Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of Jesus' 'eyes of fire' as a dual symbol of God's omniscience and His deep desire for intimacy with His followers. He explains that understanding Jesus' ability to see everything fosters a healthy fear of God while simultaneously nurturing a closer relationship with Him. Bickle highlights that Jesus' gaze not only reveals our shortcomings but also acknowledges our sincere efforts to love Him, thus encouraging believers to pursue a deeper connection with God. The sermon calls for a commitment to seek God's face and understand the implications of His all-seeing nature, which can lead to both purification and empowerment in our spiritual journey.

Well, tonight we're going to continue in our series on the descriptions of Jesus in the book of Revelation. For those that are just joining us, what we're doing is we're identifying the 30 times in Revelation 1, 2, and 3, and of course, there's more in the whole book of Revelation, where Jesus reveals himself. So the self-disclosures, the self-revelations of Jesus, or John identifies a characteristic about him. Now, the reason these are significant is because this is what Jesus has determined is important to prepare us for the great outpouring of the Spirit and the great trouble that's described in the book of Revelation. And if we know, if we relate to Jesus based on the revelation that he gives of himself before he describes the great revival and the great trouble, we can be sure that we will be a prepared bride. And so we're looking, we're identifying each one of these descriptions and we're speaking them back to God. We're declaring them back to God and asking him for revelation of them. And as I've said on each of the other series, I mean, sessions, this is our fifth session out of a total of 12, that these are the most challenging dimensions of the word of God is the subject of God himself, the attributes of God, the characteristics of God. Probably the most neglected aspect of the kingdom of God is the subject of God. There's a lot of teaching on how to get more blessing from God or how to do the work for God or how to relate to the people of God, but the subject of God himself is often barely touched or not touched at all. And so I find it the most challenging dimension of the kingdom of God. I call it the Mount Everest of the kingdom of God, climbing that challenging mountain, which is God himself. But the Holy Spirit delights to reveal God to us, but it will take resolve. It will take a vision to go deep in God. It will take some patience. Not many can climb Mount Everest, but the Holy Spirit invites anyone that has the resolve to do it. And the reason we don't do it in the spirit is just because it takes effort and resolve and it takes consistency to stay with it. Well, tonight, we're going to look at the subject of the eyes of fire that Jesus, he has, and he revealed this to John. Now, this was a new revelation to John. When Jesus stood before him with eyes of fire, John felt like a dead man, as we read in verse 17 and 18. But here in Revelation 1, verse 14, it says that his eyes are like a flame of fire. Now, his eyes, paragraph A, speak of his ability to see everything. Now, we all know that, that he sees everything, but the implications are vast. And the implications of understanding this, even a little bit, it really affects the way we relate to God in a very powerful way. The more that I understand that his eyes are on me, the more I walk in the fear of God, and secondly, the stronger or the more mature my intimacy with God is. So, the two practical applications is we grow in the fear of God by the revelation of his eyes of fire, but we also mature in our intimacy with God, that we see that he sees us, that he feels what we feel. His eyes are always on us. We move his heart. He moves our heart, and the connection is the knowledge of his eyes being on us. Paragraph A, Jesus is omniscient. Now, most of you are familiar with that term. It means he possesses all knowledge. Everything there is to know, he knows it. There's no fragment of information that he does not possess. He sees the full truth about everything all the time. I mean, what a statement. He sees the full truth about everything all the time. He sees through everything in the same way that fire penetrates metal. So, his eyes of fire penetrate to the core reality and truth of everything that exists. He sees everything that's good and everything that's evil without any distortion at all. He sees behind the scenes and below the surface. Now, knowing this is what equips us to walk in the fear of God and in intimacy. Paragraph B, and we won't get through all the notes. Those that are new with us, we never do. So, I just kind of hit and miss, and the last page or two, I typically just leave you to study on your own typically. But the reason we give you the notes is so you can go away and take some time to study these passages in a more focused and concentrated way. Paragraph B, his eyes are pure like fire. He sees without any distortion whatsoever. Because, see, fire is not only pure, but it is the purifier in the natural realm. When there's any defilement in metal, you put it through fire, it becomes purified. If there's defilement in water, you put it through fire, and that's one way of bringing purity to it. Jesus's eyes of fire not only are pure, but they purify us. The implications of his eyes of fire. He has no distortion of the truth, none whatsoever. He has no wrong information. He has no partial information. He has no biases that are based on his wounding. See, a natural judge, obviously, just a human judge, even though they may try their best to judge impartially, they're affected by their own dysfunctions as humans, their own woundings, their own bias, their own partial information or wrong information. No implication of the truth escapes his knowledge. Not the smallest implication escapes his knowledge. He sees the whole thing. Paragraph C, Jesus takes careful notice of everything and everybody, good and bad. Let's read Psalm 139, verse 2. David's speaking. Now, this is one of the secrets of David's life, that David understood that the Lord's eyes were on him. I mean, this is truly one of the great secrets of the power of his consistent love. And if we understand more what David understood, our love would be more consistent. But here's what David said, Psalm 139. He said, you know my sitting down, verse 2, and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. He goes, you know what I'm thinking. Even when the thought is being formed in me, you can see it. Verse 3, you comprehend my path. You know, many times we don't comprehend the path. We don't, you know, somebody will say, well, why did you do that? And you say, well, to be honest, I don't know why I did it. But David said about the Lord, he comprehends the path, how I'm walking and where I'm going. We don't always know why we do what we do, but we certainly don't know the implications of where it's going to bring us. We might a little bit, but the Lord comprehended the implication of where the decisions David was making today and where they would take him. He said, you are acquainted with all of my ways, my motives, my thoughts, the implications of my actions. Verse 4, for there's not a word on my tongue, but behold, oh, Lord, you know it. You know it altogether, which means you know the motive behind it. You know what I meant to say when I said it that I didn't say it very clear. You know everything that I intend to say and what I mean to say. You know my words altogether. Now, of course, the Lord knows us far better than we know ourself. That's why we can trust. That's one reason why we trust his leadership more than we trust our own leadership. He knows us far better than we know ourself. Verse 6, David said, such knowledge is too wonderful. It is high. He goes, I can't even get a hold of this. I can't attain it. And, of course, one thing that we do is we ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us. Holy Spirit, show us what he sees. Show us the implications of what he knows. David said, it's too wonderful. It's awesome. The implications are wonderful. I can't get a hold of the fullness of it. But, beloved, we're on the journey to understand these eyes of fire. Verse 17, how precious are your thoughts to me? This moved David because David understood how God, how Jesus processed his information towards him. Now, he didn't know the name Jesus, but he knew the Lord. What Jesus thinks about us is precious to us if we get our minds around it. He says, how great is the sum of them? Jesus has so many thoughts about you. The sum total of all that he thinks about related to you is very great. They are more in number than the sands of the sea. Did you know that Jesus thinks about you more? He's had more thoughts about you than the number of grains of sand on the seashore. Now, David grasped that. He didn't grasp the fullness of it, but he had a fundamental revelation of the eyes of the Lord. And when this touches us, it anchors our life. It makes us steady in our efforts to love God because our efforts so often, we're giving ourself and we're coming up short. But even the little bit of ground that we gain, David could see the power of that because he could see that God understood the ground he was gaining. One of our big challenges is that our labors are small. We do our service, it's little, and we're reaching to love God, but we don't seem like we get very far, so our increase seems really small and sometimes not at all. But the Lord sees the truth about what's in your heart in the good way, not just the bad way. Paragraph D, now God's throne is ablaze with fire. Everything around God is ablaze with fire. So it's not surprising to us that His eyes are full of fire because all that's around Him is thrown. There's a river of fire coming out of His throne. There's a sea of glass before the throne in Revelation 4. It's filled with flaming fire. The seraphim, which are the high-ranking angels, the word seraphim means the burning ones. Fire is the purity of fire. It's all around God's throne, so it's not surprising that Jesus' eyes are eyes of fire, that they're pure. Paragraph E, Jesus' eyes of fire are emphasized three times in the book of Revelation. This is an unusual emphasis. There's only a few characteristics of Jesus that are emphasized three times or more because one of the notable features of the book of Revelation is the brevity. The Lord only gives us whispers about very big subjects, and He goes, I'll give you the whisper, now you meditate on it, and the Spirit will develop it to you. So when He says something three times, because the rule of the book of Revelation, He gives a whisper, just a hint of information about something that's about to take place. I mean, there's something that would take place in the future. So the very fact that it's mentioned three times is an unusual point of emphasis in the book of Revelation. On paragraph E, God's fire, it does two things. It imparts the good, the holy love of God, and it also removes that which is unholy, that which hinders love. So His fire, the purity in His eyes, it imparts and it removes. It reimparts the good and removes the bad. Now, this isn't just figurative that His eyes are like fire. This is part of the reality of His personhood. And of course, Jesus can reveal His full glory or He can appear with His glory restrained and diminished in terms of the ability of somebody before Him to see Him. So He can appear to you without His glory being fully manifest. But when His full glory is revealed, His eyes are like fire. You know, the scripture tells us often to seek His face. Well, when we seek His face, we encounter His eyes. And though in our life right now, we can't see His face in the direct sense, but we're gazing at His face. I tell you, His eyes are like fire. It's in that posture that He imparts to us good things, the love of God, and it's in that posture that He empowers us to remove the things that hinder love in our life. Now, the fire of His eyes, it is either the fire of grace if we are cooperating with Him, even in our weakness and our brokenness, we're cooperating and those eyes will impart grace to us. But to those that are resisting Him, that same stare, that same gaze of His face will cause trouble because the fire that warms and imparts grace and warms us is the fire that burns or the fire that removes the things that get in the way. Paragraph F, we're going to look at seven different aspects in this document or this handout. Again, we may not get to all of them. But here in paragraph F, I'm giving just kind of a little summary of them, not that there could not be a larger number, but I want to kind of encourage you on your journey of studying the eyes of Jesus because when you gaze in His face by faith in prayer and worship, this is what we're encountering, the reality of His eyes. And of course, we want to experience it more and more. Paragraph F, His eyes of fire reveal His desire. So in His eyes of fire, there's desire that warms and tenderizes us. In His eyes, we understand that He sees our failure, and this causes us to walk in the fear of God. We understand that He sees our longings to love Him, the immature longings that are not fully developed. He sees the, what I call, the budding virtues. He sees our longings. He sees the yes in our spirit. While it's barely being formed, He sees it, and that gives us confidence because He honors what He sees, and so it gives us confidence when we stand before Him, even in our weakness. In His eyes, He sees and remembers everything that we do in love towards Him, even the weak love we show Him. And the fact that He sees and remembers what we do makes every single day relevant. It makes every hour of every day relevant, and I don't mean urgent, like every hour you're in this kind of intense urgency. That's not what I mean. But every hour is relevant, meaning nothing is wasted, no hour is boring when we understand He sees us, and even the small giving of ourself to Him, even just the small stirrings of love, He remembers them and they move Him. That makes every day important, whether anybody else sees what you're doing is important. The very fact that He sees and remembers crowns your life with glory. He sees you right now. He sees you in three hours, and in six hours, and in 12 hours. And just sitting there, longing to do right before Him, the reaching of your heart, it moves Him, and He records it. You'll never have a day that's unimportant, ever, never. There's no day in your life that's not important. And when you understand that God sees, it really affects and touches us. He sees our burdens. He sees our pain and our struggle. And this is one aspect of walking in intimacy with Him is that He's with us in all that causes us pain and struggle. He sees our greatness. You know, the Lord sees your greatness far more than you do. He sees who you are to Him and what you're going to be open, what you're openly going to be manifest to be in the age to come. He sees that very clear right now. The person most shocked about how great you are, undoubtedly, will be you. When you see who you are, when all the information's out in the age to come, you'll say, well, if I only would have known that then, I would have lived different. Well, when we see what He sees, it affects us. He knows our future. He knows the future of the nations, but He knows our individual future. He knows where we're going. That gives us direction and hope. He knows all of our enemies that are going to rise up against us. And He has the answer for those enemies that gives us security. Top of page two. We're going to look at a few of those. Implications of the eyes of fire. Roman numeral two, His eyes of desire. His eyes of fire, it's speaking of, it's revealing His burning desire for us. It's not just His holiness. Sometimes you'll study the fire of God and some will only focus on the purity end, not the desire end of what this fire is about. It's burning desire. The Lord revealed Himself to Moses in Deuteronomy 4, verse 24. He revealed Himself as a consuming fire, a jealous God. So when the Lord revealed Himself to Moses, He connected to, in Moses' thinking, fire and jealous desire. He put the two together because the fire in God's desire, He wants to move everything that gets in the way of our love connecting with Him in a full way. This fire in His eyes by the Holy Spirit, it warms our heart. It tenderizes us. When I have increased revelation of His desire for me, it tenderizes my heart. It makes me open and receptive to Him in a far greater way. I love to just be quiet and close my eyes and say, Lord Jesus, I want to gaze into your eyes. Release the fire of your desire and touch me. It's one of the prayers that I pray. Release the fire of your desire. Let me see how you feel when you look in my eyes. Let me look in your eyes and let me feel what you see when you look into my eyes. Paragraph B, Jesus is more than a savior. He's more than a healer. He's more than our master. He is the jealous bridegroom. He is the jealous bridegroom. He will not relent until He has all of us. Now, we sing songs about that and that's an awesome truth, but it's real. He is a jealous God. It says in Exodus 34, 14, His name is jealous. Or you could put His name is jealous desire. Of course, His jealousy is pure. It's pure love, holy, kind love. His name is jealous desire for you, jealous desire for truth. He is a jealous God. Now, on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24, verse 32, the disciples, when they encountered Jesus, of course, they didn't see His eyes of fire, but they felt the impact. Because anytime Jesus appears, even after His resurrection, He can restrain His glory or He can manifest His glory. To these disciples on the road to Emmaus, He restrained His glory. They didn't know who He was, but they felt the impact of His gaze touching them. They said, did not our hearts burn like fire inside of us, especially when He talked to us about the Bible? When Jesus looked in their face, of course, it's Jesus preaching Jesus. Beloved, it doesn't get any better than Jesus preaching Jesus. He's looking at them. He has eyes of fire. Of course, they don't see it, but they feel the power of it. And so I put myself in this same position as the disciples on the road to Emmaus. I say, Lord, speak your word to me. Let me feel what you feel. Let me feel the fire of your gaze, the heat of your gaze. Let me feel it tenderize my spirit. Now, when the Lord appeared to John, He saw the eyes of fire. And, of course, John felt like a dead man. He was overwhelmed when the glory was unrestrained. Well, the Lord, He wants all of us. That's what His eyes of fire are about. The God of fire is the God who wants all of us. We often pray, Lord, we want more of you. And the Lord says, good, I want more of you. We say, more, Lord. And He says, more, my beloved, give yourself to me. Paragraph C, one of the passages of scripture the Lord has highlighted in our past in a prophetic way is Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verse 6 and 7. He spoke this by the audible voice of the Lord over this movement back in July, 1988, a long time ago. He said, Song of Solomon, 8-6, He said this audibly, He's given two audible voice of the Lord directives to this movement. In 1983, so 25-plus years ago, 1983, He said, do 24-7 prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David. Do night and day prayer with singers and musicians leading the way. He said that in May, 1983. And then five years later, in the summer of 88, July 88, He said, in essence, I'm interpreting for, not giving a quotation. He said, do that prayer through the lens of Song of Solomon 8-6. And when He spoke that, He said that He would release the anointing of Song of Solomon 8-6 upon believers worldwide. I mean, just sovereignly, I don't mean related to us, just He would just do it sovereignly. He would visit ministries and individuals all over the earth that He would emphasize this passage and the reality of it to them. Now, Song of Solomon 8-6, it's the eyes of Jesus locked in to us. Our eyes and His eyes developing a more continual connection where the eyes of our heart are fixed on Him and we're receiving from Him because it's in that posture of being fixed on Him, we receive most from Him. It says in Song of Solomon 8-6, Jesus said, set me as the seal upon your heart. For my love, is what He's saying, is as strong as death. My love is like flames of fire that can't be quenched. Jesus is saying through the poetic language of Song of Solomon, my love is like the Heman flame, it can't be quenched, nothing can overpower it if you yield to it, my fire of love will drive everything out of the way, nothing can drown it. Nothing is more powerful than the love of God when we yield to it and stay fixed on it. There's no pornography, there's no bitterness, there's no addiction, there's no dysfunction more powerful than His burning eyes, His fiery heart. Many waters could try to quench it because water puts fire out in the natural, but there's a supernatural fire that the water of sin or persecution cannot overpower this fire if this fire is yielded to. Stay steady, stay with it, go hard after it, and when you stumble and fall, repent, push, delete, and get right back in the race within the hour of going hard in confidence and love. Don't wallow around, you know, for a couple of days or a few weeks, licking your wounds with condemnation. Repent, push, delete, and jump right back in the race as a wholehearted lover of God. It's the only way to live. Paragraph D. Now, of the seven, I'm obviously spending too much time on this one. This is my favorite one, it's the first one. It's His eyes of fire, the part desire. In paragraph D in Luke 3, Jesus, John the Baptist is talking at this time, he says, Jesus will baptize you with fire. This is a good fire, this is a holy fire. And in the upper room in Acts 2, in the upper room, they were praying and seeking the Lord for 10 days, 120, and Jesus baptized them with fire. The way I see this, Jesus set His gaze upon that prayer room and the fire of God fell on them and gave them courage and supernatural power at the heart level. These cowardly men became bold. The men and women stood bold because they had a supernatural fire of God empowering their heart and empowering their love. Okay, Romans 3, we're going to go to the next second facet of His fire. He sees our failure, His eyes do. Now, this produces the fear of God in us. One definition of the fear of God, I would add a few things to it to have a complete definition, is the awareness that God sees everything. I don't have that definition on the notes. But the fear of God is the awareness He sees everything. The more I'm aware He sees everything, the more I have the fear of God in my heart. The more I am careful because I know it matters. Because if you know He sees and you know it matters to Him, then it matters to you. I become more careful because I know it matters to Him. The small things matter to Him, meaning the small reaches of my heart. When I say, Lord, I want to be yours, but I feel dull and sluggish. But I want to give myself to you. I want to be fully yours today. I can't feel much. I feel dull and sluggish and tired. But it matters to Him. And when I see that, when I know that, then it's worth reaching to Him because it matters to Him. It says in Hebrews 4, verse 13, there's no creature hidden from His sight. All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him. All things are naked, meaning He sees the behind-the-scenes truth of every situation in life. Nothing can be masked or altered. The truth of it cannot be hidden from Him. He sees it as it is with no covering, every single situation in life. It's open to the eyes of Him. And it's the Him that we give an account to. We give an account of our life to a man. He's fully God and fully man. His name is Jesus. And the more I know I'm going to give an account for the good and the bad, even the good. I mean, it's a beautiful account. Maybe I stand before Him and He says, let's talk about how much you love me. I see on my record here, you really love me. Oh, good. I love this. This is great. You will actually give an account for the love. And though our love feels so weak, it touches Him more than we think. In Malachi 3, verse 2, the prophet Malachi links purity with fire. Because fire purifies. It purifies metal. It purifies water. It purifies various elements. And so Jesus' activity, this is Malachi 3, it's about the end times. Of course, the principle is true throughout history. But when Jesus appears or manifests His glory in Malachi 3, it says, He, that means the Messiah. When He manifests His glory, it will be a refiner's fire. And the refiner's fire is not just negative. A refiner's fire isn't just, ouch, it hurts. You know, you hear people say, I'm going through the fire, ouch. There is an ouch dimension to the fire. But there's a purifying and an impartation dimension to the fire too. Top of page 3. Now when Jesus is, now this is the negative dimension of His fire. And the reason I'm talking about the negative first, because we're going to talk about the other five that we're looking at are positive, because when people think about Jesus sees everything, more times than not, the idea, if you say Jesus sees everything, people go, oh no, the first thought is dread. And that's because we don't understand the implications of Him seeing everything. We only think of Him seeing the negative, but in a minute we're going to see He sees the positive, not just the negative. Now when Jesus in paragraph B is warning and wooing, He's doing both. He's warning, but He's trying, He's wooing them too, to step out of immorality. In the church at Thyatira, Revelation 2, verse 18, these things says the Son of God, and He links His eyes of fire when He's going to talk about His desire to remove immorality out of that church at Thyatira. His eyes of fire has a negative connotation and a positive one here, because His eyes of fire are going to disrupt the lives of believers who won't renounce the immorality. But His eyes of fire are going to empower them when they do renounce it. So He's going to disrupt and trouble to get the attention of believers who won't renounce it and resist it, and those that do, His eyes of fire are going to impart the glory of God just little by little and strengthen them on their journey. Revelation 2, verse 18, these things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire. He says, I have a few things against you because you allowed Jezebel to teach and seduce my servants to commit acts of immorality. There was teaching in the church at Thyatira that was soft on immorality, that condoned immorality. Said, well, you know, in the grace of God, it doesn't really matter anyway because we're spirit more than we're physical. The physical stuff doesn't really matter because we're more spirit than we are physical. That's Gnosticism. And so she was teaching the superiority of the spirit realm so the physical realm didn't matter that much. So believers were emboldened to stay in immorality and not renounce it and to resist it. And Jesus said, I really like you, Thyatira. He says that strong. He goes, I love you. However, you tolerate this false teaching in your midst. This troubles me. He says, here's what I'm going to do. Verse 22, I'm going to, and you can read the whole passage later on your own in Revelation 2. He goes, I'm going to cast this woman onto a sick bed to get her attention. Now the devil, one of his specialties is putting sickness on people. But there are times when the Lord looks at a believer who resists him and resists him and he woos them and warns them and woos them and warn them. He will cast them on a sick bed. Nine, I've heard for years, people say Jesus wouldn't do that. Well, Jesus says he will. I'm going with Jesus. It's not his primary way, but when a person that he's warned and wooed, warned and wooed, he's given the positive and the negatives and they won't respond in order to keep them from utter destruction. He will wake them up in this way. Now the vast majority of sickness on the earth is the result of sin and the work of Satan. And so we don't assume somebody's made sick by Jesus, but in this extreme case, he said, I will do this. It's not the rule, but it's within his authority and it's within his wisdom to use this. Verse 23, he goes, I'm going to go further. I will kill her children with death. This doesn't mean her natural children. This means her disciples. This is a reference to believers in the church at Thyatira that are buying into the cheap doctrine of grace. They were buying into the grace of God that made immorality no big deal. Jesus says, I will kill those disciples to wake them up and to keep them from spreading the infectious doctrine to others and to deliver them so they don't go further into deception themselves. I'll kill her children, her spiritual children. And here's what's going to happen. All the churches, that means in the region of Thyatira, which is Asia minor, all of the churches, they'll do the math, they'll connect the dots and they'll know that when she's on a sick bed and her disciples are dying, they will know that I, Jesus have searched the heart and the mind and I know what I'm doing and I have acted in power even in the midst of my church. He goes, the rest of the church in the region will connect the dots and they will grow in the fear of God. Again, some, it's quite common, would teach the grace of God that has no element of Jesus acting this way. Again, this isn't Jesus's primary mode of waking up people, but he does do this. And when we understand it, that he, we understand he did it because he searched the mind and he searched the heart. He knew the truth and he knew this was the best way to keep the air from spreading and to awake and to arrest this deadly doctrine that was going on in the church there. He says, they will know I'm the one who searches the mind and I searched the heart. Jesus knows what's happening in our life. He searches our mind and heart right now. He knows if we're, if we're planning to sin tomorrow or next week. He knows if we're planning it. Beloved, it's different when you sin, overtake it in the moment. It's still important that you don't do that. I don't do that. I've done that many times in the 35 years I've known the Lord. I've sinned in the moment. That's a different thing than a, a predetermined next weekend I'm going to do it. The Lord takes that at a much more serious level. He has searched the mind. He sees the plan and it troubles his heart because some believers are planning next week to do a, B and C or next month or next year when they finally get to that situation where they can seemingly get away with it. And the Lord says, tell them I searched the mind. I know the plans, the good ones and the bad ones. Roman numeral four, he not only sees the negative, he sees our longings to love him. He sees the budding virtues, the virtues I'm talking about, the, our desire to love him that is not mature. He sees that too. Now we're going in the other direction. He says in first Corinthians four, verse five, Paul is speaking, he said, the Lord comes who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and he will reveal the counsels of the heart. Then each one's praise will come from God. Now, this was a surprising truth to the Corinthians. He says, when the Lord comes and reveals the hidden things and he reveals the counsels of the heart, the motive of the heart, it's more than the motive. The counsels of the heart would be the plannings and the stirring of the heart. He says, when the Lord does this, you're going to receive praise from God on the last day. He said, no way. If he reveals the, the thinking and the planning of my heart, why would I get praise? Because the Lord says, I see that though you stumbled, you were, you were setting your heart to love me. You were praying. There's times you were even fasting to overcome this and asking for grace. I see the motive of your heart and I will praise you on that day for the counsel of your heart. Well, Lord, but I stumbled a lot too, but he says, yeah, but you warred against it. And it mattered to me. It moved me that you warred against it. Beloved, when the Lord reveals the godly counsels of your heart, the longings and the setting of your heart to do right, he will affirm you. He will praise you, which means he will point it out in an affirming way. I think this will be the most surprising thing on the last day. Many believers live with such a, an awareness of their brokenness that they don't have any esteem for the love they have. They don't count the love. All they do is count the failure. They, they, they, they count what comes up short. They don't esteem the setting of their heart, but the Lord does and it moves him. He sees the yes in your spirit. Even before you walk it out in your character, he sees the yes, the reach of your spirit, the cry to grow in greater love. Paragraph B, he will see every, he sees every movement of your heart to love him. Some of you today did things that grieve the spirit, undoubtedly. And when you did it or yesterday or the day before, he said, oh Lord, this is not what I want. And the Lord goes, oh, that touches me. He sees that movement of your heart. He records it in his book. Do you know the way that you move him? Do you know that every time you repent of compromise, it moves him and he records it in his book. Paragraph D, Jesus sees our desire to obey him before it's manifest in our character in a mature way. The revelation that a sincere believer is beautiful to God, even in their weakness, it causes us to open our spirit and run to him instead of from him. Because what happens, many believers, when they stumble, they get such a sense of condemnation, even though they've repented. They feel like it's kind of more appropriate if they put themselves in probation for a few weeks or, you know, a few days at least, or a few weeks, they had to feel miserable for a while. I mean, after all what they did, and if they feel miserable for a few days or a few weeks, then it kind of balances the score out. That's absolutely bad doctrine, it's deception. But when we understand that we're beautiful to him, even in our weakness, now this is the believer that's repented. They failed, but after they failed, they called it sin, they declared war on it, and they stood back before the Lord, they pushed the lead on it, and they're ready to run towards him. When we do that, we open our spirit in confidence, instead of drawing back in shame. We gain nothing by wallowing for a few weeks or a few months in shame to kind of get even. That's just, that's what the devil wants us to do. We close our spirit and kind of like, oh, I'm so bad, I'm so bad, and the Lord goes, lift your chin up, look me in the eyes, let's talk, I love you, I've already forgiven you, run towards me, don't you see how I feel? Don't you know what I know when I see you? Paragraph E, Jesus affirms the budding virtues. All of our virtues are good, the good things in our heart towards the Lord, they start out as a seed and they grow over time. Even the desire is the beginning of victory. See victory isn't just, it isn't just happening when you have the full breakthrough, victory begins when you set your heart to obey and you repent a moment after you've just sinned, that's when victory begins. When you agree to say, yes, that was darkness and I'm yours, I'm yours, and the Lord doesn't say I've heard that a thousand times, you hypocrite, that's the devil talking to you. It really is. That's the accuser. The reason I know that voice so well, I've heard that voice in the sense of just in my thought life, you know, in those early, early days when I was uncertain about this, whenever I would stumble, I just, oh, forget it, I'm just a hopeless hypocrite and the Lord made it clear to His word, that's not me speaking to you. I love the way that you're reaching to love me, it moves me. Paragraph H, now let's go to G, top of page four. Paragraph G, when we feel cherished by God, when we receive His gentleness, it makes us confident in love like David did. Here in Psalm 18, now the context of Psalm 18 is that David has been in compromise for 16 months in Ziklag, you can read it in the notes there and read the passage. And the day that God delivers David from Ziklag, 16 months he's been living with an element of compromise in his life. It says in Psalm 18, verse 19, David said, God delivered me because He delighted in me, He liked me. Now one of David's comrades could have said, now wait a second, David, we know for 16 months you haven't been walking in the full way that you've known to. And David said, that's right, but I repented and the reason God delivered me, He likes me. And I mean, when I first began to connect with this, I thought, David, the audacity, the boldness to think God delighted in you, you haven't even been in full repentance for 12 hours yet and you're convinced it's because God likes you so much. And I, you know, I kind of looked right and looked left and I said, Hey, it worked for him. I'm going to start running with this. This looks good to me. The Lord delivers you, not because He's going to delight in you, but as a believer, you've come to repentance. He goes, I delight in you right now. That's why I'm delivering you. I like you. Well, Lord, why don't you like me in a year or two when I prove, no, no, I like, I see the movements of your heart. He went on to say in verse 35, God's hand upheld him and he said to the Lord, it was your gentleness that moved me. It's your gentleness that makes me great because you're gentle towards me. I will cast this off and I will grow up to be a great man of God, not a famous man. He didn't say your gentleness made me famous, but beloved, any believer can be great in God's eyes because greatness in God's eyes is about loving him and about humility in the secret place of our heart. He goes, because you're gentle towards me, I don't quit, but I keep pressing in. Roman numeral five, Jesus sees our works. The fact that he sees everything we do and our works, most of our works, our entire life are very small and seemingly unimportant. I've talked to people over the years and one of a great pain, it's a just really a distraction, but I do understand it. I've talked to many people through the 30 years of pastoring and they, I want to do something big for God. And what they, you know, they, they read that one book of that one guy who had stadiums filled and that's what they meant something big for God. They met lots of people or everybody knew about it or changed everything in the nation. And there are a few people in history that have millions of people impacted by them, by what they do. But 99% of all of human history, good and bad, 99% of the human race, what they do only impacts a few people, then that's not bad. And so what happens is a lot of people, they're, they, they, they get distracted by wanting something big. So everything until then is not important. And that's a total distraction. 99% of everyone in the body of Christ in history will only do small things. And so if we get fixated on only having millions being impacted, then everything between now and then, and then we'll probably never happen to 99% of the people or 99.999% of the people, but they're lost in this disillusionment, in this dissatisfaction of smallness. Now, the Lord goes, you don't understand every small thing that you do. I write it in my book. It moves me. I remember it. I see it. I esteem it. I will reward you for everything you do. And beloved, it's the revelation that he sees the small things that his eyes of fire can see through all the different mindsets of men. And he sees the small things, the things that are obedient to him, and he re he esteems them and remembers them forever. Says in first Corinthians three, most of you know, the passage verse 12, if anyone builds on the, on the foundation of their life, well, the foundation is, is Christ Jesus in their life. But if they build on that foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones, or they build with wood, hay, and stubble verse 13, then on the last day, when we stand before God, each person's life work becomes clear for the day we'll declare it, it will be revealed by fire. The fire will test each one's work, talk about their life work and all the individual acts of service. The fire of Jesus's eyes, it's the eyes of Jesus that's testing it. Verse 14, if anyone's work, which he's built upon it endures, he'll receive a reward. Now some people get the wrong idea that the work means how big the work is and how famous they became through the work. The thing that's shocking in verse 13, the work will become clear. I think what will be most shocking is how when it's clear on that day, how important the little things are to Jesus. Many people, they can't see with clarity the importance of what they're doing. Well, you know, I help in this way and, you know, I drive the shuttle bus. Well, what's your ministry? I drive the shuttle bus and I encourage a few people along the way and I pray for the sick every now and then. I got, one guy got healed three months ago and I led three people to the Lord, but well, I'm not sure they were led to the Lord, but I tried and I do the shuttle bus. I don't do anything important like what beloved that's significant to God. Every one of those points are significant to God and being kind along the way and sitting there in your chair when your heart feels sluggish, reaching to God, say, Lord, I want to be more yours. I want to study your word. I want to give myself the Lord says, I write it all in my book. All of that will become clear and evident on that day. And I think what will shock us is how important and how big the little things are. You'll receive a reward. Your life will be revealed. And most or I don't know that it's most, but many people, they have the image that big is what is good and big can be good if it's the will of God. But remember 99.9% of the body of Christ through all of history, they've only done small things and that's the will of God and that's good and they will be rewarded in a very surprising big way when they stand before God. So as I get ahold of this, it makes every hour important. Again, I'm not talking about the urgency of making sure I'm being intense every hour between now and the Lord's return or when I meet him, that's not what I mean. But I'm talking about every hour I can pause. His eyes are on me. I love you. Even times where we're just enjoying time, there's down times, there's intense times, there's all kinds of times, but every single day is important now. Look at paragraph B. Says in Hebrews 6.10, God is not unjust to forget any of our work. The labor of love, which you have shown his name, he remembers that his eyes see it and his eyes of fire see it so the fire can penetrate to the truth of it. He doesn't see the smallness of it and go, oh forget it, it's only a small thing. His eyes of fire see the truth of it. Because if it was another person, they would see it without eyes of fire and they would not esteem it in the way he does. But his fire sees right to the core of the goodness that's in your heart, the desire to love Jesus while serving the saints. He says in Hebrews 6.10, God's not unjust to forget any of your work. It's the love you show towards him when you serve others. When you drive the shuttle bus, it's because you love him. You're driving it because you want to be helpful to his cause. He goes, I see it, I'll never forget driving the shuttle bus. That's not my big point today, but I was just talking about that just the other day. Matthew 10, Jesus said, I tell you assuredly, if you give a cup of cold water, verse 42, Matthew 10, verse 42, if you give a cup of cold water, I will never forget the smallest deed that you do. We're going to end with this and then I'll leave you the rest of the notes to read on your own. But paragraph C, I'm going to end with this paragraph. When we understand that he sees, then we're not compelled to make sure everybody else sees. The more that I understand that he sees, the less I'm compelled to tell you all that I'm doing. When I don't think he sees, then I have to make sure you see. But when we know that he sees, then we don't have anything to prove because it's already been proven before him. It's already been proven. It is such liberty. I'm not saying I'm there, but I've gained ground over the years. It is a liberating feeling to know it's already been proved in the secret place. I don't mean just in your private prayer life, that too, but I mean just the secret things that you do in service. It's already been manifest to him. It's proven, it's manifest. We don't have to make sure everybody knows because he knows. And it gives you power in your spirit to know he knows. Well, you can read the other ones on your own time. We're out of time. Let's go ahead and stand up.