bit of ministry time? Just a couple minutes. We'll go real long. I know y'all got to get up tomorrow and got schedules, but just a little bit. That's got to get a little I love you, I love you out with some anointed music. Okay, session 11. Father, we come before you. Lord, we love your presence. We hunger for who you are. We want more of you. And Holy Spirit, we ask you to visit us again, mark us again, draw us, escort us, that we could run after you with all of our heart. In Jesus' name we thank you. Amen. Okay, Proverbs 2. This is another, you know, you get to have ten favorite passages, right? Or a hundred. This is one of my other favorite passages. Proverbs chapter 2, because the Lord, I'll tell the story a little bit later, really marked my heart of my college years with this passage. And it shifted me on a total different trajectory in the Lord. This passage, when I was in my college years, how he spoke it to me. And I'll give you that story in a few minutes. I'll give it to you briefly. But in this session, we'll go a little shorter than the other one, I'm going to talk about seeking God's beauty as hidden treasure. And the reason I, when we put that in front of us, the reason I do that, because some folks think of, well, I'm just kind of, kind of get what I get as I go. You know, get what I get from God kind of on the run. And I want to be, I want to call you to be intentional. To say, no, I'm not going to just take whatever comes. I'm going to go after it. I understand it's going to take a fierce intentionality. And it's worth it, because you're only on the earth for a few years. Well, and then we get our resurrected body, we're on the earth forever. But you're only in this age for a few years, is a better way to say it. You want to go hard. We don't want to spend our 70, 80 years due to strength, the psalm says. Kind of have hearted. We want to go for this with all of our heart. And the treasure is there, but it's, it's a bit out of the way. That's the point I'm making. It's hidden, but it's accessible. He says, I only hid it to reveal it to you when you're hungry for me. I didn't hide it to keep it hidden. I hid it to give it to the hungry. And so, I just want to put that in front of you. First, I'm going to start off with a theme that I really love. And that's the idea of God's personality as being full of pleasure. David saw that the very epicenter of pleasure and joy in the created order was the throne of God. I mean, this must have been, this must have rocked his world. I bet it rocked his world when he preached it, when he told people. Because they didn't have an image of God like this. Their image of God was Mount Sinai, you know, thunder, lightning, and everybody ran from God with fire and shaking. David goes, I want to tell you that God's presence is the epicenter of joy of the created order. And there's pleasure emanating out of God. God is a God of pleasure. It's like, what? I thought God was a God of just like pain and gutting it out and gritting your teeth and sacrificing. There's pleasure. The greatest pleasure available to the human spirit is when God reveals God to the human spirit. There is no greater pleasure than when the Spirit of God reveals the Father and the Son to our spirit when we're searching out the Word. David took the same idea in Psalm 36 and he said, let them drink. Let them assimilate. Drinking is a word of assimilation. Let them interact with your heart. Let them drink from the river of your pleasures. That's talking about the Holy Spirit touching our heart. But we have to drink. You know, Jesus used that in John 7 when He says, you've got to drink from the river. In John 4, He used it two times. You've got to drink. You've got to assimilate. The river can run by and run all around you, but you've got to stop and drink from it. But when I drink from the river, meaning I'm interacting with God is what I mean by that, I have an image of it being pleasurable. I don't have an image of I'm sacrificing and paying the price to, you know, draw close to boring God. My image is, I'm going to assimilate, but it's a river of pleasure. I'm going to go like, oh, you're beautiful. Oh, that's amazing. I love you. Who would have known? That's my image of going hard after God. And so a lot of folks, their image of going hard after God is paying the price. I've heard that over the years. That brother paid the price. I go, what? He endured boring God long enough till God gave in? What do you mean paid the price? What's that mean? We've got a God of joy and pleasure and He gave it to us freely? What are we paying the price for, you know? It seems like we've got a great deal and we just had to interact with Him and we get a whole lot. Now this is essential to grasp this paradigm because we get liberated from the inferior pleasure of sin by experience the superior pleasures of God. Meaning we don't get liberated from lust and pride and revenge by gritting our teeth and just like, lust, be gone! Just go! We get rid of, we get free from lust, not by staring at lust and trying to push it away. We get free from lust by turning our attention, going after a superior pleasure and as we're drinking of that, we turn around and say no to lust. Because we're going after something else. But if you're just kind of having a stand down with lust, you know, a showdown, no lust in the name of Jesus! Lust will come running at you night and day. And lust is much more than sexual. There's many types of lust and pride and revenge and bitterness. If we're not drinking of pleasure, lust is going to run us down. But if I'm going after superior pleasure, I have a strength to resist the inferior pleasure. But if all I have is the inferior pleasure, it's really tough to consistently turn it away. Okay, let's go to paragraph C. I'm going to skip a little of this. I wrote a book on this, The Pleasure of Loving God, so I recommend it. I think you get it, Misty, can they get it free on my website? Don't I have it free up there? Yeah, you can get it for free. Paragraph C. It's called The Pleasures of Loving God. You can download it, make, put it into documents, put your name on it, put your mother's name on it, do anything you want with it. Just do something with it. Okay. Teach it, sing it, talk about it, blog it, do everything with it. But just put your name on it. Okay, paragraph C. God is the author of pleasure. Do you know God created us to enjoy pleasure? Physical pleasure was God's idea. Sexual pleasure is God's idea. God created sexual pleasure. Mental pleasure. You know, when you see something that's astounding and interesting, wow, that's mind-blowing. That pleasure, God created that. Emotional pleasure, oh, I love to love you. The Lord says, I created that. I created that. Spiritual pleasures. Our longing for pleasure is part of our created design. The God of pleasure created us to love pleasure. Now, pleasure has to be satisfied. It won't go away, but here's the deal. The devil wants us to lure us with counterfeit pleasures that are outside. I mean, the pleasures are real, but they're temporary. I call them counterfeit because they're short-lived, and they don't satisfy. And they deceive. They're called the lusts of deceit in Ephesians 4. They deceive us. And the lusts of sinful pleasures, they always demand that we drink more from it, and it leaves us more empty. And so that's why I call them counterfeit. The pleasure is real, but they're outside of God's will, but the promise of satisfaction is false. Paragraph D, the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, He'll guide you. I love the word escort. I think of the Holy Spirit locking arms with me. You know, I'm figuratively thinking, and we're walking. He goes, I'm going to escort you on a lifelong treasure hunt. And you're going to spend your life in a treasure hunt. And it's going to be divine entertainment. Your spirit is going to be exhilarated, not all day, every day, but a little here, a little there. But I have found a little here and a little there moves me forward. You know, just little moments of inspiration, just those flashes of God, those little moments, those collectively move us forward in changes. I don't feel it all day, every day, but I go after those few moments where it touches me here and there, and I look back over the years, and I keep moving in the right direction. Not always am I advancing, but over the years, I keep advancing. Sometimes it's three steps forward, two steps back, but over time, you're still making ground forward. The knowledge of the beauty of God is the most powerful reality anyone could experience. It is the most costly, meaning to really experience this, that we have to put some things aside. It will be costly in the human sense. What I mean by that, it's well worth it, so we're not paying the price to endure God, but we're not going to go deep on the run. A lot of folks, they're hungry for God, but they want to spend all their time in this, that, and the other, all kinds of activities, all kinds of things. I found out years ago, and I don't want to be a know-it-all, but I had to intentionally turn some things off, turn some things away, and lock into some schedules in my life, so I could make sure that the latest opportunity didn't steal all of my time. I locked in my schedule, and I said, Lord, I'm going to be with you in these times during the week, and I don't keep the schedule 100 percent, but I learned back in college, when I was 18 years old, some old guy taught me, some guy about 40, I think, he came in, you know, I was in the college years, he said, you have to schedule your time with God. I thought, really? That's kind of weird. He says, if you don't, everything else will fill your schedule. If you don't set your schedule, everything else will. I thought that was kind of weird, but 40 plus years later, I have still been doing it the whole time, and I have time for God, and I say, lock it in. I don't keep it 100 percent, but I spend time with God a lot more, because I have it on my schedule. I got social events. I got emergencies. I got networking's, good opportunities, all kinds of things. I go, no, that's my time. I gotta, if I don't keep my time with God, five years will turn to 10, 10 will turn to 20, and I'll look back, and I'll have nothing in my spiritual life. I'll just have memories or ideas of what I could have been. That's not good enough for me. It is costly. We've got to turn some things away, and we've got to aim for some things. I remember, this is going to put some of you under condemnation, and it will put some of you, it'll give you a vision, but I remember when I was in my early 20s, I was a pastoring, I was a youth pastor of a big church, and and all, everybody, I was 21, 22, 23, and now everybody on Friday and Saturday night say, we're so afraid of missing out, you know, that they had to be there, because if they didn't, you know, they would turn around one day, and be 30, and miss out on life, and so I just got, I just said, I got defiant about that. It bugged me, so I determined it. I said, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go, and I don't get under condemnation, but some of you might get inspired by this. I said, I was maybe 21, 23, something like that. I said, I'm going to take Friday and Saturday nights, and I'm going to move in the opposite spirit. I'm not going to be afraid of missing anything. I'm going to have a, get a few guys and gals, and I'm going to have a prayer meeting, or a worship time, every Friday and Saturday, just to spite the enemy, just to move in the opposite spirit, and so I determined to do that, and a lot of my friends, again, they were, oh man, if we do that, we might miss out. I go, I'm not going to miss out. I said, I know what I'm about, and I'm going in the other way. Now, you don't have to do this that way, but 40 years later, I have spent probably 95% of every Friday and Saturday night for 40 years in a worship or prayer meeting for 40 years. I didn't know it'd last for 40 years, but I did it for five, then I did for five more, then I did for 10 more. Well, I said, I'm just going to stick with it. I'm just going to keep going, and so 40 years later, 95 plus percent of my Friday and Saturday nights, I've been in a prayer meeting or a worship service, and here's all I want to tell you. I'm not telling you to do it. I'm telling you I have zero regrets, zero regrets, and I look back. I go, Lord, I don't even know how I did that because I did it kind of despite the current way. I said, I'm not going to be one of those young adults running around afraid I'm going to miss out. I don't want to miss out on the other stuff. Not that I went that deep, but 40 years later, I look back. I go, Lord, if I had to do that over again, I would. Now, I missed a ton of good, fun opportunities, but I had a ton of really good times with the Lord and with people sitting around in prayer and worship together, and again, I know that's going to condemn some of you. I'm not putting that on you, but a couple of you crazy guys in the good sense, you're going to go, you know what? I might try that for a year or two. I just might just do that, and my real point isn't to do it or not do it. My real point is don't schedule your time in fear you're going to miss out on that glorious time that never is always that glorious, and so it's, you know, the years unfold. They go, well, it never really was that great out there, but anyway, you do with that what you do. The knowledge of God is costly to pursue, and I mean, it takes some turning off and some rearranging some things. It's the most neglected issue in the kingdom. You know, a lot of people, they think if you pursue God radically, it's air. Automatically. I've heard this for 40 years. You pursue God radically. They go, legalism. I go, what's the difference in legalism? Anything that kind of gets in the way of what I want, I guess, and you do it all the time. That must be legalism. There are the more weird definitions of what legalism is, but legalism boils down to many people of if something gets in the way of what they want, and they do it on a regular basis, it just has to be legalism. I go, where's the verse at? They go, well, you know. Anyway, don't let people steal a life of radical devotion out of your heart with false arguments about legalism. If you're doing it to try to earn God's favor, that's legalism. If you're doing it because you're hungry, that is not legalism. You're putting yourself, your cold heart in front of a bonfire because you want your heart to get warm. That's not called legalism. That's called hunger. Well, let's move on. Let's Roman numeral 2, Proverbs chapter 2. I wrote here in my college years. Oh, I was in anguish when I was in my 18, 19, 21, 22, 23. I would read these books, these biographies about these men and women of God that were radically dedicated to God and how God would touch them and use them. And then I would read these books on the knowledge of God. You know, like A.W. Tozer, my high school, my youth pastor when I was 16. You must read A.W. Tozer. I go, okay. I read Knowledge of the Holy. Didn't understand anything. I went, and the guy goes, did you read it? I go, yeah. He goes, what did you think? I go, amazing. And then I took it and started preaching it to my junior high kids. But I didn't understand any of it. Then I tried to preach it to my college Bible study. Had a Bible study in college. It was pretty bad because I didn't even know what it meant. But I was trying to go for it because my leader said A.W. Tozer is amazing. And then J.I. Packer wrote a famous book in the 70s on knowing God. He's a great theologian. I read his book. I went, ugh. Now I really like him, but I remember going, this is boring. I don't get it. But everybody older than me tells me the knowledge of God is critical that I get it. And I thought, I don't even know what it means, the knowledge of God. But I used the term a lot because everybody was using it in my little circle. And so then I thought, okay, knowing what God's like, okay, I'm getting it a little bit. And so I started reading books on it. Found them pretty boring, to be honest. And asking all my leaders that were 30s and 40 years old. I'm 18, 19. How do you get the knowledge of God? A lot of them would say, well, they give me this answer. They'd give me that answer. And I just couldn't get a good answer or one that made sense to me. But I was in pain because I said, I am not going to spend my life not knowing God. I just am not going to do that. And I can't feel Him. I can't understand Him very well. And I would read these biographies. And I would lead Bible studies, you know, 10 or 20, 30 people. We'd all be together and I'd give a little Bible study. And I would all, not always, often tell the story of biographies. Because I didn't know the Bible enough. And the knowledge of God stuff was too confusing. So I would quote some of it to them, but I couldn't really understand it very well. But I could get biographies. So I would tell stories of famous people in history. Then I remember the day it changed my life. I remember I slammed my hand on the table. And I said, why not me? Why am I going to just know about people who knew God? Because I was happy to know about people who knew God. I was happy to know people who knew God. You know, that was good enough for me. But there was a moment, I remember I said, I am not content to know a man who knows God, or to know a woman who knows God, or to know a story. I'm going to know God. I remember it was kind of a scary moment. I said, I'm going to be one of those guys. And I thought, maybe. I don't even know how to do it. But I remember that decision changed my life. Because then I went from just kind of being amused at dedicated people to where it became personal. I'm going to be one. And I remember going, oh man, I don't know if I'm going to make it. I don't know if I'll follow through, you know. But it sounds good. And I didn't have any great breakthrough after that. But it just kind of, but it changed the way I looked at my future. Because then I started spending my time different. I said, if I'm going to be one of these guys, I got to start doing things different. It changed my vision. But anyway, I had great anguish over this subject. And I asked everybody, how do you know the knowledge of God? Because that's what all these books said. You got to know the knowledge of God. I read the books, felt anguish, but I didn't know how to do it. So I remember I'm on a ski retreat in my college ministry. We all went on a ski trip. That was before One Thing Conference. No, anyway. It was the last days of December. It was, I remember it was January 1975. So that's a long, long time ago. And I'm on the ski trip. And I'm sitting there in the morning having my devotion time. I didn't really like my devotion time, but I had it because I scheduled time with God. I'm going to do it. And one of these days I'm going to like it, praise God. But I would do it anyway. Because my leaders told me it would be, sooner or later you're going to like it. Because, you know, my story, which I've said many times, I didn't like reading the Bible. I didn't like prayer at all. I liked meetings, but I didn't like prayer in the Bible. I hated fasting. And if an angel would appear to me in college and said, yeah, young boy of God, you will lead 24-hour prayer with Bible studies going night and day, I would have collapsed in despair. I would have said, yes, I am chosen. I would have said, no, in the name of Jesus, what did I do? That would have been torture. If God would have told me about IHOP at that age, I would have just been overwhelmed with discouragement. Going, really? Like all the time? Really? What did I do wrong? Because I didn't like it. The Bible was confusing, prayer was boring, and fasting was horrible. And I remember some years later, I remember I was in a Q&A time with a bunch of people. I'm in my maybe 25, I don't know. And some guy said this. He said, it's a group about this size. And they were going, when did you first start really enjoying the Bible? And I said, I began to enjoy the Bible, and I stopped in mid-sentence. I said, oh my God, I enjoy the Bible. It's a cathartic moment. I'm going, Mike Bickle likes the Bible. They're all looking at me. They're going, what's he doing? I go, I like the Bible. When did that happen? No, it hit me in one moment. I go, I didn't even know I did. But I do. When did it change? I wish I could have got a bottle of it, you know, stored it up and measured it. But somewhere in there, it shifted from 18 to 25. I don't even know when. But when they asked me that question, I mean, I had like a tear in my eye. And they go, why? Are we being personal? I go, I like the Bible. Oh my God, it's a miracle. I like the Bible. They're going, he's having a breakdown right in front of us. But it was really that bizarre to me because I was so used to not liking the Bible that I don't know when it snuck up on me. But anyway, here I'm having my, I got, I'm at the ski trip and it's with a brand new believer. And this guy sits next to me. He says, how do you have a quiet time? A person's eye of God. And so, you know, since I've been doing it for like six whole months, so I am an expert to him. I didn't have the heart to tell him I didn't like it. And so I was there in the room and before we went on the ski trip and I said, well, here's what I do. The first thing I do, I read one proverb a day. Some guy said, you know, whatever day it is, pick that proverb. And I said, what's today? They said, January 2nd. Okay, January 2nd. Let's read, let's read Proverbs 2. That's what I'm going to read in a minute anyway. So the guy says, okay. I said, open your Bible. So we're there. I go, number one, if you receive my words. I said, as a great Bible authority, I go, now listen, if there's an if, in a few moments, there's going to be a then. This guy goes, man, you really know the Bible. I go, well, yeah, I do. I go, so there's if. So I stop. I go, so you want to notice the if. So we circled it. If you receive my words, if you treasure my commandments within you. He goes, what's that mean? I go, I don't know for sure, but let's just read the whole Proverbs 2, and then let's go from there. So that if you incline your ear to wisdom. I go, okay, I don't know what that means either. Verse 3, if I go, ah, two ifs in a row. That's big. You don't get two ifs in a row very often. I mean, how did I know? But I did say that. But this guy was brand new, so he thought I was a, you know, Greek and Hebrew scholar. You know, he didn't know I didn't like the Bible. I respected it. I just didn't like reading it. I go, wow, there's two ifs in a row. If you cry for discernment, number four. Verse four, I go, if I go, whoa, three ifs in a row. I go, there's nothing like this. And this guy's going, okay, that's big. I go, circle it. Let's, you know, because I haven't, I've never, I've read the chapter, but I never, never, so I go, there's going to be a big then coming up in a minute. If you seek for her as silver and treasure, then, I go, here it is. I knew it. You will understand the fear of God and the fear of the Lord. And I said, find the knowledge of God. I went, oh my God. Oh my God. He goes, what? I said, that's the answer. This is the person I'm looking for. I go, didn't you find them? All my guys I've been asking, they don't, I go, I got to figure this out. The guy, I go, you know what? We're done. I go, and then it was only like four minutes. He goes, well, that was quick. I go, no, we'll do it tomorrow. Proverbs three, same time tomorrow morning here. I go, oh my gosh. So I looked at it. If you see my words, okay. I don't know. I don't know for sure what that means. If you cry out, okay, I get that. That's pray. I don't like to pray, but I will. If you seek for his treasure hidden, like what's hidden? What's the hidden? Where's it at? And I remember going hard, but I had this stirring of my heart. It was a moment. That moment, that four minutes literally changed my life because I dismissed my little teaching time with him. And I said, God, this is what I'm in anguish about. I got to figure out what those verses mean, verse one to four. If I can figure out what verse one to four means, I'm on the right path. I can, this could work. I mean, Mike Bickle could know God. I go, wouldn't that be a miracle? I said, I don't really like the commands that much. And I don't really like crying out too much, but I'll figure this thing out. Okay. Let's look at condition number one. If you were there all, by the way, it's very simple, but it's so simple. Anybody can do it, but so simple, not everybody does. But these are really real conditions. These are not kind of, well, most of them, all five of them. I mean, they're, they're real. We need all of them together. Not that you're going to perfect them, but you need to have them in the mix. The Lord says, if you will receive my words. Now to receive his words is, is not just to read them. It's the opposite of repelling them and ignoring them. It's receiving them, saying yes to them. That's the spirit of obedience. John 14, we know the verse very well. Jesus said, if you love me, you'll obey me. That doesn't mean we obey every time, but I call it the spirit of obedience, meaning we set our heart to obey. To receive the word is opposite of ignoring it or just repelling it or arguing against it. It's to set your heart to obey it. You know, in other words, to be holy, to walk in holiness. Holiness is not a popular word today, but it's a beautiful word. God is holy and God is holy. In being holy, he has the highest, most pleasurable quality of life. Holiness is the most pleasurable quality of freedom that exists anywhere in the created order. Many people see obedience or holiness as a drudgery, but the Bible presents holiness as equipping us to position us to enjoy pleasure, to enjoy God. Turn to the top of page two. So there's a setting of our heart to obey. But it's not a, it's not a casual. It's like, I want to obey in my time. I want to obey in my money. I want to obey my words. I want to obey my enemies. I want to obey with my passions. I want to obey my sexuality, with my anger, with my revenge. I want to obey in everything. And I, I don't obey perfectly in everything, but when I don't, it's a, I'm aware of it. It's a, it troubles me. It's not like, oh well, you know. I look at that and I said, no, that's not okay. No, that's not okay. I am going to line back up on that area. And again, it's way more than, you know, just avoiding immorality or not stealing money. It's time. It's words. It's your attitude towards enemies. It's gratitude. It's not complaining, grumbling. There's a, there's lots of them. And I said, I really want to obey. I want to do all these. And I don't do them all that great, but I've set my heart to do them. And that is absolutely essential. The person that wants to go to a ministry school or be a Bible teacher, worship leader, but they haven't set their heart in obedience, it just, it gets weird because you can learn knowledge, but the knowledge will harden you and not tenderize you. Because knowledge is, Bible truth is not neutral. It will tenderize you or harden you. Bible truth is never neutral. It moves you. Tonight, every one of you are moving an inch forward or you're listening to this going, well, you know, whatever. And you're moving an inch backward. Nobody is the same after hearing this. Nobody, well, of any teaching, I don't mean tonight, every single time. You move and whatever an inch is. I mean, it's not like a mile, but it's, you're incrementally a little forward or a little back every time you hear the word. And if you don't set your heart to obey, and that's the danger of being in full-time ministry or a full-time worship leader or full-time preacher or full, you got, you interact with truth so much, but you don't have a that truth will harden you. And five and 10 years later, you won't be able to feel anything. And people kind of wonder, well, what happened? I go, you got to respond to truth. It's not neutral. I promise you it's not neutral. So set your heart to receive it. Top of paragraph C, the second condition, very simple one. He says, if you treasure my commandments. Now to treasure the commandments is more than to read it. The word I use is to meditate, to savor it, to chew it over and over and over. Like the word meditate is like the cow chews the cud. You know, they, I don't know. I can't remember. I used to know. But a cow has so many stomachs. Does anybody know how many stomachs a cow has? How many? Four. And they go from stomach to stomach, and they, I don't even want to think about how it works. But anyway, the four stomachs, and they chew the cud over and over. That's what meditation is. We chew. We savor it. We talk about it with the Lord over and over. And the way to treasure, just real practical, is prioritizing doing it. It's not enough to say I value the Bible by a poster about the Bible. You have to actually open the Bible and take time. I call it to pray, read the word. And this is clearly the most important thing I have done in my spiritual life in 40 years. There's nothing close to this. Whatever is second is a couple steps down. This is absolutely number one, to pray, read the word. And what I mean by that is when I read the Bible, if I see an exhortation to obey, I pause. It's real simple. It's a real quick pause. You know, it says bridle your tongue. It says be grateful. It says serve one another. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I mean, it's whatever it says, serve, forgive, whatever it is. I pause for a second. I look at that. And I say, I don't always, but there's what prayer reading says. I say, Lord, I set my heart to do that. I stop for a second. I don't just underline it. I turn it into the conversation with a person. I go, Jesus, I set my heart to do this. It says do not complain. Okay, I still complain. But when you get that in your conversation a bunch of times, you're going to complain a lot less. I go, I set my heart to not complain. And then I said this second little phrase, help me. Remind me and inspire me. Just help me. Then when I read a passage that tells me to believe something, you know, God is love. God is good. I have forgiven you. I will provide. I will guide. I will protect. There's hundreds of promises. I pause instead of just underlining it and say, cool. I pause. I turn it into a conversation with a real person. And I say, thank you. It says, I love you. Thank you. I died for you. Thank you. I say, thank you. And then I add the one phrase, show me more. So if it's an obedience passage, I say, I set my heart. Help me. Remind me and inspire me. If it's a believe God passage, I say, thank you. If you say thank you, it will surprise you. If you talk to a real person and say thank you, you get, not always, but all of a sudden, like, there's a real person listening to me right now. I can feel his presence. And the Lord says, you know, you've never thanked me for that before. And then I say, show me more. And this one thing right here is critical, but you got to do it in the spirit of obedience. Because to learn, a lot of people read the Bible to get Bible knowledge, to win arguments and give sermons. No, you want to, that's okay to be able to get Bible knowledge, but you want to turn the Bible into conversation. If it doesn't turn into conversation with a person, I could still help you, but it's not near so helpful. Here's the passage. Again, my college years. It's the same time with the Proverbs 2. I read this passage soon after that, actually. It was very, very similar time. I was reading the Bible. I was doing Bible study every day. And I was, I felt I was backsliding because I said, my heart is so cold and I'm studying the Bible. And I was going chapter by chapter through the New Testament studying. And it was so boring. I couldn't make sense of half of it or way more than half of it. And I was reading it and I thought, Lord, I don't even like this. And I read, I was going through John just systematically and with a little commentaries and trying to make sense of it. And this verse was like the Proverbs 2. This verse hit me like a bolt of lightning. Proverbs 2 and John 5, these two passages in my college years were the two primary passages. And I had one more verse. I put the Luke 15 where the prodigal son, where the, where Jesus said, and the father saw the prodigal son and he ran to him and embraced him. So Luke 15, Proverbs 2 and John 5 were the three passages that set me in a total different path. You know, if God, John, Luke 15 is going to run after me and hug me and love me when I blow it, like, hey, this works. I can do that. If he likes me like that, I'm in. But I was reading this. It says, if you search the scripture, that says Bible study, okay, that's me. And in them you think you have life, meaning by doing Bible study, you think your heart will encounter the anointing of the Spirit. That's what it means to have life. I mean, if you, the word eternal throws you off because you think, you might read this verse and think you're talking about being saved and going to heaven forever. I mean, it includes that. But if you do Bible study, you think that you will have life. You will interact with the anointing of God because you have Bible study. I go, well, I thought that's what my leader said. If you study the Bible, you touch God. He goes, Jesus says, no, they talk about me. They point to me. But look here, verse 40. He's talking this to the Pharisees. He's saying this. He goes, but you don't come to me in the Bible. You don't actually talk to me when you read the Bible. You just read it. You don't talk to me. And the light went on that you might have life. And instead of life, don't think of just live forever in heaven. Think of experiencing the anointing and presence of God right now. That's what life is. I went, that's my problem. I never talk to you. I study and write notes and give Bible studies, but I don't ever talk to you. Oh my goodness. So I began way back in those early days this thing called prayer reading the Bible. I said, I don't know how to do this. Okay, when I read a verse that tells me to do something, I'll pause and say, I set my heart. Please help me. I get a verse that tells me to believe something. God loves me. God forgives me. God will provide. I'm going to say thank you and show it to me. Paragraph D. He says, incline your heart. You know, a lot of folks read the Bible not to really hear what it says, but to find support for their compromise or support of their unbelief. They want to believe something. They just want to, or they want to stick with something they learned back when, when they were young. And they're not reading the Bible to find out what it says. They're reading the Bible to support what they want to do or what they already think. And the Bible says, no, you got to be teachable. You got to be like, anything goes when I read this verse. And I find that, you know, the thing that I've said over the years I'm most troubled by in our nation is what I call the distorted grace message, where people use biblical terms, but not the biblical meaning or the biblical context. So they'll say grace, mercy, justice, but they don't mean what God means by it. And lots of people are getting seduced into this false way with God under the banner of grace. And they're using grace to support a life of compromise all under grace, and it's a huge deception. And I've had discussions with people 20 years on this, a lot more in the last 10 years. They're searching for Bible verses so they can keep doing things. I go, no, you can't read the Bible that way. You got to read the Bible like He's the King, whatever it means it means. If it says stop, doing the stop. If it says start, doing the start. If it says believe this, believe it. And that's what this verse means. You have to come with a teachable spirit, not injecting what you want it to mean. That is critical as well. That's condition number three. Condition number four, ask God for revelation. Just talk to Him. Say, Lord, give me more. Give me more. It doesn't have to be real powerful or amazing. Just you can groan and grunt, you know, give me more, please. You know, it's not the volume. It's not the eloquence. It's none of that. Just, Lord, look what John 7 says. I mean, Matthew 7. Ask, it will be given. But it's asking, keep on asking. It doesn't mean ask all day, every day, and never stop. But the asking is in a continuous present tense. The Lord says it will be given progressively to you. Keep seeking and progressively you'll find. Keep knocking. It will unfold little by little by little. And so I said, okay, I'm going to cry out. And my favorite prayer is the Ephesians 117. I stumbled into this because some guy said to make it your main prayer. I was literally about 20 years old. I didn't even know what Ephesians 117 meant. But I read a book and the guy said, that's the prayer I pray every day. And I went, works for me. I need a prayer I pray every day. I'm glad I read that book because it's a great one. I mean, he could have sent me on another verse, but I just took it and I've stuck with it for 40 years. That's not the only verse I pray, but boy, you can't go wrong with Ephesians 1. Condition number five, be aggressive. This is where a lot of folks lose their way. They want to casually go deep on the run. You know, I mentioned again, you don't have to do the Friday, Saturday night thing, but I'm 21, two or three, whatever. I just said, I'm just not going to be afraid to miss it out. I'm only on the earth in this age for a short amount of time. I'm going to go deep in God. If I miss out on some parties, it's a fun. I don't care. I just don't care. I'm going to figure this thing out with God. And then a minute later, I'm going to die anyway. Because you know, David said 70 years later, it was a vapor. You're gone. You're 10. You look up, then you're 50. Then you look up, then you're 70. David said, my life's a vapor. I'm gone in a minute. But go for it like it's hidden treasure. The analogy I've used over the years, I used it the other day on a Wednesday night. You know, somebody took this building or this room, buried a billion dollars in it somewhere and said, you can take a jackhammer. You can take any kind of saw, any tool, bulldozers. You can do anything you want to tear the foundation out, the ceiling, the walls. And if you find the billion, it's yours. But a bunch of you are doing it together. I mean, anybody could do it. Everybody's going after it. You would probably go pretty long hours going after it. And so that's an imperfect illustration because we're not competing with others. But if you really could find hidden treasure and you only had limited time to do it, it is remarkable what the energy we might put into it to find it. This verse is literal. Seek for it like hidden treasure. This isn't a parable or a poem. This is real. And I've seen young people over the years set their heart to seek the knowledge of God like treasure. And I tell you, I've seen it over the years in my 40 years of ministry. And God puts this in the hearts of young people. Not all of them, but I've seen some really stick with it people that have stuck with it over the years. And my prayer, I'm going to pray in a moment, that God will mark you not with just an obedient spirit and not just I'm crying out for more, but you're going to say, I refuse to be denied. I'm going to have the deep things of God. It says it's the glory of God to hide something, to conceal a matter. It's a kingly spirit to search it out. And you don't have to search it out to make it to heaven. You go to heaven and be spiritually mature. I mean, hundreds of millions of people probably that will be their story. But here's what Job said. God said to Job, you will lay your gold in the dust. Yes, the Almighty will be your gold. There's a day, there's a kind of person that determines God is going to be their gold. It's not a big ministry. They may have a big ministry, but that's not their gold. It's not pleasure. It's not comfort. They might have some pleasure and comfort. It's not fun. It's not friends, though they'll have some friends. It's fun. That isn't what they're going for. That's not what they're going for. They're going, God is their gold, their reward. They're saying, I'm going to touch this in a deep way. And verse, paragraph G, the promise, in time you will find the deep knowledge of God. Now, deep corresponding to this age. I mean, the age to come will go way deeper. Paragraph H, I said this earlier. I'll end with this. God releases just small little measures of insight and inspiration. This is my story. A little here for 30 seconds, for three minutes. I feel inspired. I feel touched. Maybe I'll go five minutes. Often I'm a big journaler. I love to journal. I love to say, when I say something to God and I feel it, I like to write down what I said to God. Because I want to say it again. And so I'm a fanatic journaler when I'm in prayer. That's why I always got my laptop right there and my notes. Because I'll say something like, I love you for real. And I'll feel it. And I'll go, ooh, I love you for real. Me and the Holy Spirit, that worked. The next day I say it and nothing happened. I go, okay, that's okay. I'm going to keep that there. If it works once, it's going to hit me again. Not every time. And I'll just say, Lord, you are my gold. You are my divine entertainment. Ooh, divine entertainment. Okay. That's good. Yeah. I like you that way. Ooh, I felt that one too. I like you this way. Not every time. That's exaggerated. Many, many, many times. I feel something. I write it down. Because it's the Holy Spirit saying, hey, Mike, you and me work together. I work with you in a tailor-made way. The Holy Spirit works with you in a tailor-made way. Very, very personal. Those phrases move you. So capture them. Because they move you. I move you with those phrases. I go, that works for me, man. Not man, but you know. These little subtle, I call them the little flashes of glory. And the reason I get the word flash from the Song of Solomon 8.6, the seal of fire, it says it's flames or flashes of fire. I think of a little flash, a little 20, 30 second, little two or three minute, I feel it. And I write it down. I call that a little flash of fire. These things, they get into your life, your conversation with God over the years. It's not like it takes 100, it doesn't take 10 years. But you'll look back a year later, five years later, 10 years later, you'll say, oh my goodness, I'm developing a history with God. This is like real. It's like really changing me. Well, amen and amen. Let's stand before the Lord.