Mike Bickle emphasizes that holiness is not a burdensome obligation but a joyful pursuit of God, where believers can live fascinated by His beauty and love. He explains that true holiness leads to a vibrant, exhilarated heart, filled with the superior pleasures of knowing God, rather than the inferior pleasures of sin. Bickle encourages believers to shift their focus from resisting sin to actively pursuing a deeper relationship with God, which will naturally lead to a life of holiness. He highlights that our longing for pleasure and fascination is God-given, and that true satisfaction comes from experiencing God's presence. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a commitment to a lifestyle of 100% obedience, which opens the door to a richer spiritual life.

Is the drudgery of self-denial and the drudgery of missing out on real fun But actually holiness is it is the way and it really is synonymous with living fascinated Living fully alive on the inside living with an exhilarated heart So when I hear holiness, I go wow, not oh, no I gotta pay the price grit my teeth and hang in there and hope I don't get in trouble. That's not what holiness is It really is about living fascinated and it is the Inheritance of every believer to live with an exhilarated heart The vibrant heart I absolutely refuse to live with a spiritually dull heart Because it's within my reach in the grace of god to live exhilarated in my heart and what I mean by that Is it all day everywhere, you know all day every day just kind on some high that's not what i'm talking about i'm talking about with this it's just a little uh Installments of the holy spirit. That's not the best way to say it of just understanding of god and his word that makes our heart excited and And it fills us with this hunger for a greater Greater experience and more of it and the way this works, uh encountering god is that our capacity is not very large I mean god is so big He's like the vast ocean of his being and we can't try to drink the whole ocean at one setting Or one lifetime it's not going to happen that's what it's like about trying to comprehend all the fullness of the beauty and the glory of who god is and that's what holiness is all about is that And yet we can our hearts can be satisfied and full and we can possess him But we're always wanting to possess more because the more we have the larger our capacity the more we want The more we want we get more our capacity grows our hunger grows The ache for more grows the fullness grows, but the ache grows and and and and and uh Life begets life one. It's like the rich become richer in this arena called holiness Now i'm not gonna uh cover all the notes like always i'll just mention part of them and leave the rest for you to read on Your own if you want But i'm going to present two foundational truths Tonight paragraph a and then just briefly mention three practical principles on the final page in our pursuit of holiness There's two foundational truths that are sometimes overlooked paragraph b First peter chapter 1 verse 16 god calls us to be holy because he's holy and when god says be holy for I am holy, I mean He could have said I am satisfied. I'm happy I am whole I am full I am Exhilarated in love he could those are the words that you could almost put for the word holiness holiness actually means more than that But it includes those ideas I am happy. So be happy happy I talk about happy holiness and I don't mean giddy and I don't mean frivolous. I mean a holiness that's excited About the lifestyle of pressing into god and not this idea We're gritting our teeth and hanging in there and the drudgery of of well I have to because god wants me to but I sure wish god was different because i'd rather not do it I'm talking about a totally different view of holiness than that And being holy he has the highest most pleasurable quality of life in existence In being holy he has the highest and even the most pleasurable lifestyle Quality of life and all of existence and he wants to share this quality of life with his people It's called the love of god holiness and love really are two sides of the same coin. There really are synonymous Holiness isn't just purity from bad things It's walking in the purity of what we were created to walk in and that is the love of god Paragraph c Jesus called us to enjoy a superior quality of life That's what liberty and holiness is a superior quality of life And again many see holiness only as drudgery of self-denial missing out losing out paying a price paragraph d now foundational to understanding holiness is that god created every human being with a With a longing for pleasure. Did you know he created you to long for pleasure? It's the enemy that counterfeits the pleasures So that we try to find our satisfaction outside of the will of god But the god but god actually created us to long for pleasure. He's the author of pleasure It's the devil who counterfeits the real thing. He is the author of pleasure. He's not against pleasure He's against pleasures that are outside the will of god He created us not just with the longing for pleasure, but for a longing for fascination And understanding these two longings I believe is foundational to pursuing holiness in a biblical way If you don't understand those two longings are in you And that god desires to answer those in the spirit by the in the will of god I think you'll end up in a wrong view of what holiness is The call to holiness at the end of paragraph d is a call. I I love this phrase here to is to the superior pleasure of living fascinated by jesus It's to the superior pleasure Sin is the inferior pleasure sin is pleasurable, but it's an inferior pleasure and it's a temporary Pleasure and it leaves us empty We have to go back all the time to get more and it breaks us and leaves us empty And it leaves us with shame and brokenness and never ever satisfied. Never ever does it satisfy ever? And in the spirit, there are the superior pleasures of the gospel which are Vastly more powerful than the inferior pleasures of sin Okay, let's look at this foundational first foundational truth because I want to address two foundational truths and then Uh very briefly and probably we won't spend much time on the three Very practical principles. They're they're quite obvious, so I won't spend a lot of time on them Okay, let's go to paragraph a roman numeral two foundational truth number one Is being preoccupied with the superior pleasures i've just mentioned the paragraph a I mean being preoccupied that's key If you're not preoccupied with the superior pleasures and you're only trying to resist the inferior ones You're going to be in a real difficult time Looking at sin and saying no no. No, and that's all you're looking at is sin You're gritting your teeth trying to resist it. You're not going to resist it very successfully What the lord says he goes turn around get your view on the superior pleasures Go hard after that and then you will have to turn around and say no to sin But that will be far less you will resist it. But while you're running hard after something else But if you live in a vacuum and you don't know about that part and you're only Kind of having a showdown with sin and you're gritting your teeth. No, no, no. No. Oh, I did it again I feel rotten. No. No god. I promise. No. No the lord says turn around change your preoccupation You'll never get free living in a mindset of only resisting resisting is important But resisting by itself is not sufficient to liberate our heart and to fill it with the power to Have us experience the power of god in our emotions paragraph a Well, I begin with the idea i've already mentioned god is the author of pleasure He created us to enjoy physical pleasures There are physical pleasures in the will of god. There's a number of them There are mental pleasures. There are emotional pleasures There are spiritual pleasures This is a big subject the subject of pleasure when understood in a in a more complete way, but i'm just introducing the idea Our longing for pleasure is part of our created design these pleasures must be satisfied meaning you're not going to Some people try to live devoid of pleasure. You will yield to pleasure one way or the other And you don't pleasure the craving for pleasure isn't neutral Either you're going to get it satisfied in your relationship with the lord Or you're going to have a vacuum and you will end up Dipping over into the wrong stream to get satisfied and as a lifestyle. I don't mean stumbling here and stumbling there I mean that will be a chronic lifestyle and many sincere believers live that way paragraph b The greatest pleasures though. I mentioned physical emotional mental, etc Etc, but the greatest pleasures available to the human heart are spiritual pleasures And what I mean by spiritual pleasures is when god reveals god to the human spirit There is nothing more exhilarating when god the holy spirit Reveals god the father or god the son to our spirit when when god does that to us when god reveals god to us Some even a little bit it does something it shifts us on the inside We do that for months and years and that turns into decades you'll be a radically different person on the inside Because you've experienced a different preoccupation And when you live preoccupied in the secrecy of your life, you you'll act different you'll talk different You'll go to different places. You'll spend your time and money different when you live preoccupied Internally in a different way I have here in paragraph b already mentioned it, but i'll mention it again That we are liberated from the inferior pleasure of sin by experiencing the superior pleasures of the beauty of god Paragraph c first corinthians chapter 2 Paul said in verse 10 the holy spirit searches all things Yes You know because he's he's anticipating when he said that people go the holy spirit searches all things Wow, that's an interesting concept because the holy spirit is Fully god like the father and the son. I mean, he's the uncreated god He's as much god as the father is he searches doesn't he know everything? And I I like to put the word in the holy spirit discerns all things. He comprehends all things Yes Now catch this even the deep things of god, which is a reference to the father the holy spirit Is pictured as searching the deepest things of god the father's heart or god the son and he discerns them And the reason that he discerns them In the in this context in first corinthians 12 the reason paul gives for forgiving this truth is verse 12 He says we've received the spirit Here's the reason we've received the holy spirit that we could know these things And to know these things when we know something in the biblical sense, it means know by experience It's far more than intellectual information. It's know by experience paul says the holy spirit is searching that vast treasury of the heart of the father Or the beauty of jesus and the holy spirit has been commissioned by the father To reveal to you what he knows about the father Now obviously not all that he knows a little bit just blows our circuits Just a little bit our capacity is so small compared to his ability and what he knows beloved but but this verse in first corinthians 2 I i've set my heart to go on a a long treasure hunt into the knowledge of god a treasure hunt I'm going to spend the rest of my days in this age and the rest of my days which are billions of years in the age to come eternity on a treasure hunt The holy spirit showing me the deep things of god And beloved this is the inheritance of every believer. This isn't something for a preacher or something for this guy or that guy This is for everybody every born-again believer has this within their reach Someone says well, I don't really like reading i'm not talking about liking reading Well, i'm a little add. Well, the holy spirit's not add Well, I can't really pay attention. Well, he can and he'll help you he will escort you into the The that glorious treasury that gold mine of god's heart. He is the divine escort And if you get a vision, this is where I want to go. I want to go that direction It will affect the way you spend time it will affect the way you spend your money It will change some of the things you do But beloved you get a vision and in a few minutes I want to pray for folks to set their heart to say I want a vision to to go deep I don't want to live spiritually bored I don't want to just kind of hang in there till I get to heaven and get a resurrected body one day I want to go deep now in as much as we can go deep in this age and we don't go very deep in this age I mean we might think we do But in the age to come with a resurrected body, we'll look back and say wow We thought that was deep back there a million years ago. That wasn't that's that wasn't so deep But uh, you know what? I mean paragraph d The holy spirit will escort us on this divine treasure hunt into the beauty of jesus Here's what jesus said about him in john 16. He said let me tell you about the holy spirit. He'll take what is mine He'll take the glory that I possess in my heart he will reveal it to you He will take the authority that I possess and manifest it through you He will take the things that are mine and he will show them to you on the basis of your hunger for them Now the holy spirit gives us things that we never asked for he just gives us but he's so generous And so I mean the way we met jesus Uh, we were not seeking him He was seeking us and he found us now, you know, I told the story, you know for years I was seeking the lord and I can imagine lord saying really? I don't remember you seeking me. I remember me ambushing you cornering you wrestling down Pinning you to the ground and you go. Okay, and you call that you were seeking me, huh? So it's okay You think that's what was happening But he's chased you down and cornered you and ambushed you and cut off a few options and you went yes I will freely give myself to you So we do know a little bit about him giving us stuff Giving us revelation and insight to his heart that we did not see that is absolutely a true reality of the kingdom But let me tell you this that mostly he gives to you on the basis of hunger In other words if you want more he'll give you more when you don't want more he says, okay, we'll stop there and if we like like one of the things one of my favorite prayers is I love this This is my favorite prayer actually because I pray it in hundreds of different ways I pray the prayer. I say holy spirit Let me see what you see and feel what you feel about Dot dot dot and you can put a thousand things at the end to end that sentence Like I like to say holy spirit like I pray for this meeting I want to see what you see and feel what you feel about the meeting tonight. That's what I would have prayed earlier today Uh when I drive home after a meeting i'm gonna see my wife and i'll say not every time but many times holy spirit Let me see what you see and feel what you feel about diane I say that about my children. You can pray about the u.s economy. You can pray it about your enemies lord Let me see what you see and feel what you feel about my enemies I'd say here's one of my favorite ones. I go lord. Let me see what you see and feel what you feel about mike bickle I want to know what you see about me and feel about me He goes I will I will tell you many things if you ask me And one reason that he doesn't answer that question is because often it's not asked And so Another one of a really fun one glorious one. I go. Holy spirit Let me see what you see and feel what you feel about jesus I can imagine the holy spirit. Oh I got a lot to say about him. I want to do it. I want to go. Okay, sit down open your bible Take out your your uh, I guess you don't do notepads these days but you know, I used to journal it all now we type it all in but or whatever you do, but uh the idea Open your bible get a place to journal start talking to him and just I want to see what you see and feel what you feel about jesus. Holy spirit I want to see what you see about the future about my physical health about my diet my economy my economics My leadership abilities and and callings everything put any subject you want in there about your little brother about your neighbor Everything do you know what he knows everything about everything? And he says you just I won't force you to talk I won't make you ask but if you do ask I have much to say about everything And so I want to encourage you to take this uh Reality, I mean, I mean this truth this this promise the holy spirit will reveal things about jesus to you According to the hunger that you have but it will take time. You won't get most of this on the run Meaning it's going to take an intentionality. There's a I really want this And the lord might the holy spirit might say how much do you want it? Do you want it enough to turn some things off turn some things away? To uh skip some uh certain activities because if you do i've got much to tell you And i'm not talking about something that's so out there that you know Only john the apostle is going to see it on the island of patmos. I don't mean something that big. I mean just the everyday day in and day outness of life He wants to show you more, but he wants some of your time. He wants more of our time I say to the holy spirit. I want more of you Release more and he says good I'm, glad you brought it up. I want more of you Give me more. Oh, you're changing the subject on me And the holy spirit might say something like no, it's actually the same subject Because the subject of I want more god and god saying I want more mike is really the same reality Meaning we get more of him by opening ourselves more and when he gives us more We open more and when we open more we get more it goes on and on and on the rich get richer in this pursuit top of page two the best way to overcome darkness Now i'm thinking of uh physical darkness is to turn on the light But that's the same way that we overcome spiritual darkness. I'm talking about the the power of sinful desires The way we overcome darkness is turn on the light Look what? John 1 5 says the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness Is not more powerful than light light is more powerful than darkness The darkness didn't overpower the light Jesus is saying My light actually if focused on If you're if you're going after it has more power Than the dark desires of sin. It really does have more power, but you got to give yourself to it Now if you were uh in a dark in a room It was completely dark You wouldn't you know, it's it's pitch You know the dark of night you open the window the way to get rid of the darkness is not to get a bucket Full of darkness and try to throw it out the window, you know, you walk in. Hey, what are you doing? Oh, i'm trying to empty the darkness out of the room. Well, that's a weird way to do it Well, you know i'm going to work all night doing it. Well, you'll be doing it all night You know the best way to get rid of darkness go over and just turn the light switch on That's the same spiritually That we focus so much on a on on the power that sin has in our emotions And wanting to resist it resist it resist it again. The lord's saying turn the light on focus on light Yes, you do have to resist darkness and we do have to resist sinful pleasures But we do it far more effectively with a preoccupation of light paragraph g Will not overcome the darkness of immorality the darkness of bitterness or any Anything you want to put in there by focusing on it You'll never overcome bitterness by focusing on bitterness like staring at bitterness bitterness is bad I gotta get done with bitterness bitterness go Go bitterness. I mean it this time bitterness just I don't like you anymore You'll never get free of bitterness by focusing on bitterness You get free of bitterness by focusing on how much you you receive for free How beautiful he is the deal you really got in his hand That kind of way that mindset add a few more things to it. That's what liberates us from bitterness We have to change our focus to be by to being preoccupied with gaining more I I tell young people don't try harder See more Put yourself in a position to see more don't try harder not to sin Put your energy in seeing more of god if you see more you'll get free of sin Seeing more is the way forward not trying harder now In the sense that it takes some effort in order to position ourself to see more But it's not the same thing as just really kind of getting ourself all worked up Against I don't want to do this sin this time. I just don't want to do it I don't want to do it. The lord says go in a whole different direction put your energy on seeing more clearly and you'll find a lot of uh Uh, you'll find things will change over time not in one day, but over time Paragraph h david had a revelation of god's personality as being full of pleasure and full of joy I mean what a remarkable statement This is uh, this is you know, one of the all-time great Oh david said so many great things, but this is one of my favorites of david psalm 16 verse 11 Look what david says about the presence of god around the throne of god He says in your presence is the fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore What he's describing not just when we have his presence the holy spirit's presence in a meeting and we have joy Certainly that's included. That's not what he's talking about specifically Around the throne of god go to revelation 4 in your mind revelation 4 is that glorious? Chapter where the throne of god is described with more detail than anywhere in the bible Where there's that emerald rainbow around the throne and 24 elders and four living creatures And god is like a a jasper and a sardius being in his color uh, this these these colorful bright, uh, Dazzling radiance of of the jasper stone and the deep red gem the the sardius stone That's what the being of god that color emanating out of him. There's our emerald rainbow around his throne There's seven lamps of fire There's a sea of glass like crystal anyway goes on and on it's such a glorious scene revelation chapter 4 Well david said let me tell you something else about the throne scene It is the epicenter of joy for the universe The closer you get to the throne the more intense the joy is Because god is the fullness that the the being of god is the very epicenter of joy When i'm talking about joy i'm not some people when they think joy they think giddy Back silly, you know, they think I have joy and then they use real silly things. I'm not talking about that I'm talking about a profound Sense of well-being in our in our being and that tremendous sense of confidence in goodness That's what I mean by joy And then david took it a next step. Uh, he went beyond he says not only that not only is this profound sense of well-being and goodness and Confidence with absolute no fear at all. No shame clarity and I mean this sense of well-being at the highest Uh degree imaginable. He said also at your right hand is pleasures forever more There are the again and we have capacity for numbers of different types of pleasure and uh Those pleasures many of them are legitimate in this age And those pleasures actually will be we will have physical emotional mental pleasures even in the age to come That are exhilarating and powerful Because pleasure was created by god And the reason i'm stressing this Is that some people's idea of pleasure is it's all negative. They only know the counterfeit They only know pleasure out of the will of god and so their Of their their view of holiness. I mean they love god. So they're gonna do it but their view of it is so negative and it's so for foreboding and they don't understand there's a Pleasure dimension to their holiness that will actually empower and liberate them David went on in psalm 36 in paragraph. I And he prayed to to the father. He says god lord. Let them drink from the river of your pleasures. I mean, what a sentence I've prayed that prayer many times over the years. I'm going to drink from the river of your pleasures Now david's not talking about a stream outside, you know a physical stream outside of jerusalem somewhere where they drank and the water was really tasty That's not what he's talking about He's talking about The reality of god revealing his beauty to the human heart I mean look at psalm 36. Let's look at this again. This is oh what a awesome life vision to throw yourself into this relationship with jesus to drink of the river of his pleasure Yes, I I know I I look at myself. I look at all of us lord We're you know, we're not that good at understanding this or that or we're not that focused and we're not that diligent And we're not that this and we're not that you know various things But this is for weak and broken people that want to go deeper. This is doable for humans This is not outside of the reach of people like you and me to get in this trajectory of drinking of the river of his pleasure And that is god revealing god to our heart because we're hungry for it and we're talking to him about it and we're going after it Paragraph j we're kind of focusing on david a little bit because david was really into this You know, that's why we we mentioned the book. I wrote earlier on after god's own heart I just take the life of david. He was a he was a I mean he was Absolutely ravenous to experience the pleasure of god's heart. He was going after it I mean he was the great warrior king of israel, but he was a lovesick worshiper That was fascinated with the beauty of jesus. I mean here we have this man He's the head of the government and he runs the army I mean, he's got generals, but he's the head of the army the head of the government But he says in psalm 27 4 i'm preoccupied with the beauty of god Now, how could a guy that I mean have you ever ran a government in an army? I mean that sounds like a lot of work That sounds like your days are busy And while david's hands were preoccupied. I mean david's hands are occupied in his job. His heart was preoccupied with god and He did run the company. I mean run the country as president or king But he said there's something more on my heart That i'm got there's a bigger vision. I have than being the most powerful man in my nation I mean, he was the wealthiest man in his nation the most powerful political man in the nation Probably the greatest warrior in the nation. He had Probably the greatest musician in the nation. He was called the great Uh psalmist of israel, so he's a singer musician athlete warrior Powerful business leader lots of money political leader But he says i'm what i'm going after above everything. I want to see the beauty of god this man was captured by the Potential of experiencing the beauty of god in a in a different dimension a different way Look what it says in paragraph k here isaiah 4 this is a prophecy about the end of the age This is a prophecy about the generation the lord returns isaiah 4 in context. This is about the generation the lord returns I mean we can claim it all through church history, but there's one generation this comes to a full manifestation It says or one time frame. It says isaiah chapter 4 verse 2 in that day The branch of the lord will be beautiful and glorious Now some of you know that the term the branch of the lord is a common old testament designation for the messiah Six times in the old testament. The messiah is called the branch of the lord Here's what here's what isaiah said There's coming an hour When the messiah the branch of the lord will be seen in his beauty The beauty of the man christ jesus fully god fully man. There will be a greater reception of it Now we have that all through church history But there's a prophecy from isaiah that talks about a time frame where it's going to actually be increased And we no one knows when that day or that hour when that time is but we're getting closer and closer We're not getting further from it We're getting closer to it And it may be sooner than we think and it may be a generation or two or three down the road or more who knows? Nobody knows But I know one thing we're getting closer to it And i'm laying hold of this promise for for my life personally even if I don't see the fullness of it in my lifetime and my children don't in theirs and You never know where where where this where the timing of the lord might be on these things But here's the idea i'm wanting to Grab your attention It's in the lord's heart to make the beauty of the lord accessible to his people that's in his heart roman numeral three Our longing to be fascinated paul in philippians 3 verse 8 He says I count everything lost because of the excellency of the knowledge of christ And the word excellency you could put the word because i'm fascinated by jesus He said I he said it's I count it as nothing to lose these the superior pleasure of encountering the man christ jesus Is so much more powerful than what I give up I don't count it a problem at all. I want more of him. He was preoccupied with this pursuit Now you can't repent of your longing to be fascinated Because the fascinating god gave you when he created you with a longing to be fascinated the fascinating god Created in you a longing to be fascinated If you're not fascinated you will live bored And that you can't repent of the longing for fascination you can repent of trying to fulfill it in the wrong way But the secular movie industry has captured this reality. They know the human heart wants to be fascinated and they have uh Not entirely because there are some glorious examples that are doing it the right way But so much of it they've exploited this human craving for fascination And it's brought multitudes into ruin But let me tell you this god. The holy spirit is saying I really will satisfy The craving I created you with for fascination Paragraph d if we don't live with a sense of awe with a sense of wonder Those are the same things as fascination. We don't have a sense of wonder and a sense of fascination in our relationship with the lord We will live spiritually bored There are so many believers who love jesus, but they live spiritually bored And they're trying to get their fascination out of their ministry assignment And so when their ministry assignment is frustrated The people aren't responding like they thought the doors didn't open the money didn't come through nobody recognized They're trying so hard to get their fascination out of their ministry assignment And they're frustrated time and time again and the lord would say you're not going to be fascinated by that anyway You might be fascinated by the pursuit of the idea. It might fascinate you, but it's not true I mean, it's the it's the climbing up the ladder that has a certain allurement to it Getting to the top of the ladder doesn't have the allurement in it. It's the idea that it might that's what captures people in their pursuit Well, I know a lot of folks they love jesus And they're they live spiritually bored and they're confused thinking they're bored Because nobody will open the door for them in ministry. So they're stuck bored and in pain The holy spirit would tap them on the shoulders and why don't you redirect your attention? I am Jesus is the most fascinating man that's ever walked the earth. I know everything about him Why don't you talk to me about him and not worry? So much about whether they open the door shut the door if anybody shows up or the money comes I mean I care about those things in a limited way But beloved i'm not going to give over my inheritance and my destiny in god To how well my ministry is going and who likes me and who doesn't and who opened the door and who shut the door? I'm not going to live there that is a That to me is torture And so many believers torments the word i'm i was trying to say that's torment And so many believers that's the way they actually live in in their spiritual life So they live spiritually bored And i'm not saying this to be mean to nobody but a spiritually bored believer is spiritually boring to unbelievers Unbelievers looks at why would I want what you have like? no, you're just Anguish all the time about everything and you're down on everything and you're not happy with yourself and the only things you're happy about are the areas you're compromising in and And then then you're sad after you compromise and then you feel guilty that you are happy about what? No Spiritually bored people are spiritually boring to unbelievers Unbelievers are looking for somebody that has really got something on the inside Not just something on the outside everything they touch turns to gold and hey, I want what you have But you know some folks think hey if you got all the good stuff The unbelievers will say I want the good stuff, too i'm talking about the fame and fortune and money and everything just right and That's not ultimately what brings an unbeliever They want to see a human being that is gripped and fascinated that's living in a place in their heart That's transcended it's bigger than circumstances And who likes them and who doesn't like them and they look at that and say how do you live that way? And why why are you doing that? And how come you're so gripped with this? I mean you're working in the marketplace. You're working in the church world or you're Retired or you're you're in school the university or it doesn't matter what station of life you're in You can live fascinated and preoccupied while your hands are occupied with other things And a spiritually bored believer is very vulnerable to satan And there's so many spiritually bored believers and satan knocks on their door And that's why pornography is running so rampant in the body of christ and Things like that I could give a whole list. That's not my point to give a whole list Because the believers are living spiritually bored. That's That's one reason why they're addicted to these one or two or three or four things because they have such a vacuum in their life because they're they've Settled down and became content living spiritually bored Well, I want to urge you Not to be content Living spiritually bored. It is not your inheritance to live bored. It is your inheritance to live preoccupied with the glory of this man top of page three paragraph e Now we must be preoccupied with the with the superior pleasures If we don't we will never successfully resist temptation in a fascination vacuum. That's kind of a weird phrase But let me say that again You or I will never successfully resist temptation if we live in a vacuum of fascination meaning we're not fascinated We're trying not to sin. We don't have anything really gripping us on the spiritual side I mean we love jesus in the general way We want to go to heaven when we die try to do a little bit of ministry here and there But that's not the same as living fascinated I'm not talking about going to bible school or going on a missions trip or being on the outreach team I'm talking about something far more gripping than that I'm talking about in the secret place of your life. You got to have more you got to have more Like I I I determined many years ago that I was going to rest So I would have strength to go hard after god some people they do their work so they can go play I do I rest By by the grace of god This is my desire because I want to gain strength so I can seek god with more intensity with greater focus the rest of my days So I don't I see rest is very very important and it's a blessing of god But I also see rest as a means to rejuvenate me so I can go hard after god Not like well, my rest time is my time off from god. You know, I did god now. It's my rest time I want to encourage an entirely different point of view That you've worked hard now go rest so you can get rejuvenated So you can go hard after god So my rest time is not my off time with god because a lot of folks they rest in a way that depletes their spiritual life While they're resting they lose the ground they gained when they were actively seeking the lord So don't get caught in that trap You know i've i've met some of the folks in the ihop world over the years and they have their ihop life What they do in the prayer room in the ministry in the classroom, then they have their other life I go that's a disaster that is the guaranteed way to live in boredom and frustration and being stuck spiritually Meaning we have one life. We're going hard for god. We go hard for god when we work We go hard for god when we're in the prayer room We go hard for god when we're resting and I don't mean we're just exerting energy all the time I believe in physical rest. I strongly believe in it But I see it as a not as a time off from god, but rather a time to get rejuvenated so we can go harder after god Paragraph g. I love what john piper said Some of many of you know john piper's writings I think he's got one of the most influential voices in the body of christ in this hour. I love so much of his stuff Uh, he said this that uh, he said sin is what we do paragraph g when our hearts are not satisfied with god Sin is what we do when our hearts are not satisfied with god Then he went on to say god is most glorified in us When we are most satisfied in him I want to say that again. God is most glorified in us When we are most satisfied in him The call to holiness is a call to enjoy god The call to holiness is not a call to miss out Yes, we're missing out on some sinful activities, but we're not missing out our heart is not missing out Those activities are never going to satisfy you nor will they refresh you? Nor will they deeply connect you to other people? They will keep you broken Isolated and disconnected even though you might be in a frenzy with the people you're doing it with You'll never bond to them and the way the holy spirit bonds people's hearts When we walk in the spirit and we throw our lives into the kingdom of god The battle for holiness is actually the battle to be preoccupied with the right things That's what the battle of holiness is about. It's the battle to be preoccupied with the right things It's not just about doing the right things with our behavior It's about what we're preoccupied with and then what we do with our behavior will come out of what we're preoccupied with Well, I spent almost all my time here on print on foundational truth number one Because it's so important and it's so fun to talk about And I realized I said the same thing like 20 different ways. I said the same thing over and over again But that's one of my main giftings is repetition. Okay roman numeral four The second foundational truth. I have two foundational truths and then three Very simple principles the second foundational truth isn't always immediately obvious to folks It's the idea the power of setting your heart on a hundred percent obedience. What do I mean by that? What do I mean by that paragraph b? It's easy to pursue god with a attitude of 98 percent obedience meaning There's only two percent we keep to ourself Holy spirit you have everything Don't touch the way I talk. I want to talk the way I want to talk leave that part alone that wouldn't be two percent that'd be like way more but or Holy spirit i'm totally yours. But this amount of time. Come on. Come on. Give me some room And there's often one little area sometimes an area two, whatever I don't know how this works in every person's life But let me say this 98 percent obedience and I don't mean the attaining of obedience I mean they're seeking to obey because there's a difference between the two I mean that desire in the secret place of your heart. I'm gonna obey I mean with all of my heart there is a emotional dynamic a positive one a very powerful one that happens When everything in your life you brought under this banner of obeying the lord everything Your time your money your words what you look at with your eyes the way you respond to your enemies the way you plan to get back at people the way you plan your promotion whether you're Manipulating a little bit conniving a little dishonesty. I mean when you say no Everything is yours. Let me tell you something about this and many of you know it. There's a spark That's not the best way to say it, but there's a spark There's a there's another dimension that happens in our walk with god when we're trying to obey in every area every single area 98 percent Pursuit of obedience has a limited blessing. I mean there's a blessing there for sure But there's a new dynamic when that last area is brought under That last area is brought under look at paragraph c I mean just these are very obvious i'm talking about bridling or speech Now my speech is not totally bridled I say things that are not pleasing to god mostly in the realm of a complaint or Or the thing things like that i'll say something or or even something about myself or the kingdom of god and horses I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that at all. That's that's not how I view it, you know sometimes we say things and That are just out of the spirit of the truth of even the glorious things god says about us I've made a determination by the grace of god and I haven't I haven't walked it out in the way that I want to but I want my speech to be obedient in private Not just one in front of people in the privacy when no one's looking when i'm talking over in the corner I want the holy spirit pleased with my speech. He isn't pleased with all my speech I'm not saying he is but i'm i'm seeking it and when I come up short I tell the lord that was wrong. That was wrong and the lord says as long as we keep that kind of relationship We're gonna go far together You call it wrong when it's wrong and then you deny it and you set your heart to obey it And again, I blow these blow it in these a number of these areas here and there But it's not okay when I blow it in those areas. That's where that spark i'm talking about. That's what that extra dimension takes. Uh, Uh rude in our I mean, uh, we we begin to experience it a covenant with your eyes This is absolutely fundamental not just for men, but for women To make a covenant with our eyes. We won't look at things Never that are displeasing to the lord in this media generation and if we do And we might do it But we say what I just did for that 10 seconds that three minutes that hour whatever it is was sin And i'm waging war on it and the lord says yeah, I can work with that. I can work with that Some believers go. Well, i'm just a little over here the whole I tell you a little over here a little over there What's the big deal? That's the way to live spiritually bored. That's the way for the exhilaration not to happen in your life Maybe it's uh Disciplining our physical appetites like oh don't touch that one. I'm not saying that we'll excel I'm not saying we'll excel but i'm saying we're aiming we're reaching the reach of the heart is what i'm talking about The way we manage our time Well, I mean there's so much time that we say well that's my time I want to tell the holy spirit. No, it's your time. I really want again I I talked about that for a couple minutes a few minutes ago I want to rest in a way that pleases you and replenishes me I want to rest in a way that makes me know you more not as time out from you. I don't want to do that I want to spend my time not just networking to get my ministry bigger That's not enough I want my time to obey you and that means turning away Opportunities that means turning away open doors for different activities because I gotta be time with god I gotta be time with god. I gotta have time with god not just because i'm hungry for it I am hungry for it, but I want to go in that direction. I want my time to be his And you can have your friends around and you know through all my years, uh, you know 40 years ago Uh, you know as as an 18 year old and then a 20 year old I begin to set these things in my heart I want to spend my time obedient to you and a lot of friends and well if you do this, you know You're gonna miss out and I said I don't care if I miss out because i'm not i've got another vision i'm going after that I remember in my 20s I was set on on spending my time and managing it in a way where I could have time for god Turn down opportunities for fun For various social events though, I believe in socializing Various ministry promotions turn some things down a number of them Turn some things off and be have time with god And remember I remember my young friends back there. I'm in my 20s. They're in their 20s Well, you know if you're gonna you're gonna let life pass you by I go. Are you kidding me? I'm pursuing life You're the one letting life pass you by i'm on the path to life And I remember in my 20s and 30s had lots of debates about this because uh Had a lot of folks they said you're gonna burn out if you stay in this pace Well, it's 40 years later and beloved i'm not close to burning out not even close I've been told so many times I would burn out if I didn't dial it down a little bit And I mean for 40 years i've been hearing this and I got good news for you 20 somethings You won't burn out. It is the path of life When I look back over it, I don't have regrets of all the opportunities I miss doing some other stuff I really don't I mean good things even I'm, very happy about that The only regret is I wish I would have done it more. I'm not claiming i've done it, right I'm, that's not my claim. My claim is i've pursued it hard and i'm not really talking about me That's not really what i'm talking about me I mean what i'm talking about i'm actually using me to talk about you i'm really talking about you right now I'm wanting you to hear some of this going, huh? Well, I mean he's not that cool if he can't I can I mean hey I know I can't if a guy like that can and you can do it all your days think well i'm already 70 Well do the next 10 years So you lost 70 years don't lose the next seven or 10. You don't know how you might have 20. You may have 30 Start now. Well Don't worry about how much time you lost Think about how much you can gain ground you can gain by going in that direction Thinking about money money's a big issue. Well that part of the money's mine that part of the money's god The lord says well you can do it that way and I love you and you're in my kingdom and i'll bless you But there's another way to do it. It's all mine all of it's mine All of it's mine And i'll challenge you to give in ways. You don't want to give it's all mine and again, my point isn't a matter that we actually, uh Do it a paragraph e It's the aiming i'm talking about the reaching for it Not the attaining. I don't attain i've not when I look back over the years. I've come up short in all these areas I've come up short But here's the deal I've said it already, but i'll say it again when I come up short. I I call it sin Not every time sometimes in my dullness. I just miss it Then I was knew my I renewed my resolve to go after it again I said no my money my time my words my eyes my appetites i'm bringing it back under your leadership I'm, i'm recommitting now. I'm in all my days. I don't make big vows and all that. I just recommit I said no. No lord. This is how I want to live and beloved I tell you I I I I have found there's a again. It's not a great word, but this spark i'm talking about there's a different dimension When I live in that posture because over the last 40 years i've been talking about there I've times where i've lost hold of that And i've settled into that 98. There's an area here an area there i'm sloppy on And the lord will say hey now you slip back in I go. Ah It's so easy to slip into that then I say lord. I really want to go back for that again And and it's not i'm trying to do some great and glorious thing. It is my inheritance to live fascinated I want to live invigorated. I want to live. I want to live in my private life Somewhere in my mind far above being just stuck in what's happening in my everyday life. There's a dimension Of transcendence and then that's a big word where we're living bigger than just what's happening Or who likes us or what door open or what door shut where are we carry something on the inside of our heart? That's bigger than now again Uh, i'm not talking about me for me. I I don't like talking about me, but uh, i'm the guy I know best so That i'm using i'm just i'm wanting to stir particularly 20 year olds Although I like I like people my age too, but I really I really want 20 year olds to get this vision in their mind That they can do this and it's not going to hurt them They're not going to burn out and when they blow it, which we will blow it We repent we renew our our commitment we push delete on our failure We have confidence that god enjoys us and delights in as we blew it three minutes ago We stand by the blood of jesus and confidence recommit to go hard again beloved. That is the way for fascination Well top of page four Top of page four The most practical I'll just take like a minute on each one The most practical, uh chapter in the bible on walking in victory over sin is romans chapter 6 Romans chapter 6 paragraph 8 tells us how to access and experience the favor of god the power of god It's freely available to us in jesus because of what jesus did but we've got to access it and experience it It's not enough that it's available. I want to feel it in my everyday life the benefits of it And there's three principles that paul lays out And i've got a quite a bit of this on the internet for if if uh, some of says hey I want a little bit more on those principles. How's that work again? I've got lots of messages and notes on these three principles on on the internet so you can Just on on them on the mikebuckle.org Site hundreds of messages and videos on all these types of subjects if you want them, they're free of charge but my point is These three principles i've never seen it more clear in paul's teaching than romans chapter 6 he lays it out paragraph b Romans 6 verse 11. I call it the knowing principle There are things we have to know who we are in christ what we've received Uh, there's a number of things. I don't want to go into that right now and again because i'm out of time But we have to know who we are in christ We have to know the authority received we have to believe that's that the indwelling spirit the spirit of holy spirit lives in us We talk to him. He's not just a influence. He's a real person. We talk to who lives on the inside But it's not enough to know who we are in christ, that's the knowing principle paragraph c There's the resisting principle In verse 12 and 13 paul said you got to say no to things You got to know things, but you got to resist some things There are sinful Uh promptings there were desires. We do have to say no, but again if we are Pursuing the fascination of the pleasure of knowing god we can say no a far more effectively We have to say no to some things And it says in verse 13 That we the essence of it is that we say no to sin provoking circumstances Paul said in verse 13 don't present your body to situations that stir sin up in you Don't go to that place that stirs you up to sin. Don't don't go there avoid Those sin producing circumstances, you know your frame, you know, what makes you do stuff don't go there So he says no to some some sinful desires and no to some wrong circumstances in a little bit more And then paragraph d these are not comprehensive i'm just saying these one two three Then there's what I I call the pursuing principle Says in verse 13 we pursue god And we pursue of making ourself available to be a blessing In god's hands to be a blessing to others we pursue god. We pursue people There's a pursuing principle and you can read a little bit more about that. Uh, And again, I got a lot more on the website, but it's so self-evident it's not confusing it's material Meaning the these principles paragraph e let's look at the summary of this. I'm gonna have the worship team. Uh come up here and Uh, go ahead and come on up on the platform and get ready for uh ministry time here But paragraph e look at this We might here's the three principles. We must know truth who we are in christ, etc. We must resist darkness Those sinful impressions and those sinful circumstances, etc. And we must pursue god and people As we love god and people we resist sin satan and sin provoking circumstances while knowing who we are in christ Those are the three principles. We do those three principles We take time to know who we are in christ We take time to pursue god and pursue people in the in the will of god The kid, you know doing the kingdom of god serving people and we say no And resist the the uh, the things are supposed to resist beloved we are going to be in a posture while we're pursuing the superior pleasure and we're We're understanding that principle if you go a hundred percent aim at a hundred percent, even though you come up short But there's a whole different internal environment in your heart when you're going for the hundred percent There's that a whole different spark there's a whole different radiance about our walk with god when we're going after that You know some people I have here in paragraph e Uh, uh the uh first paragraph under e none of these three principles can be omitted Some people they pursue god they go to prayer meetings or they pray god, you know seek god at home or whatever But they don't know who they are in christ. I know a lot of people they go to ihop They go to prayer meetings, but they don't really know who they are in christ very well You you tell them they go. Oh, we didn't really learn that the place where I grew up We don't really do who we are in christ. But boy, we seek god we fast and pray Well, I appreciate fasting and praying but you got to know who you are in christ I know some people they know who they are in christ, but they never seek god They they just say i'm this i'm that i'm that the other but they don't ever talk to jesus in an intimate way I know some folks they know who they are in christ And they actually seek god, but they don't resist sin. They got a confused doctrine of grace So they're gonna get drunk all the time and dabble with some immorality Well the grace of god glory to god will go to prayer meetings and I know who I am in christ Sort of I know some folks that resist sin, but they don't know who they are in christ or they don't seek god You got to have all three of those principles actively operating in our lives While we are pursuing that superior pleasure And while we have this idea of going for a hundredfold obedience for that spark to be in our heart Well, I know I talked really fast tonight I can When I talked to my wife she goes you did it again You talk way too fast. Anyway, but the good news is I repeated the same things over and over so Go ahead and stand i'm going to ask the lord to touch you