Mike Bickle emphasizes the profound love of Jesus as the Bridegroom God, highlighting that His nature is relational and deeply involved with us. He explains that God's love is not merely about mercy but is an eternal, burning desire for relationship, inviting us into a dynamic partnership with Him. Bickle encourages believers to understand their value in God's eyes and to recognize that they are integral to His story, not distant observers. He stresses that our future with God is filled with active participation in His glory, and that love is the core of God's eternal plan for humanity. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a deeper connection with Jesus, urging listeners to embrace their identity as beloved participants in His divine narrative.

Holy Spirit, I ask you to take the things that belong to Him and that you would give them to us. In the name of Jesus, Amen. We're just looking at the notes here. It's session four on our class, Jesus our Magnificent Obsession. Our goal is to be obsessed with the magnificence of Jesus and who He is and what He does and the way that He feels about us. Tonight I want to look at Jesus as the Bridegroom God, the God with a burning heart. Now, at first, when we think of a burning heart of love, we think, okay, He's going to give us mercy. But that's not really where I'm going tonight. I'm going a little different direction. It's that the love of God is a bigger subject, as you know, than just the idea of Him smiling on us now and giving us mercy. But the real point I want to make is that the fact that this is His nature, that forever and ever and forever, He's going to have you deeply involved in all that He does because He's a Bridegroom. So it's the facet of His Bridegroom nature that will cause Him to involve you in a deeper way than we would ever imagine in the days to come. And I don't mean just in this age. This age, yes, but I'm talking about the age to come. This affects the way that we picture Jesus, the way we picture our future, the way we picture ourself. When we get a clear vision of the heart of love and the implications of that in the way that He plans and administrates His kingdom and the way it involves us in a practical way related to His glory. We're very focused as a community, in a good way, on the fact that we want to see the Lord have full glory. But I believe that some of us will be greatly surprised how deeply we will be involved with Him when His glory is fully manifest. And that's the point that I want to make tonight. That He's a God with a burning heart. He's a God of relationship. Everything He does and everything He plans is from the place of thinking of relationship. This affects every sphere of the kingdom. Everything that He does, He does from the foundation of thinking of dynamic relationship. Let's just start with a few basics and again most of this handout we won't go through. I'm just leaving you with some verses to study on your own. Paragraph A, 1st John 4, 16. The nature of God is love. God doesn't just do acts of love. He actually is love. And that's a huge statement. That's a mind-bending reality. He is love. Now the definition of love is relational. In the fellowship of the Trinity, between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God is deeply relational. But the relational implications do not stop there. The way that He's planned His future with you involved is dynamically relational. We can only properly understand God's eternal purposes and that's the focus I'm looking at more than anything tonight, but I'll make it practical for today as well. But the way we think about our future really does affect the way we relate to the Lord even today. Reading the sentence again, we can only properly understand God's eternal purposes and we can only understand how He views us now and then in context to a relational paradigm of God. A God that's profoundly, not just committed to relationship, everything about Him flows in relationship. That's what He cares about. Paragraph B, the nature of God's kingdom, the very nature of it, the nature of God and the nature of the kingdom, the nature of His eternal plan is relationship and it's partnership and it's our involvement with Him. Now one of the key points I want to make in a few moments, I'll just kind of hint at it now, is that many of us have this kind of unspoken, we haven't really put it in words, but when we think of the future and we think of Jesus, we have this unconscious, unspoken disconnect from Him when He is manifesting His full glory. Somewhere we're far away, we fade away, we're kind of out of view and it's just Jesus and He's forgotten us and we, and our whole identity is about singing songs to Him forever and that's all that we do and that's all that He wants. And beloved, we will really enjoy singing songs to Him, but He has more on His heart for you than that. He loves it when we sing songs to Him. It moves His heart and it moves your heart, but there's more in His heart than that kind of paradigm of the future. Paragraph C, God's, I keep wanting to say commitment to relationship, but that's an inadequate statement. His, the very, His whole being flows in relationship. It's more than something He does, it's something that He is. It's not something He puts on, it's something that flows out of Him effortlessly in a, in a, in an unceasing way. But the proof of God's commitment and, and flow of relationship is the very fact of the Trinity, that in eternity past, the Trinity has dwelt together in a deeply satisfying fellowship together and the most amazing thing is this satisfied, pleasing fellowship, this deep, mutually open-hearted fellowship, this is what we are invited to participate in. I don't mean just you and Jesus will have a friendship, you are being beckoned by the Lord forever to participate in the fellowship that's existed forever within the Godhead. He calls us into that dynamic of fellowship. And the question I ask is over and over is, who are you and why do you care so much about me? Why do you want me in this level of participation? And because you do, what does that really mean about the value of my life even now? Though others may not value your life, there's one who does. And He designed you not just to fellowship with you in a casual way, but to actually that you would participate in the deep fellowship, the satisfying fellowship of the Trinity itself forever. That's what you were created for. Paragraph D. Love is God's eternal nature, it's His personality. He is an eternal overflowing fountain of desire. God does not work up desire for you, He is an eternal fountain of desire that never ends. That's His nature. But it's not just His nature, it's the nature of His kingdom. He's the architect of a plan for which this is the centerpiece of the plan, that His desire would be manifest and it would awaken desire in us and we would engage with Him forever at the deepest level imaginable. Again, the idea, the takeaway point of that is, who are you? Such grandeur, such glory, such greatness and why does He want you so much? And if He cares that much about you, then how should you think about yourself now? He's love. Love always desires to share love. Love must have an expression in order to be love. And because He is self-satisfied love at the deepest pleasure, He desires that we would enjoy the enjoyment He has in the love between the fellowship of the Trinity. He wants us to enter into that. Paragraph F, we were created in His likeness. Says in Genesis 1, let us make God in our image, our likeness. So here's the Trinity making us in their likeness. Now the reason we're made in God's likeness is because God intended from the beginning to have deep, eternal fellowship and participation with us. Or that we would participate with God in that which God has already been functioning in from eternity past and that is a fellowship of love. He didn't make us like the angels. He made us like Himself. The angels are servants. Scripture makes it clear, angels are servants. They're not made in the image of God. They are not designed in their spirit to interact with God in this way. So from the very beginning when God thought of the human race, He designed us for deep interaction with Him and the reason is because we're going to have it. He designed us this way not so that a million years from now you're lost far to distance just kind of in an oblivion kind of, you know, Jesus is so supreme that you are nearly non-existent. No. In His supremacy, you, we will be surprised at the value we will have when He is magnified at the highest level, what we will be to Him in that hour. That's the point that I want to make because again, if that be true, if that's the nature of the kingdom and that's how He is, what does that mean about my future? But what does that mean about who I am today? And then how should I live in the light of that? Paragraph 2, the bottom of page 1. We were created in God's image to be loved and to love because that's what God's image is. The reason we enjoy being loved. How many of you enjoy being loved? The reason you enjoy it is because God enjoys it and you're made in His image. The reason you enjoy loving back is because God actually enjoys loving you. It's not effort. It's not a commitment that He made and now that Jesus paid the price, He's, you know, because He's true, He has to walk it out. He actually enjoys loving and enjoys being loved. That's why we do. And He has planned a future. He's the architect of an eternal plan where that is the centerpiece of the design. That all that are His will enjoy being loved by Him and He will enjoy it and they will enjoy loving Him and He will enjoy being loved by them and that's where our future is. That's where it's going. Top of page 2. Now this isn't, all this is a nice thought. You think, wow, that's pretty cool. But I'm talking about something more than pretty cool. Meaning this. When the Lord first called me to the subject of the Bride of Christ, it was 1988, long time ago, and He spoke by the audible voice of the Lord, July 1988, talked about this. I mean the subject was the Bride of Christ. Jesus, the Bridegroom God. I tell the story but I've never really emphasized it to the degree. I was, I did not like this. I like it now but back in 1988 I thought, Bridegroom? I'm like, duh. And it wasn't just, it wasn't even my way. I just thought, it was awkward. Just my, my vision of God was functional. He was a king. He had a workforce called an army. We did His work. The power of God went forth. Great things happen. Yes. He says, well yeah, there's, there's truth to that. But that's not the core reality of the kingdom. And it was a real, it was a difficult shift and that's the point, reason I'm highlighting this, is that though you would agree with the fact that God is love, I found it took me some years after I agreed mentally and verbally that this is where I want to go. It took me some years for my heart to be converted in the way that I carried my heart with God. It took effort. Meaning the truths of His love, they hit my mind and repelled. They bounced off. Meaning, I mean not really, but the truth did not impact me. They were foreign. They didn't take. I couldn't feel them. I couldn't think freely about them. Had a couple, a few Bible verses on the love of God. But it was an effort to even go there. But the point I'm saying is, after some years my soul was more converted to carry itself in that way. It took some effort. That's the point I'm making. But I tell you it's worth it and I have a long way to go. But I'm just saying it took me a while to get in the room. So don't think because you've come to IHOP and we, and the subject of the Bride of Christ is mentioned on a regular basis, that somewhere by agreeing with it mentally, you're, the way that you carry your heart, you're converted to where you can feel it and carry it and think freely about it more than one or two principles. It took some time. It took some effort. But my point in this session tonight is, He really is this way. And we really need to be converted to this Jesus. And it really will change us. But it takes some time and it takes some effort. Paragraph G. God loves us in the way God loves God. That is almost inconceivable thought. I mean, I mean this, this has pushed me for 20 plus years. I've looked at this and I said, Holy Spirit, let this touch me. Not just let me say it as a preacher, let me carry this in my private walk with you. Let this stir up my holy imagination and let me carry my heart according to this truth. This is who you are. This is the nature of your kingdom. This is how you see me. This is the nature of how we will relate forever. I want to get into this room, so to speak. I want to go there. That's what I'm appealing to right now. Paragraph 1. Love finds pleasure in others, in relating to others. For example, when you love somebody, you enjoy relating to them and you want them to feel loved. You want them to actually have the assurance that you love them when you really do. Well, I got good news for you. That's how Jesus is. He actually wants you to feel it. And he finds pleasure in you. Yeah, even you. You think, oh boy, if you knew the whole truth. Well, he knows the whole truth more than you about you. But the whole truth about you is just not negative. He knows more negative about you than you know. But the whole truth about you is profoundly positive as well, because he knows who you are and where you're going in the relationship. Beloved, the whole truth about you isn't what you're doing wrong. The whole truth about you is what he's called you and who you are to him in relationship to him in his plans. That's the truth about you and how you've said yes to the Spirit. He gets that more than you get that about you. Yes, and he knows more bad stuff about you than you do too. Number two, Jesus wants us to feel loved. He celebrates our dignity, our value. He wants to participate. He has pleasure in participating with us. And in the age to come, when he is his full glorious manifest, we will be deeply involved participating with him. And we will have a sense of, a deep sense of ownership in his exaltation. Meaning when he's exalted, it's not like you're going to fade away and it's like, well, you know, it was good when we knew each other. Now that he's famous and he's kind of at the top in front of all the nations, I guess that's the end. Beloved, he will actually be thinking about you in his exaltation. You will actually feel ownership on all the glorious things that happen to him. You won't be at a distance. You won't be in a place of oblivion, kind of, kind of disconnected from it all. It will be part of your story, what happens to him, in a way that will surprise us. Let's look at paragraph I. Love is the greatest virtue. Love is the greatest response to God. Love is the core message of the kingdom. Love is the core value. And my point isn't because of that, we ought to love more. That's another message for another day. The point is, is that everything he plans for you is through that grid. That's the point I'm making. Yes, on another day we'll talk about, we need to love more. But that's not what I'm talking about now. My focus now is the supremacy and the victory of love throughout God's eternal purpose, with you right in the middle of the love flow. This is what's been planned for you. This is the type of man that he is. Fully God, fully man. Continue and I, love is love in relationship. Because there's no such thing as love, it's only sentiment. Meaning, some people have an idea of love, it's what they feel, the sentiment in a worship service, if they feel a little emotion, then they have love. And I like that, I love to feel emotion in a worship service. But love is far more than that sentiment. Love is relational and it's mutual, it's two-way. And this two-way dynamic of love is foundational to every single aspect of the kingdom that he has planned and that he has ordered. Let's look at a few subjects. It's the primary grid from which we define all theology. And the reason I say that, much theology today is separated from this grid, so therefore the theology gets off, it becomes theory instead of reality. A lot of you are in Bible school and I like that, that's important. I'm still in Bible school. I am. I actually study more in my 50s than I did in my 20s and I studied a whole lot in my 20s. I'll never be out of Bible school. In the resurrection I'll still be in Bible school. I'll still be eagerly searching out the word day by day by day. I'll never be out of Bible school in that sense. But here's my point, is that I've read a lot of theology books through the years and and I know this, that if it's not through the grid of this relational paradigm of God who's with burning desire, the theology will be off. But I'll say another, I've already said it, I'll say it again, it takes some effort and it takes some staying with it to get this grid in your mind. It's not automatic. Again, when in 1988 the Lord spoke in this dramatic way about the Song of Solomon, the Bride of Christ, and again it just bounced off of me for a couple years and I labored in it because the way of my mind it did not flow with and so don't imagine that if you're here for a while it's automatic. I believe there's many people that have been in this community, four, five, some ten years, and this has not touched their heart in a deep way, though they have the language they can repeat it. It still hasn't affected them. It hasn't stirred up their holy imagination in their private life. It's not something they think deeply on and often on in their private life. That's what I mean by it hadn't touched them. It's bounced off and that's natural. That's very normal because they didn't know it would take labor to get in that room. The way that we understand salvation, the way we understand the justice ministry, the Great Commission, the way we understand the supremacy of Jesus, the way we understand eternal rewards, the Millennial Kingdom, the judgments of God in time and eternity, the way we understand the body of Christ, holiness, family life, money, everything must go through this grid in order to have a proper bearing of it from God's point of view. But naturally most of it doesn't go through that grid that's being spoken to the body of Christ because it takes time and effort to bring our heart through that grid. But this is the man that we're worshiping. We hardly know him. We know him as Savior. He forgave us. We know him a little bit as healer, a little bit as provider. Every now and then he provides some here there. We got testimony. It's good. And he's our protector. But beloved, those are, I love all those. I want more of all of that. But he's more than that. He's an eternal fountain of desire and love. That's who he is in his core. He is love. The Holy Spirit's agenda is to restore and establish loving God with all of our heart as first place, not just in this age. In a million years from now, in the age to come, it will be first in everybody's life, which is exciting. It just doesn't mean we'll love him. It means there'll be a dynamic, mutual interaction between us and him. Because the reason he called us to love him with all of his heart and mind and strength, because he loves us with all of his heart, all of his mind, and all of his strength, that he's the architect of God's eternal purpose. God is. And God loves us this way. So he's telling me to love him with all my heart. He says, only because I've loved you with all of my heart first. And I think, where is this going? Lord, where is this going? Us interacting together forever. And it's not just me and you interacting, Lord. It's I'm interacting in the fellowship of the Trinity to something beyond anything I can imagine. And all of us together, and then us having an overflow together from that reality. That is where our future is, and that's how valuable we are to God. That's who Jesus is. Paragraph K. We are a great part of his story. We are not just kind of nondescript servants and workers in a vast crowd. We have a dynamic part of the story of his glory. The very existence of a bride, equally yoked to him in love and eternity, the very existence is a significant part of his glory. I've talked to different students over the last couple years, and I get all kinds of strange answers to questions, which I like. But on the subject of his glory, I don't get strange answers. What I mostly get is no answers. What does it mean to live for his glory? You know, just glorify God. Yeah, I know. What does that mean? You know, you know, magnify his supremacy. Okay, what's that mean? You know, you are supreme. You're supreme. Okay, for a billion years? How long? Is that it? You know, stuff like that. Like what? Fill in the blanks. I don't know. Stuff like that. I don't get strange answers. I get no answers. Because it's, we, what I'm doing is I'm presenting Jesus in a way where it, I want us to be forced as a community to break it down in specifics in as much as the Bible gives it to us. Because this is the implications of who this man is. Yes, we will magnify him by declaring who he is. But the magnifying of his supremacy involves much more than the declaration to him of who he is. It's actually to participate with him at the level that he defines, which is intense. We will magnify his supremacy by believing what he says about who he is and what he wants in the relationship. And by being as jealous about our life as he is about our life in relationship with him. That's part of the supremacy of Jesus. That we would enter into the jealousy that he has for our life before him and connected to him. I don't mean just are we living right and obeying the rules. But I mean he has a jealousy for the deep connectedness we will have forever. That he wants to be a part of your heart. He's jealous for it and that's part of his supremacy. Is that reality? It involves so many areas of our life. It's very exciting. Very exciting. Beloved, you are the work of his hands. The body of Christ in history is the work of his hands. We are one of the main ways that he makes his story known. It's not just his glory that emanates out of him. That is glorious. But it's the very fact of that glory in you that is his work, his design, in his idea. Beloved, that is part of his story. Who you are to him is part of his storyline in history. He's really excited about you and he's proud of you and you are central to his future. Because he chose it that way. You're not going to be on a cloud, floating around, playing a harp, singing worship songs, kind of like saying, you know, I wish there was a little more to do Lord. I like this because I tell you we will really, really like that. Singing to him. But he wants more from us than singing. He wants more from us than declaring to him who he is. He wants us to declare who he is for several reasons. Not because he has a need to know or he needs affirmation. That's not a problem with him. Well because his magnificence demands a response but it also has an impact. It does something to us and to the kingdom when we live in that posture. That's for another time. I want to go off on that right now. Paragraph L. Jesus doesn't want us disconnected from his story. And again we have this unspoken disconnect in our concept of his glory or the magnifying of his supremacy. It's like we're irrelevant. We kind of fade and disappear and our being is not, well it's we still exist but kind of nobody knows we do because we're so lost in him that we don't really exist but we do exist. Sort of we exist but something like that. No. That's not how it is. You will be precious and central on his mind. You're not a pawn in a game. You're not just a prop on the stage. He's love. That's who he is. That's what he does. You're the object of his desire and he's coming after us. I mean I'm talking about from the historical point of view. He wants relationship and he wants to bring us into the relationship that he's very skilled and very skilled. That's not the right word. Very experienced with a long history with the Father and the Spirit. That kind of relationship he's had from eternity past. He's not trying to dismiss you. He's not trying to minimize you. Humility isn't to somehow come into oblivion. Humility is to come into agreement with God. That's what humility is. A lot of folks their idea of humility it's false humility. It's they disappear in a way that's impossible because they don't really disappear. They just wish they would but they don't really know how to because they can't because it's not reality. So they don't know how to be humble because they keep existing when they try to disappear. Kind of circular confusion, religious confusion because they don't understand his nature and the nature of who we are to him and why we were created in his image was so that we would flow and connect with him forever. Beloved we are a very significant part of his work. We are one of the ways he wants to make himself known throughout all of history. Look at my great trophy. Look at her the way she loves me. It was my idea. It was my power. It was the work of my hands. She is the statement of who I am. Not entirely. There's more than that but beloved we're a significant part of his story because he wants it that way. If you're that important, who are you? And if you're that important to him, how important should we be to ourselves? Why do we live the way we live? Either positive or negative. Why do we do what we do in light of the value we have to him? Well his original plan was Adam in the garden and he was walking with Adam in the garden. He wanted paradise. He wanted to be with Adam and Eve in paradise. He didn't want to be in paradise without them. He wanted to be in paradise with them. It was his idea. Adam didn't know anything about paradise. God thought of paradise and he's restoring it. He's the last Adam. He doesn't want to be in Eden without us. He wants to be there with us because we're not just saved with a stamped passport. We are literally his bride, his eternal companion forever. It's like this hurts my brain. I must be like really important and I don't get it. That's the point. When the Lord is in his fullness of exaltation, which is forever, you will be in his mind. He won't be forgotten because now he's in the big time. You will be in his heart. I mean it won't be just this way but it's almost though he all of us will feel this in in his full exaltation. It's though he would be looking at us nodding that we know that he knows that we know that we're together. We'll have a feeling of ownership. We'll be fully engaged in it. We'll be a part of the joy of it. We'll have a confidence before him and a boldness in our relationship even in that hour. I mean he's exalted in his own way. It's the only one that's fully God and fully man but in his exaltation we will be near and dear to him, not in oblivion, not irrelevant, not faded away, not disappeared into the clouds somewhere. I can't imagine a good thing happening to me. Without me wanting my wife and sons and now my daughter-in-laws and grandchildren. Without them being in my mind related to this good thing. I mean if somebody called up and said here I'm giving you a hundred million dollars. Well the good news I'd use it on an IHOP and I'd help you guys do your work scholarships. So that's you'd be on my mind big time. You know I've thought it a thousand times that's the way that slipped out anyway. I think it's really gonna happen but anyway that's another story for another time. But I'm trying to just tell a story here an imaginary story and I slipped into reality. The first thing I would do if some great honor came or some great you know increase of wealth. The first thing I would do is call my wife and my sons and I would be thinking always about how they could share it and be a part of it. First thing I would think of well if me if if I being evil could think that way how much more does he think that way about his exaltation. You're on his mind he's thinking of a way to share it to include you in it. Top of page 3 paragraph 0. There's nothing more theologically accurate than Jesus is love. That is the that's the grid. Now man will define love and get people off because I'm talking about love on his terms not love on man's terms because man's definition of love is different than his. Talking about love on his terms the whole thing but I take that for granted that most of you know that's where I'm coming from. You know I've heard some of the we had a discussion a month or two ago whatever a couple of them about singer our worship leaders all sit around a couple of them said we want to sing songs about to describe Jesus but not never involve us. I said what I said no just Jesus. I would know I know me nothing just me and Jesus. I go that's weird. It's like my wife coming to me saying I promise I'm so devoted to you I will never talk about us and I'll never talk about me ever in our conversation say why that's weird. Aren't we like together going I'd like you to talk about you and us. I mean I'm committed I'm in like why not. Oh because it's you I don't want to talk about us like yeah but you're part of my story my history. Go ahead like how you feeling like should I talk about me. Anyway I told I told them I said I said where did you get that idea. Well it's just about him beloved you're a part of the story. I mean you're a deep part of what he thinks about and where he's going. I mean there is no kingdom of God in the future without his people. He's already established it. It's a fact of history. You can't tell his story or proclaim all about him without you being involved somewhere. He's not a disconnected being. He's a deeply relational being whose love and desire and you're the object of it. It sounds noble but it we only talk about Jesus not about us but it's Jesus doesn't like that. He really likes you. Like again and my wife says I'm never gonna bring up my heart or our relationship I'm just gonna tell you Mike about you like please don't. I mean if she was being the most positive it would be relationally strange. We are married to him forever because he wants it that way. He came after us. We didn't come after him. It's his idea not ours. Now there's time you don't need to be in every song but our his joy about the father his the glory of what he did the way he feels about us our struggle to love him our cry for help our glory with him all of that's part of a vast story it's a that diamond with many facets. Roman numeral two. Jesus the bridegroom. The very fact paragraph A and B here's what I'm saying in A and B. He calls himself in the Bible bridegroom and husband. He did that. He calls us bride in the Bible. The relationship is called betrothed and married. That's Bible. That's Holy Spirit inspired. The reason for this language because he wants to relate with us deeply forever and he means it. We don't have to fully get all the implications of it but my point right now is that's his nature. That's the nature of the kingdom and that's what he wants with you. He named himself this. We didn't go and say would you consider a date? I mean you don't have to. We just have coffee. Just be friends. I mean no heavy thing. It didn't happen that way. Here we were in sin and darkness completely fixated on our own ego and sin and he goes I want you to be mine forever. I'm coming after you. We're like what? Why are you intruding in my life? Because I have glorious plans for you. You and I will be together forever. Top of page four. The only way we can understand salvation is through a love paradigm or a paradigm just means perspective. Through a perspective of love. Through a lens. A set of glasses. That's another word for paradigm. You could say a set of glasses. Only through looking through that lens can we understand salvation. Salvation is so much more than escaping hell. Paragraph B. Look how God describes salvation. Because of his great love, which he loved us, he raised us up. We sit together on a throne no less. We sit with him on a throne. Why? Why do you want all of this? Verse 7. Look it's this is very important. Why did you love us and do this for us? So that in the ages to come I could show all the created order how kind I am. I wanted my kindness needed manifestation. My tender kindness was bursting out and the only theater that I wanted it to be expressed in its fullness was you. My kindness will be on display forever. Every time that you love me, every time we share the secrets of our heart in eternity, my kindness will be trumpeted. I mean will be the message will be trumpeted through our interaction. We are the trophy. The people who benefit from his kindness were the trophies of his riches. It's amazing that he is this way. Paragraph 4. A paradigm of holiness. Holiness, radical Christianity. I mean people have ten views of that. It has to go through the grid of love. I call it affection based obedience. Yes there is duty based and fear based and actually both of them are biblical. They're just weak. Affection based obedience. It's through the grid of his desire that we obey. That's the strongest obedience. Roman number 5. Bottom of page 4. A love paradigm of success. Success to some people is a dirty word if you really love Jesus. The goal if you, now the people who like success, well they're those guys who just want money and fame and honor. They just kind of use Jesus's name. They're not even into Jesus. That's kind of what you hear them say and so because people abuse success in Jesus's name, the people who really love God, success is a dirty word. It's not a dirty word. Success is profoundly a part of his agenda for you. You can't repent yourself out of wanting success. You can repent of wanting it the wrong way and in the wrong timing and in the wrong method, but you can't repent of your human spirit wanting to succeed because God created you in his image and he put in you a cry to be all that he created you to be. You can't get rid of it. I've seen a lot of Christians in their early years of sincerity. They know that it's wrong to go after, you know, self-promotion in the eyes of man and carnal things and so they say okay success, but they limit success only to the negative so they can't do success because that's what the carnal Christians do. I'm gonna go for God. I mean really for God so I'm stuck in this mode of no success, but I don't know exactly what that means. You can't repent away your spirit. Your spirit won't go away. It's eternal. We can put band-aids on it. We could put Novocaine on it, painkillers on it, but your spirit longs for success. The key is is to answer it the right way in him and who he is. Look at top of page 5. I realize we're not really going over these notes, but my point is to stir you up so you read them later. That's really the point of this. Paragraph C. Talking about still in success. I'm still talking about affirmation security. Jesus called us to love our neighbor as we love ourself. Did you know that you will only love others to the degree you love yourself? You know the analogy I've shared it over the years that the lady said, oh Lord I want to love my neighbor like I love myself and the Lord shocked her and said that's the problem. You do love your neighbor the way you love yourself. You hate yourself that's why you hate your neighbor. Paragraph C. We are called to love ourself and we are called to hate our life. There is a distinction. Very different lines of thought. There's no contradiction to those. Both of them are true. We love ourself through the lens of his eyes. We are jealous for what he sees and what he wants in relationship with us. We have great worth to him. We talk about his worth to us. Have you ever considered your worth to him? You are of great worth to him. You're the only thing that he would leave heaven, take up the form of man, and go to a cross. That's the worth you have to him. Paragraph D. We best love ourselves by receiving and magnifying his supremacy in love. He is magnified in us as we more fully receive his love and we more fully receive what he wants, the agenda he wants for our life. Some people think humility is having a low agenda. No. Humility is agreeing with God's agenda but God has a major agenda for your life so you need to agree with it. That's called humility. Paragraph D, second sentence here. We want to magnify God in his enjoyment of releasing his glory through you. Did you know that he enjoys it? Did you know that he enjoys watching you be exalted in his purpose? He likes it when things are going in the way he plans and your spirit's happy. I'm talking about throughout all of eternity and we see the fullness of what he's planned. He's not going, oh no, you smiled, you liked it. Now I lost glory somehow. Oh, if only you would have smiled it would have worked. If you smile that means I lost something if you're happy. Beloved, he doesn't lose anything when he gives us things. Some people have this idea that if we get anything out of it he loses something. No, he's exceedingly rich. He is love. He doesn't lose love when he gives love. It doesn't work that way. He doesn't lose anything if we like the process. Matter of fact, he enjoys us enjoying it. Paragraph F, Bernard of Clairvaux. The 1100s. One of my favorite guys of church history. He said this, he called it loving ourself for his sake. We love ourself for his sake. Paragraph G, Jesus does not want us to walk in humility that shuns or minimizes how he loves loving us. He doesn't just love you, he loves loving you. He goes, I really like loving you and I don't want you to get into humility that shuns or minimizes this reality. He loves us enjoying being loved by him. Again, he is love. That's why this is a huge subject. It's not just, well God's love, let's move on. No, there's so many implications to this about us. He is magnified when we boldly believe in his love. When we are as jealous as he is for the fullness of his purpose in the relationship that he's ordained between us and him. When we are as jealous for the relationship as he is for the fullness of it, beloved, that is what he wants. He is magnified in that holy boldness. Let's take just a minute. A very, a subject that's talked a lot, a bit around here, the subject of eternal rewards. I get asked regularly over there, I've taught on eternal rewards for 25 years, real consistently. It's one of my favorite themes and so I always get the same question. Well there's about 10 questions that are the same ones, but the first one is always, and it's well-meaning, but it's it's misinformed, grossly misinformed. And it's this, I love him, here's it, it means something like this, I love him so much I don't care about rewards. And that's a misinformed view because their idea of rewards is a carnal view. The rewards in their carnal mindset means it's a way to be over people in a way to show their superiority. That's not what rewards are. Eternal rewards aren't a way we can get over people and be superior. I say, yeah I don't want those either. That's not what the Bible is talking about. Oh. I go, first of all, you don't want to assume you love so much that you don't care about it because, paragraph 8, Jesus taught more on eternal rewards than any man in the Bible, so already we have to be careful. Because he must know things about them that aren't obvious to us. When people say, I don't really care about, I just want to love him, I go, trust me, if you get them, you really will care about them because Jesus really cares about them. Has nothing to do with you being over people or strutting in front of people. Has nothing to do with that. Oh. What does it mean then? Eternal rewards, and we're not going to go through it all, they express how Jesus feels about the way you loved him. Because Jesus is so rich, and because he's so loving, the simplest acts of love you show towards him in this life, he gives you crowns and garments and all manner of rewards that express how he feels about the way you loved him, and the things that he gives you actually magnify and they sound forth his love for you and the way you loved him. It's between you and him. I mean, some guy may go, wow, but you're so captured by the fact he'll give you garments that signify how he feels about the way you loved him, and those garments you will wear the statement of his love everywhere you go. You'll want that. And he wants you to have it. That's why he taught more than anybody. And so I don't mind the question when someone says it. I understand it because when I first heard about eternal rewards, I thought it too. I love God so much, I don't care, I just love him. But when I understood that eternal rewards, when you understand them through a paradigm of love, they're all about love. They're about proximity to him, about being near him, about involvement with him. That's what it's about. It's not about strutting in front of people. It's not about bragging. It's about connecting with him and him expressing how he feels. And here's a good statement. Here is still paragraph A, Matthew 25, says, he'll say this to people, well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful a little bit, now you're ruler. I mean, here you are in a place of leadership, but the ruler doesn't mean you're over people. You will be, but that's not the point. The point is, you're working together closely with me in that sphere of the earth. When I see ruler, I don't think how many people might be under me. I think of how many staff meetings I get to have with Jesus to talk about what it is that I'm involved in. I want to be in some meetings. I say, what do you think about my little area? He gives me a pick. I don't think it works that way, but I'm gonna pick IHOP, Kansas City. I'm gonna say, I'll just do IHOP. I know all you guys went to Jerusalem. Everyone says, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem. I said, Lord, I'll go to Grandview. I'll just do Grandview and do the house of prayer in Grandview. I don't really get to pick, so that was dumb, but here's the point. I want to, I wanted to shift your idea of ruler, but here's the next thing I want you to see. I want you to see the word joy. Rewards, he has joy. It's his joy. He is the one excited to give you the garments, to proclaim how he feels about the way you loved him, but when he gives them in his joy, we enter into it, then we have joy. We will really like rewards. They will magnify his supremacy, because it will, it will, his love will be sounding forth through our life. We are a testimony of how worthy he was in this life, and we'll testimony about the quality of his love, because he gives so much for us doing so little. I mean, he pays so well. Now when I think of rewards, I go, Lord, you gave so much, and I mean, we just repented of a few secret things that nobody even knew we didn't do, because we repented of them, and it moves you, and you reward us forever. Like, wow. Those are all statements of his supremacy, but if you think about eternal rewards outside of the love paradigm, then it gets all confusing. Let's look at top of page 6. Paradigm of ministry. Just one sentence. We're in ministry, not to get a following. We're in ministry so that we can help people connect with the love of God, and so we get out of the way. It's a love paradigm of ministry, meaning we're in the ministry, whether you're minister to one person or a thousand people, the idea is you're a friend of the bridegroom, you help the people of God and Jesus connect, and you get out of the way, and you don't draw attention to yourself. Something I have a lot of energy about, that we don't draw attention to ourself, whether it's our platform ministry style with a worship team, the preachers, the people lead the ministry, the ministry down there, what we're doing in the auditorium, whether we're worshiping, whether the Lord's touching us, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves. We want to draw attention to Jesus. By nature, we draw attention to ourself. We get a little bit of gifting, a little bit of following, a little bit of the feeling, a little this, a little that. We want everybody to know, so we draw lots of attention to ourself. But when we look through a love paradigm, we wanted everyone to be thinking about Jesus, not about us. Whether we're on the platform, or we're there, or we're out in the workplace, or in our home, it's a ministry style that's about us driving people to the awareness of Him and not being aware of us. And it's at every level of the kingdom. Again, whether you're in a worship service, on the platform, in the in the marketplace, wherever. Finally, the love paradigm of the glory of God. What the Lord is after, and I'll just be so brief on this. In Hebrews 10, what He wants is us to have boldness and to be near Him, read that Hebrews 10, and to have assurance or confidence. He wants us to have boldness. He wants us real close to Him, fully participating with Him, awestruck by His majesty. But He doesn't want us awestruck by His majesty, and then we retreat. No, He wants us near, close, with boldness, an open spirit. Not a proud spirit, but a confident spirit, awestruck by His majesty, but emboldened by His love. And that's the partnership, and that's the participation together. Paragraph 2, Paul compared the manifestation of God's glory in the Old Covenant with a manifestation of God's glory in the New Covenant. And in the Old Covenant, here's what he said, in 2 Corinthians 3, the whole comparison is there. In the Old Covenant, the glory of God manifest. I mean the trembling majesty of God, and here's what happened. They all worshipped at a distance, they observed His glory at a distance, and they were servants, like the angels, because the angels are only servants. They would, they did not see themselves as sons and daughters or a bride. But in the New Testament, we're not at a distance, just observing His glory as a servant, but we're near, and we are observing His glory, we're declaring it, but we're participating in it. Very different from the Old Testament. We're a bride, we're not servants. In the Old Testament, they stood at a distance, and they trembled, and they hid their face. In the New Testament, we open our heart, and we receive love, and we enter into the participation of the fellowship of the Trinity, of His burning heart. I call it the fellowship of the burning heart. Paragraph D, in the New Testament, we are awestruck with His power, but we're bold to enter in, to participate. It's a view of God where we participate, and we're not content just to be far away in oblivion, which doesn't exist anyway. Jesus is the one who was so high, but He went so low to bring us so near, because we are so dear to Him. That's the combination of the truths that come together in the New Testament glory. Finally, in paragraph F, at the end of page 6, we magnify Jesus' supremacy by fully receiving and returning His love in a deep relationship that forever involves declaring and magnifying His greatness, worshiping Him. That's a significant part. There's great pleasure in His heart, and even in those who do it. We will magnify His supremacy not only in declaring who He is, but in the way we live together with Him, because we trust Him, and we magnify who He is and His kindness to us. And our very lives are a statement of His grandness and His greatness. We will obey His commandments forever. We will partner with Him forever, and we will be jealous for everything that's in His heart for us. We will be jealous for it. That's part of magnifying Him. Amen. So tonight was just Jesus, the bridegroom God, the God with the burning heart. Let's stand. I know there was a little conceptual, like, okay, how's this work now? But I want you to take these notes and ask the Lord just to touch your heart in a fresh way with them. Lord, who are we? Who are you? How should we value ourself, even in this hour of life? I want to invite people to come forward that you're saying, you know, I believe this. I mean, we all need this. I mean, I need this. I need it. You need it. I need it a whole lot. Nobody outgrows their need for a lot more of the things I just shared. But I want to invite people to come forward. You're saying, I have such a pain in my heart. I just feel distant from God. I know He loves me. Technically, I know it's true. I can't feel it. My life feels worthless. I know it's not, but it feels that way. The enemy just whispers in my ear, and I'm just being attacked and assaulted with lies. Everything you said, Mike, I believe it, but it just bounces off of me. It doesn't seem true, though I believe it is true, and I want to break through. It's gonna have just the music for just a few moments. Just the music. I'm gonna wait on the Lord for a few moments. Lord, here we are.