Mike Bickle emphasizes the paramount importance of loving God wholeheartedly as the ultimate reality of the Kingdom. He explains that this commandment is not merely a task but a participation in the eternal love shared within the Godhead. Bickle encourages believers to understand their identity in Christ and to abide in God's love, which transforms their perspective on life and relationships. He highlights that true salvation is about entering into this fellowship of love rather than just escaping hell. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a deep, intentional pursuit of this love as the primary goal of life.

I like to start always this theme with the first commandment. This is my very favorite theme in the word of God, the subject of the way God loves God. Because it's the way that God loves us, it's the way he wants us to love him, etc. But Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind. Then he went on and elaborated and described that commandment. He says, I want you to know this is the first commandment. This is the number one priority on God's heart right here. It is the great commandment. It's the commandment that God says is great. In other words, when we pursue this first, it's what makes our life great in his sight. Jesus identified this as the highest priority to God. This is what the Holy Spirit's saying in your life more than any other thing if you're listening. And of course, many of you are. This is the first calling on your life. People, I like to ask young people, what's the calling on your life? And most of them answer according to what they want to do. And that is part of the calling on your life. But the first calling on your life is what you're supposed to be, not what you're supposed to do in ministry. And we have the grace of God to operate in the anointing of the first commandment. That is the highest calling on our life. When I stand before the Lord, he's not going to ask me first about IHOP. He's going to ask me first about how much I walked and operated in the grace of God or the anointing of the first commandment. Paragraph B, the command to love God with all of our heart, it doesn't begin with us. It's only one expression of a reality that existed long before we were ever created. When God said love with all of your heart, he's saying because you're participating in a dynamic that has existed between Father, Son, and Spirit long before the human race was ever created. Paragraph C. Now, we're not going to get through all these notes tonight, so I'm leaving you a lot to read on your own. I like to do that because some of you are diligent students, and I like to give you a little extra than what we can cover in a meeting. Paragraph C, God is love. This is one of the most simple but one of the most powerful truths in the whole Word of God. And this truth has so many implications, dynamic implications about it. The very being of God is wholehearted love. God doesn't just love, he is love. And I like to add the word wholehearted. He is wholehearted love. That's the essence of who he is. It's the first reality in his personality. When we think of God, we think of holy, powerful, wise. The core reality of God is wholehearted love, which is the defining reality of what holiness and wisdom and power is really about. Because God uses his power in order to establish love, not the other way around. He uses his power and his wisdom in order to establish love on the earth, and beyond that as well. But it's the first reality within the relationships in the Godhead, in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Imagine that from eternity past, God has loved God with all of his heart. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. That's what we are called to participate in. That is what salvation is. Some people think of salvation as first, it's about escaping hell and then getting an assignment to do on the earth called ministry. And those are a facet of salvation. But salvation, in reality, is a calling into the participation of this burning love. That is what salvation is really about. Paragraph D. God is love. It's the essence of how he thinks. It's not just something he does, it's the essence of how he feels. He plans from love. He works from love and for love. He has great power, great wisdom, but he only uses them to remove the things that hinder love. That's called judgment. Or he uses his great power and wisdom to establish love. I've made that point, but when we see this perspective of God, we relate to God in a different way. It's not mostly about doing tasks or receiving natural blessings. I like to see, I love receiving blessings. I love it when God releases blessing and finances or physical health or favor in relationships or open doors. But that's not the essence of what he wants to do with us. Those are benefits and those are real. Paragraph E. We best understand the first commandment, the call to love God with all of our heart. We best understand it when we see it in its eternal context. I mean, it's not just a kingdom ethic. Some people, they read the first commandment, love God with all your heart, and they take a deep breath and go, oh boy, I'm going to really have to sacrifice to do this. And they think of it mostly as a kingdom ethic, something, a behavior pattern they are to embrace. And they are to embrace it, but it's so much more than kingdom ethics. It's the first commandment. When we see it in its eternal context, that's how God loves God. That's how God loves us. And we're called into that. It changes our entire perspective of God and salvation and even our own life. He wants us to respond, in paragraph E, with wholehearted love, because that's who He is. He is wholehearted love. That's what He does. That's how He created us. He did not create the angels with that capacity, but He created us with the capacity of wholehearted love because that's who He is. Paragraph F. One of the foundational premises in scripture, and I'll quote this verse a number of times tonight, and many times in this series. It's probably the passage I quote the most of any one Bible verse. This is probably the one I actually speak the most over the last number of years, is this verse, John 15, verse 9. The reason I'm saying that is I want to urge you to make this the verse that you talk most about. I don't mean you've got to quote it every time you have a conversation or every time you give an exhortation or a Bible teaching or you're in a small group Bible study type thing, but I want to highlight this passage to you and say, this ought to be a passage that you are thinking about, referencing, talking about, should be at the top of your list. It doesn't have to be number one. I think it's my main one, I think. It's not like I've added all the verses up together, but I think it is. And here it is. This is the most dramatic statement that I can imagine. Jesus said, I'll paraphrase, in the same intensity that the Father loves me, I love you in that same intensity. Beloved, the implications of that are beyond anything we can grasp in its fullness. Can you imagine the intensity of how the Father loves the Son? From eternity past, the way they have walked in perfect enjoyment of one another? Jesus said, that is how I feel about you. And these disciples, this is at the Last Supper, this is in John chapter 13 to 17, that's why this series is going to be built around those five chapters. They're looking at Him and they're thinking, wow, I don't really fully understand what you just said. And that would really be the truth. But He tells them, just a little while later, He says, and by the way, I want you to know every one of you will deny Me tonight. In other words, this commitment to love, this focus wasn't based on their maturity. He knew they would fail Him that night, but He still made the statement. That's amazing reality. God isn't shocked when you discover your failure. The reason I say that, that my younger days with the Lord, I would sin and I was shocked, which is, you know, just a revelation of my pride, but, well, I can't believe it. God, can you? And of course, the Lord might say, don't worry, little guy, there's a whole lot more where that came from. But I'm locked in with you more than you'll ever know. And as in my younger days, I began to touch a little bit of this. I only, today, only have a little bit of it still. I still don't understand this very much, but I understand it more than I did 30 years ago. And that's, this one reality has changed my life more than anything because it makes me want to run to Him instead of run from Him when I fail. If you think that He has a big hammer in His hand and He's trying, He's waiting till you mess up to prove to you how bad you are, maybe like you're one of the authority figures in your life, maybe an angry father or a teacher or a coach, just waiting for you to mess up to prove how bad you really are. That's not what He's like. He has burning desire for us. And when we understand that, the tenderness that He feels, I mean, He wants us to be committed to this relationship of wholehearted love. He doesn't want us to take His love in a casual way and say, well, you love me, it doesn't matter, I'll just go do something else. He goes, no, no, I want you locked into this. This is what it's all about, us connecting at this level with our all in the relationship. But when you understand a little bit of this, you will run to Him, not from Him when you stumble because He is the safest place, the safest relationship you'll ever have. He knows everything about you far more than you do. He understands my weakness far more than I do, but He's more committed to me than I am. Beloved, that makes our life powerful if we lock into that kind of reality. Paragraph G, this love burning in God's heart. I think of five expressions. It's the same love. It's the same reality in five expressions. I want to charge you, speak on this often in your teaching ministry, and a lot of people have a teaching ministry, most people do, they don't even know it, their teaching ministry is maybe one-on-one or one-on-two, but it is a teaching ministry. Maybe their teaching ministry is to the 10-year-olds, maybe it's to the children in their home, but it is a teaching ministry. Don't wait until you have a microphone in your hand in a crowd before you think you have a teaching ministry. If you have a teaching ministry right now, it might be in the context of fellowshipping with people. But I want to charge you in your teaching ministry and in a more informal teaching ministry, whether you're a worship leader writing songs, that's a teaching ministry. Whether you're in drama, involved in plays or any kind of dramatic presentation or media, that's a teaching ministry. Speak about this subject more than any other subject. Not only this subject, but more on this than any other subject. Well I think of the five expressions, God loves God with all of his heart. I know I've said that already 10 times, I love to say that sentence. The Father loves the Son with all of his mind. Thus, this commandment to love with all of our mind and our heart doesn't start with us loving God, it starts with God loving God in that kind of quality, that kind of intensity. Number two, he loves us with all of his mind. Can you imagine God loving you with all of his strength? I love to look up at the sky at night and the stars, and I just love to say this, it sounds corny, but I love to say it, I love to say, you are so smart. I see how many stars, billions of stars, we only see a fraction of them. I go, you are so smart. It just feels good to say that. You are so powerful. And you love me with all of your mind and all of your strength. I have it made. I have it made. Beloved, so do you. But I urge you, that sounds kind of a little corny, but I urge you to talk like that to the Lord. It just excites me. I can just feel, not every time, but the presence of the Holy Spirit thinking, that's the truth. Say it again. I just love to say, you are so smart. You love me with all your mind. I have it made. This is awesome. Well, number three, that's what we call the first commandment, the commandment for us to love God with all of our heart. Number four is often neglected and overlooked, that we are to love ourselves in the love of God with all of our heart. Now, we'll look at this for a couple of minutes tonight, then we'll spend a whole session on it, because it's a paradox. The Bible tells us to love ourselves, to love our neighbor as ourself. And the Bible tells us to hate ourself, or hate our own life, and to love ourself in the love of God. There's a paradox, and we'll break that down, because both of them are truth. There's no contradiction in the command to hate our own life, and take up our cross, deny ourself, and to love our neighbor, even in the same way we love ourself in the love of God. I love to give the short analogy of the woman that prayed, Lord, I want to love my neighbor as I love myself. And the Lord shocked her, and He 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. And again, there's a loving ourself in the love of God, for God's purposes and His sake. Which is different, because God has made a remarkable investment in you. And He actually wants you to honor what He thinks, and what He's invested in you. He wants you to honor it, and not put it down. Again, we'll look at that later. And then we're to love one another in the overflow of that. Paragraph H, I call these five expressions of love, I call it the fellowship of the burning heart. We are called to participate, not just in kingdom activities. I like kingdom activities. I'm doing one right now, teaching the Word right now. I was praying for people a few minutes ago, that's kingdom activity. But I tell you, I love kingdom activities. But I love this fellowshipping, this interacting with the burning heart of God. I'm gazing, meaning meditating, thinking on, pondering, the way He loves Himself. The way He loves me. The way I want to love Him. The way I love myself in Him. And loving you, the way He loves you. I just want to get lost in that reality. That's what I call a fascinated heart, to be lost in that reality. We can get so sidetracked. Because, you know, we don't have quite enough money. People don't treat us right. Life is hard. We lose the reason we have life. We can so easily, and me as well. We can get distracted by the secondary, important subjects, areas, but clearly secondary subjects. Paragraph H, the greatest destiny of your life. Is that you would participate in the family dynamics of the Godhead. Father, Son, and Spirit are family from eternity past. And they beckon us, participate in our family dynamics. Come be a part of it by the blood of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit forever and forever. When we have a resurrected body, and a resurrected mind, because your mind will go with your new body. And all your senses will be perfect under the resurrection. You'll really enter into that fellowship like, wow, this is amazing. But I don't want to wait until then, because we can enter into it now. And even the little bit that I participate in this, I tell you a little bit of this goes a long way. It just changes the interior atmosphere of your soul. Your interior life, the way you daydream will change dramatically as you get locked into this subject more and more and more. Paragraph I, well there's that verse again, here it is. As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. But here's the part I want to look at, he says abide in that love. I want to look at that phrase, abide in it. I consider this, abide in that love. That means study it. It means focus on it. Experience it. Express it. The word abide means live in it. But you live in it by studying it. You live in it by talking about it. You live in it by receiving it. You live in it by expressing it. I consider this exhortation, abide in this love, as the number one exhortation in the whole Bible. I don't know of anything that's more significant and has more implications than this simple command of Jesus. Abide in this love. Search it out. I want to urge you. Become students of the emotions of God. I determined some years ago, my 20s, I'm 58 now so that was a long time ago. I determined I would be, in my 20s, I'm just a young man, I'm going to be a student of God's emotions. I'm going to search out Genesis to Revelation to see how he feels. From love to anger to zeal, I want to see how he feels. And I want to be a student of it. I believe King David, when God said you're a man after my own heart, one aspect of that, you are a student of my heart. I want to urge you to become a student of his heart. Not just for yourself, but for yourself. I mean, it will excite you. There's no end. But to bring the clarity to others. I mean, every day, I can search this out. There's so much information on this in the Bible and in anointed material that have been written by other teachers in the body of Christ for 2,000 years. There's a vast ocean of resource to study this out. It's really worth turning off a few things and spending more time searching this out. That's what Jesus meant when he said abide in this, go after it. Stay focused on this. Don't ever graduate from this subject. Some people, some even when they come around here, they get excited about the message of the love of God and the bride of Christ. And for about 10 or 12 weeks, they get locked into it. And three years later, well, we got that in that first semester. That was amazing. Beloved, we will never graduate from this subject, ever. A million years from now, we may be surprised that we will still be abiding and studying and searching out, talking about, experiencing, and expressing this kind of reality. Up at page 2. Told you we wouldn't get very far. And that's not my goal. It's never my goal to finish the notes. Never. My goal is always to enjoy God while I'm talking to him while you're eavesdropping. That's my goal. I'm not joking. That's truly my goal. I want to talk to the Lord with my eyes open looking at you. And I want to feel what he feels a little bit and let you just listen in. And then when I leave, I go, I'm really committed this time. It touches me. I'm talking myself into this every time I talk about it. I love it. I drive home and I go, I'm really going to go deeper this time. Praise the Lord. There's another internship coming in a few months. And I'm going to tell them this whole thing again and mark myself again. Our primary life goal is to abide in this, lock into it. And I want to urge you, make this the primary goal of your life. I mean intentional. Define it. If I was to ask you right now, what is your primary goal of your life? Some of you might say, to know God. They'd say, okay, that's good. Break it down. Someone might say, well, you know, to know him. You know. I haven't really thought it through. Some might say, to win the whole world to Jesus. Okay, that's cool. Some might say, to have a happy life. To be married and have a happy family and be blessed and be a part of the body of Christ and function. Those are all good goals. But I want to urge you to define in your mind that your number one goal is not to have a big ministry. That's okay if that's one of your goals. Whatever size it is, God will determine. But my point is, this is, I define this as the primary goal of my life. And IHOP is my assignment, not my goal. And by making this the intentional goal of my life, to enter into this reality more, that when things go good and when things go bad, I can stay locked into this goal. Meaning, sometimes circumstances go well. But I don't want to deviate from this goal. Sometimes circumstances go bad. I don't want to get in a negative attitude and then deviate from this goal. I want to stay locked into this regardless what season. Because I found over the years, the seasons, things get easy in one season and they grow. And the next season they get small and they get pruned. And the seasons change over the years. But your main goal of life does not have to change. I found this to be a real key in my spiritual life, locking into this. When things are tough, I go, wait a second, my goal hasn't changed. Nothing has changed. I can do this on a sickbed. I can do this in prison. I can do this with no ministry, a big ministry. I can do this with financial pressure or with financial blessing. I can just stay locked into this goal and not lose sight of it. It takes the grace of God to stay locked into it. But my point is, there was a time I defined this as my goal. It wasn't just a casual kind of something I bumped into. I want to urge you to make this the number one goal of your life. Some people, they pray for revival. I'm one of them. They pray for revival and they're thinking, when revival comes, then I'll really lock in. I go, what's going to happen when revival comes? You know, when they're imagining these great power surges, which I think is true. But what are the power surges in a geographic area, you know, called revival over a few years, where thousands get saved and multitudes get healed and people feel the power of God. What's the point? The point is that people live in this reality. Then when the revival season's over, the point is the people live in this reality. So before the revival, in the revival, after the revival, it's the same point. So don't wait for a revival. Start now. It's the same reality anyway. Paragraph K, I already said this. Salvation is much more than escaping hell. I love the idea of escaping hell. That really excites me, to be honest. But that is not the essence of what we're... We are called into the fellowship of the burning heart. Forever. The good burning heart. Not the thing we escaped. Let's look at Roman numeral two. I'll just mention a little bit of this again. We'll take a session on each one of these. But I want to lock in a good part of the series in John chapter 15. The abiding in the vine and bearing fruit and what that means and how to do it. John 14. Understanding how Jesus related to the Father. That's the source and the model of how we will relate to the Father. That's what John 14's about. And the other chapters as well. The first expression of perfect love is found within the relationship of Father, Son, Holy Spirit. That's the Trinity. Paragraph B. One God dwelling in three persons. There's one God in three distinct persons. They are all three divine persons are co-equal as God. Constituting one God. Paragraph C. The way that God loves within the Trinity. The way the Father loves the Son. The way the Son loves the Spirit. The way the Spirit loves the Son, the Father, etc. That is the only way He loves. God doesn't love in two different ways. He only loves in the way He loves. That's in fullness. Now people don't receive the fullness. The way people receive it is different. Or they don't receive it. But He offers love only one way and that's wholehearted. His love never diminishes. It never grows. A million years from now, Jesus won't call us all together on the sea of glass like crystal. The great conference center around the throne. That vast sea of crystal. Says the sea of glass like crystal with flaming fire. That's where the saints worship before God. Billions will be there. Again I call it the conference center around the throne. He won't stand up one day and say, I have a great testimony. I grew in love this year. He's never going to say that. He never diminishes in love because His love is perfect. It's eternal in its duration. It lasts forever. It's infinite in its measure. He doesn't love us ever with a part of His love. He would deny Himself if He loved us with 98% of His heart. He can only love one way the way He is. And He never ever contradicts one attribute or suspends one attribute to exercise another. Like He doesn't suspend His holiness to show love. He doesn't suspend His love to show judgment. His judgment is a perfect expression of His love every single time. His judgment removes everything that hinders love. That's the point of judgment. Paragraph D. The reason we want to understand the way the Father and the Son relate, there are several reasons, but one reason is because they are the model. The way the Father and the Son relate is how the Father and the Son relate to us. They're the model of how God loves you. And more than that as well, but I'm just introducing the idea right now. And it's not only the way the Father loves the Son is the model of how He loves you. It's the very source of how you love Him and how you love one another and how you love yourself. It's the source as well. It's a vast subject. Paragraph E. Jesus has joy and enthusiasm in His love for the Father. Jesus is never bored relating to the Father, ever. He doesn't like take a deep breath and say, Father, you know, I'm a little disconnected with what you're saying right now. And, you know, I honor you so I'll listen, but I'm really not that interested to be honest. That never happens. Why do you care about that? Well, again, there's a number of reasons you do. But one, He loves you. He's never bored in the relationship with you. Because He loves you like the Father loves Him and He loves the Father. There's many applications to this doctrine. It's not just a theoretical, biblical doctrine that doesn't affect you. When you study this, you begin... Number one, it's the most fascinating subject imaginable, the way God loves God. But it also gives you insight into who you are to Him. Changes everything about your life to touch this. Roman number three. God's love for His people. God doesn't just love God with all of His heart. He loves you with all of His heart. The same intensity. Now we've got John 15, 9. There it showed up again. But look at this. Later on, two chapters later, Jesus says the same truth again from a different angle. He says, I want you to know this. John 17, 23. It's a similar reality. It's the same reality in essence. It says, I want you to know. He's praying to the Father. He's talking to the Father. He's talking to His Father. That the world may know that you love them the way you love me. So in chapter 15, He says, Father, the way I love them the way you love me. Chapter 17, you love them the way you love me. So the Father loves you the way the Father loves Jesus. And Jesus loves you the way the Father loves Jesus. There is no difference. So it's not like Jesus has really liked you and the Father is kind of bearing patiently with you. Jesus said, I want you to know the Father is fully in at the level I'm in. Because again, one God, three persons. And the Holy Spirit loves you the same way. I want you to look at your neighbor and say, I have it made. I really have it made. I got it made. Whoa. You tell them they have it made too if you want to. I just want you to say it out loud. You have it made. You really do have it made. Well, they didn't choose me to sing on the worship team. They overlooked me and they picked Susie instead of me. And I didn't get the money I was expecting. And the relationship didn't work out with that one guy or gal. Beloved, those things are not stupid. They're important. But you have it made even if those things don't go right. You still have it made. Well, he doesn't like me anymore. Well, maybe he doesn't, but I guarantee you he does. Depends on which he you're talking about. Maybe little he doesn't, but big he does. Let's go down to paragraph C. John tells us, he says, focus on the quality of love the Father has for us. He says, behold what manner of love. That's the same thing. To behold it means focus on it, lock into it. Focus on the manner, the quality of love the Father has for you. Focus on the quality of love the Spirit has for you. Jesus has for you. Focus on this. Don't just underline it in your Bible. You know, make a tweet out of it. Buy a postcard. Talk about it to God. Go deep on it. Behold it. Lock into it. Not just casually glance at it. Don't just hear the message, underline a few things, talk about it tomorrow, and then move on. Beloved, behold this forever, this reality. Never ever graduate from this truth. People talk about trying harder. Trying harder to walk with God. And I say, well, you know, there is a place to put effort into the relationship. Not to try to earn it. But to put effort into the relationship because you care. When you care about a relationship, you put effort into it. You're not trying to earn love. You so value the love, you put effort in. So I'm not against putting effort in and trying harder. But there's a better, more superior way. I encourage people, see more. Try to see more instead of try harder. If you will see more, if you will grasp more, if you will put your energy on understanding more, I tell you, your heart will grow a lot faster than just gritting your teeth and trying harder. The guy goes, I'm trying as hard as I can. I say, well, spend most of your energy trying to see more clearly. Because if you'll understand more, your heart will grow faster. Again, I'm not against putting effort in a relationship because that's what love is all about. The love of page 3. Our love for God. Now this is getting back to the first commandment. He loves us with all of his heart. He wants us to respond with all of our heart. Our all is much smaller than his all. But he says, I want you to bring your all into the relationship. My all is small. Your all is small. But he goes, I want your all. Bring it into the relationship because that's the way I relate with the all. So it matters. Now God doesn't call us to love him because he's lonely. He says, I want you to love me with all of your heart because I'll get my feelings hurt if you don't. If you pay a little bit too much attention to somebody else, then I'm going to feel rejected. No. He doesn't ask you, call you to love him with all your heart because he's lonely or rejected. Because he is wholehearted love. And he knows that's the only way that love has liberty and power and fullness. The command comes out of who he is. Paragraph D. The spirit of liberty. A lot of people today talk about the spirit of liberty. There's many wrong definitions of what the spirit of liberty is. Some people think as long as you say liberty, however you define it, it must be true because it must be good. It's liberty. There's a lot of non-biblical definitions about liberty. Just so you know. I'm sure you already know that. Liberty is found in the context of this fellowship of the burning heart. Liberty is about being liberated on the inside to receive love and feel love and express it. It's about being liberated to encounter and express the love of God. Not just to receive it, but to express it, but to receive it too. Being liberated is being liberated from fear, from lust. Being liberated from boredom. Some people say I just want the spirit of liberty. Some mean they want the liberty to engage in sin. That's not what liberty is. It's not the liberty to sin. It's the liberty to be liberated from lust and boredom and condemnation and guilt. I talked to some young people and they think about the spirit of liberty. They said, I'm liberated. And what they're talking about is I can watch certain movies and do things and go to parties others don't feel peace about. That's liberty. I go, that's not liberty. That's not what liberty is about. That's another subject for another day. But liberty is not about the liberty to get to the edge of darkness as close to the edge as you can because you're liberated in the grace of God. Liberated means liberated on the inside to counter the love of God, express it, and to be liberated from boredom because we've encountered the most fascinating being that exists. So don't let somebody give you a false definition of what the spirit of liberty is and coax you into bondage in the name of liberty. Some people think of, you know, they think the most exciting thing, I'm going to go on an adventurous ministry trip and really get excited and get liberated. And I like adventuresome ministry trips. I even like some of the boring ones. But anyway, I've been on both. But living with an exhilarated heart is more than an adventure on a ministry trip. It's encountering the fascinating man by the Holy Spirit on the inside. That's where fascination has its root. I mean, I'm all for an exciting ministry trip, but that's not where fascination has its core reality. It's in a person. It's in a man. And it's in his Father and in the Spirit. Paragraph 5, Fellowship of the Burning Heart, we love ourselves. You love your neighbor as you love yourself, Jesus said. And again, the lady said, Father, I want to love my neighbor like I love myself. He said, that's the problem. You hate your neighbor. You hate yourself. That's why you hate your neighbor. We love ourselves through the lens of the revelation of Jesus. We can only love ourself in the biblical way in context to understanding the cross and the salvation of Jesus and the person of Jesus. The key to who you are is found in the eyes of the one that created you. That's the only way you can truly love yourself in the biblical, in the truest way. It's by encountering the one that loves you and who defines you and who invests himself in you. And it's only in that context that loving ourself is true because there's a lot of psychological different versions of loving yourself and a lot of them are just rooted in humanism and human thinking and they're disconnected from the one who defines and creates love. It's critical that we define love and we experience love in context to the one who is love, not in context to fallen human thinking that has the counterfeit versions of what love is. It's like the word liberty, the word love. You say love, you say liberty, you say justice. Some folks will go, praise God, it must be the Lord. No, there's a lot of people that say liberty, justice, grace and love and they don't mean what Jesus meant when they use those words. So as one preacher said, don't be so open-minded, your brains fall out. Have discernment when people use those terms because you can use justice, love, liberty, freedom, grace in all the wrong ways and they're not be true just because they use those terms. We want to lock into the way He says it, how He defines it. We have indescribable value to Jesus, indescribable. Forever we will be discovering more of the value we have. The investment that He made into us makes us indescribably valuable. I'm not talking about, you say, well, I don't have any giftings, I don't think I look that cool, I don't think I act that cool, I don't think I do very well. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about He's invested, He's locked into you. You are who He wants. That crowns you with glory and meaning and honor far beyond what you're stumbling with, what you're tripping over, what you're addicted to, the fears that bind some of you in this room or your failures or what you don't have. The love He has is far bigger than those things. You are indescribably valuable and the devil wants to come and tell you a lot. That it's not worth it anyway. No one cares. I tell you, there's someone who cares about you like the Father cares about Him. His name is Jesus. It is worth it. Maybe some of the people around you don't care about you or for you, but I guarantee you He does. And the smallest things you do move Him. I mean the smallest things you do in obedience, things that other people don't even pay attention to. You might give somebody a cup of cold water in the name of the Lord, nobody ever pay attention, that moves His heart. The smallest and the weakest things done in obedience, He remembers forever, crowns your life with power and meaning, even if nobody else recognizes them. Paragraph B, by seeing ourselves in our new identity, our new destiny, our new worth in the love of God, when we see ourselves in these truths, and we're going to break these down a bit, in this Friday night series, it empowers us to love ourselves by the power of the Holy Spirit in the biblical way. You will never love others more than you love yourself in the grace of God. A person that hates themselves, despises themselves, even if they call it humility, it's false humility, it's not real. They have so much emotional traffic in their own self-hatred, they have no ability to love other people. And as we begin to see that He loves us, and we love the person that He loves, the emotional traffic begins to dissipate. That smoke and that fog in our eyes begins to blow. Then we see the value, and I tell you, when you see who you are and the value, boy, you can love with far greater clarity other people. When all that emotional traffic starts settling down, it really matters that we buy into this part of the love of God as well. Paragraph C, the Bible calls us to love ourself, and the Bible calls us to hate our lives. We love who we are in Christ, we love our new identity, we love what we do in the will of God. That's a big point, because what we do in the will of God may be small and weak, and others may just despise it. I remember when, not that you have to be in a full-time ministry position, but I remember when I made the decision, it was clear, I was to go and be in the full-time ministry occupational sense, because everyone's in the ministry, whether they know it or not. I remember some people in my life thought, you're wasting your time and your abilities. They thought I was losing my way, and it's the will of God I'm talking about. It's not the size of your ministry. If you give someone a cup of cold water, you humble yourself in private, you serve in secret, nobody pays attention, nobody knows, nobody cares. Beloved, God loves that, and He wants you to love what you do in the will of God, and not to despise it. Saying, tell the cool people to pay attention to me, I'm wasting all my time. I've heard people over the years of my years of ministry, you know, they'll be in a church, and they'll come and join the church I'm pastoring, and they'll say, I spent 10 years in that place, wasted my whole time there. I go, wasted your whole time? How's that? Well, they all just disregarded everything I did. I said, but the Lord didn't. He didn't waste those 10 years. They may not pay attention, but those 10 years aren't wasted. Who told you that? Well, the cool people in that church don't pay attention to me, so the years must be wasted. But I said, the coolest man that lives pays attention to you. Those aren't wasted years. What are you talking about? I've heard that many times. I wasted all my time in that ministry. I go, no, no. He locked into you. Yeah, but nobody noticed anything I did. He noticed everything you did. I mean, the out-of-the-way stuff, nobody appreciated. He appreciates it. Go to the top of page 4. I'll just take about another 2 minutes. Paragraph F. We must receive what the Word says about our activities. They're small. Many of the things we do in the will of God are very small. They go unnoticed. I mean, we encourage people. They may not even receive the encouragement, but you put effort in it. The Lord says, I saw it. You give a little bit of money. Small. They didn't appreciate it. The Lord says, I'll never forget it. Put some time. Not only did they not notice you. When they did notice you, they criticized you. He said, not only did I give the time, I got criticized for giving the time. The Lord says, I see it. Regardless of the full quality of it, I saw your heart, and I'll never, ever forget it. Look what He says in Luke 19. You were faithful in very little. I mean, underline, very little. Some people think, well, when I fill the stadiums up, finally I'll have something to talk about. Beloved, if you do the very little stuff, humbling yourself in your family, your marriage to your brothers and sisters, the ones that really bug you, serving them and humbling yourself, they may despise you. Beloved, that is called faithfulness. Some of you are, many of you in this room are students and interns, and the person that you live with just totally bugs you. It's a good time for you to shake your head and go, no, no, it's not me. No, no, I have nothing to do with that. Say, that guy should know better. He knows the message of the love of God, but he's acting like such an unpleasant guy. That was a good recovery, wasn't it? My point is, you could serve him. He doesn't deserve it, but neither do you. Serve him anyway. Yeah, but he said this, go the opposite spirit and bless him when no one's around and help him. Very little stuff. Jesus said, you'll get the shock of your life. When you stand before me, you'll be over ten cities. I won't miss one of those exchanges of your heart of humility. I'll put you over ten cities. This is literal. This is not just symbolic. This is real. Matthew 25, he said you are faithful in few things. Well, in Luke 19, it's very little. Here, it's very few. Some folks are waiting for big stuff. Where they make a big dramatic impact. Where everybody goes, wow. And some people will do that. But 99% of the body of Christ won't individually make a big impact. They'll make it together with a collective group of people, spiritual family. There's only a few Billy Grahams in history that talk stadiums. 99.999999999% of the body of Christ is not called to that arena. They're called to very few and very little things. Collectively, we make a big impact. Individually, it goes unnoticed by many. But it doesn't go unnoticed by him. He says, I'll put you over many things. The shock of your life. Matthew 10. He says, even a cup of cold water. Even a cup of cold water. I will never forget it. Never. And I'll end with this in paragraph F I have written here. Eternal rewards. People. I love to teach on eternal rewards. Heard people over the years. I've taught on for 35 years at least. I love the subject of eternal rewards. I've heard well-meaning people say really dumb things. Really wrong things. Really non-biblical things. All those categories about eternal rewards. Heard many people over the years. I don't care about them. I go, you just might. Having never seen one, you just might care more about them than you think. Because Jesus taught on eternal rewards more than any other man in the Bible. Because he understood what they were. And they think of eternal rewards as, well, I'm going to get a reward so I can strut in front of people. And I don't want to strut in front of people. I just want to love Jesus. Well, that's not what eternal rewards are. Giving you the power to strut in the age to come. That's not what they're about. If that's your version of them, well, maybe you don't want them. Eternal rewards. There's a lot on this subject. I'm not going to go into it. But I'll just say this one thing. Eternal rewards are Jesus expressing how he feels about the way you loved him. He's really rich. Really rich. And when he gives you an eternal reward, he doesn't lose any of his wealth at all. He goes, I want to tell you in front of others the way I feel about the way you loved me. Because I feel so deeply about it. This is how I feel. And you will want that. You really, really will. Even if you think you won't, you will. That will move you to see how he's moved. By how little we did. Because there are little things. Humbling ourselves. Helping somebody in secret, even when they criticize us. Blessing people who speak wrongly of us. I mean in the body of Christ. Paragraph G. When we know his eyes are on us, we don't have to strive to get the cool people's eyes on us. So many people live their whole life in strife trying to get the cool people. Whoever they are. Everyone's got a different version of who they are. But trying to get the cool people to pay attention to them. Beloved, I've already said it. The most glorious man that's ever walked the earth is paying attention to you now. You don't have to get the cool people, whatever season you're in, to look at you to make your life valuable. You are valuable. I'll just end with that. Amen. Let's stand.