Mike Bickle emphasizes the profound nature of the Father's love for us, drawing from John 15 and 17, where Jesus reveals that God loves us with the same intensity as He loves His Son. This love is not only a theological concept but a transformative reality that should shape our relationship with God and how we view ourselves. Bickle encourages believers to abide in this love, allowing it to change their hearts and minds, and to recognize their worth as beloved children of God. He stresses that understanding this love is crucial for experiencing true joy and confidence in our relationship with God.

Turn to John chapter 15. John chapter 15. Father, we thank you for your presence. We thank you for the way that you love your people. And Holy Spirit, we ask you to do what you do best and what you enjoy most. You would take the things that belong to Jesus and you would impart them to us. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, for those that are just joining us for the first time, I'm in the middle of a series called Abiding in Love. And that's a phrase from John chapter 15, verse 9, where Jesus calls us to abide or to experience, focus on, go deep in, the reality of the way that He loves us. Paragraph A, I'm going to do a bit of review tonight from last week's message. And one reason is because I don't want to cover these topics too quickly. They're too important. And if they don't ignite our heart, if they don't really grab our attention and change the way we talk to God, if Bible truth doesn't get into our heart to where it changes the way we talk to God and the things we say to God, then that Bible truth is not helping us. And I want truth. I want this truth to get more in my language with God and in yours as well. And so for that reason, we can't go too quickly over subjects as important as these. Just by way of review, paragraph A, the Bible makes clear that God is love. The very essence of His being is love. And I like to throw in the word, He's wholehearted love. Because the only way that God loves is with all of His heart. He doesn't have another way that He loves. And though that's kind of a neat thing to say, the implications of that in your life are very dramatic. He only loves you in a wholehearted way. It's the very essence of His being is this fiery wholehearted love. Now from eternity past, God the Father loved the Son with all of His heart. All of His strength, all of His mind. God the Son loved the Spirit with all of His soul. All of His strength and all of His heart, etc. This is the only way that God loves His family. And when I say the family of God, I think of Father, Son, Holy Spirit in the family. His name, the Father, and the second person of the Trinity, the Son, magnifies the fact of their family relationship within the Godhead. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the most dramatic and amazing reality is they decided to extend that family to us. Beloved, that is so massive in its implications. That they were enjoying this deep fellowship together from eternity past. And by the very nature of love, love demands to be shared and multiplied. As the Father said, let's multiply and share this love and bring others into it. Not just into the experience of love, but into the family itself. Now the angels, they're not a part of the family of God. They're servants to the family, but not in the family. The only way that God loves is with all of His heart. And the reason that's important for us to know, because the devil accuses us and tell us that God doesn't pay attention, God doesn't notice, God doesn't care. It is written, He loves you with all of His heart. That is the truth that we contend for. The devil is a liar. Our unrenewed thinking, our thinking that's uninspired by the Word tells us opposite of this. But we must take our stand and declare the Word and live by the Word and say, no, I don't care what I feel. It is written, He loves me. He's wholehearted love itself. Paragraph B. I've said this in each of the messages and I'm going to probably do 20 messages in this series. I don't know. But I'll say this probably every single time. This next paragraph B. And my desire is that you would hear it so often you could be able to say this yourself just out of memory. The five distinct expressions of how God loves. Number one, God loves God with all of His heart. I'm talking about the Father loves the Son, etc. Number two, in the same intensity He loves us. With all of His strength He loves us. Number three, that same intensity is imparted to us back to Him. Matter of fact, the reason He wants us to love Him with all of our heart is because that's the only way that He loves. That's the only way that the family of God loves when it's in fullness. Number four, that we love ourselves in the grace of God. Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself. And I'm not talking about the carnal way out of the will of God that we love ourselves. We deny ourselves in that way. But we love ourselves in the love of God for God's sake in the grace of God. And that's a massive topic. That is part of the Lord's answer to self-hatred, which so minimizes our ability to walk in God and to walk in the things of the kingdom. And then number five, we overflow in that love to others. Paragraph A, the foundational premise of this series is that God loves us with the same intensity that God loves God. And when I say God loves God, I'm saying the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, etc. The Spirit loves the Father. The Father loves the Spirit. These are two of the most significant statements in the whole Word of God Jesus gave in His last message to His disciples before His death. I mean, they're just indescribable in their magnitude and their implications. He says in chapter 15, verse 9, He makes three statements. As the Father loved me, statement one, in the same way I love you, statement two. Statement number three, focus on that love. Go deep in that love, lock into it, never ever lose sight of it or never stop searching this out. Well, let's look at that statement for a moment. The Father loves the Son. Beloved, the vastness of what that means. The way the Father loves the Son. And then He says that is the measure of how I love you. In light of that reality, He says abide in love. And again, to abide in love means live in it, stay locked in on it, stay focused on it. I believe that's the number one exhortation in the whole Bible. If I had to pick one, it would be that phrase right there. If I had to pick the main exhortation in the Bible to us in terms of action, it would be that phrase right there. Study, search out, lay hold of, never lose sight of this. Now we all know God loves us in the general sense, but our problem is, is our failure to obey that exhortation, we move on too quickly from the subject. The reason I know we move on too quickly, because this is an eternal exhortation, a million years from now is too quickly to move on from this exhortation. Chapter 17, verse 23. Now He says the, He says the same truth in essence, but from a different angle. It says here, the Father that the world may know. He makes three statements again right here. But the world may know, Jesus is praying, that you Father, the world will know that you love them in the same intensity that you love Me. Now I want you to understand that God, is fully committed to manifesting His love to us in such a dramatic and practical way that the nations of the earth will recognize it. I mean right now the church doesn't recognize this truth. But the day is coming where this will not be ethereal, mystical, kind of invisible. It will be so profoundly demonstrated that the nations of the earth will actually see the message, and they will understand it. Now that happens a little bit in this age. It comes to a whole nother level at the, in the, in the hours or those years leading up to the second coming of Christ. This will come to a whole nother level fulfillment, but still a partial fulfillment. But when Jesus returns physically to set up His kingdom on the earth, and there's still unbelievers on the earth, when He comes, that's the time where this will be fully manifest after He returns, sets up His kingdom. And there are those with resurrected bodies will be in the New Jerusalem, but the New Jerusalem's coming down from heaven down to the earth. And the natural realm will continue for 1,000 years on the earth. There'll be believers and unbelievers, certainly mostly believers, but there people still will need to get saved. And that is the, the time frame of which this verse comes to full manifestation. Here's my point. The Father is so committed to this reality to make it, making it known in such a physical, obvious, dramatic way, the world, we're talking about the unbelievers at that time, will see it and be struck by it. Again, it doesn't only begin in the age to come, in the millennium, but this comes, happens in part now, and it will escalate as we get closer to the return of the Lord. But I tell you, this is, this must be one of the most misunderstood or neglected verses in all the teaching of Jesus. Look at it, the world, the nations of the world will see it in a way that's recognizable. See what? The intensity of love for human beings that the Father has for the Son, that intensity, unbelievers will see it. It will be that demonstrated. He's fully committed to it. This is not an ethereal, kind of mystical love that really never has tangible expression. Paragraph one, Jesus spoke this truth two times. Here in chapter 15, 9, and in chapter 17, 23, he said, the way the Father loves me, I love you. The way the Father loves me, He loves you. He's saying the same truth from two different angles. I mean the Father and the Son, one God in three persons. They are distinct persons, but it's the same quality of love. I'll say it again, chapter 15, verse 9, the way the Father loves me, that's the way I love you. Then in chapter 17, 23, the way the Father loves me, that's the way He loves you. There is no distinction in the intensity of how the Father and the Son, and we can add the Holy Spirit loves us in the same way. This was the last, I mean Jesus emphasized this message the night before He died. Matter of fact, this is the first time He ever said it in terms of the record of Scripture, and He said it twice at the Last Supper. This is the most glorious, I mean it is mind-stretching to us. These statements seem so unrealistic to our natural way of thinking. It takes supernatural revelation to grasp this, and that's why He said, abide in love, go after it. Live in it, search it out, camp there, focus on it. It does take supernatural revelation, but the Holy Spirit gives us revelation on this to the degree that we're hungry for it. That's why He said, abide in it, go after this. Many believers, well I think we all suffer in part by the lack of the revelation of this, or we're all negligent of this. I don't mean that in a negative sense, like we're all bad, but I'm saying this truth is so vast. But the Holy Spirit is saying to us, He goes, if you want more, I'll give you more. If you're okay with just a superficial glance at this, that's where you'll live. Many believers spend decades, I mean hardly glancing at this truth, and He's saying, I'll give you more if you'll abide in it. Abide means to focus on, to dwell on, to live in it. If you'll search this out, I'll give you more. It seems unrealistic, this truth, but I have good news for you. Just because we don't feel the power of it, it does not lessen the reality of it. It is real whether we feel it or not with our unrenewed thinking. Let's contend for it. And contend for it, what I mean, ask the Lord. Philippians 1 9, that love would abound still more and more in the knowledge of God. Ephesians 1 17, that He would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of who we are to Him. We are His inheritance, how dear we are to Him. Now we would search it out just with our minds even, reading what the scripture says, finding out what others say about it. I love searching this great treasure chest, going deep in this subject. Now lest you yield to unbelief in this, and we're all tempted to say, this is too big. Let me tell you this, and you know, Jesus knows more about the love of God than any man that ever walked the earth. He has authority to say this. He can say, hey, I live in that family forever from eternity past. I'm telling you the truth. That's how we feel about the people of God. Paragraph 2, this is the ultimate statement of our worth. Beloved, that God loves me, the Father, like He loves His Son. I can't have any more value than that. If He loves me in the way He loves Jesus, and Jesus is His favorite, what does that say about you? What does that say about me? Every believer, and I say this kind of quote, unquote, we can stand before Him in the confidence we are His favorite. Because when God loves us with intensity, it does not diminish any of the love. He doesn't have X amount of love in His gas tank, and if He pours it out on this guy, then He doesn't have as much for you. It doesn't work that way. He doesn't diminish in His love when He expresses it. His love rather is multiplied in the people that receive it and then express it. Beloved, I'm God's favorite. You're God's favorite. Every believer in history. I mean, that's neat to say, but that's not, I'm not trying to get people to go, wow, isn't that kind of cool? I think I'm going to tweet that. I want to do more than that. I want to get that into my language with God. Get it into your dialogue with God. I don't mean once a year on Christmas. I'm talking about day by day. It actually invades your conversation with the Lord, this truth does. That's when it will change us. Paragraph B, these two statements, the Father loves us the way that the Father loves Jesus, and Jesus loves us the way the Father loves Jesus. These two statements, they beckon us to become students of how God loves the Son. Beloved, in all of your doing, become a student of how God the Father loves the Son. That is the quality of how the Son and the Father love you, and the Spirit, you could say that. John chapter 3, verse 1, John, the same writer who wrote the Gospel of John, he stays with this thing. He says, behold the manner of love the Father has for you. Now, when he talks about the manner of love, he could have said, study out the quality of love the Father has for you. Study it out. Don't glance at it. To behold it talks about this fixed concentration, this tenacity to go after it. When we study out how the Father loves the Son, it gives us insight on how the Father loves us. One of my favorite prayers, well, this is my favorite prayer, this phrase here. I use it for many, in many a thousand different ways. I love to pray this prayer. I've said it for years to you, and I urge you to take it, not just to kind of think it's kind of cool, but do it. I love to ask the Holy Spirit, let me see and feel what you see and feel about, and you could put a thousand topics in there. I asked this while I was driving here tonight. I said, Lord, let me, Holy Spirit, let me see and feel what you see and feel about this meeting tonight. When I drive home after the meeting, my wife's at home. I said, let me see and feel what you think about her, what you see about her on my way home. I just pray these little 60-90 second prayers from meeting to meeting to meeting. I love to ask the Lord, let me see and feel what you see and feel, Holy Spirit, about me. Let me see, Holy Spirit, what you see when you see the Father love me. What do you feel when you see the Father love me? I want to touch this. I want to offer that prayer to you. Top of page two. The scripture says, Malachi 3, verse 6, I am the Lord, I do not change. Now, it's interesting, the next part of the verse. He goes, and because I don't change, sons of Jacob, that's the children of Israel, because I don't change, that's why you have a future instead of being wiped out. Because I don't change, you have a future. Because they were a rebellious nation in the days of Malachi, and the prophet Malachi was giving the rebuke of the Lord to him, but he paused here for a moment, says, I have good news for you, children of Israel, because I never do change, you do have a future with me forever. Beloved, that's an amazing reality. Hebrews 13, verse 8, Jesus is the same, not just in the eternity past, but eternity future. He is the same. He never, ever changes. Now, what that means is, He doesn't change in the intensity of how He loves. He doesn't even change 1% ever. Never. He never changes. He always loves in fullness. If He loves 99%, then He denies His own attributes. He denies Himself. It is impossible for God to love less than 100%. When the devil lies to you and tells you, you're finished, you have no future, it's over, you can say, Jesus never changes. Hebrews 13, verse 8, He never diminishes in love, and He never grows in love. Never. A million years from now, Jesus won't come to us and say, hey, good news, I grew in love last year. He'll never grow in love. He can't grow in love. He'll never diminish in love, because His love is infinite in measure, it's eternal in duration. Number one, I'm just going to say the same thing a few more times, because it's so fun to say. Number one, two, and three, I'm just saying it over and over again. He's always 100% true to who He is. Never for one moment is He less than 100% loving. He's never one second less than 100% wise. He's never less than 100% righteous in what He does. Again, if He did that, He would deny Himself, and He can't. It's impossible for God to deny Himself. Number two, I'm saying the same thing. He's fully God in all of His actions. He's always fully God. He's always who He is. And, beloved, that's awesome if you're a sincere believer, because you can have confidence that we have a future, and not just a future, but even today that He actually enjoys the relationship with us. Paragraph three, He loves us in the way He loves Jesus, because He can only love in fullness. It only makes sense if you understand the attributes of God. He can't change. He can only love us like He loves Jesus. It only makes sense. It never would have dawned on us until Jesus connected the dots. He said, I want you to know, He loves you like He loves me. But, if you think about it, it's impossible for Him to be other than that. He can't deny Himself. Paragraph B, He doesn't withhold His love when you or I struggle with our sin. I'm talking to a sincere believer. He may discipline us. He's grieved over an area of our life, but without rejecting the relationship. He can love the relationship and still be grieved in one area of our life. In our spiritual immaturity, He does not feel less. We feel less in our spiritual immaturity, but He doesn't feel less. When we live in spiritual immaturity, which we all do. My definition of maturity is out there a bit higher than some, and so we're all in immaturity. That keeps us with a certain amount of dullness. He doesn't love us less when we don't feel it. We feel it less, but He goes, I feel it intentionally. Wow, if you could feel what I feel, I love you. As we grow in the Lord, we actually feel more. We don't earn it. It's just our capacity is more in agreement with the Word and the Spirit. Romans number three. Now we're looking at John 15 verse 9 to 11 again. It says, I want to link this reality of God's intense love for us to the experience of joy. Now what joy is, the joy in the Holy Spirit, it's not frivolous, it's not superficial, it's not silliness. Joy in the Holy Spirit is a deep-seated sense of well-being with deep confidence before God and confidence in what God says is true about us. I mean, you could break it out, you could define it in more ways than that, but joy is a profound and deep and sacred and powerful thing, but Jesus anchors joy into the reality of verse 9. Let's read the whole passage. He says these three statements again, is the Father loved me. Vast subject. In the same way I love you. Indescribable how that could be true, but it is. Now stay locked into this love. Abide in it. Then he goes on to say, verse 11, I told you about verse 9 so that joy would be awakened in you. In other words, he anchors joy in the revelation of verse 9. Paragraph B, three things I have, it's real, 1, 2, 3, it's very obvious. Joy is anchored in, number one, the way the Father feels for the Son. We need to study that out. We need to search that out. I tell you, there's no place where that's revealed more than the four Gospels, particularly the Gospel of John. I mean, John really develops this theme of how the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father in the Gospel of John and then in the Epistle of John, and it's no accident that he wrote the book of Revelation. Because the book of Revelation is only going to be discerned in the context of this kind of focus. The figuring out what the book of Revelation is about separated from the Gospel of John and the Epistle of John, we're going to end up on the wrong road going in the wrong direction. The three things, the Father's intense love for the Son, the Son's intense love for us, and us locking into it, abiding in it, going after it, those three things is where love is, is where joy is anchored. Now, notice paragraph C, the context. Now, it's the Last Supper. It's the night before He dies. He dies the next day, the next afternoon. Now, He's in that Last Supper. He's giving them the context for the joy, the power of this joy. They are going to have the most devastating experiences in the next 24 hours. They don't know they're going to. He's told them over and over, I'm going to die. None of the guys get it. The girls get it. The guys are going, what do you mean you're going to die? Because I'm going to die. None of them got it. None of them. They were completely confused. Said it over and over. So, they were going to have the greatest devastating shock and disappointment of their entire natural life within 24 hours. They did not know that. Jesus was revealing these truths to equip them for that crisis. The second thing is almost as devastating as the sudden death of Jesus. They can't even comprehend the future without Jesus being alive. The next thing is they all have the shame of betrayal. Every single one of them betray Him. I mean, not only is the, their whole life embodied in Jesus is gone suddenly in one moment. I mean, they're so devastated. These young men, they have the shame of betraying Him. Then they have the political authorities that crucified Jesus are wanting to catch them to kill them. They're young men. They're terrified. Do you know they're terrified? Because they all deny the Lord. They are terrified about what these authorities are going to do to them. And Jesus said, I have something far more substantial than fear and shame. It's called the empowering, transforming joy of the Holy Spirit. That's why I want people to have a big vision of this joy. Because, you know, I mentioned this the other week that in the last 10 or 15 years around the body of Christ in certain pockets, joy has been reduced to kind of a superficial, silly little thing. This joy is profound. It is transforming and it's anchored in the truth of verse nine. It's not just something that hits you for a minute and a half. This is a transforming reality that's stronger than fear. It's stronger than shame. It's actually stronger than temptation itself. We want to lock into this joy. We, this is what we want to go for. Get a vision to grow in joy. But I'm talking about the biblical vision of joy. Top of page three. Let's go to chapter 17 again. Let's look at the verse before and after. I mean, this is remarkable. He says in chapter 17, verse 22, now we're going to go to the other time where Jesus said, the way the Father loves me, that's the way he loves you. He says, the glory, he's praying now to the Father, is right before he would go to the cross. I mean, he's in the garden or on the way to the garden is what some say are still in the upper room. Scholars can't figure out if he's still in the upper room or walking to the garden. But he prays, the glory which you gave me, I have given them. Now they haven't felt that full glory by any means, but Jesus has said, it's determined, it's decided, it's good as done. No power in hell can stop it from happening. The glory is theirs forever. It's already settled in the eternal counsels of the Godhead. Verse 23, the world, we already talked about this, but I just hit it, say it again, the nations of the earth will see a concrete physical expression. I mean, the power of it's in their heart, but it has such a reality to it that unbelievers actually connect with the fact that we're being loved by God. I don't know what this looks like, but unbelievers go, God the Father loves them. Look at the way they're living. Look at how they talk. Look at how they carry their heart. Look at the way they're responding. God the Father loves them like he loves Jesus. I mean, for unbelievers to connect with that? I mean, I look at this verse and say, what on earth is this? It is real. Don't reduce this to the level of our unbelief. Let's keep this at the place where it is. This is truth. This is a profound prophecy of Jesus while he's praying to the Father. Then he goes on in verse 24, and he says, Father, not only do you love them, and the world will know, but I desire them. You love them. I love them. You desire them. I desire them. And he gives one of the most tender, I mean, just over, I mean, just moving. This is overwhelming to feel this even a little bit. He says, Father, I desire them. I mean, he's hours before the cross. What do you desire, my son? I desire that they would be with me where I am. That's why I'm dying. I want them with me forever. That's why I'm going to the cross. It's not the only reason he was going to the cross, but it was a main reason he was going to the cross. And I want them to behold my glory. I want them, now behold means more than observe. I want them to experience. I want them to observe with experience. This is knowledge with experience, not just intellectual knowledge. I want them to experience my glory. Verse 22, I've already determined it's theirs. It's good as done. I desire they would be at my side forever. They will see the glory that's on me and through me, and they'll participate in it in a way that we can't fully grasp. But the point of it is, that's what he desires. That's your future. That's what he thinks about you. This is just remarkable. Holy Spirit, let me see and feel what you see and feel when you see Jesus love me. What do you see? I mean, the Holy Spirit loves it when Jesus loves you, which is all the time. He feels it. Holy Spirit's not a distant observer. He's involved in this. And he goes, I'll teach you. I'll escort you. I'll show you these things if you want them. Paragraph B, look at Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 14. Habakkuk 2, 14. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. This is the backdrop to what Jesus is praying. Jesus knows the earth is going to be filled with the glory of God. The glory of God is manifest on the earth in this age in part, but it's going to be in fullness when his throne of glory is in Jerusalem at the time of the second coming. But it's not just that Jesus is going to fill the earth with his glory. He's not going to wave his hand and the glory of God is manifest everywhere. He's actually going to do it in partnership with us. He goes, I am going to fill the earth with glory, but she's going to be with me where I am. We will be doing it in the deepest of relationship. It will be such a deep relationship. Those that are yet still unbelievers will see it and go, my God loves them. Look at the way they act, the way they respond, the way they carry themselves, the way they talk. There is no other explanation that God loves them the way God loves God. I like to talk about a phrase I like to use is the why and the what of redemption. We know the what of redemption, he died on the cross. That's what he did. We know the what of redemption, that he forgave us fully and seated us in heavenly places. We know the what of redemption, we get resurrected bodies and we reign forever. There's many, many things you could put in the what redemption did for us. But I like to talk about the why of redemption, why he did what he did. Why did he become human? He didn't become an angel. I mean, the fallen angels need a savior. They don't get one. Jesus became human, not angelic. They need a savior. They don't get one. We needed a savior. He took upon himself the form of humanity. He bore the wrath of God. Why? Father, I desire they would be with me. I want them with me forever, not at a distance serving me, near me, close to me, full partnership, beholding and countering the glory, being a vessel of my glory. Paragraph C, when I think of the greatness of God, when I think of the glory of God, which I use those terms interchangeably, and you can think of many things, but first think of his love, his power, I have written here in C, his wisdom, his splendor. Beloved, his love is chief among all of his attributes. And the reason I say that, though he's infinite and eternal in each of them, he uses his power and his wisdom to manifest what his love dictates. It's his love that sets the plan. His wisdom and power walk it out. His wisdom and power, if you will, are servants of his love. His love is the chief attribute of his glory. He's not just great in power. He's not just great in splendor that when we see him we fall like John did as a dead man at his feet. Beloved, he's great in love. I mean, for someone to have total power and total wisdom and total humility is just indescribable. I mean, the most powerful are normally the most aloof and the most arrogant, but the most powerful is the most tender and the most humble. His power and wisdom is magnified through the lens of his love. If he only had power and wisdom but not love, his power would still be awesome, but it's so magnified when we see it through the lens of his great love. It's so unnatural for one with power to be filled with humility. He is the greatest servant of all. Here in John 17, verse 24, he's actually defining the glory of God through a relational paradigm instead of a power paradigm. Here he says the glory of God, they will be with me where I am. I desire them. He's talking about the glory of God through the lens of a relational paradigm, through a relational perspective. Typically, when we think of glory, we think of power, but Jesus links it to relationship. It's remarkable what he's saying here. He's saying to Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 14, when the earth is filled with the glory, listen, the earth is filled with the knowledge of how God loves his people. Where unbelievers go, God loves you like God loves God, that's when the glory will be all over the earth. Jesus ties John 17, 24, he ties the definition of glory back to Habakkuk 2, 14. He says it's when she's with me. It's when my desire is fully manifest. It's when the world sees the way the Father feels. That is where my glory will be seen in its brightest shining light. Let's look at paragraph D here. He makes another promise. He says in Revelation 3, verse 9, Revelation 3, verse 9, he talks to the unbelievers at the church at Philadelphia. He tells these, no, he's talking to the saints. He goes, I will make the unbelievers who are persecuting you to know that I love you. I look at that, I go, now what now? They were killing the saints, the church at Philadelphia. All these guys are dying. Jesus said, don't worry, I'm going to make them know I love you. And the saints kind of said like, when? It probably did not happen much, probably a little bit in that time, but there's coming a time where every unbeliever bowing their knee before the judgment of Jesus, he will declare the way he felt about those that were persecuted in their presence. He will say, this one you killed, this one you wrote off is nothing. I want you to know I'm the great judge of all humanity. I love this one. This one's so dear to me. Undoubtedly, some of that was manifest to some of those unbelievers in that time and they got converted, but the bigger manifestation of this is when they stand before Him. Paragraph E, John 14, Jesus said, in my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again. Now notice, he puts the second coming into that same relational paradigm. He says, my glory is when you are with me where I am. Chapter 17, here in chapter 14, he goes, my second coming is understood. I want you to be with me where I am. He puts the second coming in a relational paradigm as well. Paragraph F, he makes the most dramatic statement, Jesus with his own lips. I mean, I can't even fathom what this means. I just know it's our destiny. It's the most dramatic statement related to our function in the age to come. He said, you will sit with me on my throne. Now, there's a number of points here. Typically, the point that we see is throne, woe, power, ruling, but Jesus said something more important than throne. He said, with me. You're going to be near me forever. Yes, you will rule with me, but there's a bigger storyline. You will be with me, and yes, you will rule with me. You will not only have proximity to my authority, you'll have proximity to my heart forever. That's what he's telling them right here. Paragraph G, the original plan of God was for humans to fill the earth with the glory of God. That was the original plan. Genesis 1, look at it. God the Father's eternal decree, humans will be the vessels to fill the earth with the glory of God. That's what it means to have dominion, to do the will of God on earth like it is in heaven. Now, notice the word all. Genesis 1 26, all is the language of love. Whenever the authority of the believer is mentioned, not, I don't know about every time, but most times that come to my mind when I think of this passage, the word all is in the passage. All is the language of love. Jesus is saying, I want you fully involved in all that I'm doing on the earth. Paragraph H, look what he says in 1 Corinthians 3. Paul tells the church at Corinth they were debating and arguing and divisive and backstabbing and slandering. He goes, stop, because what are you guys doing? Well, they took my stuff and they didn't treat me right and I don't get the honor I deserve. He goes, stop. Yeah, but I mean the more the money is mine and the position is mine, they kind of hedged me out and they stole my drummer, you know, and they took my preaching position and they took my place at the marketplace, stole my girlfriend, stole my boy. Paul says, stop, stop, stop. He goes, I get it, that hurts. Ouch. Okay, let's, let's look at the big picture. Everything is yours. Stay in there for a minute, because I know they're not appreciating what you're doing. Everything is yours forever. Take a step back. Top of page four. David saw this in Psalm 8. David was overwhelmed at who the saints are. He goes, what is man that you are so mindful of him? Then look at verse 6. He goes, you gave him everything. David goes, who are we that you did this? Beloved, the answer isn't who we are. It's the quality of love he possesses towards us. That's what makes this thing happen. Our value, our dignity is connected to his heart and his eyes and his words. Beloved, that's not just a nice thing. This is how we can live. David, I believe this was a transforming moment in David's life. When it dawned on him and his weakness and brokenness the dignity of redeemed humanity, and he goes, I get it. I don't care if I'm king of Israel during my 70 years on the earth. That doesn't matter to me. Your mind is filled with thoughts about me. Your mind filled with me. Who am I? Beloved, this isn't about our intrinsic goodness. We don't have intrinsic goodness. This is about the quality of how he loves that he redeems us and gives us that value. Paragraph J, Ephesians 2, verse 6, he starts off quoting, I mean he's echoing, Paul's echoing that we're going to sit on thrones with Jesus forever. Now it starts the day we're born again. We're seated in heavenly places now, but it's going to go beyond just a spiritual authority by faith. Beloved, we're going to be on thrones with Him forever. So verse 6, he, Paul says this, but verse 7 is the part I want you to see. Why does God put us on thrones in deep partnership with Jesus? Verse 7, the Father has a message He wants to proclaim. What's the message? In all the ages to come. Now notice the word ages is plural. All the ages, I don't know what that means. I just know it's plural. God says I have a message to demonstrate. And the demonstration, the message I want to make, you are my vessels, you are my messengers. It's this, the wealth of my kindness. I am so kind, and it must be demonstrated, and you are the demonstration. When they see how I treated you, my kindness will be openly displayed. Beloved, he feels that way now. That's not just a future kindness. Look at paragraph K. He tells us, this is a little bit of the Habakkuk 214, the earth will be filled with the glory of God kind of theme. Paul says, I'll tell you what's the big picture. The big picture is God wants everyone to see. Believers, unbelievers, angels, demons, people in heaven, people in hell. He wants everyone to see this message. He had a plan in his heart from ages past. It was hidden in his heart. God was the only one who knew the plan. And this plan is that he would, back in chapter 2-7, we just looked at it, he would demonstrate his kindness to the earth through what he, the way he treated us. Look at verse 10. The plan is made known by the church, not just us preaching it. I've heard people talk on this verse, and they say by us preaching. Preaching is important, but I'm talking about the embodiment of our life and relationship with Jesus forever. This will be the demonstration to the angels and the demons, to the truth of how kind God is. Let's end here with the book of, the hymns of revelation. I'll just mention this, and you can read these on your own. But the hymns of revelation bring together a number of these truths, and we will proclaim. The reason they're hymns of revelation, we will sing these songs forever. But notice the themes of these songs. Now, this makes some people uncomfortable, because mostly when we talk about the themes of the hymns of revelation, we only see Jesus, and that's the infinitely superior one, the main theme. But this strange dimension ends up in the songs. We're in the songs too, that are sang forever. How did we get in the love songs? Because we're amazing? No, because He's so kind, and He's so loving. Look at this, paragraph 8. The altogether lovely one, He is so high. Beloved, He's the most high, the infinitely superior one. But the one that was so high, went so low, He became human and died. Why did He, who was so high, go so low? He didn't do it for angels, because He wanted to bring us so near to Him, to partner with Him. Why? Because we are so dear to Him forever. Again, it's a statement about the quality of how He loves. Who would love us this way? Let's be honest. I mean, if the whole truth about our life was known, I mean, people don't even love themselves, let alone someone else love them. They may love their pleasure, but they don't really love who they are and what they do. It's not the same thing as loving themselves, because they love pleasure. That's not what I'm talking about. It's the quality of the man. He's fully God, fully man. That's what magnifies His glory. It's one of the things that magnifies His glory, not the only thing. Look at this. The ruler of the kings of the earth, the one so high. To Him who loved us, the one that loved us so dearly, He washed us with His blood. He went so low, He became human. He made us kings. King speaks of our authority. Priests speak of our nearness to Him, because we're so dear to Him. He brought us so near. And you can do, you can find the same themes in Revelation 5, and you can find it in the other ones. We have this kind of ashamedness of the glory of the redeemed. Like it's so uncomfortable. He is completely comfortable with magnifying us in the grace of God, because it magnifies His worth. He's not nervous at all. He's not saying, oh no, a few human beings got happy and had glory. My kingdom is at stake. He goes, are you kidding? My love is infinite. I have far more love than they'll ever know. Beloved, these are the love songs that will be sang by this, through the Spirit, by the redeemed forever. You're actually in the storyline, as uncomfortable as that makes us. Well that brings us to the other couple sessions from now, where we love ourselves in God's love, and for God's sake, that's for another day. Amen. Let's stand.