Mike Bickle emphasizes the paramount importance of pursuing complete obedience to God as the ultimate goal of a believer's life. He argues that the true prize is not found in ministry success or material blessings, but in receiving the Lord's testimony of our love and obedience at the end of our lives. Bickle highlights that every area of our lives should be brought under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and that our pursuit of obedience, even amidst failures, is what truly moves God's heart. He warns against the distractions of worldly concerns and encourages believers to focus on the quality of love they offer to Jesus through their actions. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a radical commitment to love God on His terms, which is rooted in obedience.

Father, we come before you in the name of Jesus. We ask you, Lord, to release the activity of the Holy Spirit upon your Word. Even now, in Jesus' name, amen. I'd like them to start the clock, if they would. This session 10 of the First Commandment course, I just want to alert you right now that, in my opinion, this is the most important of all the sessions that I'm teaching on this subject. I believe this to be the most important subject in your life, actually even more important than understanding the end times, as important as that is and the focus the Lord's putting on that in our community. This is most important message, is one of the most overlooked messages in the church, and one of the most neglected messages in individuals' lives. And I just want to put this before you, that you hardly ever hear this topic, and yet it is the most important topic to you as a born-again believer. It's the issue of running for the prize. Paul spoke about a prize. He had a clear prize in his mind. And that prize, and we'll look at it in a few minutes, the actual verse in 1 Corinthians 9, is that he wanted to receive the testimony from the Lord on the last day. The testimony that he was complete in all, in obedience in all the areas of his life, that the Lord would look at him and say, Paul, you did it. I gave you X amount of years to live as a believer. And the goal as a believer isn't even ministry first, although ministry is important. The goal, our number one reason God gives us extended days on the earth after we're a believer, to give us an opportunity to receive the testimony that we were complete or comprehensive in our obedience in every area of our life. And the Holy Spirit actually gives us time, and he woos us, and that's his plan for our life, though most believers are never focused on that concept in their life. They're focused on pressures being alleviated, which I understand, their ministry getting established, which I understand, money breakthroughs, relationship favor, those are all important, and they're all part of God's plan. But nothing is more important from the Lord's point of view in my life than I would stand before him and say, Mike, I have one main question first. Of all the areas of your life, did you bring them completely under my leadership? All the areas. Were you, I don't mean were you perfectly mature, but were you reaching with a focused tenacity to bring every area, your thoughts, your words, your money, all your struggles, were you reaching actively to love me in this way? And whether I attained to the breakthrough in every area is not the issue. The issue was I consciously seeking to do that as my main goal in life, because that's why the Lord gives us extended years as a believer. It's not first to make impact. He can make a whole lot of impact through somebody else in one day and touch a whole nation if he wants. He does it, he wants to make impact through us. He really does. It's very important to him. But the first reason he extends your days is to give you an opportunity to give him that testimony that you contended in your life for every area to be in the pursuit of obedience. Not even the full breakthrough, but the pursuit of obedience, the active pursuit in every area of your life. And you're going to see in a few moments, this was not a small thing to Paul. Paul repeated this concept so many times, over and over. I mean, I don't know what subjects he said more often than this. I mean, surely there's probably a few. And yet you almost never hear this concept referenced in the body of Christ. And more troubling, well, that's troubling. How often do you spend time in a day, in a week, in a month, thinking on how to bring those final areas into the pursuit of obedience? And maybe some of you think, I don't even think that much about it. And that's what I mean. The most important subject is when me and the Lord meet eye to eye one day, that's the first question he's going to ask me. Did you seek, did you endeavor, did you contend, did you reach in your spirit towards me to obey me, to love me in these, all these areas of your life? Not did you fully get the breakthrough, but did you make it the priority of your heart, the focus of your life to go after them? And I want to be able to say by the grace of God, yes. Now I want to break through in all those areas, but I want to say I was contending to obey in all of them. And if that is the answer I give by the grace of God, then I will receive what Paul called the prize. And the prize is the Lord's testimony that you did it. And the prize is the ability to offer that response to the Lord. And of course there's many implications in terms of eternal rewards and many other things, but that's not even my point right now. It's the, but it's the, it's to identify in your mind, that is the primary reason you have extended days after you're born again. The main reason you are alive on the earth is decided if you want to be in the family of God. And then once you decide to be in the family, to decide if you want to, the quality of love you want to offer to Jesus on that last day, that's your next decision. The quality of love that it is you want to offer. And the Lord says, I'll give you lots of opportunities. And I'll even give many of you extended years, but I want you to do this. I want you to offer me love in every area of your life through obedience. Paragraph a, we can only love Jesus on Jesus's terms. And there's a lot going on in the body of Christ and a lot of humanistic language in the culture of the church today, a lot of humanism in the, in the church culture. But I just want to be clear about this. We can only love Jesus on Jesus's terms as he defines it. And he defined love as being rooted in the pursuit of obedience and the spirit of obedience. What I mean, love being in the pursuit of it. And it's better to say in the, the pursuit of affection based obedience, it's obedience. I want to obey you because I love you. That is how Jesus defined love that we would pursue obedience with affection, affection-based obedience in every area of our life. John 14, he says this so many times. And the reason this weighs my heart down as a shepherd, he says it so many times. And then Paul, the apostle makes this point so many times, but you rarely hear it, hardly a whisper of it, a little here, a little there. And the body of Christ is going a hundred miles an hour. So I'm going to just give you some of the verses. We know the verses, they're not new, but they need to be emphasized, not just in the pulpit. They need to be emphasized in what we're contending for in our private life. Most people, the thing they pray about, money problems, relationship problems, health problems, those are important. And Lord, please give me a breakthrough in my ministry. And the Lord's saying those are good, but what about the breakthrough in your heart that I am most concerned about that is most defined to who we are together? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I need that breakthrough. Oh, I do. I do. But Lord, please give me the money. Please give me the healing. Give me the new relationship or the breakthrough relationship. And please give me some anointing on my ministry, please. And the Lord says, what about you having the anointing to give your heart fully to me before you meet me face to face one day, because that will be your gift of love. You give me on that day. Oh, I do love you. I do love you, but I need some more money. I need a bigger ministry. I need to be treated better. And the Lord says, oh, how I wish the offering that you would give me on the day we meet was your first concern, because the offering that we give him when we present our life is the offering of our love. That is the first concern in his relationship with us. And that was the first concern in Paul's heart in his ministry. I mean, he really appreciated his apostolic ministry. He took it very seriously, but he was after a prize, a very specific prize in an individual way. And that was to offer himself to the Lord, to give an offering of love. I don't mean a one time, like the final year he really got committed. He wanted to offer decades of pursuing affection, obedience to the Lord. He wanted to offer to Jesus. Here's decades. I sought to love you on your terms. Here is my offering of love. And of course, then the Lord would answer it in a way that would just completely melt Paul. And then the Lord would give him eternal rewards that would, the eternal rewards are very important, but the eternal rewards, the part that excites me most about them, they are expressions of Jesus's love for us. When he gives you garments in the age to come, those garments are really awesome, but the garments are declarations of how you felt about him and how he felt about you during your love on the earth, your life on the earth, the that you loved him. And what I mean, I'll say that more clearly. You're the garments. We'll all have different garments in the age to come. We'll all have different degrees of glory and they will be based on the way we gave our love to him. And those rewards are really his feeling about the way we loved him. I mean, he loves us no matter what, but he goes, I just want you to know how I feel about the way you sought me for decades and his rewards or declarations of how he feels about our diligent, costly, sacrificial pursuit to love him. It really moves him. And it needs to move us more now because it will deeply move us on that day. It will deeply move us on that day. There'll be many believers. They are saying, why didn't anybody get me focused on this? I was focused on money breakthroughs, ministry breakthroughs, relationship breakthroughs, and healings. Why didn't anybody get me focused on the breakthrough of mature love in my heart before him? I didn't know I would be here one day to offer myself as my supreme one-time gift. You'll offer yourself that one dime. Here I am, Lord, the offering of my love from my decades on the earth. And whatever that offering is, it is, and it never changes. It's a one-time offering forever. And Paul, this consumed Paul. It absolutely consumed him. As you'll see in a few moments, Jesus said here, he made it clear, if you love me, you keep my commandments. He says in verse 21, John 14, he that has my commandments and keeps them, that's the person who loves me. It's not about sentiment in worship settings, although I like sentiment. I love to feel in worship settings, but it's not sentimental feelings. It's the decision that resolved to obey him because of the decision of our spirit to express love to him. There's no such thing as loving Jesus without sincerely seeking to obey his word. It's a complete fabrication. There is no such thing. Many people say, I love him, but these areas, I'm not going to get around to it. And the Lord would say, you want to love me, you have sentiment towards me, but you do not love me. You do not love me. And that this will be so shocking to so many people on that day. That's why this is absolutely the most important subject in your life. It really is. And in my life, paragraph B, expressing our love to Jesus includes denying lustful desires and pride. The biggest lust in all of our lives is pride. And there's so many pride that's, pride comes so easily to us and humility is so foreign. I'm not talking about social etiquette, where we kind of in public act humble and we are polite and we have protocol. I'm not talking about that. I mean, real humility from the heart. It is foreign to the human spirit. But whenever we reach for humility to show humility, because we love Jesus, we're humble to one another because we love him. It moves him. The struggle we have to overcome any kind of lust, whether it's pride or physical or, or, or covetousness with money, whatever struggle we go through, that is our assignment for X amount of years on the earth. That's the arena of which the Lord has given us to show love to him on that last day. He takes it very personally when we pursue obedience in those areas. Now there's different ones that are addicted to various things. I mean, I could give the list of 10 or 20 and you could give the same list. I don't want to give the list. Every time you pull back from that, because I love you. I want to obey you. It moves him. It's not in vain. Do you know the way you move his heart, every movement of your heart to him, even without the breakthrough, I'm talking about the reaching, it moves his heart. Paragraph C. Now, Jesus, now here, he really said it and just straightforward language in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 48. Now, Matthew 5, 48, the Sermon on the Mount, you know, is the main teaching of the kingdom of God. This word, Jesus took three chapters. He laid it out for three chapters, what the kingdom of God, what the character in the kingdom is to be like. And the high point of the Sermon on the Mount is right here in Matthew 5, 45. I mean, 5, 48, he gets right to the top of the mountain. This is the point, the pinnacle point of the Sermon on the Mount. Here's what he says, be perfect as your father's perfect. Now, when we hear that, many people read that wrong, so they just automatically disconnect. They roll their eyes and go, whatever, that is so out of reach, that's not even worth praying about. No, really, that is so, that's because they misinterpret it. What he means is that you are, the word perfect is the same word as complete. They're used interchangeably in the New Testament. And you'll see in a little while, and I have quite a bit on an appendix on the internet, like five or six more pages of all the verses where we are called to be perfect, or we're called to be complete. Over and over and over, the apostles prayed and preached this teaching, that we would be complete in our love or our obedience, or we'd be perfect. And the word perfect means mature. Now, what Jesus is talking about, he means this. This is not a hypothetical, unrealistic demand of Jesus. And you know that every promise that God gives in the Bible, I mean, every command, every command has the promise of the enabling of the Spirit to keep it. There is no command that the Holy Spirit will not give you power to keep if you want power for that. You may not walk in it right away, but if you reach for it, you stay with it. You stay with it. You fail, confess, repent, reach again. Oh, it moves his heart. Every time you do that, he's not disgusted at you when you fail and get back up. When you get back up and run into his heart, he goes, he loves me. Look at it. He wants to obey me. He wants to give himself to me in this area. Look at that, and it moves the heart of God, I assure you. But this issue of being perfect means to be, to walk in all the light the Holy Spirit gives you in that season of your life. Now, he says, walk in all the light you have in the way that God the Father walks in all the light he has. Now, he has all the light, and there's no difference between what God understands and what God does. He walks perfectly in all of his life. That's the absolute, the absolute of the absolute level. But in a relative sense, we walk in all the light we have now. A new believer only has a little bit of light. They only have insight on a couple areas. The Holy Spirit's only talking to them on an area or two. Did you know a new believer, one day old in the Lord, can obey this passage in the first day they're in the kingdom? Maybe there's three issues that come to them. They go, I'm going all the way. They are being perfect as their heavenly Father. They are walking in all the light. They don't have much light. Their all is real small, but it is their all. It's the all, it's the everything that they know they give. And a brand new believer with a really small all, it's kind of hard to say that. I've got to figure a better way to say that. A new believer with a small all can be equally yoked to a mature believer with a big all. Because the all is what makes us equally yoked. So, a one day old believer can be equally yoked to Jesus. Because that one day old believer is giving all that they know, every area they're seeking to obey in and Jesus, every area that in his life he's walking in the light in. And so in that sense, we're equally yoked. And he doesn't ask us to be equally yoked in maturity. He asks us to be equally yoked in the pursuit of obeying all the light. He really means be perfect. And that's why I get disturbed when I hear grace teaching and it's filling the church today. It's absolutely destructive and it undermines people's ability. It injures their heart and undermines their ability to enjoy the kingdom of God. The grace teaching that empowers people to feel good about compromise and their spirit stays dull, they're hold all the time. The vast majority of the body of Christ in America is so dull in their spirit, they don't have energy to reach for anything dynamic in God or new or outside of the norm because their spirit is so dull and so weighed down with darkness because their interpretation of grace has been that which makes them feel good while they're sinning instead of the the grace of God empowers us to give all and the pursuit of all is what makes our spirit vibrant and it what's it's what causes us to feel power in our spirit. Now again you may not break through in all the areas but the pursuit of obedience in all the areas is what he asked for. In this age walking perfect is relative. I mean it's really relative. In the age to come it's in an absolute sense but in this age it's relative. Paragraph D. To reach for a hundred percent obedience is very different than attaining it. I am reaching to obey God in every area of my life for some time. I don't attain it but I reach for it and here's what here's what it means to reach for it. I reach for it and when I fall short of it instead of finding a bible verse to justify it I call it sin and then I repent and I renew my resolve to obey in that area again. When the Lord looks at that he goes I like this this is good you're seeking to love me with all of your heart. Paragraph E. When we obey the holy spirit's light he gives us more light. David said it so this is one of my favorite psalms he said in your light we see light. Oh what a statement he said father when I'm in the light and I obey the light I get more light and and then when the light increases your experience in God increases because your capacity to experience God increases. We don't want we don't want a version of grace that empowers us to live in compromise. Our spirit stays dull and defiled the whole time and burnt out. We want a definition of grace that's pressing us to the limits of humility in secret because that's what moves God when we're seeking to obey him in costly ways and to humble ourselves in ways we never get credit in the eyes of man. That moves his heart he takes that very personally as love from you to him. Paragraph F. This is so dynamic this is what Paul was after and this is what you're after it's what I'm after. Enoch before he even died there's not very many guys that get this that I know of before he died God told him you did it Enoch you pleased me. Before he died he received the testimony that he did it. It doesn't just mean he was generally pleasing to God it means his whole of his life he was in pursuit of obedience. Now we're going to find out in a few moments Paul the apostle received that testimony at the end of his life in prison in Rome. The Lord told him he would get the crown. Now in the years preceding that he wrote a few times says I don't know for sure I still got a few years to go because you don't know you don't finish the race until the time of your death and many guys run well and they stumble in their final years and stumble doesn't mean a gross sin it means they settle in to a mediocre reach in their fervency for God. I've seen many people walk hard for God for 10 or 20 years and then the last five or 10 or 15 they're just kind of idle. They don't have to have the same energy to go out and do all the different activities but they have to have the reach in their spirit of their former years and so the way that this operates is that we don't receive the testimony till it's at the end and then when our race is finished the Lord gives each one of us an evaluation. I'm talking about born-again believers that are saved he says you gave you went for all full obedience you did it you sought to love me in those last three areas in those last few decades you were going hard after those areas I watched you I recorded it in my book you moved my heart that you wanted to bring even those areas under my leadership and Enoch received the testimony before he died that he was pleasing which in our in this course here the first commandment course he received the testimony that he sought to love God with all of his heart God says that's my story about your life can you fathom what it would be like I don't mean just to receive forgiven I mean that's cool I like forgiven but what if the Lord you're you're born again you got a resurrected body he looks at you and says your dedication was outstanding and you pressed all your days to obey me in secret I saw you and that incorporates moments of failure because the Lord's editing process in the grace of God and I mean this it incorporates weak and broken people it's not the perfection of of doing it it's the consistency the perfection means all the areas you consistently endeavored to obey and that's what the perfection is talking about can you imagine the day you meet Jesus face to face and you will in a minute you're going to meet him face to face in a minute and whether that minute is in an hour or whether it's in 50 years you will meet many of you will meet him in a minute or 100 years just say it that way it's a minute either way it goes and whatever he's thinking when he looks in your eyes about the quality of your love is the only thing you will care about from this life what he is thinking when he looks at your eyes what he's thinking about the quality of the love you gave him that you're offering him and many people will be saved but the quality of love their offering will be very very weak he will love them and he will appreciate it and he will receive them but I don't that's not enough for me I want to offer him decades of radical pursuit of obedience in thoughts in what I put my eyes on what I say with my with my words what I do with my my hours what I do with my money I want to take all those areas and offer them to him for decades of pursuing love and those issues and if I if and if I have that testimony and if he backs it up and says you did it oh my goodness you can't imagine what would that mean to you if the Lord says you did it with all of the weakness figured into it because it's not about doing it perfectly so you don't want to misunderstand the word perfect the word perfect means complete it means all the areas of your life you're seeking to obey in it's perfect and complete in terms of it's the comprehensive areas of your life it doesn't mean you never stumbled in those areas you stumbled in the areas many many times but you got back up and re-signed up for a hundred percent obedience not to make a show before man to do it because you loved him it was affection based obedience you did it said I love you I don't feel that much towards you right now I can't feel your presence but I got a decision in my spirit I'm gonna love you I'm hoping for a breakthrough of feelings but you know what between now and then I'm gonna keep doing what you said is love that's what I'm talking about it's the wisest thing you could ever do that's why I started this by saying this truly is not trying to be melodramatic the most important subject you will ever grapple with because you only have one time to offer your life to Jesus one time only I'm talking about as a believer paragraph g Paul I mean James said the testing of your faith produces patience and let the patients have perfect work inside of you let it fully impact you let the patients fully impact you let it have a perfect work in you why then you will be perfect and complete lacking nothing he means lacking nothing in your there's no area of your life that you're failing to respond to the Lord in your eyes your time your humility your words your money you lack no area in your life that you're not pursuing obedience in that's what it means to lack nothing so he goes on in verse three and he said the testing of your faith in other words if you respond right the testing means pressures so the pressure bears down and there's all kinds of types of pressures if you respond to the pressure right it produces patience now the word patience is uh sometimes you can mix that word up and I mean lose the sense of it it means perseverance in obedience to God's will patience doesn't mean you're patient like in your relational style with somebody you don't interrupt them you're patient that's nice but that's not what this means it means you persevere in wanting to obey the will of God that's what patience means mostly in the new testament so what happens is the trials come the trials have a if you respond right because many people believers even they get bitter and they get into self-pity and bitterness and so if that happens they just sink until they you know somehow they get out of it by the grace of God but if you respond right it produces a focus in your spirit in your mind trials do you start asking the question what am I even on the earth for what is this about what's really important trials bring what's important to focus and then again the implication is you're responding right then you you you get this focus which is called patience and you realign your heart these trials of thousands of times you keep talking to the Lord why is this happening and oh I love you and Lord I'm really committed to you and and and you it causes your spirit to get realigned that patience that perseverance of the will of God is working in you it says it's working and what does it produce complete obedience sooner or later you become complete and he means complete in obedience that focus will begin to touch every area of your life you will have you will lack nothing there will be no area your thoughts they may not be a hundred percent under the Lord's leadership but you want them to be it's no longer an issue where I'm just going to take a few days and just go kind of just do whatever I do with my mind no my thoughts are yours my time is yours my hours are yours my money's yours all of it's yours that's what it means to be complete lacking nothing in the offering of yourself to God in obedience that's what James is talking about now what happens to many people is they get trials and they get into self-pity and bitterness and then they get into gossip they get into complaining and the thing just spirals way down instead of complete in their responsiveness to God they go the other direction and they get ensnared in bitterness and they just more doors open up that are negative and instead of being complete they become incomplete in the responsiveness to God so verse 5 James says if you lack wisdom ask God and some people read this verse and thinks James is talking about trials and suddenly he's talking about you know how to get divine direction on what college to go to no he's not talking about direction for your ministry or who to marry or what car to buy he's talking about wisdom concerning the issues you're incomplete in in your obedience he said ask the Lord when you're under a trial what is the issue you're bringing me to a greater focus and resolve in and talk to me in the Lord says you're getting it ask me about this and I will give you insight in this time of difficulty and it will catapult you forward and as time unfolds you will offer a greater testimony of love to me on the last day now David did this in Psalm 139 Psalm 19 he asked the Lord talk to me about the areas I don't see that I'm going to meet you one day and then you're going to talk to me and so what David's really saying is shock me now Lord don't wait to shock me then and these are two awesome I mean really awesome prayers of King David where he was asking God for insight in the areas of his life that were incomplete in obedience very few people would actually pray these prayers consistently Lord tell me is there pockets of resistance in my spirit in my pride my money my schedule the way I talk the way I look the things I do is there any pockets of resistance in my life from offering full love that's what those two prayers are talking about top of page two this I tell you this is the most important subject in our life is this whole thing I'm just saying the same thing over and over now we're getting to the point where that I introduced where Paul was running for the prize and this was the prize clearly the prize and it had eternal rewards with it the prize was not a bigger ministry was not a breakthrough of money wasn't even a get out of prison send me an angel his prize was the testimony that when he stood before God the Lord himself would bear witness that his offering to Jesus that when Jesus he says for Jesus would say you gave me all of your heart that was the prize Paul was after clearly and all the rewards that go and again those rewards are not just you're a big shot in heaven those are just statements of how Jesus is moved by the way you endeavor to love him in this age Paul says those who run in a race they all run but only one receives the prize now it's not one of us receives the prize there's only one type of running to receive a prize there's only one way and it's the pursuit of the wholehearted the testimony of full obedience that's the only way that wins this prize he goes run in a way that you get it he's telling all the saints so he's not saying only one saint will get it he says all of you run to get that don't be so concerned for the breakthrough of your money breakthrough of your favor breakthrough of your anointing in ministry get a breakthrough in the heart and the others will come lock in and go after me in this way you go after it verse 26 therefore i run this way not with uncertainty he goes i am a totally focused man he goes i know what i'm after i am after a prize and beloved if you leave this meeting tonight you say i am going for this prize i don't care what it costs me i am going i don't care what i lose out in time and money and honor i am going for this prize i'm not going to live with uncertainty i'm a little bit focused from now to the end and i i know i'll have some some hours and some days when i don't have this focus but when it comes to me i'm going to realign my soul repent and sign back up to a life of focus he says in verse 27 i discipline my body i bring it into subjection so i would not be disqualified he's not talking about disqualified from salvation he's not worried about losing his salvation he doesn't want to be disqualified from the prize and to have the prize all it's our money our time our physical appetites all of it needs to be endeavoring to obey jesus he says i gotta do it he goes i'm gonna be dead in a minute and i'm standing before him i'm going for it paul's prize was to was to win the prize of presenting the testimony to jesus on the last day his love was perfected paragraph b now it's twofold he wants to offer to jesus the testimony that he gave his all for decades not not the final 10 minutes but you know what i appreciate the final 10 minutes you know i've talked to people and they said you know this guy is you know he's in the in the special care unit he's been there for months or years and he he's not even a sound mind and why why is why are they doing why does god even want him alive and why did you just take him and i said i'll tell you one reason the lord's giving that guy that man that woman in a way that we don't perceive a chance to line up before they meet the lord those people many of them have an ability to communicate with the lord all these hours in ways they can't communicate with us they're still communicating many of them with the lord and they're signing up and they're saying i love you i'm yours and they're repenting in their way that they know i'm talking about as believers so it's not about well that you know they're not being very effective oh you don't know what's going on their spirit you don't know the testimony that they're establishing when they present themselves before the lord the value of life i mean the value of life is so we that's why we fight for life i mean every minute a human being is alive is another minute to touch and enhance that testimony and that testimony lasts forever i mean life is really valuable on so many levels but that's one level that's very very important so we get to offer to the lord the testimony of our love to him that we fought to obey him we we uh contended in every area and then the answers how he feels and then he rewards us in the overflow of that answer can you imagine what the lord what he might say to you in the joy maybe nobody ever heard of you maybe you were just lost in the crowd but not in his eyes you were not lost in the crowd and he says i saw you you didn't get the accolades you didn't get the attention you didn't get the no nobody paid any notice to you but i did and every time you sought to obey me and every time you humbled yourself every time you denied the flesh because of me your love for me i wrote it in my book and it moved my heart beloved every single day every morning every night every afternoon matters to god because he remembers it with love if we give love to him in it no matter how boring and mundane the day is we can give ourself to him in that day and he remembers it forever i love it philippians chapter 3 paragraph c now this is a few years before paul dies and he goes it's not that i've already attained it or i'm already perfected i do not count myself as having got a hold of it yet but i press for the goal of the prize of the now paul's writing the book of philippians he's in prison in rome he gets out of prison and he goes back to prison a few years later and dies he's at the end of his apostolic ministry and so he's saying i haven't attained it yet it what is the it you do not have yet i mean you know you're born again oh i know i'm born again you know you got to like a really cool ministry yeah i'm an apostle have been for years wrote several books in the bible okay i got that down what is it you haven't attained i have not finished the race with the testimony that i completed all of my days in wholehearted obedience i don't have that yet because by definition you can only give that right when you die i don't have the testimony from the lord yet i may have another year i may have 20 more years paul didn't know he ended up he had maybe four or five i'm not sure nobody knows for sure but he went ahead and he got out of prison and then he ministered a few uh years more and then went back to prison and then died in rome and wrote second timothy chapter four but he says this he goes i haven't attained it i'm not perfected i i'm not at the end of my race i don't have the story at the end yet because it's not the end i mean he's not talking about being born again he's not talking about being anointed in ministry he's talking about the number one thing on his mind the prize then he goes on to say verse 14 i press for the prize he's not trying to be an apostle he already is one he's not pressing to get out of prison and to be an apostle to write more books the bible he does all that there's a prize on his mind that he's going for and he calls it the prize of the upward call of god and it's not just that he would be rewarded in the age to come surely there's a reward dimension to it but it's the that he could offer the testimony of complete obedience as you'll see in the appendix if you check that out on the website there's so many verses where paul prays for it and preaches with this in view paragraph d well it's a few years later second timothy now he's back in prison in rome i'm saying maybe it's four five six years later nobody knows for sure and he's in prison now he says in second timothy four that's the last chapter he writes second before he says my the time of my departure has come he goes i'm at the end i know now the holy spirit's told me i'm not getting out i got out and in the flip out of the you know when he wrote the philippians he got out ministered a bit he goes that's it but the lord's told me something i got it i got the crown i got now the crown of righteousness isn't the gift of salvation you'll hear guys at funerals say that well brother so and so is getting his crown brother so and so probably isn't getting a crown the gift of salvation which is free is worlds apart from the crown of righteousness that comes for those who have reigned in life in righteousness and they're going to be ruling in the age to come the vast majority of the believers will never get a crown they will get robes and they will be in the city and they will be really happy but a small number get this crown and paul says i got it the prize the statement from heaven i gave my all and i went to the end yes yes i got it beloved this is what you right now 20 years old 30 years old sitting in the chair you're going i want this yeah i don't know if i end up with this ministry or that bank account or that relationship i like some of those things there's nothing wrong with wanting some of those things but they are not going to get in the way of this prize i'm going for the prize paragraph e the lord gives us a certain amount of years to bring every area under the leadership of the holy spirit we're talking eyes what you look at what you say how you spend your time how you spend your money what you aim for and and because when you bring it under it's not just that you love him it's a it's a definitive declaration of love that moves him this is the pursuing the first commandment it's what we're talking about tonight all that are in this room that are wise paragraph e if you are wise and many of you are you will make what i'm saying tonight the single premier focus of your life regardless what it costs you ministry opportunity financial opportunity relational opportunities social status you make this the premier subject of your life it's called going for the prize and it's not about the anointing and ministry although you may get real anointed in ministry because if i'm right and i think i am and we're in that time of history a lot of you are going to be really anointed in ministry but that's not what this is about this is about something entirely different than that paragraph f i just like to lay them out there so we're not i'm not just talking about just a particular issue i'm talking about our speech our speech needs to come under the leadership of the holy spirit the vast subject our eyes our appetites our time our money paul's i mean james said in chapter three verse two if you get your speech under control he says you'll be perfect and perfect doesn't just mean it means all of the areas of your life that's what i'm getting at all the areas of your life will come under control of the holy spirit if your speech if you have no complaining zero complaining none no criticism no accusation no complaining you have thanksgiving you have affirmation and humility no slander nothing i mean i'm certainly this is the one that kills me all the time i go ah james three twice stare at it i go how many years you know that i got left i got to get this one under for real i'm tortured by this verse but if you can get your speech i don't mean get profanity out of your vocabulary that's what i'm talking about or you're blatant slander i mean bring your speech from the biblical point of view under the control of the holy spirit you will take care of sexual problems covetous problems bitterness problems all those problems will come into line you get your speech under the holy spirit's control it will bring like a magnet it will bring every single area like a vortex pull it right into the leadership of the holy spirit because what it takes the spiritual vigor and the attentiveness to get your speech under control will bring every single area in line just like james said james was an agent apostle he says trust me this is the real one this is the final frontier of obedience and love right here to jesus it's the last one to go you'll you'll conquer covetousness and wasting time and indulgence in the flesh and immorality you'll conquer those long before this one goes down this is the final one that resists being captured under the holy spirit but you're saying lord we're going for this all the way all the way all the way this is good why because i want to give myself i want to give the testimony that i loved you in every area of my life on the last day that's that's the thing that moves the lord's heart king david said in psalm 101 he said he had this idea of perfect too again perfect means comprehensive it means mature does it mean perfect in the absolute sense he goes i'm going to walk perfect in my way look at this in the most familiar place in his home he's going to walk with a perfect heart beloved in your home is the place you're most comfortable to be carnal i mean that's the place where the relationships are crass where they can complain and bite at each other verbally and not have humility towards each other because it's biased my home i can be arrogant and complaining and and all those things it's my house david said in my house i want to have complete obedience in my house and then he took it up a notch and he said verse three goes my eyes particularly in my home my eyes will come under the leadership of the holy spirit paragraph g there's power in pursuing a hundredfold obedience i've learned this over the years this next point there is a dynamic there's a i don't understand at all there's the way the dynamics of the heart if you go for a hundred percent obedience and you leave one area out you lose about fifty percent of the power impact on your heart the last two percent is where the vibrant spirit comes in i'm going to obey god in the morality area i'm going to obey god really aim to in the speech area and i mean i'm not saying you're obeying him and in the speech area a hundred percent but you're you're endeavoring i'm going for it i'm going to do it in the in the time area okay that gets a little iffy okay okay all the time is yours okay but i'm not going to do it in all of the money but most of the money that one point will cause the vibrancy in your spirit to be lost the one point is what keeps the power surges from touching your heart and i'm not talking about a breakthrough in all the areas i'm talking about a pursuit to love and obey in every single area that's it changes the dynamic of your inner man you dream different you think different you say different prayers when you're going for a hundred fold when the guy gets in your way and takes your stuff it's a whole different feeling when you're going for something other than your stuff if your place in ministry and your money and your honors is your biggie then that really is going to throw you off but if i gotta get my tongue under control yeah he stole my money but i gotta get my tongue in my time of control yeah i know i heard it he stole my money but i gotta get my i gotta get my spirit on your whole inward imagination is totally different if you're going for the hundred fold love and obedience to the lord that's where the power touches your spirit that's where the feelings of the holy spirit begin to increase this that last two percent if there's anything i tell you well there's a few things i hope that i'm getting through to you but that is absolutely i'm gonna do everything but i'm gonna get drunk every now and then not very often no you can't where in the bible does it say you can't get drunk all the time that's a dumb question you're not trying to figure out what you get away with you're trying to figure out how to bring every all the reigns of your being in unity with the holy spirit you're not trying to figure out what bible verse to get away with something it's completely the wrong question let's go to page three and we're running out of time which that's why i like to give you lots of notes here paragraph i god gives you many opportunities and me as well to make the decision over and over and over again so we complain he goes good for real lord i don't want to complain good i'm going to give you a thousand more chances to us for real to establish what you want that's kind of cute but it's real he says i'm gonna give you a thousand opportunities to tell me what you really want for real well i blew it in the morality realm i blew it in this room that room this is okay okay you get a thousand more chances i want you to stand before me with the testimony that you want to give me and you get to make the the right one a thousand times too not just once i made it yes i didn't do this or that lord says no no come on i want it to be your testimony now it says here in romans 5 we exalt or rejoice in tribulation because what tribulation does it's that verse we looked at in james 1 it produces focus or perseverance perseverance means pressure makes your your inner man get focused and if you respond right it makes you persevering in righteousness now pressure if you don't respond right it makes you bitter and again let's say the thing we said earlier you go the other way but with this perseverance you're working the muscle over and over you get proven character the lord says i'll give you a thousand times to show yourself diligent in the way you use your time and i'll forgive all the times that you're not and beloved there's a time to rest rest is in the is is in the calendar and even in the rhythm of god but our culture is uh is intoxicated with playing and resting and relaxing and taking time off and chilling out i mean we're intoxicated with it and and i like to say this strong in a criminal way as people who have the holy spirit living in us that live forever with the decisions we make on the earth why on earth do we want to throw days and evenings away and foolishness we got a bible we got the holy spirit we have eternity and we have a day to stand before him to offer our heart and what we say to him moves him i don't want to take three nights or 10 nights or 50 nights to go do a b and c i want to engage my spirit with him and his purpose and his people in a way that has light in it and yes i want to rest i want to relax but i want to do it in the rhythms that build my spirit up not that deplete my spirit i'm talking to you as a spiritual father i'm giving you smart stuff here this isn't like wow that was heavy no no this is liberating this is the yoke of jesus that will make your spirit bright this is not heavy the heavy stuff is the guys that do the half and half and they live depressed their whole christian life and the doled spirit all the way just just hating the presence of god wishing they loved it but every time they got quiet it was horrible because their spirit was so dull and beat up and bruised by their compromise now that's a heavy message the scripture paragraph j the scripture presents two aspects of being complete before god we're made complete instantaneously at the new birth and we become complete progressively in our obedience there's two complete different uh ways the bible describes being complete and that's what i have on the appendix paragraph k there's many ways where the call to be complete is many terms in the new testament you can read that on your own paul prayed he preached so that people would be complete he said i pray that you'd be complete what he meant is that their obedience their responsiveness would be complete before they meet the lord in every area of their life look at colossians one we preach warning everyone that's what i'm doing tonight presenting everyone complete in their obedience he's talking to believers i mean believers complete in christ the day they're born again in their legal position being justified by faith he's not talking about believers adding to the finished work of the cross he's talking about believers becoming complete in their responsiveness to god before they stand before him look at paragraph m he said i pray that i'll see you to perfect what's lacking in you he's talking about i want to bring the truth and i want to help you be responsive to god in every area there's areas you're not responsive to god in i want you to be complete and just prayer after prayer look at n epaphras labors fervently oh make them complete he's praying not that they'll know what church building to buy and when what where to go to school that's he's not laboring they would stand in perfect in the will of god in direction on you know to buy something he's talking about that they're he's laboring in fervent prayer they would have a breakthrough of complete responsiveness to the holy spirit now it's good to know you know direction where to go and what to buy and what to do but that's not what he's laboring for he's laboring they would have a breakthrough in their spiritual life top of page four the rich young ruler he gave he said he told jesus in verse 20 i did all the commandments what do i lack beloved that's the question of the hour that was a great question that's the question king david says you know when he says oh lord of those prayers i gave you in psalm 139 psalm 19 earlier in the in the handout here king david prayed search me and try me show me this rich young ruler he goes what do i lack that is a question you want to ask that is the question of the hour and jesus says you want to be perfect meaning he doesn't mean your life would be perfect in every way because you want your obedience to be complete before you stand before me one day the money issue i know you're clean and your morality you're good you're solid in your business deals you're in the word you're doing the sabbath you're doing these things it's great but you're not complete or perfect and it's the word it's the same idea the money issue for you to be complete you've got millions for you not everybody you have to give it all away he goes no and jesus says do you have any idea who you're talking to and how little millions of dollars is compared to what i am about to give you if you will do this and he's not talking about eternal life he's talking about that you would have the testimony because he didn't have to give the money away to get saved but you'd have to give that you would have the testimony that you obeyed me in the completion of all the reigns of your life came under my leadership first john i won't read it but he talks about perfected love over and over and perfected love and complete obedience is the same deal perfected love it's the same deal now i'm gonna go to the last paragraph just i just want you to have this i'll end with the story it's a personal experience that i had in october 1970 it was a uh i was 23 years old it changed my life i had a supernatural experience of the lord and i'm going to leave you with this i'm uh i go to bed one night it starts off in a dream but it ends up something else and i'm kneeling before the lord and and i'm kneeling down and i'm looking up to jesus and i and i'm aware i'm awake but i don't know how this is happening because it's the first uh i'm having a trance is what's happening but it all comes down to nothing that really matters the definition of it but it's the first time i've had one an experience like this i've only had two or three of them in my life in 30 some years of walking with the lord but this is the first one and i'm kneeling down i'm looking up at the lord and i and i'm saying to myself where am i at i'm awake and the lord looks at me and he looks me right in the eyes and he has a stern not a mean look but he's not smiling either and he said saved but your life was wasted and i am completely shocked by this statement and i answer back to him i said you have the wrong person that's what i said because when i was 23 years old i had been devoted to the lord i mean really energetic for five hard years i mean i was fasting and praying and i was going hard like many of you guys are going i mean for five years i had been and i'm thinking i was known by all my peers as the you know the one guy going all the way for god and i am confused what he's telling me because i mean i had the reputation i was really going hard i'm going i said you have the wrong person i actually said this i go no no this can't be true this can't be true and he doesn't say anything he stares me right in the face he's looking i can remember to this second all these 30 some years later or i guess it is 30 years almost exactly isn't it and so uh i look him in the eyes i go no no and then the word comes to me the thought comes to me but i know it's the holy spirit but the thought comes to me it is impossible to manipulate the man christ jesus i said no no it's impossible to me you can never change his mind on anything never there's no persuasion you can give him if he has given the word oh it was horrible i was that word hit me like an arrow and i'm kneeling and i said okay can i have another chance can i have another chance he's staring at me kind of strong countenance he wasn't mean but it wasn't smiling either i said can't have another chance and that and the and the thought came to me again very strong i know it was the holy spirit the verse from hebrews 9 is appointed unto man want to die then the judgment or then the evaluation so you don't get another chance and i was sobbing and i was going oh no no and and i'm weeping and now this vision experience lifts and i went to bed you know i was over in the bed and now i'm in this experience i'm kneeling now i'm across the room a few feet from the bed kneeling and my shirt is wet with tears i went what is going on here and i said what was that i go i don't know what that was all about it took me a little while to figure it out it was so real because it was and then the lord spoke to me that is what i want you to avoid when you meet him on that day i gave you this experience so you will not have that conversation on that day because even you can have that conversation with him even though you love the lord you must walk in an unusual devotion to me all of your days this is what he's calling me to and from that day forward i'll tell you this the number one thing that i fear in life is regret i fear regret more than anything i don't want regret on that day beloved we can lose all kinds of things but you never get to have that day twice never and if you regret on that day even as a believer who saved he said you're saved but your life is wasted he told me i was saved and when i stand before him what he is thinking about my life now it's 30 years later and however many years till then what's in his mind when he looks at me on that day is the only thing that's really important about my life in ministry right now amen let's stand for more free downloads from mike bickle please visit mikebickle.com