Mike Bickle emphasizes the concept of love-based righteousness, addressing cultural misconceptions about obedience and righteousness, particularly in light of recent societal changes. He highlights that true righteousness is not burdensome but rather a beautiful and liberating expression of God's love, which leads to a life filled with the fruits of righteousness. Bickle encourages believers to embrace God's commandments as a reflection of His love, asserting that living in accordance with these commandments showcases God's glory to the world. He urges the church to reject cultural lies that diminish the importance of righteousness and to pursue a deeper understanding of God's love and its transformative power in their lives.

I called it Love Wins, delighting in the leadership of Jesus, and I was addressing the Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage, and I want to continue in that same vein, but I want to focus on the issue of righteousness. I want to expose lies in our culture about a righteous lifestyle, and present the Biblical vision of righteousness, of living in righteousness, I'm talking about a godly, obedient life, that the scripture gives a transforming vision of it, meaning it's not just necessary, it's glorious, it's beautiful, it's liberating in our life when we see it right and approach it in the right way. It's clear today to all of us that are paying attention that lies are increasing in the culture about righteousness, about obedience to the Lord. Some of those lies are actually making their way in the church, and I'm seeing believers promoting some of these lies about righteousness, and there's an increased ridicule about righteousness, about living wholehearted in obedience, but the good news is there's an increasing number of people that are experiencing the grace of God, and experiencing the truth and the liberating power about righteousness. Here in Philippians chapter 1, verse 9 to 11, it's one of my favorite prayers in the Bible to pray. It's a prayer that you can pray for your own spiritual life, pray it for your spouse, your family, your friends. Let's read it, and then I'll go back and make a couple comments on it. Paul says, this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that God calls excellent, being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes by Jesus Christ, to the glory and the praise of God. Again, today my focus is going to be upon being filled with the fruits of righteousness, or wholehearted obedience. You could use those phrases interchangeably. I'm not focusing on the necessity of obedience. That's an important biblical message, but I want to talk about the beauty, the glory, and the liberty of God's commandments, how good they are, what they produce in our life. But here in chapter 1, verse 9, Paul says, this I pray, that love would abound. Now abounding love in the big picture is a person. Abounding love incarnate is a description of Jesus Christ. Now that's not what Paul's saying right now, but the larger context of the scripture is that God abounds in love. He has overflowing, burning love for his people. Paul's prayer here is that because God has such deep passion, that he wants us to experience it. So he wants us to abound in love. Still more and more. Now there's many implications of abounding love. It's the lens through which we understand the kingdom of God properly, through abounding love. It's the ultimate reality of God's heart. Paul goes on to say that love would abound in knowledge. That it's by gaining the knowledge of the scripture, of gospel truths, the knowledge about God's heart, the knowledge about the truth about what righteousness is really about, that helps us, equips us to abound in our experience of love. But he goes on, verse 10, and he highlights something. He goes, when you're seeing love, when you're growing in love, you have the ability to approve or rejoice in the things that God calls excellent. And the specific issue that Paul is addressing is in verse 11. That is, the excellent thing that we see is being filled with the fruits of righteousness. That walking in righteousness is not like the dark side, the down side of the gospel of free grace. But walking in righteousness is actually the result, the most natural result of really experiencing abounding love. And he said this, being filled with righteousness in our lifestyle, it comes by Jesus. Meaning it's by His work on the cross that we receive the gift of righteousness. But it's also by our ongoing interaction with Him that we experience it in our emotions and in our mind. We experience that righteousness as we abide in Christ and interact with Him in an ongoing way. And of course the net result is, the end result is to the glory of God. Meaning God's excellence, God's grandeur is showcased to a dark world through people who live like this. God is glorified, God's put on display through His people. When they are filled with the fruits of righteousness, when they see abounding love, they grow in it and it naturally leads them to a life of wholehearted obedience or a heart, a life of, that's filled with the fruit of righteousness. Let's go ahead to paragraph B. It's Jesus who connected obedience to His commands to loving Him. And then Paul echoes this connection. And he puts abounding love in relationship to walking in righteousness. And the reason that's important is because some people think, well I'm really into the love of God, but this righteousness, this radical obedience, this giving my all to Him, I mean that's rigorous. That sounds again like the dark side of the gospel message. We've got to like obey and we deny our selfish impulses and our sinful desires and oh, and obedience and righteousness is often presented as costly, weighty, burdensome, necessary, but we grit our teeth and endure God's, this negative part of God's leadership that He requires righteousness. Paul goes, no, no, that's a wrong idea. But to see abounding love that's in God's heart and to feel it, it will lead naturally to embracing a life of righteousness, that out of the gratitude of experiencing love, the tenderizing of it, you'll naturally want to walk in agreement with His leadership, which is what righteousness is about. Here in John 14 verse 21, Jesus said, He that has my commandments and keeps them, it's He who loves me. Jesus connected the idea that when we have the commands of God, they are, and we keep them, we live in agreement with His leadership because His commands and His leadership are synonymous. Jesus takes it personally. He says, I take this as you loving me. And I find it remarkable that our small daily choices to keep His commandments in our time, in our speech, our sexuality, in our actions, in our money, those small daily choices, I mean multitudes of choices, Jesus takes them personally as us loving Him, meaning they move His heart. I mean, we think, well, you know, I want to obey, but we kind of, you know, try to obey and leave it at that. And the Lord says, you got to know, it moves me. I take this as you loving me. It's an expression of love. Now God's commands, again, they are synonymous with His leadership. You could almost use them interchangeably. All of God's commands, they're motivated by love in God's heart. God only gives a command because He's motivated to, that His love would be manifest. And all of His commands cause us to express love. So His commands are motivated by love. His commands express love back to Him when we walk in His commands. His commands define love. Meaning, commandments, obedience, righteousness, it's not the downer side of the kingdom of God. It's the love expression. It's the love experience side of the kingdom of God. In Isaiah chapter 4, verse 2, the prophet Isaiah describes the Messiah, who we know is Jesus. And he calls Him the branch of the Lord. That's a term used of the Messiah six times in the Old Testament. It's a marvelous term. I won't go into it right now. But it was said by prophecy, in that day, it was talking about the generation the Lord returns forward. In that time, in that time frame, the Messiah, the branch of the Lord, notices He will be seen as beautiful and glorious. You know, Jesus is more than just a king with authority. He's more than just the boss. I mean, He is the king. He has all authority. But He's delightful. He's glorious. His very personhood is beautiful. And therefore, His leadership, His commandments are glorious. They're beautiful. They're liberating. And as we see the truth about obedience, then we're invigorated. We're motivated to take hold of it, instead of kind of hesitant, reluctant, gritting our teeth, kind of holding our breath to do the bad part of the kingdom of God. I mean the hard part of the kingdom. Obey. Like, ugh. Isaiah would say, you don't really understand Him, if that's your view. Paragraph D. Isaiah goes on in chapter 61. He's talking about the ministry of the Messiah. That He was anointed by the Spirit of the Lord, he says in this verse. Chapter 61. And he says, one of His objects is to give the people beauty in place of the broken, the ash heap of their broken lives. See, our lives, under our leadership, they end up broken in so many ways. We misspend our passions, and we burn ourselves out, and at the end we have ashes to show for it. And the Lord says, I want those ashes. I'll give you my beauty, if you give me your broken life, your, the ash heap of what's happened in you emotionally and mentally, by being under your own leadership and disregarding me. I'll take it. I'll give you beauty. But notice, that as the people of God, they receive His salvation, they take His beauty, they are recognized then as trees of righteousness, as pillars of righteousness. Here's my idea. That I'm, I mean, here's the idea I'm emphasizing. It's the beauty of God that is manifest, that we live as trees or as pillars of righteousness, as stable in a righteous lifestyle. That's beauty being magnified, I mean, being exemplified in our lives. The very beauty that God possesses is the beauty He imparts to His people. Beloved, the very beauty that Jesus has, the very beauty of His leadership and commandments, He goes, that's what I'm going to do in you and through you. Don't draw back from my commandments. Don't buy into the lies and the culture about my commandments that somehow they're unnecessary or burdensome or archaic or old-fashioned or they're opposite of love. Those are lies. That's not the truth. The very beauty of God will be expressed through the people who live in righteousness. Now notice in Isaiah 62, on the same theme, God is speaking. He says, for Zion's sake, for the sake of His people, I'll not hold my peace, I'll not be silent, one translation says, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness. Here's the idea. The righteousness that God works into our life that flows from the free gift of righteousness, it brings brightness to our emotions. It's not something that takes away from us, it brings brightness to us. He wants us to live in the brightness of righteousness. And again, in this age, that brightness is in our emotions, it's in our mind, it's progressive, it's little by little, it grows over time. And then in the age to come, that brightness actually, it beams forth out of our resurrected bodies, but it's still affecting our mind and emotions. I call it bright righteousness. Our natural condition, even when we have positive emotions, is those positive emotions in our natural condition, they're tainted with dark emotions. And so many, even of God's people, are filled with dark emotions, far more than positive. And the Lord says, I'm not saying that as a rebuke or a put down, the Lord says, but I have something more for you. I have a righteousness that flows from beauty. I have a righteousness that flows from, that expresses itself in brightness. I have an obedience, a righteousness that is an expression of your love for me and a response of my love to you. It's about love and beauty and brightness. Paragraph E. One of the primary lies that are being promoted in the culture today, and it's even in the church, is that God's commands, or again, I use the phrase interchangeably, wholehearted obedience, or the commands of God, use them interchangeably, they're burdensome. They're harsh. They're out of reach. They're not really practical. You can't really do them anyway. They're confining. They limit our experience of joy and happiness. They cause us to lose out on real life. I mean, if you obey God, you're going to lose out. They hold us in religious bondage. They contradict true love. I mean, the voice of culture, true love is to cast aside these archaic, old-fashioned ways and enter into the humanistic definitions of love. God's Word, if you obey it, it will actually keep you from true love. Some people have gone as far to say that walking in obedience and righteousness is not even important because the grace of God is so dynamic it doesn't matter if you live in obedience. Those are lies that are finding expression even in the church. Some say that hungering for righteousness is actually harmful because it will make you proud. It will make you religious. It's a sign of legalism. These are all ways that give expression to the lies that are increasing in the culture that are finding a voice more and more in the church today. But they're not true because the biblical vision of righteousness, it's a transforming vision. It's beautiful. It's bright. It's liberating. It's glorious. It's not just it's necessary. It's life-giving is the point I'm making here. I use the word sanctified selfishness, meaning our own self-interest but through the lens of grace. Beloved, it's to your benefit in the grace of God to be radically obedient. It's not that it's costly. It's the way to your full benefit even in your life in this age. I'm talking about your emotions, your mind. 1 John chapter 5. John said this is the love of God that you keep His commandments. His commandments aren't burdensome. He goes that's a lie. They're not burdensome. But this is the love of God. What he's saying is if you really understand the free love of God, you'll respond with obedience. Obedience isn't does it earn the love of God but it's the response to understanding that you receive the free love of God. Some people say well if you get really into obedience you're going to be into legalism. No it's exactly opposite. But this is, this is the expression of a life that understands the free love of God. It's obedience to His commandments. John went on to say it's not burdensome. My commands are not burdensome. Now they are. The commands of God are burdensome if you're trying to earn the love of God from them. I mean then it becomes like a whip, a taskmaster. If you're trying to earn love by obeying, the commands are burdensome. If you're trying to obey the commands disconnected from an ongoing interaction with the Lord, they're burdensome. If you approach the commands in this morbid introspection where you're preoccupied on analyzing and measuring how obedient you are, those commands can become burdensome then. But if you take a relational approach to the commands of God. It's an interaction with a real person. That person is abounding love. When we interact with a person it's relational. It's not a duty bound activity. It's a relational approach to the commands of God, the leadership of Jesus. It's not burdensome then. If we see the commands as bright and beautiful and glorious they're not burdensome. But if you don't see these things they are burdensome. And a lot of folks they're wrong view, wrong approach. They're trying to earn love and the commands are like ahhh. There we go to that obedience thing again. And therein is their liberty and their glory is in that heart response of obedience. Jesus said in Matthew 5, 6 you're blessed if you hunger and thirst to obey God. Hunger and thirst for righteousness. This isn't the free gift of righteousness the day you're born again. I mean because you get that freely and totally in one moment. And right now He's talking about hungering and thirsting to live out a life of wholehearted obedience. That's what He's talking about here. Hungering I mean really wanting to press in to go as deep in our obedience as we can because we understand it's the way that love flows greater in us. It's the way we're liberated. Jesus said I promise you, you'll be satisfied if you do that. Your emotions progressively, it's progressive, more and more you'll experience that brightness and beauty and the strength of God in your emotions if you go in that direction. I've had preacher friends over the years I've talked to and they really want to dumb down the message of wholehearted obedience. They go well you know I don't want to challenge the people too much. I want to keep it practical. I want to do something they can do. And I don't want to press too much about the response of wholeheartedness because it will burden them. And I said no it's exactly opposite. Exactly opposite. And I go if you don't press them, challenge them to respond in this hunger for obedience to go for it. I go they're going to, you're going to leave them in a place where spiritually they're bored spiritually. They're empty. They're depressed. I go you're not freeing them from Jesus' you know negative leadership. I said by calling them to wholehearted obedience you're putting them in a position to experience it and to have the fullness. I go we do a great disservice to the people we minister to by pulling back on this reality and this truth. It's the only place you're filled. Paragraph F we've talked about this passage Psalm 2 a number of times the last couple years. I believe it's one of the most relevant prophetic passages in the whole Bible for what's happening today. And David describes the leaders of culture, kings and rulers of the culture of society. They're against God. But really they're against His commandments. It says in verse 3 here's what the kings and the rulers of culture are saying. They're challenging God's leadership and they're saying we want to break your bonds off of us. Because they see the commands of God as bondage. They're promoting the lie in the culture that a life of radical obedience will hold you in bondage. It will make you a bigot. It will make you a hater, a discriminator. It will make you bad if you buy into this. It's bondage. And David said the leaders of culture particularly this is all through history but at the end of the age it really culminates. They will come together and they will want to cast God's commands off of the culture entirely to get free from this God whose leadership is so burdensome. Well the truth is the leaders the word of God is what liberates us. It's not what puts us in bondage. It's exactly opposite. Righteousness. Commands of God. Wholehearted obedience. All the same idea. It's the most hated virtue in the culture. It's the most attacked virtue. Obedience to Jesus. Attacked. I mean even in the church. I mean everybody will talk about grace and love. As long as it's you everything is okay and nobody messes with your life because God loves you. That's let's just keep it simple. You're going to get you're going to have more friends. You're going to have more money. You're going to be happier. And God's going to give it all to you. And you just live your life like you want and every now and then throw up a salute blow a kiss to him and everything is fine. Beloved that's not the gospel. God's commands aren't bondage. They are liberty. Top of page two if you would. Paul prays. Paragraph G. This prayer is that love would abound. Now when he prays I pray that love would abound. Now remember abounding love in the big picture of scripture is a person. It's the man Christ Jesus. Truth is a person. Not just a theological argument. Truth is a person. It's a man. He's fully God. He's fully man. Abounding love is a man giving full expression to the father's abounding love. But when Paul prays that love would abound he's praying three things. And the reason I want you to get this so you pray these three things for your own life or for your family and your loved ones. Number one he's praying that we would grow in understanding of God's abounding love for us. So when Paul says oh I pray that love would abound in knowledge he's praying I'm praying the church would see more of the burning heart of love God has. Number two it's not just that God loves us with abounding love. He wants us to respond and love Jesus back. He wants to tenderize us so that we respond and love. Beloved there's nothing more pleasurable than having the power to walk in loyal love. To be wholehearted. I mean when we're wholehearted even though our wholeheartedness is still frail and weak but it's our all. When we're bringing our all into the relationship. All of our love there's something that's powerful about that. There's something about loyal love that moves us. The reason he wants us to love him with all of our strength because he loves us with all of his strength. His all is a lot bigger than my all. He says but bring your all into the equation. My all is small and my all is flawed. But he goes bring it. Bring it. This is relational. This is not a duty bound checklist thing. Bring your heart in. And beloved weak love is not false love. Our love is weak. Our love is frail. It's fragile in many ways but it's our all. And the Lord says I'll take it. I'll take it and it honors the relationship because I brought my all. All of loving with all my strength into the relationship. It's a glorious reality. Paragraph H. Paul says we abound in love in knowledge. Or another way to say it is by growing in knowledge our experience of love will increase. So the practical idea is focus on growing in knowledge of the Word. I don't mean in mysterious hidden Bible truths. That's not what I mean. I mean the simple gospel truths. God's heart is filled with love. Jesus' death on the cross was amazing and totally sufficient to make us recipients of the love we did not deserve. That a godly lifestyle is beautiful and glorious and liberating. Not boring and burdensome and bondage. It's exactly the opposite. It's these kind of truths. They're very simple truths. But when we grow in the knowledge of these and we grow in the knowledge by hearing them over and over. By speaking them. By saying these things back to God and getting them into our language. Into our speech with God and one another. This is our confession. He loves me. Jesus loves me like the Father loves Him. Because of the finished work of the cross I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Righteousness is bright and beautiful and glorious and liberating. These are the things we speak back to God in our interaction with Him. This is our confession of faith. Paragraph I. I've heard this many times over the years that right believing results in right living. Some people focus on right living. Like living in righteousness. What I'm talking about right now. Living in righteousness. But the key to living filled with righteousness is believing right. The way that love abounds is in knowledge or by knowledge. You want to abound in love and you want to see the things that God calls excellent which is righteousness. You want to see the excellency of righteousness so that you're compelled by it and not put off by righteousness. I mean the call to it. Beloved when I see the truth about righteousness it's compelling. It's beautiful. It's wooing. It's wowing. It's not off putting. It's not like yes I want more of that when you see the truth about it. Paul says change the way you think and you'll experience love more. And when you experience love more the natural response to the free love of God isn't to try to earn it. The natural response to the free love of God is to respond in agreeing with His leadership which is obedience and righteousness. We need to focus on right believing because right believing results in right living. I've heard those kinds of statements many times over the years. Paragraph K. He says being filled with the fruits of righteousness. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness. Now some believers they want to seek to obey God as little as possible and still go to heaven when they die. Their approach is that obedience is burdensome. It's a little bit ugly. It's necessary. I'll do some. I mean I don't want to go to hell. I mean gee whiz who wants to go to hell? Ok. But it's burdensome. It takes life away from me. It doesn't enrich me at all. It takes stuff from me. And so their logic is they want to get to the outer edges of the grace of God. There is no such thing as that. That's a completely bizarre concept. And get as one foot as strong in a life of sin without letting go of the old things. But keep one foot in just so they go to heaven when they die and get a little bit of blessing between now and then. I mean they'll go to a church service. They'll even go to a home group. Give a little bit of money. I mean hey, hey I'm in. But they're leaning as far as they can to live in the values of the culture that are against the word of God. Beloved Paul says no, no that's not what God calls excellence. Beauty, liberty, power is being filled with it. I mean go in the other direction. I mean these guys, I've seen them for 40 years that I've been in ministry. They're, I mean they're clearly in the kingdom. But they're leaning so much the other direction. They have too much of sin to enjoy God. Too much of God to enjoy sin. I mean at least the total unbeliever, they're not troubled with Jesus's leadership over their life. They don't even think about it. They're just sinning boldly and they're just sinning with focus. But the real born again believer, they're going, oh I'm trying to get away with this. I mean they're sweating on it. I mean they're unsettled. They're like Lord, I mean come on Lord. You know, come on. They're just too much of God to enjoy sin. Too much of sin to enjoy God. Most miserable people in the planet are born again believers trying to live as much sin as possible and stay in the kingdom. That is an absolute miserable way to live. It really is. I've seen so many try it. It always ends up so frustrating. Paul says no, no. What God calls excellent, because that's when we abound in love. When we encounter His abounding love, we want to embrace what God calls excellent. We want to prove it, meaning we want to have insight into what is excellent. Paul said it's being filled with the fruits of righteousness. It's being wholehearted in your obedience. It's coming under Jesus's leadership in every area of your life. Your money, your time, your sexuality, your words, your speech, your goals. You want to bring everything under His leadership. Now when we're filled with the fruits of righteousness, it's not just our outward behavior, which I'm talking about. Outward behavior, but I'm talking about our inward emotions. Our inner man and our outer man are touched by the power of this. It's the most glorious way to live. Beloved, loving God is more than just a sentimental feeling in a worship service. Loving God is the power of that bright righteousness touching our emotions. Not that all the negative in our emotions is gone. That's not what I mean. But the negative in our emotions is more and more diminished as time goes by. It's still there, but it diminishes and it's hold over us. Paragraph L. Paul says when you're filled with the fruit of righteousness, it comes, it results in the glory of God. It's the meaning it puts God's excellency on display. When you live more and more, not totally, but you're living in this trajectory, this pathway of wanting to be wholehearted, hungry for righteousness, filled with righteousness. Your thoughts, your words, you're aiming your life in that direction. I mean we don't ever fully get there in this age, but we're on that path and we're getting more and more into this. Paul says God is glorified. You put his excellency, his grandeur, you put his brightness and beauty on display in a dark world. Look what he says here in Romans chapter 12. He says don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by changing the way you think. Be transformed by renewing your mind. Changing the way you think. You change your mind and God will change your emotions. So that you prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Let's look at these phrases. Just a moment on each one. First Paul says don't be conformed to the world. He goes don't embrace the values of a culture that's resistant to God's insisting the leadership of Jesus and His word. Because the values of the culture is being expressed more and more in the church. But at the same time more and more people in the church are being wholehearted for the Lord. Two things are happening simultaneously. There's more believers that are accepting the values of the culture and that's a negative thing. They're conformed to the world. They're imitating and echoing and giving expression. They're succumbing to what the culture says is right and truth. But at the same time there's another group. It's all around the world. They're becoming more on fire. They're getting more resolute. They're understanding righteousness in the heart of God. And they're more resolute than ever to go deep. I see two major trends going on simultaneously in the body. But the body of Christ we've always been called to be a counter culture. Meaning we are to challenge the lies in the culture. We are to shine bright righteousness into the culture. We're not to succumb to the culture that we're intimidated by their ridicule and we just give up and give in and just kind of blend in. Paul says no, no don't imitate. Don't be conformed to the culture. Don't give into it. He goes they'll go the other way. Be transformed in your emotions. Be transformed in your behavior. How? By changing the way you think. Right living begins with right believing. Believe the truth about God's heart that's burning in love. Believe the truth about the sufficiency of the cross. He's done everything to make a person who doesn't deserve it to be fully accepted by God. Believe the right thing about righteousness. It will liberate and bring glory and beauty to your life. Cast off the lie that says God's Word is old fashioned. It's not really that relevant. And Paul says here's what you want to do. If you'll do that, you'll change. Put your focus on changing the way you think. He goes here's what will happen. You will prove, I love this, that the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect. Now in place of the phrase the will of God, the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect. Put the phrase the leadership of Jesus. Put the phrase the master plan of God for your life. Because those are all interchangeable in this context. You will prove the leadership of Jesus, the will of God, the master plan of God for your life. You will prove it's good, acceptable, and perfect. But here's what I want to lock in on as the word prove. He says if you will reject the values of the culture, don't be conformed to the world, you'll be transformed by changing your thinking. You'll prove. You will set on display to a dark world the excellency of Jesus' Word. Jesus' leadership, the will of God. You will put it on display. Your life will be proved. Not necessarily every week or season of your life makes the story clear, but when people take a step back and look at the ten, twenty, thirty, forty years of walking with the Lord. There's hard seasons, times of testing, times of restraint and withholding, but then there's the seasons of release. But when it's all seen together, the leadership of Jesus, the grandeur, the beauty of His leadership and the plan for your life will be set on display. You'll get proof. You will be proof in a dark world it's real. Now he said these three phrases. You'll prove that the will of God or the leadership of Jesus is good, it's acceptable, and it's perfect. Number one, the commands of God, the leadership of Jesus is good. God has a plan for you that's for your good. Yes it is for the glory of God. That's a glorious subject but it's for your good. God says I'm planning something that works for you. I have a tailor made plan for you. And I'm using my leadership to set this in motion. You may not understand it, but I've got a plan that's good for you. And when the enemy comes in like a flood, I'll reverse it, I'll overpower it, and cause everything to work together for good. Even what the devil means for evil, I will turn it around and make it good because I'm planning a good plan for your life. My commands are good. Number two, it says that the will of God or the leadership of Jesus is acceptable. Many Bible translations put the word it's pleasing. I like that. It means acceptable. It sets well in my heart. That's what acceptable means. Or it's well pleasing some translations say. It's satisfying is the idea. Beloved, we don't need to live spiritually bored. The leadership of Jesus, the commands of God, the will of God, it's acceptable. It sets well to the person who understands it and the person that gives themselves to it. It's pleasing to them. It's satisfying is the idea. So many believers are living spiritually bored. I mean they love Jesus and they feel a little bit in a worship service, particularly if the music is just right and the words are real and the singers are real pretty voices. They go, oh I love that feeling. And I like that. I love that. But outside, you know, just them and the Bible and just them and God alone is pretty boring. And the Lord says, no, no, my leadership and my commands and the things, my assignment to you, it's good. It will be pleasing to you if you give yourself to it. Throw away this lie that if you obey me you'll lose out. If you obey me, you'll be enriched in your inner man. Maybe some circumstances will be challenged this way and that way, but forever and forever and ever your circumstances will be amazing beyond anything you can imagine for billions and billions of years. But even your inner man and your circumstances in this age will be affected. Then he goes on, the will of God is perfect. The idea Jesus' leadership will be proven is perfect. The devil is a liar. He comes and tells us Jesus' leadership is deficient, but you give yourself to it, you will be a display that his leadership is perfect. I tell you the devil is a liar. He doesn't like this kind of stuff. He doesn't like messages like this because he's got many people backing away from wholeheartedness because it's burdensome and confining and it's just too hard. It's not even doable. Those are lies. Paragraph M. I love this verse. Matthew chapter 5 verse 19. I mean this is awesome. This is Jesus teaching. He's talking about two different responses of believers in the kingdom of God. He's not talking about a believer and an unbeliever. He's talking about two different responses in the church to his leadership. First he has the negative response. He goes, whoever breaks or sets aside, intentionally sets aside is the idea, the least of my commandments. They're my commandments, but you intentionally set them aside and just ignore them. And then that person influences other people in the same way, to set aside some of God's even smaller commandments. God says the man will still be in the kingdom, but he'll be least. He goes, but then there's the opposite or the other response I'd rather say. Whoever does and teaches even the least of what I commanded, of what Jesus commanded, he'll be called great. Now what Jesus is saying here, I mean I take this verse very personally. This is one of those verses you want to put your name on. Meaning you want to press in for this in the privacy of your, in your private life. He says, whoever does and teaches the word of God. God says that on the last day when we stand before the Lord, he will say, the Lord will say with his own mouth, he will call your life choices. He will say, your life choices were great. He will say, your love was great. Can you imagine on the last day Jesus saying, your life choices were great in my sight. It wasn't about how much you accomplished or how much money you had, how many records you broke, how many awards you won. It's about keeping the commands, his commandments and then convincing others in your sphere of influence. Now the word I really like here is the word whoever. You can be the most ungifted, uneducated, no money, no friends, no giftings, nothing and all you know, the only two people that listen to you is the two kids in the neighborhood. They listen to you, well you give them cookies but they still listen to you. Jesus said, you use your sphere of influence, even if it's very small, that's all I'm asking you to do. You seek to obey me in private, in your private life and you convince others not to disregard my word, my commandments, but you get them, you convince them. He goes, even if your impact is very small, I will call your life great on the last day. Beloved, this is for whoever. There's a whole lot of Bible teachers out there convincing the body of Christ to disregard some of the commands of Jesus. They're going, well that's not really important, the grace of God has covered that. I don't, it's still in the kingdom, Jesus loves them, they love Jesus, but when they stand before the Lord He'll say to them, your life choices, your influence, your love is least. You can be completely unknown in this age, in this life. Completely, I get no friends, no gifting, no this, no that, no education and you can still do this. Let's have the worship team come up. I'm just going to read the last verse in paragraph N. This is the, that amazing vision that Daniel had, Daniel 12. Daniel chapter 12, this mighty angel appeared to Daniel. I'm just going to read it and leave it with you. And this mighty angel, talking about the generation the Lord returns when the great temptations are increasing in the culture, the great persecution against the truth is increasing. He says, let me tell you this, you can read it on your own. He says, many, verse 3, many are going to turn to righteousness. Many are going to turn to righteousness. Look at verse 10, many will embrace purity. Beloved, some folks have this idea that the lies and the darkness is going to win. There's going to be a great harvest of over, I believe over a billion people. And by the way, when the harvest is, the great harvest that the Bible talked about, many believe it will be over a billion, you know, who knows the number, but a large harvest of all nations. Most of them will be young people. There's this lie that says, well the young people today in the church, they don't just, they don't really go for that going deep in God and the Bible. You know, they're on social media. They've got a twenty second attention span. They don't really get it. I said, that's fine. You can have your opinion. But a mighty angel visited Daniel and said, many will accept purity. Many will buy into righteousness. Many of them will. And most of the great harvest will be young people. Lord's raising up a new breed of young people in the earth. They will go deep in God. They'll be radically committed to the word of God. And beloved, I want to be among those that are calling them and equipping them and encouraging them. Whether you're impacting two of them or two hundred of them, it doesn't matter the number. Use your influence and be a part of this great drama that's unfolding. Amen. Let's stand. Lord, we love your leadership. We love your commands. You're beautiful. You're glorious. I'm going to invite people to come up. You're saying, I want to be one of those. I want to pray for it. That's going to teach others. I'm going to use my influence, big or small, to influence people, to honor even the least commandments. Now, stay focused on the greater ones. But I mean, what? I mean, some people, they'll read that verse and they'll get rhomioptic. They'll find the most, you know, tithing, the ment and the, you know, they'll figure out the weirdest, I mean, the most obscure verse they can and make it their life focus. That's not the point. There's some of you in this room right now. You're saying, I want, I want to call people. I want to influence people about the beauty of righteousness, glory. You would like prayer for them this morning. I invite you to come up. I mean, I think most of you want that, but you said, no, I'd like you to like prayer on that point. Others of you, you need healing in your body. You need healing and God to touch your finances, your family relationships. One prayer. Go ahead and come on up as well. I asked for your manifest glory to rest on the marketplace. You will be called great. I'm going to find about 50 of you from all over the room to come out and pray for folks, whether you're visiting or you're local and you love Jesus. Come on up.