Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of the Bride's final intercession in the Song of Solomon, illustrating her growth from immaturity to a deep, fiery love for the Lord. He highlights her heartfelt prayers for her little sister, showcasing her identification with God's concerns and the importance of nurturing others in the body of Christ. Bickle also discusses the eternal relevance of the Song of Solomon, urging believers to remain engaged in serving God's people throughout their lives. He concludes with the Bride's passionate cry for the Lord's return, reflecting her enduring love and desire for intimacy with Him.

God for the kiss of your word to come and touch our heart even now. Lord I ask that these 24 sessions, line upon line, of this glorious love song, I ask that you would write it on our heart, you would in on our mind, and inflame our heart with the truths that burn within your heart. And we thank you in the name of Jesus, amen. Well in this class, session 24, the final session of the Song of Solomon, I title it, The Bride's Final Intercession. She gives two different intercessory prayers that are different in nature, and it's her final revelation, it's the way that she views herself under the Lord's leadership. And as I've said in each of the other classes, that the details of the passage are too in depth to really break them down in a class like this. I'm gonna give more the broad strokes and leave you with the notes. And anyone that wants the notes, they're on the website, they're available to anybody that has a computer that can get them, and you can break them down and look at them, study them, journal as you pray over them, as you pray over the Song of Solomon. Paragraph A in the notes, the 8 chapter love song tells the story of how this young maiden grew up to be a mature bride, and how she was filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit. She starts sincere, but immature, and she ends up filled with the fire of God in a deep intimacy and communion with the Lord. And again, this is, as I said in the last session, this is a timeless song. We'll be singing the truth of this song a million years from now in the Eternal City. This song will continue to fascinate us and excite our heart even a million years from now. It's endless, it's timeless, it's the Word of God. Now in chapter 8 of Song of Solomon, verse 8 to 14, if you've never read it before, it will seem so strange and so odd to you at first glance. But again, like the entire song, as you break it down and compare the symbolism and the Bible with the symbolism, and you compare the Scripture with the Scripture, and then we understand biblical symbolism, because the Bible gives us the best insight into what the Bible means when we look at it in a symbolic way. Now this is the only book of the Bible that I actually look at in a symbolic way. I don't really encourage people to study the Bible in an allegorical way. I actually strongly urge them not to do that, but actually take the Bible at face value. And this love song, you can take at face value, and it depicts the beauty of married love. And there really is a natural love story that describes true romance in marriage. It's really to be taken at its face value, of course it's poetic language, but it's unthinkable to me that the Holy Spirit's entire highest point of this book is the glory of married love, because for billions of years there won't be marriage. There's only people only married for a very, very small amount of their eternal life. But this book will be with us forever and forever. I have no doubt in my mind that its higher purpose is in the relationship of Jesus and His bride. And so I say that to say that the symbolism in the Bible, we can understand it by reading what the Bible itself says. But having said that, I don't want people to spend most their time reading the Bible allegorically or for a spiritual interpretation. We take it at its face value. I mean, that's really the best way to read the Bible. But this one book I do make an exception out of, because in the resurrection there won't be marriage, except for to the Lord. And certainly this book will have an eternal relevance. Continuing in paragraph A, this passage, chapter 8, verse 8 to 14, is very dynamic, but it's very personal. She's describing how she sees herself before the Lord. She knows who she is. And you know, it's not probably accurate to have a favorite chapter of Song of Solomon, because all eight of them are my favorite chapter. But this is definitely one of my favorite ones. No, chapter 8, verse 8 to 14 is awesome. I mean, it's really awesome. And I say that, I don't mean to be melodramatic, but I've wept over this so many times over the years, just the phrases. And then it has so moved my heart as nearly as much as any of the other passages have. And I say that because I'm not trying to be dramatic or that kind of thing, but don't read this chapter and just leave it, and then maybe check it out again in 10 years. It is so powerful. It is so powerful. That's all I want to say to you, is that it's moved me nearly the most of all the sections of the Song of Solomon. But that's not true, because chapter 5, and then chapter 3, and then chapter 2, and forget that statement. But it's a very moving one. I'll just leave it there. Well, what happens is that in the last section, she received the seal of fire, a fiery love. And with this seal of fire in chapter 8, verse 5, 6, and 7, now what happens is we begin to see how this bride views herself and views life. And the first thing that the bride runs into is the dilemma of her little sister. And it's not her little sister. She talks to the Lord, we have a sister. And she says in intercession, this is one of her prayers, she's talking directly to the Lord, what shall we do for our sister? In other words, there's this total partnership. It's not, Lord, what are you going to do about her? Or, Lord, what am I going to do about her? But she says, Lord, through the seal of fiery love, I understand that my dilemma is your dilemma, if it's in the will of God. And the thing that's on your heart is now upon my heart, and the thing that's on the Lord's heart is what is the Lord going to do for the vast number in the body of Christ that have no capacity or not even a willingness or a propensity to nurture or care for other people? And that's the state this little sister's in. She doesn't have a mindset nor an ability to nurture anyone but herself. And of course, all you've got to do is look around the body of Christ, and that's where the vast majority of the body of Christ is. But this bride, under the anointing of the seal of fire, she is consumed with this issue because it's not just her issue, she knows it's the Lord's issue, therefore it's their issue. What shall we do together? She is our sister, Lord. It's not just one of your sheep. You know, Paul the apostle had this kind of identification with the people that he ministered to. I mean, the extreme case, and Paul the apostle was in Romans 9 where he said, I would depart from Christ if I had to for the sake of my people. I can't even comprehend that. That's a whole other level. But there's this place of identification. It was that identification conceptually the bride's heart is completely connected to the Lord's heart and his concern for the little sister. What shall we do? What are we going to do about her condition? She feels the same about the sister as Jesus does about the little sister. We know that Jesus' heart is ravished over his people even in their weakness. And so she, I'll leave the details to the notes to read on your own, but the fact is she's concerned with what are we going to do? It's not okay that so much of the body of Christ is stuck in their selfishness and immaturity and their inability to nurture anybody in any kind of effective way. And there's the heart of the shepherd that's in intimacy with God where it's not just let's get more people in the building, but it's a, it's a genuine heart connect with the Lord. That's a painful burden that is consuming. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.14, I don't have this on the notes. He says, the love of Christ compels me. I am compelled. I'm beside myself. He would say in 2 Corinthians 5, I'm beside myself. I'm compelled by love to make a difference. Paragraph H, top of page two. I'm going to relay just briefly a short encounter I had with the Lord. It was in the summer of 1983. I remember it vividly. It was similar, though a little bit more dramatic or not dramatic, powerful than the one I was talking about in Song of Solomon chapter seven, verse 12, I mentioned in class 22, where I talked about how the Lord said, there, you shall give me your love. But I was complaining about Lord, this, there's so much, the rigors of ministry and leadership. You know, I want to be in leadership and I'm in leadership. And it's like, wait a second, this is, you know, there's, it's like the mother that has all the children and she says, I don't have any free time to myself. You know, so many of you that really care for people, your life is not your own. It really isn't your own. Because the care of the people that you're connected to, there's so many issues to sort out in so many lives, even if it's only 10 lives, that's, it's consuming to one person. And many of you know that, you know, I grew up in a family where my mother had seven, had seven children. And she was always just, you know, thinking seven kids in nine years. And, and, and so that's the image I've sometimes have in my mind when I think of leadership, you know, just never enough. There's never enough time to get all the work done. But this time in the summer of 1983, I was really focused on my own spiritual development. I remember I was, I was 27, 28 years old at that time, just turned 28. And I was just been in Kansas City for maybe six or eight months and, and the church had grown to about 500 young people. And it was kind of exciting. But I remember I was consumed with the vision of being a man of holiness. And I'm not trying to be, you know, draw a lot of attention to myself in that. But my point is, the idea of a growing church, that was still a little church of 500 people. It was a lot of people were coming and a lot of people want to meet me and lots of things. And we're having prayer meetings and, and a bunch had problems. And it just, I remember just in my young days, I was consumed with the fact that my bigger vision in God, I wanted to be holy and I wanted to know the word and I wanted to know God. And ministry began to be a hindrance to me, began to be a disturbance. And though I wanted to be in ministry, I thought somehow could I be in ministry without really being in ministry? Is there some way to pull this off? And the answer is no. And I was complaining because the church was new. And so with 500 people in the first six months, you know, they, we didn't have an infrastructure. So they all, you know, not all of them, but a lot of them want to talk to me and relate to me and help me figure out where they fit and what's going on in their life. And I thought, this is horrible. This is horrible. This is not what I signed up for. I signed up for you, not just meeting after meeting after meeting. And of course, so many people in the body of Christ, whether they're in ministry or in business, or just the cares of their own family, like I'm talking about the mother with five kids, it's the same situation. You don't have to be in ministry to experience that many of you in this room, you know, that situation for just, uh, in other circumstances in life. And I was complaining to the Lord and I said, this isn't what I want to do. And the Lord spoke to me so clearly Joshua chapter one, a verse two. And I mean, he, he, he didn't say, uh, Joshua one verse two, he actually quoted it to me, but I'd asked the Lord, uh, as I was complaining, I mean, he asked me a question. I wasn't expecting any kind of encounter with the Lord. I was just complaining, Lord, I want to be, I want to know the Bible. I want to know you. I want to be anointed in prayer. I want to move in power. I want to prophesy. I don't want to be with people all day. I want to connect with you. I want to, I don't feel you very much. And, and I was saying, Lord, I don't think I want to be a pastor. And that was 25 years ago. The Lord won out on that one, but I was thinking, I think I want to be a traveling guy or something. You know, they don't have to do this, that, and the other. Well, I was wrong on that. I found out the traveling guys don't have it that easy either, but I, they look good to me. And suddenly I heard the Lord speak to me. It was just, it was riveting. It was so clear. He said to me, what's more important to me than a holy man. I heard this so clear, but what's more important than a holy man? Nothing. I couldn't, I mean, and it was paused, 1001, 1002. It's not like I, I heard it audibly, but it was, the sentence came so clear to my spirit. I was perplexed. I couldn't imagine what the answer is, what the answer would be. What's more important than a holy man? Because that was my vision. I thought, nothing, nothing's more important than a holy man. And the answer the Lord spoke is a whole generation of holy people. That's more important than a holy man. And I went, oh. And he said, I want you and the people. That's when he gave me the verse, Joshua 1, verse 12, 2. I didn't, he didn't give me the reference, the phrase. I want you and the people to enter into the land of their inheritance. And that was, it was a rebuke. And he said, I want you and the people. I was just stunned by this reality. It's not enough that you would enter in. I want you and the people to enter in. And I looked it up. The, the, the verse, it took me a few minutes to find it. It struck me like an arrow. And it was the beginning of my journey. I'm certainly not there. Of the Lord beginning to woo me into his heart. There's more than just feeling his presence and feeling good about your life and having all your circumstances laid out. He wants us connecting with his heart and he wants to feed us and meet us in the midst of his vineyard. There, you will give me your love. It's, it's the same, it's the same message as the story I told in the other class where, where the Lord said in Song of Solomon 7, verse 12, there, you will give me your love in the midst of the, of the rigors of serving. Because I just, I just have this fantasy about somehow being as close to God as any human being can, but never being disturbed by anything. And then that never happens. It just never happens. Like the Lord is, what's, I got to sort my life out. And the answer is, read the Bible. You will find out that the holy men and women of old, they met me while they were serving me. And they were not just serving people for their own ends because many start out that way. But there's a time in the spirit when we begin to serve God for God's reasons. And it has no, it has nothing to do with whether those people will ever return back to your sphere of life and enrich it. It's not about just helping the people who are going to help you. There's something more in God's heart than helping, serving and ministering to the people who somehow you think will turn back around and build up your particular sphere of life. There's something more. It's doing it for the Lord's sake because it's his people and it's what burns on his heart. Well, paragraph M, top of page three, this is a interesting, this may kind of throw you off the language of it, again, if it's new, but I find it fascinating. And I talked to the Lord along these lines, because once you get used to the terms, then they're not unfamiliar once you get used to them just by definition of it. So the bride is presenting the dilemma about her little sister who's immature, who cannot nurture anyone. She's stuck on herself. And, and so then, and I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this, although I love this passage. And so the bride in intercession is presenting her sister's case, presenting it with two different possibilities. She said, if our little sister, now again, she, she's speaking to the Lord. If she is a wall, let's build an embattlement around her. But if she's a door, let's enclose her with the boards of cedar. And so this is a point of intercession. Now in the poetic language of the Song of Solomon, what she's talking about is, is two general categories of ministry. Although you could talk about the fivefold ministry, you could probably talk about 10 different categories of ministry, but she makes two very general categories of ministry. And you could call them the wall-type ministries and the door-type ministries. Now the wall-type ministries, those are the, and there's a number of ministries that would fit in this category. This is real general. You know, a wall protects a city. You build a wall to protect the city, to protect the people. And you build a wall to establish what I call a line of demarcation, where you draw a line in the sand, you build a wall, and on the inside, the city is going to be this way. On the outside, it's going to be that way. It's a line of, it's a line of divide, a line of demarcation. And so when I think of the wall ministries, I think of the pastors. They're the ones that are, are, are building in people's lives to protect them from the onslaught of the evil, of the enemy. And then I think of the prophetic ministries that are building a wall. They're raising up a standard. They're built, they're establishing a line of demarcation. They're drawing a line in the sand. This is God's way. And I think of them as the wall-type ministries. Although that's not the, the real point of this passage, to break down the symbolism and make a doctrine out of it. But I, I just, I just love, I just have always liked that verse, just the language of it. And then she said, yeah, but maybe, she goes, I don't know how, where she's at in the grace of God or how she's going to respond or what your plan is. And she's wrestling with the possibilities of this immature sister. She goes, what if she's a door? And if she's a door, and there's door ministries. And door ministries, they, they open up doors of opportunity. They, they open up doors of grace for other people, points of entry for people to go forward. As intercessors, we're door ministries. There, the very passage there in Colossians 4, verse 3, Paul asked the saints to pray that the, in intercession, that God would open a door for the apostles. That door wouldn't open if the intercessors didn't open it in intercession. We are a door ministry at IHOP. We're, we're asking for doors in the Spirit to open up. Evangelists are door ministries. They open up doors to unbelievers to the grace of God. Teachers are door ministries. They open up doors of new truth and new experiences in the Word of God. Apostles are door ministries. They open up new regions. They break open new regions to, in spheres of geography, to the activity of the Holy Spirit, et cetera, et cetera. And so the, the point being, she says, that was all incidental. I didn't even need to go into all of that, but it's because you could have read that on the notes on your own. But it's the idea that she was pondering with genuine care over the potential, over the possibilities of where this young, selfish, non-nurturing little sister is going to be one day. And, and, and I see such a shepherd's heart in the bride even caring this kind of concern. Now, just, let's, let's go to page four. And as we're going there, it just strikes me that, I remind, I remember that if you're a wall ministry, if you're a pastor, remember when the enemy shoots the arrows, guess where the arrows go? They go into the wall. So if you're going to protect people, you're going to take some hits because you stand as, as a wall of protection. And, and the enemy strikes and people strike, but you take hits if you're going to be a shepherding ministry that protects other people. But again, my point wasn't to break down this passage into, uh, you know, New Testament definitions of ministry. The real point of it was, is the, the lay, the way the bride was wrestling over the potential future of this one she was so identified with. Roman numeral three, we're going to skip this section, but I want to, I want to point it out to you. It's, it's the three ways in which the bride viewed herself in God's eyes. It is powerful, these truths. We're going to move, we're going to skip it. There's a, a, a lot of detail on that. We won't look at right now. Go to Roman numeral four to the next verse. And beloved, when we see ourself with the confidence that the bride describes here in chapter eight, verse 10, when we see ourself with that kind of confidence, we know who we are in God's eyes. It is remarkable what happens in our emotions. Okay. Let's go to a Roman numeral four, top of page five, Song of Solomon chapter eight, verse 11. Now she's, uh, uh, describing her revelation of her accountability before God. And this is one of the most significant revelations that this is again, Christianity one-on-one. It's not only enough to know what our benefits are in the gospel, that's important. And who we are in Christ, we must have a revelation that one day we will stand before the King who has leased his vineyard out to us. And we will give an accountability for everything he has put in our hands. That's what she's saying in the poetic language of love here. She said, Solomon had a vineyard. Now, of course we know King Solomon throughout the book of Song of Solomon, King Solomon is a picture of King Jesus. And what he did with this vineyard, he leased it out to keepers. He gave people a particular stewardship in this vineyard. And then he required everyone that he leased the vineyard out. He required them to, to give an answer for that, which he entrusted to them. Now it's, it's not a coincidence that when Jesus, right before he went to the cross in Matthew chapter, uh, uh, 20, 21, I'm thinking of where the parable is. I got it written down here somewhere. Matthew chapter 21, that when he was talking about the, uh, a parable, he was talking about himself as a leader who leased his vineyard out. Of course, he's talking about to the nation of Israel and Jesus is directly making reference to this passage, Song of Solomon chapter eight, verse 11. The details are, are, uh, many of them are similar. The Jesus talked about Matthew 21, verse 33 to 44, that he said that there was a certain land owner. He was talking about himself it's the same situation that, uh, Solomon's in here in chapter Song of Solomon eight, verse 11. And Jesus, you know, in Matthew 21 saying there's this land owner and he leased the vineyard. He, he, uh, gave it to the keepers and then he required an accountability. And it's a direct reference to this passage. And Jesus was talking about accountability before God for being entrusted with a vineyard. I have no doubt that, uh, this passage is specifically about that. Now, paragraph F, Jesus gives every single believer a stewardship in his vineyard. And it's important as a, uh, a believer wanting to mature like the bride of Christ is in the Song of Solomon. This idea of the judgment seat of Christ is not a secondary idea. This is a foundational teaching. This is Christianity 101. We are given things freely by God and he will make us give an account for that part of the vineyard that he's entrusted to us. Now, whatever you do, don't wait. I've met many people who do this. They wait before they start serving until I, I've heard it for years. You know, they go, well, I've just joined the church of the ministry, whether this one or another one. You know, I've been talking to them about another place and they're saying, well, I'm waiting. I don't quite know my place yet. Okay. That's very common. I'd say most people, that's kind of the dilemma they're in. And what they mean is I don't know what my role on the org chart of the ministry organizational chart is. I don't know what my role is on the org chart of the ministry. I don't have a title. So one year turns to two, turn two, turns to three. I don't know what my role is. And they wait for years, waiting to be identified on the org chart and get a function before they start serving. Beloved, you're going to give an account before God for every day of our life. I mean, God is generous. God is kind, but every day is real. It's not a practice game. You don't need a job description and a place on a ministry org chart to start obeying God and serving Him in the vineyard in the bigger purpose of the Lord. There's enough people who need ministry to that it doesn't fit on the org chart. It's just a guy who needs encouragement. It's a new believer. It's a 14-year-old. It's a 20-year-old who needs somebody to teach him the Bible. There's a neighbor who needs to be led to the Lord. You don't need to wait for an org chart and a role on it to start serving God. You don't need anybody's permission to do 90% of the ministries in the Word of God are ministries you just do by the Holy Spirit because you serve somebody. They don't fit into a nice job description and a church organizational chart. And I've seen people for years wait for years and years, never serving, always waiting for the mysterious moment when they finally get a job title. Now they know what their role is. Well, three months later, they don't even like that role because it's too mundane and routine. It wasn't exciting as they thought and leadership is hard and I don't even like that role. You waited all these years to get a role. Now you don't even like the role. My point is this. The enemy, that is one of his most covert ways of keeping people out of service. They're waiting to find their role and it mostly has to do with one or two or three of the more visible leaders in the ministry telling them what it is and that's an absolute deception and distraction. You in the Holy Spirit can figure out what your role is and it has to do with serving people, speaking the Word to them, praying for them, investing your time and money and energy in them and don't wait for a title to do it. Do it today. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. Don't wait till you get out of the program. Don't wait till you're trained. Serve all the way through your training time. Serve all the way in between the season where you're kind of in limbo. Serve all the way through those times. Serve, serve, serve, serve and you will answer to the Lord in a way that will be pleasing to you on the last day because you can be sure of this as she says it here that in paragraph H, the Lord desires a full return from the stewardship He gives the keepers. He really, He requires it. This is an area there in my personal life where the Lord has spoken to me a few times over the years about the judgment seat of Christ and I tell you the Lord's not going to ask me about my role at IHOP and how big the conferences were, how many books I wrote. That's not what He really cares about. He cares about how my service, my servanthood and my humility was developed and how I connected with people in His eyes and serve them. That's what He cares about, not about a lot of the other things that we might think that He cares about and I think about it just day by day. The fact that every day that goes by I will answer to the Lord. I don't dread it. I don't look at it and say, oh no, because all the movements of my heart are written in His book. Every desire to obey Him, He captures it and what the bride is saying here in this passage, she is actually excited and confident that she will give an adequate response to the Lord on that day and you can find out more about that in Roman Numeral 5 here, Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 12. I'm going to skip that but the point of that verse is that she has confidence that when she stands before the Lord she will give the answer that the Lord will be pleased with and to have the confidence in our spirit instead of living in ambivalence about like, you know, I would guess the average believer they would just never think about the judgment seat of Christ or if they did they would have so much dread about it, it would be a very unpleasant thought. Well the bride here in Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 12, she is actually confident that she will give the king the answer that the king wants. She's living her life with this in view and this is a significant paradigm of life. It's a significant part of our relationship with the Lord that we can have that kind of confidence because the judgment seat of Christ doctrine is not meant to terrify us with dread, it's meant to excite us because we know that all of our efforts matter to the Lord and even though men don't esteem them, the Lord does and He remembers them and the Lord He judges us according with the remembrance it says in Psalm 103 verse 14, He remembers that we're but dust and He shows us great kindness and mercy but the fact that God's kind to us, it doesn't make us look at that last day, the judgment seat of Christ and cast it off as irrelevant, well He's so kind it doesn't matter. No, He will be kind and merciful when He evaluates us but our desire to be faithful day in and day out to serve Him and to grow in the Spirit, to grow in humility, to grow in revelation, to grow in servanthood, He really, really does care that we're engaging our heart with Him at that level. Let's go to Roman numeral six. Again, I'll leave the details of the intricate phrases of Song of Solomon. You can read them and I think it's a better use of our time if you just read them on your own. So Roman numeral six, the top of page seven here on the notes and again if you want the notes you can get them on the website. They're available to anybody. Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 13. Now the Lord speaks and this is right after the judgment seat of Christ revelation and she's confident that she's going to give the Lord a good answer at the judgment seat of Christ. Now the Lord speaks up and this is a very moving passage. And this is a passage you want to dream, you want to you know in your holy inspired dreams, you want to think of your life 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, however many decades you want to think down the road. You want to picture yourself standing before the Lord and the Lord saying to you Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 13. And this is something that as she reaches the end of her natural life, this is what you want the Lord to say to you after years of walking with Him. This isn't something He says the language of this so much at the judgment seat of Christ but this is what I want the Lord to be saying to me in the final years of my physical life on the earth before I meet the Lord. And each one of these phrases is filled with meaning. He calls her, He names her first, you who dwell in the gardens. And then He gives her the first exhortation, He says, I mean observation, He says your companions or the companions and He means hers listen for your voice. And then He gives His exhortation to her, He says let me hear it. And so there's three distinct phrases in this verse here and it's the Lord's final statement to her before, I mean again she's still on the on the earth. I'm picturing this, this is something that you know Paul has served the Lord all the days of his life and there he is and this is what the as he's writing 2nd Timothy 4 you know which is his last book before he met the Lord and the Lord's talking to him and he wrote some statements about him standing before the Lord in 2nd Timothy and it's and I picture this kind of situation the Lord speaking this. This is what I want Him to, I want to hear Him say to me just in those final years before I stand before Him. He says you who dwell in the gardens, that's His first thing. That's how He describes her as the one who dwells in the gardens. Now we know that the gardens of the Lord, the garden of the Lord is His people. It's in the midst of, it's His inheritance in His people. He is affirming to her that she still dwells in the midst of God's garden serving His people. In other words she hasn't quit. She hasn't drawn back in selfish isolation. She hasn't just quit. She's still in the middle of the vineyard serving. I mean what an awesome statement. Do you know how many of God's servants of you know those may they've served the Lord 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years they got another 10 or 20 years to go. Do you know how many I mean even in the ministry they disconnect and dial down and coast the last two or three the last two one or two decades of their life. I'll say it that way. They're no longer in the garden serving. They're on retirement. They kind of drop in on the body of Christ occasionally. Do a little this a little bit of that. They're on vacation status. They're on protect my comfort I've worked hard for years status. And when the Lord speaks to her He names her in this way that's so powerful. He says you are the one who still dwells in the garden. You're I think of Paul the apostle. He's still pouring himself out at the very end. Beloved you don't ever want to retire. You never want to retire from actively pressing into God and serving his people. You may retire from a role even in ministry but you never ever retire. Billy Graham I was in his 80s. He's still having stadium meetings. He's pressing the envelope. The guy you know he could hardly walk. You know I saw him when he's in Kansas City. They got him up there and he got up there. Jesus loves you. I thought I love this guy. I mean he's not doing it for fun. I mean maybe the first hundred stadium events he did for fun but the last 500 it was work. I remember going to the stadium and looking here in Kansas City. I thought I love that guy. He has a hundred good reasons to retire if he wanted to. Anyway make sure that when the Lord speaks to you in your final days he's talking to you as one that's fully engaged in serving in the garden. Not one that remembers the good old days when you were involved. And a lot of people they don't uh it's not just a matter of retiring just for uh you know the comfort of their dream uh retirement days. You know people spend their years dreaming of retiring. Forget it. Get rid of the idea. Go hard till the day that you have your last breath fasting and praying and and and laboring for people to connect with God. I mean you may be touching just ones and twos but I tell you it matters the same to God in terms of when you stand before him. But a lot of people what they do is they just they just uh they get bitterness and they get a dull spirit. And it's not that they're retiring in life per se. They just get a dull spirit. I know so many so many people. I mean hundreds and hundreds and I can picture them that when I was in my 20s and they were they were on fire for God. They were fasting, praying, believing for revival. And uh they they just backed away and they hardly opened their Bible if you if you asked them do they love Jesus. They said sure I love Jesus. They never talk about him. They never involved in prayer. They're not actively involved in promoting the kingdom. In my 30s I have hundreds and today many of them. In my 40s the same story. I have you know being in ministry 30 years hundreds and hundreds of friends who are pressing into God at one time and now their big thing is just to kick back and relax and take life easy. Their Bible's dusty and they haven't opened it. They haven't been in a prayer meeting in years. They haven't had a day of fasting. They haven't prophesied. They pray for the sick maybe under pressure you know at a at a social gathering. So they say will you pray for this guy? Well for a minute they lay their hands on just to get it over with and like I look at them all all around. I know them all across America and I think what happened to the fire they had 10 years, 20 years, 30 years ago? And beloved it is a miracle if you stay steady 20, 30, 40, 50 years but make sure it's said of you by the Lord you who are dwelling in the garden you're still pressing into God and you're still extending the kingdom and you're still contending for breakthrough. I mean I love Lou Engle. You know he just moved here. I've known Lou for 20 years. That guy didn't have an ounce of give up in him. I mean when that guy's 80 years old he'll be rocking and he'll be like talking to some president trying to make something happen. I mean I just you know I had the privilege of knowing Leonard Ravenhill. Some of you know him. I got to know him a little bit. One of the great intercessors he I think he met the Lord went and meet the Lord in his late 80s was a radical intercessor and from his teens and a revival preacher and wrote books on prayer. I read him for years and then the time came when you know he was in his 70s. I had a chance to spend maybe six or eight different times with him over a few years where he came to Kansas City for a week at a time just to be in our prayer meetings in his 80s. He just was crying out to God tears in his eyes preaching on revival believing for it and I looked at that guy and I said my goodness that what a fiery dude. I even told him that and he didn't says what's a dude. I said I don't know you know just actually well I won't go into all that but I loved him. It was amazing. Make sure you're dwelling in the gardens. That's all I got to tell you when the Lord at the end make sure you're fully engaged and contending and involved and then he says the next thing an observation he says your your friends your companions still listen to your voice. In other words this is talking about the credibility she has. He says the ones that you served the ones that you've known for years they still see the weight of the Lord in you and they take you serious. They're still listening to you eagerly. Beloved you don't have to have a teaching ministry for that to happen. You can be a one-on-one type a discipleship ministry but make sure that at the end that you have a vibrant spirit. You have a vibrancy in God where the people that you've served for years still see you as a fresh man or woman of God. So much so they are eagerly receiving from God from you because you have something to say. You're still alive. Your spirit is vibrant and alive. You're growing in revelation and then he changes to the subjects. He goes now I want I want you to let me hear your voice. I'm like what? The Lord says I want to hear your voice. Your companions take you serious. I take you serious. Paragraph D and the way that the Lord hears our voice is number one in worship. Don't stop worshiping is what he's saying. He says number two don't stop interceding. I mean when Leonard Ravenhill was here in his 80s he was still crying out for revival. The Lord was still listening to his voice. Don't stop teaching. I mean in your one-on-one teaching go and and meet the guy the the the person in need and just pour out your heart and encourage them in the things of God and don't stop evangelizing. And so this is what the Lord leaves her with. He says I see you involved and engaged. The people are still taking you serious and I am still taking you serious. And then the final verse of the Song of Solomon will end with this. Well she does exactly what the Lord appealed. She responds in her responsive heart to the Lord. She doesn't. She goes okay you want to hear my voice. Then she cries out in terms of the New Testament language because Song of Solomon 8 14 is the same in essence as Revelation 22 17. Come Lord Jesus. This is the this is the Song of Solomon version of the Spirit and the Bride say come come Lord Jesus. So she cries out make haste or hurry up come quickly. That's how John said it come quickly. The Bride said make haste or the Shulamite. Now look at the next thing that she says hurry up and visit. And then secondly she says my beloved. In other words even at the end Jesus is still the one she's in love with. She's not serving him at a distance. It's not come quickly my leader. Come quickly oh you whom I love. She's fresh in love at the end and she's saying be like the gazelle. Now the gazelle if you remember was back in chapter 2 verse 8 when the Lord appeared to her leaping on the mountains like a gazelle conquering all the mountains effortlessly leaping bounding from mountain to mountain. She said be that gazelle continually and conquer the mountains. Come Lord Jesus defeat everything that gets in the way. And then she ends in this final phrase come like the gazelle on the mountain of spices. In paragraph H that the eternal city the throne of God as well as the new Jerusalem is being pictured here as a vast mountain of divine fragrance called the mountain of spices. The throne of God is drenched in fragrance of the beauty of Christ Jesus and God the father his their fragrances emanate from the throne. The city is filled with the lovely fragrance of Christ Jesus and the mountain and the city itself is called the mountain of spices. Now when we cry out come Lord Jesus paragraph C there's a three-fold way I'll end with this we can say come near us when we say come Lord Jesus revelation 22 17 it's not it's come near me come and break in I want a breakthrough at the heart level well that's not the only way we say come Lord Jesus we say come to us we want God to visit our geographic area whether our region or our nation we want to see a breakthrough of revival but then we can say come Lord Jesus in a third way we can say come for us in other words at the second coming that eschatological breaking in at the second coming and so whether we're crying come come near us come to us or come for us our spirit is actively involved with the love with the one that we love and he's the one that said let me hear your voice cry out to me let me hear your voice and beloved he wants to hear our voice forever and forever he wants us in worship and intercession and proclaiming his word amen and amen we'll end with that let's stand