Mike Bickle emphasizes the beauty of God's heart, focusing on His gladness and humility. He explains that God's primary emotion towards believers is gladness, countering the common misconception that God is mostly mad or sad. Bickle highlights David's revelations in the Psalms, which depict God's presence as a source of joy and pleasure, and he encourages believers to embrace this understanding to deepen their relationship with God. He also discusses the significance of humility in God's character, illustrating that true beauty lies in God's servant heart, which invites us into a closer relationship with Him.

Okay, session 7, we're on the topic again of the beauty of God's heart, because that's the ultimate beauty of life, is the heart of God, the ultimate beauty in the created order is God Himself. And this time we're going to focus on His gladness and His humility, very dynamic parts of God's personality. Paragraph A, I sometimes speak of David as a theologian of God's emotions, because there's more in the book of Psalms about God's emotions that King David wrote. One of the really high marks of revelation, very remarkable passages in Psalm 16, I mean this was like mind-blowing, I think, to the nation of Israel, because their idea of God was just terrifying. They didn't think of drawing near to God, they thought of being terrified and staying away from God. That was the general idea of Israel and David's generation. And he makes this remarkable statement, chapter 16, verse 11, Psalm, in your presence is fullness of joy. And they're going, where did you get that, David? And, well, the Holy Spirit, we don't know how David got it, but it's a revelation from God's heart. And he says, and David takes it up a notch, at your right hand, next to your throne, your throne is the epicenter of pleasure. Pleasure, like what? You mean terror, no, pleasure. At your right hand is pleasure forevermore. So he described God's heart as full of joy and God's heart as full of pleasure. So God's primary posture of heart is actually gladness, because a lot of people, when they think of God, they think that he's mostly mad or mostly sad when he relates to them. But I have good news for you, as a sincere believer, I don't mean a perfected believer, a believer with weakness that stumbles, that's struggling, he's mostly glad when he relates to you. He's not mostly sad and mostly mad. See, one guy says, I don't think he's mad, but when he looks at me, he's grieving all the time because I'm always failing. Another guy goes, I don't think he's grieving, I think he's just plain mad at me. He's got his hammer out, he's about to smash me. And I'm just trying to dodge him everywhere I go. And what we need is the revelation of God's heart. This is such a dimension of his beauty is how he feels. Look at what David, I mean, 1 Chronicles 16, this is at the dedication song of the tabernacle of David, when David put all the singers and musicians in a tent around the throne of God, he put it in his backyard. The tabernacle means a tent. And this is the dedication song, 1 Chronicles 16, it says, honor and majesty are before you, strength and gladness are in your place. Strength and gladness. Then David says again in Psalm 36, right here in Psalm 36 he says that he goes, pleasures, the river, let them drink from the river of your pleasure. Now God doesn't just have a little trickle of pleasure. David said, let them drink from the river of the spirit of pleasure because the superior pleasures of life are the pleasures of when God reveals God to the human spirit. I want to say that again, that God, when David's asking to drink from the river of his pleasure, he's saying, I want God to reveal himself to you in a greater way. And it's the river of pleasure. Paragraph B, Jude tells us that believers in the presence of his glory we have exceeding joy. You know why we have exceeding joy in the presence of his glory? Because the epicenter of his throne is where there's joy and pleasure. The seraphim, the living creatures, the elders see the joy and probably experience it more than anyone because they're closest to the very epicenter of it. Paragraph C, God is so gracious because God is merciful and gracious because he's so full of joy. God has a happy heart. I don't mean a giddy heart. I'm not talking about silly. Some people when they think of joy they think of giddy and silly. Joy is a profound sense of well-being and goodness. His presence is full of joy because his personality is full of joy. The whole atmosphere around him is joyful. And again, I'm not talking about giddy and not just necessarily happy and the jump up and down happy, although I think there is jump up and down happiness around him as well. But happiness is more than that. It's more than just the songs that have a fast beat and everybody jumps. And that's good. That really is good. But happiness is bigger than that and so is joy. It's the very center of his personality. Paragraph D, how does God feel most of the time? If you were to answer that question really truthful, how does God feel most of the time? Many believers would say, I frankly don't know for sure, but I think he's mostly mad or mostly sad. This question is one of the most important questions in your spiritual life. And the subject of beauty is tied to this subject. Because beauty, again, there is a visual beauty that we're going to look at some of that in the other sessions, but this is an emotional beauty that sets the context for life prospering and deep love and the full meaning of life and what beauty is all about. How does God feel when God looks at you? Right now, tonight, if God was to write on the whiteboard how he feels when he looks at you, what would he write? Most believers would go, oh, oh no. I hope he doesn't put it on the whiteboard in front of everybody how he feels. What that's betraying, and it's real common, is that they don't have a basic foundation in the truth about the glory of God. It's not easy because everything around us speaks opposite. We're trained and we're raised by earthly authority figures that aren't like this. We're taught in the Bible that God isn't like this. Our natural mindset doesn't naturally see God this way by the spirit of revelation. So it takes some effort and some intentionality to swim against the current to grow in this revelation by studying it, thanking God for it, asking for revelation, talking about it in very simple ways, but that's how it grows. The way we view God's emotions, his gladness. I'm talking about right now, not just his mercy, just the happiness of his heart, the state, the tone of his emotions. It's not just sympathetic. He actually has gladness and joy and pleasure. More than the sympathy of mercy, he has the strength of joy. This will impact the way we feel about ourself. Paragraph one, I put a few questions, I talked to a couple theologians many years ago, and they were, this was like 20 years ago, and they heard me teach on this and they were really troubled. They said, if you teach on this, you're going to get young people convinced God's glad and it's going to make them careless about their sin. I said, no, it's going to be absolutely opposite. When they understand what God's personality is like, they're going to be like, you know, I think of my grandchildren, you know, I have such a good relationship with the little ones that they grab my leg and they won't let go. It's like, okay, time to go, uh-uh, not letting go. If God's that way, I'm going to grab his leg and I'm not going to let go of it. We're not going to run from him so we can go sin more. We want to get in the center of that pleasure. It feels good to be with somebody who likes us that much. When we understand how much we're liked, we don't want to like leave him to go live in sin. We want to feel it more. And they said, well, that's not right. I said, okay, let me ask you a question. Is God ever glad? And they knew I was going to try to get them because I go, no, really, is God ever glad? And they look at each other, well, like, technically, I guess, yes. I go, if humans are, where did we get that capacity? They go, okay, okay, he's glad. I go, how much of the time is he glad? You know, once every couple hundred years, once a day, mostly, rarely? They go, I don't know. I said, okay, that's fair. I said, who is he glad with? Who is he glad at? If he's glad, he's got to be glad at somebody. I said, saints in heaven when they're perfect? Yeah. Is he glad towards anyone on the earth ever? Only when they're perfect in heaven, then he starts liking them. Okay, people, okay, yeah, I guess. Who? Paul the apostle, only after he's mature as an apostle? Could he be glad at Paul ever? Well, yeah. How mature do you have to be before God tips the scale and the frown turns to a smile? Scale one to ten, is it six? Then God goes, ah, Paul. Is it five? Is it eight? They go, stop it. We don't know. I go, no, you've got to think this stuff through. We're shepherds. We've got to think on this. It's not enough to just leave young people to figure this out on their own. We're Bible teachers. They said, well, is he ever glad with somebody who loves him, but their love is weak and it's growing? Do you ever love your children? Can you ever be happy in your children when they're three and four, when they're doing wrong things but you like their relationship? Well, yes. Well, if we can, can God be that way? Yes. At what point does God start smiling at people? Anyway, they were kind of pretty frustrated. And I said, no, it really matters because, number two, the theological logic of this, if God is never glad, then he's never glad at me. If that's not in his personality, then if he's never glad at me, I don't want to run to him. I'm going to avoid him and just hope for mercy on the last day. But if he actually has gladness and pleasure, I want to get closer to it. And I want to teach people how to do it. Paragraph E, the revelation of a God with a smiling heart, that is what awakens a smiling heart in us. Beloved, this profoundly changed my life, these couple points about God's emotions. Because I started thinking, I like him. I don't mean I like him because he has power and I'm in trouble if I get on the bad side. I think I really like him. Even if he didn't have all the power, I like what he's like. Beloved, when that starts connecting with us, you want to be in his presence more. Not just to have power and miracles. You like who he is. And you want to feel it more. You want to be more like it. You want to be in his presence. Paragraph 2, Romans 2. Hebrews 1, this is talking about Jesus. It says, God anointed Jesus in his humanity with the oil of gladness more than anybody. When it says more than your companions, the idea is more than any other human being that ever lived in the human family. You have more joy and gladness than any single fellow human being ever. Gladness radiated out of Jesus. Paragraph B, Peter was describing Jesus in Acts chapter 2. And he was quoting Psalm 16, but he said, he was applying it to Jesus. And he says, therefore, Jesus said, my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad because Father, because you will make me full of joy. So Jesus is declaring he's full of joy. His tongue is glad. That means he talks with glad language. His language, he's communicating gladness when he talks. His heart was glad. He's full of joy. Paragraph C, he said, verse 11, John 15, Jesus said, now this is the last supper right before he would go to the cross. He goes, these things I spoke, John 14 and 15, those two chapters, why did I tell you these things? So that my joy would be in you, it would be imparted to you. Now when Jesus said, I taught you these things, verse 11, these things I spoke to you, we would apply that. The reason we study the word of God, the things that he said to us, because it does awaken joy in us. And I don't mean just academic Bible study, although I do appreciate academic Bible study, I really do. I want to know in a responsible way what the scriptures mean and the context and all that. But when we get in touch with what Jesus is really saying, what the word of God is really saying to us, Jesus said, the point of it is I want joy to increase in you. I don't want you just more eager and more diligent in your work ethic, that's good. But I want joy to touch you. And again, I don't want to overstate this, but I'm not just talking about giddiness, I'm talking about a profound sense of goodness and well-being. And this sense that the narrative, that beauty narrative of your life is in place and unfolding and good things are unfolding, not because you're perfect, but because God's leadership is good and kind and he is joyful himself and he's leading you and talking to you so that you get filled with it. He's not just saying I want you filled with passion and I want you filled with faith and I want you filled with zeal. Those are good things. But I want joy in you too. I want the tone of your inner life to shift. I want this beauty narrative that I'm unfolding something in your life to where you go, wow, you know, this is worth it. This matters. Even though nobody else may be paying attention to anything I'm doing, you are and it's going somewhere that's beautiful. Wow, that's what Jesus said. I want that joy to connect with you. Paragraph D, top of page 2, he makes the statements. You know these passages well. He rejoices, Matthew 13 and Matthew 18, he goes, I rejoice over the guy who's repenting. Now we think mostly the guy repenting doesn't have confidence God's rejoicing. You can hear a sermon on it, but the day you're repenting is a day you don't feel God's rejoicing. Maybe I repent, I'm in probation for three months, maybe six months, you know, sit on the back row, don't smile, suffer a little bit, even the score, and then I can start flowing. The Lord says no. Now I don't want you to put yourself in probation. I don't want you to do that. I want your raw brokenness and sin to stand before just my complete love and zeal, and I want it to, the injustice of it. You don't deserve it. Just let it wash you. It's how it is. But it's not fair. It's not fair. That's how it is. I want your ashes, and I'll give you beauty for the broken ash heap of your life. I want ashes, and I'll give you beauty. Well, the angels feel the same way in Luke 15. They rejoice. Paragraph E, it was joy that helped Jesus on the way to the cross. He knew the anguish, but he had a tone of joy. He had a narrative. He had that beauty narrative. Something beautiful was unfolding. So there was difficulty. There was a bigger story going on in his heart. Paragraph F, joy is strength. This is reality. You talk to a believer that doesn't have this sense of well-being, which is, frankly, most believers, their strength is depleted because of it. And it doesn't come like, let's go to a meeting and let them lay hands on us and let's get joy. And I say, well, no, that's not exactly what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about going to a meeting, somebody praying for you, and for the next 30 minutes you feel happy. I'm talking about something far stronger than that. I'm talking about an intentional way of carrying your heart, of interfacing with the Word, and letting joy be strength. But it takes time for that to build. It's not something somebody gives you and you have for 30 minutes, then you're back to zero again 30 minutes later. I'm talking about there is a strength that's within the reach of every believer in this room. No matter how weak you are, every human is weak. This is not a kind of a cool thing. This is life and death to touch his heart this way, because getting strength makes you not want to quit. It makes you want to press in. It makes you want to stand there and not believe the devil's lies. Romans 3, well, God delights in people. And He delights in, you know, I've told this story many times. A few of you have heard it a couple of times where I heard the audible voice of God in a dream. It was back in November 1995. I heard the audible voice of the Lord thunder in a dream. He said, Tell them, Hephzibah, the Lord delights in them. And I was down at the convention center downtown and thousands of young people. And I said, Hephzibah, the Lord delights in you. And it changed the emotional chemistry of people. Meaning young people, their emotions changed dramatically under that revelation. And I don't know that it meant they changed in one minute. I don't know. Maybe some do. And I think people can change in a minute. There are those moments like that. But mostly change is progressive. But I know that it's under the banner of God delights in you and the devil is a liar. The devil tells you everything opposite of that. David said it again. We already read it when he was in Ziklag, Psalm 18. He goes, He set me free from my compromise because He likes me. He liked me when I was in trouble. Isaiah 65, God has joy in His people. He actually enjoys them. And the history of Israel is rough. I mean, much disobedience. But God says, I've got a bigger picture. I have joy in my people in that heritage and in that city. And I thought, Lord, I'm sticking with you. I love the way you love. This is beautiful. Paragraph B. I am the Lord. I exercise loving kindness because I delight in it. I delight in showing loving kindness. Top of page 3. I've got a few more verses there at the end of C and D. But you can read those later. Top of page 3. Let's shift gears now. Because we're talking about God's heart. We talked about His graciousness and His mercy. You know, that sympathetic tenderness was our first session. And this second session tonight, His gladness is different than His sympathetic tenderness. His gladness, His joy, the tone of His personality has the strength of gladness in it. And that's powerful. And now I want to shift over to another one. It's His humility. Now when you talk about the subject of humility, you could say holiness or you could say love. They're all basically synonymous when you're talking about God's heart. Humility is love. Love is holiness. Holiness is humility. They're all the same. They're all expressing God's beauty. And in Psalm 96, it points out the beauty of holiness. It could say the beauty of humility. It could say the beauty of love. They all express God's beauty and they beautify the people who lay hold of those things, those realities. 1 Peter 3 says that the incorruptible beauty of humility, of a gentle spirit. It's not about humility here. God says it's so precious to me. When I see humility in my people, it's very dear to me because humility is the core of my being. Now we know God is love, but God is humility as well. Again, you could change the words out. And God looks at humility in you as incorruptible beauty. I mean, it's a beauty that can't be diminished. Where there's humility in you, it's very dear to God. And the point I'm making isn't that it's dear to Him when it's in you. The fact that it's dear to Him because that's who He is. And, beloved, that gives us courage to relate to Him. Because often we think of God as powerful. That God wants to flex His muscles and show the nations His power. And He does. But the real beauty of God isn't His muscles. It's His humility. It's His tenderness. It's the gladness of His heart because He shows His power to express His humility. He beautifies the humble because He says, I beautify the humble with salvation because salvation flows from His humility. It's all about humility. And, again, I'm not thinking right now of you being humble. That's for another session. I'm thinking of humility as the epicenter of His being. Gladness and humility and that sympathetic mercy. I mean, I like you, God. I just want to hang on to your leg and go everywhere. You're not going to get rid of me. I remember some years ago some preachers were talking to me. And I was going to skip some things and spend some time with the Lord. And they said, you know, I remember this. It was at a conference. I was going to spend the evening instead of going out with some of them. And I think going out with people is cool. But I said, no, I just want to be with the Lord tonight. And the preacher guy said, you know, you don't have to. God doesn't mind if you don't spend time with Him. I said, I'm not doing it to make God happy. I feel good. I'm doing it for sanctified selfishness. I'm not happy going out with you. I said, sorry. I mean, I do. I like you guys. But I'm craving to be with Him. I'm not afraid He's mad at me. I'm afraid that I'm hungry and I'm not going to get fed tonight. So I said, hey, bring me back some fried chicken. Okay. I said, I'll see you tomorrow. We'll be great. Because His only idea is you spend time with God to keep God from being mad. I go, no, He's humble. He's happy. He's tender. He likes me. He's got great plans. I want to feel Him more. I want to understand Him more. I want to be more with Him. I want to see where this thing's going. I'm addicted to this stuff. Paragraph C, as are you or you wouldn't be here. You've got that same heart cry. That's why most of you are in your 20s and you're saying, I'm going to learn this stuff. I'm going to get it, man. I'm going to go deep in it. Paragraph C, the only character trait Jesus ever pointed out about Himself as a character trait was humility. He never said, I am love. He is love, but He never said it. He never said, I am power. He never said, I am compassion. He said, I am humble. It's the only one He ever said with His own mouth. And then He called us to learn it from Him. And we don't just learn humility in our own life. We do. That's what He's talking about. I want to learn humility so that I have admiration with gratitude for who He is. I want to learn from Him about His humility and I want to learn about His humility so I have it, but I want to learn about His too. I go, the more I learn of your humility, the more I like you. The more I'm inspired, I have confidence because if you're that powerful and you're that famous and powerful, you might just leave me behind, but if you're that humble and you're that happy too, you're happy and humble, then I fit. Me and you work together if you're that humble. So it gives me courage. Paragraph D, the concept of a humble God is unique to the Christian faith. No other religion has a humble God. All the other religions of the world, they have a God that has power. My God has more power. But we have confidence to relate to God because He's humble, not because He's powerful, because He's humble. If He was only powerful but not humble, we would be in big trouble. Paragraph E, Jesus didn't put on His humility to come to the earth, you know, and put on humility, die on the cross, go back to heaven, throw humility off, go, ooh, that was intense. That 33 years humility, I'm glad we're done with that. Humility is part of His eternal nature. Long before He became a man, He was humble. God is humble not to do a task. That's His character. Eternity past, Jesus had a servant spirit. In eternity past, the Father and the Son have a servant spirit. This is why they're so unified together. They all have a servant spirit. One God in three persons. Paragraph G, Jesus said, the greatest is the servant. Well, He is the greatest servant. He has the most humility and the most power and the most wisdom. Usually, the guy with the most power and the most wisdom doesn't have the most humility and they're not the biggest servant. But in this one man, the most powerful man, the wisest man, the richest man, is the greatest servant in human history, and He will be a servant in the age to come. I think that will shock us when we run into, as we interact with Him, that He is the ultimate servant. And we'll go like, Lord, I just thought that was to show us a lesson. He goes, no, it's who I am. I don't have another way. And when we see the beauty of holiness or the beauty of humility, you say it either way you want, beloved, it gives us courage. I mean, it makes me like Him, and it makes me have courage to be near Him. And it also, I want to be more humble too. But I'm talking right now just the attractiveness of His humility. Look at paragraph H in John chapter 13. John chapter 13, the famous passage where He washed the disciples' feet. In John 13, He shows us His core identity. We know the story, He took His robe off, girded Himself, and knelt before sinful men to wash dirty feet. Now this is the premier expression of His heart. He wasn't just setting an example. He was giving them an example. But He was more than that. He was expressing His core identity to them. The world religions seek gods of power, but Jesus revealed the kneeling God. The God that kneels and washes feet. No other religion has a God who kneels and washes feet. We can only understand His truth. We can only see the full scope of His beauty when we see Him kneeling as a servant before weak people. Then we go, you're beautiful. This is like, I mean glorious. This is beauty beyond measure. Even in the millennial kingdom, look at Luke chapter 12. Even in the age to come, Jesus is talking about, He's talking about in the age to come. He says, blessed are those servants in this age whom the Master, Jesus, when He comes, second coming, He finds them watching and waiting. They're eager for His return. They're studying it. They understand it. They know the times. They're gripped with His storyline. He says, when He comes, this is just shocking, until you know Him, then I guess it's just who He is. It's not shocking, but it still shocks me. I guess that says I don't know Him like I need to. He will gird Himself. This is in the resurrection. Come up to you. Say, sit down to eat. And you sit down. He's got the towel on. You go, Jesus. You're like, come on. And He's going to go get food and serve you. No, no, no, no, no, no. Stay. He's like, Jesus, come. No. No. He goes, yes. Yes, because this is who I am. I'm not just doing something as an example. This is how I feel about you, but this is who I am. I don't ever change. Beloved, this is a God you want to hang out with, isn't it? And this is beauty. In God's eyes, top of page 4, humility is the premier definition. Humility is the premier expression of beauty. Well, again, in our first session, it was the sympathetic, the tender tone. And in this session, it's the strength of happiness and that, well, it's all beautiful. It's all His beauty, but the humility is just, there's nothing like it. Paragraphic K says this, that we know the grace of the Lord Jesus. Do we really know? Paul goes, well, let me tell you the grace, what the grace message means. He was rich back before He became a man. Eternity passed back in the Genesis 1 days when He was making the heavens and the earth. He's really rich. He became really poor so that through His poverty, you could forever be rich. Through His humility. That was His humility because He wanted you being rich. It wasn't good enough for Him that He was rich. He goes, what is it to me to be rich if they don't become rich, if I don't share it with them? I'm the God who shares. Well, here's the problem. You've got to be completely poor to make them rich. He says, I'm in. It's who I am. I'm a servant. Of course I will. I want them rich with me forever. Paragraph L, His core identity wasn't showing. If His core identity was showing His power. I mean, He does show His power. He's going to show His power more when we get to His return and then after His return forever. His power is massive. But if that was His core identity, Him becoming a man and becoming poor would have been a denial of who He really was. His core identity is He's a servant. He has power, but power isn't His identity. Because, again, if His core identity was power, then by becoming poor, embracing poverty, becoming a man, serving, He would have been denying Himself and He never denies Himself. It's precisely because Jesus is God that He gives freely to ungrateful, evil men. You know, He says give to ungrateful, evil men because I do. My father does. It's precisely because He's God He does it. Because that's what God does. It's by nature. There's nothing un-God-like about God washing feet. There's nothing un-God-like about that. And, again, the point tonight isn't to motivate you to be humble, though I don't mind if you get motivated. My goal tonight, that's for another night, my goal is to motivate you to have admiration and to want to be closer to that, to feel the power of that beauty of His heart. Paragraph M. Jesus is not just trying to prove a point about how powerful He is. He's trying to win us. He goes, I did Genesis 1. I got Genesis 1 on my resume. I didn't need to prove my power. I made the galaxies. I got a great resume. I came down to win you. He didn't come as the God of Jasper-like glory. That's the God He is. I mean, the Father is the one described Jasper-like glory, but the Son is like the Father. He came as a man expressing the mystery of His humility. I mean, He could have come down as the Jasper-like glory God. At the second coming, He will. He'll come in that radiant glory, but the humility is already proven as part of His core identity, and He will express it as well. You know, the God of glory wants relationship with humans, I have here. He doesn't want to just dazzle us. He wants us to be close to Him. He wants to relate to us. That in itself is glorious. I go, Lord, You are so interesting. I'm not very interesting. Why do You want, wouldn't You rather dazzle me? He goes, no, I'd rather interact with you. Now, I'll dazzle you some because it gets your attention, because I want to interact with you. We call that prayer or abiding in Christ. He can amaze us with a show of power, but He can't have a relationship with us if He doesn't have humility. If all He has is a show of power, we can be awestruck, but we can't have a relationship with Him. But He has humility, so we can have a relationship. Here's what He said, paragraph end, on the cross. He said, Father, verse 24, John 17, I desire, I desire. He is moments before going to the garden. He goes, Father, I desire that she would be with me. This is about her being with me. This is why I'm doing it. I want her with me forever. That is profound humility. Then paragraph O, then He doesn't just want us with Him. He raises us up, seats us in heavenly places, that we rule and reign with Him forever on the earth and have authority. And look at verse 7 that says He does this. Verse 6, He seats us in this place of authority so that, I want you to get the so that, verse 7, in the ages to come, He can show His kindness. He's saying, I did this. I wanted you to see the kindness I have, this kindness I feel. I wanted it seen. I wanted it documented in your eyes. This is how I feel towards you. So don't retreat from me. Run to me. Let me embrace you. Let me be this God to you. Paragraph P, God's humility is expressed in all that He does, especially in exalting weak people. I mean, look at Psalm 113. Who is like God? He dwells on high, which means He has that royal throne setting, you know, with the 24 elders and the rainbow and the seraphim and myriads of angels. He dwells in that majestic court. But verse 6, He humbles Himself to look at things in the heavens and in the earth. And what it means to look, it doesn't mean to glance at. It means to be involved with. It doesn't just mean visually look. But He humbles Himself to be involved with the details of what's happening in the skies and on the earth. He's way above being involved in the details of what's on the earth. He has so many big things that are in His hand. Matter of fact, some of the things that He beholds in the earth, verse 7, it's poor people. He comes to poor people. He lifts them out of the dust. He sees them in poverty, economic poverty, emotional poverty, relational poverty, spiritual poverty. He comes and sees poor people in the dust, just, you know, just wallowing in the mud and no hope. And He picks them up and He seats them into a place of honor. And the psalmist is saying, But you're the Most High God. Why do you even bother with people who are, you know, stuck in the dirt, in the dust? And He goes, That's who I am. The revelation of His glory I have in paragraph B. We see one who is so high, but He went so low, embraced humanity in the cross, to bring us so near because we are so dear to Him. Beloved, that's the God that we serve. That's the God that we serve. I'm just going to end with that. Let's just stand before the Lord and just ask Him to, again, touch our heart in just a few moments here.