Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of delighting in God's beauty, urging believers to seek and behold the beauty of Jesus as essential for spiritual victory. He highlights that this pursuit is accessible to all believers, countering the misconception that Jesus is boring, and encourages a lifelong commitment to exploring God's beauty through prayer, meditation, and worship. Bickle draws from Psalm 27:4, illustrating how David prioritized beholding God's beauty even amidst conflict, and he calls for a generation of 'theologians of God's beauty' to arise. The sermon concludes with a call to shift from negative narratives to a focus on the beauty and purpose God imparts to our lives.

Turn to Psalm 27, if you would. Father, we come before you, your glorious throne. Father of glory, we ask you that you would open the eyes of our understanding, that we could see the glory of your beloved Son, the beauty. Holy Spirit, let us see what you see, and feel what you feel when you look at the man Christ Jesus. Let us see what you see. Give us glimpses, even tonight, more than before. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, my purpose tonight is to convince you of several things. Number one, that seeing the beauty of Jesus is essential. It's not just a kind of peripheral subject. It's essential for victory in this hour of history, seeing the beauty of Jesus. And I want to give you some practical ways to do that tonight. I want to convince you, number two, that this is within reach of every single believer, not just a special few. I want to expose a lie, that Jesus is boring, he's indescribably fascinating. When John the Apostle saw his beloved friend Jesus, Revelation 1, he was overwhelmed with his glory and majesty, and fell before him overwhelmed, as though he said, I've never seen this amount of glory in you. Beloved, this is the man at the right hand of the Father, that is the Bridegroom King. At the end of this short teaching, I want to give some practical steps on how you can go forward in this subject, in this reality. I want to talk tonight from Psalm 27, particularly verse 4. This verse has been very significant to the IHOP community for the 17 years that we've been doing this thing night and day. Our mission statement, our mission statement is that we exist to partner in the Great Commission with other ministries all around the world, by advancing 24-7 prayer and proclaiming the beauty of Jesus. This is part of our mission statement. My desire is that it would get into the spiritual DNA of others, that it would be part of your life and ministry mission statement, proclaiming the beauty of Jesus. That's a new idea to some folks and to others. It's a well-established idea they've been familiar with for years. Let's look at Psalm 27, verse 4. It's a surprising declaration. I mean, in face value, it's surprising. The Great Warrior King, the Great Warrior King of Israel, this one thing all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of God. It would have been, I would have thought, this one thing to defeat the enemies of God. This one thing to advance the kingdom of God. Undoubtedly, those were burning in his heart as well. I call David the theologian of God's beauty. When David made this statement, it was a remarkable advance in the kingdom of God. No man had ever said anything like this or ever endeavored to view God and life through this lens. This was a radical advancement for the kingdom of God. It was ahead of time. I mean, this is the kind of reality that we're going to show you in a minute, the Spirit of God's going to do in the generation the Lord returns. But David, 3,000 years ahead of time, said, I'm doing it now. He was a down payment in salvation history, far above, beyond all the others of his day. My prayer tonight, this conference, is that God would raise up theologians of the beauty of God. Men and women that take the Bible, take the beauty of God, ask the Holy Spirit to show them new things about his heart they've never seen. Based in the Bible, but displayed in creation, in his leadership over history, in the unfolding of redemption, the interaction of the saints inspired by the grace of God, where the beauty is manifest in that context. David cultivated a new worldview. I want you to get this. This was new. A new approach to God, to life. It was a radical advancement of the kingdom of God. Now notice David says, all the days of my life. The subject of the beauty of God is a subject you will never, ever outgrow, ever. You can be the deepest theologian, the most powerful anointed evangelist, you never graduate from this subject, ever. The seraphim, the living creatures around the throne, night and day, day and night, they never stop. They've never outgrown their engagement and fascination with the beauty of God, never. It's impossible to exhaust it. A billion years from now, you will see new things that will overwhelm and fascinate your heart. My point is, the beauty of God is not something you just do in a summer or for a semester at school. We take it to class. This is a lifetime preoccupation. Psalm 34, David said something else that was startling. In the overflow of discovering God's beauty, he discovered delight in his relationship with God. No man ever talked like this before, his day. No one in the Old Testament talked in the graphic ways that he did about beauty and the pleasure he would encounter in his heart in interacting with God. Beloved, I have good news. A relationship with God is more than dutiful service. It's more than sacrifice. It is interacting with the most beautiful being imaginable, who wants to reveal his beauty and impart it to you by the Spirit. I have written here the biblical vision of the Christian life, is enjoying God by delighting in his beauty. Beloved, we do that. We learn how to enjoy God by seeing him and the first commandment is established in first place. Our hearts are hot in love with God. We love him. He loves us. There is no sacrifice. That we will cower before. There's no persecution that we'll back down when this thing is set on fire in the heart of the end time church. And it's growing now. I'm gonna quote one of my favorite quotes. It's from my dear friend Sam Storms. He said, I don't want to simply live the Christian life. I want to love living the Christian life. I'm gonna say that again. Thank you, Sam Storms. He said, I don't want to simply live the Christian life. That's not enough. I want to love living the Christian life. I want to love it, even though there's hardship in it. Undoubtedly, we don't under, we don't play that down. The hardship is worth it. When we have glimpses of the man we're interacting with, he's fully God. He's fully man at the right hand of the Father. I want to share briefly two encounters that I had with the Lord that grabbed my attention in a dramatic way on the subject of the beauty of God. First encounter, 33 years ago, in the context of a young adult church. I was in my 20s leading a young adult church. We're in a season of fasting and prayer. We didn't do it very good, just so you know. We like, it was like, oh, pretty bad actually, but we did it. And the Lord spoke audibly. I've told the story many times. I won't go into it now. He said, do 24-7 prayer. In essence, with singers and musicians is what, how he said it. Like, I didn't even know what that meant. 24-7 prayer, like, why? Singers and musicians, where? Where are they coming from? I'm not a singer. I'm not a musician. But it was more than that. Do it, he gave us Psalm 27 for, according to the beauty of God. Do it by interacting with beauty. Like, I knew nothing about the beauty of God. I said, so I'm gonna have 24 hours of singers, praying, interfacing with beauty. Oh, I wasn't even excited. Honestly, I wasn't. I went, what? But we put a sign on the wall. And for 16 years, people asked the question, what's that 24-hour thing you're gonna do with Psalm 27? I go, I don't know. I really don't know. And we waited 16 years after that word of the Lord. I was so mystified by it. I didn't even know what to do with it. And then in 1999, we began. The beauty of God, singers and musicians, the Lord spoke it audibly. I went, okay. Whatever, okay. David had 4,000 full-time singers and musicians, and this was the paradigm that he taught them in. I said, I don't know anything about this. That's the first experience I had. God said, Mike Bickle, get, I want your attention. Pay attention to this subject. Completely unaware of it, to really be honest. 13 years later, after 1983, when that encounter happened with the Lord. It's 1996. 13 years later. It's a couple years before IHOP started in 1999. I'm at an all-night prayer meeting. It's midnight. We're gonna go to 5 in the morning. All Saturday morning, and so I thought, well, I got five hours. I'm tired. I was a little bit bored. You know, I'm bored in some of our prayer meetings. There's some of you guys sometimes, I am sometimes. Sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I am. I said, oh man, five hours. Ugh. Why did I call this meeting, you know? No, I'm being honest. I said, well, I'll just start claiming my promises. So I said, Psalm 27 4, that one from 13 years ago. That was an audible voice of the Lord. I mean, you get one of those in your life, you know, an audible voice of the Lord assignment. One is amazing, big number. So I said, okay. I'm pacing. I said, Lord, this one thing I ask that I would behold your beauty. And suddenly, the Spirit of the Lord rests on me in a tangible, physical way. Whoa. Three, four seconds, it lifts. I went, wow, that was, what was that? So I waited a moment. I said, Lord, let me see your beauty. Again, three, four seconds. Whoa. Okay. A third time. I want to know your beauty. The Spirit resting all over my head, shoulders. I mean, it was real. This has never happened before like this, ever. I've been a pastor 40 years. This is one time ever this happens like this. Had it for a moment here or there through the years. I said the phrase, let me see your beauty or something close to that for five straight hours. Every time the Spirit came, I go, what is going on? I couldn't figure it out. I was 3 a.m. Let me see your beauty. I went, God, what? 4.30 a.m. Let me see your beauty. I was completely perplexed. Went home at 5 a.m., got up about 9, came back to the prayer place. Place is empty. I said, let me see what this was about. Lord, let me see your beauty. I went, ah, it happened again. Two or three more hours. This has never happened to me in 40 years. Anything like this. I told nobody. It was, you know, I go on about the week. Wow. Very perplexed by that Saturday. That strange Saturday in November 1996. One week later, I get a letter. Lady says, last Saturday night, that's when all this was happening, this swoosh of the Spirit, whatever you call it. She goes, last Saturday night, I had a prophetic dream about you. She goes, I've never had a dream about you, ever. She said, be alert. I'm a little embarrassed to say this to you, but God told me last Saturday night in a dream, he's going to start talking to you about the beauty of God and he wants you to pay attention. She goes, it's a little odd because I don't really think of you as a beauty of God guy. Like, thanks, you know. That was 1996. I begin to get really attentive. I went, this is real. I'm not naturally good at that subject. I go, okay, that's what you said way back in 83. Night and day, prayer, singers, musicians, beauty of God. Now you say it 13 years later. Okay, okay. I'm in. I don't even know where to start. Philippians 3, Paul said the same thing. He used the word excellency, but it's the same idea as beauty. You could use those words interchangeably. Paul said, I give up everything. It's worth it. For the beauty, the excellency of the man. I've seen him. I want to see him more. I begin to pray. I want to give you this prayer. Lord, let me see what Paul saw and I can respond like Paul responded. Let me see what he saw about you and I can go harder with all of my heart. I begin to pray, Holy Spirit, let me see what Paul saw. Then I said, Holy Spirit, let me see what you see when you look at Jesus. Let me feel what you feel. How would it be in on this? Paul elaborated on this subject in 2 Corinthians 3. He said, we behold the glory of the Lord and we're transformed. The glory or the beauty or the excellency of God or the majesty, those words are interchangeable when talking about God. Paul's picking up on the David theme. Let them behold the majesty, the glory, the beauty. Let them see the beauty. It will shift their emotions. It will shift their life emotionally. They'll be transformed from the inside out. Not just the outside trying to work in. Beloved, I have good news. God's beauty is not only delightful, it's transforming. It shifts our emotion. Paragraph C, the famous passage of the Messiah. Isaiah 61, we all know it. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel, the good news, to liberate the captives. But it adds another phrase, to give beauty to lives that are like the broken ash heap. An ash heap of broken life, to give them beauty. That is a very significant purpose of salvation. That the beauty that God possesses is the beauty He imparts. But this is a part of salvation that's almost totally neglected. Not totally, but almost. We preach the good news. We want to set Catholics free, that's good. We want to bring joy to those who mourn, yes. But I have good news. The biblical theme of our salvation. One of the great themes. We have an indescribably beautiful King who has the ability to impart the beauty He possesses into your life. It starts in this age and comes to fullness of His purpose in the age to come. This is too big of a subject to break down right now. I got a bit on the internet on this subject. I'm going to put a whole lot more on in the days to come. The subject of how the beauty is imparted now and it's real. It's not figurative, it's real. And many believers are completely out of touch with this facet of the grace of God. And God sees beauty in them but they can't see it. And they live in despair because they can't connect with what's really happening from God's point of view in their life. It's not just His beauty out in creation and redemption and His leadership of history. The beauty God possesses He actually imparts. Peter gives us very significant insight on this subject. 1 Peter 3, 4. 1 Peter 3, verse 4. He talked about the hidden beauty the hidden person of the heart. God sees incorruptible beauty inside their inner man. They don't see it but God sees it. When He sees a humble or a gentle or a meek spirit put whichever word you want. When God sees meekness He sees incorruptible beauty. Beauty that will never ever ever diminish or go away. It will last into the age to come. There's continuity with this life in the age to come. It's incorruptible. Now there's no way we would know this because it's hidden. But the word of God says it's true. God says though you can't know it by natural observation and your five senses I see it and it's precious to me. Read the whole verse at another time. It says it's very, very dear to God. Lord, you know we've all grown in humility a little bit. Doesn't feel that beautiful. Doesn't even seem like a big deal. Lord says it's beauty. It's the inspiration of my spirit that you've responded to. I see your life different than you see your life. Many believers see their life as hard. They're weak. They're broken. They're mistreated. They're worthless. They're a failure. The Lord says beauty is growing in you. I imparted it to you. It's part of my gift of salvation to work it in you in this age and bring it to fullness in the age to come. The challenge with the beauty that's imparted is it's hidden in this age from our five senses. But the word says it. And if the word says it, that's my testimony. The word says it, that's my storyline. That's the narrative I'm believing God for. Every act of humility. Every time we have a quiet spirit. That's another word for trusting the Lord in a time of difficulty. Every time I choose to trust Him, believe His story, God says that quiet spirit is beautiful to me. It's dear to me. Read the whole passage in 1 Peter 3. Paul develops the idea in Colossians 3. He says your life is hidden in Christ. That's an interesting idea. And when Jesus appears in beauty or glory, use the words interchangeably, then you'll see the full story of your life then. Well Lord, if the things that are happening in my life are hidden from me, I can't really see them. I see them in part, but only a little bit. How am I supposed to be encouraged by them? The Lord says, believe what I say about you. It's hidden, but only from you. It's incorruptible. It will be fully manifested. Beloved, I don't want to wait until the resurrection to buy into the storyline of my life under a beautiful God who's imparting beauty in my life. I want to be encouraged. I want to move in that direction now and have the confidence and boldness that comes from that. David said all the days of my life. Beloved, it was a new way of looking at life. When he said all the days of my life I look at your beauty, he meant I'm intentionally searching for it. Because the beauty of God is hidden. There's whispers of it. Glimpses of it. Yeah, we look at the Grand Canyon or a sunset. We go, wow, God says, no, no. It's so much more than that. His beauty, there's whispers and tokens of it. Evidence all through creation. All through the salvation story. His leadership over history. His leadership in our life. The meekness. Every time we respond in humility. The heroic virtue he inspires in saints when they act in courage and sacrifice. Love and beauty is unfolding in you. It's a fantastic new way to look at life. The word of God defines it as beautiful. I'm going with God's story. Someone else might look at my life or yours and go, hey, you don't look very beautiful to me. I go, you know what? You don't have the final word over what I look like to God. He does. Well, we got to look for the beauty. David said all the days of my life. He was intentionally searching. He looked at creation. Which is the divine art gallery. Creation. He goes, oh. But there are only seed thoughts. There's a brilliant mind. The beautiful mind is the mind of Christ Jesus. The ultimate beautiful mind. The beautiful heart. The powerful hand. In the stars. In the earth. In the human design. In so many God-inspired abilities he put in us. And God-inspired virtuous acts of courage. Heroic love. It's all been put in the saints. But little fragments of it. But it moves him. He said on the last day you give someone even only a cup of cold water he'll remember it forever. Lord, I gave somebody a cup of cold water in your name. Matthew 10.42 I forgot it. God says I didn't. It's beautiful to me. I inspired that. I love where your life is going. I'm happy for you to progress further, but it's moving. And it moves me. Second. I'm in Proverbs chapter 2. If we search for it like silver and gold. Meaning there's hints. Whispers. Gold nuggets. Search for it. Read Proverbs 2. You will discover the knowledge of God. We're talking about his beauty right now. Lord, I study history. I'm a very amateur historian. Very amateur. But I love history. Because I love to see his guiding hand where men do evil, but he turns it around over time. I go, amazing. He goes, you don't even begin to get the real story of my beauty. How I'm leading history. But stay with it. Stay with it. Stay with it. Search for it. Search for it. Look. I look at, well, all over the world, but I'm just thinking of my IHOP family. I look at weak and broken people making heroic, godly, virtuous choices. Well, he's a nice guy. The Lord might whisper, I inspired that. That's the beauty of God. Can't you see it? He's more than a nice guy. He's the handiwork of God. I am the craftsman. I'm working beauty. I'm imparting it. He's more than just humble in that. It was me. I look at that weak man, that weak woman. I go, you're beautiful. It's amazing. You look around life and think of the redemptive story. We know the broad strokes, but beloved, there's deep facts and understanding in the storyline and creation. His leadership of history. The way humans interact under his inspiration. The heroic virtue. This is this whole life of discovery and beauty if you're looking for it. If you set your heart like David to go after it. The Lord started stirring me. I go, I don't even know. He goes, just start looking. I study a little bit. Not much. A little science. A little history. I watch human interaction. I study the gospel story of salvation. A little bit of what science says about creation. I go, wow. You're like amazing. I'm getting more. This is you. This is you. Because you don't even have but the whisper. Keep coming. Keep coming. Beloved, it changes the way I feel and think about my life and your life in the future. We can't live without growing in the beauty of Christ. Well, let's go back to Psalm 27, paragraph D. Delighting in his beauty is more than just something delightful. It's essential. If you walk out of here convinced this is essential and you begin a new path, a new trajectory of your life going, okay, I don't know how to do this really, but I'm in. This has been a successful conference. If you make that resolution, even though you might not get much about it, you go, I'm going on that path. One year will turn to 10, 10 to 20, you'll be a totally different human being a little bit down the road. You'll view life, creation, people, history, his leadership, an entirely different narrative and a different story than you did before. Beloved, it's the art gallery, the divine art gallery, creation and his leadership over life. It's everywhere. But David said, you've got to look. Solomon said in Proverbs, you've got to search for it. It's there. You will discover it. But if you're casual, you will only see a glimpse here and there. But if you're studious, you go after it, you'll see more and more all the days of your life. Psalm 27. David wrote about the beauty of God in a time of conflict. This is very interesting. And it's very significant. Let's go back to Psalm 27 and back up a few verses. He said in verse 2, when the wicked came, that's not good. When wicked people come against you, whether they're in the church or not, some wicked folks out there, even in the name of Christ, they accuse, they attack, they lie, they betray. They do many things. When the wicked came against me, whoa. Verse 3, no, not just one guy, an army surrounded me. The wicked guy has people on his team and they're coming after David full blast. Armies surrounding me. When you look at the life of David, they were attacking David's life, his reputation. They were in the absolute revolt, trying to cast him out of his position, steal the kingdom, kill him, take all of his money, ruin his reputation. Beloved, this is intense. This isn't little social media criticism of a few people who said, oh, that guy's bad. They're going to try to kill him, steal his throne, steal his money, take his family, ruin his reputation. He said verse 4, I'm pressing in to the beauty narrative of my life. Everything is going bad, but there's a beautiful God with a beautiful plan. I'm trusting his leadership. I need to be caught up in that narrative, not the narrative of how bad my life is. The enemy wants to shift your life into a negative narrative of how bad you're treated, what you don't have, how much you fail, how despairing and worthless your life is. He wants to lie, lie, lie. The spirit wants to shift you into a beauty narrative. A beautiful God with a beautiful plan, and it's working in you, not as fast as we want it to, but it's working, and it's dear to him, and it means something. Your life matters. It's not wasted. No matter what they say, you're moving in the way that God says, I like this. You're moving in humility. Maybe you're not getting rich and famous. Maybe you are, but you're moving in humility. You have a quiet spirit. You're trusting my leadership. This moves me. This is beautiful, it says in 1 Peter 3. I refuse by the grace of God to let the negative narrative dominate my inner man and my conversation. I am not going to let that narrative win the day in me. There's a big story I'm a part of. Beloved, tapping into this, engaging in this, it changes your emotions. Beautiful God, beautiful plan, parting it in me. My life isn't worthless. I'm not forgotten. Yes, I'm weak, but there's redemptive things happening that matter. It gives you a sense of hope. Relevance in your life. Your life isn't wasted. You gave the cup of cold water. You forgot it. The man you gave it to forgot it, but God says, I'll never, ever forget it, ever. It moves me. Wow. Maybe my life isn't a waste. Maybe nobody notices me here, but the king does. So, wow. Okay. That works. He lives forever. The beauty is incorruptible. It never goes away. Whenever there's meekness or trusting God or responding, humility and love. Beloved, when I'm convinced that God is beautiful, then it's believable that he imparts it to me. Because if he's that beautiful and that powerful, he might be able to impart it to me. Maybe I should quit listening to what the negative narrative is and I need to get into the biblical narrative of my life. Paragraph E. Bottom of page 1. Isaiah. He prophesied. Oh, I love this prophecy. That in the end of the age, one of the things the Holy Spirit would emphasize, look at verse 17, Isaiah 33. Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. Wow. David was 3,000 plus years ahead of time. He was a down payment of that which would be global in the kingdom of God. That the people would see the beauty of the king. They must have thought David was dreaming back then. Like, what are you talking about? He goes, I get it. God called him a man after God's own heart. Beloved, this is a David generation. The greatest, most beautiful love songs in his heart are about to be imparted to the body of Christ to invigorate and empower them to stand against all compromise, all persecution. The greatest love songs, the greatest songs of beauty in his heart are about to be imparted to the earth. Brothers, I tell the young people, but the old people too, I'm in my 60s, I count, I like my people, but I tell the young people, write songs on the beauty of God. I communicate to our worship leaders, I go, I want to find every song on the beauty of God in English, in the earth. I want to get us a list of like 500 of them. I want to fill our place with the beauty of God. I want to see the songs of beauty fill the earth, not from here, but God doing it from all of the earth. Beloved, we want to write songs about his beauty, but we got to see them, not just echo phrases, we got to be touched by it. Isaiah said in verse 6, you see the beauty, it will stabilize you. You see the beauty, you buy into the beauty narrative of a beautiful king with a beautiful plan leading your life, imparting beauty, you buy into that narrative, strength, stability, will be in the people of God in a time where escalating lust and fear and darkness, the people of God will be bold and strong. The first commandment first, nothing is too great, because they know who he is. No sacrifice is too great is what I mean. Isaiah described a generation of unprecedented trouble, but the generation of unprecedented trouble at the end of the age will have unprecedented revelation of the beauty of God, an unprecedented manifestation of the glory of God. Look at paragraph F, this is a snapshot. This is just, it's so brief, it pains me to even look at this paragraph. Each one of these phrases has volumes of material and implications behind it. Snapshot, just to give you an idea, God's beauty includes paragraph F at the bottom of the page. It includes how he thinks. The ultimate beautiful mind is Jesus. It includes how he feels. He delights in mercy, he's tender. Nobody thinks about you like he does, tender lips. He loves forgiving and giving you mercy. He delights in it. What he does, creation, salvation, his leadership over history, how he looks in this age, he had no beauty that somebody would look at him a second time, but beloved in his resurrected body, I mean his appearance, Revelation 1, Revelation 4, we could go on and on. How he designed human beings to act under inspiration. How they interact when they're inspired by him. Fantastic. He's going to fill the earth with this, with people like this. In the age to come, the earth will be filled with the glory of beautiful people, resurrected bodies, the beautiful new Jerusalem descending to the earth, everybody acting in kindness, beauty will fill the earth out of the heart and the life of this king. I put a few little ideas here, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, these are so minuscule, I'm almost embarrassed putting them down there. Every one of these subjects, there's many more, there's seeds. There are arenas of thought where there's seeds of truth. We meditate and those seeds of understanding grow and when they grow, our heart is more fascinated with the implications of every one of these. Every one of these deserves a book itself or two or three on it. Top of page 2. In a few minutes, I'm going to pray for people that say, I want to be, I'm just using this term, you don't have to make it an official term or anything. God wants to raise up theologians of the beauty of God. In film, in writing, in preaching, in acting, social media, songs, music, all kinds of dimensions to study it, not just to release it a little bit, I mean to see it and to understand it and share it. We want to fill the earth with the beauty narrative of who Jesus is and what his plan is. God's beauty is seen in creation. All the beauty we see in this world, paragraph A, is a dim reflection of the source of ultimate beauty, God. Simply put, he makes things beautiful because he is beauty itself. He's more than a man. He's fully man. He's fully God. He is the ultimate reality and source and expression of beauty. He's the one you call Savior. He's the one we worshipped a few minutes ago. He's the one you study and talk to. When you open your Bible and you study it, he said, when you look at creation, when I just observe life and history, I go, Lord, I want to see your fingerprints on everything. He goes, there's more than you can imagine, but it's got to take a Holy Spirit escort. He's the only one who sees it clearly. You need to see what he sees and feel what he feels and he's willing to escort you if you'll go on the journey. Oh, I'm recommending two books. I could give you a dozen, but Sam Storms, put it in our bookstore, wrote a fantastic book on the beauty of God. Thomas Dubé, fantastic book on the beauty of God. I've read those books several times. They hurt. They're so good. I go, oh, I just want to get it more. I'm going to read it again. You can only underline a page so many times you start tearing the page. Richard Foster, John Piper, Bernard of Clairvaux, Henry Nouwen, Balthazar, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, all through history. There God has raised up those messengers who focused on the beauty and the interaction. Paragraph D, it's not surprising, Psalm 19, David said, look up. See the beauty in the skies. The glory, the beauty interchangeably. His handiwork. The heavenly art gallery. There's an earthly art gallery and a heavenly one. Wow, it's everywhere. I love what Piper says. He's one of my favorite authors. Letting our eyes run up the beam of beauty in creation to the original beauty. We see not just the beautiful mountains and the sunset and the ocean, yes for sure, but there is so much intricate knowledge about how things function and the symmetry and how the genius behind them from the stars to the mountains to a flower to a leaf to the subatomic particles. There's a hundred trillion atoms in some cells. There's a universe in the minutia of his creation. There's a universe in the macro creation. It's like it's everywhere. He says, what are you looking for? David had it right. I look for it. I search it out. I study it everywhere. David, you're the great warrior king. You ought to be studying your war plans. I do that some, but I'm captured by something else. There's a bigger narrative going on right now. Look at, I got a few facts about the stars. I mean, it's the vastness, but think of the brilliance behind the vastness. The appearance, look at this, the Milky Way galaxy. Our galaxy. Hundred billion stars in our galaxy. Hundred billion. Our sun is one of the small ones. The Milky Way galaxy is one of a hundred billion galaxies. So there's a hundred billion galaxies and a hundred billion stars in our galaxy, and it's the handiwork of God. He says, I measure them by the breath of my hand. I made them. I call everyone by name. I put everyone in place. Each one of them has unique makeup and a purpose, and you'll see more and more of my beauty when I show it to you as the ages unfold. Paragraph two. You know the sun, the star closest to us, besides our sun, is 25 trillion miles away. The closest star to us is 25 trillion miles. You know the pistol star? A hundred million times more powerful than our sun. The pistol star releases more energy in 20 seconds than our sun does in one year. That's one of the other one billion stars in our universe. Beloved, there's a man. Fully God, fully man. He spoke. Let there be. That man came after you. The story isn't how big he is or how smart he is. I love that story. He wants you. He says the beauty I possess, I will impart it to you. We will be together forever. David had it right. Make this the narrative of your life. Jesus is not boring. He's worth it. He's worth giving up immorality. He's worth giving up ease and comfort in certain situations. He's worth sacrificing. He's worth pouring everything out for. Beloved, this is the wisdom of the kingdom of God. It's the king. Roman number three. How to grow in beauty. We'll bring this to a close in the next few moments here. Psalm 145. Market your Bible. Got to understand Psalm 145. It's probably David's most significant Psalm on how to walk in victory over dark emotions. You know, the enemy is causing dark emotions to explode in the earth. From lust and fear and bitterness and anger and all kinds of phobias. Dark emotions. Psalm 145 doesn't call it that, but it gives us David's, I believe, his most valuable, significant Psalm on overcoming those dark emotions. It's little by little. Don't get impatient. Doesn't all change in a day or a week or a year, but little by little, the little inspirations, the little thoughts, they grow, they're seeds, and they begin to shift the way we think and feel about ourself and life in the future. They give us hope. We don't feel forgotten. Our life feels relevant, not wasted. We're in a beauty narrative, the kingdom of God. David mentions three simple things. There's nothing confusing about them. They're so simple. Anyone can do them, but they're so simple not very many people do. He says three things. You do these three, you'll grow in it. You'll progressively overcome dark emotions. It will totally affect your prayer ministries. It will totally affect your preaching, your writing, your filmmaking, your acting, your blogs, your marriage, your child raising, your marketplace experience. In fact, everything. You buy into this narrative, everything looks different. I don't mean in one minute, but over time. It's like, yeah, that's pretty cool. I kind of like being human. This is more amazing than I thought. He says in Psalm 145. You can read it there. Three activities. Number one, meditate. Okay, simple enough. Search it out. Think deeply. Who he is, what he's done. Don't be content at the quick glances at the universe and history over his leadership over history. Redemption. Don't quick glance. Meditate. Go deep. Holy Spirit. You said you would teach me. You would escort me. You would show me the things of Jesus. Here I am. He says, I need your time. Give yourself. You can't get this on the run. You search the scripture. I don't want to overdo this, but a little bit. You look at science. A little bit. I mean, just a little bit. Wow. You look at a little bit of history. A little bit of virtuous, heroic action and interaction of humans that he inspired. He just starts staring at all these theaters of life. Look for his beauty. Write it. Journal it. Beloved, one of the most important things I learned years ago. Journal. Write the phrases down that inspire you and say them again to God. Number two. David said in Psalm 145, you can read the Psalm on your own. He said, bless or praise the Lord. What's that mean? Whatever you admire about him, even the smallest inspiration, you go, wow. That's kind of cool. Say it back to him. Don't just journal it. Say it back to him. One of the great secrets of my spiritual life. I mean, I don't have a bunch of secrets of my spiritual life, but I mean, one of the great principles. I say stuff back to God. Because there's a kingdom principle. When you say the truth about God, the spirit moves. Say what God says, the spirit moves. Now, not always dramatically. Somebody's sick, you lay hands on them, more happens. Not always. You bless somebody, it touches them. It's a little bit of spirit of prophecy. You say what God says in prayer, it's called intercession. He sends revival in time. You say what God says back to God, it moves God. When's the last time you told God, thank you that you love me. Thank you for your leadership in the earth. Thank you. Saying little phrases back to God will move your heart. The spirit will mark you because the spirit moves when you say what the word is. Number three, say it to people. Declare it to people. That's what David said. It's not enough to say it to God, say it to people. I don't mean preach to people, just in conversation. But again, God's raising up these messengers and whether it's media or music or song or all the arts or social media or preaching, writing in the marketplace. I mean the architect that's inspired by his work, but I don't mean just what he does. I'm talking about capturing the storyline and saying it wherever God has placed you. Become a theologian of the beauty of God like David was. There's something powerful when we say it. I love paragraph B, look at this, C.S. Lewis. He says we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses the praise completes the enjoyment. In other words, we love to tell people what moves us. We love to. Something good happens. We see something in people's lives or it's a movie or it's an event or it's a site or it's an experience or it's a novel. You want to tell at least one person like, hey, did you see that book? Did you see that? There's something about saying it that enriches the enjoyment. It brings others into the light of God, but it marks your heart. Don't undermine or underestimate these three things. Think on it deeply. It takes time. You can't do it on the run. Meditate. All that means is think on it a lot. Search it out. Say it to God. Bless God or praise God. It's the same idea. Say it back to Him what you admire about Him. God's going to fill the earth with prayer rooms. I don't mean 24-hour prayer rooms. Those are happening too, but I mean a prayer culture in the church where it becomes the culture of the church to say back to God what we admire about Him. Beloved, it marks us. It marks the people around us. It's a little bit, but it does make a difference over time. We love telling stories about the people we love. I love telling people about my grandchildren. I got five grandchildren. They're all more amazing than yours. Doesn't matter. Past, present, or future. End of story. My wife will confirm it. I love, I'll tell a guy, hey, old guy, I'll look at your grandkids' stories, pictures, if you'll let me show you mine. We love to tell stories of what moves us. I heard a joke. I'm really bad at jokes. My wife always goes, oh, don't do it, don't do it. The preacher was so upset that his elders, his leaders, his deacons, they skipped church on Sunday to go play golf. He'd be there with the community, but the leaders would be gone. He goes, I'm going to fake sick, go on the other side of town, and play golf. There you go. So he called in sick, drove the other into town, caught up. I'm not a golfer, so I don't really care about this, but the guy hits a hole in one. Boom! Hole in one! He's so excited. The way the story goes, Peter says to his angel, why'd you let him do that? The angel said, who's he going to tell? He's going to be suffering for days. He can't tell nobody. You love to say what buses you. That was a corny story, but you got the point. Paragraph D. I mentioned the prophetic insight that a Russian novelist and philosopher wrote about 150 years ago. I love this. How prophetic. Beauty is the battlefield where God and Satan contend for the souls of men. Beauty is the battlefield. Satan gives a counterfeit narrative, a counterfeit beauty. He gives lust that don't satisfy. God gives the real beauty, but you can't see it at a glance. You got to see it in the Word and shift your paradigm and search it out and ask the Spirit. Then it grows. The seed grows. And then you... And they're contending for the souls of men. That's the battleground of the days to come. Isaiah said it right. It will be your stability. It will be your strength. In the most dark generation of history, when the glory shines the brightest, they will see the king the clearest. I'm going to have our worship team come up. We're going to end in paragraph E. Paul said, oh, pray this prayer. Father of glory, show the people the glory of your Son. Show them. And it happens little by little in all these arenas that I've mentioned ever so briefly. Pray this for your church. Pray it for your family. Pray it for your spouse. Pray it for your children and grandchildren. Pray it for your enemies for real. Pray it for the politicians. Pray it for the missionaries. Ephesians 117. And look what Paul says right afterwards. Ephesians 3.8 Oh, I love this. This is the prayer. I'm going to pray over you. The singer's going to sing it over you. He says, look at Ephesians 3.8. The grace has been given me. The anointing. The ability in God has been given to me. To proclaim the riches of a man. The unsearchable glory that the anointing's on me. To make known the glory of a man. God's raising up theologians of the beauty of God. He'll anoint you in song and music and film and all kinds of things to make the riches, the beauty of a man known. I believe the most neglected subject in the kingdom of God is God. We talk about ministry strategies. Relational skills. Leadership skills. We don't talk about God. Paul says I'm anointed. I have grace to talk about God. The riches of a man. Beloved, I believe God's going to fill the earth with the beauty narrative of the king. Let's stand before the Lord. Here's what I'm going to pray for. Two things. I'm going to pray. Have you come forward here? We have a ministry in the middle of the room. A ministry place. It's not better up here versus there. Some people, they go, I got to go to the front. No, don't worry about it. People with the anointing of the Spirit are going to pray for you in the middle of the room. Here's what you're saying. Maybe you're 20. Maybe you're 80. Maybe you're 15. You say, I want to be a theologian of the beauty of God. I want to search it out. I'm going to go for it. I don't even know how really. Got a few little notes here. I'm going to go figure this thing out. I'm going to go deep on this and make it known through my songs, my music, my writings, my blogs, my acting, my plays, my business. I'm going to make it known. I'm going to disciple people in this. The children's church. I'm going to be a theologian of the beauty of God. You don't need a microphone and a crowd to do it. If you say that's what God's that's a determination in your heart. You want prayer, I want you to come stand up here. But as you got a line there, the second line, stand an arm's distance behind the line in front of you so the people in the ministry can come in between you. So when you come up, stand at least that far behind the people in front of you. The second thing I'm going to pray for is it's time for you to shift out of the negative narrative. The story who mistreated you? How bad your life is? How much of a failure you are? Who disrespects you? Who doesn't give you the money you deserve? You're going to shift over and say, wait I'm getting to another narrative. I'm going to shift tonight. I may not be that great at it right away. I'm going to talk about the beautiful man with the beautiful plan and my life in his eyes. I'm going to go there. Humility and godliness and virtue. I'm going to go that's what I'm about. The big picture story. And tonight's a night to make a shift. Walk out of your bitterness and your anger about who did it. I mean the guy that did it, it's bad that he did it. That story's not going to liberate you about how bad you're treated. The beauty of the king will liberate your heart. It will be strength and stability in your life. Isaiah 33. Lord, just lead us now. Holy Spirit we invite your presence. Theologians of the beauty of God, here we are. Weak and broken people anoint us by the Spirit. Here I stand. I'm going to ask the ministry team to come up if you would. All through the room. There is none. For there is none. And if you are on your ministry team back home come and join us if you're on a ministry team back home. You're under authority in a local church. You're connected to the body of Christ. Come on up and pray for me. There is none. None like you. There is none. None. Jesus. I stand in awe. And Lord I stand. Jesus. Beautiful God. Beautiful King. In awe of you. I love your leadership. I trust your leadership Jesus. Lord I stand. I stand in awe. In awe. In awe of you. Jesus. Holy Spirit we ask you to move like fire now. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. And, Lord, I stand, I stand in awe, in awe of you, Jesus. Lord I stand, I stand in awe of you, Jesus I'm going to pray Ephesians 3.8, the very last verse. As Paul said, grace was given to me. The anointing of the Spirit is what he means. To proclaim the riches of that man. Lord, I ask you for a fresh impartation. I ask you for an impartation of grace, the anointing of the Spirit, to proclaim, to make known the riches, the beauty of the man. In the name of Jesus, Lord, I ask you to release them. Father of glory, release the revelation. God, raise up theologians of the beauty. Grace is given. I see your beauty. Capture us again. Give us a glimpse even tonight. I ask for grace. I ask for the impartation of the Spirit. Grace to make known the beauty. Grace to make known the beauty of Jesus. Oh, come upon this congregation. There is none like you. There is none like Jesus. There is none like you. There is none like Jesus. Lord, I, I stand in awe of Jesus. And Lord, I stand, I stand in awe of Jesus. Jesus, your beams of light. And your head sounds like water. Release your fire, Lord. Release your fire, Lord. Release the beauty of the Lord. Jesus, you're beautiful. And your face white as gold. And only your voice it sounds. Jesus, you're beautiful. Jesus, you're beautiful. Jesus, you're, Jesus, you're beautiful. Jesus, you're beautiful. Jesus, you're beautiful. Your hair is white as gold. And only your voice it sounds like water. Jesus, you're beautiful. And only your eyes are like flames of fire. And only your hair is white as gold. And only your voice it sounds like water. Jesus, you're beautiful. And there is none like you, Jesus. Holy Spirit, let me see what you see when you look at him. Holy Spirit, let me feel what you feel when you look at him. Like you, Jesus, so beautiful. And only your eyes are like flames of fire. Jesus, you're beautiful. And only your eyes are like flames of fire. And only your hair is white as gold. And only your voice it sounds like water. Holy Spirit, let us feel what you feel. When you have the right hand of the Father. Oh, let us say what you say. Let us preach. Let us make known the riches of the man by the anointing. Visit us in the night with dreams. In the day with living understanding in the Word. Let us see creation through new eyes. Let us see your leadership in a new way through history. It's to be near you, with you, with all your soul. All heaven declares. All heaven declares. All heaven declares the beauty of the Lord. Let us join the chorus of the earth. Let us join the heavenly chorus of your beauty. Let us join the song. Lord, I ask that you would release new songs of beauty to the people in this room that are engaging through the television and the internet. The anointing of new songs and new sounds and new music of the beauty of the Lord. New films, new documentaries, new testimonies, new blogs of the glory of the beauty. Lord, let the songs arise in the earth. Release the new songs of the earth, Lord. The glory to the righteous. Fill the earth with the songs of your beauty. We want to see more. Our heart aches to see more. We see so little.